found it just as frustrating!
Not that any frustration on Jonas’s part was apparent when, a few minutes later, the plane parked on the end of the runway, she went back into the cabin area. Jonas Noble was fast asleep! From the totally relaxed look of him, he probably had been from the moment they’d taken off, Danie realised crossly.
He was still sitting in the chair he had dropped into as she’d gone through to the cockpit, although at least his seat belt was fastened. But there was no sign of him having had any of the food or drink provided, and he seemed completely unaware that they had actually landed at their destination, his lids closed, his breathing deep and even.
He looked younger in sleep than the forty or so Danie had thought him to be earlier, long dark lashes fanning out across the hardness of his cheeks, his face appearing almost boyishly handsome now that slightly mocking expression had melted from his face.
His clothes, she could see as she took her time to look at him, were tailor-made, and the black shirt was probably Indian silk. A wealthy man then?
He was really something of an enigma, Danie realised with an emotion akin to shock. Men, she had decided after her few attempts at relationships—which, for one reason or another, had always ended disastrously!—were a complete waste of her time. And she now resented having given Jonas Noble even a little of it!
She reached down and shook his arm vigorously. ‘Mr Noble, we’ve landed—’
‘I sincerely hope so,’ he murmured as he opened his eyes and looked directly up into her face. ‘Otherwise there would be no one flying the plane!’
For someone who had been fast asleep seconds ago, he was a little too much awake now for Danie’s liking, and she stepped back from him as if stung, putting her hands behind her back. ‘There is such a thing as autopilot, Mr Noble,’ she bit out in reply.
He straightened in his chair, looking out of the window beside him. ‘Not when you’re on the ground,’ he derided, releasing his seat belt to stretch languidly.
Danie’s mouth twisted even as she registered the tightening and relaxing of muscles. ‘Are we keeping you up, Mr Noble?’ she scorned.
He turned to look at her with brown eyes. ‘As a matter of fact—yes!’ He stood up. ‘That half an hour is the only sleep I’ve had in the last twenty-four,’ he explained.
Danie’s eyes widened at this disclosure, her expression disapproving. ‘I hope she was worth it!’ It wasn’t too difficult to guess that a woman would have been the reason for his lack of sleep the previous night. Those warm brown eyes hinted at a certain sensuality about Jonas Noble!
His expression softened. ‘She was.’ He gave an inclination of his head by way of acknowledgement. ‘Now do you intend keeping me locked in here?’ he enquired. ‘Or do you plan on taking me to see your father some time today?’
At the taunt angry colour heightened her cheeks, and she moved to release the door, the steps sliding automatically to the tarmacked ground. ‘Can you manage your luggage, or would you like me to carry it for you?’ Danie did some taunting of her own.
His mouth quirked into a half-smile as he bent to retrieve the oversized briefcase from the carpeted floor. ‘I can manage, thanks. And thanks, too, for a good flight,’ he added lightly.
‘How would you know it was good? You slept all the way through it!’ she came back tartly.
He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Not until I knew we were safely up in the air,’ he rejoined. ‘I heard the bit about “non-smoking flight” before I zonked out. I’m afraid my earlier years spent as a junior doctor have meant I can usually sleep anywhere, at any time,’ he explained apologetically.
Danie didn’t hear any more of what he said after ‘junior doctor’—this man was a doctor? And he was here to see her father? Was Rome sick?
She found that very hard to believe, had never known her father to have a day’s illness in his life. But that didn’t mean he was well now…
She moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘And what line of medicine did you choose to specialise in, Mr Noble?’ She tried to make her tone of voice interested rather than demanding—although by the guarded look that suddenly came over Jonas Noble’s face, she had a feeling she had failed. Damn!
‘I believe it’s called “life”, Danie; it’s the oath all doctors take,’ he returned enigmatically. ‘Is that car waiting for us?’ He indicated the gold-coloured Rolls Royce that was now parked feet away from the plane steps, the attentive Charles standing waiting with the back door open.
Danie flushed her irritation. ‘For you,’ she corrected tautly. ‘I have a few things to do here before coming over to the house,’ she amended reluctantly.
She would have liked nothing better than to arrive back at the house with him, to try and find out more about exactly what he was doing here. But, unfortunately, she had the plane to check over and refuelling to see to.
He nodded dismissively. ‘I’ll see you later, then.’ He moved lightly down the steps, grinning his thanks at Charles as he got into the back of the Rolls.
Danie stood at the top of the steps and watched the car—and Jonas Noble!—drive away, her thoughts in a turmoil.
Why did Rome need to see a doctor? Obviously because he was ill, she instantly chided herself.
But to have a doctor flown out here to see him…! Was her father’s illness that serious?
Danie suddenly felt unwell herself at the thought of that being the case. She couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her handsome, fun-loving father.
But Jonas Noble’s visit certainly appeared ominous…
‘I trust you had a comfortable flight?’
Jonas looked across at his host. The older man had greeted him at the door of the manor house a few minutes earlier, and the two of them were now seated in an elegant sitting-room. He had known what Jerome Summer looked like, of course, as he had seen the other man’s picture in the newspapers several times. But those photographs had only shown Rome Summer’s still boyish handsomeness, despite the fact that he was in his early fifties, and couldn’t possibly hint at the sheer vitality of the man.
But what did Rome expect him to say in answer to his question? The flight had been fine—it was Rome’s daughter that he hadn’t found comfortable.
Danie Summer—how could he possibly have known she would be female?—was as prickly as a hedgehog, with all the charm of a herd of stampeding elephants!
But she was beautiful, another little voice inside his head reminded him.
Yes, she was—if you managed to get past those prickles and the acidic tongue! Personally, he would as soon not bother.
‘Fine, thank you,’ Jonas replied brusquely, waving away the offer of a cup of coffee poured from the pot on the table that stood between the two men. ‘You explained the situation to me on the telephone early yesterday evening,’ he continued in businesslike tones. ‘So perhaps I could carry out my examination, and then we can talk some more?’
Jerome Summer didn’t move, his expression
