We slept together, then I got seasick and he had to give me an injection. Yes, right there...
‘Can you face something to eat? Toast, maybe?’
That sounded like a good idea. Something to get her back on her feet and put this behind her.
‘I’d love some.’ Nell was still wearing the robe that Hugo had wrapped her in last night. She pulled back the bedcovers, finding that standing up was hardly even a challenge.
‘Stay here. I’ll go and get a tray.’ He rose, stopping to curl his arm around her shoulder to give her a hug. Hugo was clearly pretty good at this morning-after we’re still friends, aren’t we? thing. She felt him kiss the top of her head, and then he turned and walked out of the cabin.
* * *
By lunchtime, Nell felt well enough to eat some more, and then take another trip to the bridge, so that Captain Masson could demonstrate the complexities of getting back into the marina without hitting anything. She said her goodbyes, and the motor launch took them back to land, where Hugo’s car was waiting for them.
Something had happened last night. Something outside the obvious.
It wasn’t just the amazing sex, or the look in Hugo’s green eyes when he’d given himself up to her. He’d met her embarrassment with his own shame, and somehow that had created an understanding. Acceptance in the face of what each of them was most afraid to show.
They could be friends now. They must be friends, because anything less would be a tragedy. As they walked towards the front door of his house, and Hugo turned the key in the lock, this seemed like a new beginning. One that would see them both succeed in the dream that Nell had so recently begun to share. The clinic.
They left their bags in the hall for later, and walked through to the kitchen. Hugo opened the fridge and took a can of ginger beer out, and Nell laughed.
‘No, thanks. I think I can manage without it. Would you like a cup of tea?’
‘Love one.’ He was suddenly still. The man who had moved through today with the ease of a practised diplomat was suddenly unsure of himself.
‘Nell...?’
‘Yes?’
‘Last night. I...’
She could handle this. Nell took the can from his hand, putting it down on the countertop. He looked at it for a moment and then his gaze moved to her face.
‘I had the very best night. And then the very worst. I’m glad you were there for the best part, and sorry you had to be for the worst.’
‘I’m not sorry...’ he started.
She laid her hand lightly on his chest, and he fell silent. ‘I’m very grateful you were there to look after me. That’s the advantage of sleeping with a doctor. And, like you say, what happens at sea stays at sea. We have a clinic to build.’
He nodded. ‘And you don’t feel you can work with me and sleep with me? I can understand that, if that’s what you’re saying.’
At some point, she’d become a different person from the one who had been taken in by Martin, and then bullied by him. Nell wasn’t q
uite sure when that had happened.
‘I’m think I’m still working that one out.’
‘Then...are you somewhere that might allow a bit of flexibility? On the working together and sleeping together thing?’
It was as if someone had opened a door, letting sunlight into the room. All the knowledge of chemical reactions in the brain didn’t make it any less a work of magic.
‘What kind of flexibility?’ The sudden desire to be wooed flared in her chest, making Nell’s heart beat a little faster.
That smile of his was a very good opening salvo. The way he stepped a little closer, not quite touching her, made Nell’s head begin to reel.
‘I want to touch you again. I know I can’t keep you for ever, but it doesn’t make it any the less sweet that you’re here now.’
Nell reached up, brushing her fingertips against his cheek. ‘I want to touch you, too.’