Free Reawakened by the Surgeon's Touch by Jennifer Taylor Page A

triggered that bout of near-hysteria. The less she thought about Jude Slater, the better.
    As though thinking about him had conjured him up, he suddenly appeared. It was dark in the corridor with only the light from a single hurricane lantern to lift the gloom and he didn’t seem to have seen her. Claire felt her breath catch as he ground to a halt when he spotted her. There was a moment when neither of them moved, when the very air seemed to have stilled, packed so full of thoughts and feelings that it could no longer move. And then Jude took one slow step then another until they were facing each other.
    His eyes swept over, burning through the thin cotton of her borrowed pyjamas, scorching her. And even though he didn’t say a word Claire knew. She knew what he was thinking. Feeling. She knew because it was what she was thinking and feeling too. He carried on, disappearing into the men’s bathroom, but it was several seconds before she could move. She went into her room and lay down on the bed, listening to the hammering of her heart. It knew what had happened, knew and was reacting to it even though she didn’t want it to.
    Closing her eyes, Claire tried to blot out everything except the thought of sleep but it didn’t work. How could it when her body was aching, throbbing, begging for fulfilment? For two whole years the thought of being intimate with a man had been repugnant to her but not any longer. Jude had awoken her dormant emotions and now she felt more vulnerable than ever.
    How could she be sure that her mind wouldn’t conjure up the memory of that dreadful night if she slept with a man again? That she wouldn’t relive the horror of what had happened to her? It had been so hard to put her life back together and find a reason to carry on, and she couldn’t do it again. She didn’t have the strength. Maybe Jude had aroused feelings she had thought long dead but she couldn’t allow them to grow and flourish. It wasn’t worth the risk of being plunged back into the abyss.

CHAPTER SIX
    A SOFT MIST shrouded the landscape when Jude awoke shortly before six the following morning. He hadn’t slept well, and he felt tired and out of sorts as he tossed back the mosquito net and climbed out of bed. Gathering up his wash bag, he made his way to the bathroom, thinking about what had happened the night before.
    Meeting Claire in the corridor had been the main reason why sleep had eluded him. Every time he had closed his eyes, he could picture her standing there in those oh-so-prim pyjamas. The women he knew back home wouldn’t have been seen dead in an outfit like that but Jude knew that no amount of satin and lace could have had the impact those pyjamas had had on him...
    He forced the thought aside as he stepped under the shower. The water was on the cold side of tepid but he preferred it that way. Maybe a cold shower would achieve what all his rationalising had failed to do. Claire wasn’t for him, he told himself once more. She wasn’t for any man. Her life had been promised to a far higher authority.
    By the time he went down for breakfast he felt a little better, more positive about his ability to cope. Maybe he was way out of his comfort zone but he could do this. He only needed to get through the next three months and then he could go back to the life he knew, the comfortable existence he enjoyed...
    Did he enjoy it, though? Did he derive any real satisfaction from the luxuries he bought and the expensive restaurants he frequented? Weren’t they more a means to compensate himself for doing a job that bored him? Weren’t there times when he longed for something more taxing, something that would make a difference to people’s lives?
    As he helped himself from the breakfast buffet, Jude was suddenly beset by doubts again, and he resented it. Bitterly. Maybe he did want to prove his worth but he hadn’t realised it would mean him re-evaluating his