The Spanish Consultant

by Sarah Morgan

  ‘I can’t believe you just said that!’ Katy stared at her in disbelief. ‘You’re supposed to be on my side.’

  ‘Oh, come on, Katy!’ Libby held one of the photographs up and shook her head. ‘For crying out loud, you’re naked in bed with a man and you’re laughing.’

  ‘So? I always liked Aiden,’ Katy mumbled, and Libby shook her head.

  ‘Sweetheart, I’m always on your side, you know that, but for a man as fiercely proud as Jago, these would have seemed like the ultimate insult to his manhood. It’s the male ego thing. Can’t you see that?’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘I must admit they’re bloody good. You look stunning in this one.’

  Katy ignored her. ‘But I wouldn’t do a thing like that. He should have known I wouldn’t do a thing like that. Instead, he assumed I went from virgin to slut faster than you could say broken heart.’

  ‘I know, and deep down I suspect Jago knows, but love must have clouded his judgement.’

  Katy stiffened. She was singularly unimpressed by Jago’s judgement. Or rather lack of it. ‘We both know that Jago never loved me.’

  If he’d loved her, he wouldn’t have been so quick to believe the worst of her.

  ‘I certainly didn’t think he did,’ Libby mused, still leafing through the photographs, ‘but now I’m changing my mind.’

  ‘Based on what?’

  ‘Think about it. Think about the way he’s been behaving since you walked back into his life—or rather since you arrived on a stretcher. He is seriously bothered by you. Also, we both know that Jago is Mr Super-Bright. Nothing gets past him in the intellectual stakes, which can only mean one thing…’

  Katy stared at her stupidly and Libby rolled her eyes and dropped the offending photographs on the table.

  ‘He was so blinded by love that he didn’t bother examining the facts. His reactions were totally emotional, which was what Dad was banking on when he set it all up.’

  ‘You’re being ridiculous,’ Katy said. ‘Jago couldn’t have been in love with me.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Well for a start because he never mentioned it,’ Katy said caustically, and Libby rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

  ‘So? You’re twenty-nine, Katy. When are you going to realise that not everyone is as honest and straightforward as you are? I suspect Jago had never said those three little words in his life before. You’d only been together for a month and you were only eighteen. Maybe if you’d had longer—’

  ‘Well, we didn’t,’ Katy said flatly, ‘and it’s history now.’

  Libby put the photographs on the table. ‘I’d be very surprised if it’s history.’

  ‘Meaning?’

  ‘A man like Jago isn’t going to let it end there.’ Libby’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully and the hint of a smile touched her soft mouth. ‘And if I were Dad, I’d be shivering in my bed.’

  ‘Yes, well, we both know that nothing disturbs our father’s sleep,’ Katy said bitterly, not wanting to think about how his interference had affected her life. She didn’t know who angered her more. Her father for inventing his lies or Jago for believing them.

  And he still didn’t know the whole story.

  Libby looked at her. ‘What if he wants you back now he knows the truth? At the very least he’s going to want to talk to you again.’

  ‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ Katy said flatly. ‘It was eleven years ago and in two months’ time I’m marrying Freddie. Jago Rodriguez is nothing but a painful part of my past. I know that Dad was responsible, but Jago should have believed in me, Libby. He didn’t trust me and I can’t be with a man who doesn’t trust me.’

  ‘Jago, can you concentrate?’

  Jago shook himself and stared at Charlotte. ‘Did you say something?’

  ‘Yes.’ She put her hands on her hips, her expression frustrated. ‘I’ve been talking to you for the past five minutes and you haven’t been listening to a word I’ve been saying. What’s the matter with you?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Jago’s insides were raw.

  After Katy had walked away from him the day before, he’d spent a sleepless night coming to terms with the fact that he’d been successfully manipulated by a master.

  He’d always known that Sir Charles Westerling was utterly ruthless, but when that ruthlessness had been turned on him, he hadn’t spotted it.

  He was also extremely disturbed by Katy’s quiet statement that she’d been the one left to deal with her father.

  What exactly had she had to deal with?

  Had her father been violent?

  He was suddenly forced to face the uncomfortable truth that he’d misjudged her appallingly and at the moment he had absolutely no idea how to go about making amends.

  He couldn’t believe that he’d been so quick to pass judgement on her. Hadn’t he seen with his own eyes how shy she was? For goodness’ sake, it had taken him weeks before he’d even attempted to take things further than a kiss. How could he have believed that she would have been so uninhibited as to dive into another man’s bed so quickly?

  And she’d loved him. He gritted his teeth. She’d told him so again last night.

  She’d loved him with an uncritical devotion that had given him a bigger high than the most lucrative deal he’d ever closed on the stock market.

  And he’d managed to kill that love.

  ‘I don’t know who’s made you angry, but I feel sorry for him,’ Charlotte announced, giving up on communication and pushing a set of X-rays in his hands. ‘When you’ve finished plotting revenge, can you check those for me, please? The lady is waiting in cubicle 3.’

  Plotting revenge?

  He wasn’t plotting revenge, there would be time enough to deal with her father later. At the moment he was using every ounce of intelligence at his disposal to try and work out how to manoeuvre his way back into Katy’s good books.

  And it was going to be tough.

  Pulling himself together, he checked the X-ray, reassured the patient and then prowled through A and E, looking for Katy.

  She was working in the paediatric area, seeing a child who had fallen awkwardly on a bouncy castle.

  The mother was a bag of nerves and the child was cranky and irritable.

  Unobserved, he stood in the doorway watching Katy, noticing the way her eyes softened as she spoke to the child and the way she reacted so sympathetically to the mother’s endless questions and worries.

  Everything about Katy was gentle and giving. She opened windows to let wasps out and lifted spiders out of the bath instead of turning on the taps like most other people. How could he ever have thought she’d have betrayed him with another man?

  He watched as she soothed the child and examined the arm, her lower lip caught between her teeth as she ran through the possibilities in her mind.

  She was an incredibly thorough doctor.

  And he’d treated her shockingly.

  ‘I think she might have fractured a bone, Mrs Hancock,’ she said finally. ‘She’s very tender just here and there’s some swelling. I’d like to send her for some X-rays so that I can have a proper look.’

  The mother looked guilty. ‘It was such a busy party—I didn’t even see her fall. I just heard her screaming.’

  ‘How awful for you.’ Katy sympathised immediately, her manner completely non-judgmental. ‘Try not to blame yourself. These things happen with small children. You can’t be everywhere all the time.’

  She reached for a form, scribbled on it and handed it to the mother, the lights catching her blonde hair and making it gleam. ‘If you follow the yellow line, that takes you straight to X-Ray. Come back here afterwards and I’ll look at the films.’

  Jago felt something burn deep inside him.

  He still wanted her.

  He didn’t deserve her but he still wanted her, and all his instincts told him that part of her still wanted him, too. He didn’t believe for a moment that she was in love with her fiancé.

  If she had been, he told himself
that he’d have walked away without bothering her, but he’d seen something in her eyes when she’d looked at him.

  He’d seen the same hunger that he felt when he was confronted by her every day.

  No matter how badly he’d hurt her, physically at least, she still wanted him.

  And he intended to use that to his advantage.

  Katy finished filling out the notes and then glanced up, the colour fading from her cheeks as she saw Jago watching her.

  Her stomach did a somersault.

  ‘Did you need me for something?’

  His gaze never flickered from hers. ‘We have things to talk about.’

  Just as Libby had predicted, he wasn’t prepared to leave things as they were.

  She straightened. ‘We have absolutely nothing to talk about, Jago.’

  ‘I disagree.’

  Her eyes slid self-consciously around her, checking that no one was within earshot. ‘It’s all history, Jago. In the past. Finished.’

  ‘We both know it’s far from finished,’ he said smoothly, and she tensed.

  Surely he wasn’t suggesting…?

  Just in case he was, she thought she’d better set him straight. ‘Jago, you thought I’d given my…’ She glanced furtively around again and lowered her voice to little more than a whisper. ‘Given my virginity to you and then slept with another man at the same time.’ She brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes with shaking fingers, totally unable to comprehend that he’d had such a low opinion of her. ‘You obviously didn’t know me at all.’

  His wide shoulders stiffened defensively. ‘I thought I did but all the evidence pointed to the contrary. Surely you can see that.’

  She shook her head. ‘Jago, I couldn’t ever be with a man who believed I was capable of that. I don’t know what sort of women you mix with normally but if that’s the sort of behaviour that you’ve come to expect then I feel sorry for you.’

  Jago compressed his mouth. ‘It does happen.’

  She shook her head in disbelief. ‘But not with me. I don’t do things like that,’ she said, hating the fact that there was a quiver in her voice. She wanted so badly to match his cool indifference. ‘You didn’t even have the decency to ask me about it.’

  ‘My only defence is that my pride was very hurt.’ He lifted his dark head and looked at her steadily. ‘After I left, why didn’t you try and contact me? To explain?’

  She gaped at him. ‘Are you really trying to suggest that any of this is my fault? You left—and you didn’t even do me the courtesy of telling me you were going, let alone give me the reason for your sudden departure. I was so naïve that I actually believed that you’d come back. That there was nothing on earth that could keep us apart.’ She saw him flinch slightly and felt the anger burn inside her. ‘But you didn’t and I had no idea how to find you. All I knew was that you no longer worked for my father’s company. Even when I discovered that I was—’

  She caught herself in time and broke off, heart thumping, horrified by what she’d so nearly revealed.

  There was a pulsing silence.

  ‘What did you discover, Katy?’ He was suddenly incredibly still and his dark eyes were watchful.

  ‘Nothing.’ Her voice was a strangled croak and he muttered something in Spanish and moved towards her.

  But whatever he’d intended to say, the opportunity was lost as the mother and toddler returned with their X-rays.

  Filled with relief at the reprieve, Katy checked them carefully, aware that he was standing close behind her, feeling his warm breath on the back of her neck.

  ‘She’s fractured her radius.’ Trying to ignore the tense atmosphere, Katy squinted at the X-ray, visually tracing the cortex of each bone as she’d been taught, looking for irregularities. ‘There’s a slight displacement,’ she murmured, ‘but that shouldn’t matter in a child this young so I’ll just give her painkillers and immobilise it in a cast.’

  Jago’s eyes flickered to the X-rays. ‘Have you checked for a second fracture?’

  Katy frowned. Was he still trying to catch her out?

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So what makes you so smart, Dr Westerling,’ he muttered under his breath, and she gave a slow smile, ridiculously pleased by the veiled praise.

  ‘I worked in paediatrics,’ she reminded him lightly, tugging the X-ray out of the light-box and returning it to the folder.

  From a professional point of view, working with him was definitely getting easier. He no longer made her feel as though she should be back in medical school.

  Unfortunately their personal relationship was much more complicated.

  Katy discussed the management of the fracture with the mother, all the time aware that Jago was standing there, biding his time.

  Suddenly she felt hideously nervous and she was desperately searching for an excuse to escape from him when Charlotte hurried down with the news that Ambulance Control had rung to say that they were bringing in a nasty head injury.

  With a look of savage frustration on his lean, handsome face, Jago departed, leaving her in no doubt whatsoever that the subject wasn’t closed.

  CHAPTER SIX

  JAGO rang the bell of the flat with impatient fingers and proceeded to pace up and down like a caged tiger.

  Ever since their totally unsatisfactory, interrupted conversation, he’d been filled with a rising tension and foreboding.

  What had Katy been about to say when she’d stopped in mid-sentence?

  Obviously something that she would rather have kept a secret, he reflected grimly, remembering the sudden pallor of her cheeks.

  The door suddenly opened and Libby stood there, her blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders, a defiant gleam appearing in her eyes as she recognised him.

  ‘Yes?’ Her tone was decidedly unfriendly and he tensed. He wasn’t accustomed to receiving such a complete lack of response from a woman.

  Obviously he had some serious fence-mending to do with the sister as well as Katy.

  ‘I need to talk to your sister.’

  ‘She’s got a date with Freddie tonight,’ Libby announced smoothly. ‘He’s the man she’s marrying in two months’ time.’

  Seeing that she was about to close the door in his face, Jago planted a powerful hand in the middle and pushed it open.

  ‘She won’t be marrying him.’

  Given no choice but to let him in, Libby backed away from the door and glared at him. ‘It took years for her to recover when you walked out last time,’ she said frostily. ‘Because of what you did she’s avoided men like the plague. Don’t think Alex and I are going to stand by and let you do it again.’

  ‘I’m not going to hurt her.’ Jago stood still, wondering why he felt the need to explain himself to Katy’s sister. He wasn’t in the habit of explaining himself to anyone. ‘I came to finish a conversation. She finally told me everything this morning.’

  Libby’s blue eyes were suddenly wary. ‘What do you mean, everything?’

  Pushing away the slight niggle that he wasn’t playing fair, Jago took instant advantage. He needed the information. He needed to know.

  ‘Everything. I know about the baby.’ It was no more than an educated guess but he could see from the look in his eyes that he’d hit the jackpot.

  ‘She told you that?’ Libby’s eyes narrowed. ‘She didn’t mention it to me this evening.’

  Jago’s fabled intellect was working overtime, trying to map out a conversation that would give him the information he needed without revealing that there had been no confession.

  ‘Let’s just say we’ve finally started talking about things we should have talked about a long time ago. It must have been terrible for her.’

  ‘It was terrible for all of us. We thought she was going to die for a while,’ Libby said softly, her eyes clouded by unpleasant memories. ‘She was devastated when you left, but then to lose the baby was the final straw. And she was so ill.’

  She lost the baby?

  His b
aby?

  Stunned by the news, Jago masked his expression, determined to elicit all the facts. ‘She was in hospital?’

  ‘Of course.’ Libby frowned, as if surprised that he should ask such a strange question. ‘It was such a bad fall they were really worried about her.’

  Jago was battling with the shock of discovering that Katy had been pregnant when he’d left her and had then lost the baby. He was utterly appalled by the notion that he’d somehow failed to protect her. And confused. How could she have become pregnant?

  His hard jaw clenched. Had her father known she was pregnant? And why had she fallen?

  His brain was still scanning through a variety of equally distasteful scenarios when the door opened and Katy walked into the room.

  Dressed for an evening out, she looked incredibly beautiful in a silky black dress and he felt his body tighten in the most basic of male responses. He adored her curves. Like most men, his preference was for women to be shaped like women rather than sticks, and Katy was every inch a woman. The only thing that was wrong with her appearance was her hair.

  His mouth tightened as he saw how carefully she’d styled her hair, twisting it and taming it until it lay subdued on top of her head.

  She had fabulous hair. Left loose, it fell like a sleek gold curtain almost to her waist and he’d spent hours smoothing his fingers through it, enjoying its amazing scent and texture. But she’d only ever worn it loose when he’d forced the issue. The rest of the time she’d twisted it into submission on the top of her head.

  It was the style she always wore for her parents and he hated it. It was restrained, dignified and repressed. All the things that she thought she ought to be. How many times had he ripped the pins out of her hair when they’d been together?

  It was as if she was locking an important part of herself away.

  He wondered briefly if her fiancé knew what she was really like underneath that elegant, contained exterior and then almost growled with anger at the thought of another man touching her.

  She was his.

  She’d always been his.

  The thought made him catch his breath.