Page 20 of Yesterday's Scars

He laughed at her anger. 'I'll enjoy watching you try.'

'I'll do it, Rafe. Somehow I'll do it,' she said fiercely. 'You'll pay for this any way I can make you.'

He opened the door. 'I wouldn't count on it.'

'You'll see, Rafe. You'll see!'

He was still laughing as he closed the door. Hazel crumpled back against the pillows, her body still on fire for him. She couldn't stand any more of these letdowns. Rafe raised her to the heights but denied her the ultimate release. The only thing she had to console her was that he must be just as frustrated. But was he? He could always run to Janine Clarke.

In fact she felt sure that was where he had been when she saw him coming in the front door at eight o'clock as she walked down the stairs. He was clothed in denims and a sweat-shirt and was obviously in need of a shave.

His eyes narrowed as he saw her. 'What do you think you're doing?'

'I would have thought it was obvious, I'm walking down the stairs,'

'Don't get cheeky with me, little girl,' he snapped, his eyes running insolently over her slim body dressed in white shorts and a red figure-hugging suntop. 'You know very well what I meant. And do you have to walk around half naked?'

'I'll walk around completely naked if I want to,' she retorted.

'Oh, I see,' he taunted. 'This is the start of the revenge. Well, I should warn you, I don't go mad with desire just looking at you. I've known plenty of women and it takes more than a look to make me want them. I trust you know what I mean.'

She blushed. 'I'm not acting the whore for you!'

'You could have fooled me. I hope you don't intend letting anyone else see you dressed like that,' he added grimly.

Hazel smoothed her hands down her hips. 'I always used to dress like this. You never used to object.'

'Well, I'm objecting now. You've filled out in certain places since you last wore those clothes. You look indecent.'

Hazel gave a slow smile. 'Strange, I feel very comfortable.'

'You can go straight back up to your room and get out of them,' he ordered.

She gasped, 'I'm not changing!'

'No one is asking you to change. You can go back to your room and get into bed.'

'Rafe!' her eyes mocked him. 'Not this time of morning, surely?'

His teeth snapped together angrily. 'I wasn't propositioning you, I was telling you to get back to bed. You aren't supposed to get up until tomorrow.'

'It was silly of me to think you were going to take me to bed now. I shouldn't think you have the strength left after the night you've just had.'

'Meaning?'

'Meaning Mrs Clarke has already had the best of you today. I would at least want to be the first woman of the day.' She brushed past him on her way to the dining-room, the thought of breakfast reminding her of how hungry she was.

Rafe swung her roughly round to face him. 'Get to bed, Hazel! Before I lose my temper with you again.'

She wrenched away from him. 'Don't order me about, Rafe! I've had enough of lying in bed, I want my breakfast and then I'm going down to the beach.'

'You aren't doing anything of the sort. The doctor said you were to stay in bed and that's where you're staying.'

She faced him defiantly. 'He didn't say any such thing. He said I was to rest and be kept under observation. I can rest down on the beach, and if you're that worried about me you can come and keep an eye on me yourself.'

'I have work to do.'

'Are you sure you're up to it?' she taunted. 'You've had a very strenuous night.'

'I could still find the strength to put you over my knee and spank you,' he told her curtly. 'God, your face is a mess!'

She glared at him resentfully, putting up a self-conscious hand to her bruised face. 'You're such a gentleman!'

'I'm only telling you the truth.'

'I've already seen it in the mirror, thank you.' She touched her tender eye, remembering her horror this morning when she had seen the discolouration around her eye, the purple and black bruising quite awful to look at.

'Does it hurt?'

'Only when I laugh,' she snapped. 'Of course it hurts! Don't ask silly questions.'

'Calm down, Hazel. I realise you aren't feeling well, but------'

'I feel fine, a bit bruised, but other than that I feel fine. And I'm not going back to bed.'

'I'm responsible for you, so you'll do as you're told.'

'Make me,' she challenged.

'I intend to.' Rafe swung her up into his arms, ignoring her kicking and struggling. He threw her ruthlessly down on to the bed, his face pale. 'Now do as you're told.'

She frowned up at him, 'Are you all right, Rafe? You look ill.'

'I'm—I'm fine,' he said weakly. 'Just don't argue with me any more.'

Her mouth twisted into a humourless smile. 'You're older than you realised, Rafe, if you can't cope with a night of lovemaking. You don't have the stamina for it like you used to,'

Rafe sighed. 'Perhaps you're right. Excuse me.'

Hazel was taken aback by his abrupt departure. He had almost seemed to admit defeat in their argument, something he had never done before. But she did as he ordered anyway; the effort of dressing and going downstairs was much more wearing than she had at first realised.

Sara brought her in a breakfast tray later, the murmur of voices from the passageway audible to her. Sara seemed preoccupied, putting the tray down on the table and turning to leave without saying a word.

'Sara?' Hazel halted her at the door. 'Is there anything wrong? Is that the doctor's voice I can hear out there? He hasn't come to see me, has he?'

'How you do go on,' Sara scolded, coming over to tuck in the bedclothes about her. 'No, the doctor isn't here to see you. Mr Rafe isn't feeling well.'

Hazel paled. 'What's wrong with him?' Her voice shook as she remembered her bitchy taunts about his stamina.

'Well, if we knew that we wouldn't have needed to call out the doctor,' Sara said shortly. 'Oh, I'm sorry,' she instantly apologised. 'It's all been such a strain, first you and now Mr Rafe. I suppose Miss Celia will be falling ill next,' she tutted.

'Did Rafe hurt himself?' Hazel persisted.

'Collapsed is what he did. I went to his room because he hadn't been down for his breakfast like he usually does at seven o'clock, and found him collapsed on the bed.'

Hazel scrambled to get out from under the bedclothes. 'I must go to him,' she said worriedly.

Sara pushed her back on to the bed. 'You'll do nothing of the kind,' she told her sternly. -

Hazel looked up at her with tear-filled eyes. 'But I have to, Sara. I have to know how he is.'

'When the doctor tells us I'll let you know,' the housekeeper said stubbornly. 'But until then you'll stay where you are. There's been too much laxness in this house lately. You and Mr Rafe seem to forget you aren't related. It isn't right for you to be in each other's bedrooms. People would talk if they knew about such goings on!'

So Sara hadn't forgotten that Rafe had been helping her undress the evening before. She would never know how much Hazel and Rafe were aware of the fact that they weren't related, of the heated desire that flared up continuously between them.

'But it doesn't mean anything, Sara. You know that.' She hoped!

Sara gave her a hard look. 'Lately I'm not so sure___

Still, I'm sure Mr Rafe has more sense.'

Hazel raised her eyebrows. 'And I don't?'

'You've always had a thing about Mr Rafe, even when you went through the teenage stage of disliking everyone and everything. Luckily enough Mr Rafe ignored it all. So you aren't going to his bedroom, especially while the doctor is in there.'

Clever Sara, seeing so much more than she ever told anyone. But she hadn't realised it all, thank God. Hazel didn't think she could face her if she knew about the night she had spent with Rafe.

'No, Sara,' she said obediently. 'But you will let me know how he is?'

'I won't need to. The doctor is coming in to see you after he's examined Mr Rafe. You can ask him yourself.'

'Are you sure I'll be safe left alone with him?' Hazel teased.

'Of course you will, he's a doctor.'

Hazel laughed. 'He's also a man.'

'Yes, well, I—I------Don't be cheeky, young lady!

Eat your breakfast,' she ordered.

'I'll come down for lunch, Sara. This is all making extra work for you.'

'You'll do what the doctor tells you. And if he says you're to stay in bed that's exactly what you'll do.'

'Yes, Sara.'

'Stop being cheeky,' the housekeeper smiled at her. 'Your coffee is getting cold.'

Hazel drank the coffee and ate a piece of toast while she waited for the doctor. If only Sara could have told her more than that Rafe had collapsed!

She looked up anxiously as the doctor knocked before entering the room. 'How's Rafe?' she asked quickly.

David Byne looked taken aback. 'With a little rest he's going to be fine.' He pulled up a chair beside the bed. 'How are you feeling? That's a lovely black eye you have there.'

Hazel dismissed it with a grimace. 'What's wrong with Rafe?'

The doctor smiled. 'What a persistent young lady you are! It's his hip, of course.'

She frowned. 'His hip?'

'Mm—he's been suffering for days, apparently, without saying a word to anyone about it, I thought he looked a little strained when I saw him yesterday at the hospital, but I put that down to worry about you.'

'But he's going to be all right?'

He nodded. 'This time, yes. But he has to have that operation,' he added darkly.

'Can't you persuade him?'

'I was going to ask you the same question.'

Hazel looked away. 'He wouldn't listen to me.'

'Are you sure?’ he probed.

'Very sure,' she told him firmly. 'Do you think his carrying me dad anything to do with this attack?'

'I think it could have done, yes. But he's been overdoing things for weeks, from what I can gather. I wanted to send him to hospital, but for some reason this family have an aversion to them. He should have that operation soon. Hazel, or he won't be able to have it at all.'

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