Bonus Kisses - Freya Barker Page 0,1

luck. The moment I realized I was using Sven to live out that particular fantasy of mine, I’d broken it off.

There hadn’t been anyone since, until Paul Bonnaire joined our team. Just a scant few inches over my five five—dark-haired and smooth-tongued—he’d seemed like the perfect antithesis. Unfortunately, he also hadn’t held my interest long, and after a handful of less than satisfying sexual gymnastics in his tukul, I’d had enough.

Paul hadn’t.

He’s been trying to work his way back into my pants, unable to take ‘not a chance in hell’ for an answer. That too is wearing me down.

“Taz!” he calls out, walking up to the Land Rover when we pull into a parking spot. He has my door open before I have a chance to react. “Je vous ai manqué.”

Well, I didn’t miss you. In fact, some time away had provided welcome relief from the uncomfortably persistent man.

“Hey, Paul,” I mumble under my breath, as I try to squeeze by him—without touching—to grab my bag from the back of the vehicle.

“Let me get that for you,” he says, taking my duffel in one hand while throwing his other arm over my shoulder, steering me to my hut.

Rather than struggling fruitlessly over my bag, I shrug off his arm and rush ahead but stop, turning to face him outside my door.

“I wish you would stop, Paul. You’re not only making me uncomfortable, but the rest of the team as well. We’re done.” I wave my hand between us. “This is done. Let’s call it an error in judgment and move on.”

“Je ne comprends pas?”

I roll my eyes at his feigned ignorance and snag my duffel from his hand. “Please, you understand me well enough, but just to make sure—c’est fini entre nous.”

Noticing the flash of anger in his eyes, I’m relieved when Patti, one of the other nurses, comes jogging up the path.

“Did you give her the message?” she asks Paul when she reaches us.

“What message?” I ask, ignoring him and keeping my eyes on Patti, who suddenly looks too sympathetic for comfort. We have ways to stay in touch here at the clinic by phone and with spotty Internet, but once we leave the compound; we’re quickly out of range.

“Your friend, Kathleen, called the day before yesterday. It’s your sister.”

Mention of Nicky is followed by the familiar ache right in the middle of my chest. Only two years between us, my sister and I had been close growing up. They say opposites attract, and that had been a true statement for us. We were the perfect contrast, her light against my dark. Veronica had been the quiet and responsible child, whereas I’d always had a wild streak a mile wide and lived to break every rule in the book. The perfect yin and yang, until I left.

My sister put a smile on my parents’ faces when all I did was give them gray hair. I hardly think they miss me. Kathleen, my best friend, is the only person I have any contact with from back home.

“My sister?”

“I’m sorry,” Patti says, putting a hand on my arm. “I’m afraid it’s bad news.”

Rafe

Christ.

The past week has been an absolute nightmare.

Nicky hadn’t been feeling well over the weekend, claiming she was likely coming down with something. Last Monday morning, she’d apparently gotten worse and ended up heading back to bed after she saw the kids off to school.

I had no idea; I’d been called out of bed by Jeff Van Duren at four that morning and was elbow deep in his prize heifer. She’d had trouble calving her first, the calf having gotten stuck in the birth canal. It had taken most of my morning making sure both mom and newborn bull calf were okay. I’d been on my way back to the veterinary clinic when my assistant called, asking me why there was an ambulance outside next door.

A heart attack.

Who would’ve thought a forty-year-old, seemingly healthy woman could be struck with a massive heart attack? There’d been no obvious signs, which I’ve learned since is not unusual in women. Her complaints had been of a more general nature, nothing really indicating that the arteries around her heart had slowly been clogging up.

She underwent an angioplasty and had three stents placed to restore some blood flow. A few days later, after a battery of tests, the cardiologist informed us that unfortunately the damage to her heart had been much more extensive than initially thought. It looks like she may have had prior