Their Baby Surprise (11 page)

‘One night wasn’t enough for me, Rachel. It never could be enough when I felt things that night that I’ve never felt before.’

His eyes held hers fast and he saw her pupils dilate when she realised what he was saying, that not even with Claire had he felt the way he had felt when he had made love to her. For a moment all the old guilt came rushing back and swamped him and then, miraculously, his head cleared. All he could think about was Rachel and what she was offering him, something so precious that he would be a fool to turn it down.

Capturing her hands, he pulled her to her feet and drew her into his arms, holding her so close that he could feel the firm swell of her breasts pushing against his chest, feel the exact moment when her nipples hardened with desire. His own body quickened and he heard her suck in a sharp little breath when she realised he was aroused too and didn’t give a damn. He was past pretending, way past the point of playing games.

‘I don’t know how long this will last, Rachel, and I don’t care. I just know that I want you more than I’ve wanted anyone in a very long time.’

‘I’m not asking you for a guarantee, Matt,’ she whispered. ‘Nobody can foretell how long a relationship will last.’

‘No, they can’t,’ he agreed, refusing to think about how devastated he would be if he lost her. ‘But what I can do is promise you on my honour that whatever happens we will deal with it like two sensible adults.’

‘Can you really be sensible when you feel like this?’ she murmured, moving her hips against his and making him groan.

‘No, I can’t. I don’t even want to try. I just want to make mad, passionate love to you right here and right now. Is it enough to be going on with?’

‘Yes. More than enough for me.’

Reaching up on tiptoe, she pressed her mouth to his, her lips parting to invite his to open too. Matt felt the rush of desire hit him like a sledgehammer as he pulled her hard against him, letting her feel in intimate detail exactly what she was doing to him. The coffee cups went flying as he lifted her onto the table but he didn’t care. What did some broken china matter when his heart was being healed?

They made love right there in the kitchen and it was even better than the first time, amazingly enough. Matt knew that he scaled new heights that night and that he couldn’t have done that with anyone but Rachel. As her body opened to him, he realised that he was on the brink of falling in love with her, but he also knew it was a step too far at this stage. Rachel hadn’t asked for love or commitment, just that they be together. He had to be content with that. For now.

They climaxed together, crying out each other’s name in unison, and even if it wasn’t an omen for the future, it proved they had made the right decision at this moment. He could live with that, live in the present and enjoy what he had. He only hoped Rachel could do so too for a very long time.

Matt was still asleep when Rachel got up the following morning. It was very early and the central heating hadn’t switched itself on yet. She shivered as she unhooked his robe from the behind the bedroom door and pulled it on. It was far too big for her but she rolled up the sleeves and tightened the belt around her waist. The real bonus apart from an immediate feeling of warmth was that it smelled of Matt and she sniffed appreciatively as she made her way down the stairs. Being enveloped in his scent might not be as good as being held in his arms but it was the next best thing.

A smile curled her mouth as she set to work to make them some breakfast. The bacon was crisping and the eggs were sizzling by the time Matt appeared looking wonderfully sexy as he padded into the kitchen wearing nothing more than a pair of boxer shorts. He grinned as he came over to her and pulled her into his arms.

‘Aha, so you’re the culprit.’

‘I am?’ Rachel smiled into his eyes, loving the way his hair fell in a disorderly wave onto his forehead. Matt was normally impeccably groomed and it was a rare and pleasant surprise to see him looking less than perfect for once.

She brushed the lock of hair back into its rightful place, revelling in the fact that she had the right to enjoy such intimacies. ‘You’ll have to enlighten me. What is it I’m supposed to have done?’

‘Oh, there’s no supposed about it, not when the evidence is clear to see.’ His hands went to the belt on the robe. ‘You, Dr Mackenzie, stole my dressing gown and for that you deserve to be suitably punished.’

‘Oh, but I didn’t
steal
it,’ Rachel objected, keen to point out that she had merely borrowed it. However, it appeared that Matt wasn’t interested in hearing her defence.

He peeled the robe off her and tossed it aside, his mouth claiming hers in a drugging kiss that made her forget every argument she had been about to make. When he pressed her back against the wall, she didn’t protest but gave in willingly. It felt so good to have him kiss her, hold her and make her his. Their love-making would have reached its natural conclusion if the sudden shrilling of an angry smoke alarm hadn’t interrupted them.

Matt chuckled as he let her go and switched off the gas. ‘Looks as though the bacon has gone for a burton.’

‘And the eggs.’ Rachel shook her head as she poked at the blackened remains in the frying pan. ‘You do realise that you’ve missed out on having breakfast in bed?’

‘That’s a shame, although I have to confess that I prefer the alternative.’

He leered comically at her and she laughed as she aimed a playful cuff at his ear. ‘You are completely shameless, Matthew Thompson!’

‘Good. It’s music to my ears to hear you say that. I was in danger of turning into a real old fuddy-duddy and I rather like the idea of being seen as someone whose attitude to life is a bit more risqué.’

‘Fuddy-duddy! No way could you be described as that. According to my friends, you’re a real babe.’

‘Is that a fact?’ He grinned at her. ‘Whilst I feel I should point out that I’m a tad long in the tooth to be called a babe, I certainly won’t dispute it. However, what interests me most of all is if you agree with your friends. Do you?’

‘Now,
that
would be telling!’

Rachel shot past him as she beat a hasty retreat. Matt was hard on her heels as she flew up the stairs but, then, she wasn’t trying all that hard to outrun him. They made love in his bedroom then took a shower together and made love in there too and it was wonderful again. Rachel had never enjoyed this kind of closeness with anyone before and revelled in it. She could get used to living like this, she thought later as she got dressed, very used to waking up with Matt each morning and falling asleep beside him each night. However, she had to remember that this wasn’t for ever but just for now.

She sighed as she finished buttoning up her blouse. She may have found her soulmate, but it took two people to build a lasting relationship. She had absolutely no experience of making a lifelong commitment, although she could learn. As for Matt, he had the experience because he had done it before, but she didn’t know yet if he would want to do it all over again with her. All she could do was hope that he would.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

M
ATT
was amazed by how happy he felt in the days that followed. Not even the problems they were currently experiencing at the surgery seemed to trouble him the way they once would have done. He knew it was all down to his relationship with Rachel.

It had added a new dimension to his life, one that had been missing for far too long, and he found himself praying that it would continue. Maybe they hadn’t made a commitment but what they did have felt so right that he never wanted it to end. The idea that he was falling in love with her crossed his mind with increasing frequency but he didn’t allow himself to dwell on it. He was afraid that he would spoil things if he wished for more than he had. Although Rachel hadn’t moved in with him, she spent most nights at his house and their sex life continued to be amazing. He kept wondering if a time would arrive when they settled into a routine but it never happened. Each time they made love it felt as though it was the first time and it blew his mind.

Christmas came, the best Christmas he could remember in years. Ross joined them for lunch and although he didn’t say anything, Matt had a feeling that Ross had guessed there was something going on between him and Rachel. He also got the impression that Ross was genuinely pleased for them and it was a relief to know that their relationship wasn’t going to create problems in that area. When Heather phoned to wish him a happy Christmas, he was tempted to tell her about Rachel but something held him back. Maybe it would be safer not to tempt fate.

After Christmas it was time to finish sorting out the mess created by their former locum. They had managed to whittle down the number of recalls to just half a dozen by then. Alison Bradshaw, the woman who had been diagnosed with fibroadenosis, was his first appointment when he returned to work after the festive break. She’d been on holiday when they had tried to contact her and that had caused an added delay. Matt brought up her file on the computer and was reading through the decidedly scrappy notes the locum had made when Rachel tapped on his door.

‘You look very industrious. Heavy list this morning?’

‘About average for this time of the year.’ Matt tipped back his chair and smiled at her, wondering if he would ever reach a point where he felt indifferent to her. It was just over an hour since they had got out of bed yet his heart was already kicking up a storm.

Rachel closed the door and came around the desk to drop a kiss on his lips. They had agreed to keep their relationship a secret from their colleagues. Neither of them relished the thought of being gossiped about so they were very discreet when they were at work. That Rachel had broken their rules and kissed him made his heart race with delight.

‘I thought you might need a top-up to help you through the morning.’

‘Mmm, I do. I do.’ Matt pulled her down onto his lap and kissed her soundly, smiling when she eagerly responded. He loved the fact that she never pretended but let him know exactly how she felt. He scattered a shower of butterfly-soft kisses over her face and neck then reluctantly drew back. ‘That will have to keep me going until lunchtime, although I’ll probably need another top-up by then.’

‘Always happy to help out a colleague in need,’ she replied saucily, laughing at him.

That remark would have prompted a reprisal if the buzzer on his desk hadn’t sounded to warn him his first appointment was waiting in Reception. Matt groaned as he tipped her off his knee. ‘Action stations. It’s time to knuckle down to some work.’

‘Aye, aye, Captain!’

Rachel saluted smartly then headed for the door, leaving him chuckling. She had that effect on him, made him feel more positive about life than he had felt in ages. She was everything he admired in a woman—warm, caring, sexy…

He made himself stop right there, knowing from experience how fast his thoughts could run away with him. He called in Alison Bradshaw and set about explaining why he wanted to send her for a mammogram. She was naturally worried so he phoned up the hospital and made an appointment for her to be seen the following week.

Thankfully, her symptoms had settled down and on checking her breasts, he found nothing to indicate there might be a problem. However, he would only truly relax when the results of the mammogram came back and proved that everything was clear.

He saw her out and worked his way through the rest of his list. His last patient had just left when Carol phoned with a query about someone else who was on the recall list. Matt told her that he would come to the office to sort it out and gathered up the case notes he’d used. He was just walking along the corridor when a girl came out of the treatment room and he paused when he realised it was Megan Bradley, the passenger in the car that had been involved in that accident in the town centre.

‘Hello! What are you doing here?’

‘Having my stitches out,’ Megan explained, pushing back her hair so that he could see the thin red scar above her ear. ‘I was dreading having it done in case it hurt, but the nurse was so gentle I hardly felt a thing.’

‘Good.’ Matt smiled at her. ‘So you’re fully recovered, are you?’

‘Yes, thank you. I felt a bit shaky for a few days afterwards and my head hurt but all things considered I got off very lightly.’

‘And what about your friend who was driving—Katie? I telephoned the hospital and know that she came through the operation to repair her pelvis. Is she making good progress?’

‘Not too bad, but it will be a while before she’s up and about again.’ Mel sighed. ‘The police still haven’t found the van driver. They were able to trace who owned the van from the CCTV pictures but it had been reported as stolen a couple of days before the accident. I hate to think the driver is going to get away with it after all the damage he’s caused.’

‘I’m sure the police will track him down eventually,’ Matt said soothingly. ‘The main thing is that both you and Katie are going to be all right.’

‘You’re right, Dr Mackenzie. Of course you are.’

Mel gave him a beaming smile and left. Matt went to the office and sorted out Carol’s query in a buoyant mood. It was good to know that both girls would recover from their ordeal. The upside of feeling so happy himself was that he wanted only good things to happen for everyone else. He certainly didn’t want any disasters to spoil what he and Rachel had now or in the future.

He frowned as he went back to his room. Once again he was thinking long term and it wasn’t wise to do that. All he could do was hope that their relationship meant as much to Rachel as it meant to him.

It was the most wonderful time of Rachel’s entire life. She couldn’t remember when she had felt so happy before. Being with Matt both in and out of work was like a dream come true.

Amazingly their professional relationship didn’t suffer. Matt still treated her with the same respect and courtesy when they were in the surgery, even if the look in his eyes did raise matters onto a very different plane! Rachel knew without the shadow of a doubt that she had found the man she wanted to spend her life with. However, until Matt admitted that he felt the same way, she mustn’t get carried away.

The thought of what might happen in the future was the only blot on the horizon and she refused to let it ruin things. Thankfully she was so busy that she had very little time to dwell on it. Having to fit in the patients they needed to recall meant they were all pushed to the limit. Morning and evening lists were longer than ever.

Then there was a near crisis when their practice nurse, Gemma Craven, attended a call at one of the outlying farms and got lost in a snowstorm. Rachel was surprised when she saw how worried Ross was when Gemma went missing. It made her wonder if there was something going on between them. Quite frankly, she would be glad if there was because Ross deserved to be happy and Gemma was a lovely girl. She was tempted to ask him but in the end decided that she wouldn’t interfere. She knew how it felt to want to protect a new and very precious relationship.

It was the beginning of February when Rachel discovered that something had happened that was bound to affect her relationship with Matt. She had been feeling off-colour for several days, nauseous and dizzy, and had put it down to that wretched bug that was still doing the rounds. However, when she was violently sick one morning as she got up, she was forced to consider some other options and was shocked by what she came up with. Was it possible that she was pregnant?

She hurried back to the bedroom and took her diary out of her bag. Although it was normal for a woman’s menstrual cycle to alter as she approached the menopause, hers had been remarkably regular up till now. However on checking the date, she realised that her period was almost two weeks late. She tried to tell herself that there was no need to panic but she couldn’t help adding everything up, the dizziness and nausea, the bout of sickness that morning and the missed period, and they all pointed towards the same conclusion: she could be pregnant.

Rachel’s head was reeling as she went downstairs. She was forty-six years old and she couldn’t have a baby at her age! It wasn’t as though she and Matt had taken any chances either because they had always used contraception. However, as a doctor she knew only too well that no contraceptive was one hundred per cent guaranteed. Her heart sank as she sat down at the kitchen table and wondered how Matt would react if she told him of her suspicions. She couldn’t imagine he would be pleased when he had made it clear that he wasn’t looking for commitment. After all, a child was the ultimate commitment of all.

‘Are you feeling all right, sweetheart? You look awfully pale this morning.’

Matt came and crouched down beside her, his face filled with such concern that Rachel was hard pressed not to bawl her eyes out. Becoming a father again at this stage in his life would be the last thing he’d choose.

‘I think I may be coming down with that bug that’s been doing the rounds,’ she murmured, hating the fact that she had to lie to him, although she had no choice. She needed to find out if she really was pregnant before she said anything. She dredged up a watery smile. ‘I feel really rotten, if I’m honest.’

‘Then there’s no way that you’re going into work today,’ he said firmly. He got up and poured her a cup of tea then helped her to her feet. ‘It’s back to bed for you. Doctor’s orders!’

Rachel laughed but there was a hollow ring to it. She allowed him to help her back up the stairs and lay down obediently on the bed. He placed the cup of tea on the bedside table then bent and brushed her forehead with a gentle kiss.

‘Stay there and try to sleep. I’ll pop back at lunchtime to see if you’re all right.’ He took the phone out of its charger and placed it on the pillow beside her. ‘Phone me if you feel any worse, though. Promise?’

‘Promise,’ Rachel whispered, wondering if it was possible to feel any worse than she did. Tears trickled from her eyes and she turned her face into the pillow so that he wouldn’t see her crying as he left the room. She had never felt more desolate in her life, not even when she had found out that she was expecting Ross.

As soon as Matt had left for work she got dressed and drove into town to buy a pregnancy testing kit. She took it back to her own home and did the test there. Waiting for the results was agonising but finally she had confirmation that her suspicions were correct. She was pregnant and now she needed to decide what she was going to do.

At her age there were added risks to having a baby and she would need to undergo various tests if she went ahead with the pregnancy. Nobody would blame her if she decided not to go through with it, yet she shied away from the idea of having a termination. How she was going to tell Matt was something she still hadn’t worked out. It would have been different if they had made a real commitment to each other but their relationship was founded on the here and now, and she certainly wouldn’t
blackmail
him into staying with her because of their child.

Matt had a highly developed sense of duty and she knew that he would feel he had to support her if they were still together when she broke the news to him. She couldn’t bear to think that he could end up resenting her one day. Tears stung her eyes but she really didn’t have a choice. It would be better to end things now than run the risk of that happening.

Matt couldn’t stop worrying about Rachel all morning long. Her illness seemed to have come on remarkably quickly even if it was that wretched bug. He waited until there was a gap between patients and phoned the house, feeling more concerned than ever when there was no reply. Surely she must have heard the phone ringing, he thought as he replaced the receiver. So why hadn’t she answered it?

He tried telling himself that she was probably fast asleep but he could barely wait for lunchtime to arrive. There was another delay then because the results of various tests had come back and he needed to check them. The results of Alison Bradshaw’s mammogram were amongst them and he was relieved to see that it was clear. He asked Carol to phone Alison to make sure she’d received a copy then made his escape before anything else could delay him.

He drove straight home, frowning when he discovered that Rachel’s car had gone. Had she felt better and decided to go home? He set off down the lane, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw her car parked outside the cottage. Although he had no idea why she had come back to her own home, at least she was safe.

Rachel opened the door to his knock but instead of inviting him in, she just stood and looked at him. Matt wasn’t sure what was going on but it was obvious that there was something very wrong and his insides churned in sudden apprehension. It took every scrap of willpower he possessed to smile at her when it felt as though his world was on the brink of falling apart.

‘Hi! I see you decided to come home. Does that mean you’re feeling better?’

‘Yes, thank you.’ Her tone was clipped and the churning in his guts intensified.

‘Is there something wrong, Rachel?’ he demanded, his own voice sounding equally harsh.

‘No. I just need some space, time on my own for a change.’