Owen had spent another restless night, so he felt tired and out of sorts when he arrived at work the following morning. Daniel had veered between euphoria and terror when he’d found out that Rose had phoned. It had been sheer torture to watch him getting so stressed and not be able to do anything about it. It was a father’s responsibility to protect his child and Owen hated feeling so powerless. The fact that he’d found his attitude towards Rose softening had troubled him, too. He couldn’t afford to lower his guard.
The thought that he might have allowed himself to be taken in by her apparent concern was very hard to swallow. He was in no mood to compromise when he strode into the A and E unit so it was unfortunate that Rob was making the most of the lull between patients to chat up their new receptionist, Polly. Owen’s face was like thunder as he strode over to the reception desk and tapped his registrar on the shoulder.
‘If you spent less time on your love life, you might actually make something of yourself, Dr Lomax. Have you no work to do? I can soon find you something if you haven’t.’
‘I…um…Yes. Sorry, sir.’
Rob leapt away from the counter and disappeared towards the cubicles, leaving Owen feeling like some sort of a throwback to earlier times. He’d worked for a consultant who’d had a hair-trigger temper early on in his career and he hated to think that he was starting to exhibit the same tendencies. He sighed as he went to the office. It was wrong to allow his personal problems to intrude on his work….
‘Oops!’
He ground to a halt when Rose came hurrying out of the office and cannoned right into him. There was a moment when their bodies were in the most intimate contact—breast to breast, thigh to thigh—and his heart gave an almighty lurch when he felt her soft curves nestling against him. In the two years since Laura had died he hadn’t wanted another woman. He’d been celibate out of choice, not through lack of opportunity, yet all of a sudden his libido was asserting itself. He took a hasty step back when he felt his body quicken, hating the fact that it was Rose of all people who had caused this reaction.
‘I’m sorry. I should have looked where I was going.’ She sounded almost as shocked as he felt, and Owen felt his body respond with even more fervour to that idea. Had she experienced the same rush of desire he had? Was her body quickening, too, her senses coming alive because of his nearness?
His gaze dropped to her breasts before he could stop himself and the blood began to drum along his veins when he saw how her nipples were pressing against the thin fabric of her uniform—proof, indeed, that she’d been equally aroused by the contact. All of a sudden it felt as though the walls were closing in on him. He knew that he had to extricate himself from the situation as quickly as possible, but it appeared that Rose had other things on her mind now.
‘Did you tell Daniel that I’d phoned last night?’ she said quickly as he went to move away.
‘Yes, I did.’ Owen paused, torn between making his escape before anything else happened and carrying through with his plan. He took a deep breath and forced his rioting libido to settle down. If he was to rid himself of the threat this woman posed to his son, he had to learn how to deal with her.
‘And how did he react? Was he upset? Excited? Scared?’ She laughed, and there was a wealth of tenderness in her voice. ‘Or all three at once, more likely!’
‘He veered between euphoria and terror,’ he replied shortly. So what if she sounded truly concerned—was he really going to take it at face value when he couldn’t rule out the possibility that she had an ulterior motive? Nevertheless, it was hard to convince himself that she had anything except Daniel’s welfare at heart when she spoke about him that way.
‘Did he?’ She stared at the floor for a moment and there were tears in her eyes when she looked up. ‘It must be so confusing for him. I can’t bear to think about what he’s going through. I know how I feel and if it’s anywhere near as—’
‘I gave him your telephone number.’
Owen cut her off in mid-sentence because he really didn’t want to know how she felt. Maybe it was a sign of his own weakness, but he couldn’t afford to take any account of her feelings. It was Daniel who mattered, and Daniel who must be his only concern. How Rose felt wasn’t an issue.
‘Oh. Right. Thank you.’
Her smile was no more than the merest flicker yet he felt its effects in every cell of his body. He didn’t say a word as he turned round and made his way back to Reception. Polly glanced nervously at him as he passed her desk, but he wasn’t interested in tearing her off a strip for chatting to his registrar. He had too much else on his mind.
He took the stairs to the first floor two at a time and went straight to his office. He spent very little time in there because he’d always preferred a hands-on approach when it came to running the department. His maxim was to be seen and heard, so there was no skulking in his office for him as there was for so many consultants. However, it was the perfect place at the moment, the only place he could think of where he could get a few minutes’ peace.
Sitting down behind his desk, Owen closed his eyes and tried to rid himself of all the tension that filled him. It wasn’t an easy thing to do because it had been building up for years. He’d tried to remain strong when Laura had been diagnosed with cancer, knowing how important it was to have a positive attitude. Even when it had become apparent that she’d been losing the battle he’d never wavered.
After she’d died, he’d needed to be strong for Daniel, and he could honestly say that he had managed it, too. It was only when Daniel had started talking about finding his birth mother that he had found it difficult to cope. And now that he’d met Rose…Well!
He shot to his feet and started pacing the floor, unable to withstand the torrent of emotions that were flooding through him. Rose worried him on so many levels that it was hard to know how he really felt about her. He didn’t trust her, yet couldn’t explain why. It was gut instinct that had warned him to keep her out of his life, and it was gut instinct that had told him to draw her closer. It was instinct that had made him respond to her just now, too. His feelings towards her weren’t based on fact, they were rooted in emotion—fear, anger, desire. And that was what scared him most of all. How could he hope to do what was right when he had no idea how to handle all these feelings she aroused inside him?
Rose felt tense and on edge all morning long. She might have attributed it to nervousness at the thought of Daniel phoning her, but she knew it wasn’t just that. Bumping into Owen as she’d come out of the office had affected her in a way she would never have expected it to. She couldn’t remember having experienced such a strong physical reaction to anyone before, and it alarmed her that she should have felt that way about Owen when it would only complicate matters. She had to control these unwelcome feelings and not let them get out of hand.
Fortunately, they started to get busy just before lunch so she was able to focus on work. Three teenagers had been found unconscious and ambulances had been despatched to bring them into the department. Rose immediately offered to forgo her break when Angie told her what had happened.
‘Are you sure?’ the charge nurse said, frowning. ‘You’re entitled to a meal break—it’s in your contract.’
‘It’s probably in yours, too, but that won’t stop you working,’ she replied lightly.
Angie laughed. ‘You’re right there! Anyway, thanks. If you could cover Resus with Julie and Ellen, that would be a big help. Sharon can take her break and I can keep things ticking over out here.’
Rose nodded. She followed the nurses into Resus and made sure everything was ready when the ambulances arrived. The other women seemed a bit more approachable that day, and showed her where the various supplies were kept to save her having to hunt for them. By the time the first