A Consultant Claims His Bride

‘Yikes, but you look even worse now than you did when you first came in this morning,’ Fiona observed, when Nell handed her the notes for the night staff. ‘If I were you, I’d go straight home and have an early night.’

‘I fully intend to,’ Nell replied. ‘I just want a quick word with Jonah. Is he about?’

‘He was in his consulting room a few minutes ago, but I’m not sure where he is now.’ The secretary stared at Nell critically. ‘You know, you could be coming down with flu. Liz Fenton was telling me last night—’

‘Got to go, Fiona,’ Nell interrupted, before the secretary could launch into a long and involved saga on who in the nursing staff was currently laid low with what.

Get it over with, she told herself as she headed off down the corridor. Grovel profusely, and get it over with—but not right away, she realised with dismay as she rounded the corner and saw her least favourite member of staff walking towards her.

‘And where are you hurrying off to at such speed, not so little Nell?’ Lawrence Summers, the consultant from Men’s Surgical, said with one of his aren’t-I-wonderful smiles. ‘Not so little Nell, as opposed to the little Nell,’ he added. ‘Get it?’

‘Very amusing, sir,’ she muttered. ‘And now if you’ll excuse me,’ she continued, but he moved faster than she did and blocked her path.

‘It’s Lawrence, Nell, as I keep telling you,’ he said. ‘Not sir, or Mr Summers, but Lawrence. And what’s your hurry? Stay a while, talk to me.’

Yeah, right, she thought. The only reason you want to talk to me is so you can ogle my breasts. So, maybe she was more than generously endowed, but every time she met the consultant it was getting harder and harder to resist the temptation to wrench up his chin and say, ‘Look, I’m more than just a pair of breasts, just as I’m sure you’re more than what you’ve got in your trousers.’

Except she wasn’t one hundred per cent certain that Lawrence actually was more than what he had in his trousers.

Brian had loathed him.

‘Flash beggar,’ he’d said one evening when they’d been having dinner. ‘Getting by on his good looks and so-called charm. I’ve worked with him in Theatre, Nell, and, believe me, he’s all show and no substance. One day he’ll come a cropper.’

Nell didn’t know whether the consultant would or not, but she did know she didn’t want to be ogled by him.

‘I’m afraid I have to go, Mr Summers,’ she said firmly, but before she could push past him he had caught her hand.

‘When are you going to go out with me, Nell?’

When hell freezes over, Lawrence. ‘I’m an engaged woman, sir.’

‘An engaged woman who isn’t wearing her engagement ring,’ he said, lifting her hand into the light and regarding it thoughtfully.

Oh, damn and blast. She’d forgotten to put it back on again after last night, and though she knew she’d have to eventually tell everyone about her broken engagement, Lawrence was the last person on that particular list.

‘It’s in the jeweller’s, she said quickly. ‘I…I noticed one of the stones was loose this morning so I left it with the jeweller to be on the safe side.’

One of Lawrence’s eyebrows rose. ‘Why do I have the feeling you’re lying?’

‘Perhaps because you have an overly suspicious nature?’ Jonah said as he came out of his consulting room. He glanced from Lawrence to Nell, then back again. ‘You also appear to be manhandling a member of my staff.’

His voice was even but Nell could hear the hint of steel beneath it, and so, apparently, could Lawrence because he released her hand immediately.

‘No offence meant, Nell,’ he said. She knew he expected her to reply, ‘None taken,’ but she would have cut out her own tongue than say it.

‘So, what brings you up from the rarefied atmosphere of Men’s Surgical, Lawrence?’ Jonah asked, and the consultant smiled.

‘Haematology tell me you’ve been complaining about the length of time you’re having to wait before they test any samples you send down, and I thought I should point out to you, as one member of staff to another, that we all have to follow a certain protocol.’

‘The protocol being that Men’s Surgical samples should always be tested first, and the rest of us have to wait in line,’ Jonah said, with a smile every bit as false as Lawrence Summers’s. ‘I don’t think so, Lawrence.’

‘Then perhaps I should also point out that you’re only an acting consultant,’ Lawrence continued, his smile completely gone now, ‘and therefore have no real authority to insist on anything.’

‘Feel free to point out whatever you like, Lawrence,’ Jonah said smoothly, ‘but it won’t get you anywhere.’

The two men stared at one another, and Nell held her breath. Only yesterday she’d told Jonah he was as soft as butter, but this was a Jonah she didn’t know. A Jonah she wouldn’t want to mess with. Lawrence clearly thought the same.

‘Fair enough, Jonah,’ he said, his smile back in place on his handsome face. ‘I just thought I’d mention it.’

‘I’m glad you did,’ Jonah replied. ‘And now, if you’ll excuse us?’ he added pointedly, which left Lawrence with nothing to do but leave.

‘Thanks for rescuing me,’ Nell said as she followed Jonah into his consulting room. ‘That man is such a creep.’

‘Lawrence Summers is a creep?’ Jonah said in surprise. ‘I thought he was God’s gift to women?’

‘In his dreams,’ Nell retorted. ‘He may look like a Greek god but anyone who’s ever been out with him says he’s got arms like an octopus and a kiss like a bathroom plunger.’

Jonah let out a splutter of laughter. ‘That’s an image that’s going to stay with me for a very long time. Now, what can I do for you?’

‘Do for me?’ she said, momentarily confused, and his eyes crinkled.

‘Well, as you were clearly headed for my room before you were waylaid by the dreaded Lawrence, I assume you wanted to speak to me.’

She did, but now she was here…

Say it, she told herself. The longer she didn’t say it, the harder it was going to be. Which was true, but it didn’t make the prospect of raising the subject of last night any easier.

‘Jonah—’ She came to a halt as his phone rang.

‘I’ll be with you in a minute,’ he said, lifting the phone, only to roll his eyes in exasperation at whatever the person at the other end of the phone was saying. ‘No, I do not want the results tomorrow,’ he told the unknown caller. ‘I want them today. They were promised for today, and this is today, so where are they?’

He winked across at her, and she tried to smile back, but as she stood uncertainly in front of his desk, words crept into her mind. Words that made her cheeks heat up, and her resolve falter.

You have such lovely hair, Jonah. Soft, silky. Smells nice, too.

Oh, criminy, had she really said that? Maybe she should forget all about plan B and go back to plan A.

‘Would you believe that Haematology still haven’t processed Donna Harrison’s blood tests?’ Jonah said when he’d put down the phone. ‘I told them I need to be sure her jaundice has completely gone before we can discharge her.’ He dragged his fingers through his hair then smiled a little ruefully. ‘Enough with the complaining. What can I do for you?’

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. ‘It doesn’t matter. You’re clearly busy, and it’s not important.’

‘It obviously is, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing there looking like you’ve got your knickers in a twist.’

Knickers. He’d seen her knickers and they weren’t frilly or pretty but the sort of serviceable, practical kind his mother probably wore.

Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop thinking about your knickers, her mind urged. Just say it because if you don’t you’ll only have to try again tomorrow and that will be even worse.

‘It’s…it’s about what happened last night, Jonah,’ she said, and his eyes met hers.

‘Nothing happened last night, Nell.’

‘I know nothing happened in the sense of…of happened,’ she said, wishing she was anywhere but there, and doing anything but having this conversation, ‘but that’s only because…because you were too much of a gentleman to take advantage of the situation.’ Or took one look at me and thought, ye gods, but I hadn’t realised she was quite that fat.

‘That’s true,’ he said solemnly, then one corner of his mouth lifted. ‘Plus I have this rather old-fashioned notion that if I make love to a woman, I rather prefer her to be able to remember it afterwards.’

‘Oh. Right.’ She could feel a blush creeping all the way up from her toes. ‘Jonah.’

‘Look, you were unhappy last night, and very drunk,’ he continued. ‘Nothing happened you need be embarrassed about.’

Oh, yes, it had.

‘And as far as I’m concerned, the subject is over, forgotten. My only regret is that Brian isn’t standing in front of me right now. He’s behaved very badly, and if he were here I’d take the greatest pleasure in inflicting some serious damage on him.’

‘You would?’ she said in surprise, and he shook his head as though amazed she should doubt it.

‘Nell, we’re friends, and I won’t allow anyone to make a friend of mine unhappy.’

Tears rose in her throat and she gulped them back with difficulty. ‘You’re the best, Jonah. You know that, don’t you?’

‘I think the words you used last night were “my hero”, “Mr Superman” and “my knight in shining armour”.’

Crimson colour seeped across her cheeks and she gave an unsteady laugh. ‘I thought you said you’d forgotten all about last night?’

He grinned. ‘I have, but I kind of liked those descriptions so, if you don’t mind, I’d like to remember them.’

She tried to keep her smile in place, but it wobbled around the edges, and he got to his feet and clasped her hands in his own large ones.

‘Brian’s an idiot,’ he said softly. ‘This Candy, you’re worth two of her.’

‘I bet I weigh two of her as well,’ she said miserably, and he tilted her chin with his finger.

‘Enough of that. Nell, listen to me—’

‘Jonah, I’ve been thinking about Brian…what’s happened…It’s partly my fault, isn’t it?’

‘Your fault?’ he repeated. ‘How the hell can it be your fault?’

‘I should have gone to the States with him. I know he said there was no point in me going with him as it was only for a year, but Brian likes company, and I think he was lonely, living in a city he doesn’t know. And this Candy…she’s been there, somebody for him to talk to, and before he realised what was happening, she grabbed him.’

‘Bu—’

‘It makes sense, doesn’t it?’ she said. ‘And, if I’m right, there’s still a chance he’ll realise he’s made a mistake and come back to me, isn’t there?’

Her grey eyes were large and dark as she stared up at him, and it took all of Jonah’s self-control not to shake her.

How could she be so trusting, so gullible, so damned stupid? he wondered. Brian was, and always had been, an arrogant, conceited jerk. In fact, Jonah had been more surprised that the anaesthetist had stayed faithful to Nell for as long as he had than the news that he’d dumped her.

Then tell her so, his mind urged, but, having grown up with five sisters, Jonah knew only too well that the last thing a woman wanted to hear on an occasion like this was the truth.

‘I suppose it’s possible,’ he said vaguely, and felt his heart twist inside him when a blinding smile illuminated Nell’s face. A smile he knew wasn’t meant for him but for Brian.

Lord, but he wanted her. He always had, but when he’d first come to the Belfield he’d still been getting over a disastrous relationship that had left both his heart and his ego badly bruised. He’d decided to take it slowly, not to make the same mistake again, only to watch with dismay as Nell had fallen in love with Brian Weston. Once the engagement ring was on her finger she’d been off limits as far as he was concerned, but now…

‘Nell—’

‘I was wondering whether I ought to fly out to the States,’ she interrupted. ‘Talk to him?’

‘Absolutely not,’ he said firmly. In fact, over my dead body. ‘You’re both too raw emotionally at the moment, and I’m also going to have to be rather selfish here…’ And to lie through my teeth if necessary. ‘…and point out that with Gabriel away on his honeymoon, the unit really couldn’t manage if another member of staff went on leave.’

‘No, of course not.’ She sighed, then smiled awkwardly. ‘I’m just sorry I made such a complete fool of myself last night, embarrassing you the way I did.’

‘You didn’t embarrass me,’ he declared, and she hadn’t.

When he’d seen her in all her lush, creamy glory, felt her breasts straining against him as she’d lain beneath him, it hadn’t been embarrassment he’d felt, it had been desire. A burning, overwhelming desire, and only the knowledge that she had been drunk had prevented him from tearing off the remainder of her clothes and burying himself deep inside her.

‘Like I said, it’s forgotten,’ he said lightly. ‘But what I don’t want is you going back to your flat every night and drinking yourself into oblivion.’

She shook her head. ‘I’m never doing that again. I thought I was dying when I woke up this morning.’

He laughed. ‘What you need is to get out of your flat in the evenings. Maybe go out for a meal with some friends, or perhaps just one particular friend.’

Like him.

‘But if Brian heard I was going out, he might think I didn’t love him any more,’ she protested.

Good, Jonah thought, because for the past two years I’ve been calling you ‘good old Nell’ in an attempt to desexualise you, but now your engagement is off I’m going to do whatever it takes to win you.

‘Or it could bring him to his senses, make him fly over here.’ He lied.

‘I suppose,’ she said, clearly unconvinced, then her eyes filled with tears. ‘I want him back, Jonah. I just want him back.’

And I want you, he thought, but he had no illusions about himself. He was too big, too ordinary, to be any woman’s idea of a wonderful catch, but if he let Nell’ s wounds heal for a couple of months, gave her time to realise and accept that Brian wasn’t coming back, then maybe, just maybe, he might have a chance.

‘Jonah?’

She was staring at him uncertainly and he realised he was frowning and quickly smoothed out his face.

‘It’s time you went home,’ he said. ‘You look exhausted.’

She felt it, but to go home to her empty flat…

‘I thought I might stay on for a while, catch up on some paperwork.’

‘Go home, Nell, and that’s an order,’ he said, and she gazed up at him quizzically.

‘An order?’ she said, and he smiled.

‘I can be very determined when I want to be, Nell.’

Unexpectedly so, she thought with wry amusement as he steered her out of his consulting room towards the elevators but, then again, perhaps not. She’d always suspected there were parts of Jonah she didn’t know. Parts he kept well hidden.

She knew he was a terrific friend. She also knew he was hopeless with women. Three months was the longest she’d ever known him date anybody and it wasn’t because he was a serial flirt. His relationships just seemed to peter out with no hard feelings on either side.

Maybe she should try that, she thought when she got home and a hard lump formed in her throat when she saw so many of Brian’s belongings lying where he’d left them. Dating just for fun and then moving on without regret. But how could she move on when it was still Brian she wanted?

A tear trickled down her cheek and desperately she picked up the magazine she’d bought in the newsagent’s on the way home and flicked through it, only to stop when her eyes fell on the title of an article: Tired of always being dumped by your boyfriends? Then stop being reactive!

‘And what the heck’s reactive?’ she muttered aloud, kicking off her shoes, curling up on the sofa and reading on. ‘“Proactive people make things happen. Reactive people sit back and let things happen to them.”’

Well, that was her in a nutshell. A reactive wimp, a reactive doormat. Somehow she had to become a proactive person, but how? Fiona had said last night that the girl from Radiology needed to show her ex-boyfriend she didn’t care. Even Jonah had said Brian might come back if he heard she was going out, enjoying herself.

She sat up straighter on the sofa. What if she started dating again, even just for a couple of dates? Brian had lots of friends at the Belfield and one of them would be sure to email or phone him. If he heard she was dating again, it might remind him of what they’d shared, make him jealous, get him to fly back to Glasgow. And once he was here, who knew what might happen?

Yeah, right, she thought, her optimism subsiding, and just who was she going to date? The Belfield isn’t exactly chock-a-block with single, fanciable men, plus you’d have to explain to this man that the dates weren’t real, only a means to an end.

Jonah. Jonah would do it in a minute, but Brian would never be jealous of Jonah.

‘He’s a nice enough bloke, Nell,’ Brian had said once, ‘but he’s never going to amount to anything, is he?’

It had been the one and only time they’d had a row, but having a row about Jonah wasn’t enough. She’d have to date someone he could see as a rival. Somebody handsome. Somebody who would get right under his skin. Somebody like….

Lawrence Summers.

The consultant was always asking her out, and she wouldn’ t have to tell him why she was suddenly saying yes after months of saying no because he had a hide like a rhinoceros. Admittedly, he was a groper and a creep, but she could handle him, she knew she could.

A triumphant smile curved her lips. Lawrence Summers. Lawrence Summers would be perfect.

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