His Emergency Fiancée Read Online Free PDF Page B

dragged back to work.’
    ‘No, it’s not Adam, though I do want to talk to you about him later. It’s what you asked me last night.’ She swallowed. ‘I’ve made my decision. It’s yes.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    No, but she was so angry with Guy Chambers that she suppressed her doubts. ‘Yes,’ she said tightly, and put the phone down before Ben could try to talk her out of it.

CHAPTER THREE
    ‘W HAT made you change your mind?’ Ben asked that evening, when they were sharing a Chinese takeaway.
    ‘I thought about it, that’s all. Your gran’s important.’
    ‘Hmm.’ Ben didn’t sound convinced but, to Kirsty’s relief, he didn’t push it. ‘How was your afternoon with Dr Jekyll?’
    ‘Haven’t met him—just Mr Hyde,’ she muttered with a grimace.
    ‘Hey, it’ll all come out in the wash. He’s just the new boy trying to make an impression, that’s all. Give him a couple of weeks and he’ll be a pussycat.’
    She didn’t answer. If she told Ben what had really happened in Chambers’s office that afternoon, he’d do his protective big brother act and warn Chambers off—and, in retaliation, Chambers would make her life hell. What had she said to Adam? That brains and technique won every time…Right now, she wasn’t so sure that she believed it.
    ‘So, are you on duty this weekend?’
    ‘Yes, but I can swap shifts with someone if you want to go to Scotland.’ She’d swap shifts with anyone—do double, treble even—if it meant not having to work with Chambers!
    ‘Great.’ He eyed the last pancake on the plate between them. ‘D’you want any more of that crispy duck?’
    ‘Yes, actually.’
    ‘Spoilsport.’ He expertly filled the pancake with hoisin sauce, duck and vegetables, wrapped it up, took a huge bite—then fed the other half of the pancake to her.
    She was staggeringly aware of his nearness—of how long and supple and strong his fingers were—and groaned inwardly. No. Don’t say she was losing her immunity to Dr Charming. Not now. Not when the rest of her life was falling apart. This was one complication she could do without!
    ‘You’re going to have to work on that a bit,’ Ben said, surprising her.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Me touching you. If you hadn’t been sitting down just now you’d have leapt back six feet. My fiancée would be used to me being touchy-feely.’
    She bit her lip. ‘Sorry.’
    ‘Hey.’ He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. ‘It’s me, remember? Ben. Best-friend Ben. I’m not going to do anything to hurt you. You know that.’ He paused. ‘What’s your ring size?’
    ‘I’ve no idea. Why?’
    ‘For your engagement ring,’ he reminded her. ‘Gran’ll expect it.’
    ‘Tell her I can’t wear a ring at work. It’s not hygienic.’
    ‘And you’re a surgeon. I know, I know.’ He smiled at her. ‘Which is why you wear it on a chain round your neck at work.’
    He was infuriating, the way he had an answer for everything. ‘Ben, I—’
    ‘By the way, I owe you one.’
    She frowned. ‘How do you mean?’
    ‘My distraction case. Young Adam. How did you guess he was being bullied?’
    She shrugged. ‘He reminded me of someone I once knew.’
    He gave her a searching look, but to her relief he didn’t push it. ‘He asked me to thank you. He said he was going to find out about martial arts.’
    ‘Good.’
    ‘I thought of alcohol abuse, maybe drugs—but I hadn’t thought steroids,’ Ben continued.
    ‘Acne, aggressiveness and rampant testosterone,’ Kirsty recited dryly.
    ‘Don’t tell me. Takes a woman to see it?’
    She chuckled. ‘No. Actually, I was winging it. Lucky guess.’
    ‘If you’re that good, you can pick my lottery numbers for the next month.’
    ‘If I was that good, I’d already have won it,’ she pointed out.
    ‘Yeah. Well, I can dream. You go and sort your shifts out—you’ll need Friday afternoon off, too, because our flight’s at four—and I’ll do the washing-up.’
    ‘ You’ll do the