after the comfort of a double divan, but she was both physically and mentally exhausted. She was fast asleep when someone banged on her cabin door an hour later.
Sophie scrambled out of bed and ran to answer the summons, peering blearily at Liam. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘There’s been a fight between two of the crew. One of the men has been stabbed and he’s in a pretty bad way, apparently. The other guy’s also been hurt, although he’s not as bad.’
His gaze skimmed over her before he abruptly swung round. ‘Put some clothes on. I’ll meet you in the clinic in five minutes.’
Sophie took a deep breath as she closed the door. She felt completely disorientated, having been woken up like that. She went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face then quickly hunted some clothes out of the wardrobe and dressed. There wasn’t time to brush her hair but she doubted if it would matter. Liam probably wouldn’t notice how she looked.
Her mind hiccuped to a halt because all of a sudden she could picture the expression in his eyes all too clearly. There had been something so spine-tinglingly familiar about the way he’d looked at her just now that a rush of heat suffused her.
Sophie bit her lip but she could feel the excitement building inside her and it scared her. She didn’t want to feel this awareness around Liam but she couldn’t seem to stop what was happening any more than he’d been able to do. The thought brought her up short.
If Liam was planning on getting married again, why had he looked at her—his ex-wife—with such hunger?
WHAT the hell had he been thinking?
Liam cursed roundly as he tossed a handful of sterile dressings into his bag. He must have been stark, raving mad to stand there staring at Sophie like that! So maybe it had only been for a split second but she must have noticed. What woman wouldn’t notice when a man was ogling her?
Another oath leapt from his mouth as he added a giving-set and several pairs of disposable gloves to the collection. It was rare that he ever swore but he was allowed a lapse at a time like this. He’d stood outside Sophie’s door positively drooling over the sight of her in those sexy little pyjamas. It didn’t make him feel good to admit what he’d done, yet he knew that he would do exactly the same thing again in similar circumstances. The sight of her shapely body in that strappy little top and shorts get-up was enough to make any red-blooded male stare!
Liam groaned as an image of Sophie suddenly swam before his eyes. Her blonde hair had been all tousled and her face had been softly flushed with sleep. One strap of the pyjama top had slipped down her arm so that the cotton fabric had dipped at the front, affording him a tantalising glimpse of her small breasts. The shorts had definitely lived up to their name, leaving her legs completely bare from the tops of her slender thighs right the way down to her shapely ankles, and he ground his teeth when he felt his body react predictably to the memory. He had to get a grip. Lusting after his ex-wife really wasn’t an option!
‘What can I do to help?’
Liam swung round when he heard Sophie’s voice coming from the doorway and let out a sigh of relief when he saw the jogging pants and over-sized T-shirt she was wearing. At least his self-control wouldn’t be put to the test again that night, it seemed.
‘We’ll need saline for starters. Can you see if you can find some? Oh, and check the drugs cupboard and see what we’ve got in the way of pain relief. Here’s the keys.’
‘Thanks.’
She caught the bunch of keys he tossed to her and hurried to the cupboard. Liam left her to go through it as he double-checked that he had everything they might need. He didn’t want to have to start running backwards and forwards for all the things he’d forgotten.
‘It’s really well stocked. I found some morphine so shall I sign for it or would you prefer to do it?’
Liam shook his head. ‘I don’t have a problem with you signing it out. So long as it’s accounted for then it doesn’t matter which one of us completes the paperwork.’
‘Fine.’ She quickly filled out the necessary form then relocked the cupboard door. She handed him the keys, along with two ampoules of morphine, then took a couple of syringes out of a box on the shelf and gave them to him as well.
Liam nodded his thanks as he stowed them in his case. ‘Don’t forget the saline.’
‘I won’t.’ She quickly found the bags of saline and passed them to him. ‘Is that everything now?’
‘Hopefully.’ He snapped the locks on the case and stood up. ‘I’m not sure exactly what we’re going to find. All I know is that one man has been stabbed and that the other isn’t as badly injured.’
‘We could be dealing with anything, then,’ she observed as she followed him from the clinic. ‘I wonder what the fight was about?’
‘I didn’t ask. I was more concerned about what we would have to deal with.’ He smiled wryly as he locked the clinic door. ‘I was looking forward to a complete change of scene when I took this job, too. I had visions of treating patients with nothing more serious than sea-sickness. I should have known better!’
Sophie laughed. ‘You should! It was tempting fate to hope for an easy ride, although I certainly didn’t expect anything like this to happen.’ She looked at him curiously. ‘What did you mean about a complete change of scene, though?’
Liam sighed as he elbowed his way through the swing doors. ‘I was working for a foreign aid agency in Africa until last month. The area I was working in is on the edge of a war zone so stabbings and shootings are pretty much an everyday occurrence there. It was a real culture shock at first, although I soon got used to it.’
‘Why on earth did you take a job like that?’ she exclaimed.
‘Because I wanted to make a real difference to people’s lives.’ He led the way to the stairs, wondering if that had sounded as ridiculously idealistic to her as it had to him, even though it was the truth.
‘And did you? Make a difference to people’s lives, I mean?’ she asked quietly.
‘I like to think I did, but who can say for sure? The people I dealt with are so poor that death is an everyday occurrence. If they don’t get shot or stabbed then more often than not they die from malnutrition.’
‘It must have been difficult, working in conditions like those. I had no idea…’
She stopped and Liam saw a shadow cross her face. His heart ached because he knew immediately what had caused it. Once upon a time they’d been so close that each had known what the other had been thinking, and it hurt to realise how far apart they’d grown.
‘There’s no reason why you should have known where I was working, Sophie,’ he said gently.
‘No, I don’t suppose there was.’ She summoned a smile. ‘I must confess that I’m rather surprised, though, because you never mentioned that you were interested in doing aid work.’
‘It was only after we split up that I decided to find
