Read Online Out of Sight Out of Mind by Evonne Wareham - Free Book Online

fold-down bed operated, and where the bedding and towels were kept. Everything was new, unused.
    ‘Thanks.’ He was looking round with an unreadable expression on his face.
    ‘No problem.’ She turned away, before he could say more. ‘Will you be ready to go in ten minutes?’
    ‘You brought me to a
vet
? A place that takes care of people’s
pets!
’ Jay stopped so suddenly, catching sight of the brass plate by the door, that Madison cannoned into him. She pulled back sharply. He was wearing Neil’s cashmere overcoat. The familiar feel of the soft fabric, brushing against her cheek, made her skin tingle.
    ‘You have a better suggestion?’ It came out sharper than she intended. She exhaled. ‘Animals have bones, same as people, and Joe plays rugby. He’s always breaking things.’
    The tension in Jay’s jaw told her how much he wanted to argue. And the control as he let it go.
Doesn’t take instruction well, but sucks it up when there’s no alternative
. Hmmm.
    Joe had sandwiched them in between an anxious poodle and a hamster with a weight problem. Madison leaned against the wall while he conducted his examination. She avoided noticing the white line of pain around Jay’s mouth by pretending to study a diagram of the feline digestive tract.
    ‘Well, Doc? Is he gonna live?’
    ‘How the hell would I know?’ Joe grinned. ‘As far as I can tell, your diagnosis is correct.’ He nodded to Jay. ‘Broken collarbone, but
don’t
quote me. On the basis of personal experience, if you did it three weeks ago, then it should be on the way to healing by now. But I am
not
a doctor. I can strap it up, make it more comfortable, but you really should see a medic. One that specialises in humans.’
    ‘Not possible.’ Madison reached up to kiss his cheek. ‘Thanks, Joey, you’re a star.’
    ‘Old boyfriend?’ Jay settled into the passenger seat with a resigned sigh as Madison leaned over to help fasten his seatbelt.
    ‘Joe?’
    Jay narrowed his eyes as her head went back and her eyebrows soared. Either she was a bloody good actress, or she’d been genuinely surprised at the question.
    ‘Friend, not boyfriend; we were at university together.’
    She let in the clutch smoothly. Jay found himself admiring the way she drove and obscurely glad that she and big, good-looking Joe had never been an item. On the other hand, there was the expensive coat he was wearing.
And everything else
. There’d been a man in the angel’s recent past. He’d walked out, and left his stuff behind. Interesting. Jay studied Madison’s profile. Chin a little tense. The angel had something on her mind. Was she going to spit it out? Yes?
    ‘Joe doesn’t know,’ she’d pokered up, hands stiff on the wheel, ‘about the mind reading. I … don’t broadcast it. He knows I work at the laboratory – he thinks I just do drug research.’
    ‘I can see it might be disconcerting. For friends,’ Jay agreed smoothly. ‘Not knowing if you were inside their heads.’
    ‘Exactly.’ The note of relief in her voice touched something inside him, but it didn’t last long. ‘I would never do that. Invade someone’s privacy. Uh – not if I could help it.’
    But you have done. If you want something badly enough. You did it last night. To me.
    The back of the angel’s neck was going pink.
    ‘Not to friends.’ He couldn’t resist. ‘But what about lovers?’
    ‘I don’t have—’ She stopped abruptly.
    Jay watched, fascinated, as a delicate flush rose slowly from the neck of her severe black coat. Now why the hell should that half-admission, intriguing as it was, make Dr Albi blush? And why was the sight of that fragile rose, spreading under the pale skin, making a suspicious tightness in his groin?
Shit.
His angel was embarrassed, or angry. And he wanted to taste—
    He pulled himself up, staring at a sign beside the road, welcoming them to Uxbridge. Madison crunched the gears.
Still flustered.
    That made two of them.
    He took a breath.