HER EVERY FANTASY

Just pleasure on both sides. But that clearly wasn’t the case at all. Not even for him, he thought with savage self-mockery. No other woman had got to him since Jasmine. He’d tried to put her out of his mind, dating women who’d be considered prizes by most men, but they’d all left him cold in the end. He knew exactly what Jasmine meant. Nothing else measured up to their experience. And the bottom line was, he didn’t want to give it up.

So what to do now? Apologise? Explain his position? What if she came back to the table and ended it right here? Walked away from him without so much as a backward glance? How would he feel?

Collins didn’t have time to analyse the impact such an action would have on him. Jasmine was on her way back, a set determination on her face and not the slightest bit of warmth or pleasure in her eyes. She didn’t move to sit on her chair, She remained standing by the table, a bleak decision in the eyes that met his with unwavering resolution.

Collins found himself rising to his feet, bracing himself for action, adrenalin shooting through his blood at the instinctive urge to light.

‘What is it?’ he rapped out, forcing the issue, wanting to deal with it.

‘I need your help, Collins.’ she said. A flat, bare statement.

‘Whatever I can do,’ he promised quickly, not having anticipated an appeal for help.

‘I don’t know anyone here except you. I don’t know where to go or what to do. Please… you must help, no matter how you feel about it.’

Her voice cracked over the entreaty and despair welled into a him over her eyes. Alarmed by her intense distress, Collins automatically reached out and closed his hands reassuringly around her shoulders, which were held too stiffly.

‘I’m here for you,’ he strongly asserted. ‘Tell me how I can help.’

‘I’m pregnant. I’m bleeding. I think I’m having a miscarriage.’ she said.

Three body blows that took his breath away, blew his mind, and contracted every muscle in his body.

‘I have to get to a hospital. I don’t even know one in Los Angeles. And I’m frightened of… of passing out.’ she continued.

He fought off the shock. She looked like death. He had to act and act fast.

‘Sit down until I get the information we need,’ he commanded, forcibly seating her on the chair she’d vacated. His mind zapped into overdrive as he whipped out his mobile telephone from the pocket of his leather jacket.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

The hotel would have the contacts. Money would buy the quickest and best treatment. He kept his brain clear to make the necessary moves. Time for questions later.

Once Collins took charge, everything passed in a blur to Jasmine. While one part of her mind recognised and was intensely grateful for his efficient participation in getting her to emergency treatment, another part shut him out, focusing entirely on keeping still, keeping calm, willing her baby to hold on.

There were questions to be answered when she arrived at the hospital, distracting forms to be filled out. She hadn’t thought to take out medical insurance for this trip. Collins stepped in and cut through the red tape, insisting he would take care of everything. Which didn’t feel right but she didn’t have the energy to argue. She needed all of it to concentrate on holding the fear at bay and doing whatever she could to keep her baby safe.

A doctor examined her. She hadn’t lost the baby yet. It was still there.

She was to rest quietly tonight and they’d run a scan on her tomorrow to check the situation. A nurse introduced herself and explained the hospital system, showed the button to press if she required attention, saw to all her immediate needs. Finally she was left alone to sleep the night away.

Except she wasn’t alone. Collins was still with her in the private room he had arranged. He’d supervised everything, remaining on hand to facilitate whatever he could. He was sitting on a chair beside her bed, and now there was no more to be done, Jasmine could no longer shut his presence out of her mind.

He hadn’t asked her any questions.

She didn’t want to answer any. No point. He’d made his position clear.

Marriage and children were not on his agenda. What had been-a week of pleasure with her–had now lost all viability. To his credit, he had risen to her desperate appeal for help, despite the shock it must have been to him, and it was up to her now to cut him free of an involvement that was totally devoid of pleasure.

‘Thank you, Collins.’ she said quietly, forcing herself to look at him face to face. He deserved, that acknowledgment for all he’d done, though it pained her to see the darkly clouded eyes of the man on whom she’d pinned so many futile hopes.

‘Please don’t feel you have to stay,’ she went on. ‘I’ll manage on my own now.’

The cloud instantly lifted. The sharply penetrating look he gave her pierced Jasmine’s soul.

‘It’s my child, isn’t it,’ he stated more than asked. No doubt in his mind.

There was no denying it, no evading it. He’d heard her tell the medical staff she was three months’ pregnant.

‘Yes,’ she said flatly, then gathered breath enough to add, ‘I lied. I lied to you. It wasn’t safe. So it’s not your fault, Collins. I’m the only one who’s responsible for this child.’

That let him off the hook. He could go with a clear conscience. It hadn’t been an accident. There’d been no failure of any contraceptive device. This outcome could be directly attributed to a choice she had made-a choice she’d been prepared to live by. Without him.

She half expected a tirade of accusation but it didn’t come. Even so, the long drawn-out silence stretched her nerves,

‘Did you want to fall pregnant, Jasmine?’ he asked her

His voice was carefully void of any criticism. Yet s he read into the question the suggestion she’d planned to trap him into fatherhood and she couldn’t bear him to think that of her.