His intent was clear, and it scared her, because she couldn’t handle seeing him or raking up the past, knowing she was still vulnerable to him.
‘You didn’t want—’
‘You have no idea what I wanted…you never did,’ he interrupted heatedly, dragging a hand through his wayward hair. ‘And you certainly didn’t stay around long enough that last day to listen to my point of view. Then you refused to see or speak to me. I loved you, but you ripped out my heart and stomped all over it, turning your back on everything we were to each other, tossing it away as if it was nothing.’
Tears filled her eyes and she held up a hand, backing away. ‘You’re wrong!’
‘No, I’m not.’ His tone was uncompromising and he refused to allow her retreat, despite the footsteps coming closer up the stairs. ‘I deserve my say—you owe me that much at least.’
‘I have to go,’ she insisted, shaking her head, denying his words, anxiety tying her nerves into knots.
‘I’m not letting you run this time, Annie.’
But that was just what she did. Ran from him. Shaking, scared and confused, she pushed past him and rushed down the stairs as fast as her wobbly legs could carry her, deaf to the greeting of the admin assistant she passed on the flight below. The woman’s presence had brought a much-needed return of sanity, preventing her from something even more reckless than the explosive kiss. She had to get away from Nathan—had to have some time alone to regroup and restore her shattered equilibrium.
With one touch, one kiss, the barriers she had thought impenetrable had been rent asunder. Despite everything that had happened, all the pain he had caused her, Nathan still brought her to her knees and sent her hormones crazy with insatiable desire. She had to do something to prevent herself from falling for him and being hurt all over again.
Slipping unnoticed through a side fire exit, Annie hurried outside the hospital building, moving around the corner out of sight of anyone coming and going from the car park, the A and E department, or the separate building nearby that housed the maternity unit.
Oblivious to the cold, she leaned against the wall, her whole body trembling. As she drew in several deep breaths in an effort to compose herself the fingers of one hand strayed to her mouth. Her lips, puffy and sensitised from the wildness of the kiss, still tingled in reaction, and she could still savour Nathan’s taste on her tongue. Closing her eyes, she groaned, reliving the last few minutes in Technicolor detail.
Dear heaven, what had she done?
And what on earth was she going to do now?
All she could think about was the urgent need to protect herself against Nathan’s potent effect on her. He had stormed back into her life and clearly planned to turn it upside down, demanding that they confront their painful past. Why now? What did he hope to achieve? And why couldn’t she put his accusations that she had broken his heart out of her mind? There had been no denying the hurt in his eyes. And his suggestion that she had never given him the chance to explain his point of view nagged at her. She squared her shoulders, struggling to maintain her own sense of being wronged. What was there to explain? Nathan hadn’t wanted her. He’d made that obvious when he’d rejected her. How could he now try to turn it around and imply she was at fault?
But he had—and he was here for reasons of his own, refusing to let it go.
Somehow she had to erect a façade that even Nathan couldn’t penetrate. It was the only way she could survive. There certainly couldn’t be a repeat of what had just happened on the stairs. Her instant surrender to his kiss had proved just how vulnerable she was to him.
But what could she do?
A sudden plan came to mind.
Desperate, she pulled her mobile phone out of her pocket, turned it on and sent an SOS message to the one person she could trust to save her from herself and stop her from making a monumental mistake.
CHAPTER THREE
‘IS THE damage very bad, Doctor?’
Nathan looked up from his examination of the burns on the elderly woman’s hand, hoping to ease the pain and anxiety reflected in her cloudy blue eyes. ‘You did the right thing getting your hand under cold water straight away, Mrs Mooney, and wrapping it in clingfilm before coming to the hospital gave further protection against infection. Not doing so could have made the resulting injuries worse.’
‘Lucky I took note of all those television programmes,’ she offered with a brave smile.
‘You did well. Aside from the blisters, there are a couple of partial thickness burns, but nothing that appears to be deeper,’ he reassured her, gently turning the injured hand over again and reassessing the situation, carefully checking between the fingers. ‘We’ll give you some pain relief, then we’ll clean things up and remove any dead skin, drain the blisters, and put on some cream before dressing the hand. Do you have someone at home with you?’ he asked, concerned that the woman wouldn’t manage alone.
‘Yes, I live with my daughter and her children.’
‘Then you’ll be able to go home when we’re done.’ He gave her non-injured hand a squeeze. ‘But you’ll need to come back to the outpatient clinic tomorrow, to have the dressing changed and the hand reassessed. After that your GP surgery will be able to manage your aftercare. Is your tetanus cover up to date?’
Mrs Mooney’s lined face creased further as she frowned. ‘Goodness, I can’t remember when I last had a vaccination.’
‘Don’t worry. We’ll give you another injection to be sure. Could you take care of that please, Holly?’ he requested, glancing up at the quietly efficient young staff nurse.
‘Of course, Dr Shepherd. No problem.’
The pretty blonde manoeuvred a trolley next to him, on which she had laid out all the items he required to treat and dress Mrs Mooney’s hand. ‘Thanks.’
‘Your grandchildren are quite a handful, are they, Mrs Mooney?’
Nathan heard Holly’s question, grateful to her for keeping the worried patient’s mind occupied as he checked that the pain relief had done its job so he could begin to clean and dress her wounds. Concentrating on his task, he listened with half an ear as Mrs Mooney responded to Holly’s calm friendliness.
‘Yes, indeed, Nurse.’ She gave a raspy chuckle. ‘You need eyes in the back of your head with those boys. That’s how this happened. I only turned away for a moment to pick up the youngest, who had fallen on the floor. When I looked round his brother had climbed onto a kitchen chair and was pulling the kettle towards him.’
Mrs Mooney’s hand trembled at the memory, and Nathan paused until she settled again before inserting the needle to aspirate the first of the blisters, drawing fluid into the syringe.
‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘I set the baby down, rushed to the counter and managed to pull Johnny aside before he hurt himself. Unfortunately my other arm caught the kettle, spilling the boiling water on my hand.’
‘Ouch.’ Holly tutted in sympathy.
‘I’m just glad the children weren’t burned. I didn’t even think what I was doing. I just acted on instinct and couldn’t help myself. Do you know what I mean, Doctor?’
As he finished cleaning, aspirating and debriding the damaged areas of the hand, Nathan nodded. ‘I do, Mrs Mooney.’
Hadn’t he done the very same thing himself a few hours ago? Despite knowing the timing was wrong, he’d kissed Annie with all the desperation and urgency clamouring within him. He’d been unable to stop, even though he’d known it was too soon to push her to face what remained between them. It had been foolish, but inevitable. And he’d been burned in a very different