She’d whipped herself up into a real snit by the time she reached him, but all it took was a glimpse of his expression to make it disappear. Jack was upset and hurt and as mixed up as she was. Just seeing the evidence of it on his face made her ache to put her arms around him and hold him tight, tell him that there was no need to worry…
She did it anyway. She slid her arms around his waist and held him, feeling the resistance in his body instantly melt. His arms came around her and he held her to him, as though he were trying to draw her deep inside himself, held her as though he would never let her go again.
‘I love you…’
‘I love you…’
They both spoke together then stopped and tried again. Meg laughed because she simply couldn’t contain her joy at that moment.
‘We sound like an echo!’
‘Or two people who are meant to be together.’ Jack cupped her chin as he looked deep into her eyes, and what she saw in his was everything she could have wished for. ‘I love you, Meg Andrews. I’ve flown seven thousand miles to tell you that so I hope it sounds as good to you as it does to me.’
‘It sounds great!’ Meg blinked back her tears, laughing at her own foolishness. ‘I don’t know why I’m crying. Maybe it’s because I’m so happy and can’t believe this is really happening. I think you should pinch me so that I’ll know I’m awake!’
‘Oh, I know a much better way than that…’ Jack’s lips were tender and loving when they closed over hers. They said words he hadn’t said, made promises he would make later. It was a sort of Morse code without the blips and the bleeps, and Meg’s joyful heart had no trouble deciphering the message.
Jack drew back and smiled at her, his gaze both rueful and adoring. ‘I think we should get out of here, don’t you?’
He glanced pointedly over her shoulder and only then did she realise that there were at least a dozen cars lined up in the driveway, waiting to get past them. Her cheeks were flushed as she and Jack stepped onto the verge while the cars drove past. There was a lot of tooting of horns, not to mention some pithy comments from several of Meg’s colleagues shouted through the car windows.
Jack shook his head in mock dismay as he took hold of her hand and led her to where he’d parked his car. ‘I think I’ll have to marry you now. I’ll have the whole hospital after me for besmirching your honour if I don’t!’
Meg treated him to a haughty look but her heart was thumping as she took in what he’d said. ‘I hope you have reasons for wanting to marry me other than saving my honor. Not that you’ve asked me yet, and neither have I agreed!’
‘Oh, I have, I have!’ Jack backed her up against the car, trapping her between the solid metal and his own equally solid body. ‘Want me to show you what they are?’
He kissed her slowly and thoroughly, letting the weight of his body rest against hers so that she was left in little doubt about his feelings. Meg was once again having problems with her breathing when he raised his head but the one consolation was that Jack seemed to be having just as much trouble with his.
‘Yes, I’d love you to show me,’ she managed to squeak. ‘But not here! We don’t want to shock everyone, do we?’
‘A woman who speaks a lot of sense. I’ll add that to the plus column, Meg, although it’s getting a little overcrowded now.’ He unlocked the car then dropped a kiss on the tip of her small, straight nose. ‘The minus column is totally empty, however.’
Meg laughed as she slid into the seat. ‘I can’t believe that, Jack Trent! Surely I must have the odd fault? I’m only human after all.’
‘Nope! I tried to find faults, believe me, but it was a waste of time and effort because I couldn’t come up with a single one.’
He walked round the car and got in then turned to face her. Cupping her cheek with his hand, he looked deep into her eyes. ‘I love you, Meg. I love who and what you are. I love the way you care about your work and about the people you work with. I love the way you’ll fight for something you want or believe in. I love your stubbornness and determination as well as your tenderness and compassion. There are no minuses. They are all pluses.’
‘Oh, Jack!’ She turned her head, pressing a kiss into his palm, feeling her heart overflowing. It didn’t seem fair that anyone could feel as happy as she felt at that moment. It was more than anyone deserved.
‘I love you so much,’ she whispered.
‘I know. And to think I was almost fool enough to lose you, too.’ A spasm of pain contorted his face before he summoned a smile, but Meg realised that if she’d found the past few weeks difficult to bear then Jack had found them no easier. It simply made her love him even more, if that were possible. That Jack didn’t try to hide his vulnerability from her made her see how great a trust he’d placed in her.
‘However, I’ve seen the error of my ways and I’m not going to be such an idiot again. Now, where to? I think we need some place quiet where we won’t be disturbed. There’s a lot we need to talk about.’
Meg smiled at him, loving him with her eyes as she would love him with her body very soon. ‘Only talk, Jack? Oh, I think we’ll find other things to do as well as talking.’
‘Damn, this bed is cramped.’ Jack groaned as he eased onto his side. Meg laughed as she traced the bridge of his nose with a gentle finger.
‘I haven’t had much use for a bigger bed, I’m afraid.’
‘Then I’m not really complaining.’
He drew her into his arms and kissed her with a hungry urgency which quite belied the fact that they’d just spent the past couple of hours making love. Despite Jack’s avowals that they would talk, they’d said very little since they’d arrived at Meg’s flat. She’d opened the door, let them in and that had been that. Their hunger for each other had been just too great for them to wait, but now it was time to clear up any small misunderstandings, she realised without the slightest hint of misgiving. She loved Jack and he loved her. Nothing else mattered when put into that context.
‘Right, you said that we should talk so maybe now is the right time.’ She snuggled into his side, letting her hand rest on his muscular chest. She felt his muscles flicker and bunch, felt the response which affected other parts of his body. A wave of heat washed through her and she shifted languorously and heard him groan.
‘I won’t be able to think straight, let alone form a coherent sentence, if you do that!’ He fastened a hand around the curve of her hip and held her still, although she was pleased to note that it didn’t make all that much difference. His body was deliciously responsive to the nearness of hers…
She hid her smile, savouring the sweetness of that thought. ‘Sorry.’
‘Mmm, I bet you are. Witch!’ He kissed her quickly. ‘I knew you were going to be trouble from the minute I clapped eyes on you, Staff Nurse Andrews! I was right, too.’
‘Why? What did I do?’ She paused but the question had to be asked, even though she no longer feared the answer. She just didn’t want it to upset Jack. ‘Was it because I look like Briony?’
‘No.’ He must have felt the start she gave because he grinned at her. ‘I can honestly say that it never crossed my mind that you looked at all like Briony. Maybe there is a slight resemblance in the fact that you’re both blonde and beautiful but that’s all. I never compared you to her. I just compared the reaction you had on me.’
Meg drew herself up and looked at him. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘The only other time I’d been so instantly attracted to a woman, as I was to you, was when I met Briony. But I soon realised that you were far more dangerous because it wasn’t just your very beautiful face and body I liked but your mind as well.’
He sighed as he ran a gentle finger down her cheek. ‘Briony is a very shallow person—she’s only interested in anything that directly affects her. You are very different, Meg. You care so much about other people and that was apparent even at your interview. It scared the socks off me, I don’t mind admitting, because I realised that if I�
��d been hurt by what Briony had done then it could be so much worse if I allowed myself to feel anything for you. It was a risk I swore I wouldn’t take.’
Meg could barely keep her voice level. ‘You…you mean that you thought you could come to love me more than you’d loved Briony?’
He must have heard the faint quaver because his smile was so tender that it brought a lump to her throat. ‘No. I mean that I do love you more than I ever loved Briony. It wasn’t long before I realised that I’d fallen head over heels in love with you, which was why I was so…well, difficult!’
‘Difficult is an understatement! I never knew if I was on my head or my heels, Jack. One minute you were biting my head off for some misdemeanour or other and the next—’
‘I was making it blatantly obvious that I had other things on my mind apart from taking you to task!’ He sighed ruefully. ‘I behaved abominably. I know that. My only excuse is that I was fighting for my sanity, or so I believed. I kept telling myself that you couldn’t possibly be as wonderful as my own eyes were telling me you were, which is why I was so hard on you.’
‘And you knew from the time of my interview that I was going to be a problem?’ she asked smugly.
‘Oh, yes. Not that I admitted it to myself, mind you. Certainly not! That would have been far too easy.’ He laughed deeply, his warm breath stirring her hair as he drew her back into his arms. ‘If I gave you a hard time, darling, I gave myself an even harder one, believe me!’
‘Good! You deserve to have suffered for what you put me through. Not that there weren’t some good times, mind.’ She pressed her mouth to his chest and gently bit him, smiling when she heard the swift indrawn breath he took. ‘Like that time we found Katu and sat outside the hut…’
‘And when you came back on board the train after the others went to the village to celebrate that wedding.’ Jack’s tone was husky. ‘I didn’t know whether to curse Miriam or drop to my knees and thank her when she interrupted us that night, because if she hadn’t we would have made love.’
‘And that wasn’t what you wanted?’ she teased, secure in the knowledge that he loved her. It felt wonderful to know that after all the uncertainty.
‘Oh, I wanted it.’ He bent and kissed her hungrily. ‘I wanted it more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my whole life. But I knew that it would be wrong.’
‘Wrong? How could it have been wrong, Jack?’ she demanded, frowning at him.
He kissed away the frown lines which puckered her brow. ‘Because I wasn’t prepared to admit to you or myself how deeply in love with you I was. It would have been wrong to make love to you and then tell you that there was no future for us, and at that stage I was sure that there wouldn’t be a future for us. I was trying to do the honourable thing, believe it or not, Meg!’
He tried to make a joke out of it but Meg knew that it was the truth. Jack had wanted her but hadn’t wanted to hurt her by seeming to take what she would have given so willingly and then throw it back in her face. It was just another indication of how much he cared, not that she needed it. Just being here like this, loving him and having him love her back, that was all the proof she needed!
‘I appreciate that, well, I do now. I didn’t back then!’ She kissed him tenderly then drew back and smiled at him. ‘What made you decide to forgo the Sir Galahad act and come to find me?’
‘Oh, several things. Richard for starters.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘I’ve been like a bear with a sore head since you left. You ask anyone and they’ll tell you that. When you suggested swopping with Yvonne and returning to England, I thought it would be for the best. However, thinking and feeling are two very different things, I soon found out!’
Meg laughed. ‘You deserved to suffer! I went through agonies remembering how you didn’t try to dissuade me from taking Yvonne’s place.’
‘I’m sorry, darling. I never meant to hurt you.’ He kissed her gently. ‘You have to understand that I was so mixed up that I barely knew what I was doing most of the time. I messed up badly but I swear I’ll make it up to you, if you’ll let me.’
‘Oh, I can be magnanimous if the situation calls for it,’ she assured him. ‘Anyway, what was it Richard said to make you see sense?’
‘That he hoped it wasn’t going to take a bullet to make me see what I was in danger of losing.’ Jack sighed as he smoothed her hair with a decidedly unsteady hand.
‘It started to put everything into perspective. Then I heard from the agency that they were thinking of sending you to India—they’re instigating a project there to try to eradicate TB, which is a huge problem in the country. I realised that if you were sent there it could be months before I saw you again.
‘I’d already asked to extend my stay in Oncamba. I think at the back of my mind I’d been hoping that you would be asked to return as well but, obviously, that wasn’t going to happen. It hit me then that my life was going to be meaningless without you as a part of it. I wanted you with me all the time, not thousands of miles away in a different continent! I realised that Richard was right and that I had to do something immediately.’
‘Remind me to give Richard a big kiss next time I see him!’ she declared. ‘But now that everything is straight at last, where do we go from here? You mentioned something about marriage…?’
‘I did. I haven’t forgotten either.’ He whipped back the sheet and climbed out of bed, going straight down on one knee.
‘If I do this correctly, as all the books advocate, maybe I’ll get the answer I want. Will you marry me, Meg?’
She giggled. ‘I’m sure Emily Post wouldn’t have advocated a prospective bridegroom being naked when he made his proposal! But let’s not be picky about the details. Yes, Jack. I’ll marry you, but on one condition.’
He scowled. ‘And that is?’
‘That you never try to leave me behind when you go off on one of your aid trips. To me marriage means being together no matter how difficult the circumstances are. It means sharing our lives, the bad bits as well as the good. I don’t intend to be a stay-at-home wife while you go off to the jungle, playing Tarzan!’
‘And I have no intention of letting you!’
He stood up, drawing her up so that he could kiss her. ‘I accept your conditions. From what I recall, Tarzan found his soul mate when he found Jane. I’ve found you, Meg. You are my soul mate, the woman I love, the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Whatever life brings from now on, we face it together. And that reminds me—I forgot to mention I have to fly back to Oncamba tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow?’ Meg stared at him.
‘Uh-huh.’ His grin was wicked. ‘When I contacted the agency and told them I had to fly back home because there was something that needed my urgent attention, I promised that I would be away no longer than three days. I knew that would be all the time I’d need, you see. I’d either be able to persuade you that you couldn’t live without me or you’d tell me to get lost.’
He kissed her again, letting her know how little appeal that last idea had held. ‘However, it does mean that I’m due to be on a plane in…’ he checked his watch ‘…just over ten hours’ time.’
‘Correction—we shall be on a plane in ten hours’ time.’ Meg kissed him quickly, then drew him down into her welcoming arms. ‘Let’s not waste another second, then. We’ve said everything that needs to be said, don’t you agree, Jack?’
‘Oh, I do. I most certainly do…!’
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5647-0
TOUCHED BY ANGELS
First North American Publication 2001
Copyright © 2001 by Jennifer Taylor
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