Harlequin Medical Romance December 2015, Box Set 1 of 2 (27 page)

‘The specialists might even let him out by then,' Hugo conceded, smiling as the despair in the room turned to tentative excitement. ‘He'll still need tests but if he stays in Sydney... No promises, but it's possible...'

‘There you go then,' Maree's mum said and before Hugo could protect himself she'd flung her arms around him and planted what was probably a very sticky kiss on his cheek. She hugged Polly for good measure and then headed back to hug each and every one of her family.

Family...

And Polly was suddenly staring at them all thinking...
family
.

She was running away.

Why was she running?

Enough
. She was tired, she decided. She was overwrought. Her emotions were all over the place. What she needed right now was bed. Hugo was right—bed rest.

Somewhere away from Hugo.

Why did the presence of this man unsettle her so much? A week ago she'd never met him.

Why was the concept of family suddenly everywhere?

‘I'll see you back at the house,' she mumbled and Hugo took her arm and led her to the door.

‘I'll take you.'

‘It's two minutes' walk.'

‘I'll take you,' he said more firmly, and then he turned back to Terry's family. ‘I'll be back in a few minutes. Joe's looking after Terry. He'll let me know the minute he's awake enough for you to see him. But, Maree, that chopper lands in an hour so it might be better to grab some clothes now...'

‘We'll all be in Sydney by midday tomorrow,' her mum said. ‘We can bring everything she needs.'

‘And I don't need toffee apples, Mum,' Maree managed and everyone laughed and Hugo's arm tightened around Polly's shoulders and he led her to the door.

‘I do need to take Polly home,' he said. ‘She's still suffering after-effects...'

‘From the snake bite.' Terry's dad finished the sentence for him and came forward and took her hand—her bad hand—and gripped it and didn't even notice her wince. ‘You're amazing. Thank God you came to the Valley, girl. If you'd like to stay for ever, you'd be very, very welcome.'

* * *

Her hand hurt. The grip had been hard.

Her ankle hurt.

Actually, all of her hurt. The aches and bruises that had been put on the backburner by adrenaline now started to make themselves known.

She really was wobbly. She really did need Hugo's arm around her as they headed across the path from hospital to house.

Or she told herself that. Because somehow it felt...okay.

It felt as if his hold was somehow linking her to...reality?

That was a nonsense thought, but then her head was producing a lot of nonsense at the moment.

It was his skill, she told herself. His surgeon's fingers had been amazing to watch. Skill was always a turn-on.

Skill had nothing to do with it.

Hugo was a turn-on.

She was so aware of him. She was behaving like a teenager with a crush, she decided, but the thought was fleeting because the sensation of being held, being cared for, was so infinitely sweet...

They reached the veranda steps. He took her arm and she let herself lean on him as she climbed.

She hated being cared for. Didn't she?

‘I need to go back,' he said, and she heard a reluctance in his voice that matched hers. ‘I need to organise transport.'

‘Of course you do.'

‘Polly...'

‘Mmm?'

‘Thank you.'

‘There's no need to thank me,' she said, whispering suddenly although there was no need to whisper because there was no one to hear but Hamster, who'd wagged his tail once when they'd reached the top of the steps and then gone back to sleep. He was a dog obviously used to the comings and goings of his master. ‘I believe I'm being paid.'

‘Not enough,' he said and she turned and smiled. She knew her smile was shaky. She knew she was too close and she knew what she was doing was unwise—but she was doing it anyway.

‘I'd do it for free,' she murmured and his smile suddenly faded and so did hers. And his hands came out to take hers and almost unconsciously—as if she had no say in what was happening at all—she tilted her chin in a gesture that meant only one thing.

That meant he had nothing to do but lower his mouth to hers.

That meant he had nothing to do but kiss her.

* * *

She'd never been
kissed like this.

She must have been, she thought dazedly. She'd had boyfriends since her early teens. Her mum had been matchmaking for ever, and Polly wasn't exactly a shrinking violet. Boyfriends were fun. Kissing was nice.

This kissing wasn't nice. This kiss was...

Mind-blowing. There were no other words big enough, for from the moment his mouth met hers she seemed to be melting. It was as if his body was somehow merging into hers, supporting her, warming her, becoming part of her.

Her senses were exploding.

His mouth enveloped hers and all she could do was taste him, feel him, want him. She was kissing with a fierceness that almost frightened her.

She'd never been out of control with her boyfriends. She dated ‘nice' boys.

This was no nice boy. This was a man who was as hungry as she was, as demanding, as committed...

Hungry? Demanding? Committed?
That described her. She could be none of those things, yet right now she was all three. She surrendered herself to his kiss and she gloried in it. Her fingers entwined themselves in his hair, tugging him closer. She was standing on tiptoe but his arms were around her waist, pulling her up, so the kiss could sink deeper...

She was on fire.

Hugo... His name was a whisper, a shout, a declaration all by itself. Pollyanna Hargreaves was right out of her comfort zone. She was right out of control.

If he picked her up and carried her to his bed right now, would she submit?

There was no
submit
about it. If she had her way it'd be Polly who'd be doing the carrying. She wanted him!

She couldn't have him. Even as the crazy idea hit, the need to carry this straight through to the bedroom, he was putting her back.

It was a wrench like no other. Their mouths parted and she felt...lost.

‘I need to go.' His voice was ragged. ‘Terry needs...'

‘Y...yes.'

He took a step back, turned away and then paused and turned back. ‘That wasn't a casual kiss.'

‘You could have fooled me,' she managed and he gave a twisted smile.

‘Polly, what I'm feeling...'

And suddenly it was out there, this thing between them. Lust, love—whatever. Only it couldn't be love, Polly thought dazedly, because they'd only known each other for three days and no one fell in love that fast.

Lust, then. The way she was feeling...certainly it was lust.

‘Yeah, I'm feeling it, too,' she managed. ‘So it's just as well you're going away soon because I'm just over a possessive boyfriend. And I don't do casual affairs, or family either, for that matter, and you have a daughter...'

‘A niece.'

‘A niece.' She closed her eyes as she corrected herself. A waif-like kid who Hugo loved. Why did that make him seem more sexy, not less?

Why was Ruby suddenly in the equation?

‘Hugo, I don't do family,' she said again and surprisingly her voice sounded almost calm. ‘That's why I'm here—to get away from ties.'

‘This isn't some kind of trap.' He said it fast.

Trap? How could she ever think of a kiss as a trap?

‘Of course it's not,' she agreed. ‘It was a kiss, simply that. Excellent surgical skills always turn me on, Dr Denver.'

‘So if I had warts on my nose, a sagging middle and a disinclination to wash, but I removed an appendix with style, you'd still turn into a puddle of molten passion?'

He was smiling, making things light, and she had to too. ‘You'd better believe it.'

‘So, on a scale of one to ten...speedy repair of ingrown toenail?'

‘Ooh, don't talk dirty,' she managed and scraped up a grin. ‘Next you'll be talking laparoscopic gallstone removal and I have no defences.'

He chuckled but it sounded forced. He was as shaken as she was, she thought.

But they were apart now. Work was waiting and they both knew it.

‘Bed,' he said and she blinked.

‘Is that an order?'

‘I guess it is.'

‘You're not my doctor.' It suddenly seemed important—incredibly important—to make that clear.

‘I know.' He hesitated. ‘And in two weeks I won't be your colleague.'

‘And I'll be on the other side of the world.'

‘Really? Where?'

‘Sudan, maybe. Ethiopia.'

‘With Type One Diabetes?' He sounded incredulous.

‘I can cope.'

‘Polly...'

‘Don't fuss.'

‘I'm not fussing.' Except he was, she thought, and she also thought, with a modicum of self-knowledge, that she'd driven him to fuss. It was like someone with one leg declaring they intended to be a tightrope walker.

She could probably do it.

Her parents would worry.

This man might too, and by making such a declaration...it had been like a slap.
Fuss if you dare; it'll give me an excuse to run.

It wasn't fair.

‘Go,' she told him. ‘Work's waiting. The chopper should be here soon.'

‘Yes.' But still there was hesitation.

‘The kiss was a mistake,' she said. ‘An aberration.'

‘We both know it was no such thing, but I can't push. I have no right. Polly...'

‘Go,' she said. ‘No such thing or not, I'm completely uninterested.'

* * *

Hugo headed back to the hospital feeling...empty. Gutted?

What had just happened?

He'd been knocked back. He'd kissed her. She'd responded with passion but that passion had given way to sense. She was fiercely independent and wanted to be more so. He had a commitment that would tie him here for life.

He was trapped here. How could he possibly ask a woman to share this trap?

Maybe he could move back to Sydney. Maybe he could pick up the strings of the life he'd known before. He moved in the circles Polly moved in...

Except she wasn't going back to Sydney. She was escaping family and he had Ruby. The life he had in Sydney was over.

The thought of Sydney was like a siren song. He could go back to performing the surgery he'd trained for. He was picking up his family medicine skills here, but the surgical skills he'd fought to gain...to let them fade...

He had no choice but to let them go. Ruby had lost far more than he had. He could take Ruby back to Sydney—of course he could—but apartment life wouldn't suit her or Hamster. He'd be back working twelve-hour days. Ruby wouldn't be surrounded by people who cared about her.

His trap had firmly closed.

He sighed and squared his shoulders and headed up the ramp to the hospital entrance.

A wallaby was sitting by the door.

‘Popped in for a check-up?' he asked the little creature. The wallaby seemed to be admiring her reflection in the glass door. ‘Or is there anything more urgent I can help you with?'

The wallaby turned and gazed at him, almost thoughtfully. They stared at each other for a long moment and then the helicopter appeared, low and fast, from the east. The wallaby looked up at the sky, looked again at Hugo and then bounded off, back down the ramp and into the bush.

Back to freedom. No ties there.

‘I'm not jealous,' Hugo muttered as he headed through the doors and made his way to the waiting Terry. ‘I can make a life here.'

Without Polly?

‘And that's a stupid thought,' he told himself. ‘You made that decision well before Polly came on the scene. How one red-headed, flibbertigibbet doctor can mess with your equanimity...'

‘A flibbertigibbet?' he demanded of himself and he must have said the word too loud because Joe was waiting for him and he raised his brows in enquiry.

‘The wallaby,' he explained. ‘She was looking at her reflection in the glass door. She's headed back to the bush now. I thought she might have a medical issue, but she was probably just checking her mascara. Flibbertigibbet. Wallabies are like that.'

‘Yes, Doctor,' Joe said cautiously. ‘Mate, are you...okay?'

‘Never better,' he murmured. ‘One more day of work and then I'm off for Christmas holidays. Bring it on.'

‘You can't wait to get out of here?'

‘How can you doubt it?' he demanded, but he thought of Polly standing on the veranda looking after him and he knew that doubt was totally justified.

* * *

Polly stayed on the veranda for a very long time.

The kiss stayed with her.

She sank into one of the big cane chairs and Hamster licked her hand and put his big boofy head on her knee. It was almost as if he knew she needed comfort.

Why did she need comfort? What possible reason was there to feel bereft?

Just because someone had kissed her...

Just because someone was impossible.

She should leave now. That was what part of her felt like doing—packing her little sports car and driving away, fast.

That was fear talking—and why was she fearful?

Where was the new brave Polly now? The intrepid Polly who'd walked away from her family, who'd vowed to be independent, who'd hankered after a life free of the obligations of loving?

It had all seemed so simple back in Sydney. Toss in her hospital job. Declare her independence to her parents. Start treating herself as a grown-up.

She wasn't feeling grown-up now. She was feeling...just a little bit stupid.

‘Which is stupid all by itself,' she told Hamster. ‘Here I am, less than a week into my new life, and I'm questioning everything. I haven't given it a chance. And if I left here...where would I run to? Back to my parents? Not in a month of Sundays. Off to Ethiopia? We both know that's not going to happen. No, all I need to do is stay here, keep my feet firmly on the ground, keep lust solidly damped and get on with my work. And I'll work better if I sleep now.'