by Lucy Clark
Can his love free her from her past?
After years in witness protection, Dr. Maybelle Freebourne has come home—under a different identity. But, on her first day at Victory Hospital, she walks right into the boy she left behind, now director of Emergency and more gorgeous than ever!
Arthur Lewis can’t shake the feeling he knows the beautiful new doctor, and a stolen kiss reveals she really is the girl he’s never forgotten. But can he convince Maybelle she is finally safe—in his arms?
They stood and stared at each other for a long moment, the air around them starting to crackle with electric tension.
It had always been this way, ever since that first kiss so very long ago. Arthur glanced at her mouth, that perfectly sculptured mouth that had always fit so perfectly with his own. Swallowing, he met her eyes and only now that they were in the artificially lit kitchen did he realize she’d removed the contacts.
Bright blue eyes, the color of the sky on a cloudless summer’s day, gazed back at him, repressed desire visible in their depths. Maybelle bit her lower lip and he realized she was nervous. He didn’t blame her. He was nervous, too. He knew it was possible for the physical attraction he’d felt all those years ago to return with a forceful thump, but the emotional connection, the one that years apart should have wrecked, was still very much alive.
Then, before he could think anything else, she’d moved toward him in one fluid motion, wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled his mouth down to meet hers.
Dear Reader,
The world is full of trials and tribulations—and if you’re a Star Trek fan, like me, sometimes it’s full of Tribbles…but I digress. There are times when it feels like the world is throwing curveball after curveball in our direction, and although we get knocked down again and again, it’s the getting-up part that is the most important.
Throughout the many versions of this story, I found a new level of normalcy, especially after the death of my beloved father, moving house and having my marriage end. There are so many of those curveballs we just don’t see coming, but when they all come at once, it can be very difficult to remain standing! That’s when it’s vitally important to reach out for those you can rely on.
Maybelle Freebourne and I went through a lot of…adventures together. She was broken, just like I was broken, but with the help of wonderful people—and in Maybelle’s case, an incredibly handsome hero by the name of Arthur Lewis—we were both able to find our new normal.
I do hope you find Maybelle and Arthur’s story of being brave, of taking a step into the unknown, a story that inspires you to also be brave when those darn curveballs make you a little unsteady on your feet.
With warmest regards,
Lucy
REUNITED WITH HIS RUNAWAY DOC
Lucy Clark
Books by Lucy Clark
Harlequin Medical Romance
Outback Surgeons
English Rose in the Outback
A Family for Chloe
The Secret Between Them
Her Mistletoe Wish
His Diamond Like No Other
Dr. Perfect on Her Doorstep
A Child to Bind Them
Still Married to Her Ex!
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!
Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards
http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002
For the people who are always there to hold my hand when I doubt myself—Melanie, Austin, Cassie and Kate. Thank you for your support this past year. Proverbs 19:1
Praise for Lucy Clark
“A good and enjoyable read. It’s a good old-fashioned romance and is everything you expect from medical romance. Recommended for medical romance lovers and Lucy Clark’s fans.”
—Harlequin Junkie on Resisting the New Doc In Town
“I really enjoyed this book—well written, a lovely romance story about giving love a second chance!”
—Goodreads on Dare She Dream of Forever?
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM HEALING THE SHEIKH’S HEART BY ANNIE O’NEIL
PROLOGUE
MAY FLEMING STOOD at the top of the stairs, fear starting to grip her as she listened to her parents speak in muted tones with the two men who had arrived only twenty minutes ago. Closing her eyes, she listened to try and grasp the gist of the conversation but all she could hear were words like ‘leave’, ‘danger’, ‘tonight’.
What was going on? Was this anything to do with the breakin they’d had at their house a month ago? Her father had played down the incident, saying there had been a spate of robberies in the neighbourhood of late and as nothing had been taken it was of little consequence, but who broke into a house and didn’t take anything? She knew he’d been trying not to worry her and when she’d questioned her friend Clara, who lived next door, Clara hadn’t heard anything about robberies in the neighbourhood.
Add to that fact that since that attempted robbery, both of her parents had been acting more weirdly than usual lately. Sometimes they didn’t come home for dinner, telling her to eat next door at Clara’s house, and when they were home they were locked away in either her mother’s or father’s study, their voices sometimes rising to hysteria. ‘Shh. You’ll wake May,’ her father had said to her mother just three nights ago. It had been too late for that warning. May had been woken fifteen minutes earlier by her mother’s loud sobbing.
The door to the lounge room started to open and May fled from the top of the stairs to her bedroom, quickly closing the door behind her and leaning against it. Had they heard her? Was she going to be in trouble? Her parents weren’t the usual type of parent. They didn’t care if she stayed up all night, watching television, as long as her grades were good. If she wanted to shower at three o’clock in the morning, they were fine with that, as long as she wasn’t late heading out to school in the morning.
Education was vitally important to them and, whilst May knew they loved her, they both loved their scientific researching careers more. She was OK with that because it did afford her a lot of freedom. Tonight she’d had a shower and washed her hair, hearing the doorbell ring just after she’d turned off the hairdryer.
Unsure whether she’d be required to head downstairs to meet whoever was dropping around at ten o’clock at night, she’d dressed in three-quarter-length jeans and a T-shirt, choosing not to be introduced to her parents’ friends whilst wearing her pyjamas.
But she hadn’t been asked to come downstairs and the firmly closed lounge room door, plus the panic in her mother’s voice, had helped May to decide to stay well out of sight. Had she succeeded?
She listened, hearing the lounge room door close again, and when she ventured back out to peek downstairs, it was to see the hallway was dark and the deep-toned discussion had continued. Straining to hear, she heard the words ‘tonight’ being used again and again. ‘It isn’t safe’, ‘security must be maintained’, ‘act now’. Those were some of the other phrases and all of it was enough to cause the knot of apprehension and fear in May’s stomach to expand.
She headed back to her room but the four walls started to close in around her as she tried to figure out what was going on down
stairs. Shaking her head, she headed to her balcony, needing to be anywhere but here. Her parents had given her the room upstairs with the balcony, the room that would usually be considered the main room of the house, whilst their bedroom was sandwiched between their two studies so they could work long hours into the night and not disturb her. As a young girl, she’d felt like a princess in a tower, waiting for her prince to come and rescue her. As she’d entered her teens, she’d decided not to wait for anyone to rescue her but to learn how to rescue herself.
She and Clara had figured out how to shimmy up and down the poles of the balcony and now, after May had pulled on her sandshoes, she slung a leg over the railing and retraced the path she’d used so many times before.
Over the rail, down the pole, keeping to the shadows of the back garden so she didn’t trigger the light sensors of the security lights her parents had installed after the breakin. She climbed the shoulder-high wire fence that marked the border between the houses and quickly ran across to the large gum tree in the Lewises’ yard, the cool breeze soothing her skin, helping her to gain some sort of clarity. The old gum had nice long branches, thick enough for her to carefully make her way across, then with one large step she made it to the ledge that was next to the open window of Arthur’s room.
‘May!’ He placed his hand over his heart and she wasn’t sure whether it was because she’d startled him or the fact that his heart belonged to her. She desperately wanted to think it was the latter. Here he was. Her Arthur. Her knight. He made her feel so needed, so desirable and so precious. She’d never known a feeling like that before, and even though she’d had a crush on him for the past few years, she’d never, in her wildest dreams, thought he’d ever like her back.
But on her sixteenth birthday, just a few short months ago, Arthur had let her kiss him. Not only that but he’d kissed her back, as though something inside him had snapped and he’d finally given in to the sensations of desire. Since then, they’d been sneaking around, not wanting to tell people—even Clara—about their relationship just yet. May hadn’t wanted the fact that she was dating Clara’s older brother to ruin her friendship with Clara.
Now, as she looked at him, her Arthur, time seeming to stand still for that split second, she drank in everything about him. How could this relationship go wrong? They were perfect for each other.
He was dressed in an old pair of shorts with rips and holes in them, ones his mother had forbidden him to wear outside the house. The T-shirt he wore was equally as comfortable and, given it had been a stinking hot summer in Victoria that year, it wasn’t surprising he was dressed like that. His legs were long, his feet were bare, the desk in his room was littered with papers and the bed sheets were rumpled with more study notes on them. She knew he had an exam tomorrow and that he’d told her he needed to study, but right now she didn’t care about anything except being with him.
When she was in Arthur’s arms, everything in her world made sense. With the way her parents had been jittery and argumentative lately, it was little wonder she wanted to feel protected. Usually, her scientist parents spent a good portion of their time at their research labs, meaning that May, instead of staying in the large two-storey house all on her own, spent most of her time next door with the Lewis family.
Being with them, with Clara and Arthur and their parents, always welcomed and included in everything they did, from outings during the holidays to eating dinner in the evening, made May feel like she was living in a normal family, rather than with scatterbrained parents who often forgot to go to the grocery store.
Spending time with the Lewis family, and in particular with Arthur, made her feel wanted and loved, and as he stood there, staring at her, she wanted nothing more than to feel his comforting arms around her, to feel the touch of his hair with her fingertips and to have his lips pressed firmly to her own in a reassuring kiss.
Having overheard words such as ‘danger’, ‘leave’, ‘tonight’, from the conversation in her parents’ lounge room, was it any wonder May wanted to feel secure? She covered the distance between them and wrapped her hands around his neck, urging his head down so their lips could meet.
The instant she felt the pressure of his lips on hers, May began to relax. This was where she belonged. In his arms, with his mouth on hers. Her teenage heart sang for joy when he immediately kissed her back, his arms coming around her, holding her close as though he, too, was desperate to be with her. Her heart soared with love and she deepened the kiss, wanting to know everything, wanting to experience everything, wanting to feel everything.
Something big was going on next door at her house, her parents behaving crazily, but here with Arthur she was lost in the bubble of belonging and she never wanted it to end. On and on she kissed him, edging him backwards, closer to his bed so they could lie down together, could be together because surely doing something like that for the very first time would help her to forget everything else.
‘What…?’ He eased away from her, staring into her face as though he couldn’t quite believe she was here and kissing him in such a way. Never, in the few months they’d been sneaking kisses and sharing touches, had she ever been this forward. As she was a few years younger than him, she’d always let him guide her, but tonight she needed to take charge, to let him see just how much she loved him, how much she wanted him. That’s what all guys wanted, right?
‘What’s going on? What are you doing here?’
‘I want you, Arthur.’ She went to kiss him again but he stopped her. She closed her eyes, not wanting him to stop her. She didn’t want to think things through, she didn’t want to be rational and reasonable. She simply wanted to feel, to lose herself in him, in the sensations that being with him evoked throughout her entire being.
‘Whoa. Wait a second.’
She let him talk and she answered him and all the while she needed to keep her thoughts focused on him, on the here and now. The words ‘danger’, ‘leave’, ‘tonight’ were trying to force their way to the surface and even though she didn’t understand what it all meant, her intuition told her it wasn’t good. She had no idea how she could explain any of this to Arthur, how she could let him know what was going on at her house, because she had no real idea herself.
She didn’t want him to tell her she was overreacting, that she was allowing her imagination to get the better of her, that she should go back home and they could talk about it more in the morning. He kept glancing at his bedroom door and she knew he was skittish about having her here this late in the evening. Although his parents had no real cause to come into their son’s bedroom at this hour of the night, no doubt presuming he was studying for his coming exams, there was still the possibility they might and it was clearly making Arthur more than a little nervous.
All she wanted was to lose herself in him and when the opportunity presented itself she managed to kiss him once more, letting him know through her actions, rather than her words, just how determined she was.
She loved the way his fingers tangled in her hair, the way his mouth felt on hers, the way he kissed her with such hunger and passion. He felt the same way she did. She was certain of it. Although he’d never told her exactly how he felt, the fact that he hadn’t put a stop to them sneaking around and spending time together showed her just how much he really did like her.
They were so caught up with each other, her mind focusing on nothing but the way he was making her feel, that when he touched the waistband of her three-quarter-length jeans she froze for a split second, a new thrumming starting to pulse through her mind. This was really happening! She was going to lose her virginity here—tonight…right now!
Arthur paused. ‘What’s wrong?’ He stared at her and she tried as hard as she could to let him see that she wanted this, that she wanted to be with him, to forget about everything else in the world except for the two of them and the way they made each other feel. ‘We don’t have to do this.’
But she wanted to. Why couldn’t he realise that? I
t was just that it was so…so…grown-up and scary, in a good way. She tried to reassure him but even then she stammered over her words. If only she hadn’t overheard what was being said in her parents’ lounge room…‘danger’, ‘leave’, ‘tonight’… If only she and Arthur had more time, to let their relationship develop into an even deeper sensation of passion and love, but the fear that things were going to change drastically was something she couldn’t shake.
‘Honey, you don’t need to do anything. I’m not going to force you.’
‘Oh, I know you would never do that. Never.’ Her words were clear and to the point. He brushed her hair back from her face and bent to kiss her mouth once more.
‘Then why? Why come here and say what you did when you clearly have reservations?’
‘Because I don’t want to die a virgin!’ she blurted out.
‘Die? Who said anything about you dying? I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you and, besides, where you and I are concerned, we have plenty of time. Things will take their natural course when we’re both ready.’ Arthur’s lips quirked a little at the corners and instead of getting cross at him for finding what she’d said amusing, she relaxed, his humour showing her she was probably overreacting.
‘I know.’ She extracted herself from his arms and shifted so she could lie on his bed, her head on his pillow. She absent-mindedly wound her hair around her finger, something she often did when she was confused or agitated. ‘It’s just that…my parents have been acting strange lately.’ At Arthur’s raised eyebrow, she amended, ‘Stranger than usual.’
‘Stranger than spending more time at their research lab than with their daughter?’
‘Hey, I don’t mind. It means I get to hang out here and your parents treat me like another daughter, and Clara and I can have fun together, and you and I…’ she winked at him ‘…get to have fun together, too.’
