Heat shot through her at his words and her breathing quickened. Aware that she had never been a good liar, she decided to be direct. ‘I admit there’s something between us. A physical attraction, nothing more,’ she said rapidly. Her heart gave a squeeze of regret and her spine stiffened. ‘Whenever we meet, you delight in baiting me. Judging by our track record so far, we don’t actually get along.’
He gave her that infuriating half-smile of his. ‘Of course we do, Luna.’
She had to admit, they’d never had a dull conversation. That wasn’t the point. She lifted her chin. ‘I think you must be one of the most arrogant men I’ve ever had the misfortune to come across.’
‘You love it.’
The nerve of the man!
‘You’re completely egotistical.’
‘I’m exactly what you need. Someone who’s strong enough to challenge you. Someone who can stop you being afraid and bring out all the passion you’re so intent on hiding underneath that prim manner of yours.’ He was still inches away and though he didn’t move any closer, his blue gaze sparked with intensity. ‘I could make love to you now, here, immediately.’
‘You forget that it takes two to tango.’
‘Oh, but you forget, I’ve seen how you tango, Luna.’
How could she forget? Still, she didn’t allow herself to dwell on the thought. ‘Trust me, doctor, there’ll be no encore!’ she snapped.
He sighed. ‘Truly, Luna, the way between us has become such a stony path that I’m beginning to think fate has a warped sense of humour.’
‘It’s your doing, Ruy. It’s entirely your fault that we can never be friends.’ She pulled some sheets off the printer and slid them into her bag. ‘When I first saw you, I liked you.’
‘You don’t like me now?’
She turned to him, her voice wavering. ‘You do nothing to help me. All you care about is getting me into bed,’ she exclaimed tremulously.
The smile on his face faded. He looked offended by her remark and she caught something dark and unfathomable in his indigo eyes.
Her tone softened. ‘Thank you for the dressing.’ She closed her bag and slowly exhaled. It cost her to reject him again but, if she did not assert herself now, the way ahead would be more than stony and she could not let herself go down that path unprotected. ‘Is there anything you want me to prepare for tomorrow?’
‘Tomorrow,’ he echoed.
‘Yes, I mean for work.’
For a long moment he stared at her. ‘Very well, Luna. Tomorrow we’ll talk about work, not now.’ His expression had become unreadable again.
She glanced at her watch. ‘It’s late. I really must go. I need to get an early night.’
‘Yes, you need to go home and rest that hand.’
She flashed him an impersonal smile and walked past him to the door without looking back. Maybe after this he would stop trying to break through her barriers, even if her heart ached at the thought.
‘And Luna?’
Her hand paused on the door handle as she glanced at him. ‘Yes, Ruy?’
‘I promise not to pursue you any more.’ His voice was firm but husky. ‘However, there’s nothing to stop you from changing your mind, whenever you want.’ He gave her one last burning look. ‘When you do, I’ll be there.’
* * *
For the rest of the week Luna concentrated on familiarizing herself with the work at the Institute. The more case studies she read, the more her previous scepticism began to be replaced with interest and a grudging respect for much of Ruy’s work. He combined clinical thoroughness with a holistic approach, encompassing the complex psychological impact of his patients’ illnesses and managing each case with intelligent sensitivity.
Ruy breezed in and out of the office but, since their confrontation in the laboratory, he treated Luna with courteous professionalism: never an inappropriate word or an improper glance. In the end, she had gone to the farmacia in the centre of town to have her hand redressed. Ruy had done a good job, and the wound had healed well. If he noticed that she’d quietly managed this herself, he said nothing. Other than enquire how her hand was, now that she had a large plaster on her palm, he asked no personal questions.
She preferred it this way, Luna told herself. With any luck, they would both be so busy channelling their energies into their working partnership that the more they got to know each other, the more this annoyance of an attraction between them would fizzle out.
Whenever they did speak, Luna still found Ruy fascinating in the way he became animated by new ideas. So rather than Luna’s personal interest in him waning, as she had hoped it would, her respect for him continued to grow. More and more, she regarded him with a new curiosity, realizing that he was a man driven by his passions in every way. She tried to pretend she didn’t miss that fervour directed at her, but nonetheless often watched him for clues as to what he was thinking.
At one point, when she mentioned to him that she wanted to know more about herbs, he gave her a couple of journals on herbal remedies that the Institute had published.
‘Read these,’ he suggested. ‘You can make notes and keep them if you want. We’ve got plenty of copies. When you know a little more about it, I’ll take you into the hills so you can see the herbs growing and get to know the way they look, feel and smell. Touch and smell are very important in our business.’
Had she noticed a slight flicker of amusement at the corner of his mouth as he had said that? Did his words hide a more provocative meaning?
You’re reading too much into it. Stop looking for signs that he’s still interested, she told herself.
So Luna wrapped her pride tightly around herself and tried to ignore the distracting effect he still had on her.
Then there was Vaina, a name that often occurred in Luna’s thoughts like an evil genie, causing her a pang of jealousy that always managed to annoy her and spoil the rest of her day. The managing director often visited Casa Vistaria, always elegant, not a hair out of place, not a flaw on her beautifully made-up face, leaving a trail of expensive exotic scent in her wake. Invariably, there was some excuse or other for her to enquire about ‘El Medico’, as she always referred to him. When Ruy was around, they spent hours closeted in his office. On those days, despite her best efforts to shrug it off, an irritability would descend upon Luna like a thick cloud, which even Charo, Casa Vistaria’s ray of sunshine, was unable to penetrate.
It was now Friday and Luna had spent the whole morning in her office, organizing the research files into a new system that she found more efficient and easier to access. It was also a good opportunity to select the best ones for her article.
A rapid knock sounded on the door and Charo’s beaming face appeared.
‘So, are you still coming this evening?’ she said without preamble. ‘What time shall I pick you up?’
Luna looked up from her desk with a confused look. ‘This evening?’
‘Yes, the Vargas exhibition. Remember?’
Luna had almost forgotten about her promise and would have preferred to stay late to finish what she was doing. Still, Charo had been so helpful in the past week it would be churlish to back out now.
‘Oh yes, of course. Actually, would you mind if I met you there? I would really like to finish this before the weekend. I might need to stay for an extra hour.’
Charo gave her a mock-despairing look. ‘Really, Luna, those files won’t run away over the weekend.’ She leaned on the doorframe, crossing her arms. ‘You’ve been working hard all week. Let your hair down, it’s Friday night.’
‘It won’t take long.’ Luna smiled apologetically. ‘I’ll be there by eight, don’t worry. I’ll come and find you.’
Charo narrowed her eyes impishly. ‘If you’re not, I’ll come looking for you.’
Luna burst into the first laugh she’d had in a long time. ‘In that case, I’ll be sure to work faster.’
Luna smiled fondly after her as Charo left the room and then closed the file in fro
nt of her. It was nearly midday so she thought she’d break for something quick to eat in the staff restaurant – she hadn’t been down there yet. Grabbing some notes to read, she headed out of her office.
Ten minutes later, she was sitting at a wooden table in the corner of a bright and airy room in the main building, which looked out on to the central courtyard. With its terracotta flagstone floor, high-beamed ceiling and giant potted ferns, it was a cool refuge from the noonday sun that bore down on the courtyard garden outside.
The restaurant was already filling up with people. Surrounded by the rising chatter, Luna’s head was down, distractedly eating a seafood salad while flicking through her pages of notes, when a familiar deep voice interrupted her.
‘Do you ever take a break, Luna?’
Her head snapped up. Ruy stood there holding a tray, unfeasibly handsome in a simple white shirt tucked into jeans, having discarded his lab coat. Luna kept her eyes resolutely on his face.
‘I am taking a break. I’m eating.’ She lifted a fork to emphasize her point.
Ruy shook his head, amusement creasing the edges of his eyes as he took off his glasses and put them in the top pocket of his shirt. Little wonder she hadn’t recognized him from the picture in her notes – he looked so different now and his hair was much longer. Luna’s mind snapped back to the reason why she had a file on him, and she was aware of a shiver of guilt.
‘You know, sometimes it’s important to clear your head of work entirely. Do you mind if I join you briefly?’
‘Not at all,’ she lied, smiling politely. Now that he was here, she had little choice but to let him sit down. Luna was on her guard; particularly given her pulse was quickening, as it always did whenever Ruy appeared.
He set down his tray and slid his muscular frame into the chair opposite. Glancing at the heading of her notes, he opened his bottle of mineral water and took a swig. ‘I’m glad you’re looking at the intravenous Vit C therapy,’ he said, nodding over to the paper. ‘What do you think? I’d be interested to hear your views.’
Luna didn’t have to feign interest. ‘I have to say, it’s fascinating with regard to melanomas and anything relatively chemo-resistant. The results I’ve been looking at suggest a fairly consistent level of tumour cells destroyed with the high-dosage infusions.’
‘Good. Next week, I’d like to look at some additional statistical research on the probability of melanomas reacting favourably to a mixture of both Vit C and Vit K,’ he said, tucking into his sandwich. He ate with such an obvious appetite that Luna’s thoughts took an unwanted turn. Ruy raised his thumb to his lips and gave it a lick.
Unsettled, Luna quickly looked down at her food. ‘Yes, of course,’ she said.
Needing something to occupy her hands, she pushed her fork around her plate distractedly. He really did have the most attractive mouth she had ever seen.
Any woman would fall at his feet, and no doubt did – all the time.
Luna, stop torturing yourself.
She let out a silent exhalation and focused her thoughts. ‘I’ve been through a substantial number of the case files this week,’ she said, ‘and I can see why the press is sitting up and taking notice of your results. Do you think it’ll help get more funding for trials?’
‘Yes, that’s the aim,’ he said. ‘Double-blind trials, the full complement. It could well change the whole terrain for us. I don’t think the medical establishment will change its tune, or the pharma moguls for that matter, but it’ll be a start. Public opinion is always far more ready to shift direction than those tunnel-visioned monoliths.’
‘I’ve heard they’re nervous, though. That you might be redrawing the map.’
Ruy nodded in between bites. ‘And so they should be.’ He paused to take a gulp of water. ‘Actually, I’m not sure they really are. They’re so blinded by their own limited viewpoint: the gospel according to orthodoxy.’
Luna watched him speculatively. ‘I’ve read quite a few of your articles. You really do have it in for the pharma industry.’
He shrugged. ‘If I can stir up controversy about Big Pharma, then I’ll take every opportunity to do so. Profit has become their religion, the shareholders more important than the public they should serve.’ His eyes were flashing now. She had definitely touched a nerve. ‘The research and development budgets they claim are obscenely higher than what they actually spend on new drugs. It’s not just me. Every oncologist I know has been questioning drug pricing, saying the industry has lost its moral compass.’ He paused and fixed Luna with a sudden quiet intensity, making her pulse dance again. ‘So you’ve taken an interest in my articles, Luna?’
She blinked but hardly missed a beat. ‘Of course. Wouldn’t you expect any newcomer to do their homework?’
‘I’m sure you’ve always been the kind of girl to do your homework, Luna.’ He threw her a devilish grin and took another deep gulp from his water bottle. ‘I bet you were top of your class at school.’
She deflected his gentle mockery with a smile of her own. ‘Naturally.’
Luna speared a tiger prawn and popped it in her mouth, then caught him watching her lips, his gaze suddenly more intent. She swallowed quickly. Wanting to dispel the familiar charged atmosphere that had crept back between them, she groped for something to say.
‘What inspired you to go into medicine?’
There was a subtle lift of his brow at her sudden change of subject.
‘Well now, there’s a question,’ he replied, and took an orange from the fruit bowl on the table. He sat back and began peeling it with long, deft fingers. ‘Luckily, my own family are fit and healthy and always have been,’ he continued. ‘But when I was a child, I saw many of the gypsies from the camp get sick and refuse outside help. Some were critically ill and could have been saved. Like my friend Chico’s father, who died from a ruptured appendix and septicaemia. As a young boy, I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to stop people suffering unnecessarily. I wanted to make a difference in the world.’ He grinned sheepishly, acknowledging how dewy-eyed it sounded. ‘Yes, I know that sounds a bit like a Miss World acceptance speech but it’s true. That, and curiosity.’
He discarded the orange peel and his eyes flicked up to hers. ‘Isn’t that what made you become a scientist, Luna, curiosity?’
Luna found herself drawn into Ruy’s mesmerizing blue gaze. ‘Yes, I suppose it was,’ she admitted. ‘Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to know how things work, and why.’
He smiled at her, rubbing his smoothly shaved jaw in contemplation. ‘I imagine you were a rather serious schoolgirl.’
‘Perhaps,’ she agreed matter-of-factly. ‘I was certainly more likely to be doing an experiment in my bedroom than playing with dolls.’
His mouth twitched. ‘Somehow I have no trouble picturing that. Orange?’ He held out half the peeled fruit to her.
‘No, thank you.’ She watched him bite into a segment and his eyes caught hers, sparkling with some secret amusement. ‘I’ve been organizing the files into a more efficient system,’ she added quickly.
‘I’m sure you have, Luna.’
‘There seems to be a lot that needs cross-referencing. It’s a labyrinth of information, and frankly it’s a wonder you can find your way around it.’
‘Most of it is up here.’ He tapped the side of his head.
‘Which is no good to other people,’ she said, giving him a wry look.
He shot her his slow, lazy smile. ‘Then I’m relieved you’re here to save me from my own inefficiency. It’s impressive that you’ve found the time to do it in between the research projects you’ve started.’
‘I’m very organized.’
‘Again, I don’t doubt it,’ he said, grinning. ‘Seriously, if the Institute is ever going to make a watertight case for the use of mind-body medicine alongside our nutritional supplements we do need all the data and I imagine you might well be our secret weapon there if your organizational skills are as good as they seem. By the way, you
’ll need to make mind-body medicine your study if you’re to understand our holistic programme of treatment here. After all, even at a basic level, both positive and negative emotions produce a spectrum of physiological effects – chest pains, dizziness, sweating.’
He leaned back further in his chair and a sardonic glint came into his eye. ‘Then of course there’s increased heart rate and blood flow, the obvious arousal sensations, dilated pupils, blushing …’ His gaze held hers, unwavering. ‘The list goes on.’
As if on cue, her cheeks began to warm, making her curse her predictability. There it was again, that crackling heat between them. Somewhere inside Luna, a warning voice whispered, while another part of her thrilled at the way he was looking at her.
She managed to keep her voice even. ‘I’ve been reading plenty of critical articles about certain elements of mind-body medicine. Perfectly reputable scientists saying the science behind it is inconclusive,’ she told him.
‘Is that our devil’s advocate speaking again?’
‘It’s something you need to consider if you’re going to defend it,’ she pointed out.
‘True. Which is why we need to present the results we’ve been achieving at the clinic – and why, Queen Organizer, we need your exemplary filing skills!’
His smile melted into a more scrutinizing expression.
‘It’s quite extraordinary how you can direct a person’s mental and spiritual energies towards physical healing. Some of the things I’ve witnessed have defied belief, Luna,’ he said earnestly. ‘It’s equally strange how emotional problems can manifest in myriad unconnected symptoms.’
Something intense and searching flared in his eyes as if he were seeing into her soul. Luna stirred uneasily in her chair: was he perceiving something in her that she always strove to keep hidden? His stare was so probing and yet so gentle that Luna almost wanted to throw herself into his arms and bare all her pain and scars to him then and there; instead she looked away and poured herself another glass of water.
What he said next, without any preamble, was like an arrow meeting its mark. ‘What made you want to come to the Institute, Luna?’ She was almost caught off guard. There it was. His comment was perfectly straightforward and, although Luna had rehearsed what she would say if she were asked the question, it still managed to disconcert her.
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