Desert King, Doctor Daddy by Meredith Webber

Author:Meredith Webber
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

It was late and Yusef was exhausted, but he’d heard of Fajella’s sudden attack from his driver as he’d been driven back to the compound. Some woman with red hair had saved the baby’s life, according to his driver, and although Yusef guessed Fajella’s attack had been nothing more than croup, he was none the less sincerely grateful that Gemma had been there, and had acted so swiftly.

He walked quietly along the dimly lit corridor in the children’s wing of the women’s house, a path he trod every night when he was home, for he couldn’t rest without seeing his little daughter, no matter how late the hour. He had not been here when she was born, and for that he carried guilt with him every day, for if he’d been here he would have insisted his wife go to hospital and her life might have been saved.

The door was ajar, and Anya was asleep on the floor outside the room. Yusef frowned at her and was about to wake her, for her orders were to sleep beside his daughter, when he heard a husky little snore, no more than a snuffle really, and realised someone else was in the room with Fajella.

Pushing open the door, the light fell on red hair and Yusef could only stare in disbelief, for there, on a mat on the floor, lay Gemma, her fiery red hair splayed across the pillow, the clothes she’d worn on the flight dishevelled and creased, but her arms were around his daughter, who was snuggled close into Gemma’s body.

His instinct was to wake the visitor, to tell her this wasn’t her place, yet why seeing her there should anger him when all he should be feeling was gratitude he didn’t know.

Or did he? Wasn’t it the stirring of his body, the shamefulness of such a reaction, that had angered him? He suspected it might be, but as he watched the sleeping woman, with his child in her arms, desire departed, replaced by a feeling he didn’t recognise, a kind of churning deep inside him, a longing, but for what he didn’t want to consider.

He knew it wasn’t only the physical attraction that stirred him—he remembered seeing her on the plane, coming into the bedroom as she’d smoothed Massa’s hair, frowning as she’d worried about someone worrying over him. It was this empathy she had for people—because she’d been so alone herself?—that made her special in a way he couldn’t put into words.

Had his thoughts transmitted themselves to her that her pale eyes opened and she looked around, at first in puzzlement, then remembering, checking Fajella, before easing away from the sleeping child? Yusef knew he should say something—felt somehow ashamed that she should wake and see him watching her—so he stepped quietly into the room and squatted by the bed.

‘I owe you much,’ he said quietly, touching the backs of his fingers to his daughter’s cheek. ‘The women have told me what you did.’

Gemma moved awkwardly, trying to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.