Benson’s vital signs were all looking good for his operation and she was hopeful that his prognosis would be positive. Especially since he’d developed a real spring in his step with Rachel staying on. It was nice to see them playing bridge together and strolling around the gardens.
Their successful reunion had made her realise how disillusioned she’d become with her own life. Somewhere along the line she’d grown into a non-trusting person—exactly like Daniel, and that was no way to live.
Which was why she’d called her parents. They’d been so happy when she’d called and even said she sounded more like her old self. It had made her feel teary. Without realising it she’d closed herself off from everyone so effectively she’d had no idea just how worried her parents and friends had been about her.
But things would be different from now on. She’d promised to visit when she finished up with the Baron and she’d decided to take some time to figure things out.
And as for Dare James... She was just happy she’d never have to see him again. Her attraction for him had been a complication she hadn’t foreseen and most likely hadn’t handled that well.
A frown scrunched her brow. If her beeper hadn’t gone off she wouldn’t have spent the week wondering what it would be like to make love to him—she was quite sure she’d know.
Because he had been right. She had wanted him. And it scared her how quickly she’d succumbed to the feelings he’d ignited inside her. How quickly she’d succumbed to his touch, his scent. Pheromones really were powerful aphrodisiacs when it came down to it.
Her hair drifted down her back as she shook her head. At least she could be happy that she had saved herself the ultimate humiliation by not sleeping with him. But what was it he had said? ‘I think you’re afraid of the way I make you feel.’
Carly swallowed. He was right, but what did that matter now? When he’d walked out she had known that he wasn’t coming back. Which was what she wanted.
‘Oh, cut it out, Gregory,’ she hollered as the wretched little dog who had been yapping nonstop for the last two minutes kept at it. ‘I’m not in the mood!’
When he didn’t stop she turned her head to locate what had agitated him—a butterfly flapping its wings perhaps—and caught sight of the recalcitrant little dog, which had seemed to be pining all week, dash across the lawn and round the side of the house.
Great, he’d managed to manoeuvre out of his new collar, the long leash he’d been tethered to lying uselessly on the lawn. Sighing heavily, Carly debated whether to let him go, but then her conscience got the better of her and she deftly rolled to her feet.
Picking her way gingerly across the pebbled walkway with her bare feet, she cursed the little dog the whole time until the unexpected roar of an engine brought her head up.
Like some avenging conqueror from the future, Dare James came tearing along the main drive, kicking up dust in his wake.
He pulled the bike up to within an inch of the portico steps and slowly swung his leg over the side.
Mouth dry, Carly watched him pull the black helmet from his head and shake out his hair. Her heart stopped, and then restarted again at twice the speed.
Gregory spotted him at the same time and ran to him, long silky hair blowing back as he launched himself at the man.
Carly’s heart beat double-time as Dare grabbed the dog and ruffled his fur, his eyes on her the whole time. ‘Gregory, my old friend.’ A slow smile spread across his face. ‘What have you brought me?’
Heat suffused Carly’s face as she realised she was standing before him in a new emerald-green bikini she had impetuously bought in the village a few days ago. The sales girl had done a number on her and raved about how the colour made her eyes pop.
‘I always thought that dog had no sense,’ she said waspishly, struggling to contend with the fact that he was standing in front of her, not least of all her embarrassment in being caught at such a disadvantage. ‘Now he’s confirmed it.’
Dare had the gall to laugh at her discomfort and a shiver went through her at the determined glint in his eyes. Placing Gregory on the ground, he pulled off his gloves and stuffed them inside his helmet. ‘It’s nice to see you too, Red.’
‘Stop calling me that ridiculous name.’ It made her want to throw herself into his arms like that wretched, deliriously happy dog had just done.
‘It suits you.’
Carly tossed her hair back, telling herself that the safest course of action was to walk away. ‘You know that leather get-up and hunk of metal behind you are attention-seeking devices?’
He gave her a slow grin. ‘How have you been, Carly?’
‘Perfectly fine.’ Carly’s brow arched at the seductive tilt of his mouth. Walk away, she told herself again. ‘What do you want, Dare?’ she snapped.
‘I need to see Benson.’
It took a moment for his words to penetrate the story Carly had unknowingly begun to fabricate in her head that started with Dare telling her he’d missed her and ended with her in his arms.
Mortified by her own insidious attraction for this man, Carly finally took her own advice and whirled away from him, heading back in the direction that she had come. Benson and Rachel were out visiting friends, but Dare could find that out by knocking at the main door.
Unfortunately she’d barely made it two steps before she stood on something sharp and let out a gasp of pain.
‘Dammit!’ She lifted her foot up to investigate what she might have stood on and lost her balance and landed on her bottom.
Determined to ignore the man who had closed the distance between them, Carly prodded the ball of her foot and noticed what looked like a dried rose thorn marring her skin.
‘Need a doctor?’
‘No.’
He laughed softly at her snippy tone, unzipped his jacket, and crouched down beside her. ‘This is becoming a habit.’
‘Not a good one,’ she said tersely.
She felt like a fool sitting on a gravel driveway in a tiny bikini while this man was encased in black leather like some marauding invader. ‘I can do it,’ she insisted when he went to examine her foot.
‘I’m sure you can.’ He ignored her and wrapped his hand around her ankle, igniting every one of her raw nerve endings in his wake.
And of course he noted her shiver, his brilliant blue eyes searching out hers.
Carly kept her head down and winced when he gently brushed his thumb over the ball of her foot.
‘Hold still,’ he murmured before squeezing hard.
‘Ouch!’ Carly jerked her foot clean out of his hold. She knew she was being a baby but being a doctor didn’t mean she was able to cope with pain any better than anyone else. In fact she was the ultimate wuss, if the truth be told.
Dare’s soft chuckle washed over her and made her shiver again. He reached for her foot, moistened the pad of his thumb with his tongue and then pressed it against her skin. ‘Does that hurt?’
Not trusting herself to speak, Carly shook her head and he lowered her foot to the ground but didn’t let go of her ankle.
‘It should be fine now,’ he said, ‘and it’s not bleeding.’
Carly knew her cheeks must be flushed because her whole body felt hot as she half sat, half sprawled in front of him, but she couldn’t move.
She was also aware of how she must look in her nearly nude state. Her chest heaving and her legs splayed apart.
A deep longing rolled through her and she willed Dare to get up. To release her and pretend the chemistry between them didn’t exist.
‘Carly?’
His fingers flexed around her ankle and Carly shuddered. ‘Benson’s not here,’ she said hoarsely.
She’d meant to say the words to let him know he had wasted his trip, but as soon as she spoke she knew why she had said th
em. She wanted him. It didn’t make sense but what was the point in denying it to herself?
And by the heated glitter in Dare’s eyes he knew it too.
Rocks bit into her bottom and a flight of swallows conversed in a nearby hedge, but all Carly could focus on was the frantic beating of her own heart and Dare’s darkening eyes. ‘Dare, I—’
She stopped as he planted his hands one either side of her waist and leaned over her. Heat suffused the surface of her skin and she breathed in his scent, her tongue coming out to moisten her lips in readiness—
‘Damn,’ he swore softly and yanked her to her feet.
Her senses scattered to the wind, Carly blinked up at him until the sound of an approaching car finally penetrated the fog of her brain.
‘To be continued...’ Dare drawled as Benson’s Rolls Royce pulled up beside his bike.
‘Dare!’
Dare scratched his jaw. Of all the rotten luck in the world...
‘Benson. Ma.’
‘You didn’t call and tell me you were coming,’ his mother admonished.
‘I wanted to surprise you.’
‘Well, you certainly did that. Carly, how was the pool?’
‘Fine.’
Dare cast her a sideways look. Her lovely mouth was set in a firm line, her body as stiff as a post. So maybe what had nearly happened would not be continued...
He let out a sigh and looked at Benson. ‘I have information for you.’ And they might as well get that part of his visit over with and move on to more palatable topics. Maybe he might see if he could entice the good doctor back into the pool...
‘Okay.’ His grandfather nodded tersely. He seemed incredibly frail and Dare realised he really had been blinkered by anger a week ago to have not picked up on the fact that he was not a well man. Had he really grown that cynical?
‘Shall we head to the library?’ Benson offered.
Dare cast Carly a quick glance but she wasn’t looking at him. He’d wanted to check if her foot was all right but she’d likely say yes, and it had only been a small splinter.
‘I’ll follow you,’ Dare said.
‘Benson, I should check your pulse first,’ Carly called after him.
‘How long will this take, Dare?’ Benson asked.
‘Not long?’
‘Can it wait, my dear?’
Carly gave Benson a frustrated look.
‘I’ll take care of him,’ Dare said and got a flash of disgust from her moss-green eyes for his efforts.
Rachel touched Carly’s arm. ‘Why don’t we have tea in the sunroom? I can show you what I bought at the market.’
Carly hesitated. ‘Okay, but... I need to change first,’ she said, skipping up the front steps and disappearing into the house.
‘Nice wheels,’ Benson noted, gazing at Dare’s bike.
Dare grinned. ‘She does a hundred kilometres an hour in two point six seconds.’
‘If only I were younger,’ Benson bemoaned, climbing the steps.
Dare followed him and five minutes later yelled for Roberts to bring Carly as quickly as possible.
Dressed in white jeans and a simple green T-shirt, Carly knelt beside the sofa, her black leather bag at her side.
‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know.’ Dare’s heart thundered inside his chest. ‘We were talking and then he collapsed.’
Carly listened to his heartbeat.
‘Was he agitated? Upset?’
‘No.’
His grandfather had obviously been expecting news that Beckett was somehow involved in his company’s problems and, while disappointed, had seemed to take it in stride. He stabbed a hand through his hair. ‘But he wasn’t completely happy either.’
‘We need to get him to a hospital. In London,’ Carly said.
‘I’ll call triple nine.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
HOURS LATER, CARLY stared tight-lipped at the white double doors leading to the operating theatre. Benson had been in there for four hours now, add that to the two-hour flight and it was going to be tough for a patient of his advanced years to survive.
It left Carly feeling quite emotional because the reclusive old guy had grown on her these past weeks, and she hated to see his time with his daughter cut short.
Carly had done everything she could to ensure that didn’t happen and she had to admit her job had been made easier by Dare’s calm competence at her side. He’d done everything she’d asked of him without question and even organised the best surgeon in London to be on hand when the helicopter flew in.
At one point she was sure he would have put Benson on the back of his superbike if he’d been able to.
Carly knew he’d done it all for his mother, but he’d been slightly grey when Carly had entered the library back at Rothmeyer House and she wondered if there wasn’t some level of caring for his grandfather involved deep down.
Regardless, she was glad Dare was on hand because the press were already hounding the hospital to get a story on what had happened to the figurehead of BG Textiles. Not that there was anything anyone could tell them. It was a waiting game from here on in.
‘I don’t understand why it has to take so long,’ Rachel complained.
Carly glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘He should be out soon,’ she murmured.
Dare looked into the bottom of his coffee cup. ‘Who wants coffee?’ he asked grimly.
Carly grimaced. Even she couldn’t stomach any more hospital-grade coffee. ‘No, thanks.’
‘Me either, darling,’ his mother said.
‘DMR,’ Dare said.
Rachel blinked up at him. ‘Sorry, Dare, what did you say?’
Carly gave him a wan smile. He returned it.
‘Nothing, Ma.’
Rachel heaved another long sigh. ‘I’d just like news,’ she said softly, standing to stare out of the window at the building opposite.
Dare went and put his arm around her, swamping her small stature with his height and the width of his broad shoulders.
‘I’m taking my mother for a walk,’ he directed at Carly. ‘Will you be okay here?’
Carly nodded. ‘I’ll call if I hear anything.’
Dare thanked her and directed his protesting mother out of the door, grateful that Carly had stayed but not sure if she had done so because it was her job or...or what? Because he liked having her there?
Not likely. She owed him nothing and the way he’d gone at her when he’d spotted her in that bikini... He sighed.
‘He’ll be okay,’ his mother reassured him, misinterpreting his heavy mood. Which was a good thing because he wasn’t about to spill his guts about his feelings for Carly Evans. Especially when he had no idea what they were.
The call came through that Benson was out of surgery just as Dare led his mother back into the waiting room.
Carly looked up and gave them a small smile. ‘The surgeon was just here and Benson survived the operation.’
‘Oh, thank heavens.’ Rachel held her hand over her heart.
‘He’s in a medically induced coma now, but Dr Lindeman feels confident that he got the tumour. If Benson makes it through the night he should survive the operation.’
Rachel frowned. ‘A medically induced coma? I’ve never understood that.’
‘It happens with most critically ill patients who need artificial ventilation to breathe,’ Carly explained. ‘It doesn’t mean anything dire,’ she assured her. ‘So don’t worry overly much. But he will be hooked up to a number of machines, so don’t panic when you first see him.’
‘Benson’s a hard nut,’ Dare said gruffly. ‘He’ll pull through.’
‘I hope so.’ Rachel buried her face against her son’s chest. Carly tur
ned away. Now she could add a caring Dare to his list of attributes, which didn’t make her any more comfortable than before.
In fact, she should probably leave mother and son to it as soon as she’d checked in on Benson. It wasn’t as if she had to hang around for any personal reasons, was it?
‘Rachel James?’ The surgeon stopped in the doorway. ‘I can take you to see your father now.’
‘Really, I can see him?’
The surgeon nodded, directing Dare’s mother down the hallway.
Silence filled the small waiting area once they had left and Dare was acutely aware of Carly on the other side of the room.
‘Thank you for everything you did today,’ he said gruffly.
‘It’s what I was paid to do. I just wish I’d checked him over before he spoke with you. I might have been able to prevent his collapse.’
‘If anyone is to blame, it’s me,’ he said tersely.
Her startled eyes flew to his. ‘No, it’s not—I was the one responsible for him. It was my job.’
There was a brittleness to her tone he couldn’t place and it made him want to go to her and wrap his arms around her. Unfortunately the icy cloak she had enveloped herself in since they had arrived ensured that he didn’t. ‘It’s been a long day.’ She sighed. ‘The operation took a lot longer than I expected.’
Dare frowned. ‘Is that good or bad?’
‘It’s neither one way nor the other. It just is,’ she said. ‘The important thing is that the surgeon seemed pleased. That’s definitely a good sign.’
‘I figure doctors are like real estate agents,’ he said wryly. ‘They say what they think you want to hear.’
Carly gave a small smile. ‘That might be considered a touch unethical.’
Dare shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘Thanks for staying... It means a lot to my mother. To me.’
She paused, her eyes full of questions he didn’t have any immediate answers to. ‘I’m... I’ve grown fond of Benson these past few weeks. He’s...’ She cut him a brief look. ‘He’s not as bad as you think he is.’
Dare didn’t think he was that bad at all anymore. In fact he’d grown quite fond of the old goat. ‘You still think me an utter bastard, don’t you?’ he rasped out.
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