Partners by Contract by Kim Lawrence Page B

I’ll spend the day in bed. Besides, it can’t be flu. I had the jab.’
    ‘You look feverish.’ Not as feverish as he felt, thinking about various ways they could spend the day in bed together. He set aside his crutches and, leaning against a filing cabinet, tugged the constricting knot of his tie free. The top button of his shirt followed, not that it made him feel any cooler.
    ‘I’m fed up to the back teeth with people telling me I shouldn’t be here!’ she retorted crankily.
    ‘It’s called concern, Phoebe,’ he said, looking more amused in a slightly distracted way than annoyed by her tetchy behaviour.
    Phoebe grunted noncomittally, unable to deny this but unwilling in her present frame of mind to concede his point.
    ‘I saw Rob on his way out...he didn’t look too happy.’
    ‘If you say I told you so, I’ll personally dismember you limb by limb,’ she promised grimly.
    Her bloodthirsty relish made him laugh out loud. Connor had a deeply attractive laugh, warm and spontaneous. It was the sort of laugh that made it hard for a person to stay angry. Phoebe determinedly gritted her teeth and thought dark, nasty thoughts about him.
    ‘My lips are sealed. Don’t feel too bad—he’ll get over it.’
    ‘Because his feelings for me are shallow and superficial?’ Phoebe, who had been telling herself the same thing only moments earlier, choked. ‘You’re so amazingly callous, Connor.’
    Her hostility had finally succeeded in wiping all traces of humour from his face. ‘At least I haven’t been ill-judged enough to encourage a patient to fall in love with me.’
    Phoebe inhaled sharply and, drawing in herself up to her full height, smiled coldly up at him. ‘Taking into account my tendency to mess emotionally with vulnerable male patients, how relieved you must be that I refused the partnership offer,’ she observed with icy dignity.
    ‘You are perfectly aware I didn’t mean that,’ Connor seethed. ‘About the lift...’
    Phoebe laughed. ‘You’ve got to be joking.’
    ‘I was about to say I’ll ask Ellen for a lift.’
    ‘I don’t know why you didn’t ask Ellen to begin with,’ Phoebe said. ‘There wasn’t much chance of her saying no.’
    The spasm of disapproval that flickered across his face in response to her acid tone only increased her anger and resentment.
    ‘It seems to me you aren’t willing to give poor Ellen a fair go.’
    Phoebe could hardly believe what she was hearing. Poor Ellen—that was rich! Sleeping with the woman had obviously made inroads into Connor’s objectivity!
    ‘I’m sorry if that bothers you, but fortunately I’m not in the business of making you happy!’ sheer frustration prompted her to childishly retort.
    ‘You’re constantly going out of your way to undermine her in front of the other staff.’
    ‘Is that a direct quote? Or are you just reading between the lines?’
    ‘This isn’t like you, Phoebe. Frankly, I’m disappointed.’
    ‘It’ll be hard,’ she choked, ‘but I’ll try to go on, knowing what a big disappointment I am to you.’
    ‘I hardly think this sort of drama is called for, Phoebe. Ellen is an excellent practice manager.’
    ‘Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ she flared recklessly.
    Connor’s electric blue eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘Meaning what?’
    ‘Meaning your relationship with Ellen hardly makes you the most dispassionate of judges!’
    ‘Is it just the idea of me dating Ellen that makes you act like a total bitch, or is it the idea of me dating anyone? I’m getting the distinct impression that you interpret me having any sort of social life as me not respecting Pen’s memory! Just because you’ve decided life’s got to be one long penance...’
    ‘That’s a ludicrous thing to say!’ she gasped. ‘And totally untrue.’
    ‘If that’s so, tell me, Phoebe, what have you been doing with your life? Why are you still working as a locum? I’ll tell you why, shall I? You’re in some sort of