and cared for; it had nothing whatsoever to do with her trying to persuade him to listen to her business proposal. She’d deal with all that once he was fully well again. There was no way she’d take advantage of his lapse in memory.
She was here as his friend, nothing more.
His only friend, by the sounds of it.
Judging by the fact he didn’t have anyone obvious to call upon when he was in the hospital, she guessed she wasn’t the only one he’d kept at arm’s length.
The thought of how alone he was made sorrow well heavily in her gut.
She knew she should have sought him out before now. She’d wanted to, had for years, but she’d never quite plucked up the courage to face him again—until it had been absolutely essential. That made her a coward, she knew that, but she’d always been afraid of how out of control Caleb made her feel and she’d needed every ounce of strength over the intervening years to build a successful career for herself. It wasn’t easy being a woman in a male-dominated arena.
At least that was what she was telling herself.
The passion of his kiss earlier came back to haunt her as he walked past her into the living area and she caught the unique scent of him in the air.
Moving quickly away from him, she marched into the kitchen diner at the other end of the large room, aware that her heart was racing, and pretended to be admiring the high-tech gadgets he had in there to give herself a moment to pull herself together.
‘Can I make you something to eat? Or drink?’ she asked, turning back to look at him. He was standing by the largest sofa, watching her with a perplexed sort of frown.
‘You don’t need to mollycoddle me, Elena—I can fix my own food. In fact, I should be cooking for you to say thanks for bailing me out at the hospital.’
She held up a hand. ‘Not a chance. Unless your cooking skills have improved since university?’ she said with a slow grin.
He threw her a look of mock offence. ‘Was it that bad?’ He frowned. ‘I don’t remember.’
‘It was passable,’ she said, her mouth still twitching with mirth at the memory of it.
In truth, it had been terrible. The one time he’d cooked for her, when she’d gone over to his place to study for an exam, she’d pulled such a face after the first mouthful that Caleb had scraped the lot into the bin and called for takeout pizza instead.
‘Well, like I said earlier, you don’t have to stay here with me; I’ll be fine,’ he said, sitting down carefully on the sofa and wincing a little as his rib appeared to give him trouble.
She folded her arms. ‘Like I said, there’s no way I’m leaving you alone.’
She’d always stood up to him like this, refusing to be intimidated by his gruff demeanour, but deep down his dominating personality had twisted her into knots, threatening her carefully constructed cool.
Fifteen years ago he’d made her question everything she’d thought she wanted in a man. He was bold and charismatic, but he also seemed exactly the sort to smash her heart to pieces should things go wrong between them. At the time she wasn’t prepared to put herself in danger of that happening, not after working so hard to get into her first choice of university and make her first move towards the kind of life she’d always dreamed of building for herself.
But she hadn’t been able to stay away from him.
Struggling to keep her feelings under control, she’d found the safest thing had been to pretend that they didn’t exist. It had been the only way to protect herself.
Except that somewhere along the line that had stopped working.
* * *
Caleb could sense that Elena wasn’t altogether comfortable being here in his apartment with him and he wondered again what it was she wasn’t telling him.
‘If you’re worried about where you’re going to sleep, you’re welcome to take one of the guest rooms.’ He pointed towards a door that led to the corridor of four bedrooms.
‘Okay, thank you,’ she said a little distractedly.
‘Is there somewhere else you need to be today?’ he asked, concerned now that he was keeping her from something important. The last thing he wanted was to be a burden to her.
‘No, nowhere,’ she answered, coming to sit down on an armchair opposite where he sat, finally giving him her full attention.
A sense of relief took him by surprise. He was still feeling pretty woozy and disorientated and it was soothing to know she’d be staying there with him for a while. Even if she did feel like a total stranger to him at the moment.
‘So, friend, I guess I need to get to know you all over again. Do you have a partner? Husband? Boyfriend in England?’ he asked.
She recoiled a little, as if the question had caught her by surprise. ‘Not at the moment. I’ve been too busy recently with work to hold down a serious relationship.’
‘When you say recently—?’
She flashed him a self-conscious smile. ‘For the last few years.’
‘You haven’t had a serious relationship for a few years?’
She shrugged as she smoothed her hands down the sides of her skirt. ‘I’ve dated, but I’ve not clicked with anyone.’
‘I find that hard to believe.’
The air between them seemed to throb with tension and she gave him a strained smile, then glanced away.
He was making her uncomfortable. But why?
‘Elena?’
She looked back at him, her expression now impassive, as if she’d pulled a mask back into place. ‘Do you mind if I make myself a drink?’ she said suddenly, slapping her hands onto her knees. ‘I’m dying for a cup of tea.’
He frowned at the sudden change of subject but didn’t press her on the reason for it. Perhaps she was just tired after the stress and strain of the day. He was pretty tired himself now, even though he’d slept for a lot of it. ‘Sure, help yourself,’ he said.
She got up and walked over to the kitchen. ‘Would you like one?’ she asked, reaching for the kettle on the work surface.
‘No, thanks.’ He sat forward in his seat. ‘I should take a shower.’ He sniffed at his shirt, inhaling the institutional smell of stringent cleaning fluid and decay and, just like that, a memory flew to the front of his mind and he knew why he’d wanted to get out of that hospital so quickly.
His anguish must have shown on his face because Elena said, ‘Caleb? Is everything okay? Did you remember something?’ her voice sounding breathy with concern.
‘Just why I wanted to leave the hospital. My mother died about six months ago and I spent an awful lot of time visiting her in one.’
The expression on her face changed from
