Free The Doctor's Lost-and-Found Bride by Kate Hardy Page A

medicine, so she could make a difference?
    He looked down at her, unsmiling. ‘As we’re tackling elephants, why did you—’He stopped abruptly. ‘Why did you leave Bristol?’
    She knew exactly what he’d been going to ask: why had she walked out on him? Because he’d shut her out and she’d felt that she was the only one making an effort in their marriage. ‘Same reason as you,’ she said. ‘I was miserablein Bristol. Every time I walked through the city centre I saw pregnant women, and I couldn’t handle it.’ Maybe this was going too far, but she was going to be honest with him. She dragged in a breath. ‘I needed support, Max.’ Support that Max and his family wouldn’t—or couldn’t?—give her. ‘You shut me out. And what happened to us…It was more than I could deal with on my own. I needed you and you just weren’t there. So I came home, because I knew my family would help me get through it. I knew at least here that I’d be loved.’
    He still wasn’t smiling, and his expression was unreadable. ‘Enough elephants for now, I think. Though I do owe you an apology.’ He swallowed hard. ‘For not giving you what you needed.’
    And in that moment Marina realised. The way he’d acted back then wasn’t because he hadn’t cared. It was because he hadn’t known how to deal with the situation, either. ‘I was the one who walked out.’ She hadn’t stayed to fight for him. ‘So I guess we’re even. I owe you an apology, too.’
    He spread his hands, the gesture telling her he didn’t know what to say.
    That made two of them.
    And the breakup of their marriage was too complicated for them to work out in a single conversation.
    ‘I’ll make us something to eat.’ He paused. ‘So, do you want me to put your stuff in the washing machine?’
    Working for Doctors Without Borders had clearly made him more practical. The old Max wouldn’t even have thought about it until the next morning—when it would’ve been much too late to do anything about it.
    Stay or go?
    If she stayed, she knew she’d end up making love with him again. Clouding the issues between them.
    But, if she left, he’d take it as a rejection and he’d clam up on her. Which meant they would never get the closure they both needed. They’d still be stuck in limbo, unable to move on.
    Sleeping with Max didn’t mean that she was still in love with him, or that he was in love with her. They’d already agreed that for tonight this was just comfort—comfort of a kind that only they could give each other. No strings.
    Should she stay or should she go?

CHAPTER SIX
    ‘O NE thing: this is just tonight? No strings?’ Marina asked.
    Max’s expression was completely unreadable. ‘No strings.’
    ‘Then, yes. I’ll stay.’
    ‘OK.’ He climbed out of bed, grabbed a pair of jeans from his wardrobe, pulled them on, then took a navy bathrobe from the back of the door and handed it to her. ‘If you want a shower before you come downstairs, the bathroom’s first on the left—and the towels are clean.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    Considering how well they knew each other’s bodies, and what they’d just done, Marina knew it was ridiculous to wait until he’d left the room before climbing out of bed. But she did so anyway, feeling shy—as well as enormously grateful that Max had clearly picked up on it and wasn’t putting any pressure on her.
    Max’s bathroom turned out to be very plain and functional, just like his bedroom. Then again, he hadn’t been in London for long. Less than a month. Given that Max had been working abroad, his things were probably still in storage. Certainly she’d seen nothing she remembered from their old flat in Bristol. When she’d left Max, she’dtaken only her clothes, a few books, precious photographs and her omelette pan, not wanting anything around to remind her of the disaster of their marriage.
    Another off-limits topic, unless they wanted to tackle another elephant. Though right at that moment