into medicine. That’s the way I like my life. It keeps me focussed.’
‘What about the personal one?’
The look in his eyes made her bones melt and once again she found herself wondering if there could be room in her life for spontaneity. Did everything have to be planned down to the last hour? On the other hand, that was how she liked it. It was far safer.
‘My work gives me everything I need—or want.’
He raised his eyebrow. ‘Everything? You don’t intend to get married? Have children?’
She stiffened. ‘Not every woman is born to be a mother.’
‘No,’ he replied, looking surprised, ‘but I’ve seen the way you are with the children. You’re a natural.’
‘Why does everyone think that every woman should want to have a child? In my experience, some women should be positively banned from having kids. After all, no one seems to think it unnatural if a man doesn’t want to have children. What about you, for example? Are they in your future?’
‘One day perhaps.’ His eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘In a few years’ time. In the meantime, I plan to have as much fun as I can.’
Her heart sank. His reply wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear.
‘And your parents? Are they in London?’ he continued after a moment’s silence.
Suddenly chilled, despite the muggy evening, she wrapped her arms around herself. ‘Some of the time. They spend a lot of time abroad now. One way or another, I don’t see much of them. What about yours?’ She wasn’t about to tell him that a bonus of going to work in Sudan was its distance from her adoptive parents.
He studied her for a moment as if he was about to press her further but then he seemed to change his mind. ‘They live on Skye. They’ve been married for forty years and still crazily in love with each other. That’s the way I want it to be if ever I get married.’
A familiar ache in her chest made her catch her breath. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to believe love could last? They halted under an acacia tree. In the distance, small fishing boats lit by glowing lanterns bobbed about the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the smell of jasmine hung on the heavy night air.
Leith tipped her chin so she was looking up at him. ‘God, you’re beautiful.’ The world stopped turning as he brought his mouth down on hers. For a moment she felt as if she could hardly breathe. His kiss was gentle at first, his lips warm and questioning. But as she melted into him, his kiss became deeper, more demanding, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, wanting more of him.
She could feel his desire for her against her pelvis and an answering warmth flooded through her. She wanted him. She wanted to feel his naked skin on hers, to have his hands all over her body and hers on his. She didn’t even care that after she’d left here she would never see him again—all she needed right now was this.
When they pulled away they were both breathing deeply.
‘Come back to the ship with me,’ he said simply.
When she nodded, he took her hand.
Cassie woke to bright sunshine streaming in through the porthole. At first she didn’t know where she was, but as the fog of sleep lifted she remembered. She smiled and stretched as a warm peace filled her. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt this good.
She propped herself up on her elbow and studied Leith. Even in his sleep his mouth turned up at the corners. She trailed her fingertips over the hard contours of his chest and as she did so his eyes snapped open and he caught her hand in his.
‘Morning,’ he said with a smile.
‘Morning,’ she whispered back.
He ran his hand along her shoulder and down the curve of her waist and every nerve in her body tingled. They had made love twice last night, but now she wanted him again with a need that shocked her.
She moulded the length of her body against his so that it seemed as if every inch of her skin was in contact with his.
He pulled her tighter. ‘I can’t seem to get enough of you,’ he groaned.
Or her him. They didn’t have long, but why think about the future and what couldn’t be? Why not just be happy while she could?
It was her last coherent thought before she gave herself up to him.
Leith found himself humming under his breath at the oddest moments and when he wasn’t with Cassie he was thinking about her. He constantly sought her out and loved to catch even the briefest glimpses of her, squatting on her heels in the dust, talking to a group of women, or distracting a child while carrying out some unpleasant procedure by making funny faces or dangling a colourful toy just out of reach before relinquishing it to them.
Sometimes he would find her on her own on the deck of the ship, staring out to sea with a wistful, almost sad expression on her face. But then she would catch sight of him and her face would be transformed by the smile he’d grown to love. It felt as if their coming together had been inevitable. Which was strange—very strange. He wasn’t a man who believed in fate.
However, it felt good. It felt right.
But he still knew little more about her than he’d known at the start. Normally that would be good but with Cassie he wanted to know it all. In the past he’d always kept his relationships light-hearted and stayed away from the heavy stuff, but no one had made him feel the way he had since the first moment he’d spotted her lugging her suitcase along the quay.
However, he wasn’t going to think about what might or might not be. He was going to make the most of being with Cassie while he could.
He was smiling as he opened the email he’d received that morning.
He read it through and clicked on the attachment. It was a photograph of a boy of around four with large green eyes. He stared disbelievingly at an image that could have been him as a child.
An hour later, Leith was still trying to come to terms with what he’d learned. He had a son. He was a father. It just didn’t compute. Okay, so he’d always thought that he might, one day, have children, but ‘one day’ were the two key words. One day in the future. So far in the future he couldn’t even really imagine it.
But he’d better start imagining it.
He had a child.
He wasn’t ready to be a father. Not yet. He liked his life just the way it was. No ties, no obligations. Doing what he wanted. Work, women and travel—that’s what he liked. A child would put a stop to that. He’d have to be responsible, for God’s sake. Cut down on his working hours, reduce his travel commitments, be selective about the women he dated.
He examined the picture for the umpteenth time. The child was clearly bright—anyone could see that. And he had the same set to his jaw that Leith recognised from his own childhood pictures, which his mother brought out every time he was at home; hundreds of him as a baby naked on a blanket, as a toddler standing proudly next to his father with his own child-sized fishing rod, on his mother’s lap as she read him a story, all depicting the years until his graduation photograph
