The Nurse by J. Corrigan (list of ebook readers txt) 📕

She paused. ‘How are you going to manage your course and having a baby?’

‘We’ll work something out.’

‘Do I hear wedding bells?’

I laughed. ‘I’m really not sure.’

‘Well, I think there should be.’ She looked pointedly at my stomach.

I wanted to ask her what she did for a living. Maybe she didn’t work. Maybe she didn’t have to.

She broke into my thoughts and I realised she’d been analysing me. ‘Come on, I bet you’re knackered. I’ll take you to your room so you can freshen up.’

The villa was on one level and Daniel’s room was located at the rear of the property. Abigail pushed open the door with her foot but didn’t step inside, waiting on the threshold.

‘Just give me a shout if you need anything. Looks like Ed brought your luggage in.’ She pointed to the bags sitting neatly on the queen-size bed. ‘I’m off back to the flat. I’ve booked a table at Daniel’s favourite restaurant in town tomorrow for lunch. Three o’clock. Hope that’s okay with you?’

‘Sounds great.’

‘Make yourself at home. I’m glad you came, Rose.’

‘Me too. It’s so nice to meet you.’ I’d had a terrible feeling we wouldn’t get on, but Abigail seemed perfectly okay. I was thinking that her problem wasn’t with me, but more her brother.

I turned to the bags on the bed. I’d bought her a small gift that I’d shoved in the holdall with my revision stuff, which I’d checked into the plane’s hold. That probably hadn’t been my best idea. I hadn’t checked either when Ed had brought the luggage to the car at the airport. I stared at the bed.

‘Is there a problem?’ Abigail said, concern lacing through her voice.

‘My holdall with my work in isn’t here.’

‘Don’t worry. I’ll get Ed to check. Maybe he left it in the taxi by mistake. It’s no problem. We know the taxi company well.’

I sat on the bed. ‘I hope so, because I need it.’

‘Have a swim and relax, Rose. I’ll sort out your bag.’

Trying to distract myself and not appear obsessive, I opened my suitcase and retrieved Casey’s bikini. I held it up and looked at it, then smiled at Abigail. ‘My mate’s. It’s far too small.’

‘It does look it. Just put a T-shirt over the top,’ she said with a grin, and in that moment, she really did look very like her brother. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘Sure.’

She turned, a vision of white, and disappeared, leaving that lingering aroma that seemed to permeate the entire villa. Cinnamon.

I put on the bikini and, as Abigail had suggested, pulled a long T-shirt over the top. I was so tired, my mind splintered. I glanced in the mirror that took up half of one wall, but all I could see was Abigail’s image.

Trying to forget about my missing bag, I made my way back to the main living space and the doors that opened onto the pool area. Taking a deep breath, I dived in. The water, though, was warm, like heated liquid silk on my skin.

I’d been swimming for no more than fifteen minutes when I heard Daniel. ‘Rose! C’mon. Let’s eat!’

Ignoring the pool steps, I pulled myself out easily. Daniel handed me a towel.

‘Thanks… Daniel, my holdall isn’t here. Abigail says it might still be in the taxi. I’m panicking.’

‘Relax. She’ll sort it.’ He gathered me to him. ‘I sent Señora López home. We’re alone.’

He’d changed into shorts and a T-shirt with Big Boss on the front. He looked different. Both the shorts and T-shirt were tatty and old, unlike the clothes he usually wore. He was at home within the villa’s space, and I wondered about Morocco and the house his dad lived in. Then I thought of Abigail and her place in Herefordshire. A family so split. But then I forgot all those thoughts as Daniel led me towards the doors and inside, guiding me to a sofa.

‘Not here,’ I said, smiling, but something about seeing him so free, uninhibited and reckless tore into me.

He unclasped my bikini top and peeled down the bottoms. His fingers touching and probing, I felt him so near, and my hand moved down his back and inwards to where we were meeting. The orgasm rolled and twisted towards my stomach, down into my thighs, loading my entire body and finally merging into a breathless tightness inside my chest. I let out a cry, and then I heard Daniel’s, and felt his palms holding my face.

He dropped a soft kiss onto my forehead, causing a fluttering inside my stomach, but then an image of white hovered as a ghost inside my mind, and for a beat the flutter increased in strength, moving towards my throat.

It took my breath away.

The room was silent, nothing but peace and solitude, until the sound of something, a clinking, came from the direction of the kitchen, and my body tensed.

‘Someone’s here,’ I said.

‘Hush, no one’s here.’

I looked over his shoulder and thought I saw a hint of white, a suggestion of scent, of cinnamon, but then it was gone. I grabbed the towel, wrapping it tightly around me.

He pulled on his shorts. ‘I’ll get us a drink. Relax. We’ll find your bag tomorrow, don’t worry. That’s what’s worrying you, isn’t it?’

It was worrying me, nearly as much as the image and the smell, but maybe I had overreacted. I was imagining things; smells and noises. ‘A drink would be good.’

While Daniel was in the kitchen, I made my way across the room towards the window, noticing the uneven colour of the white paint on the far wall. Obviously he didn’t take quite as much care with the decorating in the villa as he did with his house in Nottingham, his ruffled clothes compounding this Spanish trait.

I stared at the wall, waiting for Daniel to return with the drinks.

After making love again and eating Señora López’s food in bed, we slept. When I woke up, the sun had disappeared. I checked my watch as Daniel snored quietly beside me. Eleven. A raging