Legally His Omnibus

Legally His Omnibus by Penny Jordan

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Authors: Penny Jordan
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his chest, and the backs of his eyes were burning, as though they had been soaked with limewash.
    * * *
    It was two o’clock in the morning and Sean was exhausted. Kate’s temperature seemed to have dropped a little, much to his relief. And Oliver was fast asleep in his own bed, unaware of the sharp pangs of emotion Sean had felt when Oliver had solemnly explained to him his bedtime routine.
    Suppressing a yawn, Sean pushed his hand through his hair. Kate was asleep but he was reluctant to leave her.
    He went into the bathroom and had a shower. It had been a long day. His eyes felt gritty and tired. He looked at the empty half of the bed. It wasn’t going to hurt anyone if he just lay down and snatched a few minutes’ sleep, was it?
    * * *
    Kate could feel the pain of her anguished despair. A bleak, searing sense of loss engulfed her, lacerated by panic and agonising disbelief. In her jumbled fever-induced dream she ran on leaden legs from room to room of a shadowed empty house, frantically searching for Sean whilst the icy-cold tentacles of her fear took hold of her heart.
    Sean had left her and she couldn’t bear the pain of losing him. She couldn’t endure the thought of living without him. She felt bereft, abandoned, and totally alone.
    The pain of her dream was unbearable, and she fought to escape from it, dragging herself frantically through the layers of sleep, crying out Sean’s name as she did so.
    * * *
    The moment he heard Kate cry out, Sean was awake.
    ‘Sean?’
    He could hear the panic in her voice as she repeated his name, and even in the semi-darkness he could see how her body was shaking.
    ‘Kate, it’s all right,’ he tried to reassure her, and he placed his hand on her arm and leaned over her.
    Kate could feel herself shaking with the intensity of the emotions flooding through her, piercing her muddled confusion. When she managed to force her eyes open she exhaled in relief. She could see Sean’s familiar outline in the bed! Sean was here. He had not left her! She had just been having a bad dream!
    But, despite her relief, somewhere on the edge of her consciousness something was niggling at her—something she did not want to recognise. Defensively she pushed it away, escaping instead into the comforting security of Sean’s presence. But she needed more than just his presence to banish the dark shadows of the dream, she recognised.
    Instinctively she moved towards him, wanting, needing to be closer to him. Although her brain felt muddled, and somehow not fully functioning, her senses were sharply acute and her whole body shuddered as she breathed in his warm, musky scent. She could feel the familiar arousal taking over her body.
    She wanted Sean to hold her.
    ‘Hold me close, Sean,’ she begged huskily, shivering as she told him in a low, unsteady voice, ‘I was dreaming that you weren’t here... And everything seems so muddled. I can’t seem to think straight...’
    ‘You’ve had a bad virus and a high fever,’ Sean told her quietly, deliberately using the past tense so that he didn’t frighten her.
    ‘I think I must have been suffering from delusions.’ Kate tried to laugh, but her smile disappeared as her whole body shuddered violently. ‘It was so frightening, Sean,’ she whispered. ‘I dreamt that I was in a house looking for you but you weren’t there.’
    Emotional tears filled her eyes and Sean listened helplessly. Fever burned in her face and glazed her eyes. She made a small movement towards him and Sean began to draw back. But it was too late. Kate was already nestling trustingly into him.
    Sombrely Sean looked down at her. His throat felt tight and he was acutely conscious that this should not be happening. Right now his role was that of nurse and guardian—but how could he explain that to her in her present confused and feverish condition? Would she even understand what he was trying to say? Somehow Sean doubted it. And, as though to confirm his thoughts, he felt her

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