‘Sensible.’ Jessie reached into her fridge and produced a chilled green bottle. ‘Especially as it means you can have wine with your omelette.’ She smiled. ‘It’s even Barega wine.’
‘Our very own Riesling. And you weren’t intending to produce it if I was driving.’ Niall’s eyes glinted with laughter. ‘Has anyone ever told you what a managing woman you are, Dr Harvey?’
‘I try.’ Jess said demurely and laughed back at him.
Their laughing eyes met.
And the weird, magnetic force slammed home with such impact that Jess gasped.
Good grief…
What was she getting into here?
She poured the wine with shaking fingers and turned away quickly. She had no idea what was happening and she didn’t want to know. This man was threatening her safe, cocooned world and she didn’t like it one bit.
Maybe they should have airlifted Frank to the mainland.
Maybe it would have been safer.
A movement by her leg caught her eye and Jess knelt down in relief. Wobble, her tiny baby wombat, was struggling free of his pouch.
‘You want your dinner, too?’ Jess said in a voice that wasn’t quite steady.
At least it gave her something to do. She fed her two orphans with their milk formula while Niall ate his omelette, drank his wine and watched her like…
Like a benevolent genie…
A genie who’d just produced something magical and was amazed with what he’d done.
Jess wasn’t at all sure that she liked the impression.
Finally, her babies tucked back in their pouches, she stood up.
‘I’ll put Harry back into his cage and take you to your apartment,’ she faltered. ‘The domestic staff have cleaned it out for you and they tell me it’s ready.’
‘Cook showed me the general layout of the place,’ Niall replied. ‘I know where to go. Why does Harry have to go back in his cage?’
‘Because he’s getting better,’ Jess smiled. ‘And I don’t trust him with my babies. Even if he just sticks his nose into their pouches it might shock them.’
‘I see. Well, don’t put Harry back on our account.’ Niall stood then, large and overpowering, his presence seeming to fill her kitchen as it had never been filled before.
‘Thank you for the omelette,’ he said softly. ‘And for the wine.’
‘It was my pleasure…’
‘As it was your pleasure to look after my little daughter?’
‘That, too,’ Jess agreed softly. She looked down at the sleeping child and shook her head in bewilderment. ‘How could her mother abandon her? How could she?’
‘Heaven knows.’
Jess looked up at Niall. He was staring down at his sleeping daughter and his face was a mixture of pride and love. Love for a little daughter that he hadn’t known existed until four months ago!
How many men would leave their career and go halfway round the world to claim an ailing child they’d never been told had been conceived? Niall had gone with no proof that the child was his-only a message from a monk in Tibet and a scrawled note in the back of a passport.
And he’d come here…Put aside his medicine in London and brought his daughter to Barega. To find a cure for ills that weren’t just physical.
What sort of man…?
Jess didn’t know. All she knew was that his presence frightened her. The very knowledge of what Niall had done scared the life out of Jessie. She’d sworn not to have anything to do with another man-ever-and here was this man undermining all her determination.
Overwhelming her with his compassion…
He turned to her, a question in his eyes.
As if he could read her thoughts.
No…
Confused, she turned away to open the door-but Niall was there before her. Whatever the current was that was running between them it didn’t have just one direction. It flooded back and forth with the strength of fire.
‘Jess?’
He moved like a sleek cat, somehow propelling himself to stand between Jess and the door. Niall placed strong hands on her shoulders and gazed down into her confused, brown eyes.
His confusion matched hers.
And his desire…
‘Jess,’ he whispered, his hands pulling her to him. ‘Do you feel this thing, too? This thing between us? Dear heaven…’
Jess didn’t reply. She couldn’t.
She wanted to pull away. Desperately she wanted to pull away but her body wouldn’t obey.
Instead she stood mesmerised, caught by the desire in his dark, dark eyes.
Caught by the stirrings of want in her own slight body.
Of need…
She didn’t need. She didn’t!
She didn’t need any man. Not after John Talbot. Once was enough. She’d been stupid once…
The thought gave her strength to pull back but Niall’s hands didn’t release her. His hold tightened and his dark eyes searched hers.
‘What’s wrong, my beautiful Jessie?’ he whispered.
My beautiful Jessie…
The words slashed like a knife. She’d been called that before. Before the pain.
‘No…’ It was a frantic whisper.
‘I’ve told you before-’ Niall’s voice contained a hint of concern ‘-I’ll not hurt you. I swear…’
‘I don’t want…’
‘Me?’ He shook his head. ‘What’s between us, Jess…I don’t understand it any more than you do but I’m starting to think it’s something we should explore. And how else to explore…’
His voice fell away. The dark eyes looked straight into hers, passion flaring in their depths, and he bent his head and kissed her.
Jessie had been kissed before-but never like this.
For a moment she held herself rigid, her body reacting with blind, unreasoning panic.
And then the kiss caught-and held.
It was like the meeting of two halves in a whole. The coming together of parts that had been torn asunder and their rightful place was together.
Niall’s mouth caught and held hers and his arms went round to draw her rigid body to his.
She was powerless-powerless to resist the magnet.
Jess had never felt a kiss so full of longing.
There was desire surging through Niall’s body-she could feel it-and Jess felt a rush of matching need in hers. Her lips were under his and he kissed her mouth with infinite tenderness-as if he had never touched anything so precious.
How could she hold out against such tenderness? How could she? Especially when every nerve in her body was screaming to respond.
She felt her lips open; she felt her mouth welcome his, tasting his arrant maleness and feeling his need. Her arms went around his hard male body and she clung as if drowning.
It was as if there were two Jessies: one being kissed and responding with all her heart and another standing above her body, staring with horror at this man making love-wanting her-demanding a response with every fibre of his being.
And the first Jessie was winning hands down.
The first Jessie wanted this man with all her heart.
What would have happened next the second Jess-the one above the responding Jessie’s head screaming grim warnings-was horrified to think but a gentle tap on the door and then another, more urgent, knock almost brought the first Jess to her senses.
Almost.
It was Niall who drew away first. He stood holding the dazed young vet at arm’s length and the desire was still there, blazing.
‘Damn,’ he said unsteadily as the knocking continued and Jess managed a shaky laugh.
‘Just…just as well.’
‘Maybe.’ Niall touched her face with the finger of one hand. ‘Duty calls,’ he said softly. ‘Damn…’
He swore and kissed her lightly once again before moving to open the door.
It was Sarah.
Of course.
The nurse stood staring from Jess to Niall and back again, clearly confused but too worried to see what was really happening.
If it had been Geraldine then Jess would have been in big trouble. Geraldine would have guessed what she’d interrupted as soon as she’d opened the door. Jessie’s face was suffused with colour. Her breath was coming too fast for comfort. Something deep inside was threatening to burst.