She definitely hadn’t. She was just being paranoid, she told herself as she turned and let herself into her own house. She’d shower and change and then collect his suit on her way to work.
She had nothing to worry about.
The fact that he was suddenly serious and detached was just Ethan being Ethan. He was thinking about work. That was what he did.
As she stripped off her clothes she was suddenly deliciously aware of the unfamiliar ache in various parts of her body and a soft smile touched her mouth. He felt something for her, of course he did. How, otherwise, could he have made love to her in the way that he had? She just had to be patient and allow him the space he obviously needed.
He wasn’t a man who opened up easily, she knew that.
She dried her hair, dressed in her uniform and picked up his keys.
Inside his cottage, she sprinted up the stairs, found the suit and carried it out of the house. It was only as she went to hang it in the rear of her car that she saw the letter that had dropped out of the pocket onto the road.
With a frown, she picked it up, intending to push it back into the suit pocket. And then a sentence caught her eye and she froze in shock. And started to read.
‘So are you going to transfer Fraser to the mainland for a CT scan?’ Ethan asked the question as Logan reached for the telephone.
‘Yes. I’m pretty sure he’s just displaying signs of concussion but I need to be sure. It’s best to play it safe because I don’t want any last-minute emergencies.’ He broke off as the door crashed open and Kyla strode into the reception area. ‘Oops. My sister obviously climbed out of bed on the wrong side.’
Ethan felt himself tense as she kicked the door shut behind her, dropped her bag by the reception desk and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes.
Then she looked at him.
And he saw that she knew.
There was contempt in her eyes as she stalked over to him and thrust the suit into his hands, her face unsmiling. ‘Your suit, Dr Walker. Better put it on quickly. It’s part of your disguise.’
Logan gave her an incredulous look. ‘Are you hormonal?’
She whirled on her brother, anger sparking in her blue eyes. ‘No. I am not hormonal.’
‘Then what the hell is wrong with you?’
‘You’d better direct that question to Dr Walker,’ she suggested in an acid tone, and Ethan inhaled sharply.
‘Kyla, why don’t we go somewhere quiet and talk?’
‘Don’t you mean somewhere quiet so that we can carry on keeping our secrets? Or rather your secrets.’ Her gaze was accusing. ‘And what do you mean, talk? Since when did you ever talk, Ethan? You’re more of a listener, aren’t you? Especially when you’re finding out about people.’
Wishing he hadn’t taken so long to tell her the truth, Ethan watched her steadily. She was a woman of wild extremes. Whatever Kyla did, she did it with an abandoned passion. She made love as though she was enjoying her last moments on earth and she lost her temper with the same degree of intensity. With Kyla, there was no neutral. No grey areas.
So how on earth was he going to explain himself to her? Especially when he couldn’t even explain things to himself.
‘Surgery is about to start,’ Logan pointed out in a quiet tone, ‘so whatever it is that’s bugging the pair of you, you need to shelve it until later. There’s enough gossip on this island without adding more.’
Kyla turned to him. ‘Ethan is—’
‘I don’t want to hear it, Kyla.’ Logan’s voice was firm. ‘Get set up for clinic. We’ll talk later. And now I need to sort out Fraser.’
Kyla hesitated and it was obvious that she was struggling with her emotions. Then she blinked several times, swallowed hard and walked towards her room with her head down.
‘Women,’ Logan said wearily, watching her go. ‘Don’t you ever wish they came with an instruction manual?’
Kyla buried herself in her clinic but her mind wouldn’t focus. She didn’t know whether to cry or punch something and in the end she just did everything on automatic. She took blood pressures, she talked about asthma management, she syringed an ear, took a cervical smear and changed two dressings. Then she realised that she hadn’t even noticed what the wounds underneath had looked like.
All she’d been thinking about was Ethan.
And the letter.
She gave up and went next door to Evanna.
‘I’m sorry to ask you this.’ Her voice was gruff. ‘But have you got time to finish my clinic? I’ve only got three more to see but I’m not concentrating. I think I need some air before I put a dressing on someone who needs an ECG.’
Evanna put down the tourniquet she was holding. ‘Of course. What’s the matter? Are you ill? Perhaps it was being stuck in that dark tunnel in the storm.’
‘I’m not ill,’ Kyla assured her dully, backing towards the door. ‘I just feel a bit—I need to—’
‘It’s OK,’ Evanna said in a soft voice, waving a hand at her. ‘Just go. You don’t need to explain.’
Kyla gave her a grateful smile and slid out of the room just as Ethan emerged from his.
They looked at each other and then she sucked in a breath and made for the car park.
‘Kyla, wait.’ His voice was a firm command but she ignored him and lengthened her stride. He’d had plenty of opportunity to talk to her and he hadn’t bothered. And she certainly wasn’t ready to talk to him. Maybe she wouldn’t ever be ready. She felt completely betrayed.
She climbed into her car and sped away, determined to find herself somewhere peaceful to think.
Instinctively she headed for the ruined castle and then wished she hadn’t because the place was now layered with memories of Ethan and it was impossible to think clearly with thoughts of earlier intruding.
There was no trace of the storm now and the sun shone in a perfectly blue sky, but still Kyla shivered as she sank down onto a rock and stared bleakly out to sea.
And then she heard a firm, masculine tread behind her and she rose to her feet, accusation in her eyes because she knew who it would be. And perhaps, secretly, she’d wanted him to follow her so that they could say what needed to be said, in privacy.
‘Why did you follow me?’
‘Because we need to talk and we don’t need to do it in public.’ He stopped a little distance away from her and she turned away, ignoring the wisps of hair that blew across her face.
‘You mean that you don’t want anyone else to hear your secret.’
‘I don’t want them to hear it yet.’
