A Baby of His Own

by Jennifer Taylor

  ‘You won’t,’ he grated a second before his mouth claimed hers again.

  Lucy twined her arms around his neck and kissed him back, her lips opening so that he could deepen the kiss, and Connor felt his blood pressure shoot sky high. He knew there wasn’t a hope of him calling a halt if he let this continue, and knew too that he had to make sure she understood that. He might want to make love to her more than he wanted air to breathe, but it had to be her decision as well, not just his.

  He forced himself away from her and looked into her eyes. ‘If you want me to stop then say so now. I want to make love with you, Lucy, but it has to be what you want, too.’

  ‘It is.’ Reaching up, she kissed him on the mouth and there was no trace of doubt in her voice. ‘I want you, Connor. Just as much.’

  ‘Thank you.’ His voice shook but he didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything apart from the fact that he had won her back. When he started to unbutton her blouse, he could feel every nerve in his body go taut with anticipation. One button slid out and a second but then he had to stop because he was trembling uncontrollably.

  ‘Let me do it,’ she said, pushing his hands aside.

  Connor sank back on his heels as he watched her unfasten her blouse. She came to the last button and undid that too then paused. Her eyes were huge when she looked at him and he could see the invitation they held, yet he couldn’t make himself respond to it. He wanted to strip away the blouse, touch her, caress her, so much that it hurt, yet all the strength seemed to have seeped out of his muscles—and he couldn’t do a damned thing about it!

  ‘I can’t,’ he gritted out from between clenched teeth.

  ‘You mean you don’t want to…?’

  ‘No, I mean that I do. Too much!’

  Understanding crossed her face as she leant over and kissed him. ‘Then I’ll help you.’

  She sat up and shimmied out of the blouse, tossing it over the back of the sofa with a flourish that made him moan with frustration.

  Her hands went to the fastening on her bra as she looked at him with a question in her eyes, and somehow he managed to nod. She undid the hooks then it too went sailing over the back of the sofa. All she had on now was a pair of jeans—tight jeans which fitted her curves like a second skin—and he groaned.

  ‘This is sheer bloody torture,’ he muttered, trying—and failing—to make himself move.

  ‘Is it? Oh, dear.’ She leant towards him so that her breasts brushed against his chest and all the air rushed out of his body when he felt her nipples harden.

  ‘Torture,’ he repeated, because finding another way to describe the way he was feeling was beyond his capabilities right then. His body was in agony—desperate for her!

  ‘I don’t know what we can do about it, do you?’ She moved closer still, put her arms around him, held him so he could feel every soft, delectable inch, and all of a sudden power came surging back to him. Connor let out a gasp of relief as he wrapped his arms around her.

  ‘I think you might just have found the solution!’

  He kissed her hungrily then stripped off her jeans and panties. There was a burning hunger building inside him, an urgency that wouldn’t be quelled, and he didn’t try. He swore softly when he had to waste more precious seconds ridding himself of his own clothing because he could tell that she was as impatient as he was. Her arms were already reaching up to him as he lowered himself down to her and they closed around him as though they would never let him go again.

  They made love right there on the sofa and it was the most moving experience of his life. What started as an outlet for their passion turned into so much more. Lucy had been hurt and he tried to heal her pain, yet in doing so he found to his amazement that he healed a lot of his own pain as well.

  Tears ran down his cheeks as the memories of his childhood started to fade. He had carried the burden for such a long time yet now it felt as though it had been lifted off him. Maybe his mother hadn’t been able to love him but Lucy could. She would love and care for him and knowing that was the most wonderful gift she could have given him…apart from Izzy.

  That she had given him a child too seemed too much, and he cried with joy as well as relief. He had been given more than any man had the right to expect and he would always be grateful to her for that, always love her, always care for her. And in return he would give her everything he had—his heart, his soul, his life. She and Izzy were his whole world now, and he wanted to be their whole world, too.

  Lucy hadn’t believed that she could ever feel so happy. When she and Connor had been together before, part of her had always held back. She had known that he would leave her and her pleasure had been tinged with sadness, but not any more. She was happy from the top of her head to the tips of her toes—and every tiny bit in between!—and she couldn’t stop smiling.

  ‘You, Staff Nurse Adams, are grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat.’ Connor grinned himself as he propped himself up on his elbow, and she laughed.

  ‘Are you complaining?’

  ‘Nope. I most certainly am not.’ He kissed her softly on the mouth then smiled at her with a world of tenderness in his eyes. ‘I love seeing you smile, Lucy. I don’t ever want you to feel sad again.’

  ‘Far be it from me to tempt fate but I must say that it seems highly unlikely at this moment.’ She kissed him on the mouth, then on the nose and eyelids, because it was so wonderful to have that right restored to her. She could kiss him whenever and wherever she chose, and the thought made her grin all the more.

  ‘Hmm! Dare I ask what you’re thinking about?’

  ‘Of course you can ask. It doesn’t mean that I have to tell you, of course,’ she retorted, earning herself another kiss as a punishment…or maybe as a reward.

  The kiss was well on its way to turning into something more when there was a familiar buzzing sound from somewhere on the floor. Lucy groaned as she flopped back against the cushions. ‘Is that what I think it is?’

  ‘’Fraid so.’ Connor sighed as he reached for his jeans and hunted his pager out of the pocket. He checked the display then sat up. ‘It’s the hospital…surprise, surprise. I’m sorry, Lucy, but I can’t ignore it.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ she assured him, because it was true. Now that they seemed to have cleared everything up, she felt far more relaxed about his job. There would be times when his work would have to come first, but she understood that. As long as she knew that he would always try to make her and Izzy his main priority, she didn’t feel so threatened, and it was a relief to have the fear lifted off her.

  She kissed him quickly then got up, knowing that it wasn’t the right time to explain her feelings to him. He needed to respond to the call so she went into the bedroom for her robe while he phoned the hospital. He was already dressed when she came back and she frowned when she saw how grim he looked.

  ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘Alan Johnson and Amy Marshall have gone missing. Bea’s informed Security and they’re searching the hospital for them,’ he explained, zipping up his jeans. Alan’s case worker has been informed as well as Amy’s parents so I need to go in and talk to them.’

  ‘Where on earth have they gone?’

  ‘I’ve no idea but there’s going to be a hell of stink if we don’t find them soon.’ He strode to the door then paused and she could see the uncertainty in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Lucy. There’s such a lot of things we need to talk about…’

  ‘It can wait.’ She smiled at him, wanting to reassure him that he had no reason to worry. ‘I’m not going anywhere—are you?’

  ‘No.’ An expression of relief lit his face as he came back and kissed her quickly on the mouth. He rested his forehead against hers for a moment and she felt the tremor that ran through him. ‘I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.’

  Lucy smiled as he let her go and hurried out of the flat. Maybe it hadn’t been an actual declaration of love but it had been as good as one. Connor had promised that he wasn
’t going to leave her again and she knew that he had meant it, too.

  She tidied up, took her discarded clothes into the kitchen and popped them in the washing machine, then headed to the bathroom for a shower. Connor had forgotten to take his sweater with him and she smiled as she hung it on the towel rail because it seemed like an omen for the future. His clothes and hers would soon be sharing drawer space…

  Wouldn’t they?

  She paused, wondering where that doubt had appeared from. Everything that had happened in the past hour had proved that he cared about her so why should she start worrying about the future? Maybe he hadn’t told her that he loved her yet, but that would come later…

  Wouldn’t it?

  She quickly turned on the shower. It was stupid to let one doubt turn into a dozen. Either she trusted him or she didn’t, and she’d already decided which it was. Connor could never have made love to her like that if he hadn’t loved her!

  She stepped under the water, hoping the spray would wash away any more foolish ideas. Admittedly, there were a few things they needed to sort out, like his involvement with Dee, for instance, but she was confident there was an innocent explanation for that. The whole basis of love was trust and she wasn’t going to ruin things by not trusting him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ‘HAVE you checked the CCTV footage? I thought all the exits were supposed to be monitored.’

  Connor tried to curb his impatience as the head of the security unit explained that there was no sign of the children leaving the building on the video tapes. It was two hours since Amy and Alan had disappeared and the longer they were gone, the greater the danger they could be in.

  ‘Then we have to assume they are still inside the hospital. I’ll be here for the rest of the night so make sure you phone me as soon as you hear anything, please.’

  He put the phone back on its rest then turned to Bea and sighed. ‘Nothing. There’s no sign of the kids leaving the building so they must still be here somewhere. I suppose that’s something to be grateful for.’

  ‘But where are they? I mean, how can two kids just disappear?’

  ‘I wish I knew,’ he said grimly. He really could have done without this happening right now. He needed to spend more time with Lucy and make sure they had cleared up all the misunderstandings that had arisen recently. The thought that he might have put their reconciliation in jeopardy made him go cold until he remembered what she’d said to him before he’d left. She trusted in him now, and knew that he wouldn’t let her down again.

  The thought calmed him and he smiled at Bea. ‘Look, Bea, you’ve got to stop blaming yourself. Those kids obviously planned this and they were just waiting for the right moment to make their escape.’

  ‘I know that! But I’m supposed to be in charge of this ward so it’s my fault that they’ve gone missing. I’ll never forgive myself if anything happens to them—’

  ‘Nothing is going to happen to them,’ Connor said firmly. ‘They haven’t left the building so they can’t have gone far. The security guys will find them—you’ll see.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  Bea gave him a tight smile as she left the office. Connor followed her out but instead of going back to the ward, he made his way to the relatives’ room. Amy’s parents had arrived shortly after he had got there and he wasn’t looking forward to speaking to them.

  In the event, the meeting turned out to be every bit as fraught as he’d feared. Whilst he could appreciate that any parent would be upset in such circumstances, Amy’s parents seemed more concerned about suing the hospital trust for negligence than finding out where their daughter had gone. When Connor left them a short time later, he found it hard to hide his disgust. If they had put as much effort into being good parents as they put into making money then Amy might not have run away.

  It made him see why Lucy had been so worried about his involvement in Izzy’s life. There could be no half-measures when you were a parent. You had to put your child first and everything else second, and he smiled as he walked along the corridor. Once that idea would have been anathema to him but now it filled him with a real sense of purpose. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted to do more than make sure his precious little girl was loved and cherished…

  Apart from making sure that her mother was loved and cherished, too!

  There was still no sign of the missing children when Lucy arrived at work the following morning. The security team had searched the whole of the hospital to no avail. The police had been called in and they were taking statements from all the staff who’d been on duty the previous night.

  Lucy waited outside the office until Bea had finished giving her statement. She could see how upset the other woman looked after the police had left. ‘Still no news?’ she asked as she went into the room.

  ‘Nothing. I just don’t know where they’ve got to. The whole building has been searched and there’s no sign of them.’

  Lucy sighed. ‘It isn’t your fault, Bea. You weren’t to know they were planning this.’

  ‘That’s what Connor said.’ Bea managed to smile. ‘I thought I’d be in for a real rollicking but he was lovely about it. He’s changed such a lot, hasn’t he? Maybe Tom is right and it’s all down to the power of love. If that’s the case then the sooner Connor and Dee make it official the better is all I can say!’

  ‘You never know.’

  Lucy managed to smile but she couldn’t pretend the comment hadn’t hurt her. Obviously, people still believed that Connor and Dee were an item and it was upsetting to know that after what had happened the night before. She made up her mind to talk to him about it as soon as she could. They needed to put things right before it caused any more confusion. Once everyone found out that Connor was Izzy’s father, the rumour-mongers were going to have a field day!

  There was no time to speak to him then, unfortunately. Having the police there had set everything back and there were the breakfasts to sort out and obs to be checked. Lucy did the obs with Sandra while Mary Morris, one of their part-time staff, organised the breakfasts. There was nobody in the high-dependency unit so that meant one less task to be done, but there was still a lot of work to get through before the ward round commenced.

  Lucy could feel her excitement mounting as the time when she would see Connor again drew nearer. It would have been wonderful if he could have spent the night with her but she understood why he’d had to leave. A situation like this was something out of the ordinary and, as the head of the department, he needed to take charge. However, even though she understood that, she couldn’t help feeling disappointed when Martin arrived with the team and informed her that Connor wouldn’t be joining them. Apparently, he was closeted with the trust’s lawyers and had asked Martin to take over from him.

  Lucy led them to the first bed but she saw the look that Amanda and Tom exchanged and knew what they were thinking. They must have heard the rumours about Connor and Izzy and probably had assumed that he was avoiding her. Maybe they thought that he was embarrassed at the thought of people knowing he was Izzy’s father when he was, reportedly, having a relationship with another woman?

  Lucy longed to set them straight but she didn’t feel it was her place. It would be better coming from Connor. However, the sooner this was sorted out, the happier she would be. She certainly didn’t want everyone to think that he was in love with another woman when it wasn’t true!

  Connor was glad to escape after his meeting with the lawyers. It had been a very tense affair and he knew there were going to be repercussions in the coming months. Once upon a time the thought that his career might have been damaged would have worried him, but he was more concerned about the missing children now. Where had they gone? And why hadn’t they been found if they were still inside the building?

  He went back to the paediatric unit, feeling his spirits lift as he stepped out of the lift. It was nearly lunchtime and with a bit of luck he might be able to persuade Lucy to join him for an impromptu picnic i
n his office. They could buy sandwiches from the canteen and enjoy some time alone together. It might not be that long since he’d seen her last, but if he didn’t see her soon then he might not survive!

  He was just passing the office when he heard Dee calling him so he stopped and waited for her to catch up with him. ‘I didn’t know you were working today,’ he said, smiling at her.

  ‘I’m not. I just wanted a word with you but I’m not sure if now is a good time.’ She pulled a face. ‘I just met Sandra and she told me about the missing kids.’

  ‘It’s a real worry,’ Connor agreed.

  ‘It is. Anyway, I can tell that you’re busy so I’ll leave it for now.’

  ‘Hang on!’ He held up his hand when she started to walk away. ‘What did you want to see me about?’

  ‘It’s OK. You’ve more important things to think about than my problems.’ She grinned at him. ‘A little bird told me that you might have been keeping a secret from us.’

  He rolled his eyes. ‘That little bird isn’t called Sandra, by any chance?’ He shook his head when Dee laughed. ‘I might have known she’d be the one to tell everyone, not that it matters, of course.’

  ‘So it’s true, then? Lucy and you have a daughter?’

  ‘Yes.’ He couldn’t help smiling. ‘I should have bought some cigars and handed them round. It isn’t every day you can announce that you’re a father!’

  ‘Well, I think it’s wonderful news, Connor, really I do,’ she insisted. However, he saw her mouth tremble when she tried to smile at him and realised how hard it must be for her to congratulate him in the circumstances.

  ‘How are things between you and Mike?’ he asked gently.

  ‘Confusing.’ She sighed. ‘That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I need some advice and I need it to be impartial, too. There’s no point talking to my parents because they’re too involved.’

  ‘Then let’s go into the office while you tell me what’s happened,’ he said, opening the door.