Sydney Harbour Hospital: Lexi's Secret by Melanie Milburne

you?’
    Lexi kept her gaze out of the range of his. ‘It doesn’t matter now …’
    But of course he wouldn’t leave it at that. ‘It was when I mentioned that we’d been worlds apart in years and experience,’ he said. ‘Tell me, Lexi. What was it you thought I’d always known about you?’
    She pressed her sandpaper-dry lips together. Her throat felt tight, too tight even to swallow. Her stomach was churning so much she could hear it rumble in the prolonged silence. Why had she even mentioned it? What was the point of going over this now?
    It was over.
    They were over.
    She was moving on with her life.
    Or trying to …
    ‘Lexi?’
    His commanding tone summoned her gaze. ‘I didn’t just lie about my age,’ she said on an expelled breath.
    His gaze never wavered; it remained rock-steady on hers, but the darkness of his eyes seemed to deepen another shade. ‘What else did you lie about?’
    She moistened her lips in order to get them to move again in speech. ‘Actually, it wasn’t really a lie, not an outright one. It was just that I didn’t quite tell you the truth.’
    Sam’s forehead became a map of frowning lines. ‘The truth about what?’
    Lexi took a breath and then released it in a rush. ‘I was … I was … You were my first lover.’
    His face looked as if it had just received an invisible slap. She saw him flinch, every muscle contracting, his eyes widening and his mouth opening and closing as if he couldn’t quite locate his voice. ‘What?’
    ‘I was a virgin.’ Lexi bit her lip. ‘At least technically I was …’
    ‘Technically?’ he asked. ‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’
    She pulled in another uneven breath. ‘I’d had boyfriends in the past,’ she said, ‘lots of them actually. I just hadn’t … you know … done it … gone all the way …’
    Sam raked his fingers through his hair as he paced back and forth. ‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’ He stopped to glare at her furiously. ‘Why on earth didn’t you say something?’
    ‘Because I knew if I’d said something you wouldn’t have slept with me.’
    ‘You’re damn right I wouldn’t,’ he said. ‘What were you thinking, Lexi? You were just a young girl. We had so much sex over those two weeks.’ His throatmoved up and down over a tight swallow. ‘Did I … did I hurt you?’
    She shook her head vigorously, perhaps too much so.
    ‘Lexi?’ He barked her name at her.
    ‘All right, all right,’ she said, her eyes rolling in defeat. ‘Just a little bit but it was fine after the first—’
    ‘Oh, dear God,’ he said, rubbing a hand over his face.
    Lexi stalked to the other side of the room. ‘You’re making such a big deal out of this,’ she said. ‘I had to lose my virginity some time. At least it was with a considerate lover. It could’ve been a lot worse.’
    He glared at her again. ‘How much worse could it have been? I thought I was sleeping with an experienced party girl who knew all the rules,’ he said. ‘Now I find out she was an innocent virgin.’
    ‘Not so innocent,’ Lexi put in.
    He held his head in both of his hands and groaned. ‘No wonder your father was ready to nail me to the floor.’
    ‘My father didn’t know I was still a virgin,’ she said. ‘It’s not exactly something you discuss over the dinner table.’
    ‘No, but it is something you discuss with a potential sexual partner,’ he pointed out.
    ‘Not when you’re having a meaningless, short-term fling,’ she threw back.
    He stilled. Not a muscle moved. He was like a statue, frozen. ‘So,’ he said finally in a voice undergirded with steel. ‘Let me get this straight. You just wanted a meaningless short-term fling and I was the handiest candidate. Is that right?’
    ‘No …’
    ‘For heaven’s sake, Lexi,’ he said bitterly, his voice a harsh rasp of anger. ‘You nearly cost me my career. Ialmost lost everything because of you. Do you realise that? Did you even think about what the