Playing the Playboy's Sweetheart (7 page)

CHAPTER SIX

‘W
HERE
ARE
YOU
going?’ Hugh asked as Emily, sleepwear in hand, went to head out of the bedroom.

‘To get changed in the bathroom.’

‘Well, that won’t look odd!’ he said, with more than a hint of sarcasm. ‘Just get changed here. I promise not to look.’

They could hear Jennifer and Alex laughing and talking as they got ready for bed and Emily knew that Hugh was right—it would look odd, her creeping in and out of the bathroom with her clothes, and so Emily started to undress as Hugh lay on the makeshift bed on the floor.

He turned on his side and read through his emails but it was a futile effort because all he could see was the image of Emily yesterday, when he had caught her sunbathing with her top off.

‘How’s the sunburn?’

‘Better,’ Emily said, pulling on a pair of pyjama shorts and strappy top and then climbing into bed.

‘Do you think they believe us?’ Hugh asked, and Emily turned and looked down to where he lay on the floor.

‘I don’t know,’ she admitted in a harsh whisper as she recalled the evening. ‘It was a bit strained at times.’

‘How could you not know how old I am or when my birthday is?’ Hugh asked, referring to a small sticking point in the conversation when Jennifer had said something about it being his birthday next month. ‘You came out for drinks on my thirtieth birthday.’

‘I did,’ Emily said, ‘but it’s not etched in my memory.’

Actually, Emily had done her level best to forget his thirtieth birthday last year because Hugh had just started seeing Olivia.

Horrible person that she was at times, Emily had loathed seeing him so happy and had been quite convinced that night that Hugh had finally found
the one
. ‘Oh, and you didn’t tell me the wedding was going to be in the Lake District...’

‘Ah, so that was what that dirty look was for,’ he said, as Emily turned out the light. ‘It will be fun,’ Hugh said, ‘though hopefully that room at least has a sofa I can sleep on, rather than a stone floor.’

She said nothing.

‘Emily?’ Hugh said to the darkness a few tense moments later.

‘What?’

‘I am so uncomfortable.’

‘Tough.’

‘We could sleep with a pillow between us just in case you can’t resist me.’

Emily didn’t answer. She actually didn’t trust herself to answer because the truth was she probably couldn’t resist.

Why was she like this?

Emily stared at the ceiling. She knew why, she did all she could to avoid getting hurt.

‘You haven’t even worked there for one shift and already you’ve got all hard,’ Hugh moaned.

‘Sorry?’ Emily said. She hadn’t really been paying attention to his words.

‘In Accident and Emergency—they breed them tough there.’

Still Emily said nothing.

‘Are you looking forward to it, even a little bit?’ Hugh asked, because he knew that she had tried to get out of working there.

‘I’m not going to be working there.’ There was a long stretch of silence as Emily willed herself to open up to him. ‘I’m handing in my notice.’

‘Emily?’

‘I am.’ Her voice was thick with suppressed tears because it had been a very difficult decision to make, but the right one, she was sure.

Possibly by consent, Hugh moved from the hard floor and into the bed beside her.

‘Why?’ he asked, but she didn’t answer. ‘Emily, it’s for three months, it will be over before you know it.’

‘Please don’t try to talk me out of it.’

‘I bloody well will. Accident and Emergency really isn’t that bad,’ Hugh said. ‘Most of it will be bandages and plaster...’

‘Hugh.’ She turned and faced him. ‘They’re going to have me in Resus.’

‘I don’t get what you’re so worried about.’

‘I’m not worried,’ Emily said, ‘because I’m not going to be doing it.’

‘You’d be great.’

‘I’m great already,’ Emily said.

‘I just don’t get it.’ Hugh was genuinely bemused, but then Emily often bemused him. ‘I thought that you loved your job.’

‘I do.’

‘And if you want to get on, which I think you do, surely it’s worth doing the occasional rotation. From my position it works better—the transition for the patient—’

‘I don’t want to hear it, Hugh,’ Emily said, because she didn’t. Miriam was right, Hugh was right—it was better for the patients, and the new system was working well. It was for her own private reasons that she was digging her heels in and she chose then to tell Hugh a little of why.

‘You know that sign in Theatre that says no relatives beyond this point?’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s the part of Theatre I like.’

‘You prefer your patients unconscious?’ Hugh tried to make a joke but was taken aback by her response.

‘Yes,’ Emily admitted. ‘I don’t like all the drama of relatives and I actually prefer being in Theatre. I can focus on the patient, I can do my very best for them even if they don’t know it.’

‘Emily—’

‘I don’t want to talk about it any more.’

They lay in mutual silence till Hugh broke it.

‘Maybe if they heard us at it...’

‘Ha-ha,’ Emily said.

‘Just a few moans would suffice.’

‘No.’

‘Go on,’ Hugh said, and made a low moaning noise.

‘Was that it?’ Emily said. ‘You were very quick!’

Hugh laughed and they lay again in silence and Emily was just about to drift off when another moan came from Hugh, a very different kind.

‘Please, no!’ Hugh said, and Emily opened her eyes and smothered her laughter with her hand as she realised what Hugh was referring to, because there was a certain regular noise coming from the room across the hall.

‘Oh, God!’ Hugh said, appalled. ‘It’s like finding out that your parents do it!’

‘Stop it.’ Emily was nearly crying from laughter.

‘I wish they would.’

It seemed to go on for ever but finally,
finally
the house was quiet and Emily lay there strangely resigned to her fate, because even though they weren’t touching she could almost feel his thigh next to hers and if he made a move now, she knew what would happen, knew because she actually ached from resistance.

‘’Night, Emily.’

A light kiss to her forehead surprised her.

So too did Hugh, rolling to his side so that his back was to her.

And so too, a short while later, did the sound of his breathing surprise her for it told her that he was asleep.

Damn you, Hugh, for behaving!

He did behave.

In fact, Hugh fell asleep with a slightly triumphant smile because he could feel her tension.

Deny it all you like, Emily, he thought as, just before dawn, with its mistress finally sleeping, her body broke from its self-imposed chains and rolled into his and Hugh lay on his back, wondering what the hell went on in that head of hers.

Wondering too what was going on in his own because outside his career Hugh rarely thought in the long term.

He was thinking of it now.

Emily woke just after dawn to the nicest place she had ever been. Warm and relaxed, their limbs were knotted together like the necklaces in her jewellery box...

And she couldn’t be bothered to untangle them either.

Neither could she be bothered to untangle her thoughts, because sex was just sex, Emily convinced herself in the rosy pink light of dawn, it didn’t mean she was handing over her heart.

A one-morning stand for good behaviour and it had been so hard to be so good.

‘They just did it again,’ Hugh whispered, as he felt her stir in his arms. ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to look at him at breakfast. I’m traumatised.’

He wasn’t, especially when Emily opened her eyes and pulled back her head and then smiled.

It was a smile he had never seen and one Emily had never given to anyone before, for it was neither guarded nor sparing.

‘Did you sleep?’ Hugh asked.

‘Not much. How about you?’

‘Like a log.’

They were both smiling and she could feel the goose-bumps rise on her arm as his fingers dusted the top of it and her head went back to his chest and her hand that was on his stomach moved down a little, brushing his flat stomach with her fingers and feeling his breathing halt for a few seconds as she worked her way deliberately down more.

‘Not too traumatised,’ Emily said, dusting the thick length of his erection.

It could not have been better for Hugh, for he did not want a kiss that got out of hand, he did not want regret, and so her bold decision suited him, as did the fingers slipping in to his hipsters.

Emily lifted her mouth to his and kissed him as she had always wanted to. Deep and intimate, it was a long, silent kiss that had her burn and ache for more of his skin.

‘I want this off,’ Hugh said, his fingers at her top, ‘but I don’t want to move your hand.’

‘Can’t have both,’ Emily said, and her hands slid down his hipsters and Hugh sorted out her shorts, both kicking off their bottom halves as Hugh rapidly dealt with her top.

He pulled it and Emily closed her eyes in bliss as he took one hot, burnt nipple and cooled it with his mouth till she whimpered for him to do the same with the other.

‘God, Em...’ Hugh said, between breasts. He’d known they would be fantastic, they had enthralled him with the way they danced beneath her theatre top and the occasional glimpse of lacy bra, but Hugh was in second heaven and so too was she.

Hugh’s fingers were working magic and hers were doing the same to him.

He was back to her mouth but as their lips met again, stupid, stupid necessities attempted to beckon and Hugh tried to remember where he’d taken off his jeans, which held his wallet...

‘I’m on the Pill.’ She answered his brief distraction and got back to his mouth, but now she had her own thoughts to contend with as she tried to remember if she’d taken it this lazy morning.

Sex, though, was proving a very powerful distraction from bothersome thoughts.

Who cared?

Not they.

‘Quietly,’ Emily warned.

Face on, he slid inside her and both were just about coming in relief because it had been a very long twenty-four hours, but as they started to move the bed creaked like a rusty gate.

‘Shh...’ Emily said, but they couldn’t stop the noise.

‘They won’t care...’ Hugh said.

‘I care!’ Emily responded, and a frantic decision was made to head for the floor.

His makeshift bed was actually very comfortable now, because this was no whoops-we-went-too-far sex. Emily was on top and the view really was fantastic now.

Emily didn’t do Sunday morning sex. Well, once on Marcus’s birthday, poor guy, but she was loving this lazy morning. The feel of cool air on her warm body, the feel of his hands roaming her hips and the dance of her breasts had never found her more free.

His finger on her clitoris had her face redden with imminent pleasure. She almost wanted to slap his hand for it should come with the discretionary warning of flashing lights, so much so that she lost her rhythm but Hugh gave it back to her.

Emily pressed her lips together when she wanted to moan, a hum building in her throat, and Hugh prised open her lips and slipped in his fingers to warn her back to quiet. She sucked on them like a birth aid and then released them, scared she might bite as she started to come. Hugh held her chin up with his free hand, an erotic head support that tightened as his orgasm extended hers, and then he released her. Emily collapsed to his mouth, slowly riding the final waves that brought them both in to a very different shore.

He kissed her for what felt like for ever and then, while they lay there, Hugh pulled the covers down from the bed and covered them.

It was too early to get up and there was no point going back up to the bed, for as they lay in their little fortress, their bodies better acquainted, they both knew from their kisses they were going again.

CHAPTER SEVEN

T
WICE
?

Emily stood in the shower and let the water run over her.

And she had a feeling Hugh would be more than happy to go for a third time the second Jennifer and Alex left.

He’d said he wanted to hear her moan.

She blew out a breath of laughter as she imagined some version of the
Benny Hill Show
taking place in the cottage as they chased each other around, but her laughter strangled because she wanted to get back to her safe haven.

This time she
had
brought her clothes into the bathroom and would emerge fully dressed and with her make-up on and then get breakfast ready for her guests.

And then see them all off, and she wasn’t just thinking about Alex and Jennifer.

Hugh might think, given what had taken place this morning, that the rules had changed, but to Emily it just made her more certain that a relationship with Hugh would be a very foolish thing.

She
was
crazy about him.

Emily massaged conditioner into her hair and she loathed where she was—crazy about someone, that illogical place she’d avoided for more than half of her life.

Oh, it was different, of course, from the other loves in her life.

Dangerously different—for this had the potential for even more hurt.

Back to friends, back to business, Emily told herself as she dried herself off and got dressed.

She tied her hair back and then headed downstairs, where Hugh was making breakfast as he chatted to Alex and Jennifer.

‘We’ve got two places we’re hoping to see today,’ Jennifer said.

‘Three,’ Alex said, ‘though we’ll only be driving past the third one, it hasn’t yet come on the market.’ He turned and smiled as Emily came in. ‘Good morning.’

‘Morning,’ Emily said. Hugh handed her a mug of tea and she took a seat at the kitchen table.

No, she didn’t offer to help Hugh, though she did notice when she went to put marmalade on her toast that he
hadn’t
put out her favourite one.

Hugh gave her a wink as she looked up and she gave him a smile but inside she wavered, because it would be so easy to give in, to just fall a bit further into the man who spoke the same language without words.

And then she felt mean.

Hugh laughed when she got up and got out the very, very nice marmalade.

‘The things I do to further your career,’ Emily said, when Alex and Jennifer had gone and she put the lid on a nearly empty jar.

‘I’ll buy you a box of them,’ Hugh said. ‘You should have seen your face when they went for their fourth slices.’

‘Scavengers,’ Emily said. ‘No wonder they were so hungry!’ It was all too nice and too easy to be nice and easy with Hugh so she made herself say it. ‘What time are you heading off?’

She saw the slight rise of his eyebrows and knew her message had just been delivered—she wanted him gone, she wanted to get back to her holiday, and what had happened upstairs, well, there it would remain.

‘After I’ve talked some sense into you about work.’

‘I wish I hadn’t said anything about it.’

‘Because you know what you’re proposing to do makes no sense. Why don’t you at least wait until you’ve got another job before you hand in your notice? You’ve got another week before you start to look around. If Accident and Emergency is so bad then you will at least have another job to go to.’

Emily closed her eyes.

‘It might take a while to find a job that suits you,’ Hugh continued. ‘A lot of hospitals rotate their critical care staff. Perhaps you could do some agency work, though you might find yourself pushed out of your comfort zone every shift...’

‘Is that what you think? That I don’t want to be pushed out of my comfort zone?’

‘That’s exactly what I think.’

‘Well, thanks for the little pep talk.’

‘You can’t just blow up your career...’

‘I’m not,’ Emily said, ‘I’m just standing my ground. Hugh...’ She didn’t know how best to explain it. ‘I hated A and E when I did my training. I mean, I seriously hated it. I like routine, I like procedure, I don’t like all the drama of A and E. I can’t stand seeing people so raw and then you’re supposed to just...’ she didn’t know how to explain it ‘...loan yourself to them.’

‘Loan yourself?’ Hugh asked. ‘What the hell does that mean?’

‘I don’t know how better—’

‘Can I ask?’ Hugh interrupted and in his very own way got straight to the point. ‘Why did you do nursing, then? If you don’t want to see people at their most raw, if you don’t want to
loan yourself,
as you call it, why would you do this job?’ Emily didn’t answer and he looked at her tense lips and knew he was on the right track. ‘Or did you always want to be a theatre nurse? Did Emily scrub in for her dolls?’ Still she didn’t answer. ‘I mean, it’s a pretty specific goal.’

‘I always wanted to be a nurse,’ Emily said.

‘Then surely—’

‘I didn’t want to let my parents mess another part of me up,’ Emily almost shouted. And she never shouted, she never rowed, yet Hugh seemed to take her to the edge in all areas. ‘Hugh, I know myself. I know what I want and what I don’t. Don’t try and change me.’

‘I’m not trying to change you, Emily—I’m trying to understand you.’

‘You don’t have to understand me.’ She didn’t want him close enough to understand her and so she asked her question again. ‘What time are you heading off?’

‘You...you want me gone, don’t you?’

‘You were supposed to be here for a few hours and it’s been two nights.’

Hugh was very unused to being dismissed and given what had taken place that morning he hadn’t expected to be so quickly shown the door.

‘What about this morning?’ Hugh said.

‘What about it?’ Emily frowned. ‘It doesn’t change anything.’

‘It did for me.’ Hugh just looked at the stranger who stood in Emily’s shoes, a complete different person from the one who had woken up in his arms. ‘Do you know why I didn’t try anything last night?’ Hugh said, and when Emily didn’t answer, he did. ‘Because I didn’t want you regretting it in the morning.’

‘I don’t regret it,’ Emily said, ‘but neither do I want to repeat it. We had sex, Hugh. As you said, being your fake girlfriend comes with the occasional perk.’

‘Why does it have to be fake?’

Emily couldn’t actually tell him that without breaking down so she gave a brief shrug, and it incensed him enough not to even attempt to argue.

Instead, he gathered his things.

‘I’ll let you get on with your holiday, then.’

The peace she craved had finally been delivered yet it wasn’t so pleasant any more.

She wanted to text him, to ask him to turn the car around and come back. To continue where they’d left off earlier that morning. And then what? A few weeks or months as partners?

The best few weeks and months of her adult life, no doubt.

But then what?

She didn’t want to have to get over him. She didn’t want to pay the price of love—the potential for pain.

She wasn’t scared of the sparks that she and Hugh ignited. She was more scared of the wildfire it would create and the charred remains when it inevitably burnt out.

He had been spot on about her career, though.

Moneywise it would be foolish at best to hand in her notice without securing another job first and he had been right about working for an agency.

A few phone calls to various agencies told Emily that she couldn’t be guaranteed full-time work in Theatre but there was a big demand for ICU nurses and, with her skills, she could also work in Emergency.

Hugh was right, she didn’t want to move out of her comfort zone.

* * *

She really didn’t have a choice and so just over a week later Emily found herself working in Emergency.

‘You’ll soon get used to it,’ Lydia, the charge nurse, said as she showed her around.

Emily didn’t want to get used to it. She remembered A nd E well from her training and even though it was a different hospital the pace of it hadn’t changed.

And the staff still gossiped like crazy.

‘So, how long have you been seeing Hugh?’ Gerry, one of the head nurses asked, as Emily wrote Gina’s name on the board.

‘A couple of months on and off,’ Emily said, and could feel the smirks behind her because they’d all heard the rumour that he’d got off with Gina.

Oh, they were like witches around the cauldron, waiting for the show to begin, and at the end of her first week in the dreaded accident and emergency, they got what they wanted.

Gina and Emily face to face.

‘Hannah Bailey.’ The paramedics rushed in an elderly lady who had collapsed with chest pain. The other staff were working on a cyclist who had been hit by a car and Emily knew that this patient was hers.

Hannah was gravely ill and Emily took the handover as she connected the chest and ECG leads and Duncan, a resident, came over and examined her.

‘Let’s get her something for her pain,’ Duncan said as he read the ECG, and ordered morphine, which Emily quickly drew up.

‘You’ll be much more comfortable soon,’ Emily said to the elderly lady, and for a little while she was.

‘My husband...’ Hannah said. ‘He’ll be worried.’

‘We’ll take care of that,’ Emily said. ‘I’ll go and speak to your daughter soon. The paramedics said she came in with you...’

Hannah nodded but even before the monitor started alarming, Duncan told Emily to call for the crash team and just as they started to arrive Hannah went into cardiac arrest.

‘What do we have?’ Gina came straight to the head of the bed and Emily didn’t even look up to acknowledge her as she was busy setting up for Gina to intubate her. As Duncan delivered cardiac massage he gave Gina his findings.

Gina and Emily had worked together for years and, more importantly, worked well together so there was little need for conversation. Emily opened up an endotracheal tube as Gina suctioned the airway and then handed it to her, and in less than a moment the tube was in.

Cardiology had arrived and were reading the ECG that Emily had run off before Hannah had gone into cardiac arrest, and Lydia had come in and taken over from Duncan and was giving chest compressions.

‘Did she have any family with her?’ Lydia asked.

‘A daughter,’ Emily said, relaying what the paramedics had told her. ‘She’s in the interview room.’

‘Could you go and speak to her, please, Emily? Let her know that things don’t look good at all.’

‘Sure,’ Emily said, though she would far rather be delivering chest compressions than going in to speak with relatives.

Emily introduced herself to the woman and found out her name was Laura and asked what had happened.

‘We were actually on our way here,’ Laura explained. ‘I’d gone to pick up Mum to take her to visit my dad—he’s a patient on ICU. Mum’s been so worried about him. We were just ten minutes away from the hospital when suddenly she said she had a pain in her chest. I didn’t know whether to just keep on driving or pull over but she started to be sick so I stopped and called an ambulance.’

‘You did the right thing,’ Emily said, and then took a breath. ‘Your mum’s condition deteriorated rapidly when she arrived,’ Emily explained. ‘She went into cardiac arrest. The doctors are with her now and she’s been intubated and they’re working on getting her heart started again.’

‘What am I going to tell my dad? They were just moving him to a general ward today, she’s been so worried about him.’ Laura started to cry. ‘This is going to kill Dad.’

‘What’s your father’s first name?’ Emily asked.

‘Ernest.’

‘Did he have surgery for bowel cancer?’ Emily asked, because she wanted to be sure she had the right patient in mind, and she was sure that she did when Laura nodded.

‘He didn’t even want to have the operation, he just did it for Mum.’

‘I remember your dad,’ Emily said. ‘I was working in Theatre when he had his operation. He was very keen to know when he’d get a cup of tea.’

Laura actually gave a small laugh. ‘That’s my dad.’ Then she started to cry again. ‘I don’t know how to tell him. I don’t know if he’s well enough to come down and see her but he’ll want to.’

‘Okay.’ Emily thought for a moment. ‘Let me go and see what’s happening with your mum and I’ll come back to you soon.’

Hannah’s heart was beating again but she was unconscious and the cardiologist was about to go in and speak to the daughter and explain that she didn’t have very long to live and that Gina was going to extubate her and let things take their natural course.

‘Her husband is a patient on ICU,’ Emily explained. ‘Apparently he’s being moved to a general ward today. Laura, the daughter, thinks he would want to see her.’

Lydia suggested that Emily telephone ICU and explain the situation, and Emily went and did just that.

Though she didn’t like to admit it, Emily was actually grateful for the time she’d spent on ICU because she did understand better how they would deal with this.

Emily spoke to Patrick, the head nurse in ICU. ‘Ernest will be shattered,’ Patrick said. ‘He’s already starting to fret that she’s not here. Hannah has been here every morning at nine.’ There was a small pause. ‘Hold on a moment, Emily, I’ll just let Hugh know what’s happening. He’s actually with him now.’

Emily waited for a few moments but instead of Patrick it was Hugh who came to the phone. Apart from a couple of texts and confirmation that they’d both attend Emily’s father’s wedding and his nephew’s christening, they had barely spoken since Cornwall but certainly the state of, or rather their lack of, relationship wasn’t the issue now. ‘Hi, Emily, it’s Hugh. Could I speak to Ernest’s daughter?’

‘Sure.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Laura.’

Emily took the phone to Laura and waited with her as Hugh spoke to her and then the phone was handed back to Emily.

‘I’m going to tell Ernest now what’s happening,’ Hugh said. ‘I’m assuming he’ll want to see her and if so I’ll bring him down, along with one of the ICU nurses to watch him. Is there enough space?’

‘Not in Resus but I’ll sort out a cubicle for them.’

‘Thanks.’

Hugh rang off and Emily took Laura in to see her mother and left her with Lydia as she went to sort out a cubicle and organise it as best she could.