‘The house was a mansion with this kitchen as the hub.’ Jess bent over the sleeping child, her back to Niall, gently adjusting pillows and covering her with a rug. ‘When we divided it the hospital cook wanted electric ranges and stainless-steel cook-tops but I loved this kitchen. So we decided this kitchen would be part of my flat and we’d build a new kitchen for the hospital.’
‘We?’
‘My cousin’s the permanent island doctor. He’s on the mainland doing obstetrics while his wife finishes her training as a physician. Quinn and I planned this centre.’
‘I see.’ There was still that physical current and it took a huge effort for Jess to turn round and face him. ‘There’s a massive amount of money gone into this.’
‘Yes.’ Jess shrugged. ‘Quinn and I put our savings into it—and the island board helped out. On the mainland if you ask for a donation you’re looked at as if you’re asking for money for someone else. Here if you ask for money the islanders know they benefit and if they can possibly afford it then they’ll give. The generosity has been amazing.’
‘And you intend to stay here?’
‘Yes.’
Unconsciously, Jessie’s chin tilted as she turned to face him, as though she was defending her position. Niall smiled.
‘I’m not about to evict you, Dr Harvey,’ he said mildly. ‘I’m just trying to figure out why a young and attractive veterinary surgeon would want to bury herself in a place like this.’
‘This place is paradise,’ Jess said simply. ‘You don’t bury yourself in paradise.’
‘But your friends…your colleagues…’ He frowned. ‘You must be one of the most isolated vets in Australia. What does that do to your love life, Dr Harvey? Local farmers? I haven’t seen any worthy suitors banging on the door.’
‘I don’t have a love life,’ Jess said flatly and then flushed. There’d been no need to say that. She should have shut up.
‘Why ever not?’
Jess shrugged. ‘That’s none of your business, Dr Mountmarche.’ She looked down at the sleeping Paige. ‘I…Your daughter and I have eaten. Would you like me to make you an omelette?’
‘I certainly would.’ There was no hesitation and Niall met Jessie’s startled look and smiled. ‘Cook tells me hospital tea is at five-thirty so I’ve missed it by an hour and a half. I told Hugo to expect us if he saw us—and he eats early, too. So it’s your omelette or fend for myself—and I make mean toast but not a lot else.’
‘Fine.’ Jess managed to smile back. ‘Take a seat.’
She moved round the kitchen swiftly, trying not to be flustered by his presence. Heavens, she’d fed enough people in her time. She shouldn’t be shaken by one dark-eyed, solitary male.
If he wasn’t solitary she wouldn’t be shaken.
He didn’t speak, seemingly content to sit and watch, and Jess gained the impression of weariness only just contained.
For the first time she felt a stab of guilt at persuading him to take this job.
‘I’ve organised the island board to place advertisements in every major Australian medical publication for a new locum,’ she told him as the omelette sizzled on the stove. She sprinkled its surface with fresh herbs and flipped it over. ‘With luck, we’ll find someone fast and you can go back to being a viniculturist—or whatever you call yourself.’
‘Wine-grower will do—and I’d appreciate that,’ he said slowly, his eyes not leaving her.
‘When Paige settles, will you go back to London?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘You mean you do want to farm permanently?’ Jess asked, startled. ‘Instead of practise medicine?’
‘As I said—I’m not sure.’ Jess ladled the omelette onto a warmed plate and placed it in front of him and Niall looked down in appreciation. ‘That’s some omelette, Dr Harvey. They never taught you that in vet school.’
‘I enjoy cooking. Will you drive back to the farm tonight?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Niall looked across at his sleeping daughter. ‘If my promised apartment is prepared then I’ll carry Paige over and we’ll sleep there.’
‘Sensible.’ Jessie reached into her fridge and produced a chilled green bottle. ‘Especially as it means you can have wine with your omelette.’ She smiled. ‘It’s even Barega wine.’
‘Our very own Riesling. And you weren’t intending to produce it if I was driving.’ Niall’s eyes glinted with laughter. ‘Has anyone ever told you what a managing woman you are, Dr Harvey?’
‘I try.’ Jess said demurely and laughed back at him.
Their laughing eyes met.
And the weird, magnetic force slammed home with such impact that Jess gasped.
Good grief…
What was she getting into here?
She poured the wine with shaking fingers and turned away quickly. She had no idea what was happening and she didn’t want to know. This man was threatening her safe, cocooned world and she didn’t like it one bit.
Maybe they should have airlifted Frank to the mainland.
Maybe it would have been safer.
A movement by her leg caught her eye and Jess knelt down in relief. Wobble, her tiny baby wombat, was struggling free of his pouch.
‘You want your dinner, too?’ Jess said in a voice that wasn’t quite steady.
At least it gave her something to do. She fed her two orphans with their milk formula while Niall ate his omelette, drank his wine and watched her like…
Like a benevolent genie…
A genie who’d just produced something magical and was amazed with what he’d done.
Jess wasn’t at all sure that she liked the impression.
Finally, her babies tucked back in their pouches, she stood up.
‘I’ll put Harry back into his cage and take you to your apartment,’ she faltered. ‘The domestic staff have cleaned it out for you and they tell me it’s ready.’
‘Cook showed me the general layout of the place,’ Niall replied. ‘I know where to go. Why does Harry have to go back in his cage?’
‘Because he’s getting better,’ Jess smiled. ‘And I don’t trust him with my babies. Even if he just sticks his nose into their pouches it might shock them.’
‘I see. Well, don’t put Harry back on our account.’ Niall stood then, large and overpowering, his presence seeming to fill her kitchen as it had never been filled before.
‘Thank you for the omelette,’ he said softly. ‘And for the wine.’
‘It was my pleasure…’
‘As it was your pleasure to look after my little daughter?’
‘That, too,’ Jess agreed softly. She looked down at the sleeping child and shook her head in bewilderment. ‘How could her mother abandon her? How could she?’
‘Heaven knows.’
Jess looked up at Niall. He was staring down at his sleeping daughter and his face was a mixture of pride and love. Love for a little daughter that he hadn’t known existed until four months ago!
How many men would leave their career and go halfway round the world to claim an ailing child they’d never been told had been conceived? Niall had gone with no proof that the child was his—only a message from a monk in Tibet and a scrawled note in the back of a passport.
And he’d come here…Put aside his medicine in London and brought his daughter to Barega. To find a cure for ills that weren’t just physical.
What sort of man…?
Jess didn’t know. All she knew was that his presence frightened her. The very knowledge of what Niall had done scared the life out of Jessie. She’d sworn not to have anything to do with another man—ever—and here was this man undermining all her determination.
Overwhelming her with his compassion…
He turned to her, a question in his eyes.
As if he could read her thoughts.
No…
Confused, she turned away to open the door—but Niall was there before her. Whatever the current was that was running between them it didn’t
have just one direction. It flooded back and forth with the strength of fire.
‘Jess?’
He moved like a sleek cat, somehow propelling himself to stand between Jess and the door. Niall placed strong hands on her shoulders and gazed down into her confused, brown eyes.
His confusion matched hers.
And his desire…
‘Jess,’ he whispered, his hands pulling her to him. ‘Do you feel this thing, too? This thing between us? Dear heaven…’
Jess didn’t reply. She couldn’t.
She wanted to pull away. Desperately she wanted to pull away but her body wouldn’t obey.
Instead she stood mesmerised, caught by the desire in his dark, dark eyes.
Caught by the stirrings of want in her own slight body.
Of need…
She didn’t need. She didn’t!
She didn’t need any man. Not after John Talbot. Once was enough. She’d been stupid once…
The thought gave her strength to pull back but Niall’s hands didn’t release her. His hold tightened and his dark eyes searched hers.
‘What’s wrong, my beautiful Jessie?’ he whispered.
My beautiful Jessie…
The words slashed like a knife. She’d been called that before. Before the pain.
‘No…’ It was a frantic whisper.
‘I’ve told you before—’ Niall’s voice contained a hint of concern ‘—I’ll not hurt you. I swear…’
‘I don’t want…’
‘Me?’ He shook his head. ‘What’s between us, Jess…I don’t understand it any more than you do but I’m starting to think it’s something we should explore. And how else to explore…’
His voice fell away. The dark eyes looked straight into hers, passion flaring in their depths, and he bent his head and kissed her.
Jessie had been kissed before—but never like this.
For a moment she held herself rigid, her body reacting with blind, unreasoning panic.
And then the kiss caught—and held.
It was like the meeting of two halves in a whole. The coming together of parts that had been torn asunder and their rightful place was together.
Niall’s mouth caught and held hers and his arms went round to draw her rigid body to his.
She was powerless—powerless to resist the magnet.
Jess had never felt a kiss so full of longing.
There was desire surging through Niall’s body—she could feel it—and Jess felt a rush of matching need in hers. Her lips were under his and he kissed her mouth with infinite tenderness—as if he had never touched anything so precious.
How could she hold out against such tenderness? How could she? Especially when every nerve in her body was screaming to respond.
She felt her lips open; she felt her mouth welcome his, tasting his arrant maleness and feeling his need. Her arms went around his hard male body and she clung as if drowning.
It was as if there were two Jessies: one being kissed and responding with all her heart and another standing above her body, staring with horror at this man making love—wanting her—demanding a response with every fibre of his being.
And the first Jessie was winning hands down.
The first Jessie wanted this man with all her heart.
What would have happened next the second Jess—the one above the responding Jessie’s head screaming grim warnings—was horrified to think but a gentle tap on the door and then another, more urgent, knock almost brought the first Jess to her senses.
Almost.
It was Niall who drew away first. He stood holding the dazed young vet at arm’s length and the desire was still there, blazing.
‘Damn,’ he said unsteadily as the knocking continued and Jess managed a shaky laugh.
‘Just…just as well.’
‘Maybe.’ Niall touched her face with the finger of one hand. ‘Duty calls,’ he said softly. ‘Damn…’
He swore and kissed her lightly once again before moving to open the door.
It was Sarah.
Of course.
The nurse stood staring from Jess to Niall and back again, clearly confused but too worried to see what was really happening.
If it had been Geraldine then Jess would have been in big trouble. Geraldine would have guessed what she’d interrupted as soon as she’d opened the door. Jessie’s face was suffused with colour. Her breath was coming too fast for comfort. Something deep inside was threatening to burst.
Sarah was too concerned with her own worries, though, to think about what was happening between doctor and vet. Geraldine’s normal nursing partner was returning from holidays in the morning and it couldn’t be too soon for Sarah. She could go back to helping out when things were busy—when there was work to do but little responsibility.
‘I’m sorry to disturb you, Dr Mountmarche, but Mr Reid’s drip has packed up,’ she faltered. ‘I tried your flat, Doctor, but you weren’t there.’
‘Because I was here.’ Niall grinned, the strain that seemed almost permanently round his eyes lifting and lightening. ‘Well hunted. I guess you want me to fix it.’
‘Y-yes, please.’
‘I’ll come now,’ he promised. He cast a thoughtful glance at Jess, his eyes glinting at the colour on her cheeks. ‘But I’ll carry Paige back to my flat first and you can stay with her while I do the drip, Sister.’
‘I’ll do that.’ Sarah relaxed. Caring for a child while Dr Mountmarche took over acute medical care suited her down to the ground.
It was on the tip of Jessie’s tongue to say, Leave Paige here. I’ll look after her.
She didn’t make the offer. The tip of her tongue wasn’t working properly. The sensations running through Jessie’s body were almost overwhelming.
All she wanted to do was to hide. To be alone. To think through events that threatened to overwhelm her.
She stood aside as Niall gathered his precious bundle, wrapping his daughter in blankets and carrying her to the door.
‘I’ll bring back the blankets later,’ he told Jess.
‘No.’
Jess shook her head, refusing to meet his eyes.
‘I’ll be asleep later,’ she managed. ‘Morning will be fine.’
‘I see.’ Burdened with the child, Niall couldn’t force her to look at him. His voice was troubled, though. ‘Are you OK, Jess?’
‘Fine.’
She wasn’t fine at all. She was scared stiff.
‘I have a clinic booked in the morning…’
‘Paige can come with me while you work,’ Jess told him. ‘She’s always welcome and there’s little I do where she can’t watch.’ She took a deep breath, still not meeting his eyes, but her voice was almost back to normal. ‘My patients don’t worry about modesty or confidentiality.’
‘I suppose they don’t.’ It was an absurdly formal conversation.
She wished he’d go. She just wished he’d go.
‘Jess?’
‘Yes?’ Jess was acutely aware of Sarah watching from outside the door. For heaven’s sake, the nurse must know there was something going on between them. The tension was almost visible it was so strong.
‘I wish you sweet dreams,’ Niall said softly.
Jessie’s eyes flashed up to meet his—and then wished she hadn’t. His look was a caress all by itself. ‘I hope…I hope your daughter has sweet dreams,’ she managed to whisper in reply. ‘That’s all I care about.’
CHAPTER SIX
JESS fed her babies at five a.m. and then set her alarm for seven. It didn’t have a chance to go off. Fifteen minutes before it was due there was a series of loud thumps on the door from hospital to flat and then the sound of crutches across the kitchen floor.
‘Can I come in?’
Jess surfaced reluctantly from troubled sleep. There was a small face peering round her bedroom door. ‘Paige?’
The child was still in her nightdress. She clumped across to the bed and stared down at Jessie’s nose emerging fro
m the quilt.
‘I knew you’d be awake,’ she said triumphantly. ‘Daddy said, “Go away it’s not even morning,” but I told him everyone would be awake. So then he said I could go and find out whether everybody really was awake all by myself and I did.’
‘Everybody meaning me?’
‘Especially you.’ Paige beamed as though signalling a very special honour.
‘Your daddy is a very generous person,’ Jess said drily.
‘I didn’t have a nightmare.’ Paige laid her crutches on the floor and put both hands on the bed to support herself. ‘It’s cold out here,’ she said hopefully.
‘Well, you’d better come in.’ Jess pushed back her quilt invitingly and the child scrambled up. In seconds she was cocooned against Jessie’s body, her cold toes on Jessie’s legs.
‘Ooh, you’re warm.’
‘That’s more than I can say for you, twerp,’ Jess smiled and obligingly put her arms round the child and cuddled.
It seemed that human contact was all Paige wanted. To be cuddled. To draw maximum warmth from this strange, fearful adult world.
‘Daddy’s very pleased I didn’t have a nightmare,’ the child announced. ‘Are you?’
‘Very pleased.’
‘He says we might stay here again. Lots of times. That means I can visit you every morning.’
‘Wow!’
‘You’ll like that?’ The child was suddenly anxious, sensing the laughter in Jessie’s ‘Wow’, and Jess gave her thin body a squeeze.
‘It’ll be delicious,’ she agreed. ‘Much better than an alarm clock.’
‘It sort of seems better here than at the farm,’ Paige confided. ‘When I’m here…I play a game…’
Her voice was suddenly shy, as if about to confess something she wasn’t sure about
‘What sort of game?’
‘That I have a mummy.’
Jess closed her eyes. Instinctively she pulled the child closer. ‘Paige, you don’t have to pretend,’ she said softly. ‘You do have a mummy. Your mummy’s travelling at the moment but she left you with some lovely people who found your daddy for you.’
‘You’re talking about Karen,’ Paige said scornfully. ‘She’s not my mummy.’
‘Paige, she is…’
‘No.’ The child’s voice hardened as if she was reciting a well-learned lesson—one she didn’t like a bit ‘Karen says I’m not to call her Mummy. She says only bourgeois children have mummies and I have to learn to be ind-independent and stand on my own two feet She says the sooner I learn not to need her all the time the better it’ll be for me and for her but I sort of think…’
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