Sue MacKay - The Dangers of Dating Your Boss

Jack’s hands slid over her back—a caressing movement that stole the air out of her lungs, nullified the common sense trying to take hold of her mind.

When he wrapped his hands over her shoulders and tipped her slightly backwards she knew he was going to kiss her and she was powerless to stop him. She wanted it. Forget right or wrong. This was Jack and she was finally kissing him. Common sense was highly overrated.

His mouth touched hers: softly, tentatively. Seeking what? A connection from the past? A new beginning? She thrilled as his lips moulded with hers. And when she opened her mouth under his her tongue tasted him. Jack went from slow and quiet to fast and hot in an instant. His kiss deepened so quickly Ruby was spinning through space. Her arms gripped him tighter for support, trying to keep herself firmly in the here and now as she tilted further back to allow Jack better access to her mouth.

At last. She was kissing Jack Forbes again. Memories of other kisses flooded her senses. Nothing over those years had changed. They fitted together. They were two halves that needed their matching piece to be complete. And yet this kiss felt different from every other kiss she’d shared with Jack. Filled with need so long held in abeyance. Filled with the promise of new beginnings …

Dear Reader

Welcome to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city. Affectionately known as Windy Wellington, the city sits on the edge of a large harbour where ferries regularly ply back and forth across the wild Cook Strait to the South Island.

I haven’t set a story in a large city before, and have only touched on a very small piece of this one. I love using real settings that I know, because the moment I sit down to write I’m transported to that place. I can share the memories of wandering along a certain beach or walking through a busy street or cycling in the hills.

Ruby and Jack both love Wellington—it’s just taken Ruby a long time and some life-changing experiences to realise that. Coming home to settle down is exciting for her, while Jack’s finally decided there’s got to be more to life and it’s probably not in his home town.

I hope you enjoy the journey these two take to overcome their previous broken relationship and to find common ground for starting over … together.

Cheers!

Sue MacKay

With a background of working in medical laboratories and a love of the romance genre, it is no surprise that SUE MACKAYwrites Medical Romance stories. An avid reader all her life, she wrote her first story at age eight—about a prince, of course. She lives with her own hero in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, where she indulges her passions for the outdoors, the sea and cycling.

Also by Sue MacKay:

SURGEON IN A WEDDING DRESS

RETURN OF THE MAVERICK

PLAYBOY DOCTOR TO DOTING DAD

THEIR MARRIAGE MIRACLE

These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Behind every author is a great editor.

Thank you, Megan Haslam,

for your patience and wonderful encouragement.

‘IF I DON’T eat in the next five minutes I’m going to slip into a coma,’ Ruby Smith told her boss and crew partner, Dave.

‘Yeah, yeah. Heard it all before. Didn’t you have breakfast?’ Dave stacked the two medical packs at the helicopter door, ready to be taken into the storeroom and replenished.

‘That was hours ago.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Six hours ago, to be precise.’ A call had come through as she’d been about to sit down to a hot steak pie from the local bakery. Now they’d just returned from an MVA on State Highway One. They’d airlifted a young man with both femurs broken and one femoral artery torn to Hutt Hospital.

‘Hey, Red, is that you?’ A deep, male voice with a slight rasp called from down on the tarmac.

Ruby’s heart leapt into her throat. Jack? Even after years apart, that voice was as familiar to her as her own. And it still had the power to unravel her carefully put-together resolve to keep him at arm’s length. That voice had been what had first attracted her to Jack, the only man she’d ever loved. The man she’d walked away from. For the dumbest of reasons.

But what was Jack doing here? Today? He wasn’t due to start until Monday, when she’d have been prepared. Right now she was still getting her head around all the ramifications of working with him. Would it be like old times? Jack the consummate professional watching her like a hawk, always teaching her, helping her improve her nursing skills? And would she be listening impatiently, wanting to touch him every time no one was looking? A sigh tickled over her lip. Want to or not, she had to keep her hands to herself. She’d go around with them jammed in her pockets if necessary. She’d moved on, grown up, knew her worth. So if there were a few blips between them as they got used to working together again, she’d survive.

There was no choice. Wellington was home now. Never again would she toss her few possessions into her pack and head away. She’d even burnt that pack against the day wanderlust struck again. She’d done her searching, found what she’d been looking for and sucked up the pain from knowing she’d wasted years of her life because of it. To let Jack back under her skin would risk her newfound and fragile contentment.

She peered out into the glittering winter sun, gripping the doorframe, her knuckles white. Jack, tall and slim, emanated strength in his stance as he stared up at her. Her mouth dried. Solid need sliced through her, heating and freezing her all at once. Need she believed she’d finally wrestled into submission. Jack Forbes. Her new boss and crew partner. Her old lover.

She couldn’t do this. She had to do this. ‘Hi, Jack,’ she managed feebly. Hi, gorgeous , her brain mocked her.

He grinned his well-practised, impish grin that had always got him everything he wanted, including her. ‘Get your butt out of that flying machine and come say hello to an old mate.’

So that was how he was going to play it. Mates. She could work with that, and it was a better start than she’d hoped for. Ruby jumped down onto the tarmac, grimacing as she jarred her bung knee. Tugging her shoulders back tight, she strode towards the moment she’d been both looking forward to and dreading since returning home to New Zealand. She strode towards Jack, apparently her friend. She hadn’t been sure if she was as over this man as she should be. And now? The jury was out.

‘Jack, it’s great to see you.’ Talk about the understatement of the year. Of her life.

‘Great to see ya, ruby-red girl.’ His old greeting. The one he’d shouted out as he’d come in the door at night, when he’d rolled over in bed in the morning.

Ruby’s heart tripped. Ruby-red girl. Did he even realise what he’d said? She blinked up at him, saw his Adam’s apple bob and shoved down the sense of drowning brought on by that greeting. Fixing a tight smile on her face, she desperately hoped she’d managed to hide the shock blowing through her at the close-up sight of him. Jack had always been a handsome dude, but three years on and wow. Her fingers tingled. Her stomach crunched. Lust, pure and simple, hot and complex, bubbled through her. Oh, boy, this reunion wasn’t supposed to be filled with desire and temptation. Mates, remember? ‘To think you’re going to be working on the helicopters.’

‘Why wouldn’t I?’ His grin faded. ‘I was blown away when I saw your name on the staff list. I didn’t know you were back in the country, let alone Wellington.’ His eyes narrowed as he looked her over with a familiar slow slide down her body that made her blood race and lifted goose-bumps on her skin. Made her want him. Badly.

The whole thing about having to work with Jack had just got monumentally harder. She fought the flare of annoyance that he could make her feel like this so easily after such a long time. ‘I know what you mean. To think you’d even consider leaving the emergency department came as a bombshell.’ That was the truth.

‘I’m full of surprises.’ Was that a hint of sarcasm in his tone?

‘Maybe I’ve got a few of my own,’ she retorted. Like the house she’d bought and the renovations she was doing to it, like her cute little friend sharing the place with her. If those things didn’t astonish Jack then he must have turned to stone over the years she’d been away.

Then a memory swamped her, flattening her with shame.

Three years ago Jack’s face had registered shock and disbelief over her biggest surprise ever. ‘You’re really going? Leaving Wellington? Leaving me?’

‘I have to. I’m never going to find my father by staying here, and since I’ve learned he’s American it makes sense to go over to the States. Come on, Jack, try to understand. For the first time ever I’ve got a starting point. How could I not go?’ Her hands had trembled so much she’d dropped her dinner plate and splattered her meal all over the floor. ‘You could come with me,’ she’d whispered in desperation .

‘Sure, Red, just drop everything and leave. Like it’s that easy. I’ve got nearly a year to go before I qualify as an emergency specialist. Stopping in midstream just isn’t possible.’ He’d taken her cold hands in his. ‘You could wait for me.’

She’d shaken her head, beating down the urge to fling herself in his arms and hold on for ever. ‘I can’t. I’ve waited all my life to meet my dad and this is the closest I’ve ever got to finding him. This is so important to me. I have to go.’ Jack had been just as important, maybe more, but she’d foolishly believed finding her parent had been paramount .

Jack’s face had been bleak, his eyes dark with sadness . ‘Until you do this you’re never going to be completely happy, are you? Not even with me?’

She hadn’t been able to answer him for the lump in her throat .

That was when the arguments had begun, almost as a defence mechanism to protect their shattering hearts. They’d agreed they had to make a clean break but the days before she’d flown out had been intense as they’d crammed as much loving as possible into the little time left.

Now Jack lifted a hand in a stop sign, worry darkening his all-seeing eyes. ‘Hey, let’s leave the past alone. After all, it isn’t called the past for nothing.’

Ouch. ‘True. This is a different job; we’re probably different people now.’ She certainly was. Forcing a smile, she asked, ‘So how’s life been treating you? You’re looking pretty good for an old guy.’

His smoky grey eyes lightened, twinkled, the crinkles at their corners bunching up. That heart-stopping smile lifted his mouth. And cramped her stomach. ‘Can’t complain. And less of the “old guy” stuff. Turning thirty was an event, not a disaster.’

So why the sudden doubt reflecting back at her? Jack had always been confident, in control. Doubt hadn’t even been in his vocabulary. These days she wasn’t in a position to ask anything personal. Not that he’d tell her anyway. Talking about the things that bothered him wasn’t in his make-up. He took everything life tossed at him and moved on with a nonchalance that hid his true feelings. He was a rock. The person everyone could, and did, rely on in all situations. He didn’t ever ask anyone to prop him up.