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A Doctor, returning from an emergency call to an elderly patient, found them just after two, and by three Josie was back in her hotel room, lying in the warm, scented darkness, trying to force her mind back into the slumberous blankness she had felt in the car. But it was no good...
She watched as dawn began to weave streamers of gold and pink and mauve into the night sky, and then rose impatiently, padding through to the luxurious en suite bathroom and standing under the shower for a full ten minutes while she struggled to come to terms with her shattered emotions. As the warm, silky water splashed a velvety path over her face and body she gave herself a mental dressing-down that was all logic and sense—and didn't help an iota.
Her brain knew that Luke Hawkton was a brief hiccup in her life, that the devastating kiss and embrace in the car had meant nothing to him beyond a wish to comfort and reassure her in the unusual circumstances in which they had found themselves. Reason and sense added that she was just the same person she had been for the last twenty-eight years, and that she and she alone controlled her destiny.
He probably wasn't remotely, faintly interested in her anyway, not with all the sophisticated, worldly and undoubtedly beautiful women who had and still did grace his life and his bed. So why, when her mind knew all that, did she feel as though she was on a collision path with a brilliant black meteor that had a momentous power to ravage and destroy?
'Stop being so stupid…' She spoke out loud as she folded one of the massive fluffy bathsheets round her, her fingers all that visibly remained of the horrific accident that had almost taken her life.
She pulled back the towel as she walked through to the bedroom, pausing in front of the large full-length mirror and forcing her eyes to concentrate on her body, her gaze dissecting and ruthless.
The surgeon had been careful to do a good job. The scar was as low as he had been able to make it, flat and thin, barely noticeable now after thirteen years. Yes… he had done a good
job and had undoubtedly saved her life in the process. She nodded slowly at her reflection. And she was grateful to him for that, very grateful, although she hadn't been at the time.
Later, after her mother had died, she had gone back to the hospital to thank him properly for his skill and expertise, and most of all for his kindness to her when she had been less than appreciative. She still remembered the words he had spoken to her as they had sat in his office, bright sunlight spilling over his grey head from the window just behind him and his eyes full of compassion.
'I'm not going to pretend that your sense of loss at what might have been will ever completely fade, Josie, but I do know you will learn to accept what you can't change. In the initial days after the accident, when you were still in the coma, we tried everything we could to avoid taking such a drastic step, but the internal damage was too severe and surgery was the only option.'
She had nodded her understanding, her heart too full of pain and regret to allow her to speak without breaking down.
'Your parents knew what it would mean to you. They told me that since you were a toddler you'd adored first dolls and then babies, anything younger than yourself. Some girls, women, could adapt to their changed circumstances, but you will never fully do that; you'll team to live with it instead, you understand?'
She had nodded again, more vigorously this time, thankful that he hadn't parroted the empty platitudes she had heard so often in the last few months from well-meaning neighbours and friends.
'You have your eyes, your ears, your intellect, and a body that is healthy and young. It is up to you what you do with these gifts, but, knowing you as I do, I don't think you will let them go to waste. You have lost something irreplaceable, Josie, and the grief will always be there. To mourn is natural, my dear, but life has a way of compensating if you'll let it.'
'A way of compensating.' She pulled the towel tightly around her and sat down at the dressing table as she began to dry her hair. Yes, she had been doing all right in this adult-populated world she had carved out for herself. No, not had been, was. She wouldn't let it be any other way. It was up to her, Luke Hawkton or no Luke Hawkton.
'Good morning.' When Luke surfaced from behind his newspaper as the waiter pulled out her chair he gave no sign that he remembered the happenings of the night before in either his face or his voice. She had expected some form of awareness, mockery, even, of the patent vulnerability she had revealed at his kiss, but the hard male face was set in business mode and the deep voice was brisk and even. The cold, commanding, high-flying tycoon was back in full regalia, the fascinatingly sensual dinner companion a distant memory as she faced him across the breakfast table.
'Good morning.' She was aware that her colour was high, and as the waiter hovered for her order she concentrated on the menu and regained her composure before glancing at him again. It was the lowering of that newspaper that had done it, sent her body into an abrupt awareness of him as she had met the piercing silver-grey gaze so suddenly.
'I'm afraid I've already eaten.' He gestured to the plate that the waiter was just removing before ordering more coffee, his voice pleasant and natural. 'But perhaps we could share a pot of coffee before I dash off? I've a business appointment at nine at the other end of the city and they're sending a helicopter shortly.'
'Are they?' How the other half live, she thought silently. Travelling by helicopter to a business appointment clearly meant as little to him as catching the number fourteen bus to Piccadilly. 'I hope your meeting goes well,' she added politely as her senses registered the jet-black hair slicked back and gleaming with health, the harsh, rugged features that were far more attractive than any pretty-boy good looks.
'So do V He grimaced as he folded the newspaper before settling back in his chair in a way that indicated his ease with himself and the world about him. 'But it won't be very pleasant, at least not initially.
'I have the distinct impression I'm being backed into a corner by certain individuals and I don't like that, I don't like that at all, so it will have to be the tough-guy approach, with all guns firing. All's fair in love and war, but I won't allow myself or the company to be manipulated by anyone, and they might as well realise that straight off.'
She couldn't imagine how anyone would have the nerve to take such a liberty, ever, but she merely nodded a response as the waiter returned with a pot of steaming coffee.
'Are you satisfied with the way things are panning out, Josie?'
'What?' For a stunningly heart-stopping moment she thought he was referring to the night before, before common sense reasserted itself just in time for her to avoid making a complete fool of herself.
'Yes, I think so,' she said quickly, reaching for the cup of coffee he had just poured for her with a smile of thanks. 'Certainly all the main groundwork is straight in my mind, although I may need to liaise with someone in the know fairly frequently over the next few weeks. The fact that you are having the launch in your own grounds helps, of course, although caterers and suchlike tend to be booted months and months in advance these days. Have you a final completion date on the yacht yet?'
'The end of August.' He shook his head slowly. 'It's a little tight but it can't be helped; it will still give us a couple of months to play around with. Mike assures me that's more than enough time.'
Does he? Josie thought grimly. Well, it wasn't Mike who had the responsibility for pulling all the threads together on this one, was it? Mike, unfortunately, had a way of promising the moon at times to prospective clients, in an effort to get their business, and it didn't always bode well for his employees, who were left to pick up the pieces when something in an impossibly tight schedule went wrong.
'I wouldn't put it quite like that,' Josie said carefully. 'There is a great deal to organise and arrange, and the timetable will be a narrow one—'
'You aren't telling me you can't cope with it, are you?' Luke asked coolly.
'No, I'm not saying that.' Josie took a deep breath and forced a polite smile to her face. 'I'm just explaining that we have a great deal of work to do and very little time to do it.' She resented the way he had immediately assumed she couldn't handle the project, but knew she would get nowhere by letting her indignation show. 'But that is what you have employed me to sort out,' she added, with studied control.
