Perhaps if she stayed completely still and pretended to be— ‘I didn’t tell you to come in,’ she informed the man now framed in her open doorway. ‘I could have been naked.’
Probably not the best thing to have said. What was wrong with her?
‘You knew I’d come up here,’ he said arrogantly.
Carly strove to remain calm. ‘And why would I know that?’
‘Because one minute you’re all smiling and happy and the next you look like you’d seen a ghost.’
‘You’re exaggerating.’
‘I don’t think so. What’s wrong?’ he asked, closing the door and moving further into the room.
No way was Carly going to tell him that she’d just been overwhelmed by his presence. That she’d needed some space because he brought up so many painful memories from a past she’d prefer to forget.
That he made her want things she’d rather not want. Like a relationship. A connection. A place to call home.
‘Nothing,’ she said, trying to ignore the thudding of her heart. ‘As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.’
His eyes drifted over her in response to her unintentional invitation. Carly held herself completely still under his steady gaze, conscious that all she was wearing was a cotton singlet and matching boxer shorts adorned with tiny red hearts.
‘Perfectly.’
Carly smiled politely at his wry tone. ‘Now you can go.’
She watched warily as, instead of doing as she requested, he stopped at the foot of her bed, his hands on his hips.
‘Do you always ignore a woman’s request?’ she asked lightly.
‘Was that what it was? It sounded more like an order.’
Unsure of his mood, Carly knew she was strung too tight to deal with him rationally. ‘What do you want, Dare?’
His eyes ran over her again. ‘Now there’s a question.’
Knowing that he was being deliberately provocative, Carly took a deep breath and counted to ten. She had been a resident for three years at one of Liverpool’s busiest hospitals having to face down more insolent men than this one. ‘I thought you had forgotten all about that,’ she challenged.
‘Ah, so I did. The only problem is that attraction can be a pesky thing. It doesn’t want to stay forgotten.’
‘Try harder.’ Because this would not end well, she knew it as surely as she knew her own name.
He laughed. ‘Easy, Red. I only came to talk.’
Feigning a calm she didn’t feel, Carly snatched up her silky robe from the nearby chair and pretended her legs weren’t wobbling as she moved to one of the Queen Anne armchairs beside the fireplace.
In winter this would no doubt be a cosy place to hole up in with a good book. Or a lover.
Dare followed her and leant against the mantelpiece.
‘I’m curious about something,’ he said.
Carly rested back in the chair and curled her legs underneath her. ‘Can’t you satisfy it somewhere else?’
He laughed softly. ‘Unfortunately not. Tell me, why does a highly qualified doctor take a lowly nursing position with an elderly man?’
Running was her first thought, hiding her second.
Unsettled by her reflections and the man making her face them, Carly glared up at him.
‘First of all,’ Carly began frostily, ‘nurses are not lowly and second of all it’s none of your damned business.’
She jumped to her feet and paced away from him.
His brows drew together. ‘I didn’t mean lowly, as in the profession. I meant as in below your professional capabilities. As I understand it there’s a shortage of doctors all over the country.’
‘So you’re an expert on the medical profession now. Must be nice viewing the world from your lofty heights.’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘You didn’t have to. You just stand there and pass judgment. It’s what you do best.’
A muscle flicked in his jaw. ‘I only asked a couple of questions.’
Carly took a deep breath. ‘I’ve been at the end of some of your questions before and they’re unpleasant to say the least.’
Dare shifted uncomfortably. ‘Yeah, about that. I might have made a mistake.’
‘One?’ She arched a brow, her temper abating at his confession.