Hers For One Night Only?

Praise for Carol Marinelli:

‘A heartwarming story about taking a chance and not letting the past destroy the future. It is strengthened by two engaging lead characters and a satisfying ending.’

—RT Book Reviews on THE LAST KOLOVSKY PLAYBOY

‘Carol Marinelli writes with sensitivity,

compassion and understanding, and

RESCUING PREGNANT CINDERELLA is not just a powerful romance, but an uplifting and inspirational tale about starting over, new beginnings and moving on.’

—Cataromance on ST PIRAN’S: RESCUING PREGNANT CINDERELLA

CAROL MARINELLI recently filled in a form where she was asked for her job title and was thrilled, after all these years, to be able to put down her answer as ‘writer’. Then it asked what Carol did for relaxation. After chewing her pen for a moment Carol put down the truth—‘writing’. The third question asked—‘What are your hobbies?’ Well, not wanting to look obsessed or, worse still, boring, she crossed the fingers on her free hand and answered ‘swimming and tennis’. But, given that the chlorine in the pool does terrible things to her highlights, and the closest she’s got to a tennis racket in the last couple of years is watching the Australian Open, I’m sure you can guess the real answer!

If you love Carol Marinelli you’ll fall head over heels for her sparkling, touching, witty debut PUTTING ALICE BACK TOGETHER— available from MIRA® Books.

Recent titles by Carol Marinelli:

CORT MASON—DR DELECTABLE

HER LITTLE SECRET

ST PIRAN’S: RESCUING PREGNANT CINDERELLA*

KNIGHT ON THE CHILDREN’S WARD

*St Piran’s Hospital

Recent titles by Jessica Matthews:

THE CHILD WHO RESCUED CHRISTMAS

MAVERICK IN THE ER

SIX-WEEK MARRIAGE MIRACLE

EMERGENCY: PARENTS NEEDED

These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

Hers For One

Night Only?

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

‘YOU’RE far too available.’ Bridgette didn’t really know how to respond when her friend Jasmine’s sympathy finally ran out. After all, she knew that Jasmine was right. ‘It’s me and Vince’s leaving do and you won’t come out in case your sister needs a babysitter.’

‘You know it’s not as simple as that,’ Bridgette said.

‘But it is as simple as that.’ Jasmine was determined to stand firm this time. Her boyfriend, Vince, was a paediatric intern at the large Melbourne hospital where Bridgette had, until recently, worked, and he was heading off for a year to do relief work overseas. At what felt like the last minute the rather dizzy Jasmine had decided to join him for three months, and after a lot of paperwork and frantic applications, finally tonight there was a gathering to see them both off. ‘You’ve put everything on hold for Courtney, you’ve given up a job you love so you can do agency and be more flexible—you’ve done everything you can to support her and look at where it’s got you.’

Jasmine knew that she was being harsh, but she wanted Bridgette to cry, damn it, wanted her friend to admit the truth—that living like this was agony, that something had to give. But Bridgette refused to cry, insisting instead that she was coping—that she didn’t mind doing agency work, that she loved looking after Courtney’s son, Harry. ‘Come out, then,’ Jasmine challenged. ‘If everything’s as fine as you say, you deserve a night out—you haven’t had one in ages. I want you there—we all want to see you. Everyone will be there…’

‘What if…?’ Bridgette stopped herself from saying it. She was exhausted from going over the what-ifs.

‘Stop hiding behind Harry,’ Jasmine said.

‘I’m not.’

‘Yes, you are. I know you’ve been hurt, but you need to put it behind you.’

And it stung, but, then, the truth often did and, yes, Bridgette conceded, maybe she was using Harry as a bit of an excuse so as not to get out there. ‘Okay!’ Bridgette took a deep breath and nodded. ‘You’re on.’

‘You’re coming?’ Jasmine grinned.

‘Looks like it.’

So instead of sitting at home, Bridgette sat in the hairdresser’s and had some dark foils added to her mousey-brown hair. They made her skin look paler and her sludgy-grey eyes just a bit darker, it seemed, and with Jasmine’s endless encouragement she had a wax and her nails done too and, for good measure, crammed in a little shopping.

Bridgette’s bedroom was in chaos, not that Jasmine cared a bit, as they fought over mirror space and added another layer of mascara. It was a hot, humid night and already Bridgette was sweating. Her face would be shining by the time she got there at this rate, so she climbed over two laundry baskets to open her bedroom window and then attempted to find her shoes. ‘I must tidy up in here.’ Bridgette searched for her high-heeled sandals. Her bedroom had once been tidy—but when Harry had been born Courtney had moved in and Bridgette’s two-bedroom flat had never quite recovered from housing three—actually, four at times if you counted Paul. Her love life hadn’t recovered either!

Bridgette found her sandals and leant against the wall as she put them on. She surveyed the large boxes of shelves she had bought online that would hopefully help her organise things. ‘I want to get these shelves put up. Dad said he’d come around and find the studs in the wall, whatever they are…’

Jasmine bit her tongue—Maurice had been saying that for months. The last thing Bridgette needed tonight was to have her parents criticised but, honestly, two more unhelpful, inflexible people you could not meet. Maurice and Betty Joyce just closed their eyes to the chaos their youngest daughter created and left it all for Bridgette to sort out.

‘How do you feel?’ Jasmine asked as, dressed in a guilty purchase, make-up done and high heels on, Bridgette surveyed herself in the mirror.

‘Twenty-six.’ Bridgette grinned at her own reflection, liking, for once, what she saw. Gone was the exhausted woman from earlier—instead she literally glowed and not with sweat either. No, it was the sheer silver dress she had bought that did the most amazing things to her rather curvy figure, and the heavenly new blusher that had wiped away the last remnants of fatigue in just a few glittery, peachy strokes.

‘And single,’ Jasmine nudged.

‘Staying single,’ Bridgette said. ‘The last thing I want is a relationship.’

‘Doesn’t have to be a relationship,’ Jasmine replied, but gave in with a small laugh. ‘It does with you, though.’ She looked at her friend. ‘Paul was a complete bastard, you know.’

‘I know.’ She did not want to talk about it.

‘Better to find out now than later.’

‘I know that,’ Bridgette snapped. She so did not want to talk about it—she didn’t even want to think about it tonight—but thankfully Jasmine had other things on her mind.

‘Ooh, I wonder if Dominic will be there. He’s sex on legs, that guy…’ Even though she was blissfully happy with Vince, Jasmine still raved about the paediatric locum registrar, Dominic Mansfield.

‘You’re just about to fly off to Africa with your boyfriend.’ Bridgette grinned. ‘Should you be noticing such things?’

‘I can still look.’ Jasmine sighed. ‘Honestly, you can’t help looking when Dominic’s around—he’s gorgeous. He just doesn’t belong in our hospital. He should be on some glamorous soap or something…Anyway, I was thinking of him more for you.’

‘Liar. From what you’ve told me about Dominic, he’s not the relationship kind.’

‘Well, he must have been at some point—he was engaged before he came to Melbourne. Mind you, he wouldn’t do for you at all. He hardly speaks. He’s quite arrogant really,’ Jasmine mused. ‘Anyway, enough about all that. Look at you.’ She smiled at her friend in the mirror. ‘Gorgeous, single, no commitments…You’re allowed to have fun, you know.’

Except Bridgette did have commitments, even if no one could really understand them. It was those commitments that had her double-check that she had her phone in her bag. She didn’t feel completely single—more she felt like a single mum with her child away on an access visit. Courtney and Harry had lived with her for a year and it had ended badly, and though she spoke little to Courtney now, she was an extremely regular babysitter.

She missed him tonight.

But, she reminded herself, he wasn’t hers to miss.

Still, it was nice to be out and to catch up with everyone. They all put in some money for drinks, but unfortunately it was Jasmine who chose the wine and it was certainly a case of quantity over quality. Bridgette took a sip—she was far from a wine snob, but it really was awful and she sat on one drink all night.

‘When are you coming back to us?’ was the cry from her ex-colleagues.

‘I’m not sure,’ Bridgette responded. ‘Soon, I hope.’

Yes, it was a good night; it just wasn’t the same as it once had been.

She wasn’t one of them any more.

She had no idea who they were talking about when they moaned about someone called Rita—how she took over in a birth, how much her voice grated. There had been a big drama last week apparently, which they were now discussing, of which Bridgette knew nothing. Slipping her phone out of her bag, she checked it, relieved to see that there were no calls, but even though she wasn’t needed, even though she had nowhere else to be right now, the night was over for her.

She wasn’t a midwife any more, or at best she was an occasional one—she went wherever the agency sent her. Bridgette was about to say goodbye to Jasmine, to make a discreet exit, when she was thwarted by some late arrivals, whom Jasmine marched her over to, insisting that she say hello.

‘This is Rita, the new unit manager.’ Jasmine introduced the two women. ‘And, Rita, this is Bridgette Joyce. She used to work with us. We’re trying to persuade her to come back. And this is…’ He really needed no introduction, because Bridgette looked over and fell into very black eyes. The man stood apart from the rest and looked a bit out of place in the rather tacky bar, and, yes, he was as completely stunning as Jasmine had described. His black hair was worn just a little bit long and swept backwards to reveal a face that was exquisite. He was tall, slim and wearing black trousers and a fitted white shirt. He was, quite simply, divine. ‘This is Dominic,’ Jasmine introduced, ‘our locum paediatrician.’

He didn’t look like a paediatrician—oh, she knew she shouldn’t label people so, but as he nodded and said hello he didn’t look in the least like a man who was used to dealing with children. Jasmine was right—he should be on a soap, playing the part of a pretend doctor, or…She imagined him more a surgeon, a cosmetic surgeon perhaps, at some exclusive private practice.

‘Can I get anyone a drink?’ He was very smooth and polite, and there was no hint of an accent, but with such dark looks she wondered if his forebears were Italian perhaps, maybe Greek. He must have caught her staring, and when he saw that she didn’t have a glass, he spoke directly to her. ‘Bridgette, can I get you anything?’

‘Not for me, thanks, I’m—’ She was just about to say that she was leaving when Jasmine interrupted her.

‘You don’t need to buy a drink, Dominic. We’ve got loads.’ Jasmine toddled over to their loud table and poured him a glass of vinegary wine and one for Bridgette too, and then handed them over. ‘Come on.’ Jasmine pushed, determined her friend would unwind. ‘Drink up, Bridgette.’

He was terribly polite because he accepted it graciously and took a sip of the drink and managed not to wince. But as Bridgette took a tiny sip, she did catch his eye, and there was a hint of a shared smile, if it could even be called that.

‘It’s good that you could make it, Dominic.’ Vince came over. He had just today finished his paediatric rotation, and Bridgette had worked with him on Maternity for a while before she’d left. ‘I know that it hasn’t been a great day.’

She watched as Dominic gave a brief nod, gave practically nothing back to that line of conversation—instead, he changed the subject. ‘So,’ he asked, ‘when do you fly?’

‘Monday night,’ Vince said, and spoke a little about the project he was joining.

‘Well,’ said Dominic, ‘all the best with it.’

He really didn’t waste words, did he? Bridgette thought as Jasmine polished her cupid’s bow and happily took Vince’s hand and wandered off, leaving Bridgette alone with him and trying not to show just how awkward she felt.

‘Careful,’ she said as his glass moved to his lips. ‘Remember how bad it tastes.’

She was rewarded with the glimpse of a smile.

‘Do you want me to get you something else?’

Yikes, she hadn’t been fishing for drinks. ‘No, no…’ Bridgette shook her head. ‘Jasmine would be offended. I’m fine. I was just…’ Joking, she didn’t add, trying to make conversation. Gorgeous he might be to look at but he really didn’t say very much. ‘You’re at the hospital, then?’ Bridgette asked.

‘Just as a fill-in,’ Dominic said. ‘I’ve got a consultant’s position starting in a couple of weeks in Sydney.’ He named a rather impressive hospital and that just about summed him up, Bridgette decided—rather impressive and very, very temporary.

‘Your family is there?’

‘That’s right,’ he said, but didn’t elaborate. ‘You work on Maternity?’ Dominic frowned, because he couldn’t place her.

‘I used to,’ Bridgette explained. ‘I left six months ago. I’ve been doing agency…’

‘Why?’

It was a very direct question, one she wasn’t quite expecting, one she wasn’t really sure how to answer.

‘The hours are more flexible,’ she said, ‘the money’s better…’ And it was the truth, but only a shred of it, because she missed her old job very badly. She’d just been accepted as a clinical nurse specialist when she’d left. She adored everything about midwifery, and now she went wherever the agency sent her. As she was qualified as a general nurse, she could find herself in nursing homes, on spinal units, sometimes in psych. She just worked and got on with it, but she missed doing what she loved the most.

He really didn’t need to hear it, so back on went the smile she’d been wearing all night. ‘And it means that I get to go out on a Saturday night.’ The moment she said them, she wanted those words back, wished she could retrieve them. She knew that she sounded like some sort of party girl, especially with what came next.

‘I can see it has benefits,’ Dominic said, and she swore he glanced down at the hand that was holding the glass, and for a dizzy moment she realised she was being appraised. ‘If you have a young family.’

‘Er, no.’ Oh, help, she was being appraised. He was looking at her, the same way she might look at shoes in a window and tick off her mental list of preferences—too flat, too high, nice colour, shame about the bow. Wrong girl, she wanted to say to him, I’m lace-up-shoe boring.

‘You don’t have children?’

‘No,’ she said, and something twisted inside, because if she told him about Harry she would surely burst into tears. She could just imagine Dominic’s gorgeous face sort of sliding into horrified boredom if the newly foiled, for once groomed woman beside him told him she felt as if her guts were being torn, that right now, right this very minute, she was having great difficulty not pulling out her phone to check if there had been a text or a call from Courtney. Right now she wanted to drive past where her sister was living with her friend Louise and make sure that there wasn’t a wild party raging. She scrambled for something to say, anything to say, and of course she again said the wrong thing.

‘Sorry that you had a bad day.’ She watched his jaw tighten a fraction, knew, given his job, that it was a stupid thing to say, especially when her words tumbled out in a bright and breezy voice. But the false smile she had plastered on all night seemed to be infusing her brain somehow, she was so incredibly out of practice with anything remotely social.

He gave her the same brief nod that he had given Vince, then a very brief smile and very smoothly excused himself.

‘Told you!’ Jasmine was over in a flash the minute he was gone. ‘Oh, my God, you were talking for ages.’

‘For two minutes.’

‘That’s ages for him!’ Jasmine breathed. ‘He hardly says a word to anyone.’

‘Jasmine!’ She rolled her eyes at her friend. ‘You can stop this very moment.’ Bridgette let out a small gurgle of laughter. ‘I think I’ve just been assessed as to my suitability for a one-nighter. Honestly, he’s shameless…He asked if I had children and everything. Maybe he’s worried I’ve got stretch marks and a baggy vagina.’

It was midwife-speak, and as she made Jasmine laugh, she laughed herself. The two women really laughed for the first time in a long, long time, and it was so good for Bridgette to be with her friend before she jetted off, because Jasmine had helped her through this difficult time. She didn’t want to be a misery at her friends’ leaving do, so she kept up the conversation a little. They giggled about lithe, toned bodies and the temptresses who would surely writhe on his white rug in his undoubtedly immaculate city apartment. It was a white rug, they decided, laughing, for a man like Dominic was surely far too tasteful for animal prints. And he’d make you a cocktail on arrival, for this was the first-class lounge of one-night stands, and on and on they went…Yes, it was so good to laugh.

Dominic could hear her laughter as he spoke with a colleague, as again he was offered yet more supposed consolation for a ‘bad day’. He wished that people would just say nothing, wished he could simply forget.

It had been a…He searched for the expletive to best describe his day, chose it, but knew if he voiced it he might just be asked to leave, which wouldn’t be so bad, but, no, he took a mouthful of vinegar and grimaced as it met the acid in his stomach.

He hated his job.

Was great at it.

Hated it.

Loved it.

Did it.

He played ping-pong in his mind with a ball that broke with every hit.

He wanted that hard ball tonight, one that bounced back on every smash, one that didn’t crumple if you hammered it.

He wanted to be the doctor who offered better answers.

Today he had seen the dominos falling, had scrambled to stop them, had done everything to reset them, but still they’d fallen—click, click, click—racing faster than he could halt them till he’d known absolutely what was coming and had loathed that he’d been the only one who could see it.

‘Where there’s life there’s hope’ had been offered several times.

Actually, no, he wanted to say as he’d stared at another batch of blood results and read off the poisons that had filled this tiny body.

‘There is hope, though…’ the parents had begged, and he had refused to flinch at the frantic eyes that had scanned his face as he’d delivered news.

He loved hope, he craved hope and had searched so hard for it today, but he also knew when hope was gone, said it before others would. Unlike others, he faced the inevitable—because it was either cardiac massage and all lights blazing, or a cuddle without the tubes at the end.

Yes, it came down to that.

Yes, it had been a XXXX of a day.

He had sat with the parents till ten p.m. and then entered a bar that was too bright, stood with company that was too loud and tasted wine that could dissolve an olive, and hated that he missed her. How could you miss a woman you didn’t even like? He hated that she’d ring tonight and that he might be tempted to go back. That in two weeks’ time he’d see her. Shouldn’t he be over Arabella by now? Maybe it was just because he had had a ‘bad day’. Not that he and Arabella had ever really spoken about work—oh, they’d discussed their career paths of course, but never the day-to-day details. They’d never talked about days such as this, Dominic mused.

Then he had seen her—Bridgette. In a silver dress and with a very wide smile, with gorgeous nails and polished hair, she had drawn his eye. Yet on inspection there was more behind that polished façade than he cared to explore, more than he needed tonight.

He had been checking for a wedding ring.

What no one understood was that he preferred to find one.

Married women were less complicated, knew the rules from the start, for they had so much more to lose than he did.

Bridgette was complicated.

He’d read her, because he read women well. He could see the hurt behind those grey eyes, could see the effort that went into her bright smile. She was complicated and he didn’t need it. But, on the way down to her ring finger, he’d noticed very pale skin and a tapestry of freckles, and he’d wondered where the freckles stopped, had wondered far too many things.

He didn’t need an ounce of emotion tonight, not one more piece, which was why he had excused himself and walked away. But perhaps he’d left gut instinct in his car tonight, the radar warning that had told him to keep his distance dimmed a fraction as he looked over to where she stood, laughing with her friend.

‘Hey, Dominic…’ He heard a low, seductive voice and turned to the pretty blonde who stood before him, a nurse who worked in Theatre and one whose husband seemed to be perpetually away. ‘So brilliant to see you tonight.’ He looked into eyes that were blue and glittered with open invitation, saw the ring on her finger and the spray tan on her arm on the way down. ‘I just finished a late shift. Wasn’t sure I’d make it.’

‘Are you on tomorrow?’ someone asked.

‘No,’ she answered. ‘And I’ve got the weekend to myself. Geoff’s away.’ Her eyes flicked to his and Dominic met her gaze, went to take another sip of his drink and then, remembering how it tasted, changed his mind, and he changed his mind about something else too—he couldn’t stomach the taste of fake tan tonight.

Then he heard Bridgette laughing, looked over and ignored his inner radar, managed to convince himself that he had read her wrong.

He knew now what Bridgette’s middle name was.

Escape.

‘People are talking about going for something to eat…’ Vince came over and snaked his arm around Jasmine, and they shared a kiss as Bridgette stood, pretending not to feel awkward—actually, not so awkward now that she and Jasmine had had such a laugh. She wasn’t going out to dinner, or to a club, but at least she and Jasmine had had some fun—but then the waitress came over and handed her a glass.

‘For me?’ Bridgette frowned.

‘He said to be discreet.’ The waitress nodded her head in Dominic’s direction. ‘I’ll get rid of your other glass.’

Double yikes!

She glanced over to black eyes that were waiting to meet hers.

Wrong girl, she wanted to semaphore back—so very, very wrong for you, Dominic, she wanted to signal. It took me weeks to have sex with Paul, I mean weeks, and you’re only here for two. And I don’t think I’m very good at it anyway. At least he hinted at that when we broke up. But Bridgette didn’t have any flags handy and wouldn’t know what to do if she had them anyway, so she couldn’t spell it out; she only had her eyes and they held his.

She lifted the glass of temptation he offered and the wine slipped onto her tongue and down her throat. It tasted delicious—cold and expensive and not at all what she was used to.

She felt her cheeks burn as she dragged her eyes from him and back to her friend and tried to focus on what Jasmine was saying—something about Mexican, and a night that would never end. She sipped her champagne that was far too nice, far too moreish, and Bridgette knew she had to get out of there. ‘Not for me,’ she said to Jasmine, feeling the scald of his eyes on her shoulder as she spoke. ‘Honestly, Jasmine…’ She didn’t need to make excuses with her friend.