Six Sexy Doctors Part 2. Joanna Neil

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СКАЧАТЬ stay as long as you and your daddy need me to, Ian,’ Meagan promised. ‘Now, try and get some sleep.

      During the next few days Meagan saw little of Cameron. When he wasn’t at work he was spending his spare time with Ian. Meagan knew that Rachel had returned, but didn’t see her either. Jessie had rung her one evening, suggesting they go for a bar supper, and had told her that Rachel was back and also spending time with her son.

      ‘Ian asks for you all the time,’ Jessie told Meagan. ‘He seems to have taken quite a shine to you.’

      Meagan hadn’t seen Ian since he’d been discharged from hospital. It was his mother he needed by his side. Not her.

      The day after Ian had left hospital Cameron had come to see her. She had just finished her evening meal, although she hadn’t had much of an appetite, and had been lighting the fire in the sitting room when a knock had come on the door.

      When she’d opened it to find Cameron standing there, her heart had thumped. He’d looked divine in a crisp white shirt open at the neck and pale chinos.

      ‘Hi, there,’ she said softly, not even attempting to hide the pleasure she felt at seeing him.

      ‘Can I come in?’ he asked.

      As she moved aside to let him come in she caught a whiff of his aftershave that sent her pulse racing with the memories of the last time she had been close to him.

      ‘I can’t stay long,’ he said. ‘They’re expecting me back at the house.’ Meagan felt a stab of disappointment. She couldn’t help it, but she wanted more than a few minutes alone with him. Still, even a short time together was better than nothing.

      But as he refused her offer of a seat and coffee, she could see that something was wrong. He looked uncomfortable, almost as if being with her was the last place he wanted to be.

      ‘Is everything all right?’ she asked.

      ‘I need to speak to you.’

      ‘Well, then,’ she said, trying to ignore the tendrils of dread that were beginning to wrap themselves around her heart. ‘Don’t you think you’d better sit down?’

      He sat in her chair near the fire, his large frame almost dwarfing the sitting room. He clasped his hands together and rested them on his knees.

      ‘Rachel and I have decided to marry again,’ he blurted suddenly.

      Meagan felt her blood run cold.

      ‘Oh?’ was all she could manage.

      ‘She’s been offered a modelling contract in New York. It’s very lucrative and is likely to lead to a higher profile in the modelling world. It’s her big break.’ Cameron’s mouth twisted.

      ‘She is going to take it, but wants Ian to go too. And me. That is… Oh, hell.’ He pulled a hand through his hair.

      It needs a trim, Meagan thought incongruously.

      ‘She wants us to be a family again.’

      ‘And what do you want?’ Meagan asked through frozen lips.

      ‘I want to be with my son. I want my son to have two loving parents who are with him all the time. Apart from that, it doesn’t matter what else I want.’ He stood up and started pacing around the room. It only took a couple of strides before he was forced to turn around and go the other way.

      ‘And us, Cameron? What about us?’

      ‘There can be no us,’ he said flatly.

      ‘I see,’ Meagan said, although she didn’t—not really.

      ‘For God’s sake, Meagan. I need you to understand. I don’t love Rachel, not the way I—’ He broke off. ‘Not the way she wants. But seeing my son ill, needing his mother and her not being there, was more than I could bear. I don’t think adults have the right to put their own needs above those of their child.’

      ‘And what about Rachel? Isn’t that what she’s doing?’

      ‘Rachel will always do what she wants. I know that. But at the moment she holds the cards. If she wants to go, I can’t stop her. And how could I deprive my child of his mother? If he hardly sees her now, he would see even less of her when she is over there. Anyway, it’s not an option. She insists that she is taking Ian and that there is not a court in the world that would stop her.’

      ‘So you have made up your mind?’

      ‘Yes,’ he said heavily. ‘We are going to announce it at the ball. I thought it only fair to warn you in advance.’

      ‘That was thoughtful of you.’ Meagan didn’t even try to keep the sarcasm from her voice. Now she was beginning to feel angry. What a fool she had been to believe that he had feelings for her. Maybe he had until she had told him she couldn’t have children. He probably would have been content to have an affair with her, just as long as it didn’t get in the way of what he wanted. Well, she had stood in the path of a man once. She wasn’t about to do it again.

      ‘Is that all?’ she said, standing and crossing to the door. All she wanted was for him to leave. She needed time on her own to absorb the news and she was damned if she was going to let him see how much he had hurt her.

      ‘Meagan, I…’ He stood in front of her and, reaching out, traced her cheekbone with a finger. ‘I never meant to hurt you. God knows, you have been hurt enough.’

      Meagan smiled bleakly. ‘Don’t worry, Cameron. I’m a lot tougher than you think. And anyway we both knew it wasn’t serious. People have sex these days all the time without it having to mean anything. So you can relax—I have no intention of trying to stop you. Now, don’t you think you had better be going?’

      The day of the ball looked as if it was going to be fine. The last thing Meagan felt like doing was going. But she had to. Colin and Peggy were returning from Australia today and would be going to the ball. They’d expect to see her there. Everyone would expect to see her there. And, anyway, she thought, squaring her shoulders, she wasn’t going to give Rachel the pleasure of knowing how humiliated she felt.

      The last couple of weeks had been awful. Seeing Cameron every day, knowing that soon he’d be married to Rachel once more, knowing that very shortly he’d be out of her life for good, was almost unbearable. Pretending that everything was OK, keeping her manner light in front of the staff, had been more difficult than she had expected. She couldn’t help it, but every time she saw him, even caught a glimpse of him, her heart somersaulted.

      As she dipped her spoon into the lightly boiled egg she had made for breakfast, she was suddenly overcome by a wave of nausea. She only just made it to the bathroom on time. She sat on the bathroom floor, waiting for the nausea to settle. I wonder what caused that? she thought. Maybe she would have a genuine reason not for not going to the ball. But after a few minutes she felt fine. She was brushing her teeth when she heard Jessie’s cheery voice call out.

      ‘Hello, hello. Is there a doctor in the house? A corny line, I know, but I always wanted to say that.’ She took one look at Meagan and then was concerned.

      ‘Hey, I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you look dreadful.’

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