Summer With Love: The Spanish Consultant

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 baby?