‘So how is your day going?’ His fingers lingered at the base of her throat. ‘Do you feel properly thanked?’
‘I can’t possibly accept any of this.’
‘Of course you can. It is nothing.’
To him, maybe, but she suspected that the necklace alone was worth more than she earned in a year. ‘I’m just trying it on, that’s all. And then I’m taking it straight off.’
‘Why would you want to do that?’
‘Because this is not my life.’
He turned her gently until she was facing the mirror. ‘So who is that, if it isn’t you?’
Faith barely recognised herself. Her hair fell past her shoulders like sleek, polished gold, the diamonds glinted against her pale skin and the dress hugged her figure. She felt like a princess. ‘Maybe I’ll wear it just for this evening.’ She almost laughed at her own weakness. ‘But then I’m giving it back.’
Acknowledging her internal battle, Raul smiled. ‘We’ll have dinner on the terrace. The view is very pretty.’
‘So do you do this often?’
He dismissed the staff with a discreet movement of his head and reached over to pour her another glass of wine. ‘Eat dinner? Yes. All the time.’
‘No, I mean—’ She glanced down at herself. ‘Play the part of the fairy godmother.’
‘It’s fun buying gifts for a woman who appreciates them.’ He watched her across the table. ‘You’re not eating. Aren’t you hungry?’
Her stomach was churning so badly that she just couldn’t touch the food. ‘No. No, I’m not. Sorry. It looks really delicious but—’
He gave a slow smile. ‘You don’t need to apologise for the fact that I’m putting you off your food. I take it as a compliment.’
‘You’re very sure of yourself.’
‘And you’re very nervous, and I can’t understand why. Don’t they have men in England?’
Not men like him. ‘I’ve been too busy working to notice men,’ she said lightly and his eyes narrowed.
‘You are very dedicated to your work. Why did you choose to become a vet?’
‘I always wanted to. My father was a vet and I grew up helping alongside him. Even when I was small, he’d involve me in some way and he always encouraged me.’
‘He is proud of you, I’m sure.’
Faith hesitated. ‘He and my mother died two years ago,’ she said quietly. ‘That’s one of the reasons I came to Argentina. I missed them so much and I knew I needed to do something different. I thought combining travel with work might be the distraction I needed.’
‘What about marriage and babies?’ His tone was casual but when she looked at him his gaze was sharp and incisive as if the answer to that question mattered to him. ‘When women think about the future it almost always contains a wedding ring.’
‘That’s a typically Argentine-male comment,’ she teased, giving up on her food and putting her fork down. ‘Be honest—you don’t think a woman can do anything except stay at home and breed, do you?’
‘It’s what most women want. Don’t you?’
‘No. Not right now. In the future? Who knows?’ She glanced towards the stillness of the lake. ‘The future feels miles away when you’re out here. I’m too young to even think about that. I have my whole career ahead of me. In another ten years or so, maybe.’ She shrugged. ‘It just isn’t what I want. I love my job.’ She watched the sunset, admiring the shimmering red glow that was reflected in the still water of the lake. ‘What about you? No wife? No babies?’
Something flickered in his dark gaze. ‘Absolutely not.’
‘You mean, you don’t want it now.’
His long strong fingers tightened ruthlessly round the wine glass. ‘I don’t want it ever. Remember that, Faith.’ There was a steeliness in his voice that made her look at him more closely but his handsome face revealed nothing.
She frowned, sensing undertones that she didn’t understand and feeling puzzled by them. ‘Why would I need to remember it?’
‘It’s just something that I like to make clear,’ he said softly, ‘early in a relationship.’
Heat rushed through her body. ‘Are we having a relationship?’
‘I don’t know,’ he replied softly, his dark eyes fixed on hers. ‘Are we?’
CHAPTER THREE
Ten months later
‘SHE just stepped in front of the taxi without looking. According to a man who witnessed the accident, she’s lucky to be alive.’
Lucky?
Lying in the hospital bed, listening to those words, Faith decided that it was better to keep her eyes closed. She didn’t feel lucky.
‘Any news on next of kin?’ The doctor spoke again and Faith felt the dull pain inside her intensify to serious agony.
No next of kin.
She’d lost everything and it was hard to know whether her injuries were more severe on the outside or the inside.
‘None. She had no identification on her when she was brought in—they assume someone must have stolen her bag. Her dress was expensive, though,’ the nurse murmured enviously. ‘Some flashy designer label I couldn’t afford in a month of Sundays. Take it from me, she’s either got a good job or a very rich and generous boyfriend.’
‘Well, we can’t discharge her until we know she has a home to go to. It’s very inconvenient because she’s blocking a bed.’ The doctor sounded impatient. ‘Someone should have missed her by now.’
Only if someone cared, Faith thought bleakly. In her case, no one did.
‘Faith? Are you awake?’
Resigning herself to the fact that they wouldn’t go away until she’d spoken, Faith reluctantly opened her eyes and the doctor gave a wintry smile.
‘How are we today?’ He spoke in the faintly patronising tone that he obviously reserved for patients.
‘I’m fine.’ No point in telling the truth. ‘Much better.’
‘I expect you’re longing to go home.’
Home? Where was home? For the past year it had been Argentina and she’d thought …
Faith turned her head away, realising with a sickening lurch of horror that she was going to cry. The misery had been bubbling up inside her for days and suddenly it felt almost too enormous to hold back.
With a huge effort of will, she tried to focus her mind on something neutral. She wasn’t going to think about Argentina, she wasn’t going to think about the fact that she didn’t have a job or a home any more, but most of all she wasn’t going to think about …
She gave a tortured groan and curled into a foetal position, her thoughts so agonising that she just wanted to remove them from her head.
‘Are you in pain?’ The doctor leaned towards her, frowning. ‘I can give you something for it.’
Not for this type of pain. Faith squeezed her eyes tightly shut. ‘It’s all a hideous mess.’
‘Your head? It’s nothing that time won’t heal. Your hair will cover the scar.’
‘Not my head,’ Faith muttered. ‘My life.’
‘She’s obviously worrying about her head—how’s the wound, nurse? Everything healing?’
Realising that no one was remotely interested in how she really felt, Faith kept her eyes closed, wishing they’d go away and leave her alone.
‘Last time I saw it everything was healing beautifully,’ the nurse said briskly. ‘It will be a very neat scar.’
On the outside, maybe, Faith thought to herself. But on the inside it was a deep, ugly gash that would never heal.
Clearly oblivious to the true extent of his patient’s trauma, the doctor gave a nod of approval. ‘You’ve made a remarkable recovery considering the condition you were in two weeks ago. We need to start talking about discharging you.’ He cleared his throat and glanced at the chart again. ‘You need to go home to family or friends. You can’t be on your own at the moment.’
Faith’s lips were so dry she could hardly speak. ‘I’ll be fine on my own.’
Just saying the words intensified
the sick throbbing in her head.
How had she ended up at this point?
The doctor gave an impatient sigh. ‘You haven’t given us details of your next of kin. There must be someone. Or do you think it’s possible that you are suffering some degree of memory loss after all?’
Faith opened her eyes. ‘My parents died nearly three years ago and I’m an only child,’ she said wearily, wondering how many times she had to repeat herself. ‘And my memory is fine.’ Unfortunately. Given the nature of her memories, she would have paid a great deal for a serious bout of amnesia. Nothing too dramatic. As long as she lost all knowledge of the last couple of months, she’d be happy.
She wanted the whole nightmare erased from her head for ever.
But in her case it wasn’t forgetting that was the problem, it was remembering.
She remembered everything and the memories tortured her.
All she wanted to do was cover herself with the duvet and just sob and sob and the fact that she felt like that was terrifying because it was so unlike her.
Where was her energy and drive? What had happened to her natural inclination to fight problems with grit and determination?
She’d always been resilient. Life could be tough, she knew that.
But although she’d always known that life could be tough, she’d had no idea it could be quite this tough.
Panicked by how truly awful she felt, she rolled onto her back and stared up at the cracked ceiling—but somehow the cracks looked like the curve of a beach and soon the images in her head were of a laughing, naked woman and a spectacularly handsome man.
She gave a groan of denial and covered her face with her hands. It didn’t matter what she did or where she looked, the memories were everywhere. She felt drained and empty, lacking the physical or emotional energy to drag herself out of the dark pit of despair that was sucking her down and down.
In the bed opposite, an old lady rambled and muttered, confused and disorientated by her surroundings. ‘Doctor, doctor!’
Muttering something under his breath to the nurse, the doctor turned. ‘Yes, Mrs Hitchin?’ His manner and tone were a study of exaggerated politeness. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘You can marry me, that’s what you can do!’ The old lady’s tone was sharp. ‘No more messing me around! Do what you promised to do and stop running away from your responsibilities.’
The nurse covered her mouth with her hand to conceal the laugh and the doctor’s face turned a deep shade of beetroot.
‘You’re in hospital, Mrs Hitchin!’ He raised his voice and separated each syllable, as if he were speaking to a very slow child. ‘And I’m a doctor!’
‘Well, I’m glad you finally made something of yourself.’ The old lady waggled a finger at Faith. ‘Don’t believe a word he says to you. Men are all the same. They want all the fun and none of the responsibility.’
Faith gave a choked laugh. ‘I could have done with that advice a few months ago, Mrs Hitchin.’ Then perhaps she wouldn’t have made such a complete and utter wreck of her life.
Another nurse hurried into the room, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glowing. Excitement radiated from her like a forcefield and she had the look of a woman just bursting with serious gossip.
Her eyes slid to Faith and her expression changed to one of awe and fascination. ‘I know you think your memory is fine, Faith,’ she said sympathetically. ‘But I’m afraid we now have evidence that you are suffering from amnesia.’
Faith gritted her teeth. ‘My memory is fine.’
‘Really? Then why can’t you remember that you’re married? You’re married to a billionaire,’ the nurse said faintly. ‘And he’s standing outside right now waiting to claim you. I mean, he’s gorgeous, sexy—’
‘Nurse!’ Dr Arnold interrupted her with a scowl and the nurse blushed.
‘All I’m trying to say,’ she muttered, ‘is that he just isn’t the sort of man any woman would ever forget. If she really doesn’t remember him, then she definitely has amnesia.’
Simmering with impatience, Raul glanced at the Rolex on his wrist, oblivious to the fact that the force of his presence had brought the entire hospital ward to a standstill. Like a thoroughbred racehorse at the starting gate, he radiated coiled, suppressed energy, as confident and unselfconscious in this environment as he was in every other, his powerful legs planted firmly apart, his intelligent dark eyes fixed on the room straight ahead of him.
Female members of staff suddenly found reasons to hover around the central nurses’ station, distracted by the unexpected presence of such a striking man.
Raul didn’t notice.
He was entirely focused on the task in hand and this brief, unexpected delay in reaching his final objective was a thorn of irritation under his richly bronzed skin.
A lesser man might have spent the time worrying that the information he’d received might be wrong, that it wasn’t her. Raul had no such concerns. He only employed the best. His security team had been hand-picked and the possibility that they might have made a mistake didn’t enter his head.
Barely containing his impatience, he stood still for a full thirty seconds—which was twenty-five seconds longer than he’d ever waited for anything in his life before—and then took matters into his own hands and strode purposefully across the corridor and into the six-bedded side ward.
The doctor greeted his sudden entrance with a murmur of disapproval that Raul ignored. His gaze swept the room and came to rest on the slender figure of the woman lying in the bed by the window.
The anger that had been building inside him erupted with lethal force and he ran his hand over the back of his neck in order to stop himself from punching something. And then he took a closer look at the solitary figure staring up at the ceiling and the anger died, only to be replaced by a surge of very different emotions.
Emotions that he didn’t want to feel. Primitive urges that mocked his belief in his own sense of discipline and self-control.
Raul almost laughed. The weakness of man was woman, and that hadn’t changed since the beginning of time. From Eve in the Garden of Eden and Pandora with her box, for every man there was one woman who seemed to be designed for the express purpose of complicating life.
And for him, that woman was lying in front of him.
He could negotiate the most complex business deal without once losing his clarity of thinking but here, in the same room as her, a witch’s cauldron of emotions stirred to life, clouding everything.
‘Faith.’ His strong voice reverberated round the small room and her head turned, her expressive green eyes widening with horror and disbelief as she saw him.
‘No!’ Immediately she shrank under the blankets and her reaction was like a fist in his gut but the biggest shock was seeing the remains of the bruises on her face and shoulders before they vanished under the covers.
‘What happened to you?’ Two weeks before her mouth had been permanently curved into a happy smile and her blonde hair had rippled down her back. Now it was cropped short in a rough, jagged style that made her eyes look huge and her face pale and vulnerable. And there was no trace of the cheeky, teasing smile that was so much a part of her.
Kiss me, Raul, go on. You know you want to. Forget about work.
That one brief glance had been enough to show him that she’d lost weight. She’d always been fine-boned and delicate but now her skin seemed almost preternaturally pale and her jagged haircut gave her face an almost ethereal quality. When had that happened?
Why hadn’t he noticed?
Something tugged at him and he ruthlessly pushed the feeling away.
She’d brought this on herself. And on him.
The doctor cleared his throat. ‘We were forced to cut her hair when we were dealing with her injuries.’
‘Dios mío, she’s skin and bone.’ Caught broadside by emotions that he hadn’t expected, Raul directed the full force of his anger towards the doctor. ‘Don’t you feed your patients in t
his hospital?’
Clearly unaccustomed to such full-on confrontation, the doctor fiddled nervously with the charts he was clutching. ‘Faith suffered a head injury,’ he stuttered. ‘She was unconscious for a while. Her rapid recovery is nothing short of remarkable. We saved her life.’
‘Good,’ Raul said coldly, his eyes focusing on the doctor’s badge as he committed the name to memory. ‘Because if you hadn’t then your days of practising medicine would now be over. How was she injured?’
The nurse stepped forward swiftly, obviously hoping to smooth the situation. ‘According to witnesses, she walked in front of a car just outside the airport terminal. It was as if she wasn’t looking.’
Raul strode over to the bed, his mouth tightening as she turned her back on him and pulled the covers even higher.
That simple gesture said more than words ever could and suddenly he was gripped by the unfamiliar tentacles of guilt. He thrust them aside, reminding himself that he had no reason to feel guilty.
She’d done this to them.
He’d been up front and honest from the start. She was the one who’d chosen to play elaborate female games. And it was time she acknowledged that. ‘Look at me!’
The lump in the bed didn’t move and he gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Running from a problem solves nothing. Have you any idea how worried I’ve been?’
The anger had burned inside him day and night for the past two weeks and he’d promised himself that when he finally caught up with her he would make sure that she was left in no doubt about his feelings.
For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to respond and then the figure in the bed moved slowly and she sat up.
The words died in his throat.
There was something about her appalling fragility that prevented him from venting the full force of his wrath. She looked as vulnerable and shaky as one of his newborn foals and Raul felt something twist inside him.
He’d always thought of her as strong and vibrant, but there was no sign of the energy and enthusiasm that he’d come to expect from her.
The shapeless hospital nightdress hung from her narrow shoulders, her eyes were shaded by dark bruises and there were scratches on her shoulders and arms.
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