'I'm not going anywhere until I have had a shower and a change of clothing,' she said firmly. 'So if I can trust you not to bring out the baby alb.u.ms, Mum, at least not of me, I'll leave you two for twenty minutes.'

'Baby photos. Now, there's a thought,' Logan said. 'Any chance of a peek, Mary, while we're waiting?'

Knowing that there was little she could do about it, Georgie left them alone. She showered quickly, every nerve cell in her body tingling with antic.i.p.ation. She doubted they would be getting to dinner any time soon.

Selecting her favourite undies and a summer dress, she slicked on some lipstick and mascara. Her cheeks were already bright with colour so there was no need for any blusher.

When she returned to the kitchen, she was relieved to find the baby alb.u.ms weren't out. Instead, Logan and her mother seemed to be engaged in a serious discussion. Hearing her approach, Logan stopped in mid-sentence and let out a low whistle of approval.

There was no doubt in Georgie's mind that her mother had been quizzing him thoroughly about his private life. Logan would be no match for her highly developed interrogation skills. The sooner she got him out of there, the better.

Logan got to his feet. 'Dinner?' he said mildly.

Georgie's stomach was churning so much she couldn't imagine being able to chew a mouthful. She nodded mutely.

When they got into the car, Logan looked at her.

'You are so very beautiful,' he said, pulling her towards him and kissing her gently on the lips. 'I don't know about you, but I don't think I could eat a thing-not at the moment anyway.' From the hungry look in his eyes there was no mistaking his intent and Georgie couldn't bring herself to play games. The truth was, all she had been thinking of the whole day was being in his arms again.

Logan's flat was in a new development overlooking the Clyde and his flat on the tenth floor had impressive views of the river.

It was spa.r.s.ely furnished and Georgie formed the distinct impression he hardly used it. There were a few books lying on the coffee table-an autobiography by the American president and biographies of Churchill and Napoleon amongst others. In one corner, a steel string guitar was propped against the wall. There was also a state-ofthe-art music system, the speakers dominating the room. Apart from these items, there were no personal effects. No photos, no little knick-knacks, no soft furnishings. It was the flat of a man who used it to eat and sleep in. It was not a home.

But she only had time for the briefest inspection before she was in Logan's arms. He kissed her hungrily and she responded, hooking her legs around his hips. He cradled her bottom in his hands and, still kissing, he carried her towards his bedroom and laid her gently on the bed. Then they were pulling at each other's clothes, touching each other, as if the world was about to come to an end.

Much later, as Georgie, wrapped in a sheet, stood looking out at early evening sunshine glistening on the river below, Logan came to stand behind her, enfolding her in his arms. She leaned against him, revelling in the feeling of security and contentment.

'Why don't you have a permanent home?' she asked. 'Somewhere to go when you're not overseas with the army?'

'I've never seen the point. I prefer to visit a different city or country when I have time off, either competing or just touring. There is so much of the world to see, and so little time to see it.'

'Don't you miss not having one place to come back to?' She swivelled round in his arms so she could read his expression.

'I can't say I do. In fact, I can think of nothing worse than being stuck in the same spot. I think it would drive me mad eventually.'

Georgie's heart sank. What else did she expect? She had walked into this with her eyes wide open, but that had been before she had fallen in love with him. All this was great, lovely. Now she was greedy and she wanted more. When he left, as he inevitably would, her heart was going to be shattered.

'Tell me about your parents,' she said softly. 'What were they like? Why don't you talk about them?'

He stiffened and the now familiar, guarded look returned to his eyes. He moved away and fiddled around with his music system. The sounds of Rachmaninov filled the air.

'Logan?' she persisted.

He refused to meet her gaze. 'I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Shall we send out for something?' he said, ignoring her question.

Only moments before she could have sworn food was the last thing on his mind. Something had changed, the atmosphere had cooled. Now she felt as if she'd been slapped and all her misgivings come rushing back. He seemed determined not to let her get too close to him.

'Why don't we go out?' Georgie said. 'It's a beautiful evening.' Off balance at the coolness that seemed to have descended between them, she wanted to put some distance between them, even if for a short while. She couldn't think clearly when he was so close.

'Sure. Anything you like. There's a little place on the river that serves meals until late. Atmosphere's great and the food's not bad either. I go there most evenings. Can't say cooking is my thing.'

They dressed quickly, without speaking, and stepped out into the evening air. Thoughts were whirling around Georgie's head. What was she doing? It was madness spending time with a man who was going to break her heart. A man who wouldn't open up to her, either because he didn't trust her or because he didn't see a future for them. Why hadn't she got out of the relationship when she still could? But she knew the answer. Because she was tired of licking her wounds and hiding from life. If nothing else, Logan had made her feel alive again, and if that hurt, at least it was better than feeling nothing. Or so she had thought. Now she wasn't so sure.

The back lane Logan took as a shortcut was quiet, apart from three youths at the other end. Ahead of them they became aware of a scuffle. It looked as if the young men were hara.s.sing an elderly man on his own. Georgie sensed a change in Logan. There was a watchfulness, an intense stillness about him as he kept his eyes pinned on them. He pulled her closer to his side as they continued to walk towards the group.

Suddenly one of the trio viciously punched the older man in the stomach. He gripped his middle in disbelief, before sinking to his knees.

'Hey. Leave him alone!' Logan shouted, and started sprinting towards them. Rooted to the spot, Georgie could only stand and watch. Thankfully when they saw Logan's six feet three of solid muscle heading towards them the youths turned tail and ran.

Logan looked after them as if considering whether to give chase, but then he dropped to his knees beside the fallen man, feeling for a pulse.

'Is he all right?' Georgie asked as she ran up to them.

Logan ripped open the fallen man's shirt and examined the wound. 'He's been stabbed. Phone 999 and get the police and ambulance here. Tell them to hurry.'

Georgie drew in a sharp breath when she saw the extent of the injury but carried on dialling. The man had been stabbed in his chest and Georgie knew from experience that they had to get the victim to hospital as a matter of urgency. Treating a knife wound was notoriously difficult and fraught with complications as often the worst damage was hidden below the surface.

She gave their location to the ambulance controller and a brief description of the injury. When she disconnected, Logan had finished examining the fallen man and was looking worried.

'He's got a tension pneumothorax,' he said tightly, whipping off his jacket to cover the man. 'I'm going to have to do something, and quick. We can't wait for the ambulance.'

Georgie's heart kicked against her ribs. Although they had practised for this type of scenario, she had never imagined they would have to do it. Alone. In the street. And with what?

'I'm going to fetch my bag from the flat,' Logan said. 'I need you to stay with him while I go and get it. Concentrate on keeping him breathing. Can you do that?'

Don't leave me here, Georgie wanted to shout. But she realised Logan was right. He would be much faster than her getting back to his apartment and he knew where the bag was. She nodded. And then Logan was running.

Minutes ticked by slowly. Where the h.e.l.l was the ambulance? She checked her patient's breathing. It was shallow and rapid and he was becoming cyanosed. He could die at any time unless something was done to help him breathe.

'Not while I have anything to do with it,' she muttered, knowing no one could hear her. The back lane was quiet and remained deserted. Georgie could hear the swish of tyres on tarmac a few metres away, but it might have been hundreds of metres for all the use it could do them.

She staunched the bleeding chest wound with one hand while she kept her fingers on his carotid pulse and her eyes on his chest. If he arrested, she would have to perform CPR long enough for the ambulance to arrive or Logan to return. It was what the last weeks of training had been all about. Keeping the patient alive long enough to get them to hospital.

Just as she thought she could no longer feel a pulse, Logan returned. As she raised her eyes from the victim she heard the siren of an ambulance speeding towards them. Logan must have heard it, but took no notice. Taking a large-size IV cannula, he plunged it into the man's chest close to the stab wound but away from the heart. There was an immediate whoosh of air as the tense air pocket was released. Almost miraculously Georgie felt the result.

'He's got a pulse,' she said, hugely relieved.

'Quick, help me get an IV line in as well just in case he's haemorrhaging,' responded Logan, totally focused on the elderly man.

Georgie efficiently inserted the IV line as the paramedics rushed to their side. Georgie updated them, outlining what she and Logan had done so far.

Logan stood while the paramedics hustled the injured man onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.

'Go home, Georgie. Call a taxi for yourself. I'll have to go with him to hospital. And I need you to be safe.' He paused for a moment, cupping her chin in his hand. 'Are you okay?'

Georgie nodded. But she wasn't sure if she was. For a moment back there she'd thought Logan was going to run after the youths and her heart had stopped.

It was all more than she could bear.

The taxi driver looked at her strangely when he noted her blood-splattered clothes, but she didn't have the energy to explain. Now it was all over, she felt washed out. Her hands were shaking. She leaned back in her seat. They had probably saved a man's life. If it hadn't been for them, the victim might not have been discovered until it was too late. A thrill ran though her. She got what attracted Logan to this kind of emergency medicine. It wouldn't be for everyone. Too high-pressure for a start, but Georgie knew that in this way at least she was similar to Logan.

Then the memory of him facing up to the thugs came rushing back and with it a gut-wrenching nausea. They could so easily have turned on him and stabbed him too. Hadn't he known that? But she knew with absolute certainty that even if he had, it wouldn't have stopped him. Logan was the kind of man who would never let fear prevent him from doing what he thought was right. And if he lost his own life in the process? He would consider it part of the job. She shivered. Why had he come into her life? Why did it have to be him of all people she had fallen in love with? As she paid the driver and climbed out of the cab, she made up her mind. There was no future for her in this relationship. She just wasn't up to it. She had to end it before she got in any deeper. The thought broke her heart all over again.

Logan phoned a couple of hours later to say that the man had been taken to ITU and was holding his own. The police had taken a statement from him and wanted to speak to her too, but he had persuaded them to wait until the morning.

'You did great,' he said approvingly.

'I was scared witless.'

He laughed. 'But you didn't let your fear get in the way.' Little did he know that she was going to do exactly that. 'I'm sorry the evening didn't turn out the way we planned. What about tomorrow night?'

'I'm sorry. I can't.'

'Monday night, then?'

'No. Look, Logan, we need to talk.'

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. 'Does that mean what it usually does?' He sounded perplexed. As well he might be. After all, only hours earlier she had been in his bed and in his arms.

'Can we talk about it later?'

'Let's talk about it now,' he said firmly. 'I'm on my way over.'

Before she could protest, he disconnected. Her heart beating uncomfortably, she put on some clothes and went to wait for him in the sitting room. When she heard his car pull up she slipped outside, not wanting to take the chance her mother would wake up and hear her.

'Okay.' He looked at her, his mouth set in a grim line. 'Talk to me.'

'I can't do this,' she said. 'I'm sorry, I thought I could but I can't. You could have been killed back there. You could be killed any time and I'm done with losing people I...' Just in time she stopped herself from saying 'love'. 'People I care about.'

'Agreed. We could all die at any time. Working in emergency medicine, you must know that. People get hurt driving their cars, walking their kids to school, in a million different ways. We hope it won't happen to us and mostly it doesn't.'

'It's different for you. Your job takes you into danger all the time.'

He laughed but there was no mirth in the sound. 'I don't know what you think I do, but when I'm on a tour, most of the time I'm working at the field hospital. It's safe. Or as safe as almost anywhere in these times.'

'Most of the time?' she repeated.

'Sometimes I accompany the men out on patrol,' he admitted. 'I'm a full-time army medic. It's my job.'

'That's what I mean. You can't tell me that there's not a huge risk you'll be killed. A much greater risk than for most people.'

'Not huge.' He drew a line down her jaw with one long finger. She resented the way her body reacted to his slightest touch. When he did that she couldn't think clearly. When he touched her all she could think of was the here and now, not the future. But she had to think about the future. Even if she didn't owe it to herself, she owed it to Jess.

She traced the scar on his face with a finger. 'How did you get this?' she said softly.

Logan was quiet for a while. 'I was out on patrol with the platoon one day. We doctors take it in turn to go out with the men behind the front line, so when the shooting starts we're right there.'

Georgie glanced up at him. His eyes were dark, unfathomable pools.

'We were ambushed. Outside a village. There were several casualties. One of the injured men had fallen in the open. He was bleeding badly.' His voice was quiet, almost matter-of-fact, but Georgie could hear the anguish behind his words.

'I knew if we couldn't get to him, he'd bleed to death. So three of the other soldiers and I made a dash for him. We managed to get him to safety, but not before...' He rubbed his scar ruefully. 'Not before I caught a bullet. Luckily, it only grazed me.' He smiled. 'Spoiled my looks, but that's it.'

'And the other soldiers? The injured man? Did they make it?'

'Thankfully, yes. We were lucky that time. A Chinook was able to evacuate us all a short time later.'

Georgie guessed there was more to the story than Logan was telling her, but she didn't press him. She wasn't at all surprised he had risked his life-hadn't everything she'd learned about this man told her that he would do so without the slightest hesitation? Although she hated the thought, his actions were what made him the man he was. And that was the trouble. She couldn't see a future with that kind of man. No matter how much she wanted to.

Logan grasped her by the shoulders. 'I think I'm in love with you. d.a.m.n it, I know I'm in love with you and it scares me to death. I didn't think I would ever say those words. I love you, Georgie McArthur and I want you to be my wife.' His voice was ragged.

Happiness blossomed as she heard the words. He loved her. But then her heart chilled. It was no use. She couldn't say yes to a life that would destroy her and consequently him too.

'I plan to live a long, long life and I want you in it. I want to grow old with you, have babies with you. The whole shooting match. Do you understand what I'm saying? I want us to spend the rest of our lives together.'

She shook her head, hating the fact she was about to hurt him. She had to ask-even if she strongly suspected she knew the answer.

'Will you give up the army? Take a permanent job in a civilian hospital somewhere? It doesn't have to be here. Anywhere in the world and I would go with you. Even if it means leaving my family. With your experience, you'd get a job wherever you wanted.'

The pain and regret in his eyes almost crushed her.

'The army is my life, Georgie. It's what I know. Who I am. Please don't ask me to give it up.'

She reached out her hand and touched him gently on the face. 'Then it's no use. Can't you see? I couldn't live like that. Waiting in fear for a call that could come any time to tell me you're dead. It would eat away at me and I would try and change you. Try and turn you from the man I love into someone else. You'd start to hate me for it.'

'But you do love me?'

'Yes.' Her voice was small. Too much to ask him to change.

'Then take a chance. Isn't it better to risk everything than not live at all?'

'I wish I were different. But I'm not. Can't we just carry on the way we are? Be friends? Make the most of the time we have together before you have to go away again?'

This time it was Logan who shook his head. 'Don't you know by now that I'm an all-or-nothing man? Right now I want all of you. If you truly loved me, you would take a chance on us.' As she made to protest, he stopped her words, laying a finger on her lips. 'I thought you were braver than this, Georgie. I can see I was mistaken. The woman I want to spend the rest of my life with has to accept me the way I am. I can't be any other way. You're right. If I were forced to stop what I love doing, it would eat me up inside. Eventually it would kill the love between us as surely as any bullet.'

'Then there's nothing left to be said,' she replied sadly. She turned to go back into the house, knowing that tears weren't far away. If she broke down now, and he pulled her into his arms, she would never be able to let him go. And she loved him too much not to.

Logan returned to his flat. His bed was still rumpled where they had made love and Georgie's perfume lingered everywhere. He surveyed his flat with a critical eye, seeing it through Georgie's eyes. She was right. It was as impersonal as a hotel room. Living like this had never bothered him-until now. Georgie had given him a taste of what life could be like. A life where he had a family to come home to.

He crossed over to the window and gazed out onto the river. Shouldn't he do what she asked? She was right about one thing. He could easily find a job in a civilian hospital, possibly even at the Glasgow City General; the powers that be had made it clear that they were happy with the way the service was going and had already earmarked funds to keep it going as a permanent service. Wouldn't it be worth it to have what she was offering?

But leave the army? The men who needed him? However much he loved Georgie, couldn't she see it wasn't fair to ask that of him? The thing was, he wanted the woman he loved to love him back. Unconditionally. Without strings. No matter how tough life got. Someone who wouldn't give up when the going got rough. Someone the complete opposite from his mother. He'd thought he'd found that woman in Georgie. And he'd been wrong. He should have listened to his gut instinct and kept well away from her when he'd had the chance. If he had, he would never have known how much he wanted the life he saw dangling tantalisingly in front of him. But she didn't love him enough. It was time he accepted that.

CHAPTER TEN.