It was the worst possible way to run into an ex, Lexi
thought. There was only one parking space left in the Sydney
Harbour Hospital basement car park and although, strictly
speaking, she shouldn't have been parking there since she
wasn't a doctor or even a nurse, she was running late with
some things for her sister, and it was just too tempting not
to grab the last ‘Doctors Only' space between a luxury sedan
and a shiny red sports car that looked as if it had just
been driven out of the showroom.
She opened her door and winced when she heard the
bang–scrape of metal against metal.
And then she saw him.
He was sitting in the driver's seat, his
broad–spanned hands gripping the steering–wheel
with white–knuckled force, glaring at her furiously
when recognition suddenly hit him. Lexi saw the quick spasm
of his features, as if the sight of her had been like a
punch to the face.
She felt the same punch deep and low in her belly as she
encountered that dark brown espresso coffee gaze. Her throat
closed over as if a large hand had gripped her and was
squeezing the breath right out of her. Her heart pounded
with a sickening thud, skip, thud, skip, thud that made her
feel as if she had just run up the fire escape of a towering
skyscraper on a single breath.
It was so unexpected.
No warning.
No preparation.
Why hadn't she been told he was back in the country? Why
hadn't she been told he was working here? He clearly was,
otherwise why would he be parking in the doctors' car park
unless—like her—he had flouted the rules for his
own convenience?
OK, so this was the time to play it cool. She could do
that. It was her specialty. She was known all over the
Sydney social circuit for her PhD in charm.
She shimmied out of the tight space between their cars
and sent him a megawatt smile. ‘Hi, Sam,' she said breezily.
‘How are things?'
Sam Bailey unfolded his tall length from the sports car,
closing the driver's door with a resounding click that more
or less summed up his personality, Lexi
thought—decisive, to the point, focused on the task at
hand.
‘Alexis,' he said. No "How are you?" or "Nice to see you"
or even "Hello", just her full name, which nobody ever
called her, not even her father in one of his raging rants
or her mother in one of her gin–soaked ramblings.
Lexi's winning smile faded slightly and her hands
fidgeted with the strap of her designer bag hanging over her
shoulder as she stood before him. ‘So, what brings you
here?' she said. ‘A patient perhaps?'
‘You could say that,' he said coolly. ‘How about you?'
‘Oh, I hang out here a lot,' she said, shifting her
weight from one high heel to the other. ‘My sister Bella's
in and out for treatment all the time. She's been in for the
last couple of weeks. Another chest infection. She's on the
transplant list but we have to wait until it clears. The
chest infection, I mean.' Lexi knew she was rambling but
what else could she do? Five years ago she had thought
they'd had a future together. Their connection had been
sudden but intense. She had dreamed of sharing her life with
him and yet without notice Sam had cut her out of his life
coldly and ruthlessly, not even pausing long enough to say
goodbye. Seeing him again with no notice, no time to prepare
herself, had stirred up deeply buried emotions so far
beneath the surface she had almost forgotten there were there.
Almost...
‘Sorry to hear that,' Sam said making a point of glancing
at his silver watch.
Lexi felt a sinkhole of sadness open up inside her. He
couldn't have made it clearer he wanted nothing to do with
her. How could he be so...so distant after the intense
intimacy they had shared? Had their affair meant nothing to
him? Nothing at all? Surely she was worth a few minutes of
his precious time in spite of the different paths their
lives had taken? ‘I didn't know you were back from wherever
you went,' she said. ‘I heard you got a scholarship to study
overseas. Where did you go?'
‘America,' he said flatly.
She raised her eyebrows, determined to counter his
taciturn manner with garrulous charm. ‘Wow, that's
impressive,' she said. ‘The States is so cool. So much to
see. So much to do. You must've been the envy of all the
other trainees, getting that chance to train abroad.'
‘Yes.' Another frowning glance at his watch.
Lexi's gaze went to the strongly boned, deeply tanned
wrist he had briefly exposed from the crisp, light blue
business shirt he was wearing. Her stomach shifted like a
pair of crutches slipping on a sheet of cracked ice. Those
wrists had once held her much smaller ones in a passionate
exchange that had left her body tingling for hours
afterwards. Every moment of their blistering two–week
affair was imprinted on her flesh. Seeing him again awakened
every sleeping cell of her body to zinging, pulsing life. It
felt like her blood had been thawed from a five–year
deep freeze. It was racing through the network of her veins
like a flash flood, making her heart hammer with the effort.
Her gaze slipped to his mouth, that beautiful sculpted
mouth that had moved against hers with such
heart–stopping skill. She still remembered the taste
of him: minty and fresh and something essentially, potently
male. She still remembered the feel of his tongue stroking
against hers, the sexy rasp of it as it cajoled hers into a
sizzling hot tango. He had explored every inch of her mouth
with masterful expertise, leaving no corner without the
branding heat of his possession.
And yet he had still walked away without so much as a word.
Lexi lifted her gaze back to his. Encountering those
unfathomable brown depths made her chest feel like a
frightened bird was trapped inside the cage of her lungs.
Did he have any idea of the hurt he had caused? Did he have
any idea of what she had gone through because of him?
She swallowed in anguish as she thought of the
heart–wrenching decision she had made. Would she ever
be able to summon up the courage to tell him? But, then,
what would be the point? How could he possibly understand
how hard it had been for her back then, young and pregnant
with no one to turn to? She hadn't felt ready to become a
mother. A termination had seemed the right thing to do and
yet...
‘I have to get going,' Sam said, nodding towards the
hospital building. ‘The CEO is expecting me.'
Lexi stared at him as realisation slowly dawned. ‘You're
going to be working here?' she asked.
‘Yes.'
‘Here at SHH?'
‘Yes.'
‘Not in the private sector?' she asked.
‘No.'
‘Do you ever answer a question with more than one word?'
‘Occasionally.'
Lexi gave him a droll look but inside she was screaming:
This can't be happening! ‘Why wasn't I told?' she asked.
‘No idea.'
‘Wow, that's two.'
‘Two what?' he said, frowning.
‘Words,' she said. ‘Maybe we can work on that a little.
Boost your repertoire a bit. What are you doing here?'
‘Working.'
She mentally rolled her eyes. ‘I mean why here? Why not
in the private system where you can earn loads and loads of
money?' Why not some other place where I won't see you just
about every day and be reminded of what a silly little fool
I was?
‘I was asked.'
‘Wow, three words,' Lexi said, purposely animating her
expression.
‘We're really doing great here. I bet I can get you to
say a full sentence in a month or two.'
‘I have to go now,' he said. ‘And, yes, that's five words
if you're still counting.'
She lifted her chin. ‘I am.'