LITMIR.BIZ

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I am not hormonal.’

      ‘Then what the hell is wrong with you?’

      ‘You’d better direct that question to Dr Walker,’ she suggested in an acid tone, and Ethan inhaled sharply.

      ‘Kyla, why don’t we go somewhere quiet and talk?’

      ‘Don’t you mean somewhere quiet so that we can carry on keeping our secrets? Or rather your secrets.’ Her gaze was accusing. ‘And what do you mean, talk? Since when did you ever talk, Ethan? You’re more of a listener, aren’t you? Especially when you’re finding out about people.’

      Wishing he hadn’t taken so long to tell her the truth, Ethan watched her steadily. She was a woman of wild extremes. Whatever Kyla did, she did it with an abandoned passion. She made love as though she was enjoying her last moments on earth and she lost her temper with the same degree of intensity. With Kyla, there was no neutral. No grey areas.

      So how on earth was he going to explain himself to her? Especially when he couldn’t even explain things to himself.

      ‘Surgery is about to start,’ Logan pointed out in a quiet tone, ‘so whatever it is that’s bugging the pair of you, you need to shelve it until later. There’s enough gossip on this island without adding more.’

      Kyla turned to him. ‘Ethan is—’

      ‘I don’t want to hear it, Kyla.’ Logan’s voice was firm. ‘Get set up for clinic. We’ll talk later. And now I need to sort out Fraser.’

      Kyla hesitated and it was obvious that she was struggling with her emotions. Then she blinked several times, swallowed hard and walked towards her room with her head down.

      ‘Women,’ Logan said wearily, watching her go. ‘Don’t you ever wish they came with an instruction manual?’

      Kyla buried herself in her clinic but her mind wouldn’t focus. She didn’t know whether to cry or punch something and in the end she just did everything on automatic. She took blood pressures, she talked about asthma management, she syringed an ear, took a cervical smear and changed two dressings. Then she realised that she hadn’t even noticed what the wounds underneath had looked like.

      All she’d been thinking about was Ethan.

       And the letter.

      She gave up and went next door to Evanna.

      ‘I’m sorry to ask you this.’ Her voice was gruff. ‘But have you got time to finish my clinic? I’ve only got three more to see but I’m not concentrating. I think I need some air before I put a dressing on someone who needs an ECG.’

      Evanna put down the tourniquet she was holding. ‘Of course. What’s the matter? Are you ill? Perhaps it was being stuck in that dark tunnel in the storm.’

      ‘I’m not ill,’ Kyla assured her dully, backing towards the door. ‘I just feel a bit—I need to—’

      ‘It’s OK,’ Evanna said in a soft voice, waving a hand at her. ‘Just go. You don’t need to explain.’

      Kyla gave her a grateful smile and slid out of the room just as Ethan emerged from his.

      They looked at each other and then she sucked in a breath and made for the car park.

      ‘Kyla, wait.’ His voice was a firm command but she ignored him and lengthened her stride. He’d had plenty of opportunity to talk to her and he hadn’t bothered. And she certainly wasn’t ready to talk to him. Maybe she wouldn’t ever be ready. She felt completely betrayed.

      She climbed into her car and sped away, determined to find herself somewhere peaceful to think.

      Instinctively she headed for the ruined castle and then wished she hadn’t because the place was now layered with memories of Ethan and it was impossible to think clearly with thoughts of earlier intruding.

      There was no trace of the storm now and the sun shone in a perfectly blue sky, but still Kyla shivered as she sank down onto a rock and stared bleakly out to sea.

      And then she heard a firm, masculine tread behind her and she rose to her feet, accusation in her eyes because she knew who it would be. And perhaps, secretly, she’d wanted him to follow her so that they could say what needed to be said, in privacy.

      ‘Why did you follow me?’

      ‘Because we need to talk and we don’t need to do it in public.’ He stopped a little distance away from her and she turned away, ignoring the wisps of hair that blew across her face.

      ‘You mean that you don’t want anyone else to hear your secret.’

      ‘I don’t want them to hear it yet.’ His voice was even. Steady. ‘First, you and I need to talk.’

      ‘Why?’ She turned back to face him, so angry that she clenched her hands into fists. ‘So that you can make excuses?’

      ‘I’m not going to make excuses.’

      How could he be so calm? ‘You deceived us, Ethan.’ Her voice broke and she hated herself for showing just how badly his betrayal had hurt her. ‘You deceived us all. Not just me but Logan, Evanna—the whole island. We thought—we thought you were—’

      ‘You thought I was Ethan Walker, and that’s exactly who I am.’

      She looked him full in the face, not giving him room for escape. ‘But you’re also Catherine’s brother,’ she said in a whisper. ‘Catherine’s brother.’

      He stepped towards her. ‘Kyla—’

      ‘You’re not a stranger. It wasn’t serendipity that brought you here. You came here for a reason. You came to find her child, didn’t you? You came for your niece. You came after Kirsty.‘

      Tension stiffened his shoulders. ‘I wanted to meet her, yes.’

      ‘No, Ethan.’ Kyla shook her head and hugged her arms around her waist. ‘Wanting to meet her would have been you walking off that ferry and saying, “Hi, I’m Kirsty’s uncle.” And you didn’t do that. You stayed on the edges and watched. You ate our food and you drank our drink. You listened to our conversations and lived our lives with us, and all the time you were just watching.’

      ‘There were things I needed to understand. I wanted to get to know you all.’

      ‘And is that your excuse for making love to me? Did you need a few extra intimate details for your research?’ She forced herself to say the words—forced herself to stare hurt in the face. ‘I suppose that’s the ultimate way of getting to know someone, isn’t it? What are you going to do next? Move on to Evanna just to check that you know her, too?’

      ‘Don’t, Kyla—’

      ‘Don’t what? Don’t face up to facts? I’m being honest, which is more than you’ve been up until now.’

      His shoulders were tense. ‘What happened between us had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I’m Catherine’s brother.’

      ‘Yes, it did, because you wouldn’t even have been here if you hadn’t been Catherine’s brother! We would never have met. You deliberately hid your identity from me. From all of us.’

      ‘I tried to tell you.’

      ‘But you didn’t try hard enough, did you? What were you thinking?’ The lump in her throat threatened to choke her and the anger burned inside her. ‘Were you checking out whether Logan was a fit enough father? Because I can tell you now that he’s worth six of you. Logan is honest and straightforward, and if you are thinking of doing anything that will hurt my brother or his child, I will personally see you off this island.’ Breathless, she stopped, her chest rising and falling as she struggled for control.

      A muscle worked in his lean cheek, an indication of his own rising tension. ‘You want me to explain so let’s

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