Joanna Neil - The Secret Doctor

She was conscious of the heat from his arm gently seeping into her, and as he moved closer she felt the brush of his long body next to hers.

It was a good feeling, that warmth of human contact, and it occurred to her that it had been a long time since she had known such tenderness. She had a strange yearning to lean against him, to have him hold her and comfort her.

This was Jake, a man she had known for barely two weeks, and instinct told her that she ought to be keeping him at arm’s length. It was a pity her heart wasn’t listening. Instead, it was beating out its own erratic rhythm, and seemed to be recklessly bent on overriding common sense.

A soft breeze stirred the air, and she looked out over the water. Moonlight glittered on its surface, beautiful in its serenity.

‘Are you cold?’ Jake asked, and she was suddenly reminded that they were standing out here on the dock, with her wearing little more than a cotton shift.

She shook her head. ‘No, but I should go and put something on—a robe, or something.’

His mouth curved. ‘You don’t need to do that on my account. I’m perfectly happy for you to stay as you are…You feel very soft and cuddlesome to me, and you look like an angel—a dazzling white angel who makes the moonbeams dance on the water.’

By

www.millsandboon.co.uk

When JOANNA NEILdiscovered Mills & Boon®, her lifelong addiction to reading crystallised into an exciting new career writing Medical™ Romance. Her characters are probably the outcome of her varied lifestyle, which includes working as a clerk, typist, nurse and infant teacher. She enjoys dressmaking and cooking at her Leicestershire home. Her family includes a husband, son and daughter, an exuberant yellow Labrador and two slightly crazed cockatiels. She currently works with a team of tutors at her local education centre, to provide creative writing workshops for people interested in exploring their own writing ambitions.

Recent titles by the same author:

HAWAIIAN SUNSET, DREAM PROPOSAL

NEW SURGEON AT ASHVALE A&E

POSH DOC, SOCIETY WEDDING

HOT-SHOT DOC, CHRISTMAS BRIDE

THE house was just as Lacey remembered it. Several years had gone by since she had last set foot on the property on Florida’s Lower Keys, but now, as she gazed around, overwhelming feelings of familiarity and nostalgia besieged her.

The building stood two storeys high, with decking on both levels so that people could sit outside and look out over the bay while taking in the warm subtropical air. The hurricane shutters were folded back right now, revealing an abundance of windows and glass doors that would flood the house with light.

The whole structure was long and wide, its clean lines white-painted, so that it appeared picture perfect against the vivid blue of the sky. In the distance, coconut palms dipped their branches towards the sand, swaying lightly in the faint breeze.

Tears sprang to Lacey’s eyes as the memories came flooding back…those long, hot summers of her teenage years, when she would run along the beach with her sister Grace, or swim in the warm waters of the sea. They were happy memories, of a time when the two girls had idled away their vacations in natural pursuits, while their parents had relaxed in their holiday home.

‘It’ll be so good to see you again,’ Grace had said over the phone just last week. ‘I can’t wait to come down and visit once you’re settled in. But…’ Grace paused. ‘Won’t this be a huge change for you? Are you quite sure you’ve thought it all through properly? I mean, you’ve lived in the UK all your life, and leaving all that behind will surely be quite a wrench? It was different for me. I had no choice but to come to the States, being married and with the children and all…I just went where Matt’s job took him. I’m longing to be able to see you more often, but are you quite sure you’re ready to put down roots here?’

That was something Lacey had thought about, long and hard, over these last few months. Some two years had passed since their parents had died, but finally the house in the UK had been sold, and Lacey had to come to terms with all the changes that had taken place in her world. What was she going to do with the rest of her life?

Of course, things might have been different if she hadn’t split up with Nick, her long-term boyfriend. Once they had drifted apart, life had lost its rosy glow, and all she had been able to think of was being somewhere closer to Grace. Family , that was it, that was what mattered most of all.

She braced herself, trying to shake off those melancholy thoughts. Maybe she was simply tired after her long journey. The sun was setting now, casting a golden glow over the horizon, and she took one last look at the exterior of the house before turning the key in the lock of the front door.

She would have gone directly to the kitchen, to switch on the kettle and make herself a reviving cup of coffee, but the tranquillity of the evening was suddenly shattered by the intermittent sounds of banging, as though someone was hammering away at some solid, impenetrable object. The noise filled the air, an abominable intrusion that grated on her nerves.

She frowned. Who on earth was making that awful racket? Hadn’t Rob said that her neighbour would be away for the rest of this week? Something had to be wrong. Was the place next door being burgled…ransacked?

She dropped her suitcases in the hall and went out of the house, doing her best to locate where the disturbance was coming from. They were isolated out here, some distance from any other houses, so it had to be her neighbour’s place that was under threat.

The secluded nature of her surroundings made her stop and think for a moment. Ought she to take some sort of defensive weapon with her—a broom handle, maybe, or a heavy fire extinguisher? But perhaps she was overreacting?

Instead, she ran her fingers over the touchpad of the mobile phone that was clipped to her belt. She could speed-dial for help if necessary.

In the distance, she saw what looked like a barn, a huge building, its doors standing open, and there was light coming from inside. She walked towards it, taking the path that followed the line of the dock, and all the while the banging became louder and louder.

When she reached the barn, she stopped at the doorway. A man was in there, working, his long body leaning over what looked like a huge upturned boat that was in the process of being built. The hull was made up of golden oak-coloured planking, and the smell of new wood filled the barn.

There was no banging now. He was running his hand with infinite care along a seam line, as though testing for flaws in the woodwork, and Lacey could see that his fingers were strong, but not weathered by manual work as she might have expected. His skin was lightly sun bronzed, and his forearms were covered with a smattering of dark hair.

He hadn’t noticed that she was standing there, and for a moment Lacey watched him in fascination. He was wearing dark blue jeans that showed off the taut, muscular lines of his long legs, and above that he had on a white T-shirt. He was in his mid-thirties, she guessed, a man who obviously kept himself fit, judging from his broad shoulders and rippling biceps.

Her absorbed reverie came to a swift end as the banging started up once more, with ear-shattering intensity. He had picked up a mallet and was pounding it against the head of a metal tool, driving some kind of thick cotton padding between the planks of the boat.