‘Unless, of course, you didn’t feel able to say no to me.’ Ignoring her interjection, he carried on, his voice soft. ‘In which case maybe you were using Archie to protect you from yourself. Is that what you were doing, Kat? Didn’t you trust yourself to say no to me? You felt the need to invent a romantic attachment?’
She inhaled sharply. ‘You have a monumental ego, Dr Sullivan,’ she said coldly, and he gave a half-smile so sexy that it made her heart tumble.
‘Have I?’ His eyes clashed with hers and she felt her knees weaken as a powerful awareness thumped between them.
She stepped backwards. ‘I’ve got to go. I need to talk to him. He’s upset and he needs to know that he can’t just wander off like that.’
‘Ah, yes…’ His gaze shifted to her cottage. ‘Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit?’
‘No, I do not!’ Goaded, she whirled round to face him, her eyes flashing. ‘And you’re not blameless in all this. He was perfectly happy until you showed him your boat!’
One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘So is this all my fault?’
‘No. Yes!’ She bit her lip, knowing that it wasn’t really his fault. ‘Well, partly. Have you any idea what it’s like to wake up and find that your child isn’t in the house?’
‘Obviously not.’ His tone was level. ‘But once you’d discovered he was safe, surely that should have been it. Problem sorted. But you continued to freak out.’
‘I did not freak out.’
‘You freaked out. You’re still freaking out. You’re completely overreacting.’
‘Overreacting? You think I’m overreacting?’ Her mouth fell open and she gaped at him, outrage rendering her silent for a few pulsating seconds. Then she exploded. ‘There is no point in having this conversation with you. You obviously know nothing about parental responsibility!’
‘Fortunately not.’ His tone was cool. ‘But the boy was just exploring. No harm was done. Why don’t you just drop it?’
‘Because he’s six years old.’
He gave a shrug. ‘You can’t protect a child from life.’
She gave a short laugh and her eyes flashed. ‘That’s the job of a parent, Josh, to protect a child from life,’ she said, tossing her head back so that her hair shone like flame in the bright sunlight. ‘And that’s what I’m going to do.’
Josh watched her, his eyes on the bright swing of her hair and the swift, graceful movement of her slim legs as she sprinted the short distance back to her own cottage. At no point during the conversation had she appeared to realise that she was still dressed in her nightdress and he hadn’t felt it tactful to point it out. Clearly she’d been so traumatised by her son’s disappearing act that she hadn’t stopped to think about anything but finding him.
For some reason that he couldn’t immediately identify, Josh found that extremely touching.
You didn’t need to be a genius to see that she was devoted to her child.
It explained a lot of things. Like the fact she didn’t hang around after work. Unlike the other young doctors, she showed no inclination to end the day relaxing over a drink. He frowned slightly and leaned broad shoulders against the boat as he watched her all the way to her back door. She was beautiful, gutsy and intelligent, but as he watched her disappear into the house he saw only one thing.
Single mother.
And he had a golden rule. No single mothers.
They wanted something he wasn’t in a position to offer. Security. Compromise. All the things that made him shudder. All the things he was no good at.
Josh folded his arms across his chest, remembering the eager expression in Archie’s green eyes as he’d shown him the boat, his eyes exactly like his mother’s. And he remembered the bitter disappointment in those same eyes when Kat had told him that he had to go home. For a brief moment Josh had been tempted to invite them to spend the day with him, but he’d caught himself in time, astonished by the impulse. He couldn’t ever remember wanting to spend the day with a child before.
Remembering the strength of that impulse, Josh frowned, wondering what had come over him.
He usually avoided children like the plague! He was even nervous about the impending arrival of Mac and Louisa’s baby because he wasn’t sure he could be a decent uncle. He didn’t have any of the right qualifications. He didn’t like nappies and he certainly wasn’t prepared to put his life on hold while they grew up and developed a modicum of independence.
No, children definitely weren’t for him.
And no matter how powerful the chemistry between them, from now on Kat O’Brien was definitely off limits.
He was going to stop noticing her curves and her eye-catching hair, he was going to stop noticing the way her cheeks dimpled when she smiled and the way her eyes flashed when she was angry. In fact, he was going to stop noticing everything and he was definitely going to forget that he’d seen her in her nightdress.
He was going to find himself a woman to take his mind off Kat O’Brien, and he was going to do it fast.