LITMIR.BIZ

      The next few seconds were like a series of still shots in her mind. All she heard was his voice—‘I’m a doctor’—over and over. She pulled herself together, walked closer as the crowd dispersed, parents relieved to be able to deal with their own upset kids now there was someone taking charge.

      She looked about twelve, had blood spilling from a gash on her head. Was flat on her back. One of her legs was bent at a hideous angle below her shin. Sienna shut her eyes a moment, knowing that she’d just caught a glimpse of snapped bone. She opened them again, focused on him.

      Rhys was on his knees next to her, talking softly. ‘What’s your name, sweetie?’

      She looked stricken. He pushed back her hair with the lightest brush of his fingers, compassion clear in his expression, gentle warmth in his smile.

      ‘Katie.’

      ‘Katie.’ The child and the white-faced woman on the other side of her, presumably her mother, spoke simultaneously. Sienna understood. When he looked at anyone that way they’d talk. They’d trust—just as she had.

      ‘Hi, Katie. My name is Dr Rhys Maitland, but you can call me Rhys, OK?’ He was feeling over her body with deft hands. Sienna saw the way he was concentrating on other things while he chatted to her, saw the keen look in his eye. She recognised that look. Assessing. Evaluating. Deciding on his approach. When he got within range of her leg the child cried.

      ‘OK, sugar. We’re going to get you all fixed up, OK?’

      He kept talking to her low and quiet. The low, quiet tones he’d used with her, but they were still audible across the grounds.

      ‘My friends are going to come and pick us up in the ambulance. Have you ever been in an ambulance before?’

      One of the remaining bystanders next to Sienna turned to her. ‘He’s a doctor?’

      ‘Apparently so.’ Sienna looked back at Rhys. His experience and skill were obvious to everyone.

      ‘Is he good?’

      ‘Rhys is good at everything he does.’ Especially lying.

      It couldn’t have been much more than five minutes till the ambulance arrived, by which time Rhys clearly had everything under control. He even had the mother smiling, and the girl—weakly through her tears. Sienna clenched her teeth, holding back the grimace. The crew leapt out, bags in hand. One had a toy koala that she gave to the girl to cuddle. The kid buried her face in the soft fur.

      The other officer grinned at Rhys. ‘Hey, hero. Can’t keep away from it, can you? Not even on your holidays.’

      Aside from a slight wry twist to his lips you wouldn’t have thought Rhys had heard the comment. Instead he focused on introducing them to Katie, then talking through her condition.

      Sienna watched as he rapped out information. Cool, calm, still polite but so in control. The ambulance officers quickly getting onto it.

      Dr Rhys. Spouting medical jargon and utterly at home in a scene of chaos and carnage.

      Clinical.

      She’d known he’d held something back from her, but this brought home just how little she knew of him. Had anything in the last few days been real?

      Yes. Her stupid heart cried bitterly. Those moments in his arms had been the most real thing she’d ever experienced.

      But she pushed it away—sex. That was all it had been. Some stupid game. For whatever reason—and what the hell reason it could have been was utterly beyond her—he’d fabricated his entire life. And the thing was he’d done that right from the very beginning.

      Why hadn’t he told her? He’d lied. And at no point had he withdrawn from that lie. The only thing that appeared to be true was that he was on holiday—but from his job in this city, as a damn doctor. Tears of shock and hurt, wounded pride and wounded heart sprang in her eyes. He must have thought she was such a fool. Why, why, why? When she’d been so honest with him?