Dangerous Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

how she could be feeling sorry for herself when many of these people had lost friends and loved ones. At least Nathan was alive, and God willing, he'd make a full recovery. She should be glad he'd survived. Not bemoaning her fate…
    She waited her turn silently, relieved that she was not obliged to make trivial conversation. It was a huge hospital, with the corridors stretching away to left and right evidently accommodating many wards. The sign, hanging above their heads, announced Neurosurgery and Neurology, and she was just absorbing the significance of this when the busy nurse asked her name.
    "Um…" Caitlin looked at her a little blankly. "I—Wolfe. Caitlin Wolfe."
    "We don't have any Caitlin Wolfe on this floor," the nurse declared impatiently.
    She was already turning to the next inquirer when Caitlin exclaimed, "It's Nathan. Nathan Wolfe." She flushed unhappily. "I misunderstood. I thought you wanted my name."
    She glanced at the couple behind her, hoping for their support, but the woman seemed dull-eyed and lifeless and the man looked right through her. Evidently the news they'd received had left them in a state of shock, and once again Caitlin felt guilty for her lack of grief.
    "You're Mrs Wolfe, is that right?" the nurse asked with more compassion, and Caitlin nodded quickly. For the first time, she felt a prickle of alarm. The nurse was eyeing her with some sympathy now. How serious could Nathan's condition be?
    "I'm going to have to ask you to take a seat, Mrs Wolfe," the nurse declared at last, compounding her fears. "The doctor would like to speak to you before you see your husband. If you'd just wait over there…"
    "He's not dead, is he?"
    Caitlin blurted the words urgently, and this time even the man and woman behind her in the queue showed some response. But the nurse was professionally reassuring. "He's doing very well," she declared, shuffling the folders on the desk. "The doctor just wants to talk to you. It's nothing too serious." She lifted her hand as if taking an oath. "I promise."
    Caitlin wasn't sure how sincere the nurse's promise might be. She was still troubled by those two words: Neurosurgery and Neurology. It must mean that Nathan had injured his head. Oh, God, he wasn't brain damaged, was he? That would be the cruellest blow of all.
    But she wouldn't think about things like that, she decided, taking a seat on one of the steel-framed vinyl chairs. She had to be confident, and optimistic. Someone would surely have told her if Nathan was in a coma.
    A little girl of perhaps two or three was waiting with her mother a couple of seats away. Although she was obviously too old to do so, she was sucking her thumb, and Caitlin wondered what anxieties she was suffering in her own small way. She had to know something was wrong. Her mother had been crying. Was that why she was seeking comfort in the only way she knew?
    Caitlin attempted a smile, but it wasn't returned, and even that effort was too great to sustain. Dear God, she thought, let Nathan be all right. Whatever he'd done, he didn't deserve to be here.
    The little girl continued to stare at her, and Caitlin wondered if things would have been different if she and Nathan had had a child of their own. It might not have changed his character, but he might have loved their child.
    Her mind drifted back to her own childhood. When had she become aware that her own father had wished
she
had been a son? Was it when he'd realised her mother could have no more children after Caitlin? When he'd learned the dynasty he'd hoped to found was never to be?
    To begin with, it hadn't seemed that important—at least not to Caitlin. All through her childhood, all the time she was growing into adolescence, she had never felt she was a disappointment to either of her parents. She had been given everything a child could wish for, and they had had her love in return.
    But she had always been a fairly serious child, never happier than when her nose was immersed in a