The Perfect Stranger

Chapter One

Dedicated to tigerinwgite for the lovely cover. 

***

Cassie looked around the spacious first class compartment of the aeroplane, her concentration wavering from the medical textbook she'd been engrossed with for more than an hour as she heard the crackle of the speaker going off.

The announcement that they would be landing soon had her jittery with excitement. The coming year would be one she would remember for the rest of her life, that was for sure.

When she'd first been approached by Edward Jensen, her mentor and her father's long time friend, she'd been ecstatic at the possibility of continuing her professional career as a doctor in Greece. The opportunity had been a god-send in more ways than one, at least Cassie had thought at the time.

She'd be finishing her residency in Greece, the experience she would gather would be phenomenal to say the least.

Thoughts of the coming year floated around in her mind as Cassie smiled to herself readjusting her seat belt as she did so, she'd always been extremely smart—too smart some would say, finishing high school at the age of sixteen hadn't been in her plans, but she'd aced her exams, her teachers believing that school just wasn't enough of a challenge for the sixteen-year-old girl.

In some ways they had been right. Academically she'd aced her exams and was probably ready for more than what high school had had to offer her, but in other ways she'd been way too young to have been sent away to college. It was true however that she'd insisted on going anyway, against her parent's wishes.

Perhaps if she had listened to her parents things might have turned out a little different while she had been away at college.

After all it wasn't every day that a sixteen-year-old girl would apply to pre-med, her APT scores higher than many of the older children who had applied with her.

Though she was proud of her achievements, it had also brought a lot of problems to her personal life, especially her love life. Cassie snickered at the last thought...what love life?

After her first year in medical school and her incident with a certain Henry Cobalt, she'd stayed away from men, especially good looking, smart men. Men that hadn't wanted her exactly but what she had to offer—her brains and her parent's money.

Just thinking about Henry brought a sour taste to her mouth, she'd almost up and quit when she'd overheard him talking to his friends about her, the words he had uttered still had the ability to make her cringe in mortification, but mostly it made her angry at the fact that he had taken advantage of her young mind, of her innocence and the fact that she hadn't been as experienced as him.

To say the least, she had fallen hook, line and sinker for Henry, and in the end she had no idea why.

Cassie had made herself invisible after that day, Henry had tried talking to her of course, but the saying about once bitten twice shy had been very true in her case.

The slight bump of the wheels touching the tarmac had her jolting from her reverie, giving herself a mental shake she glanced around her one more time. A soft smile played around her lips as she caught the eye of her flight companion and the little girl who was fast asleep in his arms.

"She must be exhausted," Cassie whispered, making sure that she wouldn't wake the little girl up.

Amanda McCarthy was sleeping soundly, her father holding her closer as the signal went off and everyone was jumping to their feet to collect their luggage.

Both Cassie and Amanda's father sat still as people walked past them, patiently waiting until everyone had vacated the aeroplane before either moved. She hated the frenzy that developed once an aeroplane landed, she would much rather wait until everyone had left before she even stood from her chair.