‘So why won’t you kiss me?’
‘Because I’m too old to sneak around kissing children.’
‘I’m not a child!’
One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘So why were you running away? Grown-ups don’t run away from problems, Katy. They face them. When you’ve got the courage to kiss me in full view of your father, come back and we’ll talk.’
Grown-ups don’t run away from problems.
And here she was, running again …
She stared at Jago, thinking that he hadn’t changed much. He might be a doctor but it certainly hadn’t softened him. He looked tough and uncompromising and totally self-assured. But, then, Jago Rodriguez had always had confidence by the bucketload.
Ironic really, she reflected as she tightened her fists on the sheet. For all her privileged upbringing she’d never managed to achieve much in the way of confidence.
‘I’m still waiting for you to tell me what you were running from.’
There was a tap on the door and the nurse opened it warily.
‘Miss Westerling’s fiancé is here.’
Jago’s eyes lifted to Katy’s.
There was a long, aching silence and then he stood up, his eyes shuttered. ‘Show him in.’
Freddie came striding in, hidden behind a bouquet of flowers the size of Africa. Despite the pain in her head, Katy gave a weak smile. Unlike Jago, Freddie never veered from protocol. He couldn’t possibly visit someone in hospital and not take flowers.
Freddie presented the flowers and leaned over to kiss her awkwardly on the cheek. ‘Katherine! What the devil happened?’
Katy was hopelessly aware of Jago’s dark scrutiny. ‘I—I crashed my car.’
Freddie looked perplexed. ‘None of us even knew you’d left the party.’
‘Nothing changes,’ Jago murmured in an undertone, but only Katy understood the implications of his softly spoken words.
‘Are you the doctor who sorted her out?’ Freddie extended a hand, his cultured drawl the product of an exclusive public school education. ‘Can’t thank you enough. Will she be all right?’
‘She was lucky. The damage was superficial,’ Jago said, his eyes drifting to the dressing on Katy’s forehead. ‘Stitches out in seven days and the scar will be under the hairline. She’ll be modelling again in a few weeks without a mark to show for it.’
Freddie frowned and Katy realised that Jago didn’t even know she was a doctor. Especially not a doctor who was going to be working for him in this department in two weeks’ time.
Or would she?
Could she really take a job alongside the one man who had the ability to dishevel her otherwise ordered life?
She couldn’t believe that fate would do this to her.
On the other hand, working in A and E was what she really wanted, and if she gave up her father would think he’d won and she’d lose the career she loved.
She looked at Jago. For eleven years he’d been haunting her life. In the shadows of everything she did.
Maybe the only way she was going to move on was to face up to the past.
He was just a man after all.
A man who obviously hadn’t loved her. A man who wasn’t capable of loving anyone.
She had more sense than to fall for Jago again. And she was marrying Freddie.
Conservative, British Freddie who respected convention, could trace his family back six hundred years, spoke with the right accent and always tried to do the right thing.
‘How long does she need to stay in?’ Freddie glanced discreetly at his watch and Katy almost laughed. He was so transparent. He obviously had a meeting that he was desperate to get to. It was like her father all over again. Only Freddie was much, much nicer than her father.
‘You don’t need to stay, Freddie,’ she said gently, and Freddie gave an awkward smile.
‘It’s just that I’ve got dinner with one of the managing directors from Fixed Income and—’
‘It’s OK.’ Her head was throbbing too much to hear about banks. ‘I’ll be fine. I’ll be going home tomorrow. Libby can fetch me. I’ll call you.’
‘Well, don’t worry about the car.’ His mind clearly on other things, Freddie leaned forward and gave her another awkward kiss on the cheek. ‘I’ll buy you a new one as a wedding present.’
Katy’s eyes slid to Jago but his face gave nothing away, his thick, dark lashes concealing the expression in his eyes. She remembered her father saying that it had been his inscrutability and cool head that had made him such a fearsome reputation at such a young age.
‘I’ll be in touch, then.’ Freddie slid out of the door, leaving the two of them alone once more.
‘So he’s the reason you were running.’ Jago’s voice was even and suddenly Katy felt exhausted.
She just wanted to close her eyes and sleep for ever. She wished her head would stop throbbing.
‘Go away, Jago.’ Before she made a total fool of herself in front of him.
‘Your father’s choice, I presume. I can’t believe you’re marrying him,’ he drawled softly. ‘He’s totally wrong for you.’
Weakened by her injury and the shock of seeing him again, Katy roused herself sufficiently to defend herself.
‘He’s totally right for me. I want to marry Freddie.’
‘Do you? So, tell me, Katy …’ He leaned forward, his voice suddenly soft. ‘If it’s what you want, why did you just drive your car into a ditch?’
CHAPTER THREE
JAGO strode back to his office, tense and on edge, shaken out of his customary cool by his encounter with Katy.
Why the hell had he gone and seen her personally?
He could have arranged for a more junior doctor to check on her and discharge her, but instead he hadn’t been able to resist seeing her one more time.
Some self-satisfied, macho corner of his make-up had wanted to see her awake, to test her reaction to him.
He’d walked away eleven years before, too angry to risk seeing her face to face. Confronted by her after all this time, he’d suddenly wanted
