by Sarah Morgan
Ben eased himself up on his elbows to look down at her. He tucked a wayward strand of her hair behind her ear with a touch so gentle Georgie felt tears prickling at the backs of her eyes. ‘A guy could get pretty used to having you look at him like that,’ he said.
She smiled as she traced her fingertip over the curve of his top lip. ‘A girl could get pretty used to having a guy look at her the way you do at me,’ she responded softly.
He pressed a soft-as-a-feather kiss to each of her eyelids before asking, ‘So that crazy idea of mine of pretending we’re having an affair is off, then, huh?’
‘What’s a thousand dollars anyway?’ she said with a smile. ‘It was worth it.’
He grinned as he brought his mouth back down to within a breath of hers. ‘How many condoms do you think you could buy with a thousand dollars?’
‘I don’t know. How many do you think?’
‘Let’s start counting,’ he said and took her to paradise once more.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
‘ONE hundred, two hundred, three hundred—’
‘Stop,’ Rhiannon said as Georgie counted out the hundred-dollar bills the following morning. ‘I have something to confess.’
Georgie let the next note flutter to the table. ‘What?’
Rhiannon bit her lip. ‘I’ve been seeing someone.’
Georgie’s eyes went out on stalks. ‘You have?’
Rhiannon nodded. ‘I was going to tell you a couple of days ago but I wasn’t sure if the guy felt the same way about me. We weren’t really dating …. sort of catching up.’ She gave a little grimace and added, ‘Sorry.’
‘Who is it?’ Georgie asked. ‘Anyone I know?’
‘Jules Littlemore.’
Georgie gaped at her. ‘Jules?’
‘Why are you so surprised? He’s a really decent man. I know he’s a couple of years younger than me but I’ve always liked him and when he kissed me I sort of … fell in love with him.’
‘I’m really glad for you, Rhiannon,’ Georgie said. ‘Jules is a great guy and perfect for you when I think about it.’
‘So you’re not angry at me?’
‘No,’ she said, smiling at her flatmate. ‘It was a stupid bet in the first place.’
‘So this relationship you’re having with Ben Blackwood is serious?’ Rhiannon asked.
Georgie had to wait until her belly stopped quivering in reaction to the very mention of his name. ‘We’re taking it one day at a time,’ she said. ‘We’re going to keep it quiet at the hospital for as long as we can. It will be difficult but we want to enjoy getting to know one another before we announce it to all and sundry.’
‘You’ve got that look on your face.’
‘What look?’
‘That dreamy I’m-in-love sort of look.’
‘I am in love,’ Georgie answered. ‘But this time I know it’s for real.’
Rhiannon frowned. ‘But he’s not blond.’
Georgie rolled her eyes. ‘That’s a truckload of nonsense, and you know it.’
‘It’s not!’ Rhiannon insisted. ‘Madame Celestia told me I would fall in love with someone I had known for years. She said I wouldn’t recognise him until Jupiter was in Venus … or was it Mars? I can’t quite remember. All I know is she has—’
‘Totally ripped you off,’ Georgie said, taking the money off the table.
‘Mock me all you like but I think she’s onto something,’ Rhiannon said with a little pout.
Georgie glanced at her watch. ‘I’ve got to fly,’ she said. ‘I’m meeting Ben in his office before I go to Theatre with Mr Vinay, one of the other neurosurgeons.’
The traffic was like a clogged artery all the way to the hospital. Georgie sat drumming her fingers on the steering-wheel impatiently as she waited for the traffic lights to go through yet another change without a single car moving forward. She hated the thought of wasting a minute when she could be in Ben’s arms again. He had made her feel so wonderful last night, so feminine and desirable. He had held her so tenderly, his breath feathering through her hair as he’d talked to her of his plans for the future. She had snuggled up close, breathing in the scent of their love-making, wondering if he felt even a fraction of what she felt for him. She certainly hoped so. He was so perfect for her in spite of what Rhiannon’s clairvoyant said, she thought with a wry smile.
His office door was closed when she finally got there and her hand stopped mid-air as she went to knock when she heard voices inside.
Male and female voices.
‘I love you, Ben,’ the female voice was saying. ‘I’ve always loved you. I made a terrible mistake in betraying you with my stupid little affair with Cain Osborne. You were so busy all the time and I felt neglected. I only got involved with him because he was so insistent and available and you were so distant. I know it was wrong but I felt so lonely waiting for you night after night.’
‘Leila, please—’
‘No,’ Leila said. ‘You have to listen to me, darling. Cain left me. It’s over, well and truly. I don’t love him like I love you. I never did. I want us to try again.’
Georgie felt her heart come to a clunking stop in her chest. She broke out in a cold sweat as the silence in the room lengthened.
Why was Ben taking so long to answer?
‘We were great together, Ben,’ Leila went on. ‘Surely you can’t deny it? Let’s start again but this time let’s do it properly.’
Another too-long silence.
‘So what you’re saying is you want to get married?’ Ben finally asked.
Georgie felt her knees give way and had to hold onto the wall to keep herself upright, the sound of her blood roaring in her ears.
‘Yes, Ben,’ Leila said softly. ‘That’s exactly what I’m saying. Let’s get married and have the family you’ve always wanted.’
Georgie had heard enough. Why hadn’t Ben told Leila he was involved with someone else? She stumbled away with her heart in tatters, her stomach rolling with nausea at how stupid she had been to fall in love with yet another man who had unfinished business with an ex-partner.
‘What’s taking Mr Blackwood so long this morning?’ the nurse on duty, Loretta Harold, asked Georgie as she joined the rest of the neurosurgical team for the first post-operative day ward round.
‘I’m sure he’ll be here as soon as he can,’ Georgie said, as she looked towards the bed where Emma was lying, dozing, her small figure looking pale and heart-wrenchingly vulnerable.
‘Here he is now,’ one of the medical students said as Ben walked in through the door.
Georgie concentrated on Emma’s chart before handing it back to Loretta, who was already filling in Ben on the details.
‘Emma had a restless night, finally getting to sleep in the early hours of the morning after enough morphine to knock out a footballer. She’s one tough kid.’
‘Emma, are you awake?’ Ben asked as he touched the young girl on the arm.
Emma stirred and groaned and then half opened her eyes to take in the three doctors, three students and a nurse standing around the end of her bed. ‘Am I OK?’ she asked.
‘Emma, the operation went very well,’ Ben said. ‘I’ve spoken to your parents. They’ve been sitting by your bed most of the night, and have only just gone home to get some sleep themselves. They’ll be back in this afternoon.’
Emma tried to sit up, but winced in pain and slumped back down on the pillows. ‘Did you get all of the tumour out, Dr Blackwood?’ she asked in a scratchy voice.
‘I think so, Emma. We took a long time, nearly four hours, looking for every spot of the tumour and trying not to damage any of the spinal nerves. But we have to see if there is any damage by testing the power and sensation in your lower limbs and trunk,’ he explained.
‘Will I be able to run and compete again?’
In spite of her anger towards him, Georgie felt for Ben at that moment. There was no way of knowing at this point whether Emma would even walk, let alone run. She
could see the tension on his face, even though he did his best to conceal it. No specialist liked being the harbinger of bad news and certainly not to a young active person.
‘I hope so, Emma,’ he said. ‘Now, can we see if you can wiggle your toes on both feet?’
Emma concentrated, looking hard at the feet as she tried to move them, but the toes remained immobile. ‘Nothing’s happening, Mr Blackwood,’ she said, clearly starting to panic as her eyes widened with fear. ‘I’m trying to move my toes but it’s as if the message isn’t getting through.’
‘OK, let’s try tensing your thigh muscles,’ Ben said calmly.
Emma concentrated again, and this time there was a tiny flicker of movement in the quadriceps.
‘That’s good, Emma,’ Ben said with visible relief. ‘Your upper leg muscles are moving. The more peripheral nerves are hopefully intact but they may take a bit longer to recover. I want you to try several times today to move each muscle in both legs, and I’ll see you again tomorrow. It might take several weeks for full recovery and then some physiotherapy to regain your muscle strength. When we’ve finished our ward round today, my registrar Georgie Willoughby is going to come back and document muscle movements more fully and map out the sensation in the legs. But from what I can see at the moment, we have at least a good chance that the nerves are functioning.’
He smiled at the young patient and added, ‘You might make the national athletics team yet, Emma.’
‘I’ll make it, Dr Blackwood,’ Emma said with a fiery glint of determination in her eyes. ‘Even if I have to compete in a wheelchair, I’m going to make it.’
He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. ‘That’s the spirit. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Georgie followed him out of the room and tagged along for the rest of the ward round, maintaining a low profile as he discussed each patient’s care with the medical students and the intern. He barely addressed a single question her way, which suited her perfectly. She caught his glance once or twice but quickly looked away again and concentrated on the patient being reviewed instead.
When the ward round came to an end she slipped away to prepare for theatre with Sankil Vinay, one of the other neurosurgeons.
Linda met up with Georgia in the change rooms after the routine list. ‘I was hoping to have a quiet word with you,’ she said. ‘Are you OK? You seemed a little upset when you came into Mr Vinay’s theatre earlier.’
‘I’m fine,’ Georgie answered with forced brightness in her tone. ‘We had a tough day in Theatre yesterday. The young track-and-field girl, Emma Stanley, really got to me, but I’m feeling a little better now that she’s got some muscle movement.’
‘Yes, I heard about her,’ Linda said. ‘Ben is amazing, isn’t he?’
Georgie averted her gaze to concentrate on folding her theatre scrubs into a neat little pile. ‘Yes … he is.’
‘Is it true you’re seeing him?’ Linda asked after a moment’s hesitation.
Georgie turned and looked at the theatre nurse eye to eye. ‘No, it’s not true,’ she said. ‘I’m actually seeing someone else.’
Linda looked surprised. ‘Who?’
‘Jules Littlemore,’ she answered, mentally asking Rhiannon to forgive her, not to mention Jules, whose eye she had been trying to catch on the ward round that morning. He had looked at her quizzically once or twice but she hadn’t been able to take him to one side to discuss her situation with him. She only hoped she could track him down before the hospital grapevine did.
‘Oh …’ Linda looked a little bewildered. ‘I must have got my wires crossed or something. I was sure I heard you and Ben were having a relationship.’
‘It happens all the time in hospitals,’ Georgie said. ‘Stories get twisted.’ She felt guilty for lying, but she wasn’t really thinking straight. Her emotions were in tatters.
‘Yes …’ Linda said, frowning as she took off her paper overshoes. ‘That must have been what happened.’
‘Jules, quick,’ Georgie said, grabbing at the intern’s shirt front outside A and E a short time later. ‘You have to help me.’
‘What’s wrong, Georgie?’ Jules asked. He could see she’d been crying. ‘You’ve been acting weird all morning with all that eye-flickering stuff. What’s going on?’
She led him to a storage room off the corridor and quickly explained her dilemma. ‘So, you see, I need you to pretend we’re having a hot affair, just for a day or so, please?’
Jules looked doubtful. ‘I don’t know …’
‘I’ll pay you the thousand dollars Rhiannon’s not getting, and I’ll clear it with her first.’
His cheeks went a dull shade of red. ‘I guess she told you, huh?’
‘Yes. So will you help me out?’
‘A thousand bucks will come in really handy,’ he said. ‘I just bought Rhiannon an engagement ring and my credit card is maxed out.’ He took the ring out of his pocket and showed it to her. ‘Do you think she’ll like it?’
Georgie’s happiness for her friends was spoilt by her own misery, but she didn’t let it show. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said. ‘Have you asked her yet?’
‘I was going to do it tonight,’ he said. Looking worried, he added, ‘Do you think she’ll say yes?’
She smiled and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. ‘Of course she will,’ she said. ‘She’s probably written it into the stars.’
‘Have you seen Georgie?’ Ben asked Linda outside his operating theatre close to lunchtime.
‘Yes, she was doing a list of minor cases with Sankil Vinay earlier,’ she answered. ‘I was just talking to her in the change rooms.’
‘I have to see her about Emma Stanley’s follow-up. Do you know where she is now?’
‘Probably canoodling in some corridor somewhere with Jules Littlemore,’ she said.
Ben’s brows snapped together. ‘What?’
Linda folded her arms. ‘She’s having a fling with your intern,’ she said. ‘She told me about fifteen minutes ago. And here everyone was thinking she was dating you. It just goes to show the danger of listening to idle gossip, doesn’t it?’
Ben felt his gut begin to tighten but he forced himself to relax. Surely Georgie had only said that to put Linda off. They’d agreed to keep their relationship quiet for a few weeks—that had to be the explanation. It had to be.
It wasn’t, he realised less than ten minutes later when he walked into the doctors’ room and found his intern and his registrar in an embrace next to the coffee-machine. Anger rose in him so swiftly he had trouble containing his reaction. He closed the door with a sharp click and asked in a cool tone, ‘Is there any coffee left for anyone else, or have you two taken the lot?’
Ben watched as Georgie stepped out of Jules’s arms, her chin at that imperious angle he found so irritating, her expression showing not even a hint of remorse.
‘Oops,’ she said with a coy smile. ‘It looks like our secret is out, Jules.’
‘Er … yes.’ Jules said, flushing slightly.
Ben ground his teeth behind his cold smile. ‘If you want to keep your relationship a secret, you should pretend to be involved with someone else. Believe me, it works like a charm.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ Jules said, wincing as the door snapped shut on Ben’s exit.
Georgie blew out a breath and flopped into the nearest chair. ‘I think I’m going to cry, but if I start I’m not sure I’m going to be able to stop.’
Jules patted her on the shoulder. ‘You’ll find someone else, Georgie.’
‘I don’t want anyone else.’ She choked back a sob. ‘Why do all the men I fall in love with have to already belong to someone else?’
‘I hear Jules Littlemore is going out with Georgie Willoughby,’ Madeleine said to Ben the following day. Ben got to his feet and paced his office, which was difficult to do in the limited space. It only took two strides and he had to turn back. ‘I want her off my unit,’ he bit out. ‘I can’t work with her.’
Ma
deleine’s thin brows lifted. ‘She’s really got under your skin, hasn’t she?’
He turned to face her, his expression dark with brooding anger. ‘She had the audacity to sleep with me the night before she came out about her relationship with him. Can you believe that?’
‘That’s young women of today for you,’ Madeleine said. ‘They’re sexually aggressive and have the morals of alley cats.’
He shoved a hand through his hair. ‘I bet her father thinks she’s an angel. God, I wish I could tell him what a little tart he has for a daughter.’
‘She’s not worth it, Ben,’ she said. ‘Look at the trouble she’s already caused. Mr Tander is close to a nervous breakdown over her accusations, poor man.’
Ben frowned as he sat down. ‘I organised for Marianne Tander to have a whole body CAT scan,’ he said. ‘But she’s not well enough to be moved to X-Ray.’
‘Have you got access to her medical records?’
‘I’m working on it as we speak,’ he said. ‘I’ve got my secretary doing a ring around of the three major pathology labs to see if any bloods have been done on her in the last few months. The results should be faxed through in the next day or so, if not sooner.’
‘I saw Leila earlier today,’ Madeleine said after a small silence. ‘She looked pretty upset. She didn’t even acknowledge me on the way past.’
‘She came to see me about getting back together,’ he said, frowning slightly. ‘The guy she was seeing left her.’
Madeleine’s brows lifted again. ‘So are you going to resume your relationship with her?’
He sat back in his chair. ‘If anyone had asked me that even two weeks ago I would have probably given it some thought,’ he admitted.
‘Do you still feel anything for her?’
He let out a long-winded sigh. ‘I don’t understand the women of today,’ he said, knowing he wasn’t really answering her question. ‘They blow hot and cold until you don’t know what they want or feel.’
‘Not all women are like that,’ Madeleine said with a meaningful look.
Ben tried to let her down gently with a polite but distant smile. ‘I’m off dating,’ he said. ‘No dates for three months minimum … no, make that six months. I swear to God if I go on a date with a woman before June I will donate five thousand dollars to the hospital research foundation.’
