‘Yes, I understand. What I don’t understand is why you’re so interested in Lisa. You told me that you aren’t a friend of hers so it doesn’t make sense.’
‘I just am, that’s all!’
He ran a grimy hand over his face as he took a deep breath. He looked far more dishevelled than he had when he’d stopped her in Casualty, which probably explained why she hadn’t recognised him at first.
‘Anyway, how is she? Is she going to be all right or…or what?’
Maggie frowned as she heard the concern in his voice. It was obvious that he really cared about Lisa yet she still had no idea why he was so interested in the girl. However, she decided that in the circumstances it might be best to humour him. Tracy knew where she was and would be bound to come looking for her soon. All she needed to do was to keep the situation as low-key as possible until help arrived.
‘Lisa is fine, or she will be. She’s got a long way to go yet but we’re confident that she’ll make a full recovery eventually.’
‘Honest? You’re not just telling me that to…to trick me?’
‘Why would I want to trick you?’ she began, then stopped when it suddenly struck her why he wanted to know. ‘You were in the car that ran her down. Were you driving?’
‘No! It wasn’t me, it was my friend Pete.’ His face suddenly crumpled and tears streamed down his cheeks. ‘He wouldn’t stop! I begged and begged him to go back but he wouldn’t. He said there was no way he was getting banged up in jail.’
He wiped his nose on his sleeve and gulped. ‘He told me that if I told anyone what had happened he’d get me. I was scared, you see. I knew he meant it but I couldn’t stop thinking about what we’d done, so after we’d ditched the car I went back to see if I could find her, but it was too foggy. I searched up and down all the roads where I thought we’d been but I couldn’t see any sign of her. In the end I decided that someone must have found her and called an ambulance.’
‘But they hadn’t. Lisa wasn’t found until the following morning,’ Maggie stated baldly.
‘I didn’t know that! Honest, I didn’t! I’d busted my arm when we hit that gatepost, so I came here to the hospital the next day to get it fixed. That’s when I heard one of the ambulance drivers talking about this girl who’d been in a hit-and-run accident and how she was being moved to another hospital because she was so ill. I… I just sort of lost it then. I knew I had to find out if she was going to be all right.’
‘So that’s why you camped out here, is it, so that you could find out how Lisa was doing?’
‘Yes. I also wanted to stay out of Pete’s way. The word was out that he was looking for me, see, and I knew what that meant!’
It was obvious that he was terrified of the other boy, and probably with good reason, Maggie thought. Anyone who was callous enough to run someone down and then drive away had to be dangerous.
‘So what happens now?’ she asked quietly. ‘You can’t keep me here. People will be wondering where I am. Wouldn’t it make more sense to go to the police and tell them everything that you’ve told me?’
‘No! You don’t know what Pete’s like. He’ll kill me if he finds out I’ve grassed on him. I’m not telling the police anything and you can’t make me.’
He took a threatening step towards her. Maggie wasn’t sure what would have happened next only just then the door opened and Tracy appeared. The boy shot a startled look over his shoulder then made a dash for the door, pushing Maggie roughly aside when she tried to stop him. She felt herself falling and grabbed hold of the nearest solid object, which turned out to be not nearly as solid as she’d thought. She heard Tracy’s cry of horror as the shelving unit suddenly collapsed on top of her then heard nothing more as something caught her a glancing blow on the temple.
‘Maggie. Can you hear me, honey? Come on, darling, open your eyes for me.’
Maggie groaned as she cracked her lids open the merest fraction and a flood of light assailed her. ‘Too bright,’ she muttered through lips that felt about ten inches thick.
‘Here, is that better?’ Luke turned off the light then laid a gentle hand on her cheek. ‘Talk to me, sweetheart. Say anything you like, even if it’s to tell me off for not being there when you needed me.’
She heard the agony in his voice and summoned a smile. However, it was a poor effort because those rubbery lips that seemed to have attached themselves to hers were reluctant to obey even the simplest command. ‘I thought we’d decided that you didn’t like playing the role of macho hero.’
‘So maybe I’ve changed my mind.’ He ran a feather-light finger down her cheek again. ‘Can I help it if my caveman instincts surface when my best girl gets hurt?’
‘Am I?’ She wet her lips. ‘Your best girl, I mean?’
‘Of course you are. I don’t know what I would do without you, honey.’ It was said lightly enough, but even through the haze that was clouding her mind she could hear the ring of truth it held. She turned her head so that she could see him better then winced as a knifing pain shot through her skull.
‘Lie still!’ he cautioned, laying a hand on her shoulder. ‘You’ve got one heck of a lump on your head. Will Saunders is on his way down from Neurology to check you over… Ah, here he is now.’
He got up and went to meet the other man. Maggie peered, one-eyed, at them as they conferred together. ‘I hate it when people talk about me,’ she grumbled when they finally came over to her.
‘Well, it doesn’t sound as though her brains are too scrambled,’ Will observed cheerily, crouching down so that he could examine the lump on her temple. He gently probed it, ignoring her muttered epithets.
‘Doesn’t feel as though there’s any serious damage, although I’d feel happier if she had a scan. Let me test her reflexes first.’
‘Excuse me,’ she cut in pithily. ‘Unless I’ve suddenly become invisible I am still here. You can talk to me rather than about me!’
‘Is she always this bad-tempered?’ Will asked, looking at Luke, who grinned.
‘Always! She’s a real termagant when she gets going,’ he replied, then laughed out loud when she gasped. ‘OK, that’s not strictly fair. She’s fairly even-tempered when she hasn’t had a bang on the head.’
‘Hmm, some of these head injuries can be really tricky,’ Will confirmed, winking at Luke. He took a torch out of his top pocket and gently rolled back her eyelids, giving Maggie no chance to answer. He took his time, running through a series of tests before he was satisfied.
‘Right, she’ll need watching for the next twenty-four hours in case of concussion, but I don’t foresee any major problems,’ he announced, standing up. ‘I’ll send her for a scan to be on the safe side, but I think it’s simply a question of rest, rest and more rest.’
He grinned at Maggie. ‘You’re going to have a real shiner from the look of that eye, but I don’t think there’s going to be any lasting damage.’
‘Thanks,’ she replied, delicately probing the lump.
‘Thanks, Will. I appreciate you coming down,’ Luke said as he saw the other man to the door. ‘I’ll get her down to Radiology a.s.a.p.’
‘My pleasure.’ With a last cheery wave, Will departed.
Luke came back to the bed and slid his arms beneath Maggie’s legs and shoulders then gently deposited her into the waiting wheelchair. ‘Right, madam. A trip to Radiology then it’s home for you.’
‘Home? Oh, but I can’t leave,’ she protested, but he shook his head.
‘No buts, Maggie. You’re going home for the simple reason that you aren’t fit to carry on working. In case you’ve forgotten, you were knocked out,’ he said in a voice that told her what a waste of time it would be to argue. ‘Everything is arranged. Rachel Hart is going to stand in for you, so all you need to worry about is yourself for once.’
She sighed, recognising when she was beaten. In all honesty, she knew that she wasn’t fit to remain in charge of the ward. Her head was hammering and even though he’d picked her u
p as tenderly as if she were a new baby, she felt decidedly queasy.
‘You’re a bully, do you know that?’ she griped. ‘Treating a sick woman like this.’
‘Tough!’ he replied unsympathetically, steering the wheelchair out of the side room. ‘You can complain all you like but you’re going to follow orders!’
Maggie bowed to the inevitable. She had a word with Angela and Tracy, and did her best to reassure them that she was fine, then Luke whizzed her into the lift. After that, events seemed to move with the speed of light. The scan confirmed that she’d suffered no lasting damage so she was free to go home. Before she knew it they was drawing up outside her flat.
‘Wait there,’ Luke ordered, opening the car door. ‘I’ll help you out.’
She would have loved to tell him that she didn’t need any help but it was blatantly obvious that she couldn’t manage by herself. She waited obediently while he hurried round the car and opened her door.
‘Put your arm round my neck,’ he instructed, then lifted her from the seat. Maggie clung on as he strode across the pavement, giggling as he juggled her in his arms and tried to unlock the front door at the same time.
‘You certainly know how to sweep a girl off her feet,’ she teased, earning herself a reproachful stare.
‘Any more comments like that and I’ll make you walk up all those stairs,’ he threatened, stepping into the hall and shutting the door with his hip.
‘Of course I’ll walk!’ she declared, then groaned as a wave of nausea swept over when she struggled to be put down. After that, she was too concerned about not making a spectacle of herself to object any more as he carried her up to her flat.
He put her down outside the door, keeping his arm around her as he held out his hand for the key. Maggie gave it to him, summoning a rather wobbly smile as he unlocked the door.
‘Thanks, Luke. I’m really grateful to you for bringing me home…’ she began, then gasped when once again she found herself being swung up into the air. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Taking you inside and putting you to bed, of course.’
He gave the door a shove with his foot then headed for her bedroom. There was a grim set to his mouth as he looked at her, the glitter of something hot and a little bit dangerous in his eyes. ‘And you may as well know that I intend spending what’s left of the night here as well, so it’s pointless arguing!’
CHAPTER TWELVE
PALE morning sunshine filtered through a gap in the curtains and Maggie stirred. She opened her eyes slowly, steeling herself against the expected pain. However, apart from a slight throbbing in her right temple, her headache had gone.
‘So you’re awake at last? How do you feel?’ Luke got up and came over to the bed. Sitting down on the edge, he turned her face towards the light. ‘That’s some bruise you’ve got there.’
She summoned a smile but it wasn’t easy to behave naturally in the circumstances. Luke had flatly refused all her assurances that she didn’t need him watching over her until, in the end, she’d simply given up. His only concession had been to let her get undressed by herself, but he’d insisted on tucking her into bed afterwards.
When he’d brought an armchair into the bedroom and calmly informed her that he intended to sleep in it, she hadn’t even bothered to protest. By that point she’d been feeling just too sick to worry any more. However, in the bright light of day, she felt more than a little uncomfortable at the thought of him having watched her while she’d slept. Did she snore or sleep with her mouth open? She sincerely hoped not!
‘I’m fine,’ she muttered, carefully avoiding his eyes, but he wouldn’t let her escape that easily.
‘Sure?’ he insisted. ‘No dizziness or blurred vision? Look, just follow my finger…’
‘Luke, I’m fine! Really I am. I haven’t got concussion so you can stop playing doctor!’
She didn’t know why she felt so angry all of a sudden. It was silly really. After all, he was only trying to make sure that she hadn’t suffered any lasting damage from her escapade…
A shiver ran through her then another and another until her whole body was trembling. Maggie clamped her teeth together but she could hear them rattling as the events of the previous night came rushing back.
‘It’s all right, honey. I’m here. I’ve got you and you’re safe.’
Luke’s voice was filled with anguish as he folded her in his arms. Maggie clung to him, drawing strength from the feel of his strong arms around her as all the terror she’d held in check threatened to overwhelm her. It took some time before the spasm passed, and all that time he held her as though he never wanted to let her go. She had the funniest feeling that he was deriving almost as much comfort from holding her as she was.
He ran a gentle hand over her hair when he felt her tremors abating. ‘If anything had happened to you last night, Maggie, I don’t know what I would have done. When Tracy rang and told me what had happened, I think I went a little crazy.’
She felt her heart give one great enormous surge as she heard what he said. ‘Did you, Luke?’ she whispered because she was holding her breath.
‘Yes.’ He lifted her face so that he could look into her eyes and her heart ached when she saw the pain in his. ‘I… I care an awful lot about you, Maggie. You must know that.’
Maybe she did, but caring wasn’t what she really wanted from him. Tears came to her eyes as she realised how foolish it was to hope for the impossible to happen. Luke had never made any secret about his intentions so why did she keep torturing herself this way?
‘Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry, Maggie.’ He took her face between his hands, holding her still when she would have pulled away. ‘I can’t bear to see you unhappy.’
He bent and kissed her, making her cry all the more because it was such a travesty of a kiss. She wasn’t a child who needed to be kissed better! She was a flesh-and-blood woman who wanted the man she loved to show her that dreams could come true!
He gave a small groan almost of pain before he suddenly deepened the kiss. This time his mouth was hungry rather than healing, demanding rather than giving, and Maggie responded to it in the only way she could. She kissed him back, letting her mouth tell him everything that she couldn’t put into words because they were words he didn’t want to hear.
‘Maggie, Maggie…’ He traced her face with his lips, letting them skate up her cheek to linger fleetingly at her bruised temple, before they swept across her brow. She murmured in delight as he mapped her face with his mouth, letting his lips pause at the hollow beside her ear before moving on to the pulse beneath her jaw which was throbbing out its own message.
Could he hear what it was saying? she wondered. Did he know that it was telling him that she loved him? Maybe he did, because it seemed as though there was an added sweetness about the way his mouth took hers again, a tenderness that imbued the kiss with a wealth of emotions. Maybe Luke didn’t want to hear her say the words but that didn’t mean he wasn’t listening, and her heart overflowed at the thought.
He pressed her back against the pillows, his hands sliding up her sides. She could feel the light pressure of his fingers on her hips and waist before they came to rest beneath her breasts, and held her breath. When they moved that last little fraction she cried out because the sensations his fingertips aroused as they brushed her hardening nipples were almost too sweet to bear.
She wound her arms around his neck and drew him down so that she could kiss him, shuddering as his hands became even more bolder. It was a double assault on her senses—the feel of his mouth as it drank from hers, the pleasure his hands were creating as they caressed her. Maggie was consumed by both the love she felt for him and the need to show him so that she cried out in protest when he suddenly drew back.
She reached towards him again but he captured her hands, lifting them to his mouth to kiss her knuckles, and she felt herself melting. How could a kiss on the hand be so erotic? she wondered dizzily. But, then, it depended on who was
doing the kissing, of course.
‘Maggie, we have to be sensible. You know what will happen if we don’t stop now.’
Luke’s voice was very deep, grating with emotion and a need that made her smile. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with laughter. ‘I think I can guess, Luke,’ she teased, earning herself a reproachful sigh.
‘I’m trying to be sensible here but you’re not making it easy!’ He bent and kissed her again, giving her all the proof she needed that he’d been telling the truth. He virtually had to drag his mouth away from hers and she certainly didn’t try to help him!
He groaned when he felt her lips clinging to his right till the very last second. ‘Maggie! You turn me inside out so that I don’t know if I’m coming or going. How do you expect me to think straight if you do things like that?’
‘I don’t.’ She smiled, the satisfied, secretive smile of a woman who has discovered her own power. She let her hands slide up his arms and around his neck, exerting just the gentlest pressure as she drew him towards her. ‘I don’t want you to think of anything at this moment…except me.’
There was a moment when it seemed that he was going to resist but it was gone so fast that she barely had time to register it had happened. This time there was no hesitation, no drawing back, nothing at all except the sheer wonder and magic of their love-making.
Maggie gave herself unstintingly and without reservation, sure in her heart that she was doing the right thing. She loved him, and no matter what happened later she would never regret what was happening now!
Evening was drawing in when she next awoke. Maggie lay in bed, watching the sunlight fade and the shadows creep in. It felt as though she were in a state of limbo, yet it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. There was no past to regret, no future to fear, just the present to enjoy. For now that was enough.
‘What are you thinking?’
The Italian Doctor Page 18