Читать книгу Miracle Times Two - Josie Metcalfe - Страница 9

DANIEL woke to find Jenny still in his arms and an unexpected image suddenly sprang into his mind.

He’d been sent to stay with his grandfather one summer, and every morning he’d been woken by the elderly man’s favourite cockerel that used to fly to the top of a big wooden gatepost and crow.

Now, for the first time in his life, Daniel knew exactly how Ruben the Rhode Island Red rooster had felt. After the night he and Jenny had just spent together, he almost believed he could leap to the top of the roof to shout to the world how good he was feeling.

Except …

Except there was a very honest part of him that was kicking himself for his loss of control. Guilt was telling him that he should have been stronger when Jenny had been falling apart; that he should have been able to comfort her without succumbing to the desire that had been building in him ever since he’d met her.

And while he was relishing the fact that he had this precious time with her in his arms, he was dreading the moment when she woke, afraid he would see the same expression in her eyes that she’d had when she’d spoken about Colin’s attempt to take advantage of her.

It was easy to push that thought to the back of his mind when he was looking down at her curled up trustingly at his side, her head nestled into his shoulder and her forehead against the curve of his neck. He couldn’t think of a more arousing way to wake up than with the warmth of her breath soughing over his chest, ruffling and teasing the hairs and tightening his nipples into hard points that were begging for more of her attention.

Even then, with the evidence all around him, the tumbled bedding, the scattered clothing, the musky, totally arousing scent that was partly his and partly hers … he still could hardly believe that it had really happened.

It wasn’t simply the fact that it had happened at all that had him reeling, either; it was the sheer scale of it that had been enough to blow his mind for the next millennium or so.

That hadn’t been the Jenny he had thought he was coming to know at the hospital. She was the calm, caring, concerned professional who could be counted on to go the extra mile for every one of their patients with sympathy and tact. It hadn’t been the off-duty Jenny, either; the cheerful, friendly young woman with a welcoming smile for everyone even while surrounded by an indefinable air that sometimes came across almost as naïveté.

No, the Jenny he’d discovered last night had been a complete revelation; an unbelievably arousing combination of uncertainty and boldness; of alternating shyness and daring that had rendered him speechless and breathless and utterly captivated.

Making love with her had been more—much more—than he’d ever imagined, and it was something he’d be delighted to repeat on a daily basis far beyond the foreseeable future but.

He drew in a controlled breath as he fought down a feeling of dread.

Yes, it had been, without exception, the most spectacular night of his life, and hers, too, if her eager reaction was anything to go by, but would he still be basking in this contented glow thinking the night’s pleasure had been worth it if it meant he’d lost her friendship?

He’d already admitted to himself the fact that there was little chance of anything permanent between them, but he’d hoped that at least in the time they spent together they could be friends as well as colleagues. Had he ruined that, now?

A glance at the alarm clock told him that it was still early. Too early to get ready for work. In fact, it was early enough for a leisurely repeat session that he was craving more with every second, even though he knew he couldn’t have it.

He should leave the bed, now. Leave her in the hopes that she wouldn’t be too angry that he’d taken advantage of her distress.

His mobile phone suddenly buzzed into life, the vibrate function making it rattle noisily on the chest of drawers beside the bed.

Daniel was glad that at least he’d had the presence of mind to switch off the noisy ring tone. Now all he had to do was silence the wretched thing quickly enough that it didn’t wake the sleeping woman in his arms. It was going to take a while longer before he’d be ready to face her.

But before he could untangle an arm to reach for the infernal gadget, her eyes flicked open, their hazel irises glowing with golden fire as they gazed straight up into his.

The phone buzzed again and she glanced fleetingly at it before her eyes returned to his, the slumberous expression in them almost making him groan aloud as his body started to respond.

‘Are you going to answer that?’ she prompted with a hint of a grin. ‘It doesn’t sound as if they’re going to give up.’

The impish curve of lips that had met his own time and time again during the night was almost enough to make him forget his name, but there was no way he could ignore his phone when there were vulnerable patients relying on him.

‘Car—’ he began then had to clear his throat before he could continue, the husky tone far more suited to the bedroom than his professional persona. ‘Carterton,’ he announced crisply on his second attempt, mentally switching gears. The last thing he needed to be thinking about was bedrooms when he was taking a call from the hospital.

‘Hello. I’m sorry to disturb you so early, Dr Carterton, but you wouldn’t happen to know where Jenny Barber might be?’

‘What?’ He could feel the unexpected heat of a blush searing up his throat and into his face, hardly able to believe that the woman in question was still curled sleepily against him as if she was totally unaware that the two of them were wrapped around each other, completely naked.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ the voice on the other end of the line exclaimed. ‘That must have come out of left field, especially this early in the morning. And I didn’t even tell you who I am … and I probably woke you up, too. I’m so sorry!’

‘You didn’t wake me,’ Daniel reassured the flustered woman. ‘How can I help?’

‘This is Fiona Tarbuck. I’m a Staff Nurse in Cardiac ICU and I’m trying to track down one of the nurses from your unit—Jenny Barber. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you? We’ve tried her landline in her flat and her mobile but there’s no answer on either phone. Either she’s switched them off, or else her battery’s …’

Daniel’s attention had been caught by the woman’s introduction.

‘CICU?’ he questioned, interrupting her rambling speculations.

‘Yes, that’s right. Unfortunately, her father was brought in during the night and her mother’s been trying to contact her to let her know. Apparently, their daughter’s not on duty, today, but one of your staff suggested she might have told you what she was going to be doing on her day off?’

‘No, she didn’t say, but—’

‘In that case, I’m very sorry to have disturbed you,’ she interrupted before he could find the words he needed. How could he say he’d pass the message on without ruining Jenny’s reputation for ever by revealing that she was here in his arms?

When the voice was swiftly replaced in his ear by the buzz of a finished call he was left with the task of finding a new set of words—the ones that would break the news that her father was in CICU.

‘Daniel?’ A concerned frown had appeared, deep enough to pleat the smooth skin of her forehead as she’d tried to follow his cryptic questions and answers. ‘You said CICU. That wasn’t about Aliyah’s husband, was it? Please tell me he hasn’t taken a turn for the worse,’ she begged, her empathy for their patient completely transparent.

He hated the fact that the news he had to break would cause this caring woman even greater stress, but he had no option. If her father’s condition was serious—and the very fact that he was in CICU was proof that it very well could be—then every moment’s delay could jeopardise her chance of reaching his bedside in time.

‘I’m sorry, Jenny,’ he began, desperately fighting the urge to wrap her tightly in his arms in an attempt to soften the blow. ‘That was CICU—as you probably gathered. They’ve been trying to reach you to—’

‘Me?’ she echoed, clearly startled, then panic flared in her eyes. ‘Who …? What …? Not Dad?’ she gasped in sudden comprehension, her body totally rigid against him.

‘Unfortunately, yes,’ he confirmed. ‘He was taken ill during the night.’

‘What happened?’ she demanded, suddenly frantically fighting her way out from under the cosy nest of bedclothes, still apparently uncaring of the fact that she was utterly, tantalisingly naked.

‘I’ve no idea of the specifics,’ he admitted, battling the urge to gaze his fill of her beautiful body in case it was the last time he ever got to see it—all those lean, slender curves that set his pulse throbbing anew with the urgent need to trace them and savour them and. ‘The Staff Nurse didn’t go into it,’ he admitted as he forced himself to drag his eyes away, turning to reach for clean underwear in the top drawer beside the bed. ‘All I know is that they haven’t been able to reach you on your landline or your mobile and wondered if I had any idea what you were planning to do today.’

He was already slipping his feet into his shoes while he thrust his arms into a clean shirt, having long ago perfected the knack of speedy dressing. When he turned back to her, Jenny was still trying to find the last of the clothing he’d tossed aside so cavalierly in his urgent need to have her in his arms and in his bed.

‘And I was here, with a flat battery in my mobile,’ she wailed, self-recrimination obvious in her voice. ‘Oh, Daniel …!’

‘Hey, Jennywren!’ he soothed, discovering her second shoe buried under the pillow that had been tossed to the floor some time after midnight and handed it to her. ‘She didn’t say the situation’s urgent, so don’t automatically assume the worst.’

‘But she was ringing round trying to find me … she rang my boss, for heaven’s sake!’ she exclaimed. ‘That hardly sounds like “Oh, it’s all right, Mr Barber, patients confuse indigestion for heart attacks all the time”,