Free The Doctor Claims His Bride by Fiona Lowe

and walked down the corridor.
    She made her way into the bathroom, her brain buzzing. What was that all about? One minute he was flirting with her and the next he’d closed down. Perhaps he’d been embarrassed that he’d forgotten the wedding? She wouldn’t have thought that would have embarrassed him but, then again, she didn’t really know what made him tick.
    But she knew he made her body quiver with longing.
    A couple of weeks had passed since Flynn had cooked her dinner. Since he held you in his arms . She sighed against the thought she’d tried so hard to let go of, but couldn’t. Her dreams were full of Flynn—his firm arms around her, his taut body against her, his lipsseeking her lips—and she woke up hot, bothered and aching with unfulfilled need for him.
    She loved and hated the dreams in equal measure.
    She quickly filled the basin with warm water and pumped soap into her hands, squishing it between her fingers. Flynn flew in and out of her life and had in a few weeks turned it completely upside down. She loved being a RAN on Kirra. It was everything she needed and wanted—remote and working solo having been the key attractions. But when Flynn was on the other islands she found herself counting the days until he returned to Kirra.
    His arrival always generated a lightness inside her, a sense of anticipation and excitement that she’d never expected to experience again. He brought a shining light into the darkness that had been her past year. She craved that lightness. She craved him.
    He gave you comfort, that was all . His arms around her after the incident with Joel had been the act of a caring man, a colleague and perhaps a friend. And that was all it could ever be because she was a walking time bomb and no man wanted her. Steven had been proof of that.
    She sloshed water onto her face and up her arms, and watched the dust turn it the colour of rust. She stared into the mirror as rivulets of water left streaky marks on her face. Flynn hadn’t tried to kiss her again. Since that night he’d been nothing more than a colleague.
    She reminded herself that this was a good thing and she should just accept it and move on. But her thoughts kept returning to the glimpse of hurt she’d seen in his eyes just before he’d gone to the police station.
    He kept his own counsel. She realised that he’d nevermentioned his family and he didn’t take off to Darwin once a month like most of the other non-indigenous community workers did to meet their girlfriends, boyfriends, wives and family.
    And yet he was very much a part of the Kirra community, well respected and loved. He coached the kids in footy, he was ‘turtle man’. He belonged in so many ways.
    Her first image of him as a maverick crocodile hunter, a stand-alone guy, clashed with the caring doctor and the enthusiastic community member she’d got to know. Good men like Flynn were usually married with adoring wives and gorgeous children.
    So why wasn’t he?
    ‘Mia, I need a hand.’ Flynn’s voice called her name from the treatment room.
    She grabbed a towel, dried her face and hands, pulled a patient gown over her filthy clothes and went back to work.
    ‘We’ll have you feeling better soon.’ Flynn tousled the hair of nine-year-old Alice and kept a smile on his face as he inwardly sighed. He could have her feeling better soon but making her better was a different thing entirely.
    The sick young girl looked at him forlornly as she lay on the examination couch, her knees up under her chin.
    ‘What’s up?’
    He glanced up as Mia walked into the room, her face scrubbed clean of outback dust and her cheeks pink with good health. The familiar rush streaked through him, the one he got every time he saw her, even when she was filthy and bedraggled. Dirt couldn’t dim her innate beauty and neither had her grief.
    It was a tough gig, losing your family in one go. He assumed it had been a car accident. But despite her loss she still managed to glow with