The Seduction Challenge

by Sarah Morgan

  ‘You cooked her supper?’ Michael looked at him suspiciously. ‘But Lucy’s always refused to eat supper with any of us.’

  ‘Well, she didn’t refuse me.’

  He didn’t add that he hadn’t given her much choice.

  ‘And then what happened?’

  Nothing, unfortunately.

  Joel sighed. ‘I went upstairs to my flat and slept in my own bed. Not that it’s any of your damn business.’

  ‘I thought we told you to leave her alone.’

  There was a long silence and when Joel finally spoke his voice was very controlled. ‘Firstly, you are not my keeper, and secondly, the girl needs a friend.’

  Michael looked taken aback. ‘A friend?’

  Something inside Joel snapped. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, she’s struggling to manage a job and a child with less help than you get with your laundry! On top of that, it doesn’t take a genius to see that she’s lonely as hell. Yes, I’d say she needs a friend.’

  ‘And you think that could be you?’

  ‘And why not?’

  ‘Since when have you ever had a female friend?’

  Since last night.

  ‘There’s a first time for everything.’

  ‘Oh, come off it, Joel!’ Michael made an impatient sound. ‘You don’t know anything about being friends with a woman.’

  ‘Well, I’m learning,’ Joel said calmly. ‘And the subject is now closed.’

  Michael looked at him. ‘Don’t get mad with me. You’re my brother and I love you, but Lucy is very vulnerable and you’re very attractive to women—’

  ‘You’re afraid she might seduce me?’

  ‘I’m afraid she might fall for you, yes,’ Michael said quietly, ignoring Joel’s mocking tone. ‘And if that happened, I don’t trust you to turn her away.’

  Joel’s mouth tightened. He wasn’t sure he trusted himself either.

  He took a deep breath. ‘Relax,’ he said wearily, wondering why the hell he was having this conversation with his brother. ‘I have no intention of taking advantage of her, if that’s what’s worrying you. I’m really serious about just being her friend. I like her and I like the boy. Now, can we change the subject? I’m bored with this one.’

  Michael gave a brief smile. ‘I suppose so. I’m sorry if I was out of line, but—’

  ‘But you couldn’t help yourself,’ Joel finished, giving a shake of his head as Michael strolled towards the door. ‘How’s little Millie, by the way?’

  ‘Picking up.’ Michael turned to look at him. ‘According to the registrar, she’s making good progress.’

  ‘Did you speak to her today?’

  ‘Last night.’ Michael paused with his hand on the door. ‘I visited them at the hospital and had a word with her while I was there.’

  ‘You visited? Well, well.’ A smile spread across Joel’s face. ‘My big brother is becoming an enormous softy.’

  Michael didn’t smile. ‘That, and paranoid. I saw the child and missed the diagnosis, remember?’

  ‘Rubbish.’ Joel frowned sharply. He knew that his older brother was a perfectionist, but it hadn’t occurred to him that he’d be blaming himself for not diagnosing Millie’s illness sooner. ‘You didn’t miss anything. Every other doctor on the planet would have made the diagnosis you did.’

  ‘What?’ Michael laughed bitterly. ‘Virus? Sometimes I wonder why I trained for all those years when all I do is say that word.’

  ‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ Joel said calmly. ‘You told her to come back if the temperature wasn’t down; you told her to call if she was worried.’

  ‘But she didn’t,’ Michael growled, and Joel nodded.

  ‘And I guess that’s what’s hard about general practice. It’s not like hospital, where you’ve got them captive and can run every test under the sun. You just have to make a judgement based on what you see. You saw a little girl with a temperature.’

  ‘What makes you so wise all of a sudden?’ Michael gave an awkward smile. ‘You’ve only been in general practice for five minutes.’

  ‘But I’m a man of the world, as you keep pointing out.’ Joel locked eyes with his brother. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong. You told her to come back.’

  Michael’s gaze was troubled. ‘But she didn’t—’

  ‘Yes, she did,’ Joel pointed out. ‘She came to see Lucy—who is, by the way, one hell of a great practice nurse.’

  Michael nodded agreement. ‘Yes, well, we certainly agree on that. She’s a bright girl. And she did well, spotting Millie’s problem.’

  ‘It’s called teamwork, bro.’ Joel stood up and walked over to Michael, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder. ‘You’re a great doctor. Don’t forget it. And you’re still my hero even if you are an interfering pain in the neck.’

  ‘That sounded more like an insult than a compliment,’ Michael drawled, a smile touching his mouth, and Joel put a hand on his chest and faked an injured expression.

  ‘Me? Insult my brother? Never.’

  ‘Of course, never.’ Michael gave a wry smile before stepping into the corridor and closing the door behind him.

  Joel watched him go, his smile fading rapidly as he thought back over their conversation. He hadn’t admitted it to Michael, but it had taken all his will power to leave Lucy last night. What he’d really wanted to do was drag her down onto the floor and have his wicked way with her.

  The chemistry between them was so powerful it took his breath away, and all Joel’s experience with women told him that she felt it, too. But he knew that it wouldn’t make any difference. She’d been terribly hurt, and although he’d never claimed to be an expert in the way women’s minds worked, you didn’t need a degree in female psychology to know that she wasn’t going to be interested in men.

  Especially a man like him who didn’t seem to be able to settle down with one woman.

  Which meant that he was going to have to learn to keep his feelings under control.

  He gave a groan and ran a hand over his face. Judging from the way his body reacted even when he thought about her, it was going to be easier said than done.

  Lucy checked her watch again and hoped for the hundredth time that morning that Sam was OK.

  He’d certainly seemed all right when she’d dropped him at school. She’d checked his peak flow and had decided that he was well enough to go. But it didn’t stop her worrying. At least the class teacher had promised to call if she was worried.

  She worked her way steadily through her hypertension clinic, checking blood pressures, giving dietary advice, and it was lunchtime when Joel walked into the room.

  He stood aside to let her last patient out of the room and then closed the door so that they were alone.

  ‘How’s Sam?’

  Lucy tossed an old bandage in the bin and gave him a shy smile. ‘He seems OK. I’m glad you popped in. I wanted to thank you again for last night.’

  ‘No thanks needed. How was he after I left? Did he wake up? Any bad dreams?’

  She was touched by his concern. ‘Actually, he slept well. I was expecting problems but he was fine once we talked about it.’ She felt nothing but relief that after the initial shock Sam had seemed all right. ‘I suppose he’s grown up a lot in the last year. Children understand things at six that they don’t understand when they’re five.’

  Joel gave a rueful smile. ‘I can’t honestly claim any great experience with children that age, but I’m sure you’re right. Look—we still haven’t talked about the asthma and immunisation clinics. I’m keen to hear what you think.’

  Lucy glanced at her appointments on the computer. ‘My next patient has cancelled. We could have a quick chat now, if that suits you.’

  He nodded, and Lucy quickly ran through the routine for the asthma clinic, stumbling over her words as she tried hard to concentrate and not notice how handsome he was.

  She didn’t understand her reaction to him. It wasn’t as if she was looking for a relationship. Far from
it.

  After Tim had left she’d never thought for a moment that one day she might be interested in a man again, but here she was thinking all sorts of shocking thoughts just because she’d met someone who was extremely good-looking.

  But she was glad that she’d insisted they just be friends. She wasn’t ready to cope with anything more.

  Joel was considering what she’d told him about the asthma clinic. ‘So you’re trained to do spirometry?’

  Lucy nodded. ‘As you know, we have lots of elderly patients in the practice and there’s an increase in respiratory diseases. It’s important that we distinguish between asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease because the treatment is different, and spirometry is important for that.’

  ‘And the immunisation clinic?’

  Lucy ran him through the format for the clinic and he listened carefully.

  ‘The mothers get sent the appointment automatically?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And if they don’t turn up?’

  ‘They get sent another one,’ Lucy said promptly. ‘And Kim, the health visitor, sometimes follows them up.’

  Joel lifted an eyebrow. ‘Sometimes?’

  ‘Well, chasing non-attenders isn’t really her role,’ Lucy said. ‘Of course, she talks to them all about immunisation at the birth visit, and whenever she sees them, but she doesn’t spend her day chasing after people who don’t turn up.’

  ‘Right.’ Joel looked at her thoughtfully. ‘So have you had any ideas?’

  Lucy blushed. ‘Well, yes…’

  ‘Go on,’ he prompted, his expression suddenly interested. ‘I want to know what you think.’

  Lucy took a deep breath. ‘What I think,’ she said slowly, ‘is that instead of running an immunisation clinic, we should run a child health clinic.’

  ‘Isn’t that what we do?’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘No, it isn’t. We invite mothers to come and have their babies jabbed and that’s it.’

  Joel sat down on one of her chairs and looked at her expectantly. ‘So what are you proposing?’

  Lucy warmed to her theme. ‘Well, it seems to me that because all we offer is immunisation, if people have any doubts they don’t come. If we widen the scope of the clinic we might attract a different set of people. A child health clinic would be exactly that—a chance to come and talk about your child’s health. A chance to ask all those little questions that worry you but that aren’t enough to make you see a doctor.’

  ‘But surely those people just ring the health visitor?’

  ‘No.’ Lucy shook her head again. ‘Usually they just struggle on or ask each other. And that’s the other thing—we could use the clinic as a support network for the mothers. There’s not much going on here in the winter and lots of the new mothers feel isolated. If we run it over the lunchtime and early afternoon, when there are no surgeries, they can chat together and use the waiting room as a meeting place. We can arrange for a speaker once a month and get some extra toys—’ She broke off and he smiled.

  ‘I can see you’ve really been thinking about this.’

  She gave him a hesitant smile. ‘I just think that if we can be a place where mothers meet and drop in with any health worries, we can talk to them about immunisation at the same time. A GP always has to be on the premises when we give the immunisations, so we might as well use you! They can come and see the doctor on a first come, first served basis instead of having to make an appointment.’

  Joel was silent for a moment, thinking it through. ‘It’s a good idea. In fact, it’s better than that. It’s a brilliant idea. Have you run it past Dad?’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘No. I didn’t really think we could make it work, but now with an extra partner…’

  ‘Would the health visitors agree, do you think?’

  Lucy nodded. ‘I did mention it in passing to Kim and she was all for it. Anything that gets the immunisation rates up.’

  ‘All right.’ Joel stood up and raked long fingers through his cropped hair. ‘I’ll have a word with Dad, but it sounds a great idea to me.’

  ‘Let me know what he says.’ Lucy tucked her hair behind her ears and then gasped. ‘Oh—I almost forgot. What do I owe you for sorting out my car?’

  He’d dropped the keys round that morning, assuring her that the car was now fine, but he’d dashed off so quickly she’d barely had time to thank him.

  ‘Nothing. It was a simple problem and it shouldn’t happen again.’

  ‘Well, thank you.’ She gave a hesitant smile. ‘And thank you for dinner. It was a real treat to be cooked for. Sam and I owe you a meal.’

  He shook his head. ‘You don’t owe me anything,’ he said slowly. ‘Friends cook each other meals all the time. It’s no big deal.’

  ‘I’d really like to. Sam’s favourite gourmet treat is sausages.’ She was laughing now. ‘I assume that would meet with your approval?’

  ‘I adore sausages.’ He patted his flat stomach. ‘With mash and onion gravy. Now, I’d better get back to work. I’ll see you later.’

  Lucy watched him go, feeling lighter inside than she had for a long time. As well as being dangerously good-looking, Joel Whittaker was a thoroughly nice man.

  But he was just a friend, she reminded herself. And that was all a man like Joel would ever be.

  This was never going to work.

  Joel sank into his chair and closed his eyes.

  He might have assured Lucy that he could learn to be a friend, but he was fairly sure that friends weren’t supposed to have the sort of thoughts that he’d been having.

  The truth was that he wasn’t sure he could trust himself to have dinner with her again, even if Sam was there. He was afraid that if he was alone in a room with her he’d give in to his baser instincts and kiss her senseless.

  He was sitting brooding at his desk when the door opened.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Richard Whittaker frowned at him. ‘Something worrying you?’

  Yes—but nothing he could share with his father.

  ‘I’m fine. I’m glad you’ve popped in,’ he said briskly. ‘Lucy’s come up with a good idea for the immunisation clinic—I wanted to run it past you.’

  Briefly he outlined Lucy’s proposal, and his father listened carefully.

  ‘Sounds a good idea to me.’ Richard settled himself in a vacant chair and nodded his approval. ‘I can’t think why it wouldn’t work, but I suppose we ought to discuss it with everyone. We really need to discuss it at the next practice meeting.’

  ‘We can’t do that.’ Joel shook his head emphatically. ‘It’s at five o’clock on Friday and Lucy has to leave at three to pick Sam up from school. It wouldn’t be fair to ask her.’

  In the short time that he’d known her she’d made it clear that Sam came first. And quite right, too…

  Richard frowned. ‘I’d forgotten about her leaving at three.’ He pondered the problem for a moment and Joel glanced briefly at his diary.

  ‘What about Saturday lunchtime?’

  ‘The weekend? I don’t think so.’ His father looked doubtful. ‘We’ve invited her over before and she’s always refused.’

  ‘Get Nick and Michael there, tell her it’s a practice meeting and she’ll come,’ Joel said confidently, flipping his diary shut with a careless finger. ‘Provided she can bring Sam, of course.’

  His father’s eyes narrowed. ‘You think she’ll say yes?’

  Joel looked him straight in the eye. ‘Lucy is far too conscientious to refuse to attend a work meeting.’

  He listened while his father spoke to Lucy on the phone and stiffened slightly as he heard her soft tap on the door moments later.

  ‘Ah, there you are, my dear.’ Richard stepped forward and put an arm around her shoulders, drawing her into the room. ‘Joel’s been outlining your suggestions for the immunisation clinic. We need to work through the detail with everyone. We have a practice meeting on Friday evening, but I know you can’t make that.’

&n
bsp; Lucy bit her lip and looked troubled, just as Joel had known she would. She was incredibly conscientious.

  ‘I’m sorry—’

  ‘Don’t be sorry,’ Richard said immediately. ‘We were hoping you might be able to do Saturday lunchtime instead. Bring Sam—we’ll find plenty for him to do at the house.’

  Even though she was a small distance away from him, Joel could just detect the soft scent that he’d come to associate with her. What was it? He wouldn’t be surprised if it was something as simple as shampoo.

  Lucy was staring at his father. ‘Saturday?’

  ‘If that’s convenient for you,’ Richard said cheerfully. ‘Elizabeth will cook one of her lunches and we can all chat while we eat. It happens all the time in our house. Being a family practice inevitably means that we’re always mixing business and pleasure.’

  ‘Do I really need to be there?’ Her green eyes reflected her uncertainty and Joel wondered why she hated going out so much.

  ‘It’s your idea that we’re discussing and developing,’ Richard pointed out. ‘If you’re worried about Sam, don’t be. There’ll be plenty of people to entertain him.’

  ‘All right, then,’ she said finally, finding a smile that did nothing to hide her uncertainty. She slid her fingers nervously through her sleek hair. ‘I—I don’t know where the house is. You’ll have to give me a map.’

  ‘I’ll drive you,’ Joel said immediately, reflecting with wry humour that he seemed to have a need to torture himself.

  His father frowned slightly and Joel met his gaze without flinching, knowing that he could expect another lecture later.

  And maybe they were right to lecture him.

  They were certainly right that he was unsuitable for Lucy. She certainly wasn’t the sort of woman who enjoyed casual flings, and the last thing on his mind was commitment.

  Which just left friendship.

  And that was proving harder than he’d imagined.

  ‘Lucy, that’s inspired!’ Richard sat back in his chair at the lunch table and stared at her admiringly. ‘Why did none of us think of that?’

  ‘What sort of talks did you have in mind, Lucy?’ Michael helped himself to another roast potato and glanced across at her. ‘Child-centred things—weaning, teething…?’