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‘I think I can believe it.’ Hayden paused, and she tensed. ‘Did your father take his own life before his trial?’
Nausea rolled through her, but Bridget fought against it. She was the one who had brought up this subject, she wasn’t going to let it beat her or make her cower the way it had for the past thirteen years.
‘Yep.’ She tried to sound flippant. ‘Mum and I were devastated. For all that he’d done, I was only thirteen and he’d been the father that I’d idolised my entire life. But Mum fell apart. My dad had been her whole life. She’d lived vicariously through his successes—although, of course, they were never successes at all—but she’d thrown all the parties, all the PR events, all the social functions for him. It was the only thing she knew how to do. He’d brought in the money—she’d never earned a penny in her life.
‘And, worse, with Dad gone the media had no one else to blame. We were hounded. For years we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without someone recognising us. Mum became depressed, spiralling into one addiction after another. Losing herself in anything that could make her forget, for a day or a night. And I became her carer.’
‘You don’t have to talk about this if it’s too difficult for you,’ Hayden said tenderly ‘But I’m here for you, as long as you need.’
Bridget nodded. It was tempting to stop, but she wasn’t even sure that she could put the lid back on the proverbial box. She’d opened it up and memories and emotions she’d thought long buried had spilled out all over the place.
And somehow it felt good to be able to start to talk through it.
‘I’d dreamed of becoming a doctor for as long as I could remember. I’d always been good at school but finding myself without friends had just given me more time to throw myself into my studies. At least schoolwork was always there for me and didn’t care what my father had done. So I had the grades to go to university and study medicine, but I didn’t have the money to support myself. Besides, I soon realised that I couldn’t leave Mum.’
‘Is that why you became a nurse?’
‘I suppose. It brought in money to keep a roof over our heads, and it kept me in medicine one way, but it meant I didn’t have to go away for my studies. When she died five years ago, that was when I became a volunteer.’
‘You reinvented yourself,’ he acknowledged. ‘I can see why that would have been far easier to do if you were thousands of miles away from everything you’d ever known.’
‘Crazy, isn’t it?’ she commented wryly. ‘But I don’t want to run away any more. Besides, ever since I met you, I don’t think I’ve been running from. I think I’ve been running to.’
‘I was wrong, Bridget Gardiner.’ His voice slid over her like the honey that families here poured over their wounds. ‘I don’t think you run anywhere. I haven’t thought that for some time. You stride with confidence, and you inspire wherever you go.’
‘Even with you?’ she asked, only half teasing.
‘Especially with me,’ he growled, making it sound altogether too much like an unspoken promise.
Before she could second-guess herself, she found herself pulling out of his arms to straddle him.
An echo of their first time together.
‘Show me,’ she whispered, spreading her palms over his chest and moving her hips over him, revelling in the way his body had pulled hard and tight in an instant.
For her.
‘Your wish is my command,’ Hayden growled, his hands moving to her hips to lift her up as though she weighed nothing and then settle her back where he wanted her.
Heat bloomed in an instant. And Bridget let her head fall back and be guided wherever he wanted them to go.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘WHAT’S GOING ON?’
The sun was just peeking over the horizon the next morning as Hayd’s men lined up their vehicles at the compound gates and Bridget threw her grab bag inside one, trying not to glance at Hayden himself for fear that ridiculous emotions would be written all over her face.
Her body still ached lusciously from their night together. In truth, they’d barely been able to keep their hands off each other long enough for her to sneak out before anyone caught her, less than a few hours before.
Now they were due to head back to Jukrem, after deciding with the doctors at Rejupe that although both mother and baby were doing remarkably well, they would stay for a few more days to recover, before being brought back on the supply plane in the middle of the following week.
But whilst the Rejupe volunteers had been relaxed and calm an hour ago, there was suddenly a bit more of a flurry than usual, and before she could ask anyone what was going on, she saw one of the Hayden’s men rushing over to speak to him.
‘Sit-rep, please,’ he ordered.
‘Sir, there’s been some kind of an attack at a camp called... Luerina.’ The man checked his notes. ‘No reports of casualties.’
Wordlessly, Hayden waved her over and she hurried around the vehicle.
