you any idea where all that hostility comes from?’ he asked levelly as he stood up and drew back the covers for her to climb back into bed. ‘What has happened to make you feel so threatened by the male species?’
‘Threatened?’ She stared at him wide-eyed, horrified he could read her so easily. ‘I don’t feel threatened—’
‘Yes, you do.’ He eyed her impassively and she was conscious of his great height again as he gestured towards the bed. ‘Get in. The nurse will be bringing your breakfast in a moment.’
‘I don’t feel threatened.’ She ignored his instructions with obstinate determination. ‘This has all just been unsettling, surely you can understand that?’
‘I told you that the doctor confirmed concussion?’ His voice was low and moderate but with an underlying thread of steel. ‘And undoubtedly you have a secondary complication resulting in amnesia. However...’ He paused and gestured towards the bed again, his mouth thinning as she still refused to acknowledge the command. ‘However, the blow to your head was not severe enough for this continued loss of memory.’
‘Are you saying I’m making it up?’ she asked hotly as her skin burnt with anger. ‘I can assure you—’
‘Of course I am not saying that,’ he interrupted sharply, ‘and for my sake if not yours please get yourself into this damn bed. I do not relish the prospect of picking you up off the floor again and you look distinctly feeble.’
‘Thank you very much,’ she intoned furiously, as sheer temper enabled her to march across the room and climb into the bed more quickly than she would have thought possible in view of her trembling legs and throbbing head.
‘What I am saying, or rather what the doctor is saying, is that there is something that is causing you to block out your past,’ Gerard said slowly. ‘Something that you do not wish to remember, something that would cause you great pain—’
‘Now it’s you who’s being ridiculous,’ she said quickly as a spark of something blindingly menacing flashed across her mind before sinking back into her subconscious. ‘You are,’ she continued faintly as the dark shadow crept back into that inner mind. ‘I had an accident, I was attacked—’
‘Of course you were,’ he said softly, ‘no one is disputing that, but the accident has merely allowed your mind to hide behind this incident, take refuge if you like.’
‘No, I don’t like.’ She glared at him, far more shaken than she would admit. ‘Are you saying I’m unbalanced, is that it?’
‘Mon dieu...’ The exclamation was made in the form of a curse. ‘I have never met such an awkward, difficult—’
‘And where is this wonderful doctor who has made such a profound diagnosis without even telling me?’ she asked angrily. ‘Do I actually get to see him or what?’
‘After breakfast.’ The nurse had just entered carrying a loaded tray, her bright black eyes flashing from one angry face to the other before concentrating on the food with lowered gaze and a tactfully bland face. ‘I’m joining you, is that all right?’
‘Fine; you’re paying after all.’ She regretted the coarseness of the retort as soon as it left her lips and raised her eyes instantly to his face, her mouth trembling. ‘I’m sorry, that was awful. I’m being awful, it’s just that—’
‘Eat your breakfast.’ His tone was firm but not unkind, the hard handsome face expressionless.
‘I don’t think I could eat anything—’
‘You will, if I have to force-feed you every mouthful,’ he replied softly, still in the same firm, emotionless voice.
She glared at him angrily and then met the full force of the startlingly cat-like gaze that suddenly told her she would lose this particular battle if she persevered. She gulped, gave him a blazing scowl that could have melted stone at thirty paces and gave in, discovering as she bit into a warm crusty croissant that she was hungry after all.
He didn’t speak again until she was finishing her second cup of coffee, and when he did she jumped so violently that most of the semi-hot liquid left in the cup splashed on to the white covers. ‘Have you made a decision?’
‘A decision?’ She raised her eyes to meet his, knowing exactly what he meant but playing for time as her mind raced back and forth seeking a solution to the impossible situation.
He shook his tawny head slowly as he stretched lazily on the stool, his face dark and sardonic and his mouth twisted with cynical amusement. ‘Yes, a decision,’ he intoned drily. ‘And do not insult my intelligence by asking what about. I really could not take that.’ As he stood up his bulk seemed to fill the small room, dominating the white surroundings with a menacing energy that suddenly made her breathless. ‘I have to go. I have an appointment at nine.’
‘Oh, right...’ She raised a hand to her face to brush back a lock of hair and was annoyed to see it was shaking, and then felt doubly humiliated when she saw Gerard had noticed it too.
‘Do I terrify you so much?’ His voice was soft, and as her eyes flashed to his she saw he was not smiling, that all amusement and mockery had left the hard masculine face. ‘I do not wish to do so. You remind me of a little bird I found some months ago fluttering along in the road with a broken wing. It pecked me several times when I picked it up, due to its great fear, and then—’ He stopped abruptly and she stared at him, fascinated by the thought of this giant of a man bothering about something so small and insignificant as an injured bird.
‘And then?’ she asked quietly.
‘Its heart simply stopped beating.’ There was something in his eyes she couldn’t read, something veiled behind the startling hypnotic gaze trained on her face. ‘If it had just relaxed a little, trusted me a little, I would have been able to help it.’
She licked her lips nervously and then stopped abruptly as his eyes followed the gesture, lingering on the tremulous curve of her mouth.
‘That is all I wish to do with this little bird.’ He smiled very slowly but for the life of her she couldn’t respond. ‘Just help out. But—’ he walked to the door and opened it quietly, turning with his hand on the brass knob to glance back at her again ‘—if you do not want to come to my home then you do not have to. It just seemed obvious, that is all. The doctor will be along shortly and I will return at lunchtime, when you can tell me what you have decided. If you choose to avail yourself of my hospitality you must be ready to leave then. Otherwise—’ he shrugged Latin-style ‘—you may stay on here while you make other arrangements.’ And then he had gone, the door shutting with a firm click only to open again a second later. ‘One more thing—my sister lives with me in Marrakesh so you will not be entirely without a chaperon.’ The heavy eyebrows quirked mockingly. ‘Not that you will need one, of course.’
Alone again she stared at the closed door with a small frown wrinkling her brow. ‘Not that you will need one.’ She sank back against the pillows feeling both disgruntled and relieved. He obviously didn’t find her in the least attractive, that much he had made crystal-clear. And that was good. Of course it was. She brushed an inoffensive crumb savagely off the sheet. She could just imagine his taste in women; voluptuous, sexy, possessing good bodies and the knowledge of how to use them. Big breasts, generous hips, pouting mouths... The mental description suddenly sparked the ghost of something in her mind, an image she couldn’t drag out of the misty darkness
