THE MEMORY OF Elena’s captivating ice-blue eyes and her long slender legs with their dirty, scuffed up knees remained stubbornly imprinted in Caleb’s mind as he lay back in bed and waited impatiently for her to return.
Just friends, huh? What on earth had stopped him from pursuing more than friendship with her? He’d very much like to know that. He found her intensely attractive and she was clearly a smart, compassionate person—qualities he valued highly.
An English rose.
The phrase floated into his mind. Yes, that summed her up perfectly.
A moment later the door opened and she strode back into the room with a tall dark-haired woman following closely behind her.
‘Sorry I was away for so long; I bumped into your PA out there—she said to tell you she hopes you feel better soon and that she’s got everything under control at work so you can rest without worrying—and then it took me a while to locate your doctor.’ She gestured towards the woman she’d entered with.
‘Señor Araya,’ the doctor said, walking over to his bed and picking up the clipboard that hung at the end of it, ‘how are you feeling?’ She scanned the paperwork quickly before replacing the clipboard.
‘I feel fine,’ he said confidently. He didn’t want to give her any reason to keep him here unnecessarily. He was uncomfortable with being in hospital; it made him feel vulnerable and edgy for some reason. He’d be much better off in his own home with his things around him. Maybe then his memory would come back.
The doctor pressed her lips together. ‘So it seems you have a cracked rib and a bump on your head, but apart from that you got off pretty lightly, considering you were hit by a motorbike travelling at speed.’
‘Can you speak English so Elena can understand?’ he snapped, riled by the doctor’s officious manner and not wanting Elena to feel ignored when she’d been good enough to stay and check on him. Unlike his PA.
‘Yes, of course,’ the doctor said, switching easily to English and giving Elena an indulgent smile before turning back to fix her scrutinising gaze on him again.
‘I’d like you to stay here tonight. Head injuries can be serious and I’d like to keep you under observation for a while longer to make sure you’re okay.’
The thought of staying here any longer filled him with a sinking dread. ‘No,’ he stated firmly. ‘I want to go home. Now.’
‘I don’t think that’s advisable—’ the doctor began, a concerned frown pinching her brow.
‘I feel fine. I don’t want to take up a bed unnecessarily when someone who’s really sick could use it. I’ll be okay at home,’ Caleb said gruffly. He wasn’t used to people telling him what he could and couldn’t do and it rankled.
‘I really don’t think—’
‘I don’t care what you think. I’m going home,’ he said, levering himself up and readying himself to swing his legs out of bed.
The only way he was staying here was if they called Security and tied him down.
The doctor sighed as if she’d seen this scenario before and knew there was no way to stop someone like this once they’d made up their mind.
‘I can’t prevent you from leaving, Señor Araya, but I must insist you don’t go home on your own,’ she said sternly. ‘You’ll need someone responsible there to keep an eye on you in case there are any after-effects from the head injury. The CAT scan we gave you didn’t show up anything worrying, but it’s better to be safe.’
Frustration rattled through him. He just wanted to be at home now, without people fussing over him any more.
‘I’ll be fine. I can call my GP if I start to feel ill,’ he bit out.
The doctor shook her head. ‘That’s not good enough. You need someone there with you full-time for the next forty-eight hours at least.’
Elena must have sensed his unease because she stepped forwards and said, ‘I can stay with him, at his home.’
The doctor studied her for a moment. ‘Are you his partner?’
There was an infinitesimal pause before Elena said, ‘Yes.’
He glanced at her in surprise but she didn’t turn to catch his eye, just kept her steady, confident gaze trained on the doctor.
The doctor nodded, seeming to decide that Elena was a sensible and trustworthy sort of person.
He could see why. She certainly gave that impression. Caleb really liked that about her. She was no-nonsense, just the kind of person he liked to have around. He couldn’t do with women who simpered and flapped about ineffectually. Having her at home with him for a short while would be fine by him. It might even give him more time to try and figure out the real state of their relationship. He was positive there had to be more to it than ‘just friends’, as she’d claimed.
Turning back to Caleb now and fixing him with a steely stare, the doctor asked, ‘Have you been sick since you woke up or had any dizziness? Any memory loss?’
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Elena stiffen and waited for her to tell the doctor about his elusive memory, preparing himself for a fight, but when he turned to look directly at her she just gazed back at him with those bright, intelligent eyes of hers, her mouth firmly shut. A strange kind of unspoken agreement seemed to pass between them and he realised she was letting him know that she was on his side.
She wasn’t going to give him up.
Well, that proved something at least; she must care about him if she was willing to twist the truth to help him get out of here. The thought warmed him.
‘No, I feel fine,’ he said, tearing his gaze away from her to look at the doctor again, feeling the weight of anxiety begin to lift from his chest.
The doctor nodded, apparently convinced that he was telling the truth. ‘Okay then, I’ll go and fill out the paperwork. You’ll need to come in next week for further tests though, Señor Araya, to make sure we haven’t missed anything.’
Caleb nodded but didn’t say anything. He’d deal with all that later. He just wanted to get out of here now.
‘I’ll let you get dressed then. Your clothes and personal effects will be in the cupboard at the side of your bed,’ the doctor said, moving towards the door. ‘You might need a bit of help getting dressed because of the pain in your rib. I can call a nurse if you like,’ she said, turning back with an expectant look on her face.
‘I don’t need a nurse,’ he said dismissively.
‘I can help him if he needs me to,’ Elena chimed in, throwing him a chiding look.
The doctor just nodded briskly.
‘Thank you, Doctor,’ Elena added, giving the woman a warm smile.
Once the doctor had left the room, Elena busied herself by pulling all his things out of the bedside cabinet and laying them out on the bed. Picking up his shirt, she looked at it with her nose wrinkled. ‘I’m afraid there’s some blood on this from where you cut your head.’
‘I don’t care about that. Pass it to me, will you,’ he said, reaching out for the clothing and wincing as his cracked rib made itself known.
She batted his hand away, frowning. ‘I’ll do it. If you can just sit up a bit more—’
Ignoring his huff of frustration, she put one hand carefully behind each shoulder and pulled gently, forcing him to sit up enough so she could slip the shirt around his back and hold it out for him to slide his arms into the sleeves.
Her