Heartbeat (Medical Romance) Read Online Free

evening for the communal supper.'
    'Well how about taking me round the Mission and showing me where things are.'
    'Ask Dr Blarney, the guy who picked you up and carted you in here.'
    Jenni slid her legs over the edge of the high couch and dropped to the floor, which was covered with tacked-down coir matting. She expected Ross to take a step back as she invaded his space, but he didn't move. Interesting. Jenni went into automatic flirtation mode. She just couldn’t help herself. 'Ah yes, the frog prince,’ she murmured glancing up at the tall dusty doctor from under her lashes.
    There was a moment's pause. Ross McDonnell almost smiled. At least his clamp of a mouth lifted at one corner. The effect, accompanied by the slow regard of those heavy-lidded eyes, was disconcerting. Jenni felt her heart skip a beat. Foolish heart …
    She pulled a crumpled tissue from her pocket and rubbed spit into the dirty scratch on her upper arm. McDonnell was one hundred per cent not her type. But his dismissive arrogance was a challenge and he was excitingly different from the smoothies of the London teaching hospitals.
    'Wait here.' Ross jiggled the keys of the Land Rover as he paused to look back at her from the doorway. 'Matt can take you over to the staff quarters. But be a sensible girl, right?'
    There was a patronising note to his voice that should have warned Jenni to be on her guard.
    'Don't bother to unpack. Just the stuff you'll need for tonight.'
    'What??'
    'I'm driving you back to Dar-es-Salaam first thing in the morning.'
    At the girl's sharp intake of breath his hand shot up, palm outward in warning. 'Don’t argue. We've a strong chain of personnel here with no weak links. You're not up to it, milkmaid. I'm putting in a firm recommendation for sending you home. Tomorrow. Right?'
    'Hold on a minute! Who do you think you are? You—you—' Jenni spluttered in outrage. The horrible man looked amused, as if she were some kind of agitated beetle. Someone else materialised behind him. A pair of interested eyes peered over his shoulder. 'I fetched some goat's milk, boss. Thought it might do her good.'
    'Keep an eye on her, Matt. Bit overwrought, you know how it is.'
    'Right on, boss.'
    Speechless, Jenni gripped the edge of the treatment couch. Her nails dug into the coarse sheet and her head spun with hunger and fatigue. But she was conscious that Matt Blarney was eyeing her in the way she had come to expect from men, so that was a plus. He’d be rooting for her, would this Matt, in spite of the hostility of the 'boss' man.
    Anyway, wasn't Paul the boss around here? What authority did Ross McDonnell have!
    Well, he is the Medical Officer, and you are supposed to be working under his guidance , warned the voice of common sense. If McDonnell won't keep you, then I don't suppose he can actually make you leave the country. You’d have to transfer to another mission station where they’re shortstaffed.
    Ross was gone. The atmosphere in the room lost its charge of electricity.
    Over his jeans and red tartan shirt, Matt was now wearing a white lab coat with the collar carefully turned up—obviously a vital part of his image. And he had exchanged his sneakers for heeled cowboy boots. They looked hot and uncomfortable, but Matt didn't seem unduly bothered. Even in the boots he was several inches shorter than McDonnell but well proportioned on a lesser scale, slim-hipped and broad-shouldered with smooth olive-toned skin. Beneath the thatch of unruly black hair, his face was pleasant and even-featured and his smile held a welcome warmth—even a trace of shyness now he and the new nurse were alone together.
    Thank heaven for a normal warm-blooded male , breathed Jenni on a sigh of relief. Matt was staring at her with that old familiar look in his admiring black eyes. So I'm not after all totally repugnant. I was beginning to wonder if I'd grown a head of snakes!
    ‘Here,’ said Matt, ‘nice an' cool straight from the fridge. Don't expect