“Why can’t we have a future, Nick?”

“Because I’m not looking for commitment and never shall be,” he said bluntly, hating to see how she winced. His fingers curled around the cup, because there was no way that he could risk holding her hand again when his emotions were so finely balanced.

“Never is a long time. You might change your mind.”

“I won’t. I can’t.”

“Can’t? What do you mean by that?” Her eyes were luminous with unshed tears and it hurt to know that he was the cause of them.

“Because I made a decision many years ago never to get involved in a long-term relationship, and I can’t go back on it,” he explained, knowing that he was glossing over the truth.

Dear Reader,

People often ask me where I get my ideas for a story from and my reply is always the same: from everything I see and hear. A Family of Their Own is the perfect example.

I was passing through one of London’s busiest rail stations when I noticed a sign advertising a walk-in medical center. With almost an hour to wait before my train departed, I decided to make good use of the time by finding out about the services they offered. By the time I finally boarded the train I had enough material to write this book!

When Leanne Russell comes to London to find her mother, she takes a job as a nurse at a medical center operating out of one of London’s busiest rail stations, and there she meets Nick Slater, the charismatic head of the clinic. Leanne certainly isn’t looking for romance during her stay in England and neither is Nick, but there is no denying the instant attraction they feel for each other.

They agree to enjoy their moments together while they last, but Leanne soon realizes that she wants more than just a few weeks with this man. How can she convince Nick that they could have a future when he has put a limit on their relationship?

Nick and Leanne are two of my favorite characters and I loved helping them to get through their problems to find true happiness. I have always firmly believed that love will uncover a way to overcome any difficulties if people will only let it.

Enjoy!

Jennifer Taylor

A Family of Their Own
Jennifer Taylor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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CONTENTS

Cover

Dear Reader

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

LEANNE RUSSELL had given up a lot to come to London. As she stood in the crowded railway carriage and thought about the decisions she had made, she sighed.

She’d had a good job, a lovely flat and she had been on the verge of getting engaged, but she had given it all up without a qualm. She knew that her friends back home in Australia thought she was mad, but they didn’t understand.

Discovering that she had been adopted as a baby had shaken the very foundations of her world so that it felt as though she no longer knew who she was any more. She had tried to explain how important it was that she find out the truth about her past, but nobody had understood that, not even Michael—

Especially not Michael! she amended swiftly.

Leanne’s generous mouth tightened as she thought about the row she’d had with her fiancé, Michael Freeman, shortly before she had left for England. She had hoped that he, at least, would support her decision, but she’d been wrong.

Michael had been furious when she had told him about her plans to go to England. At first she had thought that he’d been concerned about her making the trip on her own, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. The only thing that Michael had been worried about had been the fact that the plans he’d made to announce their engagement at the staff Christmas party would have to be changed.

He’d refused to listen when she had tried to explain how important the trip was to her. As he had coldly pointed out, he didn’t see why he should be inconvenienced because she was setting out on some wild goose chase. In the end, he had cut short the discussion and given her an ultimatum: either stay at home or forget their engagement.

If anything had been guaranteed to prove what a mistake she had made by agreeing to marry him, that had been it. If she was honest, she had already started having doubts about whether Michael was the man she wanted to spend her life with, and the ultimatum had been the last straw. Michael’s needs had come first and foremost, and always would. Everyone else’s—hers included—had come way down his list of priorities.

The train drew into the station with a hissing of brakes and Leanne snapped out of her reverie. A mechanical voice was announcing that this stop was St Stephen’s and to change here for Waterloo and Embankment. She felt her heart give a nervous little jolt as she alighted from the carriage. The first day in her new job was about to begin.

It had been pure good luck that she had happened to find the advertisement on the internet asking for experienced nurses to work at HealthFirst, a medical centre operating out of one of London’s busiest railway stations. The jobs were being handled by an Australian recruitment agency, so she had arranged an interview at their office in Sydney.

She had met all HealthFirst’s requirements so the agency had emailed her application to London and received a reply, setting up a time when they could telephone and speak to her in person. Five days later she’d signed a three-month contract and faxed it back to their office.

The wonders of modern technology, she thought wryly as she took the escalator up to the station’s main concourse. The only problem being that it was a little daunting to be starting a new job without having met any of the people she would be working with.

Would they accept her? she found herself wondering as she stepped off the moving stairway. She had always made friends easily in the past but that had been before she’d found out that she wasn’t the person she’d thought herself to be. She wasn’t really Leanne Russell at all. That had been the name her adoptive parents had given her. Until she found out the truth about herself, she couldn’t be certain of anything any more.

Leanne put that unsettling thought to the back of her mind as she crossed the busy concourse. It was a little before eight and the morning rush-hour was under way. She could see the neon sign for HealthFirst glowing above the heads of the commuters. The clinic was on the mezzanine level so she ran up the stairs then paused before opening the door.

She had dressed with extra care that morning, wanting to make a good impression. Although she had been told that a uniform would be provided, it had seemed important that she looked neat and tidy and the black trouser suit and crisp white shirt had seemed the perfect choice.

She was quite tall, a little over five feet nine, with a trim but curvaceous figure, and tailored clothes suited her best. Low-heeled black pumps added a little more to her height and matched the workmanlike leather bag swinging from her shoulder.

She had pinned her collar-length, dark red hair into a French pleat and been sparing with her make-up, relying on a touch of foundation to conceal the sprinkling of freckles that covered her small, straight nose and just a lick of black mascara to emphasise her slate-grey eyes.

Lipstick was something she’d never worn since Michael had told her that it made her mouth look far too big, but just for a moment she found herself wishing that she had worn some that day. It would have helped to bolster her courage if she had been wearing full war-paint, as her mother had always called it.

Thinking about the woman who had brought her up still caused her a lot of pain so she quickly pushed open the door and went inside. There was an attractive blonde woman behind the desk and she looked up with a polite smile.

‘Good morning. How may I help you?’

‘I’m Leanne Russell, the new practice nurse. I was told to report to Dr Slater,’ she explained.

‘Oh, hi, there! It’s good to meet you, Leanne.’ The woman smiled more warmly at her this time. ‘I’m Melanie Pickering, another of the nurses here, although my contract runs out in…oh, seventy-one hours and six minutes precisely.’

Leanne laughed. ‘Not that you’re counting off the minutes, of course. Is it really that bad, working here?’

‘No way! It’s been great and I’ve really enjoyed it, but it’s time to move on.’

Melanie grinned as she got up from behind the desk. ‘I’m off to the Philippines next week and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got itchy feet, I’m afraid, so I never stay too long in any one place. Mind you, most of the people who work here are exactly the same. Nick was only saying yesterday that it’s like the United Nations in here.’

‘Nick?’ Leanne prompted, following Melanie down a wide corridor.

The clinic was very modern from what she could see, with lots of chrome and glass and discreetly positioned lighting. They passed an elegantly furnished waiting area and she smiled at a man who was sitting on one of the comfortable chairs, drinking a cup of coffee.

She knew from the literature that had been sent to her that patients attending the clinic paid to see a doctor or a nurse according to a set scale of charges. HealthFirst offered a walk-in service so that people didn’t need to make an appointment before they arrived.

‘Nick Slater. He’s in charge for the next four months while the clinic’s director is taking an extended holiday.’

‘Another short-term contract,’ Leanne observed. They had reached the end of the corridor and Melanie paused outside a door that was standing slightly ajar.

‘Most people who work here are employed on a short-term basis. It’s one of the main attractions of the job. As for Nick, well, his feet are even itchier than mine! If you’ve got a couple of hours to spare, ask him to list all the countries he’s visited—’ She broke off and grimaced when the phone in Reception rang. ‘Starting early today from the sound of it. I’ll have to leave you and Nick to introduce yourselves. Don’t bother knocking. Just go straight in. He’s on his own.’

‘Thanks,’ Leanne murmured as Melanie hurried away. She squared her shoulders then went to open the door when all of a sudden she heard voices coming from inside the room. She paused, realising that Melanie must have been mistaken about Nick Slater being on his own. She would hate to barge in if he had a patient with him…

‘Leanne Russell. Aged twenty-four, from Sydney, Australia. Glowing references—highly professional, committed to her work, a credit to her profession, etcetera, etcetera. It all sounds rather too good to be true.’

‘Then it probably is.’

Nick Slater tipped back his big leather armchair and placed his booted feet on the edge of the desk. His hazel-green eyes were wry as he looked at the other man. ‘If something sounds too good to be true then it usually is in my experience.’

Dennis McNally laughed. ‘You’re such a cynic, Nick. She could be the real thing, a genuine, bona fide angel.’

‘I’ll believe that when I see her wings.’ Nick chuckled when Dennis groaned. ‘Sorry! Bad joke. Anyway, what else do we know about Miss Russell?’

Dennis frowned as he skimmed through the application form. ‘Not a lot. She comes from Sydney, as I said, and trained at the Royal Free. She had just been appointed junior sister on the tropical diseases ward—’ He broke off when Nick sighed. ‘What?’

‘Think about it. If you’d just been given a promotion, would you up and leave?’ Nick shrugged as he tilted further back in his chair. ‘Sounds to me as though Miss Russell might have had another reason for leaving sunny Sydney rather than a simple desire to spend the winter sightseeing in London. Could it have been man trouble, by any chance? That’s just what we need. Someone who’s going to spend all her time nursing a broken heart instead of the patients.’

‘Come on, Nick,’ Dennis protested. ‘You don’t have any idea why she decided to leave Aus. She might have had a sudden urge to see a bit more of the world. In which case she’ll fit in perfectly around here.’

‘She might,’ Nick replied, not attempting to hide his scepticism. They were under a lot of pressure at HealthFirst and the last thing they needed was a member of the team who didn’t pull her weight.

‘Well, there’s an easy way to test out your theory,’ Dennis said cheerfully. ‘If Leanne Russell is indeed suffering from a broken heart then she won’t be interested in going out on a date, will she? Ask her out and see what kind of a reaction you get.’

‘Thanks but, no, thanks.’ Nick smiled thinly. ‘I’m not in the market for a relationship, especially not with someone who might be on the rebound. The last thing I need is some clinging woman cluttering up my life.’

‘Scared she’ll turn you down?’ Dennis taunted. ‘What a blow to the old ego that would be. The great Nick Slater actually getting turned down for a date. That would be a first!’

‘There’s a first time for everything,’ he replied, refusing to rise to the bait, although Dennis’s comments had touched a nerve. Was he earning himself a reputation as being a bit of a Lothario, perhaps?

He hoped not. Just because he was careful about avoiding commitment, it didn’t mean that he played fast and loose. He was always completely open about his intentions whenever he invited a woman out, made sure that she understood there wasn’t any future for the relationship. He had made the decision to remain single after his brother Matt had died, and there was no way that he would risk hurting anyone’s feelings by not making his position clear. He had thought that he’d been handling things extremely well, but maybe he had given his colleagues a completely different impression.

He was still pondering on it when he realised that Dennis was speaking. He frowned. ‘What did you say?’

‘I said I’ll bet you a tenner that you can’t get Leanne Russell to go out with you,’ Dennis repeated obligingly. He grinned when Nick shook his head. ‘What are you afraid of? Scared the old Slater charm might not work this time?’

‘Of course not,’ Nick began, intending to tell Dennis that he had no intention of accepting such a ridiculous challenge—only he never got the chance to finish what he was saying. He felt a frisson run through him when a cool female voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.

‘I’d save your money if I were you, Dr Slater.’

Nick looked towards the door and it felt as though he had been punched hard in the solar plexus when he got his first glimpse of the woman who was standing there. In a fascinated sweep his eyes drank in every detail from the glorious, wet-fox red of her hair to the black leather pumps on her narrow feet.

His mind seemed to be awash with impressions all of a sudden, like how smooth her tanned skin looked, how soft her grey eyes seemed to be, how slender her body was under the tailored black suit so that it was a second or two before he realised that she was waiting for him to answer.

It took every scrap of self-possession he could summon to swing his feet from the desk, walk to the door and offer her his hand when he was acutely aware of the predicament he was in. Frankly, it was unforgivable to have been caught discussing her like that.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Russell,’ he said as evenly as he could in the circumstances. ‘Welcome to HealthFirst.’

‘Thank you.’ She placed her hand in his and he barely managed to suppress a shiver when she treated him to a chilly smile.

‘However, I think it might be best if I clarify the situation before we go any further. I am neither suffering from a broken heart nor am I looking for a relationship. So if you were thinking of accepting that bet, Dr Slater, I would advise you to change your mind. I would hate you to lose any of your hard-earned cash on my acount.’

Nick knew there must be something he could say to defuse the situation. Usually he was adept at finding the perfect phrase to smooth over the most difficult moment, but the ability seemed to have deserted him all of a sudden.

He took a deep breath as Leanne Russell removed her hand from his because it had just occurred to him why he was having such problems that day. He was disappointed because she had stated that she wasn’t interested in having a relationship with anyone.

For a man who had spent his whole adult life avoiding any risk of commitment it came as a shock to have to admit it. At that moment he wished that he were anywhere in the world rather than right there in London, facing the biggest test he had ever had to face. Leanne Russell had the power to turn his life upside down if he let her. It was the fact that he couldn’t be sure of stopping her that really scared him.

Leanne took a deep breath as she walked into the room, but her heart was hammering. Maybe she could have attributed it to anger because she had been furious when she’d overheard the conversation, but it would be wrong to lie to herself.

The reason her heart was hammering was because she had been holding Nick Slater’s hand. Even now she could feel the imprint of his fingers on her skin and had to make a conscious effort not to check her hand for any visible sign. What on earth was the matter with her? Why should she feel like this after what she had overheard him saying?

‘It’s nice to meet you, Leanne. I’m Dennis McNally, head of the admin staff here at the clinic.’

She jumped when the fair-haired man standing by the desk spoke to her. It was an effort to respond when her mind was whirling, but not for the life of her would she let Nick Slater guess how unsettled she felt.

‘Mr McNally,’ she replied coolly. He had been the other participant in that conversation and she had no intention of letting him think that he could get away with it. Far better to put an end to any more speculation straight away.

‘I hope that you have taken note of what I told Dr Slater, especially the last part of it. I am not in the market for a relationship.’

She heard Nick Slater suck in a deep breath when she emphasised that last word and glanced at him. Just for a second their eyes met and held while she felt the oddest sensation run through her. It was as though all the strength had suddenly ebbed from her body. She could feel her arms and legs growing weak, feel her vision starting to blur…

She blinked and the room shot back into focus. Nick Slater had already turned away and she watched as he went to his desk and sat down. He picked up a pen and lined it up with infinite precision along the top edge of his leather-backed blotter.

Leanne bit her lip because she knew with a sudden flash of insight that he was trying to buy himself some time before he had to look at her again. Why? Because he had experienced that same sensation of weakness which had seized her when their eyes had met? It seemed crazy even to think such a thing, yet she knew it was true. And her racing heart raced all the faster.

‘I owe you an apology, Miss Russell. Obviously, you weren’t meant to overhear what Dennis and I were saying just now, but that is no excuse. It was extremely remiss of us to have been speculating about you that way.’

Nick Slater’s deep voice cut through the silence and made her start nervously. Leanne raised startled eyes to his face then quickly looked away because she didn’t want to risk making eye contact with him again.

‘So long as you both understand that I would take an extremely dim view of you repeating what you said to anyone else, I think we can let the matter drop,’ she said, striving for calmness.

‘You have my word on it, Miss Russell. Thank you for being so understanding.’

He turned to Dennis McNally and she breathed a sigh of relief at no longer being the object of his interest. ‘If you could let me have those figures, Dennis, I can work them into my report. I need to get it faxed to the office this afternoon, so I would appreciate it if you could get straight onto it.’

It was a dismissal and Dennis wasn’t slow to see it as such. ‘No problem. I’ll let you have them before lunch. Nice to meet you, Miss Russell, and, as Nick said, sorry and all that.’

Leanne inclined her head, although she didn’t say anything as he hurriedly left the room. She was far too busy worrying about being alone with Nick Slater to think about anything else. It stunned her that she should be so aware of him because it had never happened before, not even when she had met Michael.

That thought was less than comforting so it was a relief when Nick briskly stood up and walked to the door. ‘I’ll give you a quick tour of the place first. I’m afraid that you’re getting thrown in at the deep end because we are short-staffed at the moment.’

‘Show me any medical facility that isn’t short of staff,’ she said lightly, following him into the corridor.

She took a steadying breath as he locked his office door. If she focused solely on the job and stopped her mind from running off at tangents, it would help tremendously.

‘You’re obviously a realist. Good. The last nurse we hired only lasted a week. She had got it into her head that life would be easier working in a place where the patients didn’t have their treatment provided by the NHS, with all its attendant problems.’

He gave a deep laugh and Leanne held herself rigid when she felt a spasm shoot through her again. ‘Unfortunately, it has just the opposite effect. Because people pay for their treatment they expect a much better service. Woe betide you if you don’t come up to their expectations!’

‘It’s only natural, I suppose.’

She cleared her throat when she heard how husky her voice had sounded. She had to stop this, she told herself sternly. Had to stop reacting to everything Nick Slater said or did. He was just someone she would be working with for the next three months so maybe she should slot him into that category right away.

‘People expect value for money,’ she continued in a more normal tone. ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re buying a new car, groceries from the supermarket or medical care, they expect the very best for their hard-earned money.’

‘Exactly. And that’s what we aim to give them when they come to HealthFirst,’ Nick assured her. ‘Our aim is to provide a comprehensive, value-for-money service to all our patients.’

‘Do you deal mainly with minor ailments?’ she asked curiously.

‘Not at all. We provide the full range of services that any general practitioner would offer. If we see a patient and decide that he needs a hospital referral—we arrange it. We also offer a complete range of diagnostic tests—blood, urine, cholesterol, electrocardiograph, and so on. And we refer any which are beyond our scope to a specialist provider.’

‘Are the people you treat usually holidaymakers?’ she said, a little surprised by the extent of the services on offer at the clinic.

‘No, again.’ He paused and she steeled herself when she realised that he was looking at her. She knew that she couldn’t keep avoiding making eye contact with him, but it was difficult to make herself turn and face him.

It was a relief when she felt nothing but the tiniest tremor as their eyes met, and that could easily be attributed to first-day nerves. Maybe that also helped to explain what had happened before? she mused. After all, it wasn’t as though Nick Slater was the best-looking man she had ever seen, was he? She made herself take stock, bit by bit, hoping that it would help to work this glitch out of her system if she saw him simply as the person he was.

His hair was dark brown and cut very short because she guessed that it had a tendency to curl if he let it grow. His eyes were hazel rather than the pure green she had first thought them to be, heavily lashed with thick, straight, black lashes. His nose had a definite crook in it, as though it might have been broken on more than one occasion, possibly playing some kind of sport. He definitely had an athlete’s physique with those broad shoulders and that well-muscled chest, the trim waist and narrow hips…

Leanne paused when she realised that she’d allowed herself to be sidetracked and had skipped a bit. Her gaze backtracked while she took note of a mobile mouth that naturally curved up at the corners, a strong chin with just the hint of a dimple in it, a pair of well-shaped ears.

All in all, Nick Slater was a nice-looking man in his thirties, not exactly heart-throb material but verging on it, she decided. She could understand a woman being attracted to him and it was a comfort to realise that. But was it really enough to help explain how she had reacted to him?

She tried to tell herself that it was possible—probable even if it was added to the understandable nervousness of starting a new job—but she wasn’t convinced. The way she had responded to Nick Slater wasn’t going to be explained away that easily.

Nick cleared his throat purely and simply because he wasn’t sure what else to do. Leanne was staring at him and it made him feel very odd to be on the receiving end of such an intent scrutiny. ‘Over half of the people whom we see at HealthFirst are UK citizens.’

He coughed again, wondering what was wrong with his vocal cords. His voice had the quavery cadence of a teenage boy. In fact, now that he thought about it, he felt rather like he had done as a teenager when he’d developed a crush on the school’s gym mistress…

This time his cough was genuine and he saw Leanne look at him in concern. ‘Are you OK?’

‘Fine.’ He managed to suck some air into his lungs but it was an effort to act as though there was nothing wrong. How in the name of all that was holy had he developed a crush on Leanne Russell in the space of ten minutes?

‘Just a tickle in my throat. What was I saying…? Oh, yes, most of the patients we treat here are business people who can’t get to see their own GPs because the surgeries’ hours don’t correspond with their busy schedules. They appreciate the fact that they can call into the clinic and be seen virtually straight away.’

‘And they are prepared to pay for this service?’ she queried, frowning.

‘Yes.’ Nick shrugged, striving for a nonchalance he wished he felt. Of course he hadn’t developed a crush on Leanne—the idea was ridiculous. But, try as he may, he couldn’t dismiss it.

‘You know the old saying that time is money? Well, it applies in this instance. People don’t have the time to hang around a GP’s surgery when they should be at work. We aim never to have any patient wait longer than fifteen minutes even during our busiest periods, which are the morning and evening rush hours. And most are seen well before then.’

‘You must have a big staff working here with targets like that?’

‘We have thirty people employed here at the present time and we are currently advertising five more vacancies.’ He smiled when he saw her surprise then found himself wondering if she realised how expressive her face was. Everything she thought showed. He’d noticed that before when she’d been staring at him…

He shut off the rest of that thought. To recall the bewilderment he had seen in Leanne’s expressive grey eyes certainly wouldn’t help. Maybe she was having trouble understanding this awareness they both seemed to feel, but letting himself get hung up on the idea would cause even more problems.

‘We’re open from eight in the morning to eight at night, seven days a week,’ he explained, steadfastly confining his thoughts to work. ‘That’s a lot of hours to cover, especially when a number of the staff working here are only employed on a part-time basis.’

‘Like me. I decided that full-time work would be too constricting which is why I opted to do twenty-five hours a week when I accepted the job. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough free time if I did more than that.’

Nick frowned because he wasn’t sure what she had meant. ‘Enough time to go sightseeing, you mean?’

‘No. I didn’t come to London to go sightseeing. I…well, I had another reason for coming.’

She didn’t elaborate, leaving him with the distinct impression that she didn’t want him to question her further. All of a sudden that conversation he’d had with Dennis came flooding back, but with a new twist.

Had Leanne come to London on her own, as they had assumed, or was she here with someone else, maybe her boyfriend? She had said that she wasn’t suffering from a broken heart or looking for a relationship so it seemed to fit. And maybe she had chosen to work part time so that she could spend more time with him.

Nick took a deep breath. He knew that he really should stop all this speculating. Leanne’s reasons for coming to London had nothing whatsoever to do with him. His only concern was making sure that she did her job properly, yet he knew in his heart how difficult it was going to be to stick to that. The thought of Leanne and some unknown man spending their time together made him feel all knotted up inside. Although he hated to admit it, he knew why.

He was jealous at the thought of her being with another man, at the idea of her spending time with someone who wasn’t him.

Hell and damnation! That was something he certainly hadn’t bargained for.

CHAPTER TWO

‘IF YOU could just wait a moment…’

Leanne bit back a sigh when she saw the lack of comprehension on the young woman’s face. So far all she had managed to establish was that the patient’s name was Chantal Dupré and that she was from Paris. Why Chantal needed to see a doctor was something she still had to find out.

Dredging her mind, Leanne summoned up a few words of school French. ‘Un moment, s’il vous plait, mademoiselle.’

Leaving the young woman sitting in Reception, she hurried off in search of Melanie, hoping that she might be able to help her solve the problem. After Nick Slater had finished giving her a tour of the clinic, he had asked her if she would take over the reception duties.

She’d been a little surprised by the request until he had explained that it helped to have someone medically trained greeting the patients on their arrival, to act as triage nurse. Minor ailments could be passed to one of the nursing staff, more serious matters referred to a doctor and any urgent cases could be rushed straight through.

It had been a gentle introduction to the work carried out at the clinic and she’d rather enjoyed it until she had encountered the problem of a patient who spoke no English. She spotted Melanie coming out of one of the treatment rooms and greeted her with relief.

‘How’s your French? I’ve got a woman in Reception who doesn’t speak any English and I’m stuck.’

‘Nick’s your man. He speaks French, Spanish, Italian, plus a smattering of umpteen other languages,’ Melanie told her cheerfully. ‘He’s in his office so give him a shout.’

‘Thanks,’ Leanne murmured as Melanie escorted her patient out. She made her way to Nick’s office and knocked on the door, refusing to think about what had happened a couple of hours earlier. Actually getting down to some work had helped enormously to calm her nerves, although she had to confess to a sudden attack of the jitters when she heard Nick inviting her in. She bit back a sigh. Whichever way she looked at it, her reaction to Nick Slater was very strange.

It was hardly the most comforting of thoughts so she did her best to put it out of her mind as she entered the room. Nick was at his desk and he looked up with an abstracted smile.

‘Problems?’

‘Kind of. I have a Frenchwoman in Reception who doesn’t speak any English. Melanie said that you speak French…’

‘So you want me to translate for you?’ He took off the rimless glasses he was wearing and tossed them on the desk then grinned at her. ‘It will be a pleasure. Anything to get away from this wretched paperwork!’

Leanne laughed softly but she couldn’t deny that her heart had given an uncomfortable little thump when he had smiled at her. ‘You’d think things would have got easier since computers came on the scene, but it hasn’t made much difference, I’ve found.’

‘You and me both,’ he agreed, easing himself out of the chair and groaning. ‘I’ve only been working on this wretched report for a couple of hours but it feels like a lifetime. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s being stuck behind a desk.’

‘One of the hazards of the job, I would have thought,’ she observed. ‘Most GPs end up spending a lot of their time desk-bound.’

‘Which is yet another reason why I’m glad that I decided not to join the family firm,’ he responded, making for the door.

Leanne frowned as she followed him into the corridor. ‘Family firm? What do you mean?’

‘My mother and father are both GPs, although Mum only works a couple of days a week now, covering the post- and antenatal clinics. My older brother Patrick works with them and my sister Helen was the practice nurse at the surgery until she had her youngest child and found it was too much for her. Benjie is her fourth,’ he explained dryly. ‘So I think she deserves a bit of time off, don’t you?’

‘I most certainly do,’ she exclaimed. ‘Four children are a lot to cope with. But it’s amazing that your whole family works together like that. It must be marvellous for them.’

‘Depends on what you want from life, I suppose,’ he said shortly.

Leanne looked at him curiously. ‘Meaning that it isn’t what you want?’

‘No. I have no intention of spending the rest of my life stuck in Sussex. There’s too much of the world I haven’t seen yet.’

‘You’ll have to settle down one day,’ she protested.

‘Why? There’s no rule that says you have to stay put in one place.’

His tone was harsh and she had the feeling that he was annoyed, but why? Because of what she’d said or because of something that had happened in his past?

She had no time to work it out, however, because they had arrived at Reception by then. Nick went straight to the young Frenchwoman and briefly conferred with her then drew Leanne forward.

‘Mademoiselle Dupré needs emergency contraception. Can you deal with it?’

‘Of course,’ she agreed at once. ‘How long ago was it that she had unprotected sex?’

‘Last night so there shouldn’t be a problem. As you know, the tablets need to be taken within seventy-two hours of intercourse taking place.’

He glanced round when the door opened and another patient came in. ‘Why don’t you take Mademoiselle Dupré into one of the treatment rooms and fill in all the details on her card? I’ll leave it to you to administer the drugs. You can sign for them at the pharmacy.

‘I’ll have another word with her before she leaves and make sure that she understands what she has to do. Melanie can take over the desk again now that she’s finished with her patient.’

‘Fine,’ Leanne agreed immediately. She smiled at the young Frenchwoman, signalling that she should follow her. Opening the door to one of the immaculately furnished treatment rooms, she indicated that Chantal should wait there while she fetched the medication.

Emergency contraception—commonly called the morning-after pill—consisted of two high-dose oral contraceptive pills taken as soon as possible after intercourse. They were followed twelve hours later by a further two pills. Although the treatment wasn’t one hundred per cent guaranteed to work, it was effective in most cases.

Nick would explain to Chantal Dupré that, if she missed her next period, she would need to take a pregnancy test in a month’s time, just to be certain, Leanne thought as she signed for the tablets. The poor woman obviously wouldn’t be pleased to discover that she was pregnant after she had taken steps to avoid it.

She sighed as she made her way back to the treatment room. Had her own birth mother been dismayed when she had found out that she was pregnant? She must have been otherwise she would never have given her daughter up for adoption.

It made Leanne wonder if her friends had been right and if she was making a mistake by trying to track down the woman who had given her away. After all, her adoptive parents had given her all the love she could possibly have needed, so was it wise to go raking up the past when she might be disappointed by what she discovered? Maybe she had always longed for brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins, but there was no guarantee that she would have much in common with them if she did find them. Nick had obviously made a conscious decision to escape the ties of his family.

That thought made her frown. Maybe she was reading too much into the situation, but she had a feeling that there was a reason why he had cut himself off like that and that it hadn’t been just a desire to travel either. What had happened to make Nick decide to leave his family?

For some reason it seemed important that she find out.

‘Merci, mademoiselle. Au revoir.’

Nick closed the door after Chantal Dupré finally left then glanced at his watch. The woman had been so delighted to find someone who could understand her that she had kept him talking. He was very aware that the report he needed to submit was lying on his desk, half-finished. Even though he loathed paperwork, he usually got down to it, but it seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time that day. The trouble was that his mind kept skipping off at tangents all the time.

He squared his shoulders, refusing to let himself be sidetracked again. He had spent enough time thinking about Leanne Russell for one day. He hurried back to his office but he had barely sat down when there was a knock on the door and Robert Ashford, one of the duty doctors, poked his head into the room.

‘Sorry to bother you, Nick, but I’ve got a guy with me I’d like you to take a look at.’

‘What’s the problem?’ he asked, immediately getting up.

Robert was from Tennessee and he was spending six months in the UK before he took up a residency at a hospital in his home town. Nick had found him to be extremely competent and didn’t doubt that there was a genuine problem if Robert had seen fit to ask for his opinion.

‘It’s very vague—fever, lassitude, quite noticeable enlargement of the glands in his neck.’ Robert shrugged. ‘He’s obviously unwell, there’s no doubt about that, but I can’t put my finger on the problem.’

‘Have you ordered blood tests?’ Nick asked, accompanying him from the room.

‘Yessiree. I’m waiting on the lab. They’ve promised to get back to me a.s.a.p. I just thought it might help if you had a look in case I’ve missed something,’ Robert replied laconically.

Nick nodded. ‘Fine by me.’

He followed the younger man into one of the treatment rooms and introduced himself to the patient. ‘I’m Nick Slater, acting head of the clinic. Dr Ashford has asked me to take a look at you.’

‘Take as many as you like,’ the middle-aged man replied, making an obvious effort to sound cheerful. ‘If you can work out what’s wrong with me, I’ll be eternally grateful. I’ve felt like hell these past few days, I can tell you.’

Nick smiled as he picked up the chart Robert had filled in. ‘We shall give it our best shot. It’s Mr Jacobs, is it, and you work for the Foreign Office?’

‘That’s right. Been with them for twenty years now. I’ve been working on overseas aid and development for the past three,’ Ian Jacobs replied.

‘Really? That must be interesting. Do you get to go overseas a lot, or is it mainly a desk job?’ Nick carefully checked the man’s neck. He nodded to Robert when he felt how enlarged the glands were.

‘A bit of both, actually. I’ve been to quite a lot of places in the past few years—India, Africa, places like that.’

‘And were you ever ill when you were away on any of these trips?’ Nick asked, trying to get a full picture of what might be wrong with the man.

‘Not that I can remember…’ Ian Jacobs frowned. ‘A bit of a tummy upset in India, but several members of the party suffered with it, as I recall. The sanitation where we were staying left a lot to be desired.’

‘That’s the problem with so many of these Third World countries,’ he observed lightly. ‘Anything else? Were you bitten by a dog, scratched by a cat, made a meal of by mosquitoes?’

Ian laughed ruefully. ‘The mosquitoes had a field day with me! I was covered in bites most of the time. But I was very careful about taking precautions, Dr Slater. I was on anti-malarial tablets throughout each trip and continued using them after I came home as per instructions. Do you think it’s possible that I might have contracted malaria?’

Nick shook his head when he heard the worry in the man’s voice. ‘Not if you took the medication exactly as you were advised to do. Most modern antimalaria treatment is effective. I assume that you used the ones best suited to the countries you were visiting? There are different strains of malaria so any preventative medicine must take account of that.’

‘Oh, yes. We were given the most up-to-date information before we travelled. One thing the Foreign Office is good at is looking after their employees when they are in the field,’ Ian Jacobs assured him.

‘That’s good to hear. Now, just to recap. Dr Ashford told me that you’ve been suffering from bouts of fever; is that right?’

‘Yes. I can’t recall ever experiencing anything like it, not even when I came down with flu several years ago. And I feel so worn out all the time, as though I can barely make the effort to do anything,’ the man confessed.

‘I see. And there’s nothing else at all that you can add? Something quite insignificant, perhaps.’ Nick smiled reassuringly but he was as puzzled as Robert was about the case. ‘We work a bit like Sherlock Holmes—if we eliminate the possible and find ourselves left with the improbable, then it is quite often the answer.’

‘Well, there’s an insect bite which has been a bit of a nuisance…But I really can’t see that it’s the cause of how ill I’ve been feeling.’

‘Let’s take a look. It would be silly not to check it out, wouldn’t it?’ Nick bit back a sigh. It never failed to amaze him how reluctant people were to impart information.

‘It’s here on my hip.’ Ian pulled down his underwear so that Nick could see the small lump on his hip. ‘It’s quite painful, actually. So much so that I find myself lying on my other side at night in bed.’

Nick gently probed the nodule, murmuring an apology when he felt Ian wince. He glanced at Robert and raised his brows. ‘What do you think?’

‘I’m not sure, but it doesn’t look like any mosquito bite that I’ve ever seen,’ the younger doctor told him doubtfully.

‘Exactly what I thought. If I’m not mistaken, it’s a tsetse fly bite.’ He glanced at the patient again. ‘Which part of Africa did you visit and how long ago were you there?’

‘We were on the west coast about a month ago. Doesn’t the tsetse fly carry sleeping sickness?’

‘That’s right.’ He patted Ian Jacobs’s shoulder when he heard the alarm in his voice. ‘However, even if I’m right—and we’ll need the results of the blood tests to confirm that—then sleeping sickness is curable if you catch it early enough. As soon as we can establish if that is what’s wrong with you, you will be started on a course of drugs to kill the parasites that have got into your bloodstream.’

He paused as a thought occurred to him. Leanne had worked on the tropical diseases ward of the Sydney hospital so maybe she could help to confirm his diagnosis? Obviously, his sole reason for involving her was the patient’s welfare, he told himself quickly when alarm bells started to ring inside his head. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he wanted to see her again.

‘We have a new nurse working here who was a sister on the tropical diseases ward at the Royal Free Hospital in Sydney,’ he explained before he thought better of it. ‘Would you mind if I asked her to take a look, Mr Jacobs?’

‘Not at all,’ the man said quickly. ‘The sooner you establish what this is, then the faster I can be treated.’

‘Exactly.’ Nick excused himself and left the room. He made his way to Reception but Melanie was behind the desk. She looked up when he appeared.

‘Did you want me, Nick?’

‘I was looking for Leanne, actually,’ he explained, trying to quell the shiver that ran through him when he said her name. It was so ridiculous for a grown man of thirty-five to be acting that way that his mouth compressed and he saw Melanie frown in concern.

‘There’s nothing wrong, is there? Leanne hasn’t done anything to upset you?’

‘Of course not.’ He fixed a smile to his mouth but it was an effort to hold it in place. Get a grip, Slater! he told himself sternly. Stop acting like a moron and start acting like a doctor.

It was good advice but as he made his way to the supply room, where Leanne was checking in a delivery, he knew how difficult it was going to be to follow it. Leanne and being sensible were two concepts his mind had difficulty putting together. He didn’t want to act like a doctor when she was around. He wanted to act like a man in the company of a woman whom he found overwhelmingly attractive.

Leanne ticked off the last item on the list and slipped the delivery note into her pocket. She took a quick look around the small room to make sure that everything was where it was meant to be. Her eyes alighted on half a dozen boxes of hypodermic syringes which she had put on the floor while she’d unpacked the rest of the delivery and she sighed. They needed putting away before she finished.

She quickly pulled over the ladder so that she could put the boxes in their rightful place on the top shelf. She was halfway up the steps when she heard someone coming into the room and automatically glanced round to see who it was. Her foot missed the rung she had been aiming for when she found herself looking into a familiar pair of hazel-green eyes.

‘Careful!’ Nick made a grab for her as she swayed perilously, his hands clamping firmly on her hips while he steadied her.

Leanne sucked in a little breath through lips that felt as though they had turned to rubber all of a sudden. She could feel the warmth of his palms against her hip bones, feel his fingers curving around the lower part of her abdomen, and the sensations that were flowing through her at that moment weren’t ones she should have been feeling about a man she had known barely three hours. All of a sudden, she was awash with desire to feel his hands on other parts of her body, to feel them caressing her and bringing alive the passion that was simmering inside her…

‘Are you OK? Do you want me to help you down if you’re feeling dizzy?’

She blinked when he spoke, feeling her face suffuse with heat when she realised that she had been standing there, daydreaming about Nick making love to her. Frankly, it was a scenario guaranteed to give her sleepless nights for weeks to come, but she couldn’t afford to worry about that right then.

‘No, I’m fine.’

She swiftly deposited the boxes on the shelf, murmuring her thanks like an obedient child when he handed her the rest of them. He stepped back as she began to descend and she had to physically stop herself flinching when he put a steadying hand under her elbow as she stepped off the bottom rung.

‘You need to be careful in here,’ he said in a tone that made her heart bump. ‘It would be easy to fall and hurt yourself.’

‘Especially when you aren’t watching what you’re doing,’ she replied, trying to inject a little levity into her voice.

She shot him a wary glance as they left the room, but it was hard to decide why he had sounded so edgy. Maybe he’d been worried about what would have happened if she’d fallen off the ladder? After all, it wouldn’t reflect well on him if a new employee ended up injuring herself on her first day in the job.

Funnily enough that idea stung, but she forced herself to ignore it when he turned to her. ‘I wonder if you would mind taking a look at a patient for me?’

‘Me?’ she exclaimed, not attempting to hide her surprise.

‘Yes, you.’ Nick grinned. ‘Don’t be so modest. You wouldn’t have been hired for this job if you weren’t good at what you do.’

‘Why, thank you, Dr Slater. I’m completely overwhelmed.’ She smiled back, unable to resist the warm amusement in his eyes.

‘So you should be. I don’t hand out compliments like that every day of the week,’ he retorted, leading the way along the corridor.

‘In other words, you’re soft-soaping me because you want a favour?’

‘Something like that.’ He gave her a last smile then made an obvious effort to concentrate on what he needed to tell her. And it was the fact that it was such an effort that made Leanne’s heart race.

She wasn’t a complete innocent and knew that men found her attractive. She had dated her fair share back home in Australia before she’d met Michael. She had believed at first that what she’d felt for Michael had been the embodiment of everything she’d ever wanted, but she’d been wrong. She knew that now when she looked at Nick, because he made her feel things no other man had made her feel.

All of a sudden she was overcome by sadness that she should have met him when her life was in such a state of flux. Until she found out about the mother who had abandoned her, she wasn’t in a position to start a relationship, not that Nick would be interested, of course. She had heard what he’d said that morning about not wanting a woman cluttering up his life, so it would be silly to imagine that he was looking for commitment.

It should have made it easier to know that he felt the same way she did, but it didn’t. It felt as though there was a big gap in her life, one that might never be filled. Knowing that you couldn’t have something, it didn’t stop you wanting it. It didn’t stop her wanting Nick.

‘This is Leanne Russell. Would you mind if she takes a look at that lump on your hip, Mr Jacobs?’

Nick moved aside as the patient readily gave his permission. It was rather crowded in the room with three of them gathered around the bed. He felt Leanne’s arm brush his as she stepped forward, and gritted his teeth when a spasm shot through him.

He had just about managed to damp down the desire he’d felt when he’d steadied her on that ladder. However, once again he felt his body surge to life and had to swallow a groan of dismay. What was it about her that seemed to push all the right buttons or, rather, all the wrong ones?

He wasn’t interested in commitment, he couldn’t be. How could he commit himself to a woman when he had nothing to offer her? It had been hard to accept that he should remain single all his life, but it had been the right decision. He couldn’t take the risk of letting himself fall in love, wouldn’t take the risk of breaking anyone’s heart. Love, marriage and commitment led to children, and children were the one thing he couldn’t have.

He knew how he had to live his life, but it made not a scrap of difference in this instance. When he looked at Leanne, when he touched her, common sense deserted him. All he could think about was how much he wanted her…

‘I’ve seen this type of insect bite on a number of occasions.’

Nick jolted back to the present, feeling a little colour run up his cheeks when he found her watching him. He could only pray that he wasn’t quite so open about his feelings as she was because he’d had a pretty good idea what she’d been thinking in the supply room.

‘You have?’ He cleared his throat when he heard how rough his voice sounded. He couldn’t afford to think about that now, but it was hard not to. Knowing that Leanne had wanted him as well gave him hot and cold chills. ‘You’re sure about that?’

‘Quite sure. It’s a tsetse fly bite.’ She turned to the patient and smiled. ‘I take it that you didn’t get this in London, Mr Jacobs?’

‘I most certainly didn’t,’ Ian Jacobs replied with a laugh.

Nick held himself rigid when he saw the appreciation in the older man’s eyes as he looked at Leanne. There was no way that he would allow himself to feel jealous! But telling himself that didn’t seem to make a scrap of difference.

‘So you were in Africa, I take it? Which part?’ she continued.

‘On the west coast.’ Ian Jacobs frowned. ‘Why did you both ask me that? Isn’t the disease prevalent all over the continent?’

‘Yes, it is, but there are two different forms of trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness as it’s more commonly called,’ she explained. ‘The strain which is found in the east of the continent mainly affects cattle, although it can be transmitted to people. It’s a far more aggressive strain and develops in weeks rather than months. You may find this hard to believe, but if it is sleeping sickness, you’re lucky that you caught it in the west.’

‘Really?’ Ian sounded shocked. ‘Exactly how much damage can it cause? I’ve heard about it, of course, but I’m rather vague as to the details.’

Nick took over then when Leanne glanced at him. He guessed that she wanted him to decide how much to tell the man. They weren’t in the business of lying to people, but it would be wrong to scare him.

‘The west and central strain of the disease is fairly slow running. Once the parasites have got into your bloodstream then it can take months or even years for the disease to develop fully. Fortunately, you will be receiving treatment immediately so that won’t be a problem. The heart and the brain are both severely affected if sleeping sickness is allowed to run its course, but it can be cured with the right combination of drugs.’

‘There’s no chance of it having affected my heart and brain, is there?’ Ian demanded, anxiously.

‘It’s most unlikely at this early stage,’ Nick assured him. He glanced at Leanne. ‘How did the patients you treated fare?’

‘They made full recoveries,’ she said immediately, but he could tell that she was glossing over the facts. Although it was true that a cure could be effected with the right drugs, they were known to have unpleasant side-effects. Obviously, Leanne knew that but didn’t want to worry the patient by telling him so.

He sighed because it brought it home to him once again how aware of her he was. Robert didn’t appear to have noticed that she’d been somewhat economical with the truth and neither had Ian.

She excused herself soon afterwards and Nick concentrated on explaining to Ian what would happen next. The man would be referred to a specialist at a nearby hospital, who would be able to start him on the most appropriate form of treatment.

Ian was eager to make the appointment that day so Nick went to his office and put through a call. It all took some time, plus a little gentle persuasion on his part, but eventually everything was arranged. Ian was despatched by taxi to the hospital.

It was lunchtime by then, but Nick didn’t bother going out for anything to eat. He still had the report to finish and he would be hard-pressed to get it done on time. He looked up when he heard footsteps pausing outside his door and felt his heart perform the strangest manoeuvre when he saw Leanne in the doorway. It was an effort to act as though there was nothing wrong when it felt as though his pulse was trying for a new Olympic record.

‘Are you off now?’

‘Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ She started to leave, stopped, glanced back then shrugged. ‘Bye.’

‘Bye,’ he repeated, because it was easier than thinking up anything more witty.

He took a deep breath as she hurried away and held it for a count of ten. It didn’t help. His pulse was still hammering at high speed. Whichever way he looked at it, working with Leanne was going to be a challenge.

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