Scarred Beginnings (6 page)

“Thanks goodness for th
at,” he sounded relieved. “When you said that you hadn’t a chef yet I wondered if we were going to have to eat continental style. It was going to be one of my first complaints if we ended up with a measly plate of thin ham and smelly cheese with a cube of pineapple on top.” He put his plate on the table and pulled out a chair. A place remained beside him and he looked up just in time to see Geraldine helping herself from the cold selection laid out on the sideboard. She raised her eyebrows and gave him a small grin as she sat down in the empty space and wafted the plate of cheese, mixed fruit and wafer thin ham under his nose.

She watched his face intently as he breathed in the ripe scent
s.

“So, you ‘
ave problems with my country’s dishes? The cheese is so delicious and fresh, and the ‘am has been aged for eighteen months. The flavour is so delicate. Or maybe you truly do like a platter swimming in grease.” She challenged as she smiled sweetly up at him and he lost the power to think. She lifted her fork, stabbed a small portion of the blue veined delicacy. Her moss dark eyes held his as her full lips closed over a creamy morsel and he suddenly dropped into his chair, unsure that his body had the power to function properly under her sultry gaze.

He looked down at his
own plate. The fried eggs looked back up at him from their sea of oil and suddenly the bacon didn’t appear quite as crisp as he would have liked. He pushed the plate away and turned back to Geraldine.

“I’m willing to give it a try if you would care to tempt me.”
He raised a challenging eyebrow at her.

Geraldine picked up
his fork immediately and stabbed a small portion of creamy white cheese from her plate. She lifted the fork to David’s open mouth and placed the segment on his tongue. He closed his mouth as she slid the fork from his lips and then closed his eyes as the delicate flavour hit him. It wasn’t nearly as strong as the smell suggested it might be. He let out a moan of pleasure. It was only as he opened his eyes a few seconds later that he realized that the rest of the kitchen had suddenly fallen silent. He looked about him and felt his face blush furiously as six pairs of eyes gazed right back at him.

Joe broke the silence.

“I can see that you’re already taking to this way of life really well so can I have your bacon and eggs, if you don’t want them, Dave?” He reached across the table without waiting for a response and slid David’s cooling plate towards himself as Geraldine slipped from her chair to gather another selection of cheese, ham and fruit.

David stared
at Geraldine silently, clearly mesmerized by the beautiful Frenchwoman as she returned to the table and picked up his fork again. He didn’t even glance at Joe who was now tucking into his second portion of fried breakfast with gusto.

Geraldine rolled a slither of the ham and wrap
ped it around a triangle of melon. He opened his mouth and groaned as the mixture of salt and succulence invaded is mouth. He swallowed.

“You
, go ahead Joe, have what you like. I think I have suddenly discovered my taste buds need nurturing. I don’t think I’ll ever eat a fry up again.” Geraldine stared deep into his eyes and wafted a slice of the ham topped with another triangle of a different cheese, under his nose. He opened his mouth dutifully and she popped the delicacy in before she leaned across the table and began to pour the coffee.

She held out the cup towards him and he nearly choked when he saw that her blouse had dipped forwards revealing slightly more of her cleavage than she had probably intended.

“Cream? Sugar?” She asked and he just couldn’t resist the temptation. He bent his head towards her and whispered in her ear.

Geraldine watched as David’s mouth closed over the tiny portion of food. She hoped that he wasn’t just humouring her by relinquishing his cooked breakfast to the other man at the table. David’s sparkling blue eyes had closed slowly as he chewed and she watched as his lips twitched slightly at the new flavours.

It was strange looking up into the ravaged face of this big man. Ellen had told her many stories of his wild adventures and outrageous tricks on his sister. Geraldine could believe them all if his cheeky remark
in his bedroom about removing his legs was anything to go by.

Being a nurse she had not been surprised by the way David or any of his friends looked but she was curious about how their i
njuries might have affected their personalities. Not that she knew what their personalities were like before the injuries but she was interested all the same. She looked around the table at the laughing, happy team. They were clearly comfortable in one another’s company now but she wondered if they were quite so animated when they were on their own. Night time would probably be the worst time for them. All sorts of dark thoughts crossed your mind in the small hours when there was nothing else to occupy your brain.

She glanced back to
the man beside her. He was broad shouldered and handsome in his own way. His dark hair was clipped short. No surprise there as he was still enlisted. His square jaw and chiselled cheekbones gave him a slightly dangerous look. She could imagine that he could be quite alarming if met under the wrong circumstances.

The slightly hollow sound of metal reached her ears as he adjusted
the position of his chair. One of his prosthetic legs must have knocked against the table. She ached for the way his life had been changed. The scarring covered most of one side of his face leaving one eye permanently half closed.  He’d obviously had some skin grafts and the nurse in her could see that they had taken well but there was still some healing to do. The scars would fade in time but his skin would never be perfect. The loss of his legs must have been devastating but he seemed to be coping well. She hadn’t noticed and limp or discomfort when she’d been in the hall and his room.

He opened his eyes as he swallowe
d his mouthful and his steady blue gaze met her own curious one. His chin came up in an automatic challenge and she smiled as she stabbed a forkful of her breakfast and popped it into her own mouth. She could see his heated gaze dip to her lips and she felt a strange warmth rising up her neck. She dipped her head in confusion as the flush crept across her cheeks and then she glanced back up at him, wondering what he thought of her.

The look in his eyes told her exactly what he was thinking of her and her whole body flushed
even more deeply in surprised response as he gave her a quick, private wink. She swallowed quickly, picked up her coffee cup and drank the hot liquid, desperately trying to regain what was left of her composure.

He had surprised her with his easy manner when she had greeted him in his room, now he was almost shocking her with his obvious flirting. She gave an imperceptible shiver of pleasure as his heated gaze left her almost gasping for breath.
She hadn’t felt this way about a man for a very long time. She gulped as it dawned on her that she couldn’t ever remember feeling this way about any man. It wasn’t as if there were that many to choose from in the tiny town. Most of the younger men had left for the cities to find work and those that had stayed behind tended to be the sons of farmers and more attached to their livestock than their women.

She looked around the table at the rest of the group. Ellen chatted easily to all of them, joki
ng with the big man wearing the facial pressure mask about his enormous appetite as he demolished David’s breakfast without a second thought.

Her initial reservations about a hotel of this nature suddenly vanishe
d completely. There was nothing unusual about these men and women except that they were probably a lot stronger and more determined than most of the population. They were just normal people getting on with their lives as best they could after surviving the most horrendous injuries. Why that thought startled her, she didn’t even want to consider. It told her more about herself than it did about these friends.

She looked back at David again and wasn’t surprised to see that his gaze was still on her but he’d picked up his own fork by now and was tucking into the selection she had made with undisguised gusto. She leaned over the table
and picked up the coffee pot. She filled his cup and then turned back to him. He had a wicked grin on his face as he quirked up one eyebrow. She wasn’t quite sure what he was up to but she asked the obvious question.

“Cream?”
She enquired. He nodded and she poured the thick liquid from the jug.

“Sugar?” She continued.

He shook his head and grinned again as he leaned towards her and whispered.

“
No thanks. The cream in your pot will be quite sweet enough for me.” He was holding back laughter as he took the cup from her hand and drank quickly leaving a white line on his top lip.

Geraldine looked up at him curiously for just one second.

Had she heard him correctly? Could he possibly mean what she thought?

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively
. Geraldine’s mouth fell open in surprise as he swept his tongue over his creamy lips leaving her giggling into the dregs of her own coffee at his outrageously suggestive remark.

Chapter Six

David
hated leaving Ellen alone so quickly again. The week had been over far too fast for his liking but he was glad that his surprise news had cheered her. He knew that his decision to leave the army was the right one. He had thought it would be a difficult choice; he would miss his old life but the new challenge of the hotel in Brittany was far too tempting to miss being there at the outset.

But he didn’t try to kid himself
that being there at the launch was the only reason. That someone beautiful, graceful and witty who spoke with the sexiest French accent he could ever imagine was also part of the team, was something he found almost more alluring.

He brooded quietly as Joe
drove them away from the château after a pre-dawn start. The dark, shadowy forest that surrounded the estate mirrored his mood as they motored along the avenue of trees taking them away from his sister and the fabulously attractive French woman who made his heart thump so erratically. 

He
didn’t know if he was kidding himself that there was an attraction there but every time he thought she wouldn’t catch him staring at her, she had lifted her dark eyelashes and caught him out, holding his gaze in return. For his own part he could barely imagine that she found him desirable in any way but she had flirted with him outrageously, setting his pulse racing wildly, for the best part of his holiday.

His heart
had lurched continually all week, thumping erratically and sending his heated blood to his groin at odd and unfortunate moments as he was unable to keep his wilder thoughts at bay. Ellen had even demanded that he take indigestion pills when she had caught him rubbing his chest as he sat in the lounge one evening desperately trying to cover the evidence of his rampant desire with his sweater. Geraldine had given him a huge grin and a wink as she declared that the casserole had been far too rich and she had heartburn too. She insisted on crunching the minty tablets alongside him and rubbing his back to shift the pain as well. He’d thought he was going to explode when she dug her delicate fingers into his shoulder muscles and turned the gentle rub into a full on massage.

But h
e had barely seen Geraldine during the final few days of their stay and they certainly hadn’t had any time to talk. She’d been at the château while he and his friends had tested the facilities to the limits but most of her time was taken up keeping Adam mobile. He came down with a heavy cough after they dunked him in the river several times before strapping him to a raft and sending him off on canoe school site expeditions. His suggestions for improvements, must haves and general ideas for the training school were excellent but they came at a price and his hacking cough rang through the château that night. A furious Geraldine had yelled at them all furiously for their irresponsibility and lack of care and insisted on some intense exercise for her charge. She refused to let the cough settle on Adam’s chest and worked hard over the next days to prevent it.

The rest of them
had felt horribly guilty. It was bad enough that Adam’s life would probably be shortened by the paralysis anyway without his friends making it worse for him. David had only been reassured that they had done the right thing at the river and made his week brilliant fun when Adam sneaked away from the ever vigilant Geraldine. He assured them that if they ever began to treat him as if he was made of glass then he’d think up a suitable revenge to put into action when they least expected it. His cough had almost gone by the time he had appeared for dinner the evening before they left but Geraldine had been exhausted with it all and had gone to bed early after saying a brief farewell.

David
jumped as Gemma slapped his shoulder and interrupted his wayward thoughts.

“So when are we going to be hearing those wedding bells
, Lover Boy? I could do with an excuse to buy a new frock.” She crooned and grinned at him from the rear seat of the huge car.

David turned and stared
over his shoulder at her as if she had suddenly grown two heads.

“Shut up, idiot. I don’t know what you are talking about.” He wished his hair covered more of his face and neck. He could feel the heat rising
up his throat and out of his collar.

Joe
glanced sideways at him from the driver’s seat and laughed loudly as he turned the car out onto the main road.

“Yeah, like we couldn’t see you doing all moon eyes at the delicious
ly tempting Geraldine all week. How much cheese and ham has she fed you, and what was that God awful traditional sausage you insisted we all try just because she said it was delicious. Flip me! It was bloody disgusting! I thought I was going to vomit at the table.” He looked as though he was about to heave again at the memory of the strong liver sausage that even David considered an acquired taste. “But you just ate everything she put on that plate and smiled and sighed as though it was your last meal ever. And talking about sighing…If I had a quid for every time you sighed as she walked past you, I would be a rich man by now.” He laughed again as David’s face turned from red to beetroot.

David
folded his arms across his chest.

“I did not go moon eyed at her
or sigh a lot. How ridiculous. You should get your hearing checked next time you go for another skin graft. She was employed to help Adam and it’s just as well she was there seeing as he is so lily livered that he can’t even take a dousing in cold water. She was so busy with him that I barely noticed her.” He almost gagged on his own lie. He’d noticed her for every minute of every day and quite a lot of his sleepless nights too. He could feel himself hardening at the mere thought of her lush body and stormy green eyes even now. He squirmed in his seat and willed himself back to reality as he frowned furiously out of the window.

Paul
sniggered from the seat beside Gemma.

“Deny it all you like
mate. I may be blind but even I could feel the temperature shooting up anytime you two were even in the same room. It was like being in a sauna at one point the other night when you pretended you had indigestion. You know what I mean…Steamy! I fairly passed out I swear!” He fanned his hand in front of his face and pretended to swoon. “All that massaging your shoulders and back to help with the pain. Load of rot and you know it. She’s got the hots for you Davie boy, that’s for sure…Make sure you don’t waste the opportunity,” he added sagely.

David
sighed. These friends knew him far too well. He gave up trying to deny it and bowed to the pressure. He slouched down in his seat and gulped a few times before he spoke wistfully.

“She is so beautiful.
God! I can’t stop thinking about her I’ve barely slept all week. All that fabulous hair, and her eyes! I thought I was drowning in them. Do you think she could really go for someone like me?” Doubt clouded his tone.

Joe snorted
loudly from behind his mask.

“You prat! She was already going for you
, ugly as you are. I don’t know what you worry about anyway. It’s not like you were God’s gift before all this shit. If you had given her just a few more words of encouragement you might have had a much more eventful week.” He waggled his eyebrows leaving David in no doubt as to what he meant.

David frowned
and shook his head. He knew that they had flirted but was it anything more than that? He just couldn’t imagine it. She must have half the men in town lusting after her. There was no way she would pick him.

“Don’t be an idi
ot. Look at the state of me. A woman like Geraldine could have anyone she wants, anyone in the whole flipping world…why on earth would she pick a bloke with no flipping legs and a face that looks like someone went over it with a lawn mower?” He sighed wistfully again and frowned miserably into the gloom.

Gemma sighed
with him and patted his shoulder gently.

“
Oh dear! Is poor Davy Wavy feeling a bit sorry for himself?” She ignored David’s half-hearted attempt to shrug her off and carried on speaking. “You lot just don’t get it do you. You are such a bunch of guys!” Joe glanced in the rear view mirror as the others all looked at her and waited patiently for her to continue. She might be a woman but she was one of the guys too and they took her words seriously, especially when it came to insights into the mind of the fairer sex. “Women are not like men. You lot immediately think about bodies and sex but we don’t just go for looks all the time.” She waved down their protests. “Yes, I know that it’s what you see first, well except you of course Paul, but we have deeper needs than just a quick shag. I mean, look at that berk Justin who Ellen went out with for years. He looked like an Adonis but he turned out to be a selfish, bigoted git and he was a brainless idiot too. Just look at who Ellen is in love with now, someone who she barely even saw before she knew she was attracted to him. His general presence and attitude, his command of a situation and his aura caught her attention first. She told me that he came out of the darkness to rescue her and all her senses immediately went into overdrive. She didn’t give a stuff that he turned out to be a guy with a ton of scars and only one leg. She thinks he’s perfect.” She sounded highly satisfied with her own point but then she pursed her lips as she remembered Ellen’s unhappy face. “Even though he does sound like an idiotic, selfish, bigoted git too,” she added in an undertone.

David
was silent for a few seconds. He was glad that Ellen had talked to Gemma about her new man. He hadn’t wanted to broach the subject again but he’d seen how puffy her eyes were every morning and he knew that she cried herself to sleep each night.

He bit his lip as he thought about Gemma’s words. His heart suddenly began beating fast as they sank in.
He was a complete idiot
. He looked down at his watch and then back at Joe.

“
Christ! You’re right Gemma and I am a bloody fool! I never even gave her a chance. Do you think we have time to go back? I should have said something to her, taken her phone number or something at the very least.”

Joe shook his head;
they had already travelled several miles. Dawn was beginning to break on the horizon.

“
Sorry Dave. We left it late as it was. We’ve a three hour drive to catch our ferry and get back onto base by tonight. We can’t to cock it up and miss the ferry. Paul here needs to sign onto his sight programme. If we get held up anywhere we’re going to be in trouble as it is.”

Paul nodded
but had the grace to look miserable about it.

“Yes, sorry mate but I really need to get home
today. They start the evaluations first thing in the morning. I’m taking a chance as it is by missing the preliminary medical. If I’m not there to sign onto the scheme tonight and well rested by the morning I may lose the opportunity to be included. I’ll be honest Dave; being blind is a complete pain in the arse and if these new robotic eye things work in any measure then I’m up for them. I really don’t want to chance missing the boat.”

David agreed immediately
, mortified that in his selfishness he had forgotten the plight of his friend.

“No, of course not. I wasn’t thinking straight. Of course we can’t be late.
It was nothing. I was probably imagining her flirting and all that…Don’t worry about it.” He could hear how thin his voice sounded and he cleared his throat loudly as he stared out at the slowly lightening landscape.

Gemma gave a small laugh
and ruffled his hair.

“You are an even bigger idiot than I thought. Lucky for you
that you have some great pals at your back.” She dug around in her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. “There you go, that’s her email address.” She passed the paper to a surprised David as Joe pulled out another slip from his breast pocket.

“And here’s her mobile number.
Don’t lose it.”

James chucked
a crumpled ball over the seats. It hit the back of David’s head, bounced onto his shoulder and landed in his lap.

“And her landline.
You’ll have to add a double zero, double three for the country code.”

Paul scrabbled in his bag
and passed over a folded piece of paper.

“And that’s her home address
if you can’t get her at the château and feel like writing. She lives with her mother in town.”

Gemma grabbed Paul’
s hand and rolled her eyes at the sticky, finger marked slip.

“That’s the
receipt for all that honey cake you bought from her mother’s stall in the market, twit. Search again.”

Paul apologised
for his insatiable sweet tooth and felt around in his bag. He discovered the right piece of paper on the second exploration.

Adam waved another scrap in the air
from his seat at the back of the big car.

“And this i
s her Skype account and instant messaging service. She said that she’s mostly online on the weekends but you can try her anytime from six onwards in the evening. I wrote that down so you don’t forget.” He quickly folded the paper into a tiny aircraft and aimed it towards the front of the car. It soared to the ceiling and then nosedived sharply, sliding neatly to a halt as it skewered David’s hair.