Temptation in Paradise

José didn’t seem too concerned by her response. Perhaps he felt sure enough of her to bide his time.

By now they had reached the main A and E unit, and he showed her where equipment was stored and where she would find all the necessary forms. Theatre scrubs were kept in the locker rooms, but for the most part the doctors wore their own clothes when treating the children. ‘It’s less frightening for them,’ he said.

Robert joined them a few minutes later as José was telling her about the daily routine in the department and their procedures for admitting patients.

‘Hi.’ He acknowledged José and gave Jessie a quick smile. He seemed preoccupied but said, ‘I have to go and deal with an adult trauma emergency, so I thought you might like to look in on one of my younger patients—she’s a three-year-old and has one of those tropical diseases we have to deal with out here every now and again. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the chikungunya virus?’

Jessie thought about it. ‘Isn’t it spread by the Asian tiger mosquito? It can cause some nasty, flu-like symptoms and a lot of joint pain but, as I understand it, so far there’s no cure.’

‘You’re right.’ Robert’s mouth curved. ‘You’ve obviously been reading up on it.’

‘Well, I thought I ought to do some research if I was going to come out here to work,’ she said quietly. ‘I hope there’s something we can do for the child?’

‘We’ll give her supportive treatment,’ José commented. There was a glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes. ‘It’s good that you’ve made an effort to get to grips with tropical medicine from the outset. Let’s go and see how she’s doing, shall we?’

‘Okay.’

Robert hurried away to go in search of his trauma patient while Jessie went with José to the paediatric treatment room, where a nurse was looking after the crying infant.

‘Perhaps you’d like to take the lead on this one?’ José suggested, and Jessie gave a cautious nod. This would be a testing time for her, and maybe he meant it to be that way. No matter that he was attracted to her, he was putting her through her paces to make sure he’d hired the right person for the job.

She’d heard of the virus, but she’d never treated anyone who had it, and certainly not a small child.

She spoke quietly to the child’s mother and then attempted to examine the little girl, conscious all the while of José looking on. The toddler was obviously poorly, breathing fast, feverish and irritable, and it took a while to persuade her to let her check her over. Jessie looked at her eyes and mouth, felt her glands and listened to her chest with the stethoscope.

‘She says her arms and legs hurt,’ the mother said, ‘even her hands … and she’s burning up. Her brother has the same virus, but he’s not ill like Marisha. She’s really tired, and short of breath.’

‘It can affect people in different ways,’ Jessie explained, pushing her stethoscope down into the pocket of her cotton jacket, ‘and Marisha does seem to have been unfortunate in her response. We can prescribe anti-inflammatory medication for the pain, though, and it should help to bring down her temperature.’ She turned to the nurse. ‘Would you set up an ECG, please? I’d like to see a printout of her heart rhythm.’

‘Yes, of course.’ The nurse quickly applied pads to Marisha’s chest and started the trace while Jessie took advantage of the distraction to take blood samples from the little girl.

José studied the printout with Jessie. ‘What’s the verdict?’ he asked in a low voice. He was assessing her, she was sure.

‘Her heart rate is too fast—we need to slow that down and that in turn should help slow down her breathing. I suspect the virus has inflamed her heart muscle, causing congestion, so I want to prescribe a cardiac glycoside to regulate the heartbeat, along with a diuretic to control her blood pressure. And she’ll need to have a low-sodium diet until she’s managed to fight off the virus. She needs to rest and build her strength, so with luck she won’t suffer any long-term effects.’

‘Excelente.’ José looked at her with renewed respect. ‘I’ll leave you to see to all that, then,’ he said. ‘She’s obviously in good hands.’ He started to walk away, but gave her a questioning glance. ‘Perhaps we should meet up at lunchtime in the hospital restaurant and you can tell me how things have been going? About one o’clock?’

It sounded like more of a request than a suggestion, and she nodded, watching as he left the room a moment or two later. It seemed she’d passed the test … and relief flowed through her.

‘How has the morning gone for you?’ Robert asked when she ventured into the upper-storey restaurant a couple of hours later. It was a little before one o’clock. He stood alongside her in the queue at the food counter, loading his tray with a dish of curry and rice, and adding a dessert of passion fruit.

‘Fairly well, on the whole, I think,’ she told him with a smile. ‘Amanda’s been helping me out by showing me where equipment is stored, and so on. José showed me a fair amount, but there were bound to be gaps.’

They found a table by a window and Jessie was overwhelmed by the stunning view. Beyond the rolling, green-clad hills away from the town, she glimpsed the glorious deep blue of the sea.

José came to join them after a minute or two. ‘I’m glad to see you’re eating a hearty meal,’ he said, looking with approval at Jessie’s chicken ragout. ‘You need to keep up your energy level in this job.’

He tucked into pork tenderloin with potatoes and root vegetables, listening as Robert and Jessie compared notes on the morning’s work and interjecting occasionally to add a comment.

‘How did you get on with our small patients?’ Robert asked. ‘I know you’ve had some experience in paediatrics.’

‘Oh, the children are lovely,’ she answered. ‘Even the little girl who pushed a bead up her nose and didn’t want to let me touch her.’

Robert chuckled. ‘That’s the only problem with treating youngsters—you need to get their cooperation or you’re stymied.’

‘I saw the girl who had the bead up her nose,’ José said. ‘I looked in on her as her mother was talking to the nurse. Her little brother pulled a pearl from the girl’s hair ornament and tried to copy what she had done. I managed to stop him in the nick of time.’

They chuckled, and the conversation turned to the wonderful view of the harbour and coastline. ‘Have you had a chance to explore any of the island yet?’ Robert asked.

‘Not really.’ She shook her head. ‘I stepped off the plane a couple of days ago and my brother showed me a beach nearby, but apart from that and a quick look around the area close by the apartment I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything more. I can’t wait, though. What I’ve seen is so lovely. I’m really looking forward to visiting different parts of the island.’

‘There’s a small cove not far from here. Perhaps I could show it to you after we finish work here?’ Robert suggested. ‘Unless you’ve made other plans, of course?’

Jessie opened her mouth to answer, but José intervened smoothly, ‘Actually, I was hoping Jessie might want to come along with me to the reef later this afternoon.’ He sent her a quick glance. ‘I thought you might be interested in the work I’m doing—you mentioned you might need to look for some other source of income to keep you going. This would perhaps be ideal for you.’

‘Oh … yes, that’s true, I did. I didn’t realize …’ So there was the chance of working at the reef? That hadn’t occurred to her. She’d been too busy worrying about the pitfalls of spending time with José outside work to see that there might be an advantage in it. ‘Perhaps …’ She looked at Robert. ‘I’d love to go to the cove with you some time,’ she said awkwardly, ‘but maybe I should take this opportunity to see if I would be able to do this? I could really do with the extra income it would bring in.’

‘Of course. I understand. Don’t worry about it,’ Robert said. It was clear he was disappointed, but he put on a cheerful face. ‘We’ll do it some other time.’

José frowned and Jessie sent him a thoughtful look from under her lashes. Had he hoped to stop her from spending time with Robert? Perhaps he had an ulterior motive in getting her to go with him?

Well, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Wouldn’t this be the perfect chance for her to plead Ben’s case once more? After all, the man wasn’t made of stone, was he? ‘After work, then,’ she murmured.

José smiled. ‘Muy bien,’ he said.

CHAPTER THREE

LATER THAT SAME DAY, José turned his open-topped car onto the winding coast road, heading towards the harbour. It wasn’t a long journey, but Jessie found herself loving every minute of it, watching the landscape change from the town with its pleasant market squares shaded by tamarind trees and palms, through forest-clad slopes and the gentle, undulating hills that led down to the clear blue waters of the marina. The sun was warm on her face and the soft breeze lifted her hair.

‘Is it far to the reef?’ she asked, after they’d reached their destination and he’d parked the car.

‘Just a few minutes once we’re on the boat,’ he murmured. He lifted a case from the boot and they started to walk along the quayside. There were boats of all sizes in the yacht basin, their paintwork gleaming in the bright afternoon sunshine.

They followed a wooden mooring platform until José came to a halt by a large yacht, the Bella Rosa, white painted, with glittering steel guard rails all around the deck. Jessie stared at it. She was stunned.

‘Is this yours?’

He nodded. ‘I bought it about three years ago so that I could cruise around the islands and travel to the reef whenever I wanted. She’s beautifully kitted out. I think you’ll like her. I hope you do. Come on board and see what you think.’ He opened up the deck gate and put out a hand to help her on board.

His grasp was strong and firm as he drew her along the ramp, keeping her close to him. He was long and lean, full of lithe energy, and as he helped her onto the deck, he was so near her that she could feel the warmth coming from his body. She felt the brush of his thigh against hers and her pulse quickened, heat rising in her. When he finally released her she felt almost disappointed.

She did her best to shake off those feelings. He was her boss and there was trouble between him and her brother—surely it was extremely unwise to be seduced into having such a strong awareness of him? She had to stop herself from being enticed into any kind of emotional attachment—she’d been hurt before, and who was to say José wouldn’t turn out to be exactly the same kind of man?

Now, though, she looked around the yacht in openmouthed wonder. Sun glinted on the polished, golden timbers of the deck, and glazed doors opened into a spacious salon that had been fitted out with sleek upholstered sofas and a low table. Wide, deep windows provided a panoramic view of the harbour.

Everything here was perfection, and she could imagine sitting here, taking in the air with an aperitif in hand. ‘Wow,’ she said, and couldn’t resist smiling. ‘Just … wow!’

He chuckled at her bemused expression. ‘Let me show you around below deck.’

They went down into the galley, where pale oak exteriors housed a variety of equipment. ‘There’s a cooker, microwave, fridge and freezer,’ he told her. ‘Pretty much everything you might need.’

The boat housed two cabins as well as the master suite, each one beautifully fitted out with the same pale oak that was the recurring theme throughout the boat. This was repeated in the main salon, where the woodwork gleamed faintly and luxurious fabrics added to the feeling of opulence. The room opened out into a dining area, and light poured in through windows all around.

‘It’s fantastic,’ she said. ‘I’m very impressed. I must say, this is a novel way to travel to work.’

He smiled. ‘I guess it’s the best there is.’

He took a bottle from the fridge in the galley before they went back on to the upper deck, and once there he produced a couple of long-stemmed glasses from a glazed unit in the cockpit.

‘This isn’t alcoholic, I’m afraid,’ he murmured, pouring sparkling wine into the champagne flutes, ‘as I have to pilot the boat and then be fit for work, but it’s refreshing … and you can drink as much of it as you like.’ He handed her a glass, then lifted his to hers with a gentle clink. His smoky gaze met hers over the rim. ‘Salud!’

‘Salud!’ she echoed in a quiet voice, and then began to waver under that intense, heated stare. She sipped her drink slowly, breaking off that eye contact.

He didn’t say anything more but downed his wine and then, almost reluctantly, turned his attention to setting the boat in motion. She was relieved the moment had passed.

They sped across the water, heading towards a green outcrop some half a mile away, and after a few minutes José brought the boat to a halt at the dive site. Several men milled about on board another boat that was moored there. They were wearing wetsuits or shorts, and they were helping each other with equipment, compressed air tanks and masks and so on.

‘Holà! Is everyone all right?’ José called out, and they nodded. ‘That’s good. Permission to come aboard?’

‘Aye, come on over.’ The skipper grinned.

José retrieved his case and pulled out a large medical bag from one of the storage units on board, and then helped Jessie off the yacht and onto the dive boat. ‘Let’s hope the dive goes smoothly,’ he said.

They stood on the open deck and watched as the men took to the water. ‘What are they looking for down there?’ Jessie asked. ‘I mean, this is a conservation project—so what does that involve?’

‘A few of the reefs in the Caribbean have been damaged over the years, for a number of reasons,’ José explained. ‘If the sea warms up too much because of climate changes, for instance, it can cause the coral to die off, or certain species of fish can cause problems by overfeeding. In time, algae and seaweed cover the reefs and block out the light.’

‘Can something be done about that?’

He nodded. ‘We reseed the reef with fast-growing coral species—we’re having some success out here, and with luck we’ve managed to turn things around.’

He waved her to a chair on the deck by the guardrail. ‘Please, sit down.’ He took a seat next to her and opened the case he had brought with him, revealing a hamper full of mouth-watering food. ‘I thought you might be getting hungry by now,’ he said, ‘so I stopped off at the restaurant and put together a hamper. Help yourself.’ He handed her a plate and serviette, along with some cutlery.

‘That was very thoughtful of you,’ she said. It was totally unexpected, too, and she warmed to him even more. She’d been wondering when she might get to eat again. ‘It looks delicious.’ Her eyes widened at the variety of the contents—tortilla wraps filled with chicken, peppers, red onion and salad greens, along with potato salad and what turned out to be spicy corn bread. ‘Mmm, this is good,’ she murmured appreciatively, biting into a tortilla a moment later. ‘I didn’t realize I was quite so hungry.’

He opened a bottle of wine, filled a glass with the sparkling liquid and then passed it to her. ‘There’s coleslaw, as well,’ he said, searching in the case and bringing out a container. ‘And a tropical fruit salad for afterwards, as well as some fruit tarts.’

‘You’ve thought of everything,’ she said, smiling. ‘This is wonderful.’ She sent him an impish look. ‘Is this how you spend all your working days out at the reef?’

He laughed. ‘Not exactly. But today is rather different.’ He looked her over, smiling. ‘Today you are here.’ The look he gave her made her insides tingle.

She blinked and swallowed hard. To bring things back on to an even keel, she asked quietly, ‘So what does the work involve?’

He spooned black bean and rice salad onto his plate. ‘I have to check the general health of the divers on a regular basis, and sort out any problems they might have. I need to keep up-to-date records, and I have to be here in case they get into difficulties. Mostly, the problems we see are to do with ear troubles and pressure injuries, as well as the occasional graze or scrape. These men are experienced divers, so on the whole they know how to avoid trouble. Even so, diving is a dangerous activity and we have to be constantly alert to things that might go wrong.’

She sipped her wine and looked out over the glittering blue water. A glint of silver caught her eye and she gave a small gasp of excitement as a flying fish leaped from the water and glided through the air on wing-like fins for a few moments before descending once more.

‘That’s one way to avoid being caught by underwater prey, I suppose,’ José said with a smile.

‘It’s amazing, so sleek and graceful. I’ve never seen anything like that before.’

She peered into the clear water and was rewarded by the passing of a shoal of exotic, brightly coloured parrotfish. She could see how they got their name—the external teeth formed what looked like a beak.

‘Ben tells me about his dives sometimes,’ she said, animated by everything around her. ‘He says there are pinnacles down there, draped in seaweed, that look like trees and sway about in the water. And he showed me an underwater video he’d made of the reef, where you can see giant clams, sea anemones and sea fans—there was even a turtle trying to eat a sponge. It made it look as though diving down there is a wonderful experience.’

‘It is. You could try a dive yourself one day, or maybe look at the reef by spending some time on a glass-bottomed boat.’

‘Yes, I might do that.’ She picked up an apricot-glazed fruit tart and bit into it, savouring the sweet taste on her tongue. ‘Oh, I think I’m in heaven,’ she murmured, closing her eyes briefly.

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