скачать книгу бесплатно
He believed her. And it wasn’t her fault that his mother had been the way she was. Or that Rebecca hadn’t been able to see past her own insecurities and take a chance with him. ‘It’s OK. And you haven’t upset me. I don’t mind talking about it.’ And it was true, now. The DNA test results had been conclusive and had put paid to all the rumours. Then Ed had announced his engagement to Jane, and the press had been utterly charmed by his brother’s Cinderella bride. ‘Anyway, it’s all done and dusted now. I won’t let myself get distracted in the future.’
‘You’re actually going back to doing that parachute thing?’ Serena looked surprised.
‘Powered paragliding,’ he corrected. ‘Sadly, no. The whole family ganged up on me and made me agree to sell the rig. And my consultant said I can’t go skiing again until the pin’s out of my leg.’ He grimaced. ‘So I guess I’m going to have a very, very boring year, limping everywhere and being grumpy with everyone because I’d much rather be doing something else.’ Something with enough speed to let him leave all his self-doubts behind. Something that meant he didn’t have time to sit still and think.
She smiled. ‘I’m sure you can find something to keep yourself amused.’
Someone would be a better idea. And she happened to be standing right in front of him. He had a feeling that Serena James could distract him beautifully; even though she wasn’t his usual type, there was something about her that really grabbed his attention.
‘How are your wrists?’ she asked.
‘Better. I can manage without the splints now. And I’ve got pretty much the full range of movement back, thanks to the exercises you gave me.’ He gave her a rueful smile. ‘You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to being able to drive myself again.’
‘Taxis that bad, are they?’
‘They are when they’re being driven by your little sisters, and the fare is a whole journey’s worth of nagging.’
She laughed.
‘You’re supposed to be sympathetic,’ he said.
‘I am.’ She was still smiling. ‘But I’m just imagining you being bossed around by a woman.’
‘My sister,’ he corrected. ‘Bossy isn’t the half of it. The oldest one’s the scariest barrister I’ve ever met—you just don’t answer Alice back. Ever. The middle one’s an architect and threatens to gag me with gaffer tape if I dare suggest she modifies her driving slightly so she doesn’t scrape my car, and the baby just switches to speaking Latin if you try to talk her into letting you do something!’
Serena laughed again. ‘I bet you charm all three of them into doing everything you ask of them.’
Fair point. It was what George did with women. Charmed them. With two exceptions—ones he didn’t usually let himself think about—women tended to agree to what he wanted.
And right now he wanted her.
Serena had a beautiful mouth—a perfect rosebud. She wasn’t wearing a scrap of make-up, but she really didn’t need any. She had a fresh, natural beauty. Flawless skin that made him itch to touch it, feel how soft it was under his fingertips. And he couldn’t help wondering what that mouth would feel like against his own.
‘So you think I’m a shallow, charming playboy? I’m hurt,’ he said, batting his eyelashes at her. ‘Deeply wounded.’
‘Sure you are.’ That glint of amusement was back in her eyes.
‘Oh, but I am.’ And the suggestion was too much for him to resist. ‘And, as you’re the one making me feel bad right now, Serena, maybe you should be the one to kiss me better.’
She simply smiled at him. ‘I’m afraid that’s not part of the treatment, Mr Somers.’
He noticed that she’d switched back to formality with him. Well, it was his own fault for being too pushy. Time to backtrack. ‘I apologise for teasing, Ms James—or should that be Mrs?’
‘Ms is fine.’
Which still didn’t tell him whether she was married—or at least committed elsewhere. Though he had a feeling that she wasn’t. A feeling that wasn’t based on any actual information: simply his gut instinct. And his gut had rarely led him wrong in the past. Only with Rebecca, and that had been his fault for wanting what she couldn’t give him.
Serena took him through all the exercises, and he concentrated on making sure he got them right.
‘Good. I think we’re done for today,’ she said.
‘See you on Thursday? Or are you going to make me see Brutal Bruno instead, to teach me a lesson for being cheeky with you today?’
‘Bruno’s as gentle as a lamb,’ she protested.
‘Not with me, he isn’t,’ George said feelingly, remembering his first sessions with the physiotherapist while he had still been in hospital. Once the painkillers had worn off, the movements had hurt like hell. Not that he would’ve admitted to any of it. He’d wanted to be out of hospital with his independence back. Like yesterday.
‘Oh, you big baby.’ She laughed. ‘I’ll see you on Thursday.’
He’d see her on Thursday.
Funny how that made the whole physiotherapy thing seem bearable.
Serena was still smiling as she wrote up the notes.
George Somers was just too gorgeous for his own good.
Another time, another place, and she would’ve been tempted to take him up on his offer of kissing him better.
But …
She couldn’t afford to be unprofessional. She needed this job, and getting too friendly with your patients was the quickest way to risk ending up in a sticky situation and with a disciplinary charge on your records, at the very least.
Plus she knew that George Somers was the kind of man who never dated anyone more than a couple of times. He didn’t do serious relationships. His picture was in the press with a different woman practically every week—usually a tall, skinny blonde—and having two broken wrists, a broken leg and concussion hadn’t seemed to slow him down in the slightest. He was the last kind of man she wanted to get involved with. And why on earth would the heir to a barony—a man who’d dated supermodels, according to all the newspapers—be in the slightest bit interested in an ordinary woman like her?
And then there was Ethan. Her son’s needs came first and they always would, as far as she was concerned. End of story.
So, much as Serena found George Somers attractive, she knew he’d better remain a patient and only a patient. She couldn’t afford to offer him anything else.
She looked at her appointment schedule. Her next patient was another of her favourites, Lisa Miller, who’d been suffering from whiplash for the last six weeks and whose range of movements was responding beautifully to treatment. Serena smiled and went over to the door to call her in.
When Serena had finished her session with the patient after Lisa—an elderly lady who was recovering from a hip replacement—she took a break, just long enough to gulp down a cup of coffee in the staff kitchen.
Jess, one of the other physiotherapists, was already there, leaning against the worktop. ‘The kettle’s just boiled. Want a coffee?’ she asked, taking a mug out of the cupboard and waving it at Serena.
‘Thanks, Jess. That’d be great.’
‘So how was Mr Hot?’ Jess asked, making the coffee and then handing Serena the mug.
‘Mr Hot?’ Serena asked warily.
‘Your first patient this afternoon.’ Jess grinned and fanned herself. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t know who I meant. He’s seriously gorgeous.’
Serena didn’t dare reply to that, in case her words were too revealing. The last thing she needed was for her colleagues to think she was lusting after one of her patients.
‘Is he single?’
‘No idea,’ Serena fibbed. ‘Anyway, I thought you were engaged?’
‘I am, but I’m not dead. I can still look. And he’s something else.’ Jess rolled her eyes. ‘I can’t believe you don’t know anything about him. I mean, if I was single and one of my patients was that hot, I’d want to know everything about him.’
‘There is such a thing as patient confidentiality,’ Serena said dryly.
‘True.’ Jess gave her an irrepressible smile. ‘You know, if he is single, you could always ask him out.’
‘Of course I can’t! He’s my patient.’
‘Only until his treatment’s finished,’ Jess pointed out. ‘And then there’s nothing to stop you getting to know him better.’
Serena played her trump card. ‘Ethan.’
‘You know your parents would babysit like a shot if you asked them.’
That was true. But Serena’s mother already picked the little boy up from school every afternoon and kept him entertained until Serena had finished her shift; Serena felt she was taking quite enough from her parents as it was, without asking for more.
Jess patted her arm. ‘Serena, I know you’re a brilliant mum and you’re a great physio—you’ve taught me such a lot over the last year—but there’s more to life than work and being a single parent. You hardly ever go on team nights out. When was the last time you had some fun?’
Serena lifted her chin, stung. ‘I have plenty of fun with my son.’
‘I know you do, but that’s not what I meant. When was the last time you did something just for you, went out with someone on a date?’
‘I’m happy with my life the way it is,’ Serena protested.
Jess raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you?’
Serena didn’t answer that.
‘Try to make some time just for you,’ Jess said softly. ‘Because you’re important, too.’
‘Yeah.’ Serena added cold water to her coffee and gulped it down. ‘I’d better dash. I don’t want to get behind with my appointments.’
Though, as she left the kitchen, she knew she was being a coward, not facing up to Jess’s questions. When was the last time she’d gone on a date? Not since she’d been going out with Jason, Ethan’s father.
But that didn’t mean she wanted to go out with George. She’d already dated one heartbreaker who’d let her down, and that was more than enough for her. She’d learned from her mistakes, the hard way. It wasn’t something she intended to repeat.
CHAPTER TWO
GEORGE lay flat on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him. Then he raised his bad leg thirty centimetres from the floor and traced a T-shape in the air, just as Serena had taught him.
Serena.
He closed his eyes as he repeated the exercise, seeing her face in his mind’s eye. That beautiful, beautiful mouth. What would it feel like against his skin? He tipped his head back, imagining her mouth teasing a path down his throat; then lower, down his sternum, and lower still, over his abdomen. Her hair would be loose and brushing against his skin, soft as silk, its coolness in sharp contrast to the heat of her mouth.
He blew out a breath.
This really wasn’t sensible, fantasising about his physiotherapist like this. Especially as she’d made it quite clear that she wasn’t interested in him. Serena James wasn’t the type of woman he normally dated. She wasn’t one of the tall, rail-thin blondes who graced his arm at parties. She had light brown hair that most people would describe as ‘mouse', she couldn’t be more than five feet four inches tall, and she had definite curves. Glorious curves that he ached to touch. To mould with his palms. To caress and tease until she was as full of desire for him as he was for her.
He knew what his bossiest sister would say. Alice would roll her eyes and say that he wanted Serena precisely because he knew she was out of reach. Because she was one of the first women in years who’d resisted him.
Worse still, he knew that was probably true. Serena James was a challenge. She intrigued him. And he found it hard to resist a pretty face and the chance to have some fun.
If he had any sense, he’d ask if he could see Bruno instead of Serena to finish off the rest of his treatment.
But the idea of seeing Serena again on Thursday was too much for him.
Serena smiled at George when he walked in, and heat arrowed down to his groin.
Down, boy. This is meant to be professional, he reminded his libido.
‘So you’ve been doing the exercises I suggested?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Just the exercises?’
He gave her his most charming smile. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’
‘Because you’re the type to push yourself too hard,’ she said softly. ‘What did you do, George?’
She could read him like a book. He wasn’t sure if that intrigued him more or worried him. Most people were happy just to see the surface; Serena clearly looked deeper and he had a feeling that she saw what most people missed about him. Which in itself was dangerous. Apart from his family, he didn’t let people get that close.
‘I tried driving at the weekend. On private land, so there wasn’t a risk to anyone else.’ Odd how it felt important to tell her that. Normally, he didn’t give a damn what people thought about him. But what Serena thought … For some reason, that mattered. And he’d rather not start analysing why.
She raised an eyebrow. ‘Did it hurt?’
‘No. I realise I’m not quite ready to drive in London again, yet,’ he admitted, ‘but now I’ve got a benchmark to work with. And it really helps, knowing that I’m not going to be dependent on the girls and Ed—my brother—for what already feels like for ever.’
She examined him, then made him go through the full range of movements just to the point of pain. ‘That’s good. Your range has improved hugely over the last few weeks.’
‘Thanks to you.’
‘And you, for sticking with the exercises. A lot of people struggle and some of them just give up.’
‘Not me. I want my independence back, and if that means sticking to an exercise programme, then the exercises take priority over everything else every day,’ George said.
She smiled. ‘Actually, you’ve done well. I think you’re ready for the last stage.’ She gave him more exercises; even as George concentrated on her instructions and making sure he was doing everything correctly, to get the maximum benefit from the movements, he couldn’t help looking at her.
And he caught her looking back at him. Specifically, at his mouth.
All his senses immediately went on full alert. Was she thinking about it, the same way he was? What would she do if he kissed her?
He had a feeling that she’d retreat into formality again. She’d panicked enough at his last appointment, when he’d suggested she kiss him; he was pretty sure that actually doing what he’d suggested would send her running in the opposite direction.
But next week was his last appointment. He didn’t have time to wait and coax her round to his point of view. He was going to have to make his move then, or lose the chance of seeing her again—for good.
On Monday morning, Serena put George through his paces again.
And then it was over. He was signed off. No more physio.
