dark brooding outline, his expensive clothing, the feel of him near her once again.
She knew she was babbling. He was playing havoc with her senses. It was as if her body had been awoken by his presence. The way a flower reacted to the sun.
Her mind devilishly replayed a memory of his kiss. How his lips had felt upon hers. How they’d drifted ever so lightly across her skin, sending shivers of delicious delight through her body, arousing her nerve endings to touch in a way they had never been before, making her ache for more.
Eva could remember it all too well.
Every sizzling second of it.
Jacob had made her feel so alive! She’d had a long day at work that day, and when she’d made it to that party she’d felt exhausted—bereft of feeling. Yet in his arms she’d become energised, had tingled and yearned for his every touch, savouring every caress, consuming every desire and gasping her way through her ecstasy.
Feeling alive once again.
That one night had changed her entire life.
She shivered at the thought, those goosebumps rising again and her nipples hardening against her bra in expectancy. He was the only man who had ever made her feel that way. The only man she’d ever slept with since that night. The memory of him, the experience of him, had stopped her being intimate with any other. No one could measure up to his memory.
Not that there’d been anyone to challenge it, really.
Eva mumbled her way through the details of the filing system and how to operate the computer patient files, work through any glitches on the system, then asked him if he’d like to take on his first patient.
He cocked his head as he looked at her, trying to get her to make eye contact. ‘You okay? I mean, I hope our having to work together isn’t going to be uncomfortable?’
No, I’m not okay. You’re back! You’re back, and I had no warning. No time to prepare. And I have something momentous to tell you. And it will change your life. And I’m so aware of that and—
‘I’m fine. It’s...just been a difficult morning.’
He nodded in understanding. ‘Anything I can help with?’
‘No.’
He raised his eyebrow in such a perfect arch it was all she could do not to race into his arms there and then.
‘Are you sure?’
How are you with kids? Do you even like children? Because I have some news for you...
Eva sighed and shook her head.
No, she wasn’t sure.
She wasn’t sure at all.
How to tell him that he was father to a beautiful, bright, funny, gorgeous three-year-old boy, who obsessed over lions and tigers and looked exactly like him?
She swallowed a lump in her throat as fear overturned her stomach. Nausea unsettled her. A close sweat beaded her brow as guilt and shame overflowed from the box where she normally kept all those feelings tightly locked away.
What was she to do?
* * *
Eva slammed a patient file down hard on the doctors’ desk, the slap of cardboard on table echoing around the department, then sank heavily into a chair. Her fingertips punched into the keyboard as she began to write up some notes. She had no time. They were already running behind. Patients were filling up the waiting area and two were about to breach the four-hour limit.
Patients who had turned up because there were no district nurses to unblock catheters. Patients who were filling the corridors because there were no beds to put them in. Patients who were turning up just because they didn’t want to be alone at home and they needed someone to talk to just a couple of weeks before Christmas.
The need to immerse herself in work and forget about the new doctor was overwhelming.
If she absorbed herself in work it wouldn’t give her any time to think about him.
The guy who’d turned her neat little world around in just one night.
Even now she told herself she still didn’t know what had happened that night. How had he managed to put her under his spell? She knew it had been a difficult and long day at work. She’d almost not gone to that stupid party. But it had been Christmas Eve, and she’d put herself down to work on Christmas Day, and the need to celebrate the season, despite not having any family of her own, had made her go. Just to have a drink or two with friends. Chill out for a moment.
And she’d done that. Had actually been enjoying herself for a brief time when she’d noticed him across the room.
Those eyes. Those piercing blue eyes. But she had noticed something in his gaze. A loss—a grief so deep it had called to her.
She’d recognised emotional pain. And, having been in a similar place herself, she’d hoped she could soothe him. No one had ever helped her. But maybe she could help him? Just for a moment, if nothing else.
Then, when he’d noticed her, something had happened. Something weird and dreamlike. As if the rest of the world had melted away and it had been just the two of them, standing in front of each other. Close. Almost touching. He’d said his name and then she’d been in his arms. Dancing with him. Swaying with him. Their bodies mirroring the other, blending together, matching the other.
Melting into one.
There’d been something magical that night.
And it seemed he was still magical now!
How involved would he want to be with his child? He might not even care! He might not want anything to do with them! Perhaps he’d be the type of guy who only paid child support. She wouldn’t hate him for that. She’d be disappointed, but in fact she quite liked the idea that she wouldn’t have to share Seb. She enjoyed it being just the two of them. It had always just been the two of them. She’d never had to share him.
Jacob could be in a relationship already with someone else. A man who looked the way he did? Of course he would be! A man like him wouldn’t be single. If she’d ever entertained any grand idea that they would somehow end up together...
Her hand holding the pen trembled. She put it down for a moment and just sat for a second or two to pause and gather herself, to take in a deep breath and steady her jangled nerves. She could feel her heart slowing, could breathe more easily. Could act the professional doctor she believed herself to be.
Picking up her patient notes, she strode off to Minors.
* * *
Leo Rosetti had been brought in by his wife, Sonja. His knee hurt, and despite his taking painkillers at home nothing would touch it.
Eva entered the cubicle smiling, and closed the curtain behind her. ‘Good morning, Mr Rosetti. I’m Eva, one of the doctors here in A&E. Can you tell me what’s happened this morning to bring you in?’
There.
