A Bond Between Strangers

He glanced down the plane towards Lily. Now he understood the comment about ‘being a natural blonde’—she wasn’t. But that didn’t explain her eye colour. In the clinic photograph her eyes were green. But today they were definitely brown.

Something twisted inside his gut. Could she have lied about something like that? Her eye colour had been one of the reasons that they’d picked her—that, and her Ivy League education. Eye colour had been important because Tabitha had green eyes too so it meant a closer match to them.

Carter felt the plane beginning to circle. Dan stood up and walked along the plane, giving everyone a number. The first-timers were going to go first. Some of them were tandem-jumping with an instructor, so Carter edged up the bench out of their way.

He found himself next to Lily and she unsuspectingly gave him another wide grin. ‘I didn’t know you were a fellow jumper.’ She smiled. ‘I thought you came to find a woman.’

‘I did.’ He looked at her closely. Was she wearing contacts? Brown ones?

Lily shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. This light-hearted flirtation suddenly felt different. Maybe it was being stuck in the back of a plane with a virtual stranger who was looking at her oddly. But something about this was making her uneasy.

She bit her lip. ‘Then who is she?’

Carter fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the rumpled photograph. ‘She’s Lily Grayson.’ He pushed her shoulders forward a little to read the writing across her back. ‘“Here Comes Lily”—I take it that means you.’

Lily took the photograph from his hands, staring at the person on the paper. She recognised the photograph immediately and knew exactly where it had come from. In the photograph she looked different, her hair was brown with curls. ‘That seems like years ago,’ she murmured.

‘More than three years, to be precise.’

She jerked at the edge to his words. He was sitting so close to her. It was hard to hear in the back of the aircraft and his lips were brushing her ear. Nothing about this felt right.

Her stomach started to churn. This had to be about egg donation. It was the only place she’d used that photograph. Was something wrong? Had a baby been born with some horrible disease from an egg she’d donated?

‘What’s with the eye colour?’ he asked.

She frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘In your profile you said you had green eyes. But today…’ he leaned right in so their noses were almost touching ‘…your eyes are definitely brown.’

She drew backwards and wrinkled her nose, shaking her head. ‘Who are you—the eye-colour police?’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I didn’t think the green eyes went well with my new blonde look, so I changed them.’

She looked at his stunned face. ‘What? You haven’t heard of coloured contacts? Or, did you think I’d lied in my clinic application?’

She stared at his serious face and leaned backwards. All of this was making her uncomfortable. As far as she knew, she didn’t have any genetic disorder than would cause problems for a baby. So why on earth would he be looking for her? And more importantly, why did he have to be so darned handsome? ‘What exactly do you want, Mr Carter?’

‘I’m looking for someone to help me.’

‘Help you do what?’

‘I want you to help me get my baby back.’

CHAPTER TWO

THIS couldn’t be happening. Lily’s stomach lurched. Here she was, stuck in the back of an aircraft, with some nut. The only way out was to jump, and right now they were nowhere near the landing zone. She couldn’t have made this up.

She tried to edge along the bench a little, away from crazy John Carter. All of a sudden the flirtation was lost. She didn’t want to swap jibes with him any more. She wanted to get as far away as possible.

The aircraft started to circle—maybe they were closer to the landing zone than she’d thought—and one of the instructors pulled open the side door, shouting instructions to the petrified jumpers.

The air swept through the cabin, taking whatever words John was trying to shout in her direction with it. She shook her head and tapped the side of her helmet, hoping he would understand.

This would give her some time. Some time to plan a way to get away from him. Her eyes shot over to Dan, hoping he would see the panic on her face and help her out. But he gave her a huge grin, obviously thinking the flirtation between them was continuing. He walked down the plane, repeating everyone’s number.

Seven. She was number seven. Carter was number nine. She could lose him in the sky.

She jerked as some fingers squeezed hers. ‘We need to talk,’ he mouthed at her, then pointed downwards. ‘On the ground.’

She nodded wordlessly. As soon as her feet touched the ground she intended to grab the first vehicle back to the airfield and leave as quickly as possible on her Ducati. She would leave her clothes in her locker.

Her mind churned. What kind of idiot came looking for an egg donor? Wasn’t she supposed to be left alone?

She’d had reservations about putting her photo and details on the clinic’s private website, but she’d been assured that only clients who had passed all the psychological tests would be given access to the site. Only people who were preparing for treatment and needed to select a genetically compatible donor.

Plus the fact no other clinic had paid the same benefits as the San Francisco clinic. She’d managed to wipe out most of her college debts by donating eggs on three occasions. Ivy League colleges like University of Pennsylvania didn’t come cheap. And egg donation had seemed like a simple and humanitarian way to fund it.

And it wasn’t like she was the only one. Seven of the nursing students in her class had all been on the clinic’s database. Clients loved Ivy League women. They paid top dollar for them.

Lily cringed at the memory. It had been more than three years since her last egg donation. It had seemed so easy at the time. Help some couple to have the child they’d always wanted and pay off her college debts, with no lasting damage to herself. She was young and healthy. She wasn’t in a permanent relationship and wasn’t planning kids in the near future. There was also that tiny matter of early menopause that ran in her family. This gave her an added security blanket. Eggs stored for future use by her, if she needed them. What could go wrong?

John Carter could go wrong.

Surely there was something in the clinic protocols that said he wasn’t allowed to contact her? She’d check when she got home.

From the corner of her eye she saw Dan signalling her. She stood up and took her position in the queue at the door. Number five seemed to be stalling. Seemed to be having second thoughts. Dan leaned forward and spoke a few words of encouragement in their ear, urging them on.

Lily held her breath. If number five didn’t hurry up she would be tempted to give him an almighty shove. She was conscious of Carter standing almost behind her. She was sure she could feel his breath at the back of her neck.

If it had been any other circumstances, it might have felt quite sexy. Flirting with a tall, dark, handsome stranger and then jumping out an aircraft with him. But right now all Lily wanted to do was get as far away from John Carter as possible.

* * *

Carter chewed on his bottom lip. This wasn’t going quite as planned.

Maybe his attorney was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. It didn’t help that for a few mad seconds they’d actually flirted with each other. He’d never have done that if he’d realised she was Lily Grayson.

A smile danced across his lips. That might not strictly be true. Lily was the first smart-mouthed girl he’d met in a long time. The first woman he’d felt even the slightest bit of interest in.

Maybe now hadn’t been the best time to tell her that he was looking for her. But he didn’t like lies. He didn’t like deceit.

She shifted in front of him and he took a sharp intake of breath. She was uncomfortable. Did she think he was some kind of madman? Stalking her from a clinic website?

He couldn’t wait to get back on firm ground. He couldn’t wait to sit down and talk to her calmly, rationally and in an environment where they could actually hear each other.

They shuffled forward as the nervous number five finally made his jump. Ahead of them number six stepped out as if he jumped from a plane every day. And Lily was right behind him, the bright purple suit disappearing into oblivion before his eyes.

He felt his heart lurch. He didn’t want to lose her on the way down. He’d done enough of these jumps to know that not everyone landed in the spot they should.

He bit his lip impatiently as number eight took a few seconds to speak to Dan on the way out. Hurry up!

Finally, the doorway was clear. He gave Dan a salute on the way past and stepped out into nothing.

Perfection.

The air streamed up all around him and he spread his arms and legs wide in the cold air. Beneath him he could see the other jumpers. Lily’s purple suit wasn’t difficult to spot. She was underneath him and a little to his left.

Carter pulled his legs and arms in, streamlining his body and pointing downwards in her direction. The least he could do was catch her up.

Lily was finally back in her comfort zone. Adrenaline pumped through her body, her arms and legs spread wide, and she was flying.

The cold air buffeted her cheeks and swept through the tiny strands of hair poking out from her helmet. This was freedom. This was space. This was clean air.

Two out of three things that San Francisco sometimes lacked.

She could see one of the jumpers pulling their chute as she streamed past. If her face could have drawn a frown it would have. It was far too early.

She closed her eyes for a second. Plenty of time to pull her parachute. A shadow passed in front of her and she opened her eyes to see John Carter, in his borrowed, bright red flight suit coasting next to her. How on earth had he caught up with her?

All of a sudden the space, clear air and freedom seemed to shrink around her. He was ruining everything!

He signalled to her, giving her a thumbs-up and a wide grin. Right now she could happily stick her thumb right in his eye.

She changed position. He was too close, and he should know that. Pulling ripcords right now could result in their lines getting tangled—the last thing any jumper wanted.

She took a deep breath, deciding she’d moved far enough away from him, and pulled the cord. A sharp tug pulled her upwards as the brightly coloured rectangular parachute released above her, slowing her descent. She looked downwards towards the ground. Normally she would have waited a little longer to pull, but John Carter had annoyed her, he’d ruined the jump for her anyway, so what difference did it make when she pulled her cord?

She adjusted her steering toggles to move herself towards the landing area. Her heart was still hammering against her chest and she couldn’t quite work out whether it was the effect of the jump or the effect of John Carter.

She twisted her head from side to side. Where had he gone? She heard a shout to her right, and turned again. There he was in the sky, just above her. Anger lit a fire in her belly. What on earth did he want with her? Why wouldn’t he just leave her alone?

Her normal, solid concentration was rocked and she heard another shout above her. Too late, she realised she hadn’t slowed her descent enough to land. She pulled sharply on both her steering toggles, trying to brake, but with little effect as she thudded to the ground. A sharp pain tore up her right calf.

Seconds later there was a soft thud beside her and a flash of red. John Carter appeared in front of her, kneeling on the ground and starting to examine her leg. Even the lightest touch was painful. ‘Ow!’ she yelped, pulling her ankle backwards. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

His voice was calm and steady. ‘Examining your leg.’ He loosened the laces on her boot and gently slid it from her foot. He leaned forward and pressed the release button for her parachute, which was currently buffeting in the wind and tugging at her shoulders.

‘Let go of me!’ Lily shouted, fury building inside her. ‘This is entirely your fault anyway. If you hadn’t distracted me when I was landing, this would never have happened.’

Carter stopped for a second and looked thoughtful. Then he held his hand out towards her. ‘We’ve not been properly introduced and that’s my fault. John Carter, Orthopaedist at San Francisco General.’

She stopped and caught her breath, then wriggled her ankle experimentally. It still hurt. Did she really want to alienate the one person in this field who could probably help her? Her hand reached out and touched his. There it was again. The spark she’d felt earlier in the hangar. That weird little zing that appeared out of thin air.

She stared at his hand. Tanned skin, blunt, straight-cut fingernails. It was a firm, strong handshake. His large hand dwarfed her small one. But it was the sensations around it that were concerning her.

He gave a wry smile as he touched her ankle again, peeling down her sock and touching her bare skin just above the ankle. ‘I think you might be in need of my services.’

In more ways than one. Lily’s face paled and she pulled her head back to reality. ‘You’re joking, right? It’s a sprain or a bruise, isn’t it?’

Carter shook his head. ‘Can’t say for sure until I’ve seen an X-ray, but I’m almost sure you’ve fractured your tibia—just above your ankle. It’s pretty common for people involved in extreme sports.’

Lily raised her eyebrow at him. ‘Extreme sports? Does this qualify? I would have thought doing a charity jump for a children’s cancer charity was anything but extreme.’

She grimaced as he rolled her thick sock down over her ankle. Almost before her eyes her ankle started to swell. If she hadn’t seen it for herself, she wouldn’t have believed it.

His fingers were light, delicate with their touch, realising how sensitive the area must be. There wasn’t any other reason her skin tingled under his touch. ‘Can’t you just strap it? It’s not sore enough to be broken.’ As if to prove her point, Lily pulled herself to her feet and attempted to bear her weight. ‘There,’ she said, her lips tightly pressed together, as she pushed her foot on the ground. ‘It’ll be fine once I get some strapping on it.’

Carter walked around her other side and slid his arm around her waist, taking some of her weight. ‘There’s no way that ankle is fine. I’d bet my career on it.’

Dan appeared next to them, a mound of colourful parachute in his arms. ‘Did you hurt yourself, Lily? Is something up?’

She wrinkled her nose. ‘Bad landing. Somebody distracted me at the last minute. But I’m sure it’s just a sprain.’

Dan shook his head. ‘The doc doesn’t get these things wrong. Better go back to his place and get it seen to.’ He tossed a set of keys to Carter. ‘Take the pick-up. I won’t need it for a few hours.’ He pointed across the field. ‘I’ve got parachutes to repack.’

‘His place!’ Lily exploded. ‘I don’t think so!’

Carter smirked, his arm tightening around her waist. He looked down at the fiery bundle in his arms. ‘I think he meant it figuratively. He didn’t mean my house—he meant San Francisco General.’ He stopped for a second then gave her a wicked glance. ‘But I can take you back to my place if that’s what you want.’

Lily mumbled under her breath. That was the last thing she wanted. She was trying to get away from John Carter. Not end up indebted to him.

His arm swept underneath her, catching her beneath the knees and cradling her between his arms.

‘What on earth do you think you’re doing?’

‘My job,’ he muttered as he took long strides towards the pick-up a few hundred yards away. ‘Best keep the weight off that.’

Lily fumbled in the pocket of her flight suit, pulling out her smartphone. ‘If you let me know where we’re going, I can text one of my friends to meet us there.’

‘Uh-huh.’ John Carter made the right noises, but shook his head as he swung open the pick-up’s door and plunked her down on the passenger seat.

‘What does that mean—uh-huh? Is that yes or no?’

‘Don’t you ever stop talking?’ Carter slid in the driver’s door next to her and clicked his seat belt in place. He folded his arms across his chest. ‘I’m taking you to the ER at San Francisco General. I’ll be able to fast-track you through and get you X-rayed. Once I’ve seen those X-rays we’ll discuss what type of treatment you need.’ He pointed at her phone, ‘And put that away. There’s no point calling in anyone until we know what’s happening. And anyway we need some privacy—we need to talk.’

‘Talk about what, exactly?’ Lily’s voice rose in pitch. She was getting more stressed by the second. She was being kidnapped by a gorgeous, slightly crazy doctor. Was this one of her mad dreams? Any minute now she’d look down and she’d be wearing a princess dress.

Carter started the pick-up and moved off, concentrating on the rugged terrain of the field and its effects on his passenger. He kept his mouth closed. The last thing he needed to do right now was upset Lily. He needed her on his side if he’d any chance at all of getting his baby back.

Had she felt it too? He thought he’d seen something flash in her eyes when he’d touched her. That connection. That crazy feeling of something happening.

He shot her a sideways glance. She looked totally different from the photo on file at the clinic. If they’d lined up a dozen women, he would never have picked out Lily as the woman in the photo.

She caught him staring. ‘What is it? What are you looking at?’

His eyes ran over her body. ‘You’re not exactly what I was expecting.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Carter frowned. ‘You don’t look anything like your picture.’

Lily wrinkled her nose. ‘Are you talking about the hair?’ she lifted her hand self-consciously to touch her dyed blonde locks. ‘Funny thing about donor clinics—they’re not big on any type of toxin being introduced into the body—including hair dye. So, while I was on the books, so to speak, I had to stick to my natural colour.’

Carter nodded slowly. Lily was going to prove tougher work than his attorney had thought. ‘So you’re not on the books now?’

She shook her head. ‘I shouldn’t be. I thought my profile had been taken down. Why? Did you find it there?’

Carter pulled off the field onto the smooth tarmac. The hospital was only a fifteen-minute journey away. Fifteen minutes to try and persuade Lily Grayson to help him win his baby back.

Lily’s eyes were fixed on the road ahead. ‘To be perfectly honest, I’m a bit freaked out by all this. Last time I donated my eggs was over three years ago. The last thing I expected was someone to turn up and ask me questions about it.’ She shifted around in her seat so she was facing him. ‘What exactly do you want, John Carter?’

Carter shifted in his seat. In an ideal world he would have tracked Lily Grayson down, knocked on her door and sat down and spoke about this rationally, convincing her to help him out.

But in the last two weeks things had exploded around him. His ex-wife had vanished without a trace. The letter from the clinic had just been the tip of the iceberg. His life had been transformed into a whirlwind of frantic telephone calls, internet searches and visits to his attorney. He’d barely had the chance to really think about what all this meant. There were so many legal complications. So many things he could never have considered. Asking Lily Grayson for help was one of them.

How fair was it that he had to ask a virtual stranger for help to get his baby back?

He swerved the truck, pulling into the side of the road and turning to face Lily. ‘I’m sorry about this, Lily—it’s far from ideal.’ He ran his fingers through his dark hair. ‘A little more than three years ago my wife Tabitha and I had IVF via the clinic you’d registered with. My wife didn’t have any viable eggs of her own, so we had to opt for a donor. The donor we picked was you.’

His clear blue eyes were fixed on hers. And for some reason they were distracting her. They were darker than she’d first thought. Like deep, tropical pools. A girl could get lost inside a set of eyes like that.

What’s more, he was deadly serious. This guy wasn’t some nut job. Some crazy stalker from a website. Dan would never have let her leave with anyone like that. Dan trusted this guy. He trusted him to look after her. But Dan had no idea about the other stuff, the underlying current between them.

Lily bit her lip. This was it. This was where she found out if something had gone wrong with one of her eggs—one of this couple’s embryos.

Carter stared at his hands. ‘IVF didn’t work out. It was a strain on our marriage, and we split up shortly afterwards.’

Lily was shocked. This wasn’t what she’d expected to hear. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I thought you wanted to talk to me about a baby.’

‘I do.’ His words were abrupt.

‘I don’t understand…’

Carter pulled an envelope from his pocket. He handed the letter to Lily. It was rumpled—as if it had been pulled from his pocket on numerous occasions—and dated two weeks ago. But why were her hands trembling?

She took the letter and with the first few words let out a gasp, her eyes skimming the page.

Dear Mr Carter

It is with much regret we write to you…never happened before in our establishment…one of your embryos has been implanted into another client…this was only discovered when we went to destroy your embryos as previously agreed…unfortunately this coincided with our other client having a detailed scan of their baby…I would advise at this time you deal with our legal counsel…

* * *

Her head felt as if was swimming, treading water and trying frantically to keep above the surface. The words stuck in her throat. What could she even say? She couldn’t even begin to understand how he felt.

‘But how on earth did this happen? They have fail-safes for this.’

‘Human error.’ The words were practically spat out.

‘Poor woman…’ Lily’s voice trailed off.

‘What?’ Carter’s voice echoed around the truck.

Lily shook her head. ‘Do you know how hard it is to get pregnant with IVF? What’s her circumstances? She’s just found out she’s carrying someone else’s baby. A baby she probably has no legal rights to. How must she feel? How does her husband feel? Have you considered her at all?’

Carter shook his head. ‘I can’t believe your first thoughts are for her.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘This is my baby. My baby that has been wrongly implanted into someone else. My baby, my sperm.’

Lily shook her head. ‘It’s so much more than that.’ She waved the letter at him. ‘What does this mean? It says here your embryos were supposed to be “destroyed”,’ she raised her fingers in the air and made quotation mark signs.

Carter sighed. This was harder than he’d thought. He’d imagined meeting Lily and persuading her to stand next to him in court, with the hope of gaining custody of his baby. The last thing he’d expected was for her to go to bat for the opposition.

How could he expect her to understand? She looked as if children were the last thing on her mind. What kind of a woman drove a Ducati and spent her life doing parachute jumps? Was she really the best person to be standing in a courtroom next to him? Maybe his attorney had got it wrong. Maybe he would be better off on his own.

What on earth had made her donate her eggs? The thought pricked his mind. Maybe if he could get to the bottom of that, he would understand her a little better, and understand how she could help his case.

‘I didn’t have a choice about destroying the embryos. We’d had them fertilised purely for the purpose of using them in our marriage. My marriage was over—it wasn’t appropriate to use them now. That—and the fact I’ve no idea where Tabitha is.’

The penny dropped in Lily’s mind. ‘So I’m your back-up plan?’ She looked indignant.