along his veins when he saw how her nipples were pressing against the thin fabric of her uniform—proof, indeed, that she’d been equally aroused by the contact. All of a sudden it felt as though the walls were closing in on him. He knew that he had to extricate himself from the situation as quickly as possible, but it appeared that Rose had other things on her mind now.
‘Did you tell Daniel that I’d phoned last night?’ she said quickly as he went to move away.
‘Yes, I did.’ Owen paused, torn between making his escape before anything else happened and carrying through with his plan. He took a deep breath and forced his rioting libido to settle down. If he was to rid himself of the threat this woman posed to his son, he had to learn how to deal with her.
‘And how did he react? Was he upset? Excited? Scared?’ She laughed, and there was a wealth of tenderness in her voice. ‘Or all three at once, more likely!’
‘He veered between euphoria and terror,’ he replied shortly. So what if she sounded truly concerned—was he really going to take it at face value when he couldn’t rule out the possibility that she had an ulterior motive? Nevertheless, it was hard to convince himself that she had anything except Daniel’s welfare at heart when she spoke about him that way.
‘Did he?’ She stared at the floor for a moment and there were tears in her eyes when she looked up. ‘It must be so confusing for him. I can’t bear to think about what he’s going through. I know how I feel and if it’s anywhere near as—’
‘I gave him your telephone number.’
Owen cut her off in mid-sentence because he really didn’t want to know how she felt. Maybe it was a sign of his own weakness, but he couldn’t afford to take any account of her feelings. It was Daniel who mattered, and Daniel who must be his only concern. How Rose felt wasn’t an issue.
‘Oh. Right. Thank you.’
Her smile was no more than the merest flicker yet he felt its effects in every cell of his body. He didn’t say a word as he turned round and made his way back to Reception. Polly glanced nervously at him as he passed her desk, but he wasn’t interested in tearing her off a strip for chatting to his registrar. He had too much else on his mind.
He took the stairs to the first floor two at a time and went straight to his office. He spent very little time in there because he’d always preferred a hands-on approach when it came to running the department. His maxim was to be seen and heard, so there was no skulking in his office for him as there was for so many consultants. However, it was the perfect place at the moment, the only place he could think of where he could get a few minutes’ peace.
Sitting down behind his desk, Owen closed his eyes and tried to rid himself of all the tension that filled him. It wasn’t an easy thing to do because it had been building up for years. He’d tried to remain strong when Laura had been diagnosed with cancer, knowing how important it was to have a positive attitude. Even when it had become apparent that she’d been losing the battle he’d never wavered.
After she’d died, he’d needed to be strong for Daniel, and he could honestly say that he had managed it, too. It was only when Daniel had started talking about finding his birth mother that he had found it difficult to cope. And now that he’d met Rose…Well!
He shot to his feet and started pacing the floor, unable to withstand the torrent of emotions that were flooding through him. Rose worried him on so many levels that it was hard to know how he really felt about her. He didn’t trust her, yet couldn’t explain why. It was gut instinct that had warned him to keep her out of his life, and it was gut instinct that had told him to draw her closer. It was instinct that had made him respond to her just now, too. His feelings towards her weren’t based on fact, they were rooted in emotion—fear, anger, desire. And that was what scared him most of all. How could he hope to do what was right when he had no idea how to handle all these feelings she aroused inside him?
Rose felt tense and on edge all morning long. She might have attributed it to nervousness at the thought of Daniel phoning her, but she knew it wasn’t just that. Bumping into Owen as she’d come out of the office had affected her in a way she would never have expected it to. She couldn’t remember having experienced such a strong physical reaction to anyone before, and it alarmed her that she should have felt that way about Owen when it would only complicate matters. She had to control these unwelcome feelings and not let them get out of hand.
Fortunately, they started to get busy just before lunch so she was able to focus on work. Three teenagers had been found unconscious and ambulances had been despatched to bring them into the department. Rose immediately offered to forgo her break when Angie told her what had happened.
‘Are you sure?’ the charge nurse said, frowning. ‘You’re entitled to a meal break—it’s in your contract.’
‘It’s probably in yours, too, but that won’t stop you working,’ she replied lightly.
Angie laughed. ‘You’re right there! Anyway, thanks. If you could cover Resus with Julie and Ellen, that would be a big help. Sharon can take her break and I can keep things ticking over out here.’
Rose nodded. She followed the nurses into Resus and made sure everything was ready when the ambulances arrived. The other women seemed a bit more approachable that day, and showed her where the various supplies were kept to save her having to hunt for them. By the time the first stretcher was wheeled in she felt as though they were starting to accept her, and she had to admit that it felt good to be part of the team for a change.
She grabbed a corner of the board and helped transfer the patient onto the bed. It was a young girl and she was unconscious. ‘Where was she found?’ Rose asked the paramedic.
‘In her bedroom. From the look of all the bottles that were strewn around, she and her friends must have been drinking until they passed out.’
‘So it’s alcohol related?’ Rose sighed. ‘She doesn’t look old enough to be drinking alcohol, does she?’
‘She’s fourteen, according to her parents. They start younger and younger these days,’ the paramedic replied wearily as he left.
Rob arrived just then, and came over to Rose. He grimaced when she relayed what the paramedic had told her. ‘Binge drinking is the scourge of modern society. Just wait until you’ve done a stint here on a Saturday night and then you’ll get an idea what a problem it is.’
‘I’ve seen the effects it can have when I’ve worked in other A and E departments,’ she assured him.
‘Of course you have. I keep forgetting that you travel around.’ Rob grinned at her. ‘You’ve fitted in so well here that I keep thinking you’re part of our staff.’
‘Thanks.’ Rose smiled at him, truly appreciating the compliment. Turning away, she reached for the leads to attach the teenager to the bedside monitoring equipment and paused when she realised that Owen was watching her. There was something on his face, a kind of raw awareness, that made her long to tell him that she was just as aware of him, too…
He turned away as the next patient was rushed in, and she carried on with what she was doing—linking the girl to the machine so that her BP, heart rate and oxygen saturation levels could be monitored. It was a task she’d done countless times before, but this time she had to concentrate to make sure she did everything right.
There was no room for error in her job; people depended on her. There was no margin for error with regard to Owen
