Rescued by Dr. Rafe (10 page)

‘Yes, I agree. Would you like me to drive?'

‘The steering's pretty heavy...' Rafe hesitated and then smiled, handing over his car keys. ‘Why don't you drive? I'll sit in the back seat and keep an eye on him.'

Good call. If she could handle an ambulance, she could handle Rafe's SUV. ‘Don't worry. I'll be gentle with your car.'

‘You'd better be.'

* * *

The A and E department of the hospital was always busy, but tonight it was
busy.
The doctor in charge recognised Rafe, though, and after an exchanged greeting waved them through to an empty cubicle. It seemed that they were going to be keeping their patient for a little while longer.

Mimi sat Annaliese down in a chair in the corner and helped Rafe get Leo out of his soaking clothes. There was only a gown to dress him in, but Mimi found a couple of blankets and tucked them around him on the bed.

Rafe's quick nod told her that he could continue with the examination on his own and she turned her attention to Annaliese, who was crying quietly now.

‘Let's get your coat off. You must be cold.'

Annaliese nodded gratefully, allowing Mimi to help her off with her coat and overtrousers. She was moving stiffly, her arms shaking.

‘Are you hurt?' Mimi had already asked the question out on the road and Annaliese had said she was fine, but she didn't look all that good now.

‘No. I am okay.' Annaliese was holding her arm.

‘May I see your arm?' Annaliese nodded and rolled her sleeve up to expose a livid red friction burn. ‘That's from the airbag?'

‘Yes. I think so.' Now that they had reached the safety of the hospital, Annaliese seemed about to break down. Mimi had seen that many times before. People's courage brought them through to the point where they knew that they and their loved ones were safe and then took a back seat, allowing them to cry.

‘The doctor's examining Leo now.' She leaned towards Annaliese confidingly. ‘He's the best.'

‘I heard that...' Rafe murmured the words without taking his attention from what he was doing.

‘So did I. Thank you.' Annaliese smiled and seemed to relax a little.

Mimi took off her own jacket and dropped it on the floor in the corner. She'd known that the tension between her and Rafe was unsettling for their patients and now it seemed that the warmth was making itself felt too.

She set about cleaning Annaliese's wound. ‘When I first spoke to you, in German...'

‘Ah. Yes.' A sense of fun suddenly showed in Annaliese's face.

‘What did I say? You looked a bit puzzled.'

‘You told me that you were turning into an ambulance.' Annaliese smiled. ‘But I understood. You made a mistake that is common with English speakers.'

‘What did I say afterwards?'

‘You said that you needed a doctor.'

Mimi pulled an embarrassed face and heard Rafe chuckle quietly. ‘At least you were somewhere in the ballpark.'

‘
Ja...
Yes, it is good to try.' Annaliese turned to her husband, speaking quickly to him in German, and he nodded, managing a smile.

‘I don't suppose you could write the correct wording down for me, could you? I meet a lot of different people in the course of my job and it might come in handy in the future.'

‘Yes, of course. I have paper...' Annaliese reached for her handbag eagerly, and Mimi stopped her.

‘We'll get your arm sorted out first. Then you can give me some lessons.'

* * *

Annaliese was wrapped in a blanket, sitting by the side of her husband's bed, sipping a hot drink. Mimi had ascertained that her clothes were wet only around the shoulders and fetched a spare T-shirt from her own locker, along with a blanket and a drink. Annaliese received the comb that Mimi handed her with a smile. It was the little things that did the most to reassure people sometimes. Taking the time to comb your hair was a step back into normality.

Rafe had concentrated on Leo. Now that he was warm and dry, and his distress levels were reduced, it became clear that his English was good enough for them to communicate directly, without needing a translator. His injuries were relatively minor but needed treatment and care—a broken wrist, shock and slight concussion, along with rapidly forming bruises on his face and chest.

Rafe beckoned to Mimi and she followed him out of the cubicle. ‘I'm going to see if I can find a bed for him. I wouldn't normally admit him, but he needs care and rest. I assume they have nowhere to go?'

‘No. Annaliese said that they left their hotel in Exeter to drive to one here, not realising that it was flooded. Apparently the hotel didn't think to phone people and let them know, just expected everyone not to come.'

‘Great. Masterpiece of forward thinking.'

‘Yeah. They were looking for other accommodation when their car went off the road.'

‘So what are we going to do with her?' Rafe knew that the correct procedure was to alert hospital services and they would find somewhere for Annaliese but, from the snatches of conversation he'd heard between the two women, maybe Mimi had other ideas.

‘I've called Charlie. With Jan and Matthew there, he can only offer her the sofa bed, but I reckon it's better than a mattress on the floor in a community centre somewhere. She'll never get a hotel tonight, and Charlie will be around tomorrow to get her to the hospital.'

‘She's okay with that?'

‘Yeah. Fine. Charlie's got room for Leo as well, if you want to release him.'

‘I'd prefer he stays here, if they have a bed for him.'

She nodded, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a bunch of keys. Slipping a familiar one off the ring, she handed it to him. ‘Here. I'll go on ahead with Annaliese and you can follow when you're finished.'

‘Are you sure?' Rafe had resolved not to go back to Mimi's cottage again but, now that he had the key in his hand, temptation made him waver.

She hesitated, her cheeks flushing red. ‘I'd like to talk to you.'

He couldn't say no now. Rafe nodded, pocketing the key.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

C
HARLIE
HAD
BEEN
ready with hot soup for Annaliese. Janet had fussed over her, going out of her way to make her welcome, and Mimi had left the four of them in the sitting room around a roaring fire, getting to know each other. She half wished that she could have stayed.

But her own quiet cottage was waiting for her. Rafe would be home soon. The thought twisted in her stomach. It wasn't his home any more. She'd erased almost every trace of him from the place, working in a fury of hurt and anger.

Maybe all the feverish effort had just been her own attempt to prove that she
was
good enough. And maybe she hadn't needed to after all. She opened the kitchen cupboard and, taking the bottle of emergency brandy out from the back of the top shelf, poured herself a measure.

Slipping off her heavy boots, she settled herself down on the sofa and swirled the amber liquid in the glass. No answers there, but it felt warm and relaxing. They couldn't change what they'd done, now. But perhaps there was some way that they could come to terms with it and get on with their lives. She reached for the TV remote and then threw it back on to the cushions beside her. She had too much going on inside her head to be able tolerate anything other than silence at the moment.

Her back ached and her limbs were heavy. Stretching out on the sofa, she sipped the brandy slowly...

* * *

‘Hey...'

‘Geroff...' She could feel someone's hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her. Mimi swatted it away and rolled over. The sound of breaking glass, and Rafe's sudden exclamation of surprise, brought her back to wakefulness.

‘Careful...'

‘Yeah, sorry. Didn't see the glass.' He was kneeling down next to her.

‘That's okay. Have you cut yourself?' The glass must have fallen on to the floor when she fell asleep.

‘Don't think so.' Rafe was collecting the larger pieces, picking them up gingerly between his finger and thumb.

‘Well, you will do...' She huffed at him and sat up. ‘Don't do that; I'll get a dustpan and brush.'

She stumbled into the kitchen, blinking when she switched the light on. On an afterthought, she collected up the brandy bottle and a couple more glasses from the cupboard on her way out.

‘Have you taken to drink?' he teased.

‘No, of course not.' That smile would drive her to drink if she wasn't careful. Or something far more dangerous.

‘Watch out...' He frowned, and Mimi realised that she was about to tread on a piece of glass in just her socks. ‘Sit down, I'll do it.'

He knelt down, collecting up the glass and brushing the shards out of the carpet, then disappeared for a moment to empty the dustpan into the bin. Mimi picked up the bottle of brandy, pouring a large measure into each glass. Tomorrow was the last of her days off, and so tonight might be the last opportunity she had of talking to Rafe. She had to make it count.

* * *

‘I've been thinking about what you said.' She came right out with it as soon as he walked back into the sitting room, as if waiting might chip away at her resolve. That was typically Mimi and it had always made him smile.

‘Okay.' He sat down beside her. ‘What have you been thinking?'

‘I think that I owe you an apology.'

She'd tried to apologise about something that afternoon, after he'd carried her across to the farmhouse, and Rafe had brushed it off. He was as mystified now as he'd been then.

‘You have nothing to apologise for.'

She shook her head, brushing his objections away. ‘You pushed me away, Rafe. That was your fault. But I was too afraid to ask why. I never tried to stop you from going.'

Rafe shook his head dumbly.

‘And that must have looked a lot like a rejection to you.'

Emotion blocked his throat. The way it always had, and probably always would. Rafe took a sip of the brandy. ‘Yeah. It did. But it doesn't matter... What I really want to know is why?'

She looked at him blankly. ‘Why what?'

‘Whatever gave you the idea that you weren't good enough?' She began to frown and Rafe stuck to his guns. ‘I really need you to tell me.'

She took a mouthful of brandy. ‘Okay. If you must know. The guy I went out with before you... After that friend of Charlie's...'

‘The one you never used to talk about?'

‘Yeah. Graham. He cheated on me. When I found out and confronted him, he said that he couldn't help it. He had a whole list of things I did wrong...'

‘What? What things?' Maybe he shouldn't ask. But he couldn't believe that any of them were justified.

She turned to him, mortification sparking in her beautiful eyes. ‘He said that I was boring. And that he couldn't help doing what he did because this other woman was dynamite in bed. Is that what you want to hear?'

Rafe stared at her. ‘He said... Are you serious?'

She rolled her eyes. ‘No, I joke about that kind of thing all of the time. Of
course
I'm serious.'

‘It's rubbish. He's an idiot.' Rafe reached for her and she pushed him away.

‘Don't. Just...don't.'

He couldn't believe that she could have taken something that was so obviously a cruel jibe to heart. Mimi was the most exciting woman he'd ever known, both in and out of bed, and this guy had to be certifiably insane. But she'd listened to him, and it had worked into her system like poison.

‘Didn't
I
make you feel good enough?' Rafe knew the answer to that as soon as he'd asked the question. When she didn't answer, it confirmed everything. He'd never confided in her, and then he'd left, without giving any proper reason. He'd done nothing to repair the damage that had already been done.

She shook her head. ‘It's... It doesn't matter.'

It
did
matter. Nothing he could say was going to make her believe how completely wrong all this was. Only one thing would do. Rafe leaned forward and kissed her.

She gave a little squeak of surprise and then she kissed him back. It was a proper kiss, not the brushing of lips against skin which hardly knew how to respond because it was all so brief.

They were both breathless, holding the kiss for so long that Rafe felt almost giddy. He pulled her close in a sharp, strong motion and she gasped. Then she climbed on top of him, sitting on his lap, her legs folded on either side of his thighs.

This time he would tell her how irresistibly beautiful she was, how much she meant to him in every way. He'd make her understand...

She nuzzled against his neck and he felt her lips move against his ear. ‘What's your number, Rafe?'

‘You have it, don't you? Why...you want to call me?' Maybe this was some kind of complicated telephone sex game that Mimi had dreamed up. He couldn't help wishing it might be.

‘No, idiot. How many girlfriends? Proper ones.' She nipped at his ear with her teeth and his whole body jerked with desire.

He knew just what she was asking. She didn't care about the ones who came before they'd lived together. Since then... He wanted to know who she'd been with since then too.

‘Six. That's my number. And there's been no one since you...' Rafe decided that full disclosure was his only option. Her body was too close to his for anything else. ‘No one serious, that is. I've asked women to dinner or the theatre but that's all. The odd barbecue...'

She silenced him with a kiss. One that told him, without any doubt at all, that barbecues didn't count and six was the right answer.

‘Three,' she whispered into his ear and he felt uncertainty tear at him. Two before him; he knew that. Maybe someone had helped her move the furniture and repaint the walls. ‘Including you.'

An instinctive warmth spread through his whole body. No one since him. Rafe swallowed hard.

‘And this tells us something?'

‘I just wanted to know. Didn't you?'

‘Yeah.'

She grabbed his wrists, forcing them back on to the cushions behind him. Then she kissed him again, somehow managing to tease and take both at the same time.

The anger, the new self-confidence which had been the source of so many arguments in the last few days, had translated into the physical. He'd always tried to be a considerate lover, and he knew that he could take them both into a state of dizzy satisfaction. But she didn't want that this time.
She
was going to take them there.

A sharp jolt of arousal spun through his veins. He stretched his legs out in front of him, longing for her to play out the fantasy.

She stilled suddenly, her lips a hair's breadth from his. ‘Say my name. The way you used to.'

He knew just what she wanted. Rather than call her Miriam all the time, he'd simply stopped calling her anything. ‘Mimi. Beautiful Mimi.' He felt his lips brush hers as he said the words.

‘I want to know...' She was dropping kisses on his cheek, working her way across to his ear. ‘I want to know how far I can take you.'

‘Then find out, honey.' He wouldn't beg just yet. Not while he still had the choice. He had a feeling that Mimi might be depriving him of that quite soon.

‘Be careful what you wish for.' One hand loosed its grip from his wrist and slid down to the buckle of his jeans. Rafe closed his eyes, feeling the scintillating fumble of her fingers.

‘I know just what I'm wishing for.' Whether or not he was going to be able to stand it was another question.

She had the button on the waistband of his jeans open now and he couldn't wait. He just wanted to be inside her, to feel her taking him. Maybe she'd do it here. She could do it wherever she wanted and, when she'd had her way, he was going to take her upstairs and have his. She'd be coming underneath him, breaking apart so softly, so sweetly...

She seemed to know how much he wanted her. Her fingers trailed up his chest, finding their way to his face. ‘You like this?'

‘What do you think?'

‘I think you do.' She kissed him again. He could taste the brandy on her mouth...

Brandy.

He didn't want to think about this right now, but the question cut through all of the sensations that were radiating from her touch. How much had she had? He couldn't remember, but he knew that she'd poured herself a large measure and that she'd been drinking while they were talking. Maybe it didn't matter...

It mattered. They'd had drunk sex before. Tired sex, no-time-for-it sex, practically every kind of sex in the book. But that was when they were living together.

And yet simply turning away from her now was unthinkable. Hadn't she just admitted to being the victim of one of the cruellest taunts possible, and hadn't he just told her that it wasn't true. If he remembered rightly, he'd kissed her to prove his point.

Okay. He could do this. He was quivering with molten desire, and Mimi was moving against him, but he could do it.

‘Mimi. Wait... Wait...' He put as much gravitas into the words as he could muster.

‘Rafe...?' Suddenly she was still, a look of uncertainty on her face. The realisation that this wasn't going to happen now, that he couldn't let it happen, almost broke him.

He cupped her face in his hand. ‘How much have you had to drink, honey?'

Rafe felt her cheek burn hot under his fingers. Clearly she wasn't going to tell him, which wasn't a very good sign.

‘Is this your idea of being...chivalrous?' She made the word sound as if chivalry was a deadly sin. Rafe dismissed the notion that if she could pronounce
chivalrous
she couldn't be that drunk.

‘Would you get into a car right now?'

She shook her head. ‘Probably not. But you never used to breathalyse me before taking me to bed. What's so different now?' Her body started moving against his. That sensual rhythm of hers that Rafe couldn't resist.

‘The difference is that we've not been together for five years. If we really want to do this, then we need to make that decision with clear heads and in the cold light of day.'

‘We won't, though, will we?' She was still again.

Loss seared through him. They both knew that this couldn't work. The only way he would ever get to touch her again was in a moment of madness like this one.

In that case he'd never get to touch her again. Rafe was
not
going to be the guy who took advantage of her when he knew that she'd had a few drinks. ‘No. We probably won't.'

She nodded and climbed off him, getting to her feet and marching out of the door. ‘You know, at this moment I could really slap you, Rafe.' She threw the words over her shoulder.

‘You'd be doing me a favour...' He leaned back, covering his face with his hands. If she knocked his head off it would at least take his mind off his aching groin.

He heard her stomp upstairs, and then back down again. ‘Don't even think about driving tonight; you've been drinking too. You can sleep on the sofa; it's a lot more comfortable than at the hospital.' Her voice was matter-of-fact, brooking no argument. ‘And lock the door.'

He looked at her between his fingers. ‘We don't need...' Maybe they did. He hadn't got around to thinking about what he'd just missed out on yet.

She dropped the duvet that was in her arms on to the floor. ‘Lock the door. And, in case you're thinking about changing your mind, I'm locking mine too.' She turned, slamming the door closed behind her so hard that the key rattled.

He got to his feet, twisting the key in the lock, wondering if he should swallow it or throw it out of the window just to be on the safe side. Even when she was angry and he didn't much feel like it, Mimi still made him smile. He threw himself down on to the sofa, tipping half the brandy left in his glass away into Mimi's empty one and settled down to brood over the rest.