‘You can take it any damn way you like,’ Adam retorted, refusing to be drawn into talking about that episode in his life.
He picked up the cup and carried it back to his desk, thinking about what had happened five years ago. He had fallen head over heels in love with Kasey Harris, had honestly believed that she had been in love with him, too, but he’d been wrong. She had simply used his feelings as a way to pay him back for what she’d believed he’d done to her brother and it was hard to accept that he’d been so gullible. He’d never been someone who allowed his emotions to run away with him but, as he had discovered to his cost, love made fools of even the sanest people. The thought did little to soothe him and he glowered at the other man.
‘My relationship with Kasey Harris isn’t open for discussion. Understand?’
‘OK. I get the message but it looks like we have a major problem on our hands, then.’
Shiloh sighed as he placed a sheet of paper on the desk. Adam tried not to look at it because he didn’t want to see the photograph that was stapled to the top left-hand corner.
His eyes slid sideways before he could stop them and heat roared along his veins when he saw Kasey’s face smiling up at him—that porcelain-fine skin, those deep blue eyes, that luscious mouth…
He dragged his gaze away and took a slug of coffee, relishing the way it scalded his tongue because it was easier to deal with physical pain than this mental torture. Shiloh was speaking again and he forced himself to concentrate on the most important issue which was finding another anaesthetist.
‘So we’re really stretched,’ Shiloh concluded. ‘As you know, we don’t usually run two missions together but we had no choice in this instance. We’d just received permission for you to take your team into Mwuranda when there was all that flooding in Guatemala. Once the Guatemalan government declared it a national disaster, we immediately sent out a team.’
‘I understand how difficult it is,’ Adam assured him. ‘But there must be someone else on your books.’
‘I wish there was but we’ve lost several key people recently for one reason or another so we’re having to recruit some new volunteers. Kasey’s application only came in last month and I have to admit that I was impressed when I interviewed her. She’s bright, personable and she knows her job, too. She’s just the sort of person we need, in fact.’
‘I’m not doubting her professional capabilities,’ he ground out. ‘I just don’t want to have to work with her.’
‘Then, as I said, we have a major problem. You need another anaesthetist to make this trip viable and there isn’t anyone else available. It’s your choice, Adam, but either you take her with you or you call off the trip.’
‘Some choice,’ Adam snorted because if he didn’t take the team to Mwuranda tomorrow as planned, there might not be another opportunity. There’d been civil unrest within the country for the past two years and there was no way of knowing how long the current ceasefire would last. He knew what a dire state the country was in because he’d witnessed it at first hand. The people there were desperately in need of medical aid—was he really prepared to stand aside and watch them suffer because he couldn’t deal with what had happened in the past?
‘It appears I don’t have much option,’ he said bitterly, glaring at the photograph. ‘If it’s a question of taking Kasey Harris along or not going, I’ll just have to grin and bear it, won’t I? But I want it put on record that I’m not happy about having her on my team.’
‘My, my, but your enthusiasm is overwhelming, Adam. You could sweep a girl right off her feet with that attitude.’
His head reared up when he recognised the gently lilting voice. Just for a moment it felt as though the whole room was spinning out of focus before his eyes settled on the woman standing in front of his desk. She looked exactly like her photograph, he thought sickly—slim, elegant, her lustrous black hair curling around her face, her blue eyes gleaming with laughter. Or was it tears that made them shimmer that way?
Adam rose unsteadily to his feet, almost as shocked by that idea as he was to see her. Kasey had never cried. Not once. Not even when he’d told her what he’d thought of her. He hadn’t held back, either, the words ripping out of him and into her, driven by pain and humiliation and sheer mind-numbing anguish. She had just stood there as the words rained down on her and smiled, and that had been his abiding memory all these years, the one that had caused him all those nightmares. Kasey Harris had smiled while she’d broken his heart.
Kasey held her smile but she knew how much it cost her even if Adam didn’t. It had been a shock when Shiloh had told her who was leading this mission, so much so that she’d almost backed out. But then it had struck her that if she refused to go, Adam would have won.
She’d made enough changes to her life in the past five years because of him and it was time to stop. She had to draw a line under what had happened even if she still hadn’t forgiven him for what he’d done to her brother. She doubted if Adam had forgiven her for what she’d done to him either, but that hadn’t been the issue until she’d walked into his office and heard what he’d said. Maybe it was silly to have let the harsh words upset her, but they had.
‘Come, come, Adam. It’s not like you to be lost for words,’ she taunted because she hated to admit that she was vulnerable in any way. She might regret why she’d had to do what she had but she didn’t regret the outcome. Adam had deserved everything he’d got after the appalling way he’d treated Keiran!
‘It isn’t. Obviously, you’ve scored one up on me, Kasey. Satisfied?’
His sardonic tone mocked her and she felt the angry colour run up her cheeks. It took every scrap of control she possessed not to tell him to go to hell and march straight out of the room only she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of thinking he’d scared her off.
‘It will do for a start,’ she said sweetly. ‘But I’ve never been one for resting on my laurels, as you know.’
His face darkened, the strong bones settling into such grim lines that a tremor ran through her. Adam had always been a force to be reckoned with and time had merely intensified that air of authority he possessed. He looked big and tough as he stood there glaring at her, his dark hair brushed smoothly back from his forehead, his green eyes piercing right to her very soul. He’d always been a handsome man and he still was, but there was no softness about him, no give, either in appearance or manner. He never compromised, never backed down, never showed any sign of weakness…apart from that night when she’d told him who she was.
The memory still had the power to disturb her so Kasey pushed it to the back of her mind as she turned to Shiloh. ‘I thought it would save time if I brought my documents over here. Everything is sorted out now—visa, official notification from the Foreign Office to say that I’m a member of the Worlds Together team, vaccination certificates, etcetera.’
‘Excellent!’
Shiloh smiled warmly at her, his welcoming attitude such a contrast to Adam’s that she couldn’t suppress the twinge of regret that speared through a corner of her heart. In other circumstances, she knew that she and Adam could have been friends but what had happened had ruled out that possibility. Just for a moment she found herself wondering if she had been mad to agree to spend the next month working with him. He would give her a rough ride, she wasn’t in any doubt of that. So was it worth putting herself under that kind of pressure to prove a point? She opened her mouth to explain that she’d changed her mind only Adam chose that very moment to speak.
‘I’m surprised you decided to join the agency. It doesn’t strike me as your sort of thing at all, Kasey.’
‘No?’ Her delicate brows arched as she turned to him. ‘Why not?’
‘From