‘Natalie, dear, if you listened to your instincts you’d never leave Rose at all.’
‘Maybe that isn’t such a bad idea,’ Natalie replied heavily. ‘Listen, tell her Mummy will be there soon…yes…all right, Ruth, and thank you,’ she said, placing the receiver down and rising urgently to her feet.
Her eyes drifted over him, but from the vague, unfocused expression in them Rafe doubted she had even registered his presence.
He watched as she opened her handbag and, extracting a wallet from the depths, began flicking through the contents with an expression of fierce concentration on her pale features. Her hands were trembling but he doubted she was aware of it; she was displaying all the classic symptoms of shock.
‘Where are you going, Natalie?’
Natalie swung back and as she saw him standing there Rafe saw a flicker of shock replace for a moment the fretful expression in her wide, darkly lashed eyes—clearly she had forgotten he was there. This female, he thought wryly, seemed to be determined to single-handedly supply the dose of humility his mother—not a person exactly renown for modesty herself—liked to say he needed so badly.
‘You called me Natalie,’ she heard herself say stupidly.
‘It’s your name,’ he reminded her gently.
‘It sounds…different when you say it,’ she observed in a distracted voice. ‘My daughter is in hospital.’ She looked around the familiar room as if she was surprised to find herself still there. ‘I have to go…’ She glanced briefly towards the mess on her desk and then back at him. ‘Now,’ she added, dealing him a ferocious frown.
Clearly she thought he was an inconsiderate louse who would demand she cleared her desk before she went to her sick child, which was a great basis for a relationship. Relationship…? First you break the ‘mixing business with pleasure’ rule, which is bad, but not as bad as wanting to break it some more. Now you’re thinking relationships! he derided himself. What next…?
‘Which hospital is she in?’
Natalie told him because it was easier than telling him to mind his own business and because he was blocking her way. Actually his calm voice helped her focus her thoughts. Rafe was the sort of man that women less able than herself to take care of themselves would have automatically leaned on in a situation like this.
Natalie was fully awake to the pitfalls of leaning on a man…when they walked away you either fell flat on your face or learnt how to do things for yourself. Of course, Mike had never exactly been a pillar of strength to begin with, so it hadn’t been so difficult for her. In fact the gap he’d left in her life had been pretty insignificant all things considered… Rafe Ransome, on the other hand—her wary glance flickered to his tall, vital person—well, nothing about him was insignificant!
‘Give me a minute and I’ll take you.’
Natalie stared at him incredulously. ‘You?’
‘It’s on my way.’
She looked up at him, a sceptical line between her dark, feathery brows, clearly trying to figure out his ulterior motive. He couldn’t help her out; he still wasn’t sure if he had one himself.
‘On your way where?’
‘I can give you a detailed run-down of my itinerary or I can take you to the hospital.’ He gave a very Latin take-it-or-leave-it shrug. ‘Unless you prefer to take your chance with public transport?’
Natalie’s thoughts turned to the empty condition of her wallet. If anyone had asked her earlier that day she’d have stated with total confidence that nothing on earth would have persuaded her to accept a lift from Rafe Ransome…the man who had just kissed her—and you kissed him back!
If her lips hadn’t still felt bruised and swollen she would have imagined it had been another of those erotic dreams that woke her up more nights than she cared to admit.
Impatiently she shook her head; she couldn’t think about that now.
Swallowing her pride, she lifted her eyes to his. ‘Thank you.’ It wasn’t, she told herself, as if she were sleeping with the enemy, just riding with him. ‘Don’t be long!’ Her anxiety and impatience made the request emerge as an imperious command.
Rafe turned, looking about as surprised as it was possible for someone like him to look. It occurred to Natalie that he wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of yelled orders. Not, she acknowledged, that he did any yelling—he didn’t need to. He could silence any would-be dissident with a look.
‘You did say you’d only be a minute,’ she reminded him, moderating her tone. ‘You might forget I’m here…’ she added defensively.
For a brief moment his narrowed eyes scanned her face. ‘I’ve already tried to do that…and failed,’ he revealed cryptically. A rather grim smile lifted the corners of his mouth as she looked back at him warily. ‘Don’t worry, Natalie, I’m renowned for my attention to detail and timing.’
This time his grin was frankly wicked.
True to his word, he was back within the minute. He walked towards her, shrugging on a dark, loose-fitting suit jacket, and the expensive fabric fell smoothly into place across his broad back. That never happens to me, she thought as she fell in step beside him. She quickly got breathless trying to keep up with his long-legged pace.
‘Is there anyone you want to contact…to meet you at the hospital…?’ he probed when they reached the underground parking area.
‘No.’
‘A friend, relation…your daughter’s father, perhaps?’
Natalie, her mind on more urgent matters, was exasperated by his persistence. ‘My grandmother is my only relation and she lives in Yorkshire. Hospitals freak Mike out.’
And she couldn’t cope with a man who went catatonic when he saw a white coat as well as a sick and almost certainly fretful child. Mike would appear when Rose was back home, bearing expensive and often inappropriate gifts. He meant well, she thought indulgently, now she didn’t have to contend with her ex-husband’s foibles on a daily basis.
Rafe was not inclined to be so generous. It seemed pretty obvious to him that there had been two children in her marriage. He found it inexplicable that women were frequently attracted to the inadequate types who traded on their boyish charm.
‘And is your daughter…?’
Natalie’s expression softened. ‘Rose.’
‘Is Rose ill often?’
‘No more than a lot of children,’ Natalie replied defensively. ‘Well,’ she conceded, her eyes falling self-consciously from his, ‘I suppose she is. She’s asthmatic. She’s fine normally with the medication. Only winter’s not a good time…a cold or virus can trigger a nasty attack in some sensitive people.’
‘I’ve heard that pollution from exhaust fumes and so forth can make matters worse.’
His depth of knowledge surprised her. ‘It doesn’t help,’ she agreed, nodding her thanks stiffly as he opened the passenger door of a black Jag. She slid inside the luxurious interior, her tense back remaining a good two inches clear of the backrest as Rafe belted himself into the driver’s seat.
‘Haven’t you considered moving out of the city—if it would improve your daughter’s health?’
Natalie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and threw him an impatient look. ‘Some of us have to live where the work is.’ She gave a dry laugh. ‘Always supposing I still have work. Does it feel good to h
old my fate in your hands?’
Dark colour scored the slashing angles of his high cheekbones as he turned the key in the ignition. The powerful engine came to life. ‘You’ve got me—we egomaniacs just love wielding power.’ He turned his head and his dark lashes dipped as his glance moved with deliberation over the length of slender body. ‘Only actually in this instance it felt even better to hold your body in my hands.’ A firm, supple and surprisingly strong body that had proved amazingly responsive to his lightest touch.
For the briefest of moments their eyes collided. The anger in his made her recoil, but it wasn’t the anger that made her look away, her heart thudding hard against her ribcage. The message in his smoky eyes had been explicitly sexual in nature…and worse was the fact her entire body responded to what she had seen.
God, she despaired, I am obviously a desperately shallow person and a terrible mother to boot to be feeling this way when my daughter is lying sick in hospital.
‘I think we should discuss what happened back there…’
Natalie shook her head. ‘As far as I’m concerned it didn’t happen.’ If she told herself this often enough, maybe she would even start believing it herself. She thought for a moment he was going to contest her statement, but after a brief nod in her direction he returned his attention to the road.
It had taken Rafe several frustrating minutes to find a parking space, so when he walked into the busy casualty department he had no expectation of finding Natalie still there.
She was.
He summed up the situation at one glance. Natalie was standing at the back of a queue several people deep that had built up behind an aggressively awkward drunk who was giving the young woman at the reception desk in the busy casualty department a hard time.
‘I know my rights!’ the dishevelled figure slurred loudly enough for Rafe and everyone around to hear.
Natalie, who was struggling to contain her impatience, heard the subdued murmurs of complaint as someone shouldered through the people who were waiting ahead of her, but didn’t pay much attention. It wasn’t until a few moments later when she glanced up that she recognised the tall, broad-shouldered figure. She cringed with embarrassment when she saw what he was doing!