Washed Away (9 page)

It felt familiar.

She couldn’t explain it, but somehow, the neatly organized shelves, the shining silver carts and waiting machines soothed her.

“You’re well set up here.”

“I need to be,” Noah said, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully as he watched her slowly work the room. “I’m the only veterinarian for miles. I have to be able to do everything from claw clipping to major surgery. There’s an operating room through there.” He gestured to a black swing door. “The studio apartment is in the room behind.”

“Why do you need one?”

“In case there’s a really sick animal, it’s easier to just crash here.” He registered her tiny frown. “I’m not talking about guinea pigs with colds, Cheryl. Some of the animals I treat are worth tens of thousands of dollars. For the most part I visit them on the farm or ranch, but every now and then we do some pretty big procedures here. Now,” he said, giving her a smile, “I’ll show you the Penthouse Suite.”

“This place is huge!” Cheryl exclaimed as he pushed open the doors and led her into a massive concrete enclosure that she could liken only to some sort of shed cum stable with massive roller doors. It was empty now, except for an enclosure in the corner surrounded with lamps.

“Heat lamps,” Noah explained, heading over. “Piglets can lose heat rapidly.”

Cheryl held back and with good reason. The grunts coming from the enclosure were not exactly friendly.

“Oh, good girl!” Noah crooned.

From the unveiled tenderness in his voice, Cheryl knew he wasn’t talking to her.

“She’s had them?” Cheryl asked. “Without any help?”

“She’s a pig.” Noah grinned. “And pigs don’t know how to use a call button.”

“Still…”

“She isn’t finished yet.” Noah gestured her over. “Come and watch.”

Curious despite herself, Cheryl inched forward, staring in something akin to horror at the massive black creature lying panting on the floor.

“Isn’t she gorgeous?”

“I can think of a few other words to describe her,” Cheryl mumbled. “Are you this close to all your patients?”

“She’s not a patient, she’s a houseguest,” Noah objected. “Aren’t you, Mabel.”

But as Cheryl edged closer and peered down into the pen, she felt herself melt. Rows of little tails wagged as the piglets suckled, giving out tiny yelps of frustration when they lost a teat then found it again. “They’re gorgeous!” Cheryl breathed. “Just exquisite.”

“But they grow into that!” Noah said dryly, pointing to Mabel. “And that’s what people conveniently forget when they decide they want a cute piglet for a pet. Mabel was dumped on me a few weeks ago, and now
I’m going to be stuck finding a home for all her little piglets.”

“You’re not going to have them slaughtered, are you?”

“Not with a surname like Arkin.” Noah grinned, but he’d lost his audience now.

“Oh, my God, there’s another one coming.”

“Watch!” Noah said quietly. “They hit the ground running, these little guys. No sooner are they out than they’re looking for food. See how the firstborns take the front teats and the later ones the rear. They’ll use the same teat to suckle on….”

“Really?” She was enthralled now, totally oblivious for a blissful moment to the impending storm, but Noah soon dragged her back to that reality.

“Come on, we’d better go in.”

“We can’t just leave her,” Cheryl protested. “There might be more to come.”

“There
are
more to come,” Noah corrected, “but she’s doing fine on her own. It’s the first one that normally causes the problem.”

“What sort of problem?” Cheryl asked.

“They get stuck.”

“And what do you do to…” Pulling a pained face, Cheryl shook her head. “I don’t think I want you to answer that one. Do you have an assistant, a nurse?” she asked as they headed back into the clinic.

Noah nodded as he set to work, dishing out meds and filling up water bowls as Cheryl wandered around the room “Yeah,” he said, “but not for much longer. She just gave me her notice. Her name’s Carly. She
comes in three mornings a week for planned surgery and I call on her for emergencies. She’s great, but unfortunately she doesn’t run to night shifts, hence the apartment.”

“So she’s leaving?”

“Yep! She gets married next month, and she just told me that she’s going to be moving to Corpus Christi. It’ll be hard without her.”

“You’ll get someone else,” Cheryl responded without really thinking.

“Yeah. I’ve got to start looking, once we get through this crisis.”

“I recognize this, Noah.” Cheryl gestured around the room at the lights over the examining table, the monitors, the ventilator, the oxygen tanks and the drug cart. “It all looks familiar.”

“You recognized the sutures, too,” Noah pointed out, “You
must
have some sort of medical background. Maybe you are a veterinary nurse after all.” He smiled. “Maybe you really are the answer to all my prayers.”

“So the little lady couldn’t possibly be a veterinarian?” she teased, but Noah just smiled.

“Even better.”

He pulled back then, and Cheryl felt it. Pulled back not physically but mentally, flipped the conversation back to casual.

“There’s no doubt I’ll be able to use a skilled pair of hands for a few days once this storm passes.”

And even though he was right to keep things casual, Cheryl felt a hollow sadness as she looked away.

“Maybe I’ve got Munchausen’s syndrome,” she sighed. “Maybe I’m just a raving hypochondriac drifting from town to town.”

“Cheryl, don’t.” Noah’s voice was firm. “The fact you’ve even heard of Munchausen’s syndrome proves you probably do have a medical background. It’s not exactly a term on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Do you know what it actually means?”

She nodded slowly. “People who make up symptoms, doctor-shop for drugs and treatments, even operations, when there’s nothing really wrong with them.”

“See.” Noah nodded, but Cheryl remained unconvinced.

“How would you know that without some sort of medical background?”

“I guess.” Cheryl thought for a moment. “I think you’ve just lost your vet, then.”

“Not necessarily!” A delicious, lazy smile dusted his lips. “Your skills may still come in handy. Have you heard of Munchausen’s by proxy?”

“Where people make up stories that their children are sick, to get attention?” Cheryl nodded. “I don’t think it’s anything to smile about.”

“It isn’t,” Noah agreed. “But can you believe there’s such a thing as Munchausen’s by proxy for pets!” He looked at her disbelieving expression and laughed. “I’m serious. There’s been quite a bit of research done on it recently. People vet-shopping, making up symptoms….”

“No way!” Cheryl grinned back, amazed.

“It’s true. Stick around long enough and I’ll show you some research on it.” His voice petered out then. His toe had inched over the line he’d drawn in the sand and he was pulling it back. When he finally spoke again, he’d adopted a more formal tone. “It will all come back soon. I’m betting you’re a warm, wonderful, loving woman who’s probably got a whole family waiting for her, a score of people who love her.”

Noah was trying to comfort her, but the thought of another man holding her, loving her, had his stomach churning.

“So what am I doing here, then?” Her eyes darkened in terror, fear creeping into that proud, strong voice. “Why am I in a town where no one knows me?”

It would have been easier to not breathe than to stop himself from pulling her into his arms, to hold her for just one more moment, to bury his face in that long dark hair and just hold her awhile.

“It will be okay, Cheryl. Whatever, whoever you are, it will all be okay.”

If only he could believe his own words, he thought. It hurt to let her go, physically hurt to finally, gently push her away.

Noah walked around, making one final check on his animals, talking in low, reassuring tones, unclipping the cages and offering a soothing hand to those who were most distressed. But as Cheryl wandered around her eyes were drawn to two terrified ones. Unlike the other animals, who were making their fear loudly known, this poor creature was shivering in a
large cage on the floor, her whole body trembling with terror.

“Georgina.” In an instant, Cheryl was down on the floor, fiddling with the latch.

“Watch out,” Noah warned. “She’s so scared she’s likely to take a bite out of you.”

“You wouldn’t do that, would you, Georgina,” Cheryl said comfortingly, ignoring his advice. Once the door opened, she slipped her hand in and gently stroked the frightened animal. “You’re a real lady, Noah told me, and ladies don’t bite.”

Noah watched as she soothed the animal, one hand instinctively working the head, while the other gently stroked the length of Georgina’s quivering body. He had known he was right to believe in her. Cheryl couldn’t hurt a fly, let alone an innocent animal.

“Let’s go and get something to eat,” he said.

Cheryl sat back on her heels as Noah pushed Georgina back from the door and closed the cage.

“She’s terrified, Noah.”

“They all are,” Noah said, “and we’re probably making things worse by disturbing them. That’s why we should head into the apartment. They sense our nervousness, too. They’re safe, they’re warm and they’ve got food, music and one another.”

Cheryl nodded and let him help her to her feet, but her eyes lingered on the shivering Georgina. “Shouldn’t she be with us?” she asked, “I mean, given that she thinks she’s a human and everything.”

He hadn’t wanted her to say that. Life would be so
much less complicated if she had just stood up and flicked that delicious hair, walked toward the door without glancing back.

Why did she have to be the one?

And she
was
the one; Noah just knew it.

He hadn’t believed it till now. Hadn’t believed there was one person out in that big wide world who quite simply could walk into your life and turn it around, who could make you feel whole with one lazy smile, one gentle touch, but he believed it now.

But he couldn’t let her in, couldn’t let her sneak into his heart only to have her leave. He’d had a glimpse of paradise. He’d held her in his arms, kissed her, adored her for a moment, but if he lingered any longer, Noah knew his heart would be lost to her forever.

“What about your obsessive-compulsive disorder?” Noah said, attempting a grin, trying to keep his voice nonchalant.

“I guess I could make a concession.” Those velvet eyes met his. “We can’t leave her here, Noah. She’ll have a coronary. You said she was heading for another one.”

“There’s a hurricane due to make landfall,” Noah said firmly, taking charge, slamming mental doors shut just as fast as he could. “Now’s not the time to bend the rules.”

And they both knew he wasn’t talking about just the animals.

“Y
UM
.”
Cheryl didn’t hesitate when Noah unscrewed the thermos and offered her some more soup. “That’s the best chicken soup I’ve ever tasted.”

“Can’t beat homemade,” Noah agreed. “This was down payment for a lumpectomy on a goat.”

“Double yum.” Cheryl grimaced. “Do a lot of your clients pay you in food?”

“Thankfully.” Noah nodded. “There aren’t many fast-food outlets in Turning Point. If it weren’t for the endless casseroles, eggs and soups, I’d be living on instant noodles.”

They were making small talk and Cheryl knew it. Both were trying to ignore the fact that practically the only thing in the room, apart from a computer, a kettle, a miniature horse that had finally been admitted and a toaster, was the vast double bed they were sitting on, and they had the longest night of their lives to get through. A thick skylight, one of several in the clinic, was above the bed, and though Noah had assured her it was built to withstand even the fiercest of storms, Cheryl wasn’t entirely convinced, and glanced up anxiously every now and then. The portable radio had long since given up
playing soothing music between news bulletins and weather reports. Instead, the airwaves were filled with urgent reports of flooding, buildings collapsing, trees blocking roads…lives on the line.

“We’re safe here, Cheryl,” Noah said for what must have been the hundredth time. “It was built to withstand—”

“I know,” Cheryl interrupted. “And I know we’re probably in the safest place in Turning Point, but tell me, just how many hurricanes have you sat out in here, Noah?”

There wasn’t a shred of reassurance in his lack of response.

“Why couldn’t you just have lied and said loads?” Cheryl moaned. “Why the hell did you and Mitch have to go and be proven right?” Her startled eyes met his. “Mitch! Mitch was worried that the storm was heading this way, that the predictions were wrong.”

“I told you that,” Noah reminded her gently.

She ran a tongue over lips that were suddenly dry, trying to catch the thought that had been in her mind, but it was like trying to recall a dream. It stayed tantalizingly out of reach.

“But
I
can remember it. I can remember Mitch saying…”

“Cheryl,” Noah broke in gently, “you’re confusing things. When you first came to, I told you that Mitch and I were feeling uneasy about the storm.”

“This is
my
memory, Noah.” She was almost shouting, imploring him to be quiet as she struggled for recall. “He was worried…” She stared up at Noah,
detecting sympathy in his expression. “He was worried about his daughter.”

“Jolene.” Noah’s hands were on her arms now, willing her to go on. “His daughter’s name is Jolene.”

“I don’t know—I don’t know her name. I just know that Mitch was worried because he’d sent her out there.”

“We should call…” Noah didn’t finish the sentence, the futility of his words hitting home. The lines were down, and even if the cell phone towers were working, he had lost his when he’d dived in to save her. And he wanted to know, needed to know almost as much as Cheryl who she was, where she was from, the people that were in her life. Only then could he know if there was room for him. “You
have
to be one of the medical staff from California, Cheryl.”

His excitement was infectious and Cheryl nodded back, hoping he was right. “Tell me everything, Noah. Tell me everything you know.”

“I have.”

“Everything, Noah, the color of my Jeep. You said I was buying chocolate….”

“Lots of chocolate.” Noah smiled at the memory. “And don’t forget the postcards!”

“What was I like? What did you think of me?” His hands were still on her, holding her, the contact of his skin on her bare upper arms a scorching reminder of what had taken place back in the house. The same thought must have registered with Noah, because suddenly he was letting go, easing back a bit before finally facing her.

“You were…” Noah swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, not sure how to play things here. How could he tell her the truth? That the second he saw her he was enthralled. That in the hours that followed, till he dived in that river and saw that it was her trapped in the van, she had filled his mind, impinged on his every thought. “You stood apart,” he said carefully. “There was a lineup and you were in front of me. Bill had one basket in the place, and you’d taken it and filled it with chocolate. He offered for me to go first. He normally does for his regulars if they’re just buying gas and the customer in front has a lot—”

“And you weren’t.”

Noah shook his head. “I jumped the line and you snapped.”

“So what did you do?”

“Snapped back,” Noah admitted, “and then I paid. Just as you were being served, I took a call from a client, Jack. His horse had broken its leg….” She was frowning now, sheer frustration etched on every feature as she tried to remember. “That’s about it, Cheryl.”

“What about my Jeep?”

“I didn’t really see it at the station. I only saw you running to it….”

“So what color was it?” Cheryl asked impatiently. “Come on, Noah. I’m the one who’s supposed to have amnesia here. What color was the Jeep? Surely you can remember that much.”

“No,” he said helplessly. “I was looking at you at the time.”

“At me? Why? What was I doing? Was there someone else there? Was I—?”

“Cheryl,” Noah broke in, and she registered his embarrassment. “I was just looking.” He gave a tiny helpless shrug. “Doing what guys do the world over when a good-looking woman runs past, only I’m the only idiot who ends up having to explain himself.”

“Oh.” Embarrassed, but pleased, she started to laugh.

“I didn’t see it till you were on the bridge,” Noah continued gruffly. “It was getting dark by then. It was blue…gray, maybe.” He gave a shrug. “I couldn’t really see. The rain was too heavy, and the ground was really muddy. I just knew someone was in trouble. The bridge started to buckle. I was shouting for you to go back.” He was waiting, watching, hoping for something to spark, for something in those delicious eyes to register, but instead she stared blankly back. “That’s it, Cheryl, that’s all I can tell you for now. Once the lines are back up, once the roads are cleared, we’ll contact Mitch. Either you’re one of his volunteers from California, or at the very least he should remember talking to you. Who knows, maybe by then you’ll remember for yourself. It doesn’t all have to happen tonight.”

But it did.

Cheryl knew that.

Suddenly it was imperative that she remember, imperative that she knew about her past. She needed to find out once and for all if there was someone significant in her life, because sitting so close to Noah, tension sizzling in the air like a fizzing firecracker, Cheryl simply
couldn’t bear not to hold him, couldn’t for a second longer deny the sensations he caused in her. But someone bigger than them both had other plans right now. All thoughts of romance flew out of her mind as the room suddenly went quiet, the storm stilling for an ominous moment. Hair rose on the back of her neck as Noah stood up and tossed their mugs into the sink.

“I’m going to turn the generator off,” he said.

“Why?” she asked, bemused, wanting to follow but too terrified to move. “You never said anything about that before….”

“Because I didn’t know then how close the hurricane was going to come. This is going to be bad, Cheryl.” Noah’s face was quilted with tension. The opening door let in the frenzied yelps of the animals, the rattle of cages as they spun in panic, and not even the absence of windows muffled the screeching sound of the wind and popping of tiles as the storm ripped them from the roof. “This is looking worse than even Mitch and I imagined.” Noah had to raise his voice just to be heard. “We don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here. We don’t know what we’re going to face tomorrow.”

And even though they’d had ample warning, even though Noah had told her to expect it, Cheryl still jumped when the warning siren played over the radio and the broadcaster’s voice insisted everyone move to safety and remain calm.

She sat shivering on the bed, staring at Georgina’s petrified eyes. The horse’s tiny, fat body was trembling. The poor horse was missing her mistress, but her owner
had figured somehow this would be for the best. “It’s okay, Georgina,” Cheryl called over to her. “It’ll pass soon. It’s going to be okay.”

If only she could believe her own words. Nothing could have prepared Cheryl for the full impact of being so close to a hurricane. The powerful wind that had been present for hours reached a crescendo now, infiltrating walls, dimming lightbulbs, rattling cups in the sink. Noah plunged the clinic into darkness and she couldn’t pretend it was okay anymore. A strangled moan of terror escaped her as the world seemed to erupt around them.

“It’s making landfall.” Noah was back, frantically turning the dials on his portable radio in the darkness. “I can’t get a signal.”

He gave up trying and joined her on the bed, where she sat cross-legged. Reaching out to her in the darkness, he took her hand, and Cheryl clung to it, wishing she could say something brave, wishing that his hand was enough.

“It will be okay, Cheryl,” he shouted in the darkness, and she nodded back, holding her breath, biting on her lip to stop tears of sheer terror. “The clinic was built to take this.”

He almost sounded convincing, had her partially reassured—until his shout was drowned by an earsplitting noise so fierce Cheryl truly believed the walls were caving in. From his actions it seemed Noah was thinking along the same lines. Pushing her down on the bed, he lay over her as if he believed the roof would fall in, and
she held on to him for dear life as, for the second time in a few hours, she faced her own mortality head-on.

“It’s okay.”

It was all she could hear, over and over. His breath was hot as he spoke into her ear, their bodies so close she could feel his heart hammering in his chest, feel the scratch of his jaw against her cheek, and she gave in then, just closed her eyes and held on, praying for it all to be over.

“It’s okay,” he said again after the longest time.

The difference was that she actually believed him, and the tension in their bodies should have been seeping out a notch as they realized they had made it, that the building was still standing, that the storm was actually abating. But as he held her, as they lay wrapped in each other’s arms, the tension merely heightened. His male scent filled her nostrils, and every fiber of her body was on high alert, every pore saturated with the thrum of sexual awareness, which had been growing in intensity since they first met, as overwhelming and as fierce as the storm they had just survived, and possibly just as dangerous.

“Cheryl?” His voice was thick with lust, and the pressure of his arousal confirmed the intensity of his desire, stirring her own response ever further.

His weight was deliciously heavy on top of her, a body fine-tuned by the land. Muscles that could never be manufactured in a gym rippled beneath her fingers, and she would have lied just to save herself if it meant she could have him, would have said anything to prolong this moment.

“There’s no one else, there can’t be….” Cheryl stared back at him. “Not with how you make me feel.”

She felt him tense, and knew that her assurance wasn’t enough. But these were not ordinary circumstances. Tonight the world was being turned upside down, and them along with it. Smoldering passion ignited as his lips crushed hers; he was almost savage in his desire. His tongue, cool yet hard, tasted her, and his hands sought the softness of her skin. As if by unspoken command, they easily dispensed of their clothing. Noah groaned as he cupped her breasts in his hands, and his lips blazed a trail down her shoulders. Cheryl’s breath caught in her throat as his mouth closed around a swollen nipple, suckling her flesh until she arched into him with a need that was primitive. Urgency overrode tenderness, and when his muscular legs gripped her thighs, she tilted her hips up until his arousal grazed her heated flesh, causing tiny shocks to radiate from this epicenter.

The foreplay had started hours ago, and now at last she could touch him, feel him, hold him. His heated length hardened beneath the rhythmic stroking of her fingers, he was as close as she was. Yet teasingly she prolonged the delicious torture, gaining as much pleasure from giving as receiving. His moan of approval told her she was doing it right, and ever so slowly she guided him between her thighs. She closed her eyes and begged him to enter, but a heady rush of excitement cascaded through her as he surprised her. He slid down her, his hands gliding over her sweat-sheened skin, his lips trail
ing across her abdomen and lower still. His tongue searched her most intimate place, and her thighs trembled as he took control, teased her, caressed her. Suddenly everything was shifting, moving out of her control.

The strength of her orgasm caught her unaware, and she whimpered his name, begged him to stop, but her hands delivered a different message. She thrust her fingers in his hair as a tremor shuddered through her. Before it had completely subsided, he slid inside her, and though she should have been exhausted, she felt revitalized now. She gripped his loins with her thighs and drew him in deeper, elation building as she shuddered toward another climax. He swelled within her, and she could hear him calling her name, crying out to her in the darkness. She called for him, too, holding on tight to the one thing that was good and true and surely right.

The man who held her in his arms.

The man who had rescued her all over again.

“T
URNING
P
OINT
.” Half asleep, drunk on the heady cocktail of hormones their lovemaking had unleashed, she mumbled the words. As she lay wrapped in his embrace, listening as the storm slowly blew itself into oblivion, Cheryl found it easy to feel secure, easy to believe that the world was following its natural course and there was nothing she or anyone could do other than go with the flow, get on board the amazing ride that life offered and lie back and enjoy.

“Did you remember something?”