Dark Oasis. HELEN BROOKS

his big frame stretching lazily as he stood up at their approach, his whole demeanour casual and relaxed but his eyes hawk-like on her face as she passed, although he said not a word as the nurse settled her back into bed.

      ‘I fetch the breakfast, yes?’ The small girl smiled cheerfully. ‘And then you feel a million dollars with plenty of zow?’

      I wouldn’t bank on it, Kit thought silently as she smiled a dutiful response as the nurse left the room.

      ‘The police phoned.’ Gerard Dumont settled himself back on the stool by her bed that he had vacated a minute before, and she raised her eyes reluctantly to his. ‘No luck yet, unfortunately; it would appear you are the mystery girl. The doctor will be along shortly to examine you, but if all is as he thinks there is no reason why you cannot leave this morning.’

      ‘To go where?’ she asked blankly as her mind raced. Was there a British embassy near here? But then she wasn’t even sure she was English.

      ‘Well, I do have an idea there as it happens,’ he drawled slowly, lifting dark brows as he watched her carefully, his face cynical and cool. ‘But maybe it would be better for you to eat your breakfast first and—’

      ‘I would prefer to hear anything you have to say right now,’ she said firmly, her chin setting at a determined angle that brought an amused gleam into the glittering gold-brown eyes trained on her face.

      ‘As you wish.’ He stood up abruptly, walking over to the small narrow window and lifting the blind aside so that a shaft of sunlight spilled into the austere room, catching a million tiny particles in its radiant light. ‘I was going to suggest that it would seem logical for you to remain resting somewhere until either you regain your memory or the police find out who you are, yes?’

      ‘I suppose so.’ She glanced at the broad back warily. ‘And?’

      ‘And that would pose a problem, or at least an embarrassment, as you have no money that I know of?’ He turned to face her, his eyes slits of gold light.

      ‘You know I haven’t.’ She stared back, hard. ‘But I can assure you that once all this is sorted out I will reimburse you for every penny you’ve spent—’

      ‘Do not be ridiculous.’ This time his voice was harsh, and she blinked twice before opening her mouth to respond, but he continued swiftly. ‘The money is incidental, as I am sure you are aware. I was merely stating facts.’

      ‘Well, now you’ve stated them I still don’t understand—’

      ‘It would seem practical for you to be my guest until you are recovered sufficiently to take charge of your own affairs,’ he said expressionlessly. ‘There are several guest-rooms at my home in Marrakesh, and as I am a prominent and well-known figure in business circles I am sure the police would be happy to—’

      ‘You must be joking!’ Tact and diplomacy fled out of the window as she reared up in the narrow bed like a small lioness. ‘You must think I was born yesterday, Mr Dumont! So that’s what this has all been about, the private room and so on! Well, if you expect me to pay for my expenses in the fashion that is as old as time, you can forget it, mister! I know your sort—believe me, you’re far from being unique! I’d rather spend the next few days, weeks or months in a prison cell if necessary compared to what you’re suggesting. Just what do you think I am—?’

      ‘I think you are a very absurd young lady.’ The icy voice cut short her passionate outburst as though with a knife. ‘Impolite, churlish, ridiculous... Need I go on?’ He was angry; she couldn’t believe how angry. ‘Do you seriously think that I am so short of female companions that I have to spirit one away to my home—is that it?’ He wasn’t shouting, in fact his voice was very controlled and infinitely cutting. ‘If you want me to be brutal, I do not find you sexually attractive at all. The offer was one of friendship, from one member of the human race to another in distress. That is all. That is all.’ He glared at her and took a long deep pull of air before continuing. ‘Now you have made your feeling perfectly clear, and so I will—’

      What he would or would not do they never found out because at that moment Kit’s control finally snapped. The flood of tears and sensation of utter and absolute desolation blinded and deafened her to everything but her own misery, and as she raised her hands to cover her face, her body shaking helplessly, she could hear the sound of her own wailing but could do nothing to control it.

      ‘Mon dieu...’ His voice was a low growl but the next moment she had been lifted wholesale out of the bed and on to his lap as he sat down on the ruffled covers, holding her tight as he swayed back and forth as one did soothing a devastated child, his voice low and soft now and speaking a crooning stream of endearments in French of which she understood not a word but found infinitely comforting to her terrified mind. And she was terrified, she acknowledged faintly as the hard male bulk of him banished the frantic fear for a time. Nothing, nothing could be worse than this monstrous, gut-wrenching dread that she would never remember who she was again, that she would be left in this strange, alien half-world where even her own face was that of a stranger, with no memories, no recollection of a past life and with only an empty, uncertain future to look forward to.

      CHAPTER TWO

      QUITE when she began to find Gerard Dumont’s closeness disturbing rather than comforting she wasn’t sure. It might have been something to do with the warm male fragrance emanating from the massive frame, a mixture of spicy aftershave and a faint lemony smell, or it could have been the controlled power in the huge body enfolding hers, or even the sound of his voice, deep and seductively attractive as he murmured in his native tongue. Whatever, as the storm of weeping passed she began to feel acutely uncomfortable and vaguely threatened. But there was another emotion there too, one that made her skin tingle and her stomach tighten with a dull ache she didn’t recognise.

      ‘I’m sorry.’ As she made to move off his lap he let her go instantly, his eyes searching as they washed over her face.

      ‘Have you any idea where all that hostility comes from?’ he asked levelly as he stood up and drew back the covers for her to climb back into bed. ‘What has happened to make you feel so threatened by the male species?’

      ‘Threatened?’ She stared at him wide-eyed, horrified he could read her so easily. ‘I don’t feel threatened—’

      ‘Yes, you do.’ He eyed her impassively and she was conscious of his great height again as he gestured towards the bed. ‘Get in. The nurse will be bringing your breakfast in a moment.’

      ‘I don’t feel threatened.’ She ignored his instructions with obstinate determination. ‘This has all just been unsettling, surely you can understand that?’

      ‘I told you that the doctor confirmed concussion?’ His voice was low and moderate but with an underlying thread of steel. ‘And undoubtedly you have a secondary complication resulting in amnesia. However...’ He paused and gestured towards the bed again, his mouth thinning as she still refused to acknowledge the command. ‘However, the blow to your head was not severe enough for this continued loss of memory.’

      ‘Are you saying I’m making it up?’ she asked hotly as her skin burnt with anger. ‘I can assure you—’

      ‘Of course I am not saying that,’ he interrupted sharply, ‘and for my sake if not yours please get yourself into this damn bed. I do not relish the prospect of picking you up off the floor again and you look distinctly feeble.’

      ‘Thank you very much,’ she intoned furiously, as sheer temper enabled her to march across the room and climb into the bed more quickly than she would have thought possible in view of her trembling legs and throbbing head.

      ‘What I am saying, or rather what the doctor is saying, is that there is something that is causing you to block out your past,’ Gerard said slowly. ‘Something that you do not wish to remember, something that would cause you great pain—’

      ‘Now it’s you who’s being ridiculous,’ she said quickly as a spark of something