The Greek Children's Doctor (Westerling)

Him.

Her feelings.

‘I didn’t run.’

‘You escaped to the ladies and never returned,’ he reminded her softly, a hint of a smile playing around his firm mouth. ‘I assumed your name must be Cinderella and I searched everywhere for white mice and pumpkins but there was nothing in sight. Not even a stray shoe. All I could see was a cloud of dust as you vanished into the distance.’

‘I didn’t run. I just thought—I…’ Her excuses faltered under his dark scrutiny. ‘Well, I thought that was it so I might as well go home.’

Before she’d started fantasising about fairy-tale endings.

She absolutely didn’t love him.

‘You thought that was it?’ He lifted a dark eyebrow. ‘Excuse me?’

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tried to look casual. ‘We had sex, Andreas. No big deal.’

‘‘‘No big deal’’.’ Andreas repeated her words slowly. ‘So, if it was no big deal, Libby, why did you run away?’

Oh, why couldn’t he just drop it?

‘Look…’ Libby closed her eyes briefly, wishing he wasn’t quite so astute or persistent. ‘It was just a one-night stand. Plenty of people have them.’

Just not her.

Andreas looked at her thoughtfully. ‘You poor thing. You really are scared, aren’t you?’

‘Scared?’ Libby stiffened defensively. ‘What am I supposed to be scared of?’

Andreas shrugged. ‘At a guess—letting go. Trusting someone.’ He moved closer to her. ‘Obviously what we shared last night scared you so much that you panicked and couldn’t face me again.’

‘That’s not true,’ she lied, and he gave a wry smile.

‘Libby, you know it is true.’

‘Stop making it into something it wasn’t,’ she said frantically. ‘It was just a one-night stand. It was just sex.’

‘‘‘Just sex’’.’ He repeated her words slowly, and his expression was suddenly serious. ‘Libby, are you taking the Pill?’

She stared at him, thrown by his question. Then she shook her head.

‘Right.’ His voice was unbelievably gentle. ‘So, if what happened between us last night was ‘‘just sex’’, how come neither of us thought to use contraception?’

She paled and took a step backwards.

Contraception hadn’t even entered her head, either before or afterwards.

And obviously it hadn’t entered his either.

Oh, help.

Andreas rubbed a hand over his dark jaw. ?

??The reason neither of us thought about contraception,’ he said finally, his Greek accent suddenly very pronounced, ‘is because it wasn’t ‘‘just sex’’. It was a hell of a lot more than that, as we both know. Neither of us planned it—it just happened—but, looking back on it, it was inevitable. It’s been there since the first moment we laid eyes on each other.’

Libby was still staring at him, stunned by the revelation that they hadn’t used contraception.

Why hadn’t it occurred to her before? She might be relatively inexperienced, but she wasn’t naïve. Why hadn’t she thought of contraception?