Playboy Under the Mistletoe

‘I’d almost forgotten how beautiful you are,’ he murmured, his gaze returning to settle on the soft curve of her mouth. ‘Whenever I thought about you, I’d remember your smile, the way you had of looking at me with that guarded expression, as though you weren’t quite sure what trouble I’d land myself in next. But it was always your hair that fascinated me. It’s so glorious that I’d long to run my fingers through it, very much as you did just then.’ He smiled. ‘Only I would have lingered a while longer, I think.’

His gently seductive manner unsettled her, causing her to falter as she set the suitcase down on the bed. Had he really been thinking about her from time to time? She hadn’t expected that. How was she to deal with this man from her past now that he had turned up, out of the blue, the one man she had kept at a distance all this time for fear of being hurt? He’d been a charmer, a man who’d known exactly how to wind women around his little finger, and it didn’t seem as though much had changed.

She fumbled with the zip of the suitcase, encountering resistance, and within a second or two Ben was beside her, his hand resting briefly on hers. The fleeting contact caused a tide of heat to surge through her veins and brought a soft flush of colour to her cheeks.

‘There you are,’ he said. ‘It’s free now.’

‘Thank you.’ She tried breathing slowly and deeply for a while in an effort to calm herself down. She studied him, letting her gaze run over his features and trying to assess what really lay behind that calm, unruffled exterior. ‘It’s been a while since we last ran into one another,’ she murmured, struggling to find her voice. ‘I’m surprised that you thought about me at all.’

‘It would be hard not to think about you,’ he responded with a faint smile. ‘After all, we both lived in the same village, and I watched you grow from a lively tomboy who landed in almost as many scrapes as I did into a lovely, serene and accomplished woman. It would have been very strange if I had forgotten you after that, just because we were separated by a few miles.’

She gave him a long, thoughtful look. Was he teasing her, trying to lead her along the same route that all those unsuspecting young women had travelled back home…like Anna, her brother’s girlfriend? She had to be wary of him. He simply wasn’t to be trusted.

‘Like I said, maybe you should order some food for us…the menu is on the desk. I’ll have a jacket potato with cheese, please. And a pot of coffee would be good. I’ve a feeling I’ll need something to sustain me on the journey.’

He nodded, accepting her change of subject without comment. Glancing through the menu, he said, ‘I think I’ll go with the ham and cheese melt. Leave it with me.’

She nodded and turned back to her packing. Some fifteen minutes later, she had managed to cram most of her belongings into her case, and Ben lent a hand with zipping it up.

‘All this for one week?’ he murmured, lifting a questioning brow. ‘How can any woman need so many changes of clothes in such a short space of time—unless, of course, you’ve been throwing yourself wholeheartedly into the night life? A few boisterous nights in the bar with the people on your course?’ He was looking at her quizzically, and she shook her head, giving off an air of innocence. He lifted a dark brow.

‘Well, maybe a couple,’ she amended with a laugh. ‘Though they weren’t what you’d call boisterous…more of a lively and animated type of evening, I’d say, especially as the night wore on.’

His eyes took on a contemplative expression. ‘No intimate dinners for two, then? Does that mean you’re not involved in any serious relationship at the moment? Or maybe you’ve a boyfriend waiting for you back home?’

She frowned. Why did he want to know that? There was no way she was going to let him wheedle his way into her affections, was there, given his past history? Enough was enough, and she decided to sidestep his questions. Why should he learn every detail of her private life when she knew nothing of his? Simply guessing what he might have been up to was bad enough.

‘It means,’ she said, looking down at her overstuffed case, ‘that I’ve packed my suitcase full of the Christmas presents I’ve bought for friends and family while I’ve been up here. Like I said, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to explore the shops in a new town…and with Christmas just three weeks away, there was no time to lose, was there?’

His mouth curved. ‘I guess not,’ he said, accepting her avoidance tactics with good enough grace. Then he moved away from her as a waiter arrived with the food, setting it out on the table.

‘I ordered a couple of desserts, too,’ Ben told her when the man had gone. ‘All this is my treat,’ he said. ‘I told the receptionist I would be paying for it.’

‘Thank you…but you didn’t need to do that.’ She eyed up the mouth-watering fruit crumble topped with creamy custard and felt all her good intentions fade away. How had he known that was her favourite? ‘That’s my diet blown for the week,’ she added mournfully.

He laughed. ‘I don’t believe that you’ve ever needed to diet in your life,’ he said, looking her over. ‘You’ve a perfect hourglass figure…’

She steeled herself not to rise to his bait. ‘Perhaps you should sit down and eat before the food gets cold,’ she suggested, doing her best to bat his comments to one side. ‘And tell me how it is that you came to be working with the rescue services this afternoon. I thought you were working in A and E, the same as me.’

She pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him at the table. Glancing out of the window she could see that in the grey light of the afternoon the snow was beginning to thicken, fat white flakes coming down in a steady flow.

‘I wanted to try something different,’ he said, taking a bite out of his toasted sandwich. ‘I used to enjoy climbing in the Lake District and thought I might volunteer my services for the mountain rescue team. Then one of the team members here fell sick, so Mike asked me to come and do today’s stint. I suppose that’s why you didn’t see my name on the advertising bumph.’

She nodded. ‘I wondered if it was something like that.’ She scooped up a mound of potato. ‘I expect you know most of your local team already, don’t you? That will probably make things easier for you, won’t it?’

He shook his head. ‘I won’t be working with my local team because I’m preparing to go back to Woodsley. I’ve served out my notice at the hospital where I’ve been these last few years.’

Jasmine put down her fork and stared at him. ‘You’re going home? After all this time?’

‘That’s right. I might not be too welcome back there, but five years has perhaps been long enough for me to stay away. There are things I need to deal with, and I think it’s probably high time I started to put my life in order.’

She pressed her lips together. The news had come as a huge shock. How was she going to cope if Ben came back to the village? Woodsley Bridge was a relatively small place, and the chances of seeing him around and about were pretty great. There would be no escape.

Even so, she couldn’t prevent the thrill of nervous excitement that shimmied along her spine at the thought of him coming home. But that was the unruly, wanton side of her body betraying her, wasn’t it? Common sense told her that there would be nothing but trouble if Ben went back to the Lake District. How would his father react?

Worse still, how would her brother Callum deal with the wanderer’s return? Once, he and Ben had been best friends, but all that had changed. He blamed Ben for taking Anna away from him, and that anger had not dissipated. It had continued to simmer throughout all those long years.

How was she going to deal with this? Was she destined to stand on the sidelines and watch the process of bitter condemnation start all over again?

Chapter Two

JASMINE frowned, gripping the steering-wheel firmly and making a determined effort to concentrate on her driving. Starting out on the long journey home, she was still reeling from the bombshell that Ben had dropped just a short time ago.

Her mind was caught up in a fog of confusion. One minute she had been secure in her own sheltered world, and now, in an instant, everything had changed. Somehow, she couldn’t come to terms with the fact that from now on he would be staying around. For her, life in her home village of Woodsley Bridge would never be quite the same again.

It was early evening now, already dark, and snow was falling in a gentle curtain, lending a picture-postcard atmosphere to the landscape. The branches of the trees were topped with thick ribbons of snow, the rooftops of isolated farmhouses had become a pristine white and all around snow spread like a glistening carpet over the fields. It was lovely to look at, but not so good when she had to drive in it.

She had already been on the road for half an hour, and there were still many miles left to go. She was keeping her fingers crossed that the steady downfall would ease off at some point and that at least the roads would stay clear.

Ben was following her on this first lap of the journey. ‘My route follows yours for the first fifteen miles or so,’ he had told her before they’d set off, and she had looked at him in surprise.

‘But I thought you were living in St Helens, down in Cheshire,’ she responded with a frown. Surely that was in the opposite direction?

Driving along, she recalled their conversation. ‘I didn’t realise you knew where I was living,’ he had said, raising a brow.

She’d given a faint shrug. ‘Information filters through from time to time about what you’ve been doing or where you are. People might have caught a glimpse of you, here and there, or maybe their friends and relatives have been further afield to a hospital for treatment…it really doesn’t take much for word to get around.’

He’d smiled crookedly. ‘Tongues will always wag, won’t they? I expect rumours are rife about all my transgressions. The village folk could never quite get over my youthful misdemeanours, could they? That Radcliffe boy’s up to his tricks again is about all I ever heard from them. Even when I was doing my medical training they were convinced I’d be thrown out for something or other.’

He wasn’t far off the mark there, Jasmine acknowledged inwardly. His father had made it clear from the first that he wasn’t expecting him to finish the course, and perhaps that was because his son had such a wide range of interests that he found it hard to stick to one in particular. Ben was a wild spirit, always game for anything, and even at medical school he had managed to raise brows. News of his exploits quickly found its way back home.

‘Well, you did get into trouble for almost setting fire to the kitchen in your student residence,’ she murmured. ‘And then there was that time when you and your friends stayed out all night and turned up at your lecture next morning looking the worse for wear.’

He made a face. ‘Almost being the operative word about the fire,’ he said. ‘I only left the omelette cooking on the hob for a minute or two while I went to help a fellow student who had cut her hand…and the fact that the smoke alarm didn’t go off was down to someone else removing the battery and forgetting to put it back. I think he was fed up with it going off every time he made toast.’

His brows drew together. ‘And as to the night out, why should that have turned out to be a disciplinary offence? At least we turned up for the lecture on time next day. Some of these people on the boards of universities seem to have no recollection of what it’s like to be a student. Yet I’ll bet they had their moments, if the truth was known.’

‘You make it sound as though it was all unfair,’ she said with a wry smile. ‘Anyway, I’m sure that’s all in the past. I heard you’d done well for yourself in the last few years. There was a piece in the paper about you setting up a new emergency paediatric unit at the hospital in Cheshire…’ She frowned. ‘But that brings me back to what I was saying—if you’re following the same route home as me, I’m guessing you must be living and working somewhere else at the moment.’

He nodded. ‘I’ve been doing some locum work up in Lancashire, so it made sense to stay there for the last couple of months. And, of course, it meant I was able to come and do the stint with the rescue services today, since I’m based not too far away.’

It made sense to Jasmine. He had always been a restless soul, and from what he had just described of his travel arrangements, things didn’t seem to have changed very much.

Now, though, she glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw that he was still following behind her, his beautiful car eating up the miles without the slightest hint of difficulty. She wasn’t so lucky. Her own car had been throwing up problems along the way.

The outside temperature had dropped to below freezing, and it seemed that her tyres were not up to the job of gripping the slippery surface. She had to take extra care on the bends in the road, and as if that wasn’t enough, the snow was still coming down thick and fast so that her windscreen wipers were struggling to clear it away.

The roads were becoming increasingly clogged with snow as drifts began to pile up along the hedgerows, and now she was worried that she might not be able to go on much further. Perhaps Ben had been right when he’d suggested she should stay overnight at the hotel.

Still, she wasn’t the only one who had decided to venture out. A few drivers were following the same route, doggedly determined to get home.

She looked at the road ahead. The car in front of her was negotiating a bend, and as the road sloped downwards the driver seemed to have trouble maintaining a straight course. He swerved as the car in front of him suddenly drifted in an arc across the road, the unexpected action causing him to veer wildly. A second or two later, he rammed his vehicle sideways into a large oak tree. Still in a skid, the other car swivelled around, hitting his front end and coming to a halt halfway across the road.

Jasmine’s stomach clenched and her pulse began to quicken. Her mouth went dry and she was uneasily aware of the thud of her heartbeat as it rose up into her throat. How was she going to avoid being part of the pile-up ahead? Both cars were taking up a good half of the road directly in front of her, and she wouldn’t be able to stop in time to avoid them. She couldn’t brake or she would go into a skid, too. She had no choice but to go on.

Her mind was racing. She was all too conscious of Ben not far behind her, and she didn’t want to risk him being caught up in any collision. Her only hope was that, with any luck, he would have seen what was going on, and would be able to find some way of avoiding trouble.

She wasn’t going fast, but now she changed to a lower gear, slowing the car and carefully steering through the only gap available between the cars and the hedgerow. Thankfully, no one was coming in the opposite direction. Then, as she tried to steer a course away from trouble, the camber of the road changed, throwing the car out of kilter in the bad conditions, and a moment later her vehicle slewed violently around, slamming her headlong into a snowdrift.

The car shuddered to a halt, tipping over at an angle, and she stared at the windscreen, seeing nothing in front of her but a blanket of white. Apprehension clutched at her insides. It seemed very much as though she had plunged part way into a ditch, and maybe the hedgerow had stopped her going any further. Her heart plummeted. Now it looked as though she was going to be stranded here, miles away from anywhere, in a dark, frozen void.

The engine had cut off. There was silence all around, and it seemed as though she was enclosed in a capsule, shut away from the outside world. It was eerie and scary at the same time, being trapped in this pale wasteland.

‘Are you okay?’ A moment or two later, Ben was pulling at the door of her car while she was still trying to take stock of everything that had happened.

Relief washed over her. Ben was safe and she wasn’t alone. ‘Yes,’ she answered, struggling to keep her voice level. ‘I’m okay.’

‘You’re quite sure that you’re not hurt in any way?’

‘I’m sure. I’m not hurt.’ She blinked, looking around at the overwhelming mass of snow that covered three sides of her vehicle like a half-built tunnel. She tried to gather her thoughts. ‘Did you manage to keep your car on the road?’

‘It’s fine. I’ve parked just along the road from you.’ He hesitated. ‘If you’re positive that you’re all right, I need to go and check on the other drivers. If we don’t clear the road fast, there could be another accident before too long. We have two people keeping watch, so that they can try to alert people to the danger, but it isn’t safe and I need to hurry.’

She nodded. ‘I’ll come with you.’

‘There’s no need.’ As she tried to slide out of her seat, he laid his hands on her shoulders, lightly pressuring her to stay. ‘You look as though you’re in shock,’ he said. ‘You’re trembling. Stay there and I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

He was right, she realised after he had gone. Her body was still mourning the loss of his reassuring touch, but that was only because she was in a state of shock, as he’d said…wasn’t it? She tried to move, but her legs let her down and her hands were shaking. Her car was slanted at an odd angle to the ground and she wasn’t at all certain how she was going to get it back on the road.

For a minute or two, she sat very still, concentrating on breathing deeply in an effort to compose herself. No matter what he said, Ben most likely needed help. If they didn’t move the other car to the side of the road, it would be a danger to oncoming drivers. It was also quite possible that one or both of the people involved in the accident might be injured. Sitting here wasn’t an option, and somehow or other she had to pull herself together and try to help out. Bracing herself, she drew another shuddery breath of air into her lungs, and a moment later she slid out of her seat and went to find him.

He and another man were trying to steer the crumpled car to the side of the road, but the vehicle that had rammed into the tree was still in the same position as before. The driver was at the wheel, and she guessed that Ben must have already spoken to him. The man wasn’t moving, but perhaps that was because he was traumatised by what had happened.

She went over to car and opened up the passenger door. ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’ she asked. The man was in his fifties, she guessed, with a weathered complexion and streaks of grey in his hair. His expression was tense, as though he was hurt and was steeling himself against the pain. ‘I can see that you’re holding your arm,’ she murmured. ‘Is it giving you some problems?’

He nodded, his lips compressed. ‘I wrenched it when I went into the tree. Help’s on its way, though. The man from the BMW told me he’s a doctor…he came to take a look at me and said I’d probably dislocated my shoulder. He had to go and shift the car out of the way, but he’s coming back.’

‘I’m sure he’ll be able to help you.’ She quickly tried to assess his condition. He was wearing a cotton shirt with a sleeveless fleece jacket over the top, and even in the darkness she could see that the shoulder was strangely distorted. ‘He and I know one another, as it happens—we’re both doctors.’

He managed a weak smile. ‘I suppose I’m lucky, then, that this happened while you were around.’

‘You could say that.’ She hesitated. ‘Is it all right if I switch on the interior light? Perhaps I could take a look at you and see what we’re dealing with?’

He gave a slight nod, and once the light was on she examined his arm and his hand. ‘Can you feel your fingers?’

‘I don’t think so. They’re a funny colour, aren’t they?’ He frowned. ‘That’s not good, is it?’

‘Well, it means we probably need to put the shoulder back in its socket sooner rather than later. Your circulation is being stopped or slowed down, and we have to sort it out fairly quickly.’

She glanced around and saw that there was a cushion on the rear seat. ‘If we put the cushion between your arm and your chest it may help to make you feel more comfortable in the meantime.’

He nodded again, and she went to get the cushion, coming back to gently place it in position. A faint look of relief crossed his features.

‘That feels a bit better,’ he said, breathing hard and gritting his teeth. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome.’ She glanced at him. ‘Are you hurting anywhere else? I noticed the driver’s door is buckled…has that hurt you in any way?’

‘I don’t think it’s done anything too bad. It feels as though I’ll be bruised for a while, but basically I’m okay. It’s just the shoulder. It hurts like the devil.’

‘I can imagine it does.’ She hesitated momentarily. ‘Will you be all right for a minute or two while I go and get my medical bag from the car? We should be able to put your shoulder back in position for you—and we can at least give you something to relieve the pain.’

‘That would be good.’ He seized at the chance. ‘Whatever you can do…’

‘Okay.’ She slid out of the car once more and trudged through the snow to her own vehicle, thankful that she was wearing strong leather boots.

‘What are you doing?’ Ben asked, coming over to her, his brows drawing together in a dark line as she retrieved her bag from the car. ‘I thought I told you to stay where you were. At least you would have been warmer in there, and you know you shouldn’t be wandering around when you’ve just been involved in an accident. You could be injured and not realise it.’

‘I’m a doctor,’ she said in a succinct tone, her green eyes homing in on him. ‘I think I’d know if there was something wrong with me.’

‘Not necessarily.’ His gaze lanced into her. ‘You should let me check you over.’

She raised both brows. ‘We both know that’s not going to happen.’ Just the thought of him laying hands on her was enough to make colour sweep along her cheekbones. She just hoped he couldn’t see her reaction, and to avert disaster she went on, ‘It looks as though only one man was injured. Apparently, you said you’d go and help him.’

‘That’s right.’ He studied her briefly, and clearly he must have decided not to pursue the point about her staying in the car.

‘Well, it looks as though his circulation’s compromised, so I think it would be best to try to put the shoulder back in place here and now, rather than wait.’

‘Yes, that’s pretty much the conclusion I came to.’

Jasmine was thinking out a plan of action. ‘In that case, he’ll need a sedative and a painkilling injection,’ she added. ‘I have the medication we need in my medical bag.’

‘Good. You’re right, it will probably be best to inject the joint, rather than set up an intravenous line and anaesthetise him. That way, he would be knocked out completely, but his recovery would take longer, and these aren’t exactly the best of circumstances for him to be undergoing that kind of treatment.’ His gaze ran over her once more. ‘We could do it together, if you think you’re up to it…?’

‘I am. I’ll be fine. I’ll support him while you do the reduction.’

‘Okay, then. Let’s go and see how he’s doing.’

The injured man, they discovered, was becoming paler by the minute, and his lips were beginning to take on a pinched appearance.

‘Ian,’ Ben said, slipping into the passenger seat beside him, ‘we’re going to give you something that will help you to stay calm and relaxed throughout the procedure, and then I’ll inject a painkiller directly into the joint. The drugs will help to relax your muscles at the same time. All that means you shouldn’t feel too much discomfort when I put the bone back into place. You should feel immediate relief from pain when that’s done.’

Ian’s lips moved in what they took for agreement. ‘Anything,’ he said. ‘Please, just put it back so that I can start to think straight again.’

They worked together to give him the medication and prepare him for the manipulation. Then they manoeuvred him from the driver’s seat to where they could work more comfortably. Jasmine positioned herself to one side, getting ready to stop any sudden, untoward movement as Ben popped the shoulder back into its socket.