Lexi glowered at him. ‘Have you got a better idea, country boy? What about we throw a few hay bales around the local park and have a sausage sizzle and a few kegs of beer? Would you be more comfortable with that? Maybe we could even bring in some sheep and some cows for authenticity, or what about a pig or two? I bet that would make you feel right at home.’
Sam took her by the elbow and marched her out of the way of the interested glances coming their way. ‘Will you keep your voice down, for heaven’s sake?’ he snarled.
She tugged at his hold but his fingers tightened. ‘Get your hand off me,’ she said. ‘I’ll call Security. I’ll scream. I’ll tell everyone you’re harassing me. I’ll … Hey, where are you taking me?’
Sam opened a storeroom door and dragged her in behind him, closing the door firmly once they were both inside. ‘You want to pick a fight with me, young lady, then you do it in private, not out there where patients and their relatives can hear.’
‘I suppose you think since you’ve got me all alone you can kiss me again.’ She threw him a blistering glare. ‘You just try it and see what happens.’
Sam gave her a taunting smile as he stepped closer. ‘I can hardly wait.’
Her eyes rounded and she backed up against the storage cabinet, making it rattle slightly. ‘Don’t you dare!’
‘What are you afraid of, Lexi?’ he asked, picking up a strand of her hair and looping it around his fingers. ‘That you might kiss me back and enjoy every wicked moment of it?’
He saw her slim throat rise and fall over a swallow and the way she sent the tip of her tongue out over her lips, a quick nervous dart that deposited a fine layer of glistening moisture on their soft pillowy surface. ‘I’d rather die,’ she said with a hoist of her chin and a flash of her bluer-than-blue eyes.
Sam knew he was not in the right mood to be rational. He knew he should have walked away from her and gone home and wrestled his demons to the ground the way he normally did. Take it out on the ocean where no one could see or hear. But being with Lexi even for a few stolen moments was what he wanted more than anything right now. He threaded his fingers through her hair, which felt like silk, fragrant silk that fell in a skein way past her shoulders. The blood was surging through his body, making him thick and heavy with want. She would feel it if he brought her any closer. Her feet had already bumped against his, her slim thighs just a hair’s breadth away. ‘Have you told your fiancé about us yet?’ he asked.
Her eyes darkened like a thundercloud. ‘No, why should I?’ she said. ‘There is no us. It’s all in your head. You’re imagining it. I don’t even like you. I hate you, in fact. I can’t think of a person I hate more. You’re despicable, that’s what you are. You think you can play games with people. You think you can make them do things they don’t want to do. You want to make trouble. You want to mess up my life just when I’ve finally got it all …’
Sam brought his lips to the shell of her ear, trailing his tongue over the fragrant scent of her skin. ‘Am I imagining this?’ he asked.
He felt the expansion of her chest against his at her sharp intake of breath, her breasts brushing against him enticingly. ‘Stop it,’ she said in a whisper-soft voice but she didn’t move away.
‘And this?’ he asked, stroking his tongue over the fullness of her bottom lip.
He felt her lips quiver as she snatched in another uneven breath. ‘You shouldn’t be doing this,’ she said, her voice almost inaudible now. ‘I shouldn’t be doing this …’
‘But you want to, don’t you, Lexi?’ he said, touching her mouth with his in a teasing brush of lips against lips. ‘You want to so badly it’s like a drug you know you shouldn’t be craving but you can’t control your need for it. It consumes you. It keeps you awake at night. Sometimes it’s all you can think about during the day.’ He teased her lips again, a little more pressure, lingering there a little bit longer until her breath mingled intimately with his. ‘That’s what it’s like, isn’t it, Lexi?’
Her eyelids came down, the long mascara-coated lashes screening the ocean-blue of her eyes. ‘It’s wrong …’
Sam cupped the nape of her neck. He felt her melt against him, like soft caramel under the heat of a flame. Her body meshed against his: her breasts to his chest; her slim hips to his achingly tight pelvis; her feminine mound brushing against the head of his erection, making him crazy with desire.
The sound of a mobile ringing from within the depths of Lexi’s bag hanging off her shoulder fractured the moment.
‘Are you going to get that?’ Sam asked after several jarring peels of the ringtone.
She stepped away from him and fumbled in her bag to answer the phone. She looked at the screen before she answered, her cheeks going a deep shade of pink. ‘Matthew … I … I was just going to call you.’ She turned her back to Sam and continued, ‘I miss you too … Yes … not long now …’
Sam let out a rough curse under his breath and, wrenching open the door stalked out, clipping it shut behind him.
Lexi checked both ways in the corridor before she left the storeroom. She patted her hair into place and walked briskly towards the medical ward to deliver the rest of the flyers as well as call in on Bella. She hoped Sam had already completed his rounds because she didn’t want to run into him again, certainly not while she was still feeling so flustered. She had been so close to throwing herself into his arms. It had been a force so strong she had no idea what would have happened if Matthew hadn’t called at that point.
Matthew.
Every time she thought of him the guilt was like a gnawing toothache. It just wouldn’t go away. She would have to tell him about Sam, but how? How did you say to your loving and faithful fiancé that you were confused about your feelings for an ex? Their wedding was only a matter of weeks away. The dress was made. She had another fitting tomorrow. The invitations had long gone out and most of the RSVPs had been returned. Some people had even dropped in gifts, horrendously expensive ones too. How was she supposed to tell anyone, Matthew especially, that she was getting cold feet?
Lexi pulled herself back into line with a good mental shake. All brides got nervous before their big day. It was normal to have doubts. It was a big decision to get married. It was a huge commitment to promise to share your life with someone, to be faithful to them …
Her stomach flip-flopped as she thought of Sam’s aroused body against her, and his mouth with its hot, sexy breath blending erotically with hers. She suppressed a forbidden shiver of delight when she thought about his tongue blazing a trail of fire over her sensitive skin. Her body was still aching from the hunger he had stirred in her. Would it always be this way? How was she going to navigate her way through her career and marriage to Matthew with Sam in the way?
She would be strong, that’s how, she decided.
She would garner her self-control.
She would be determined.
Bella was thankfully alone when Lexi entered the room. She was receiving oxygen through a nasal prongs tube and resting with her eyes closed, but she opened them as soon as she heard Lexi’s footsteps.
‘Hi, Lexi,’ she said. ‘I was wondering if you’d forgotten about me.’
‘Sorry, Bells,’ Lexi said. ‘I’ve been run off my feet with the charity-ball arrangements. I suppose you heard what happened?’
‘Yes, one of the nurses told me,’ Bella said.
‘It’s all under control now … sort of,’ Lexi said. She tidied up some fallen rose petals on the bedside chest of drawers. ‘Is there anything I can get you? Do you want a proper coffee from the café? More magazines?’
Bella shook her head. ‘No, I’m waiting for Mr Bailey to come in. I was in the shower when he came past this morning. He’s been busy in Theatre most of the day. His first transplant case, or so one of the nurses said. Have you run into him lately?’
Lexi felt the heat rush to her cheeks and turned back to the flowers, willing some more petals to fall so she could keep her gaze averted. ‘Not rece
ntly,’ she lied.
The skin prickled along her arms as she heard the sound of voices out in the corridor. Sam was speaking to one of the nurses, ordering some bloods and scans for another patient. Lexi would recognise that deep, mellifluous voice anywhere.
‘Are you OK, Lexi?’ Bella asked.
Lexi painted a bright smile on her face as she turned around with the vase of flowers in her hands. ‘I’m going to change the water on these flowers,’ she said.
Bella frowned. ‘But one of the volunteer ladies already did it this morning.’
‘It won’t hurt to do it again,’ Lexi said. ‘I might even get you some new ones from the hospital florist. These are just about past it.’ She dashed out of the room and without even giving the nurses’ station a glance slipped into the utilities room further down the corridor.
‘Your oxygen levels have improved a bit, Bella,’ Sam said as he read through her chart. ‘The infection seems to have more or less cleared. I’d like you to stay in over the weekend just to make sure things have settled. If everything’s fine you can go home on Monday, but you must take things easy. We’ll have you on permanent standby in case a donor comes up. Has the transplant co-ordinator talked to you about the routine?’
Bella nodded. ‘I have to have a mobile phone with me at all times in case there’s a match, and a bag packed for the hospital.’
‘Good.’ Sam clipped the chart back on the end of the bed. ‘Who will be looking after you at home?’
‘Um … Lexi mostly,’ she said.
Sam felt a frown tug at his forehead. ‘You don’t have a nurse to come in or a regular physiotherapist?’
‘Yes, but Lexi’s the one who takes me to all my appointments and helps me get dressed if I’m too breathless.’
Sam thought of Lexi juggling the demands of her job as well as the substantial care of her frail sister. It was another reminder to him of how she hid behind the shallow socialite facade when it suited her. But did she ever get noticed for the personal sacrifices she made? How could she if it drew attention to how much Bella relied on her? It would make Bella feel like an encumbrance, and he suspected that was something Lexi would want to avoid, given no one knew how long Bella would be with them. ‘I’ll have a word with the nurse about a follow-up appointment in my rooms,’ he said. ‘I’d like to keep a close eye on things just to be sure that infection doesn’t come back.’
‘Thank you, Mr Bailey,’ Bella said shyly.
Sam gave her a brief smile and left to write up the last of his notes in the nurses’ station. On his way out of the ward he ran into Evie, who was presumably on her way to visit Bella.
‘Sam, can I have a quick word?’ she asked.
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘How about in here?’ He gestured to a small waiting area that was currently empty.
‘It’s about my sister,’ Evie began as soon as they were alone.
‘I’m discharging her on Monday,’ Sam said.
‘Not that sister,’ Evie said with a direct look. ‘I meant Lexi.’
Sam drew in a measured breath. ‘I see.’
‘Actually, I don’t think you do see,’ Evie said, shooting him a look. ‘Lexi’s in a good place right now. She’s getting married in a matter of weeks. She doesn’t need the complication of an ex turning up and distracting her.’
Sam raised an eyebrow. ‘Distracting her?’
Evie narrowed her gaze at him. ‘I think you know what I mean.’
‘Lexi’s an adult,’ he said. ‘She’s entitled to do what she wants.’
Evie’s hazel eyes were brittle as they stared into his. ‘She doesn’t know what she wants,’ she said. ‘That’s half the problem.’
‘Then she should be left to decide without the influence of others,’ Sam said coolly.
‘You don’t understand,’ she said. ‘Lexi had a really rough time after you left. I was very worried about her. I’m sure she didn’t tell me even half of what was going on. She didn’t tell anyone.’
Sam felt something in his stomach turn over suddenly. ‘What do you mean?’
Evie pulled at her bottom lip with her teeth before she answered. ‘She was so … different after you left. She was flat, depressed even. She closed off from everybody. It was like a wall was around her. No one could get to her and she wouldn’t allow anyone in. It’s only been since she’s been involved with Matthew that she’s started to blossom again.’
‘I’m not sure what this has to do with me,’ Sam said.
Evie glared at him. ‘It has everything to do with you. People are starting to talk about you both. They think something’s going on between you two. Something serious.’
‘Perhaps you’ve misheard the gossip,’ he said. ‘The rumours that are circulating are about you and Finn, not me and Lexi.’
A rosy flush stained Evie’s cheeks. ‘That’s complete and utter rubbish!’
Sam cocked his eyebrow again. ‘Is it?’
Evie folded her arms across her body, just like her baby sister did when she felt threatened, Sam noted. ‘I saw Lexi’s face the other day,’ she said accusingly. ‘She had beard rash.’
Sam kept his face blank. ‘So?’
‘So?’ Evie fumed. ‘You have no right to kiss her! She’s engaged to another man.’
‘I wouldn’t kiss any woman who wasn’t an active participant,’ he said with deadly calm.
Evie’s eyes flared with anger. ‘So you’re saying she actively encouraged you? That’s an outright lie! She’s not a slut, far from it. In fact, I suspect you were her first lover. Did you know that at the time? I bet that’s why you targeted her. Quite a notch on your belt, wasn’t it? The youngest Lockheart sister. What a trophy to flash around.’
Sam tightened his mouth. ‘I think you should concentrate on your own life and let your sister get on with hers.’
‘You’re not good for her, Sam,’ Evie said. ‘You unsettle her. She deserves to be happy. She deserves someone who’ll love her, not use her as a stepping stone to get where he wants to go.’
‘Is that what you think this is about?’ Sam asked, frowning.
‘What else could it be?’ she asked. ‘You don’t love her, do you? If you loved her you wouldn’t have let anyone stop you from seeing her. You would’ve fought for her no matter what it cost you personally or professionally.’
Sam gritted his teeth until his jaw ached. ‘I don’t love anyone like that,’ he said.
Evie gave him a pitying look. ‘Then maybe you should learn.’ And with that she was gone.
CHAPTER EIGHT
FOR the last couple of weeks Lexi had more or less managed to avoid any lengthy contact with her father. She had worked late and then gone to the gym in the evenings, barely exchanging more than a few desultory words with him before she went to bed at night or left for work in the morning. But on the weekend before the ball she knew it would be harder to keep out of his way unless she had a plan to keep away from the family mansion for most of the time.
She had a dress fitting in the city at ten and rather than drive and struggle with finding somewhere to park she decided to catch a ferry across the harbour. It was one of those perfect Sydney spring days: warm and sunny, with a light breeze with a smell of summer to it. The harbour was dotted with yachts making the most of the wonderful weekend weather. Lexi wondered if Sam was out there somewhere, carving through the sparkling water, but she didn’t see any vessel called Whispering Waves, even though she looked long and hard.
After the fitting Lexi did a bit of shopping, more than a bit, she thought a little ruefully as she juggled the bags of lingerie, clothes, shoes and make-up in both hands as she made her way back to Circular Quay for the ferry late in the afternoon. Rather than go straight home she wandered for a while along the Neutral Bay marina, looking at the million-dollar yachts moored there. There were a couple of yachties about doing maintenance, the smell of fresh paint in the air. The distinctive clanging sound of the rigging knocking against the masts in the breeze made her think
of how wonderful it would be to just hop on a boat and sail away into the sunset, away from all of life’s complexities. She wondered if that was what Sam did to relax after complicated surgery. She could picture him standing at the helm, his strong, tanned arms hauling sails and spinnakers up and down, enjoying the challenge of conquering the powerful and sometimes unpredictable conditions.
At the far end of the marina Lexi saw a white yacht with dark blue lines painted on the sides and in simple cursive the name Whispering Waves. There was no sign of anyone about so she walked closer. It was a beautiful vessel, not top-end luxury but close to it. It was at least forty feet long and well maintained, the paintwork looked fresh and the decks were varnished a rich jarrah red.
Lexi checked if anyone was watching before she climbed aboard, her shopping making the task a little more difficult for her, but somehow she managed to get on deck in one piece with all her shopping still safe. She had a quick look around; rationalising that it was her duty as Head of Events to ensure the yacht was suitable for a party of eight for lunch.
To her surprise the door to below deck was unlocked. She had a little battle with her conscience as she thought about having a quick peek around. It was trespassing, she knew that. But then she knew Sam. That kind of made a difference, didn’t it? Anyway, she’d only take a minute to two. He would never even know she had been on board.
She strained her ears for any sound below, and once she was certain all was clear, she went down the steps to look inside. It was so much more spacious than she had imagined. There was a kitchen with all the latest appliances off the lounge and dining area. There was plenty of storage along the sides of the living area and a bar with a drinks fridge set in next to a sound system. There was a bathroom and toilet complete with shower and vanity. She opened another door and found the master bedroom with its own en suite. The bed was made up with white linen with a black trim, and black and white patterned scatter cushions were placed neatly in front of the large soft pillows.
Lexi was about to test the bed when she heard a footfall on the deck above. Her heart gave a little flutter as she considered her options.
Sydney Harbour Hospital: Lexi's Secret Page 10