break the spell Luke seemed to hold over her? Despite being in a room crowded with people and filled with noisy chatter, being with Luke felt incredibly intimate, everyone and everything else fading to the background.
‘So, have you been in London since you left town?’ she asked, struggling for a nonchalance she was far from feeling.
‘Yeah. I worked the first weeks at a hotel which had the benefit of giving me a roof over my head and food in my belly.’ The quick smile was wry and did curious things to her insides. ‘I’d applied to several medical schools and was delighted to get the results I needed in my Advanced Highers to take up the place I really wanted.’
The import of his words sank in. ‘You’re a doctor. That’s great.’
‘You’re not surprised?’ he asked, his expression curiously blank.
‘Why would I be?’
This time the smile had a harder edge and no humour. ‘I’m a Devlin, remember? We never amount to much.’
‘Don’t say that, Luke.’ Her protest was swift, her anger rising that people who knew nothing about him could pass judgement, but also that he should ever believe the ignorant gossips. She managed to resist the urge to reach out to him, instead clenching the hand that had moved so instinctively into a fist on top of the table. ‘You were the brightest, cleverest person I knew, not to mention the most thoughtful. And you worked hard. You were never going to be like them, were always going to make something of your life.’
One eyebrow, several shades darker than his hair, rose questioningly. ‘You thought that?’
‘Of course.’
‘I wish I’d had the same belief!’ His teasing faded, the expression in his watchful green eyes sober once more. ‘You were always different, weren’t you, Chessie? And I don’t mean that,’ he interjected as she stiffened involuntarily, accurately judging her train of thought, knowing of her past when she had been growing up. He moved, one fingertip resting lightly on the back of her tensed hand. Even that simple touch scalded her skin. ‘I mean, in the way you saw me as a human being rather than an extension of a bad family,’ he clarified, his finger brushing softly back and forth, sending a tremor right through her. Green eyes turned darker with an emotion she couldn’t identify and his voice was serious and almost wistful when he spoke again. ‘I’ve never forgotten the faith and trust you always granted me, or the way you stood up for me.’
Francesca had no idea what to say. She wanted to remove her hand from his caress and her gaze from his, but her body refused to obey her. ‘Are you here to see your mother?’ she asked as, shaken, she struggled to gather her composure, keen to put away the emotional memories yet unable to resist the temptation to discover more about the man he was now.
‘That’s one benefit of it.’
The cryptic response roused her interest but also made her edgy and left her feeling there was more he had to tell her, something important she had yet to grasp. ‘One benefit of what?’ she whispered, all too conscious that she sounded less like the confident, independent woman she had become and more the breathless, tongue-tied teenager of old.
For the longest moment, the very air seemed to still as she waited for Luke’s answer. His hand enclosed hers, warm and strong yet exquisitely gentle as he linked their fingers together. Francesca thought she might go up in flames, not only from the contact but from the smouldering way he looked at her—as if no one else mattered, as if he saw her alone. Finally, he spoke.
‘Fate. Timing. Three vital things falling into place at once. One was Ma. One was the job…’
Again Luke paused, and a shiver rippled through her at the seductive, intimate expression in his magnetic green eyes. As the tension and the electric charge between them continued to grow, she forced herself to ask the question now drumming inside her.
‘What job?’
‘As specialist surgical registrar on Maurice Goodwin’s orthopaedic team.’
Francesca smothered a gasp of shock as Luke delivered the unexpected news. Her breath hitched and her heart rate kicked up with a mix of excitement and alarm as the full implications of what he had just said sank in. ‘Here…in Strathlochan?’ she clarified, scarcely aware that her fingers had tightened around his in response, as if seeking reassurance or grounding herself in reality.
‘Here.’ His voice, low and husky, spread warmth right through her. ‘I’m home for good, Chessie.’
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