Christmas Kisses Collection. Louise Allen

later she composed herself again then said, “Who would have thought we’d share something so awful?”

      He kissed the top of her head. “I, for one, would prefer to remember something else we’ve shared.”

      Ellen moved to look up at him with eyes that were still misty. “Why, Dr. Freeman, I believe there might be a romantic under all that gruff and bluster.”

      He smiled. “Don’t get that rumor started.”

      At least they had moved past that emotional moment but they continued to hold each for some time.

      Finally Ellen asked, “Will you tell me the rest of the story now? Did your father come home then?”

      “Yeah, just long enough to put me and my sister into boarding schools.”

      “You have a sister?”

      “I do.”

      Ellen grabbed a shirt and pulled it on. “But you’ve never said anything about her.”

      He shrugged. “I don’t really know her.”

      “How can you not know your sister?”

      “Pretty easy when I only saw her once a year at Christmas.”

      “What? That’s horrible.”

      “Maybe so, but that’s the way it was.”

      “Still is, I gather.” Ellen sounded as if she was accusing him of doing something appalling in a court of law.

      He sat up and faced her. “We’re just in two different worlds. She has her life and I have mine.”

      “So you didn’t even have each other to lean on when your mother left. No wonder you have issues with women. Pushed me away,” she murmured.

      Chance stiffened. “Don’t start analyzing me.”

      “It was more of an observation.”

      He didn’t like that much better. Had Ellen seen something about him that not even he was aware of?

      “Where’s your father?”

      “He died a couple of years ago.”

      “I don’t know what I would have done without my father. He’s been there for me all the way.”

      “That must be nice.”

      “It is, most of the time.”

      Chance was relieved they had moved past the subject of him. “Most of the time?”

      “I told you, he tends to watch over me too much.”

      “I can understand a father wanting to protect you.”

      She chuckled. “I guess you can. You act like him sometimes.”

      “Is that so bad?”

      “What, that you act like him? Or that he is overprotective?”

      “The overprotective part.” He studied her. Her hands were clasped in her lap in a ball.

      “It is when you want to do more than work on the upper east side and in a hospital for women having their faces and breasts done.”

      He ran his palm lightly over one of her nipples. “Which you need neither of.”

      Ellen caught his hand and held it. “Thank you. But I wanted to work where people needed me. Where others weren’t as willing to go.”

      “So what made you want to do that?”

      “I don’t know really. I guess it was because of what my doctors and nurses meant to me.”

      She waited as if she were in deep thought. He knew her well enough to know she would tell all if he just had the patience to wait.

      “I still stay in touch with them.”

      “Who?”

      “My doctor and nurses. I was in the car with my mother. I was in the hospital for weeks afterwards.”

      “That’s why you balked the first day.”

      “Yeah. I’ve not done much emergency care and it takes me a second but I come around.”

      “And you did. And did great.”

      “Thanks. But that’s not what you thought then. I saw it in your eyes.”

      “Guilty. But tell me about your father.”

      “He was devastated after my mother’s death. He was at the hospital with me but he was so broken he wasn’t much good around me. It was the doctors and nurses who looked after me. Brought me fast food. Talked and played with a scared little girl. I decided then that I wanted to be like them.

      “It took a while but my father found his way out of his grief to see me again and then all he could think about was not losing me. I understand that but it can be stifling. When I went to work at an inner-city clinic he pitched a fit and hired a bodyguard to watch over me. Let’s just say there was a large discussion over that. I didn’t tell him until the night before I left to come down here that I was coming. Even then I didn’t tell him where. I’m sure by now he knows about the resort.”

      Chance was sure her father didn’t know the exact spot they were in now or they would have been rescued. If he ever met her father Chance was sure there would be hell to pay. A father who worried over his daughter that deeply wouldn’t like her running for her life in the jungle or sleeping with the man who was responsible for the situation. It was just as well this thing between he and Ellen would end when she left Honduras. Why did the thought gnaw at him so much?

      “At least your father cares. Mine hardly knew I was alive.”

      “That shouldn’t have happened to you. I’m surprised you became a doctor like him.”

      “I was good at science and math. Medicine was—is—in my DNA. But I wanted to be a very different type of person from my father. From the beginning I wanted to help the less privileged.”

      “You are different. I can’t see you not watching over the people you love and showing you care. Look what you’re doing for the people of this country.”

      Her conviction had Chance wanting to believe her. He gave her a kiss that had nothing to do with wanting her sexually and everything to do with appreciating her large heart and loyalty. He needed both in his life.

      Chance stood. “Enough talking or you’ll have me telling stories of how I misbehaved in school.”

      “You were a troublemaker?”

      “Only until the headmaster sat me down and said a few pointed words that made me think.” He reached out his hand. “How about a moonlight trip to the falls?”

      “Aren’t you afraid we might be seen?”

      “We won’t stay long. I just keep thinking about you bathing and how much I wished I’d joined you.”

      “With an invitation like that, how can I refuse?” She took his hand.

      Ellen couldn’t remember ever being this uninhibited with a man before. She let Chance remove the shirt she’d pulled on and then held his hand as they carefully stepped over the rocks and into the falls under the full moon.

      The ache in her leg had been forgotten as Chance had turned her mind toward what he’d been doing to her body. Then her entire attention had been focused on what he’d been saying. She was surprised by how open he’d been that she’d hung on each of his words.

      Now there was an aching throb in her calf but as Chance pulled her under the falls it was eclipsed by the touch of his hands running over her waist and hips. She threw her head back and let