In the Doctor's Bed

by Brenda Jackson

  He chuckled. “Not at all. They have the entire sky, so they should not mind if we use their water.” He then said, “The rules of the game are simple. The first boat to the other side wins.”

  A smile curving her lips was her only response.

  He hunched down and set the boats next to each other and she knelt down beside him with her remote in her hand. “On your mark…get set…go.”

  The boats took off and at some point they were even as they crossed the pond. But then suddenly hers took the lead. He glanced over at her, saw the smirk of victory on her face. “I wouldn’t get cocky so soon.” And then suddenly, his boat took the lead. They stood there, cheering their boats on. In the end his boat made it to the other side first.

  He glanced over at her smiling. “Well, what do you think?”

  “My mom was right.”

  “About what?”

  “Men are boys who like playing with more expensive toys.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “You’re going to be a sore loser?”

  “No, but you do know I want another race.”

  “I think I can accommodate you.”

  It took a few minutes to get the boats back to their side of the pond to start the race up again. She won the next one and he took the lead, winning the next two. “We’ve raced our boats enough for today. Let’s sit down and talk,” he said, gesturing to a bench that faced the pond.

  “All right.”

  There weren’t a lot of people about and the geese and ducks, Jaclyn noticed, flew back the moment they’d taken the boats out of the pond. It was a beautiful day in August and numerous boats could be seen out on the Potomac.

  He sat beside her and they didn’t say anything for a few moments. She knew they were both enmeshed deep in their own thoughts. Moments later, his soft chuckle drew her attention.

  “What’s so amusing?”

  “You. Me. The boat race,” he said, stretching out his legs. “When we left the hospital this morning after pulling a double, you should have gone to your place and I should have gone to mine.”

  Jaclyn nodded slowly. “Why didn’t we?”

  A grim smile curved the corners of his mouth. “That would have been way too easy. Besides, we needed to talk.”

  And it was a conversation they still hadn’t had, at least not fully. “Okay, Lucien, let’s talk.”

  Silence lingered between them for a moment. Then he said, “The reason I almost kissed you in my office yesterday was because I wanted to kiss you. It had nothing to do with your tears, although they provided the perfect opportunity, an advantage I didn’t waste any time taking.”

  Jaclyn made no reply. All she could do at the moment was to listen while her body responded to the husky sound of his voice.

  “And the reason I wanted to kiss you,” he continued to say, “is that in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m attracted to you.”

  He hesitated, as if he expected her to make a comment and when she didn’t, he said, “And being attracted to you isn’t a good thing considering the hospital’s policy and your position and mine.”

  She looked down for a few moments and then looked back at him. She saw the intensity in his eyes and thought it was time she said something. It was time for her to let him know the attraction was not one-sided. “I’m attracted to you as well, Lucien.”

  She decided it was best not to let him know her feelings had moved from mere attraction to love. There were still a lot of things she didn’t know about him, but it didn’t matter. At least not to her heart.

  She loved him.

  She swallowed hard when she saw the impact her confession had on him. It was there in his features, in the way the muscles tightened in his jaw, the way the pupils of his eyes darkened even more. “Had I met you at a medical convention, research seminar or just passing by on the street, I would welcome the attraction. But considering the hospital’s policy… Well, it is what it is.”

  “Yes, it is what it is,” he agreed slowly in a husky tone.

  She hesitated a moment and then said, “I know you aren’t married. At least the word among the interns is that you’re not. But are you involved with anyone?”

  A smile curved his lips. “No. I haven’t been seriously involved with anyone for close to a year. In fact I haven’t dated anyone since October of last year.”

  She wondered if he’d intentionally told her that period of time because it was when she’d begun working at the hospital. Was it his way of letting her know he hadn’t dated a woman since they’d met?

  “What about you, Jaclyn? Is there some serious guy in your life?”

  She tried not to frown when she thought about Danny, the guy she had dated seriously while in her first year of med school. She could clearly remember when he had graduated from law school and had accompanied a group of friends to England for a summer vacation well-earned. Jaclyn couldn’t forget how he had returned to the States and dropped by to see her just long enough to break things off with her. He had explained he had met someone in London and it had been love at first sight.

  At the time she had been too hurt to consider that such a thing was possible, but now after meeting Lucien, she knew better and could appreciate Danny for not stringing her along. Instead, he had followed his heart. According to her brother who still heard from Danny from time to time, he went back to London, married the woman he loved and the two were now living in Rhode Island where Danny was working at a law firm and was the father of a little girl.

  She glanced over at Lucien and saw he was waiting for her response. “No, I’m not seeing anyone seriously. At least not now. My boyfriend and I broke up a little over a year ago and I’ve been too busy to become involved in another serious relationship.”

  What she didn’t add was that even if she hadn’t been busy she probably would have not become involved again. She had put a lot of time into her relationship with Danny and in the end he’d still walked…right into the arms of another woman.

  “What about Marcus Shaw? He seems to like you.”

  Was that a tinge of jealousy she heard in his voice? She shook her head, finding the notion ridiculous, especially when she thought of the playboy intern. “Marcus likes to flirt with all the ladies. If you notice I never flirt back.”

  He nodded. “No, you don’t.” Then he stood, held out his hand to her and said, “Come take a walk with me.”

  “What about our boats?” she asked.

  “We can leave them here for a minute.”

  The moment she placed her hand in his, she felt it. A tingling sensation all the way to her toes. Suddenly his hand tightened on hers in what seemed to be a possessive grip as she stood on her feet while forcing the cozy awareness from her mind. Standing up brought them so close that there was barely any breathing space between them. Up close she could only marvel at the breadth of his wide shoulders and powerful chest, and a face that could make a woman drool.

  “Ready?” He leaned over and whispered close to her ear.

  She swallowed and wondered what she was supposed to be ready for. “Yes.”

  His hand continued to hold hers as they began walking along a grassy path that led away from the pond toward an area shrouded by huge cherry blossoms and magnolia trees. The area would be perfect for a picnic with the lush lawns and the Potomac River as a backdrop.

  He stopped at a huge maple tree and he perched his back against the bark. She followed his line of vision and saw he had a good view of where they’d left the boats. And then his gaze moved over her features. “Do you know what I thought when I first saw you?” he asked her.

  She smiled. “Probably the same thing you thought of all the other interns. That we had a lot to learn before we could call ourselves doctors.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, that too, but I’m talking about when I first saw you specifically. You might not have noticed, but my gaze stayed on you a minute too long.”

  She had noticed but assumed she had imagined it because her gaze had remaine
d on him even longer than that. “No, I didn’t know what you were thinking,” she whispered when she realized just how close they were standing.

  “I thought you were more than just pretty. I thought you were strikingly beautiful, which is something I should not have been thinking. I also thought, less than a few minutes later, that with you I was going to have to keep my distance. I had immediately felt an attraction to you and I knew that was not going to work.”

  “Is that why you transferred me to nights for a while?” she decided to ask him.

  “Yes,” he responded honestly. “That, and I thought the E.R. could use a person like you. You have a way with patients. You have a lot of patience.”

  With some things, she thought, knowing her patience was being stretched at this very moment. They were talking, true enough. And he had admitted to being attracted to her. But he hadn’t explained what had made the attraction so great he’d been willing to risk breaking a hospital policy by kissing her.

  “I can’t explain it, Jaclyn,” he said softly, as if he’d read her mind. “Nor do I fully understand it. All I know is that at that moment, I had to taste you.” Then in an even lower voice he added, “I had to know the sweetness of your mouth, and how your tongue would feel wrapped around mine, with me sucking on it, devouring it.”

  Whatever she’d assumed he would eventually get around to saying, that wasn’t it. His words made her heart start racing in her chest at the same time that her breath caught in her throat. Luscious and succulent images filled her mind while sensations crammed her body in a heated rush. She could feel her eyes darken as she watched his do likewise. And then of its own accord, her body leaned into him and his head lowered and swooped down on her mouth to finish what they’d started before the interruption yesterday.

  It had to be the most focused kiss she’d ever experienced. It seemed he was putting everything into it. His every thought, all five senses and a flood of emotions. And when she felt his arms wrap around her, she automatically sank into him. At that moment she couldn’t think and was relying on him to do all the thinking for both of them. All she could do was give herself over to a kiss she was feeling all the way to her toes.

  Lucien felt his mind and body unleash turbulent emotions that he’d held back for the past eighteen months. Now he was giving in to a hunger he hadn’t known possible. There was this ravenousness that was invading his body and obliterating any kind of control. And he was giving in to it. Letting it dominate.

  Her tongue tasted just as he’d known it would with a sweetness that was turning his bones to jelly. There was a faint taste of the spiced coffee she’d drunk earlier, but mostly it was all woman and it was so captivating that he couldn’t imagine how it would be not to kiss her.

  He pushed that thought out of his mind as he continued to devour her mouth, lips, tongue. There wasn’t a part of her mouth he hadn’t invaded and sampled. And she was kissing him back with a hunger just as greedy as his own.

  The sound of people approaching had them breaking off the kiss, but Lucien was intent on feasting on her mouth anyway and began licking the corners of her lips, tracing the outline with the tip of his tongue, leaving a wet trail from corner to corner. And when she moaned the word “Oh” and her mouth formed into the shape of a bow, he licked around that as well.

  When the voices came closer his hold around her waist loosened and he shifted slightly while taking a step back. Their gazes held while a couple with a child walked past. Lucien had a gut feeling when reality returned they would realize just what line they had crossed. They were treading on forbidden ground, but he needed her to know he wasn’t remorseful in any way.

  “I don’t regret kissing you, Jaclyn,” he said. “This was personal and our relationship at the hospital is business. I can separate the two.” But he knew the officials at the hospital wouldn’t agree, which was why they had the nonfraternization policy in place.

  “And just so we’re absolutely clear about something. I’m not a boss who makes it a point to hit on one intern out of every group I get. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. You are the one and only woman I’ve been this attracted to.” He hoped she knew that he was being completely honestly with her because he was.

  “And nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I didn’t intentionally set out to draw your attention either,” she said.

  He believed her. Like he’d said earlier, there were some things that were hard to deny and for him it was an attraction of this magnitude. He leaned in and kissed her again. He couldn’t help it. It seemed her lips had parted just for him.

  This kiss was gentler than the first but just as ravenous on both their parts. He didn’t just want to kiss her, he wanted to lay claim to every inch of her mouth and he was doing so inch by inch and second by second.

  The sweetness of her mouth was holding him captive and he surrendered easily with a hunger he couldn’t deny. But when a plane flew overhead the noise nearly causing the ground beneath them to vibrate, he accepted that as his cue to release her mouth.

  “You can become habit-forming,” he whispered against her moist lips.

  “If only things could be that easy,” was her quick response and he knew exactly what she’d meant. They’d crossed over to forbidden grounds and weren’t sure how to go back. Things wouldn’t be easy between them from now on, no matter what route they chose to take.

  He saw the desire in her eyes and he saw something else, too. Weariness. She had to be tired. “Come on,” he said, taking a step back and reclaiming her hand. “I’m taking you home.” Her hand felt so right enclosed in his.

  She glanced up at him when they began walking back toward the area where they’d left their boats. “You mean you’re taking me back to the hospital for my car, don’t you?”

  “No, I’m taking you home. You’re exhausted.” When she parted her lips to protest, he quickly said, “Don’t argue about it, Jaclyn. If you need me to take you to get your car tomorrow I can do that.”

  “That won’t be necessary. My roommate can take me to get it later today.”

  They gathered the boats with the remotes and walked back to the car. She had gotten silent on him and was probably wondering where their kiss would lead. He had no answer to that question. They didn’t even have the luxury of taking things one day at a time. Whatever was going on between them needed to end now. But he couldn’t make himself do that.

  When they were in the car with seat belts in place, he decided to engage in conversation about anything and everything but the kiss they’d shared. They talked about recent movies they’d seen, mostly on DVD, because their time was limited when it came to going to the theaters. He wasn’t surprised that they enjoyed the same movies and actors. It should have been a simple matter to ask her out on a movie date, but he knew doing something like that was only asking for trouble.

  He didn’t know about her, but he considered their day in the park as a date and the thought that it would be the only one they could have made sadness well up inside of him. The one thing he wanted—a relationship with her—was the one thing he could not have.

  Once he crossed the Francis Scott Key Bridge, it didn’t take them long to reach where she lived. She had given him good directions. He brought his car to a stop in front of a nicely landscaped town house. “Nice place.”

  “Thanks. It’s owned by friends of my parents who spend most of their time out of the country since retiring. They offered me the use of it. I have a roommate to defray the cost because it’s in a nice part of town.”

  He nodded. “Dr. Morales is your roommate, right?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  He figured the reason she wouldn’t be inviting him in was because Dr. Morales would have come home from the hospital by now. Chances were she was sleeping off the long hours spent at the hospital because she’d stayed on duty most of the night. That was a risk neither of them needed to take.

  “Thanks for such a fun day, Lucien. I had a w
onderful time…even if you did best me three out of four on the boat race.”

  He smiled. “There’s always another time, Jaclyn.”

  He wasn’t sure why he was putting ideas into her head that they could spend another day together when they both knew they couldn’t. They had too much to lose. He had the position he wanted at the hospital and she had her entire future as a doctor to protect.

  Instead of responding to what he’d said, she proceeded to unbuckle her seat belt. When he began unbuckling his, she glanced over at him and asked, “What are you doing?”

  “Walking you to the door.”

  She nervously gnawed on her bottom lip. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “Yes, I do.” He had to do it for more reasons than one. Most importantly because this was probably the last date, official or otherwise, they would ever share. And although he figured they both had to be exhausted, he wasn’t ready for their day together to end.

  He waited to see if she would present some sort of argument and gave a sigh of relief when she didn’t. Together they disembarked the car and began walking toward her front door.

  Upon reaching their destination, she pulled the key from her purse and glanced up at him. “I would invite you in, but my—”

  “Yes, I know. More than likely Dr. Morales is home,” he finished for her.

  Her mouth curved in a slight smile. “Yes.”

  He slanted her a smile. “I’ll see you back at the hospital but no sooner than Friday. If I recall, you have the next two days off.”

  “Only if they don’t need me.”

  “They won’t. You deserve to get some rest. Got that?”

  She chuckled. “Yes, I got that. And you don’t have to worry about me showing up before then,” she said. “After I take a shower I’ll probably fall face down in my bed and sleep for the next forty-eight hours.”

  A sudden vision jerked his brain to life—that of her stepping out of the shower, naked, with water glistening all over her body. The thought had goose bumps prickling his skin while blood rushed fast and furious through his veins.