by Penny Jordan
Some instinct he couldn’t name made Dominic turn his head.
‘Annie…’
What was she doing here? He started to move towards her. She was standing, staring rigidly at him.
‘Annie!’ He called her name, and then cursed as she suddenly seemed to shudder, a statue coming to life.
‘Annie…’
Out of the corner of his eye Dominic saw the car, and realised that Annie was standing right in its path, oblivious to its presence or her own danger. With a superhuman burst of speed he reached her, pulling her down on top of him as he fell to the ground and rolling her out of the way of the car’s front wheels.
As he did so he felt the sharp thud of metal striking his own body and grunted in surprise. His body felt oddly numb…but somehow heavy…Somewhere in the distance he could hear screams…voices…the wails of a siren.
‘Ah, so you’re back with us again. Good, I’ll go and tell Dr Spears.’
Hazily Dominic focused on the smiling nurse standing beside his bed.
‘You’ve been sleeping for so long we thought we’d start to call you Rip Van Winkle,’ she told him cheerfully as she pressed the bell above his head.
Where the devil was he? What was going on? And then abruptly Dominic remembered, struggling to sit up and ignoring both the admonishment of the nurse and the pain in his side as he demanded anxiously, ‘Annie, my wife. Is she…?’
‘She’s fine.’ The nurse smiled. ‘And before you ask, so is the baby.’
‘The baby? The baby…’ Dominic could feel his heart starting to thud with heavy, adrenalin-fuelled beats.
‘Oh, that’s sent your pulse-rate up,’ the nurse commented, examining the screen on the far side of the bed. ‘Your wife was lucky that you had the fore-thought to do what you did. Otherwise it might have been a very different story, both for her and the baby.’
Annie was pregnant!
Dominic closed his eyes, his body suddenly drenched in sweat as he realised what he might have lost.
‘Where is Annie…my wife…?’ he asked thickly.
‘Dr Spears sent her home. She didn’t want to go. She’d been sitting here beside you for virtually twenty-four hours. But he insisted. With her pregnancy at such a very early stage it’s important that she doesn’t over-stress herself.’
Twenty-four hours. Annie had sat with him for twenty-four hours!
‘How long have I been here?’ he asked the nurse.
‘Mmm…nearly two days. The impact of the car knocked you out, and then Dr Spears had to sedate you so that he could examine you properly. He was concerned that there might be some permanent damage to your back, but luckily for you there isn’t. You’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness all afternoon, but I think you’re finally with us this time.’
‘I want to go home,’ Dominic told her, moving to throw back the covers and climb out of the hospital bed. The nurse laughed.
‘What? Wired up to one of our precious machines?’
As Dominic turned his head he realised what she meant, his forehead pleating in a frown as he looked down at the wires attached to his body.
‘If I’m all right, what am I doing with all this?’ he demanded shortly.
‘You’re being monitored,’ the nurse told him dryly. ‘It’s what we do in hospitals. Although you probably don’t feel it, your body’s still in shock,’ she told him in a kinder voice. ‘Nothing was broken by the impact when the car hit you, but you are very badly bruised and you’re going to find it very painful, if not impossible, to move properly for quite a substantial length of time.’
‘How long is that?’ Dominic asked her suspiciously.
‘Well…Ah, here’s Dr Spears,’ she announced, smiling at the man who had walked into Dominic’s room.
‘All I want to know is how soon I can go home,’ Dominic told the doctor when the nurse had left. ‘I want to see my wife; she’s pregnant.’
‘Yes, I know,’ the doctor confirmed, misunderstanding what Dominic had been about to say. ‘Poor girl. I don’t think she knew which of you to be the more anxious about at first. But once we’d reassured her that baby is tucked away safely, just where he or she ought to be, she was able to concentrate all her anxiety on you. I’ve sent her home now. She needed some rest.’
‘She shouldn’t be on her own,’ Dominic told him fiercely. ‘She suffered a bad accident herself some years ago and…’
‘Yes, I do know,’ the doctor told him gently. ‘I was on duty when they brought her in. But I think you’ll find you’re worrying unnecessarily. The maternal instinct is very strong and it empowers a woman with a very special kind of strength.’
‘I want to go home,’ Dominic repeated.
‘Not yet,’ the doctor told him calmly. ‘I want to see that bruising come down a little bit more first. Ah, good, here’s Nurse with a painkilling injection for you.’
‘I don’t want…’ Dominic began, but it was too late, the nurse was already skilfully inserting the hypodermic into his skin and within seconds he could feel himself starting to drift towards unconsciousness.
CHAPTER TEN
‘DOMINIC will be able to come home today.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Annie as she put down the cup of coffee Helena had just made her. ‘They rang me from the hospital earlier. I’m going to pick him up this afternoon and—’
‘When are you going to tell him about the baby?’ Helena interrupted her to ask.
Immediately Annie looked away from her, her voice tense as she told her, ‘I’m not.’ She defended her decision when Helena didn’t answer. ‘There isn’t any point. I’ve told you what happened before, what I remembered. Nothing’s changed, Helena.’
‘No, nothing’s changed,’ Helena agreed. ‘You still love him. You’ve admitted that.’
‘Yes. Yes, I do. But this baby…’ She touched her stomach tenderly. ‘This baby…my baby, has to come first, Helena.’
‘The hospital are only releasing Dominic because they think you’re going to be on hand to look after him. He’s still very badly bruised.’
‘Yes, I know,’ Annie agreed. ‘And I shall be. The baby doesn’t show,’ she told her quickly. ‘It’s not…I’m not…I owe him that much, Helena. After all, if he hadn’t done what he did…’
‘You don’t have to justify your decision to me,’ Helena told her dryly. ‘Although I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t counsel you to think again. This child is his child as well as yours, you know.’
‘No, it’s mine,’ Annie insisted fiercely. ‘He won’t want it; I know that already. I can remember how it was before.’
‘That was five years ago,’ Helena reminded her.
‘Five years—fifty years. A leopard doesn’t change its spots,’ Annie returned grimly.
‘No,’ Helena agreed. ‘But a man isn’t a leopard and he can change his mind.’
‘A man can,’ Annie allowed. ‘But I don’t intend to change mine.’
It was nearly a week now since the accident, and every day she had gone to the hospital to see Dominic, remembering how important contact with the outside world had been for her.
He was on his feet now, and walking, despite the pain she knew he had to be suffering from his bruises.
There was still a dressing on his leg, where the flesh had been scraped raw, which had to be changed every day.
‘Will you be able to cope?’ the doctor had asked her the previous day.
But before she had been able to reply Dominic had announced sharply, ‘She won’t have to. I can do it myself.’
‘Yes, I can cope,’ Annie had answered him quietly, ignoring Dominic.
Now, with her pregnancy properly confirmed, there were things she had to do, plans she had to make. But they would have to be put on hold until Dominic was fully back on his feet—she owed him that.
‘Lean on me,’ she instructed him now, as he hobbled towards the door to his room. ‘The car isn’t very far away, but if you’d like a wheelchair…’
‘What I’d like,’ Dominic told her grittily, ‘is to be treated like the adult I am and not a child. I can walk, Annie.’
Only the memory of how she herself had felt whilst she was recuperating enabled Annie to bite back the sharp words hovering on her tongue.
He looked surprisingly fit for a man who had been in hospital for close on a week. His skin was still tanned, his body still full of that sensual male power that made her own tighten and shiver slightly.
As he forced himself not to give in to the pain of his bruises Dominic wondered when Annie was going to tell him about the baby. Not once during her visits had she made any reference to it, and he was angrily aware of how inappropriate their current role reversal was. He was the one who should be taking care of her, cherishing her, guarding her, protecting her.
‘Dr Spears said it might be more comfortable for you to sleep downstairs for the time being,’ Annie announced once they were in the car—Dominic’s car, not her own, because the seats were more comfortable and there was more leg room for him, even if she herself would have preferred to have been driving her own car.
‘No way! For God’s sake, I’m not an invalid!’ Dominic exploded angrily. ‘I don’t need mollycoddling Annie. In fact…’
‘In fact what?’ she challenged him sharply. ‘In fact you’d prefer me to leave? There’s no way that the hospital would have let you come home if they thought you were going to be on your own,’ she reminded him.
Want her to leave! Dominic looked out of the car window. When they had told him how she had insisted on staying at his bedside until she knew he was going to make a full recovery he had thought…hoped…But in the days since he had recovered consciousness, instead of drawing closer together, instead of him having an opportunity to tell her how thrilled he was about the baby and how much he wanted them to put the past behind them and start again, Annie seemed to have thrown up a wall between them which she had no intention of allowing him to cross.
‘We’re here,’ she announced unnecessarily as she turned into the drive and parked the car. ‘You stay here. I’ll go and unlock the door and then I’ll come back for you.’
Dominic let her get as far as the front door before he opened his own car door and struggled out.
Standing on the gravel of the drive was, for some reason, much harder and much more painful than standing beside his hospital bed—and as for walking…! Gritting his teeth, he started to move towards the house.
Annie finally realised what he was doing when she had unlocked the door and turned back towards the car.
‘Dominic!’ she protested sharply, hurrying towards him and reaching him just as he sagged heavily to one side, breathing hard.
‘I’m all right. For God’s sake, stop fussing,’ he told her curtly.
‘You’re not all right. You should have waited for me.’
‘Waited for you?’
She watched his mouth twisting bitterly.
‘What good would that do me, Annie? What good has it ever done me?’
If she didn’t know better she might have thought that there was more than just physical pain she could see in his eyes. But what was the point in tormenting herself? Dominic had told her himself that he no longer loved her.
With only herself to consider she might have been tempted into the weakness of allowing the physical desire she could sense he still felt for her to have free rein, but the knowledge that soon she would have another, much more vulnerable life to consider had given her a strength she hadn’t known she could possess. No matter how much her body might ache for him she could never now accept the shallow worthlessness of mere sexual satisfaction.
‘Dr Spears gave me some painkillers for you,’ she said calmly. ‘Once you’re in bed I’ll bring you some.’
They were inside the house now, and as she looked at the stairs, and then at him, she told him, ‘I’ve got to go back to the car for your bag, and then I’ll help you upstairs.’
‘No,’ he told her swiftly. ‘I can manage. If I lean on you it could hurt you.’
Hurt her? He was concerned about hurting her…Now! After what he had already done…Annie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he did have a point. If he should fall…
Helplessly she watched as he struggled painfully up the stairs. When he reached the top he leaned heavily on the balustrade. Anxiously she rushed towards him. She could see the pain etched into his face. Automatically she went to take his arm, ignoring his anger as she helped him into his room.
‘Thank you. But I can undress myself,’ he gritted. ‘Unless, of course, you want to watch!’
Her face burning, Annie fled. She, more than anyone else, understood how pain and incapacity could sharpen even the sweetest temper, but the mere thought of him naked…Pink-cheeked, she hurried back downstairs. The thought of Dominic naked was not a thought she should allow herself to have, she told herself sternly.
It was later that night when a sound from Dominic’s room disturbed her own sleep. Automatically she was out of bed, reaching for her robe, pulling it on as she hurried anxiously towards his door.
The anguished groan that reached her ears as she opened the door had her scurrying towards the bed.
Dominic was lying in the middle of it, the bedclothes pushed down to expose his naked body, the bruises still livid against his tan, the dressing on his leg a paler blur.
Hastily averting her gaze from the very visual evidence of his maleness, Annie leaned across him, intending to reach for the bedclothes to cover him up. But as she did so he suddenly opened his eyes and grasped her arm.
‘Annie,’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘I was just dreaming about you.’
Annie licked her lips a little nervously.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ Dominic told her softly. ‘So very, very beautiful.’
His fingers were caressing her arm, making her shiver, making her…
‘Dominic, stop it,’ she protested. ‘You aren’t well. You shouldn’t…’
‘I shouldn’t what?’ he demanded softly. ‘I shouldn’t make love to my wife? They said at the hospital that I should do whatever I felt able to do, and I feel very, very able to make love to you, my Annie…very able!’
His Annie! She wasn’t that now…not any more.
‘Dominic,’ she whispered in a paper-thin voice. But somehow she was still bending towards him, still allowing him to draw her down beside him to hold her, touch her, kiss her.
‘I can remember the first time we made love here,’ he was telling her, and Annie had to stop herself from responding. So can I.
She didn’t want to tell him she was leaving him until she was sure he was well enough to look after himself. She didn’t want to argue or quarrel with him at all, she recognised. Giddily he started to kiss her, and her head began to swim.
‘It was so good between us…I wish you could remember,’ he was telling her as he reached inside her robe and started to stroke his hand over her body. Was it her imagination or did they linger deliberately on the still flat plane of her tummy?
‘I wanted you so much then,’ he told her rawly. ‘I want you just as much now, Annie.’
It must be the drugs that were making him like this, Annie decided as her breathing quickened and shallowed in response to the desire that he was arousing in her. She could feel her nipples peaking, hardening, aching for much, much more than the delicate brush of his fingertips against them.
‘Dominic, no,’ she told him as he rolled her gently onto her back and started to kiss her throat, then her breasts.
‘Annie, yes,’ he whispered back in response as his hands warmed her body.
It was her dreams…her memories…her longings brought vividly to life—and more. She ought to stop him—now—whilst she still could. He wasn’t well and she wasn’t…But instead of pushing him away she suddenly discovered that she was holding on to him, crying out softly to him…for him—too caught up in what she was feeling herself to be shocked by the raw immedia
cy of his fierce possession of her.
‘Is this all right for you?’ he asked as he entered her, full and hard, and yet somehow gentle too, as though…
‘I want you to…’ To stop, she had intended to tell him, but suddenly her voice was suspended as her need for him overwhelmed her and she was crying out helplessly to him. ‘I want you to love me, Dominic. I want you to hold me, fill me…love me—’
Briefly even her baby was forgotten in her desire to absorb and accommodate as much of him as she could, and when she felt him holding back she pressed closer to him, urging him on.
‘Yes, oh, yes, that feels so good,’ she encouraged him as her fingers tightened against his buttocks and her back arched. ‘Oh, yes, Dom…Dom…Yes…Oh…Oh, yes, my darling—yes!’
‘Dominic, your leg—your bruises,’ Annie gasped in remorse several minutes later, when she had come back down to earth enough to realise what they had done.
‘What leg…what bruises?’ Dominic teased her.
She could feel the laughter rocking his body just as she had felt the passion moving it only minutes before. What she had done was wrong. Inexcusable. Tears blurred her eyes, but when she moved to pull away from him Dominic held onto her.
‘No!’ he commanded fiercely, his voice softening as he told her, ‘I want you here with me, Annie. I need you here…please stay.’
Please stay! In the darkness Annie fought against her own emotions. He was only being like this because of the drugs he was on, because he felt vulnerable. She waited until she was sure he was asleep before sliding out from beneath his restraining arm and picking up her discarded robe. Her own bed felt cold and lonely…empty. Every time she closed her eyes she could see him…feel him…
Dominic frowned as he watched Annie through his study window. She was outside in the garden, where she had gone to get some mint for the lamb they were having for their meal. He had been home a number of days now, and she had still made no mention to him of her pregnancy. Since the first night he had been home and he had made love with her the atmosphere between them had been distant and strained. He couldn’t blame her for that. She had every reason to feel angry that he had taken advantage of her kind-heartedness—of her. As he watched her walk slowly, reluctantly, back to the house and him, he made up his mind that if she wasn’t going to broach the subject of the baby then he would have to do so.
