Australian Affairs: Tempted: Tempted by Dr. Morales

‘I get it.’ Cate gripped the wheel.

‘I don’t think you do.’

‘I get it, okay?’ There were tears in her eyes as she realised he was right, and yet her fear had been real. ‘I just got a fright when I heard how seriously injured you had been.’

He looked at her tense profile.

‘Fair enough,’ Juan conceded. ‘Do you know how my accident happened?’ Cate said nothing. ‘I was going to get a haircut…’ He gave a wry laugh as Cate drove on. ‘It was embarrassing really on the spinal unit. There were guys who had been diving, playing sport, car accidents—I had been walking to get a haircut. A car driven by an elderly woman mounted the kerb and really only clipped me, but the way I fell…’ He let out a long, exasperated sigh. ‘It was bad luck, chance, whatever you want to call it.’

‘So now you take risks?’

‘Yes, because I never did before and look where it got me, lying on my back paralysed from the neck down. Now I live, now I do as I please…’

‘It’s all just a game to you, isn’t it?’

‘It’s no game,’ Juan said. ‘I have ridden a bike for years, it is how I get around back home. I’m not on some daredevil mission. I’m living my life, that’s all.’

‘Well, your fiancée is beside herself.’

‘Ex.’

‘Because you’re too bloody proud and have too much to prove.’

‘You don’t know me.’ His grey eyes flashed back; it was the closest Juan had come to a row in a very long time. It was the closest he had come to anyone in a long time and that was what he had been trying to avoid, Juan reminded himself as they pulled up at his apartment and he climbed out.

‘I know that today would have been your first wedding anniversary,’ Cate called to his departing back, and watched as he turned slowly.

‘It would have been, except Martina decided she didn’t want to marry a man in a wheelchair.’

Cate sat there, her knuckles white as she clutched the wheel. Of all the things he might have told her, that was the last she had been expecting.

‘Juan!’

She went to step out of the car.

‘Please, don’t.’ Juan put his hand up. ‘Thank you for the lift.’

‘Juan,’ Cate said. ‘I didn’t know.’

‘Because I didn’t want you to know.’

‘I don’t want to just leave you—’