The Woman He's Been Waiting For. Jennifer Taylor
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I’ll go outside for a bit of fresh air. It’s stifling in here. I won’t be long—ten minutes max.’
‘You don’t have to stay,’ she said quickly, hoping he couldn’t tell how eager she was all of a sudden for him to leave. Oh, it had been fine while Penny had been there, she’d been very glad of Harry’s company then. However, it was different now they were on their own. In the past half-hour she’d learned things about him that she’d never dreamed might be true, and it had unsettled her to have to adjust her view of him. How much more unsettling would it be if they continued the conversation throughout the night?
‘Why do I have a feeling that you’re trying to get rid of me?’ Harry turned to look at her and Grace’s heart missed a beat when she saw the speculation in his eyes.
‘I’ve no idea.’ She shrugged, hoping he couldn’t tell how desperate she was for him to leave. ‘Maybe it’s because you find it hard to believe that I’ll be able to manage without your manly shoulder to lean on? Well, don’t worry, Harry. I’ll be perfectly fine on my own so you can leave with a clear conscience. I’m sure you must have more interesting things to do with your evening than spend it hanging around a hospital waiting room.’
‘The only plans I have for this evening involve bed.’ He laughed when he saw her mouth purse. ‘Tut, tut, Grace, what are you thinking? I meant that I was planning on having an early night—alone.’ He opened the door and winked at her. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. You can count on it.’
Grace ground her teeth, wishing that she’d never said anything. All she’d succeeded in doing had been to make herself look foolish—not that it was the first time, of course. Where Harry was concerned she invariably found herself saying the wrong thing, which was why she usually resorted to squabbling with him. It was easier to fight with him than run the risk of falling under his spell.
The thought alarmed her so much that she leapt to her feet. Her heart was pounding as she left the waiting room to go and find Penny because there was no way that she could deny the truth. In the past ten years she’d done everything in her power to shut Harry out of her life. That was why she’d lobbed insults at him, goaded him and accused him of all manner of things. She’d seen how charming he could be, how witty and how much fun, and she’d been afraid that he would somehow…well, seduce her.
That was the last thing she wanted to happen. She’d witnessed at first hand how destructive love could be, had watched as her mother’s life had been torn apart as her father had indulged in one affair after another, and she’d sworn it would never happen to her. That’s why she rarely dated and never went out with any man who reminded her of her father—a man exactly like Harry, in fact. But tonight she’d lowered her guard and Harry had been every bit as charming as she’d feared he would be. Now she was unable to think of him simply as a womanising Lothario. There were depths to Harry that she’d never suspected.
‘I get off at eleven so why don’t you give me a call? I’m a real night-owl and never go to bed until after midnight…unless I have a really good reason, of course.’
Grace stopped dead when she heard voices up ahead. She peered along the dimly lit corridor and spotted a couple tucked into the alcove next to the pay-phone. She recognised Harry immediately, although it took a moment longer before she realised that the young woman with him was the nurse who’d come to fetch Penny. There were no prizes for guessing what they were up to, however.
Grace’s eyes narrowed as she studied their body language which, quite frankly, should have been X-rated. The way that young nurse was simpering up at Harry was positively obscene. As for Harry—well, he seemed to be lapping it up as though it was his due. Had he used the excuse that he’d needed some fresh air so he could track down the nurse and make his move on her? Grace wondered in disgust. Well, if that was the case, she certainly wasn’t going to cramp his style.
She spun round and marched back to the waiting room, slamming the door behind her with enough force to make the window rattle in its frame. She couldn’t believe what a fool she’d been. For a few minutes she’d actually believed that she’d been wrong about Harry, and the thought of how easily he had duped her made her want to spit tacks. Leopards never changed their spots. Harry Shaw had been a womanising Lothario when she’d first met him, and he was exactly the same now.
‘I’m not really sure what’s happening tonight.’
Harry tried to edge away but the nurse had effectively trapped him in the alcove. He glanced along the corridor when he heard a door slam, hoping that someone would come along and rescue him. However, his hopes were dashed when nobody appeared. He sighed under his breath. He would just have to extricate himself.
‘I’ll probably end up staying here until all hours of the morning and I couldn’t possibly expect you to wait up for my call.’
He treated the girl to his most charming smile, desperately wishing that he didn’t have this effect on women. Although it sounded arrogant to say so, it had always been the same—they fell for his looks and the fact that he was wealthy. While it had been fun when he had been younger, he’d grown weary of being viewed merely as an object of their lust.
He wanted a proper relationship now, not the kind of shallow alliance that was based solely on sex. He wanted a relationship in which he could share his innermost thoughts and feelings. The kind of rapport, in fact, that he’d enjoyed tonight with Grace before she’d gone all prickly on him again.
The thought caught him completely off guard. Harry found himself floundering when the nurse asked if he had a pen so she could write down her telephone number for him. He gave it to her then waited in silence while she scribbled the number on a bit of paper and tucked it in his top pocket. Mercifully, the ward sister appeared at that point and summoned her back to work so he was able to make his escape, but he couldn’t deny that he felt completely out of kilter as he made his way back to the waiting room.
Why did he keep having all these strange thoughts about Grace? Was it just the fact that she’d treated him differently that night—talked to him, laughed with him, behaved as though he wasn’t the lowest form of pond life? He wasn’t convinced that was the reason why he was behaving so strangely, but he felt unusually nervous as he went into the room.
‘Any news yet?’ he asked, striving for a measure of calm.
‘You tell me.’ Grace treated him to a smile so cold that it could have reversed the effects of global warming, and Harry frowned.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Work it out for yourself. It shouldn’t be that difficult for an intelligent man like you, Harry.’
She picked up a magazine and proceeded to ignore him as she flicked through its pages. Harry sighed because he really wasn’t in the mood to play games with her at the moment.
‘Look, Grace, I apologise if I’ve done something to upset you—’ he began, but she didn’t let him finish. Tossing the magazine onto the table, she glared at him.
‘I am not upset. If you want to chat up every single woman in this hospital then good luck to you. However, I do object to being told a pack of lies. If you wanted to go and find that nurse, why didn’t you say so? I’m hardly going to fall down in a heap because you’re chatting up some woman.’
So that was it. Harry felt a wave of relief wash over him. Grace must have seen him talking to that nurse and assumed he’d engineered the meeting. He hastened to reassure her, even though he wasn’t sure why it was so important that she knew what had really gone on.
‘I did go out for some fresh air. I just happened to bump into Cathy on my way back, that’s all.’
‘Oh, so it’s Cathy, is it? Obviously, you didn’t waste any time getting acquainted with her.’
Grace treated him to another of those icy smiles and he sighed again. It was obvious that she didn’t believe he was the innocent party.
‘Just because I know her name doesn’t mean that your allegations