Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom's Redemption. Fiona Lowe

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СКАЧАТЬ or the extension of a grimace. ‘I’ve known you were here for the past few minutes.’

      She blinked. ‘How? It was pitch-black until a moment ago.’

      His broad shoulders rose slightly and his empty hand flexed by his side. ‘I heard the ping of the lift.’

      ‘But that’s in the other corridor and I might have gone in the opposite direction.’

      ‘True, but you didn’t. I could also smell you.’

      Her mouth fell open at the matter-of-fact words and she couldn’t stop herself from raising one shoulder as she took a quick sniff of her armpit before looking back at him. His gaze hadn’t shifted and offence poured through her. ‘It’s been a long night saving lives so sue me if I don’t smell squeaky clean and fresh.’

      ‘I didn’t say it was offensive.’

      Something about the way the deep timbre of his voice caressed the words should have reassured her and made her smile, but the fact he was still staring at her was utterly disconcerting. He hadn’t made any move towards her, for which she was grateful, even though she could see a hospital ID lanyard hanging out of his pocket. With his black clothes, black hair, bladed cheekbones, a slightly crooked nose and a delicious cleft in his stubble-covered chin, he cut a striking image against the white of the walls. Striking and slightly unnerving. He wasn’t a fatherly figure like Gerry the maintenance man in his overalls, neither did he have the easygoing manner of Theo. Neither of those men ever put her on edge.

      Even so, despite her thread of anxiety, she would have had to be blind not to recognise he was handsome in a rugged, rough-edged kind of a way, and that was part of her unease. She had the feeling that his clothes were just a veneer of gentrification. Remove them and a raw energy would be unleashed that would sweep up everything in its path.

      An unbidden image of him naked exploded in her mind, stirring a prickle of sensation deep down inside her. It wasn’t fear and that scared her even more.

      ‘Scent aside …’ he tilted his head ‘… which, by the way, I believe is Jenson’s Floral Fantasy.’

      How did he know that? She frantically glanced around, looking for a camera or any sign that this was some sort of a set-up, a joke being played on her because she was a new staff member, but she couldn’t see anything. She turned back to him and his tight expression suddenly faded, replaced by a smile that crawled across his face, streaking up through jet stubble and crinkling the edges of his eyes. It lit up his aura of darkness and she wondered why she’d ever been scared of him.

      His rich laugh had a bitter edge. ‘I would need to be deaf not to hear the argument you were having with your feet.’

      He knows you were scared.

      Stung into speech, she tried for her most cutting tone—the one she knew put over-confident medical students in their place. ‘I was not arguing with my feet.’

      ‘Is that so? What else would you call that stop-start shuffle you were doing?’

      ‘It was dark and I couldn’t see.’

      ‘Tell me about it.’

      The harshness of his words crashed over her and still he kept staring. It was as if he could see not only her fear of the dark but so many other things that she kept hidden. His uncanny detective skills left her feeling vulnerable and exposed. She hated that and it harnessed her anger. ‘Will you stop staring at me?’

      He flinched and turned forty-five degrees. ‘I apologise.’

      The tension in his body was so taut she could have bounced a ball off it and his broad shoulders seemed to slice into the surrounding air. As ridiculous as it seemed, she got the impression she’d just insulted him. ‘I’m sorry, that was rude. It’s just I’m not used to meeting anyone down here at this time of the day and, as I said before, I got a fright.’

      He didn’t look at her. ‘Please be assured I have no plans to rape, assault or hurt you in any way.’

      The harsh edge of his voice did little to reassure her. She’d never met anyone who spoke so directly and without using the cover of social norms. ‘I guess I’ll take that in the spirit it’s intended, then.’

      ‘You do that.’ A silence expanded between them and was only broken by his long sigh. ‘The only reason I’m in this corridor is because it’s the mirror image of every other corridor in this wing of The Harbour. If you were on level one, what would be on your left?’

      She shook her head as if that might change his question. ‘Is this some sort of test?’

      ‘Something like that.’

      His muttered reply didn’t ease her confusion. ‘Um, we’re underneath the theatre suite.’

      ‘We’re standing directly under theatre one.’ He almost spat the words at her.

      She’d had enough. ‘Look, Mr um …?’

      ‘Jordan.’

      ‘Okay, Jordan, I’ve been at The Harbour for a month, but you know this, right? You’re in on some crazy initiation joke at my expense.’

      He turned back to face her, his cheeks suddenly sharper. ‘Believe me, none of this is a joke, Ms …?’

      This was ridiculous. Everything about this encounter held an edge of craziness, including her reaction to him, which lurched from annoyance at his take-no-prisoners attitude to mini-zips of unwanted attraction. She closed the gap between them and extended her hand in her best professional manner. ‘Grey. Hayley Grey. Surgical registrar.’

      Sea-green eyes—the electric colour of the clear waters that surrounded a coral cay—bored into her, making her heart hiccough, but his hand didn’t rise to meet hers. She dropped her gaze to his right hand and now she was closer she could see it gripped what looked like black sticks. With a jolt and a tiny but audible gasp, she realised it was an articulated cane.

      Her cheeks burned hot. Oh, God, she’d just accused a blind man of staring at her.

      Before she could speak, the doors to the car park opened and a young man wearing elastic-sided boots, faded jeans and a hoodie crossed the threshold and stood just inside the doors.

      Jordan immediately turned toward the sound of cowboy heels on lino. ‘Jared?’

      ‘Yeah.’ The young man grinned and shot Hayley an appreciative look that started at her head and lingered on her breasts.

      Jordan turned back and this time his blind stare hit her shoulder. ‘Now you have light, can I assume you’re able to find your way to the car park alone?’

      His tone managed to combine a minute hint of concern with a dollop of superciliousness and it undid any good intentions she had of apologising for her massive faux pas. Her chin shot up. ‘I wouldn’t dream of holding you up.’

      ‘Goodbye, then, Hayley Grey.’ He flicked out his cane, clicked his tongue and started walking.

      She watched his retreating back and slow and deliberate stride as the clicks echoed back to him, telling him where the walls were.

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