Her Tycoon Lover

by Sandra Field

  ‘Well, that’s what you get for driving into a hole in the ground. Fortunately, no irreparable harm was done. We did fear concussion when we saw the size of the lump on your head, but that’s reducing nicely. You’re a very lucky woman,’ the doctor pronounced whilst listening to her heart and taking her pulse. Finally he set her hand down and looked at her soberly. ‘I’m told you have a problem remembering.’

  He made it sound so everyday that she laughed. ‘You could say that. I seem to know everything that has happened up to a few weeks ago. Is that normal?’

  ‘Temporary memory loss after the kind of knock on the head you had is not unusual. In most cases the memory returns after a short while,’ the kindly doctor informed her paternally.

  ‘How long must I wait? Days? Weeks?’ she wanted to know, and he smiled.

  ‘There is no magic number. When it’s ready, your memory will most probably return, though there are some instances where it doesn’t, but let’s not go there just yet. What I do know is that trying to force it doesn’t help. You must learn to be a patient patient,’ he added, laughing at his own joke as he rose off the bed. ‘I’ll arrange for someone to come along and talk to you about it. The dos and donts, as it were. In the meantime, I’ll leave you in the safe hands of your..er…um…husband.’

  The doctor left, but she didn’t notice. His parting words had make her eyes widen. She stared at Gray, still standing by the window, whose expression was wryly amused.

  ‘Husband?’ she queried dryly, and he smiled. The action brought warmth and a light of twinkling mischief to his eyes. It also had its usual effect on her. Her heart turned over and a bubble of emotion swelled up inside her. She loved him so much. Beyond reason. Beyond anything. For the moment, at least, he appeared to be hers. That was what he was telling her—but her husband?

  ‘We’re not married, but we are living together. I imagine the doctor didn’t know what to call me,’ Gray teased lightly, inviting her to share the joke, but she was too busy taking in what he had just told her.

  ‘We’re living together?’ Somehow, in her thinking, she hadn’t got them quite that far. They were lovers, then. How cruel not to know it when she’d waited so long.

  ‘At your flat for the present,’ Gray confirmed, collecting a chair as he came closer. Setting it by the bed, he pulled out his wallet and searched inside it for a moment before handing over a photograph. ‘I thought this might interest you. It was taken at a charity function we both attended,’ he enlarged as he sat down and waited for her reaction.

  Shelby stared at the photograph. It had obviously been taken at a party, and showed the pair of them standing together, laughing at the camera with raised hands holding glasses of champagne. Her doubts eased a fraction at this tangible proof.

  ‘We seem to have been having fun,’ she remarked, handing the photo back. Her throat felt tight. It hurt so much to know that they had finally become lovers and yet she couldn’t recall even the simplest kiss or caress.

  Gray took the snap and replaced it in his wallet. ‘Making up for lost time.’

  ‘We don’t fight any more?’ she asked curiously.

  A wolfish grin tweaked at her heart. ‘Not in the same way, no,’ he confirmed and Shelby felt her cheeks grow warm.

  ‘You’re not going to tell me we’re engaged too?’ Nothing would surprise her.

  ‘We haven’t got around to it yet,’ Gray responded, then unfastened the pocket of his shirt and reached into it. ‘You do have rings, though.’ Holding his hand out palm upwards, he revealed a simple gold wedding band and a solitaire engagement ring. ‘Do you recognise them?’

  Shelby looked down at the rings and smiled. Abruptly her eyes filled with emotional tears, which she knew must be due mostly to the accident, for she had no memory of their owner, save in a few tattered photographs. ‘They were my mother’s. Dad gave them to me on my eighteenth birthday.’

  ‘The nurse took them off to clean you up. I’ve been looking after them until you woke up.’ She took the rings he tumbled into her palm and slipped them on to her right hand.

  She glanced up, smiling. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You once told me you felt lost without them,’ he told her simply, and she sighed, twisting the rings around her finger.

  ‘I do.’ She recalled the occasion. He had been holding her hand across a dinner table and the sky hadn’t yet fallen in on her dreams. ‘It’s the only real contact I have with her. I wish I could have known her,’ she said softly.

  ‘I should imagine she was very much like you,’ Gray declared with a faint smile, and she lifted an eyebrow.

  ‘You mean annoying, self-opinionated and spoilt?’ she challenged, using some of the words with which he had described her over the years.

  He tutted. ‘I was thinking of strong, passionate and compassionate,’ he countered pointedly, and her nerves jolted.

  ‘Is that how you really see me?’ she asked in surprise. She couldn’t recall him ever saying anything so complimentary. Unless you counted the time she’d believed he’d been lying, but which now turned out to have been the truth. A convoluted thought that made her wince inwardly.

  ‘When you’re not being the proverbial pain in the backside,’ he added, tongue-in-cheek, and Shelby laughed. This was more like she remembered.

  ‘I knew you couldn’t change your spots entirely.’ Gray laughed too and they shared a moment of total empathy, which left her feeling both uplifted and sad. ‘I can’t remember this ‘us’ you talk of.’ She tried again, hoping something would miraculously click into place, but nothing happened. It was all still depressingly blank. And her head was beginning to ache with the effort. ‘Damn. You’d think something so momentous would do the trick!’

  ‘You can’t rush it, Shelby, but I’m not surprised you’re trying to. You always were impatient.’

  ‘Well, of course I only have your word for that,’ she said dryly, trying to make light of the situation she found herself in, and it brought a wry smile to his lips.

  ‘See, you’re sounding more like your old self already! Using every trick in the book to your advantage.’

  ‘Don’t start with me, Gray. I’m poorly, remember?’ she said faintly, pressing a limp hand to her brow, and that made him laugh again.

  ‘That will only get you so far with me, Red. I haven’t forgotten anything!’ he told her sardonically, and she frowned at him from under her hand.

  ‘How kind of you to remind me. I must try to return the courtesy one day,’ she promised direly, but he didn’t look in the least worried.

  ‘I’m sure you will, darling,’ he agreed with good humour.

  The endearment tugged at her heart. It was possible he had said it countless times in the past few weeks, but this was the first time of hearing it for her. ‘I like the way you say that,’ she told him whimsically, feeling almost shy. It was hard to respond naturally when she wasn’t totally sure it wasn’t a mistake.

  Blue eyes smiled kindly at her. ‘What—darling? You’ll be hearing it a lot.’

  She looked at him a little uncertainly. ‘Good. Maybe it will help me believe…’ She broke off, biting her lip as she realised her remark was casting doubt on him. Gray merely nodded consideringly.

  ‘Make you believe I’m telling the truth? I hope so.’

  About to respond, Shelby found herself unable to hold back a yawn. It had been a fraught few hours, and now she was being overwhelmed by a feeling of exhaustion. ‘Lord, I’m tired,’ she muttered, closing her eyes. She didn’t want to sleep yet. There were so many questions she still had to ask. Her body, however, had other ideas.

  Gray pulled his chair up beside the bed, making himself as comfortable as he could. ‘Go to sleep, Red. I’ll still be here when you wake up,’ he promised, and received a breathy little sigh in response.

  A few minutes later he could tell from the rhythmical sound of her breathing that she was asleep. He brushed the hair away from her face and raised himself enough to press a soft kiss
on her lips.

  ‘Hell, Red,’ he declared softly. ‘What have we got ourselves into this time? I’m taking a hell of a risk here. All I hope is that, when the dust settles, it will turn out to have been a risk worth taking.’

  Sighing, he made himself as comfortable as he could in the chair, placed his hand over hers on the cover, and closed his eyes.

  He had to be really uncomfortable, Shelby thought as she stared down at the sleeping figure of Gray in the chair beside her bed. It was dark outside and from the lack of sounds beyond her door she knew it must be late. She must have slept for hours and certainly felt better for it. She had finally awakened to find Gray slumped in the chair, and had lain looking at him ever since.

  For the nth time she wished she could remember what had finally brought them together. Her brain had been working overtime since she’d stirred. Sure, Gray had said that he had been attracted to her for a long time, but why had he made no attempt to tell her the truth before if she meant that much to him? The answer made her lips twist. Probably because she had been so busy hating him that she had never given him the chance! Until when? Something must have happened to change that. Something in the last few months. But what? It was so frustrating! What if…? No! She had to stop with the ‘what if’s. They would drive her mad. She had to wait and see. Had to give herself time.

  Looking at him now brought a smile to her lips and gave her a warm feeling around her heart. Gray had hinted that they were lovers, but had she told him she loved him? Did he love her, or was this just an affair? Lord, she hated the not knowing. If only she could remember, she’d have answers to all her questions!

  ‘Trying to make yourself remember generally has the reverse result.’ Gray’s sleepy voice interrupted her thoughts and she turned her head to look at him. He looked rumpled and dog-tired and endlessly endearing.

  ‘I know, but in my position you’d do the same thing,’ she pointed out, and he gave her a lopsided smile of acknowledgement.

  ‘Probably. How are you feeling now?’ he asked as he stood up and stretched, trying to smooth out the kinks the chair had put in his body.

  ‘Much better. My head has stopped aching. What time is it?’

  He glanced at his watch. ‘Way past the witching hour. Getting on for three in the morning. We’re probably the only ones awake.’ He flexed his back and shoulders, easing the cramped muscles.

  ‘You can’t be comfortable in that chair. Why don’t you go home?’ she suggested, though she didn’t relish the thought of being here alone. Hospitals gave her the heebie-jeebies.

  ‘I probably would, if we were anywhere near home,’ he agreed with her, and Shelby couldn’t contain her surprise.

  ‘Where are we?’ She had assumed, obviously wrongly, that she was in her local hospital.

  Gray smiled wryly. Now they were coming to the crunch point. He planned to keep as close to the truth as possible, without causing her to smell a rat. Hopefully she would accept the story without question.

  ‘Sussex. We were on our way to visit one of your clients. After that we were going to head off for a holiday.’

  ‘Oh,’ she responded faintly, naturally not remembering, though she knew she had a client in the county. ‘Have I spoiled our holiday?’

  He shook his head. ‘Put it off for a few days, that’s all. As soon as you can leave hospital, we’ll go on our way. You’ll need a little rest and TLC after this.’

  ‘How, if I wrecked the car?’ she wanted to know, and Gray grinned.

  ‘There are other forms of transport. I called in a favour from a friend,’ he informed her, then found himself having to smother a powerful yawn of his own. ‘Sorry about that,’ he apologised.

  ‘You really need to get some decent sleep, Gray. Why don’t you ask if there’s a room here you could use?’ Shelby said in some concern.

  ‘It’s OK. I have a room booked at a nearby hotel. I haven’t used it much because I wanted to be here when you woke up,’ he explained. Running a hand over his chin, he winced. ‘I could do with a shave, too.’

  ‘Well, I’m awake now and you can see I’m fine, relatively speaking. Go. Have a shave, get some sleep and come back later. All I’m going to do is sleep, anyway,’ she urged him.

  After a moment, when it looked to her as if he might argue, Gray shrugged. ‘You’re right. I’m out on my feet.’ Coming to the bed again, he bent over her. ‘See you in the morning, darling,’ he said softly and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  When he made to move away, however, he discovered Shelby had grabbed two handfuls of his shirt and was holding on tightly. He looked down into her eyes.

  ‘If you think you’re leaving after that, think again. I didn’t hurt my lips, you know.’

  His eyes dropped to her mouth, and his own lips twitched. ‘No, I can see that.’ Letting out a sighing breath, he took her lips in a gentle yet provocative kiss that sought a response from her then stopped once he had got it. Drawing back, he smiled wryly. ‘Better?’

  ‘Much,’ she agreed huskily. The tingling his lips had started still washed along her veins. ‘Goodnight,’ she said, suddenly reluctant to see him go.

  He sensed it and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. ‘Close your eyes and I’ll be back before you know it,’ Gray promised, and crossed the room in a couple of strides. At the door he paused briefly to give her a wave, then vanished from sight.

  Shelby turned her head on the pillow and stared out of the window where the sky was already beginning to lighten in the distance, a faint smile curving her lips. Lifting a hand, she ran a finger over lips that still tingled. Gray must have kissed her in the last few weeks, but this was the only one she remembered. This kiss, brief though it had been, told her a lot. They were an ‘us’ all right. Another layer of doubts vanished, easing her mind.

  Maybe dreams really did come true. On that thought she closed her eyes again and before very long had drifted back to sleep.

  Outside in the corridor, where he stood leaning against the wall, Gray rubbed his hands over his face in a battle-weary gesture. He couldn’t actually leave until his relief turned up—a good friend he could trust to look out for Shelby whilst he got some much needed rest. Jack was at the hotel and had promised to be there in ten minutes. In the meantime, he waited.

  He found himself caught in the sticky web of truths and half-truths he had woven in order to keep Shelby safe. It wasn’t going to be easy treading the fine line that had been drawn. She might think they were a couple; yet, however much he wanted her, the one thing he couldn’t do was act as if the fiction was a reality. Only a scoundrel would take advantage of the situation and, though appearances were to the contrary, he wasn’t a scoundrel.

  He laughed wryly. He was going to be in for a hell of a time and he only hoped his self-control would last out. Once he would have been certain, but things had changed and now he wasn’t quite so sure.

  Shelby was discharged from the hospital forty-eight hours later. There wasn’t anything wrong with her that wouldn’t heal in time—even her memory. She had spoken to a counsellor and the sensible advice she had been given had helped her a lot.

  Gray arrived to pick her up mid-morning. Shelby had been up, champing at the bit, for hours, and she virtually pounced on him when he walked in the door.

  ‘It’s about time. I thought you were never going to get here,’ she grumbled, and he shot her a resigned look.

  ‘You must be feeling better. You sound more like you already,’ he gibed as she grabbed the bag of clothes he had brought with him and started to ransack the contents.

  ‘I’m sorry. I just want to get out of here. I can’t stand this place.’

  ‘You never did like hospitals,’ a dear voice declared gruffly, and Shelby glanced up in surprise as a tall, greying man stepped into the room.

  Tears of emotion sprang to her eyes. ‘Dad!’ she exclaimed in a choked voice and abandoned the clothes to hurry over to him. ‘It’s good to see you.’

  Oscar Greer smiled
and held out his arms. ‘It’s good to see you awake and alert. The last time I was here you were unconscious. Come and give me a hug. I need it badly. You scared the life out of me.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Shelby apologised, hugging him tightly.

  Oscar released her to arm’s length and gave her the once over. ‘You’re looking much better. Gray has been keeping me appraised of your recovery, but I had to come and see for myself before you went away. Have you remembered anything yet?’

  Shelby shook her head. ‘Not a sausage. I rang the studio to see how my projects were going and I don’t remember doing half of what Paula was talking about. Really I should go and see her before going anywhere,’ she declared, going back to her bag of clothes.

  Oscar and Gray exchanged a speaking look, and it was Gray who answered.

  ‘Only you’re not going to. You’re going to obey doctors’ orders and take it easy for a while. Understood?’

  She had had no intention of doing any such thing, until he tried to take charge. ‘You can’t order me about, Gray Compton,’ she told him, chin raised to a belligerent angle.

  He swatted the words away like flies. ‘No, but I can throw you over my shoulder and put you in the car. It’s your choice. What’s it to be?’

  Shelby folded her arms and stared at him hard. ‘You’d do it too, wouldn’t you?’

  Blue eyes gleamed back at her. ‘In a heartbeat,’ he confirmed hardily.

  She looked at her father. ‘Are you going to let him get away with this?’

  Oscar hid a smile behind his hand, then cleared his throat. ‘I’m afraid I agree with Gray on this. The girls are fully capable of managing without you for a while.’

  ‘Traitor,’ she accused her parent, but knew he was right. She had chosen her assistants because they could work unsupervised. That wasn’t the point of the disagreement.

  ‘Now that that’s settled,’ Gray declared triumphantly, ‘I’m going to take Oscar down to the cafeteria for coffee whilst you get changed, OK?’