Читать книгу Summer With Love: The Spanish Consultant - Sarah Morgan - Страница 11

JAGO heard the tap on the door of his office and looked up from his computer with a frown.

He’d had a long and trying day and technically he was now off duty so he hadn’t been expecting visitors.

Katy stood in the doorway, her blue eyes wary as she watched him from the doorway.

She looked tired and incredibly nervous.

He sat back in his chair, his eyes suddenly watchful, his senses on full alert. Why was she nervous? She was looking at him the way a baby impala looked at a hungry lion at lunchtime.

She closed the door behind her and cleared her throat. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you.’ Faint streaks of colour touched her cheekbones and for a disturbing moment he had an all too clear recollection of the way she’d looked after he’d finally made love to her the first time.

Flushed, round-eyed, softly feminine and in awe of him—much the way she was looking right now.

He felt his body harden in response and he felt a rush of anger at his own inability to control his reactions around her.

‘I’m in the middle of something so I’d appreciate it if you could make it quick.’

He saw her flinch but steeled himself against feeling sympathy, reminding himself that she wasn’t as gentle and innocent as she seemed.

As he’d discovered to his cost.

‘I just wanted to apologise for earlier,’ she said quietly, her fingers digging into her palms. ‘I was useless out there. I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry …’

He was so utterly captivated by her soft mouth that it took him a moment to understand what she was talking about.

The accident. He shook himself slightly. She was talking about the accident.

‘You weren’t useless.’ He resolutely pushed away memories of all that stunning blonde hair spread over the soft grass as he’d rolled her underneath him on a baking summer’s day eleven years earlier.

‘I wasn’t prepared for the injury to be so severe,’ she confessed shakily. ‘I—I’ve never attended the scene of an accident before. I didn’t know what to do, and I’m sorry.’

He sat back in his chair, suddenly understanding why she was so nervous. Hadn’t he warned her on her first day that if she didn’t perform she’d be out? She was afraid that her shocked reaction to her first exposure to major trauma at the roadside would count against her.

She was afraid that he was going to get rid of her.

And that had certainly been his intention when he’d first realised that she was going to be working in his department.

He hadn’t thought she’d last five minutes.

He hadn’t wanted her to last five minutes.

And he’d been incredibly hard on her. Harder on her than any other doctor in his team.

And she’d surprised him. So far she’d proved herself to be thorough and competent, and he’d observed on several occasions that her warmth had a calming influence on the most fractious patient.

He felt an unaccustomed twinge of guilt as he reflected on the way he’d treated her since she’d arrived in the department.

‘I took you along because I thought you might learn something and because every A and E doctor should have an idea of what the paramedics deal with on a daily basis.’ He saw her soft lips part and was suddenly glad that he was sitting behind the desk. At least she wouldn’t be aware of the effect she had on him. ‘You were there as an observer. I had no expectations of you as a doctor.’

She stood in silence, watching him warily. She was obviously still expecting an explosion. ‘I shouldn’t have reacted like that, but I just wasn’t prepared for how scary it would be, dealing with a patient at the scene of the accident. I’m used to having masses of medical back-up.’

She obviously felt she’d let herself down badly, which wasn’t true at all. He’d seen doctors with many more years’ experience than her suddenly freeze at the scene of a serious accident.

It was something to do with the almost overwhelming sense of responsibility that came with being first on the scene.

‘Just stick to A and E and don’t become a paramedic,’ he suggested dryly, and then turned back to his computer, hoping that she’d take the hint and leave him alone.

She didn’t. Instead, she took a deep breath, steeling herself to ask the question that had clearly been worrying her. ‘You said I ought to be a GP or go back to paediatrics. Do you still think I’ll make a bad A and E doctor?’

He felt another twinge of guilt. It was his fault that she was asking the question.

‘No. You’re a good A and E doctor.’

Surprisingly good.

‘But you said—’

‘I know what I said. I was angry with you.’

His blunt admission didn’t evoke the response he expected. Instead of signs of guilt, she looked confused and taken aback. As if he had no right to be angry.

He had to hand it to her, she was an excellent actress.

She was starting to make him feel guilty.

Her blue eyes were suddenly huge and she looked more like a little girl than a fully qualified doctor. ‘Why were you angry with me? Because of our … relationship?’ She stumbled over the word, looking bemused, and Jago’s lean hands curled into fists.

‘I thought I had already made it clear that the past is history.’

‘But it isn’t, is it, Jago? It’s there between us the whole time.’

‘Let’s just say that I have a long memory for certain events.’ His tone lethally smooth, he leaned back in his chair and surveyed her with the cool intent of a predator poised for the kill. It really was time for her to drop the innocent act. At least then they’d both know where they stood.

‘It must have been extremely challenging for you to keep two men running at the same time with such a limited amount of experience on your part. You must have been very nervous that one of us would find out about the other, and yet it never showed,’ he mused, his dark eyes resting on her soft mouth. ‘I’m filled with admiration as to how you managed it so skilfully. Tell me, Katy, did you tell him that you loved him, too?’

The air around them throbbed and she stood, frozen to the spot, staring at him with a blank expression.

‘I really have no idea what you’re talking about.’

She was incredibly beautiful and incredibly dignified. If he hadn’t seen the evidence with his own eyes it would have been so easy to believe in her innocence.

‘Let’s just say that when I enjoy a relationship with a woman, my absolute minimum requirement is fidelity,’ he informed her, wondering how she’d cope with being forced to confront her sins. Because he’d made up his mind that she was going to confront them. ‘Foolishly, I assumed that as I was your first lover, I didn’t need to explain that fact.’

She was still staring at him. ‘I still don’t know what you mean.’

His gaze hardened. ‘I mean that, having been introduced to the joys of sex, you then couldn’t wait to spread your wings and sample variety. So tell me, querida, was it different with him? Was it worth it?’

She looked startled at his words, hot colour touching her beautiful heart-shaped face, and he was reminded of just how shy she’d been about sex. The product of strict parents and a single-sex school, until she’d met him she’d had virtually no experience of men. He gritted his teeth. Something she’d corrected as quickly as possible.

‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying? You think that I—’ She broke off, her colour deepening, and he gave a wry smile.

‘Perhaps you should drop the innocent virgin act now,’ he advised. ‘I think we’ve both moved beyond that.’

The colour drained out of her face and she swayed slightly. He felt a flash of concern and then reminded himself that he was dealing with a woman who could sleep with two men at the same time without displaying the slightest flicker of conscience. Now she’d finally been found out he fully expected her to seek refuge in that most female of pastimes. Tears.

‘Is that why you left without even a word? Because you believed I was having an affair with someone else?’ Her tone was flat and lifeless, her normally sparkly blue eyes dulled with shock and distaste. ‘Couldn’t you have at least have asked me about it?’

He shrugged a broad shoulder dismissively, his expression sardonic. ‘I didn’t need to. I had all the evidence I needed. An encounter between us would have been—’ He broke off, remembering the searing anger and hurt that he’d felt on discovering her duplicity. His mouth tightened. ‘Let’s just say that I felt it would be better for both of us if we had no more contact.’

‘Evidence?’ Her voice was croaky, like someone who hadn’t drunk for a week. ‘This evidence—who gave it to you?’

He frowned. Surely she should have been asking what the evidence was? Or was she trying to cover her tracks? ‘I don’t see the relevance—’

‘It was my father, wasn’t it?’

So she’d known all along that her father had had incriminating photographs.

‘Don’t blame him. For once your father was acting honourably. He thought I should know the truth.’

Especially given that ten minutes earlier he had announced his intention of marrying Katy.

Thanks to her father, he’d had a very narrow escape. He owed him a debt.

‘Honourably?’ Her voice shook and she sank onto the nearest chair, her breathing shallow. She looked terrible. Her cheeks were pale and her slim fingers shook as they clutched the seat of the chair. ‘My father has never behaved honourably in his life. He sees what he wants and he goes for it, no matter what obstacles stand in his way. No doubt he manipulated you the same way he manipulates everyone.’

Jago frowned, disconcerted by her unexpected reaction. He’d expected hysterics and denials about the affair. Instead, they seemed to be having a conversation about her father. ‘What are you suggesting?’

Katy lifted her head, her eyes dull. ‘Show me the photographs.’ Her chest rose and fell and she appeared to be struggling to breathe. ‘I want to see those photographs. Do you still have them?’

Slight colour touched his cheekbones. ‘I don’t understand what purpose it would serve—’

‘Show me!’

After only the briefest hesitation he reached into his desk and withdrew a large envelope, thoroughly discomfited by the fact that he still had the photographs to hand. It raised questions that he’d never wanted to address before.

But Katy didn’t ask questions. She didn’t even seem to find it strange that he had the photographs in his desk eleven years later.

She just ripped at the envelope with shaking hands and emptied the contents onto the desk.

As the glossy prints emerged from the envelope, Jago felt the tension rise in his body. His lean hands fisted and he felt the same sickness he’d felt when he’d first seen them. ‘I warn you—they’re very revealing.’

She gave an uneven laugh. ‘I’m sure they are.’ She lifted the photographs, suddenly in possession of an icy control that he’d never seen before.

He frowned slightly, puzzled by her reaction. She certainly wasn’t behaving like a woman with a guilty conscience.

As her eyes dropped to the first photograph he averted his eyes. He still wasn’t able to look at pictures of her entwined so intimately with another man without wanting to commit grievous bodily harm. Why the hell had he kept them? He should have burned them years ago.

She flicked steadily through the pictures, her beautiful face blank.

Then finally she dropped the last one on the pile and lifted her eyes to his. ‘I always wondered what made you leave.’ Her tone was flat and suddenly all his senses were on alert. Alarm bells were ringing but he didn’t know why. She lifted her chin, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. ‘You didn’t think to ask me about them?’

He was watching her warily now, totally confused by her reaction. Instead of guilt and apology, her blue eyes were full of hurt and accusation.

And disappointment.

Was he missing something here?

‘They appear to speak for themselves,’ he observed, and she nodded slowly.

‘But not when you look at all the facts together.’ She turned away from him and walked over to the window, staring out across the courtyard. ‘I always wondered what my father said to make you walk away. I knew it had to have been him that ended our relationship. Nothing else made sense.’

Jago was suddenly very still. ‘Your father had nothing to do with it. It was my choice to walk away—’

‘Yes. You were to blame too, for believing him.’ She turned to face him and her eyes were sad. ‘He played you like a master, Jago. He did what he does with everyone. He looked for your weakness and then he moved in for the kill.’

Disconcerted and not used to the feeling, Jago stiffened. ‘And what was my weakness?’

‘Your pride,’ she said simply. ‘You are, by nature, proud and possessive and my father knew that the one thing that would drive you away from me was finding me with another man. So he made it happen.’

There was an uncomfortable silence while Jago digested her words. ‘You’re saying that he somehow manufactured these photographs?’ He waved a lean brown hand across his desk. ‘That they aren’t really you?’

‘Oh, yes, they’re me.’ Katy walked back to the desk and picked up the photograph at the top of the pack. ‘Good, aren’t they? They were taken in a studio in North London when I was modelling. One of the teenage mags wanted some shots to illustrate an article they were doing on safe sex. Aiden and I were supposed to look as though we were in love. Funnily enough, I was more relaxed than I would normally have been because I was in love.’ Her eyes lifted to his and there was more than a hint of accusation in her clear blue gaze. ‘I was in love with you, Jago.’

Modelling photographs?

Jago was struggling hard to get a grip on the facts. It hadn’t even occurred to him that the photos could have been part of her modelling life.

No. They couldn’t be.

Shielding his emotions from her, he glanced at the one on the top of the pile, noticing for the first time all the hallmarks of a professional photographer.

Feeling as though he’d just taken a cold shower, he suppressed a groan. How had he managed to miss that possibility? But he knew the answer, of course. He’d been so furiously angry at what he’d seen as her betrayal that he’d reacted with raw, naked emotion. Had he employed some of the intellect in his possession he might have reached a different conclusion.

But Katy’s father had been completely correct in his reading of his character. He’d gambled on the fact that Jago’s Spanish pride would prevent him from wanting to contact her again. And the gamble had paid off. He’d walked into the sunset and left her.

He stilled, unable to grasp the fact that he could have made such a colossal misjudgement. ‘You never slept with him?’

‘No. He’s also gay.’

Her tone was flat and Jago tensed, struggling with the appalling reality of having been thoroughly manipulated. ‘I thought—’

‘I can see what you thought. Please, don’t spell it out any further. I find your suppositions totally offensive.’ She gathered up the photographs and he reached out and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from leaving.

‘Wait.’ His fingers tightened. ‘If you suspected that your father was responsible, why didn’t you come after me?’

She looked at him sadly. ‘Because I believed in you. I never knew what made you leave, but I guessed that my father was behind it and for months I held onto this childish dream that our love would prove stronger than my father had anticipated and that you’d come back and at least talk to me. But you never did.’

He flinched at that but his fingers tightened on her wrists. He needed answers. ‘Why would your father do that to you? To us?’

‘Surely that’s obvious. He didn’t want us together.’ She lifted her eyes to his. ‘He found out and he wanted to end it so he bided his time until he found the most effective way. I warned you that we should keep our relationship a secret, but you insisted that you wouldn’t creep around.’

Jago’s broad shoulders tensed. ‘I wasn’t afraid of your father.’

‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘But I was. And I was the one left to deal with him after you walked off, Jago. My father didn’t know that you had no intention of committing to anyone. For some unfathomable reason he thought you were serious about me and that was the last thing he wanted.’

Jago almost groaned aloud. He had been serious.

And he’d made the fatal mistake of telling her father.

Understanding just what had caused her father to take such dramatic steps, Jago ran a hand over his face, lost for words for the first time in his life.

Katy watched him for a long moment and then, with a final pitying look, she tugged her wrist away from his grip, picked up the photographs and left the room without a backward glance.

‘Oh, my God.’ Libby stared at the photographs in horror. ‘Dad gave him these? Well, no wonder the guy walked out. They’re very incriminating.’

‘I can’t believe you just said that!’ Katy stared at her in disbelief. ‘You’re supposed to be on my side.’

‘Oh, come on, Katy!’ Libby held one of the photographs up and shook her head. ‘For crying out loud, you’re naked in bed with a man and you’re laughing.’

‘So? I always liked Aiden,’ Katy mumbled, and Libby shook her head.

‘Sweetheart, I’m always on your side, you know that, but for a man as fiercely proud as Jago, these would have seemed like the ultimate insult to his manhood. It’s the male ego thing. Can’t you see that?’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘I must admit they’re bloody good. You look stunning in this one.’

Katy ignored her. ‘But I wouldn’t do a thing like that. He should have known I wouldn’t do a thing like that. Instead, he assumed I went from virgin to slut faster than you could say broken heart.’

‘I know, and deep down I suspect Jago knows, but love must have clouded his judgement.’

Katy stiffened. She was singularly unimpressed by Jago’s judgement. Or rather lack of it. ‘We both know that Jago never loved me.’

If he’d loved her, he wouldn’t have been so quick to believe the worst of her.

‘I certainly didn’t think he did,’ Libby mused, still leafing through the photographs, ‘but now I’m changing my mind.’

‘Based on what?’

‘Think about it. Think about the way he’s been behaving since you walked back into his life—or rather since you arrived on a stretcher. He is seriously bothered by you. Also, we both know that Jago is Mr Super-Bright. Nothing gets past him in the intellectual stakes, which can only mean one thing …’

Katy stared at her stupidly and Libby rolled her eyes and dropped the offending photographs on the table.

‘He was so blinded by love that he didn’t bother examining the facts. His reactions were totally emotional, which was what Dad was banking on when he set it all up.’

‘You’re being ridiculous,’ Katy said. ‘Jago couldn’t have been in love with me.’

‘Why?’

‘Well for a start because he never mentioned it,’ Katy said caustically, and Libby rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

‘So? You’re twenty-nine, Katy. When are you going to realise that not everyone is as honest and straightforward as you are? I suspect Jago had never said those three little words in his life before. You’d only been together for a month and you were only eighteen. Maybe if you’d had longer—’

‘Well, we didn’t,’ Katy said flatly, ‘and it’s history now.’

Libby put the photographs on the table. ‘I’d be very surprised if it’s history.’

‘Meaning?’

‘A man like Jago isn’t going to let it end there.’ Libby’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully and the hint of a smile touched her soft mouth. ‘And if I were Dad, I’d be shivering in my bed.’

‘Yes, well, we both know that nothing disturbs our father’s sleep,’ Katy said bitterly, not wanting to think about how his interference had affected her life. She didn’t know who angered her more. Her father for inventing his lies or Jago for believing them.

And he still didn’t know the whole story.

Libby looked at her. ‘What if he wants you back now he knows the truth? At the very least he’s going to want to talk to you again.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ Katy said flatly. ‘It was eleven years ago and in two months’ time I’m marrying Freddie. Jago Rodriguez is nothing but a painful part of my past. I know that Dad was responsible, but Jago should have believed in me, Libby. He didn’t trust me and I can’t be with a man who doesn’t trust me.’

‘Jago, can you concentrate?’

Jago shook himself and stared at Charlotte. ‘Did you say something?’

‘Yes.’ She put her hands on her hips, her expression frustrated. ‘I’ve been talking to you for the past five minutes and you haven’t been listening to a word I’ve been saying. What’s the matter with you?’

‘Nothing.’ Jago’s insides were raw.

After Katy had walked away from him the day before, he’d spent a sleepless night coming to terms with the fact that he’d been successfully manipulated by a master.

He’d always known that Sir Charles Westerling was utterly ruthless, but when that ruthlessness had been turned on him, he hadn’t spotted it.

He was also extremely disturbed by Katy’s quiet statement that she’d been the one left to deal with her father.

What exactly had she had to deal with?

Had her father been violent?

He was suddenly forced to face the uncomfortable truth that he’d misjudged her appallingly and at the moment he had absolutely no idea how to go about making amends.

He couldn’t believe that he’d been so quick to pass judgement on her. Hadn’t he seen with his own eyes how shy she was? For goodness’ sake, it had taken him weeks before he’d even attempted to take things further than a kiss. How could he have believed that she would have been so uninhibited as to dive into another man’s bed so quickly?

And she’d loved him. He gritted his teeth. She’d told him so again last night.

She’d loved him with an uncritical devotion that had given him a bigger high than the most lucrative deal he’d ever closed on the stock market.

And he’d managed to kill that love.

‘I don’t know who’s made you angry, but I feel sorry for him,’ Charlotte announced, giving up on communication and pushing a set of X-rays in his hands. ‘When you’ve finished plotting revenge, can you check those for me, please? The lady is waiting in cubicle 3.’

Plotting revenge?

He wasn’t plotting revenge, there would be time enough to deal with her father later. At the moment he was using every ounce of intelligence at his disposal to try and work out how to manoeuvre his way back into Katy’s good books.

And it was going to be tough.

Pulling himself together, he checked the X-ray, reassured the patient and then prowled through A and E, looking for Katy.

She was working in the paediatric area, seeing a child who had fallen awkwardly on a bouncy castle.

The mother was a bag of nerves and the child was cranky and irritable.

Unobserved, he stood in the doorway watching Katy, noticing the way her eyes softened as she spoke to the child and the way she reacted so sympathetically to the mother’s endless questions and worries.

Everything about Katy was gentle and giving. She opened windows to let wasps out and lifted spiders out of the bath instead of turning on the taps like most other people. How could he ever have thought she’d have betrayed him with another man?

He watched as she soothed the child and examined the arm, her lower lip caught between her teeth as she ran through the possibilities in her mind.

She was an incredibly thorough doctor.

And he’d treated her shockingly.

‘I think she might have fractured a bone, Mrs Hancock,’ she said finally. ‘She’s very tender just here and there’s some swelling. I’d like to send her for some X-rays so that I can have a proper look.’

The mother looked guilty. ‘It was such a busy party—I didn’t even see her fall. I just heard her screaming.’

‘How awful for you.’ Katy sympathised immediately, her manner completely non-judgmental. ‘Try not to blame yourself. These things happen with small children. You can’t be everywhere all the time.’

She reached for a form, scribbled on it and handed it to the mother, the lights catching her blonde hair and making it gleam. ‘If you follow the yellow line, that takes you straight to X-Ray. Come back here afterwards and I’ll look at the films.’

Jago felt something burn deep inside him.

He still wanted her.

He didn’t deserve her but he still wanted her, and all his instincts told him that part of her still wanted him, too. He didn’t believe for a moment that she was in love with her fiancé.

If she had been, he told himself that he’d have walked away without bothering her, but he’d seen something in her eyes when she’d looked at him.

He’d seen the same hunger that he felt when he was confronted by her every day.

No matter how badly he’d hurt her, physically at least, she still wanted him.

And he intended to use that to his advantage.

Katy finished filling out the notes and then glanced up, the colour fading from her cheeks as she saw Jago watching her.

Her stomach did a somersault.

‘Did you need me for something?’

His gaze never flickered from hers. ‘We have things to talk about.’

Just as Libby had predicted, he wasn’t prepared to leave things as they were.

She straightened. ‘We have absolutely nothing to talk about, Jago.’

‘I disagree.’

Her eyes slid self-consciously around her, checking that no one was within earshot. ‘It’s all history, Jago. In the past. Finished.’

‘We both know it’s far from finished,’ he said smoothly, and she tensed.

Surely he wasn’t suggesting …?

Just in case he was, she thought she’d better set him straight. ‘Jago, you thought I’d given my …’ She glanced furtively around again and lowered her voice to little more than a whisper. ‘Given my virginity to you and then slept with another man at the same time.’ She brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes with shaking fingers, totally unable to comprehend that he’d had such a low opinion of her. ‘You obviously didn’t know me at all.’

His wide shoulders stiffened defensively. ‘I thought I did but all the evidence pointed to the contrary. Surely you can see that.’

She shook her head. ‘Jago, I couldn’t ever be with a man who believed I was capable of that. I don’t know what sort of women you mix with normally but if that’s the sort of behaviour that you’ve come to expect then I feel sorry for you.’

Jago compressed his mouth. ‘It does happen.’

She shook her head in disbelief. ‘But not with me. I don’t do things like that,’ she said, hating the fact that there was a quiver in her voice. She wanted so badly to match his cool indifference. ‘You didn’t even have the decency to ask me about it.’

‘My only defence is that my pride was very hurt.’ He lifted his dark head and looked at her steadily. ‘After I left, why didn’t you try and contact me? To explain?’

She gaped at him. ‘Are you really trying to suggest that any of this is my fault? You left—and you didn’t even do me the courtesy of telling me you were going, let alone give me the reason for your sudden departure. I was so naïve that I actually believed that you’d come back. That there was nothing on earth that could keep us apart.’ She saw him flinch slightly and felt the anger burn inside her. ‘But you didn’t and I had no idea how to find you. All I knew was that you no longer worked for my father’s company. Even when I discovered that I was—’

She caught herself in time and broke off, heart thumping, horrified by what she’d so nearly revealed.

There was a pulsing silence.

‘What did you discover, Katy?’ He was suddenly incredibly still and his dark eyes were watchful.

‘Nothing.’ Her voice was a strangled croak and he muttered something in Spanish and moved towards her.

But whatever he’d intended to say, the opportunity was lost as the mother and toddler returned with their X-rays.

Filled with relief at the reprieve, Katy checked them carefully, aware that he was standing close behind her, feeling his warm breath on the back of her neck.

‘She’s fractured her radius.’ Trying to ignore the tense atmosphere, Katy squinted at the X-ray, visually tracing the cortex of each bone as she’d been taught, looking for irregularities. ‘There’s a slight displacement,’ she murmured, ‘but that shouldn’t matter in a child this young so I’ll just give her painkillers and immobilise it in a cast.’

Jago’s eyes flickered to the X-rays. ‘Have you checked for a second fracture?’

Katy frowned. Was he still trying to catch her out?

‘Yes.’

‘So what makes you so smart, Dr Westerling,’ he muttered under his breath, and she gave a slow smile, ridiculously pleased by the veiled praise.

‘I worked in paediatrics,’ she reminded him lightly, tugging the X-ray out of the light-box and returning it to the folder.

From a professional point of view, working with him was definitely getting easier. He no longer made her feel as though she should be back in medical school.

Unfortunately their personal relationship was much more complicated.

Katy discussed the management of the fracture with the mother, all the time aware that Jago was standing there, biding his time.

Suddenly she felt hideously nervous and she was desperately searching for an excuse to escape from him when Charlotte hurried down with the news that Ambulance Control had rung to say that they were bringing in a nasty head injury.

With a look of savage frustration on his lean, handsome face, Jago departed, leaving her in no doubt whatsoever that the subject wasn’t closed.