In the Doctor's Bed

by Brenda Jackson

  He placed the seashell back down to glance over at her. “And what do you think is my decision?”

  “To end things between us. You’ve decided the last thing you really want is to risk your career at Hopewell to become involved with me.”

  He didn’t say anything for a moment, thinking that ending things between them would spare both of them any unnecessary risks. But no matter what she thought, there was no way he could do that. There was no way he could turn his back on what he saw as a developing relationship between them. No matter the risks.

  He still wasn’t sure what this thing between them was, why was there such intensity and why was he willing to risk everything for an unknown. He just knew he had to. “So you think those are my thoughts,” he said quietly. “What are yours?”

  He watched her, studied her features. And then he skimmed a glance down her body and felt heat simmer through him. Keep focus, De Winter, he admonished, returning his gaze back to her face. He saw her nervously gnawing on her bottom lip and was tempted to cross the room to her, pull her into his arms and gnaw on that lip for her. Then he would lick it a few times before capturing it with his. That would be when the real deal would begin.

  He’d discovered on those two days they were together that his desire for her was nonstop and all-consuming. At times, like now, it could take his breath away. Since when, he’d been asking himself lately, could a woman leave him breathless? He knew the answer without much thought. Ever since Jaclyn Campbell had come on the scene and been introduced as one of his interns.

  And there lay the crux of his problem.

  Jaclyn stood there, not only trying to figure out what to say but also how to say it. Bottom line was that she loved him and had from the first. But that wasn’t anything she could share with him. This wasn’t about love…at least it wasn’t with him. It was about desire, need, attraction and yes, of course, sex.

  She had accepted that. More than anything she wished they could end up like her parents. But she was realistic enough to know that wouldn’t be the case. However, she would risk all to be with him because of the love she had for him even though she didn’t expect him to feel the same way. She didn’t like seeing him each day and pretending there was no real emotion between them, but it was what it was.

  She saw he was waiting for her response. “My thoughts might be a little more complicated,” she said honestly.

  “And why is that?”

  She drew in a deep breath, not surprised he would ask. “You’ve made me feel things I’ve never felt before. This attraction between us is almost bigger than life and in a way it’s bigger than my common sense. I’m willing to take my chances and any risks right along with it to be with you.”

  She had deliberately made it seem that what was between them was merely physical, when for her it was a whole lot more. But he didn’t have to know that. A girl had her pride.

  “Are you sure, Jaclyn?”

  “Yes. However, I’d understand if you want to end things,” she said, trying not to be distracted by the way he was looking at her from across the room. Her breathing accelerated when he began walking toward her in that sexy stroll that often had all the young single nurses and interns talking.

  When he came to a stop in front of her, he reached out and settled his hands at her waist. “This,” he said, leaning so close to her that she could feel his breath on her lips, “is what I want. A chance to hold you, kiss you, get to know you, make love to you and claim you as mine. Even if it’s behind closed doors. Ending things between us is certainly not what I want. Maybe it’s something I should want for both our sakes, but it’s not. I’m willing to risk all for this.”

  And then his mouth captured hers. His tongue mingled with hers and she couldn’t help but release all the desire she’d been holding. He’d said he didn’t want to end things and this kiss he was giving her let her know he was dead serious. Passion had erupted, sending them both in a tailspin, and she wasn’t sure who began taking off whose clothes first.

  All she knew was that when he drew back from the kiss, her skirt was in a heap by her feet. Her blouse was unbuttoned and the front clasp of her bra was undone. His belt was out of the loop and his jeans were unzipped. She licked her lips. Had she done that?

  Before she could even think about what she had or had not done, she found herself swept off her feet and into his strong arms.

  Lucien walked down the hall to his bedroom while telling himself he needed to slow down. He was thinking with the wrong head, the one below his gut and not the one connected to his neck. But at that moment nothing mattered because what he wanted more than anything was to make love to Jaclyn. He needed to feel his manhood ease into her wet warmth. He needed to feel her muscles clamping down on him hard before milking everything out of him. He needed to revel in the thrusts he would make into her body and appreciate the feel of her moving against him, stroke for stroke.

  He reached his bedroom in record time. Before placing her in the center of his bed, he glanced down at her and the look he saw in her eyes sent a flash of blazing heat and desire through him. And when she tightened her arms around his neck and drew his mouth down to hers, he knew how it felt to become obsessed with someone.

  When she finally broke off the kiss, he sat down on the edge of the bed with her in his arms. “Don’t think when you saw me today that I hadn’t remembered what we’d shared over the past two days. But I couldn’t be certain no one was watching us or listening to our conversation. Dudley’s accusations caught me off guard and of course I denied everything. Tsang is all eyes and all ears and we can’t give her anything to work with. As much as I wanted to find you today and pull you inside one of those closets with me and get the kiss I’ve been craving all day, I couldn’t. Right now they’re just speculating about us. We have to be careful that we don’t give them a reason to do more.”

  Jaclyn nodded slowly. “All right.”

  Lucien rubbed a hand down his face in frustration. “Even asking you to meet me at the park and bringing you here was taking a big chance. But I needed to see you outside the hospital. Alone. I needed to kiss you, taste you, let you know I remembered our time together because being with you those two days is something I can’t and won’t forget.”

  And then he stood and proceeded to finish undressing her. She then watched as he undressed himself as well as put on a condom to keep her protected. He thought it was something totally arousing to see her watch him do it.

  He sauntered back over to the bed and reached out to touch her, tracing a path along the sides of her body before letting his fingertips glide over her firm and uplifted breasts. He remembered them well. Could distinctively recall how they tasted on his tongue.

  His pulse pounded at the same time his manhood hardened even more. And at that moment, something inside of him that had dimmed when he’d returned her home yesterday flared to life again.

  His breath caught at the thought she could do this to him, that she had that much influence. That much power. But then he’d known after their time in Maryland not to underestimate the power of a woman in control. And as far as he was concerned Jaclyn was in control because she constantly dominated his mind as well as his body.

  When it came to stroking him into a tizzy of desire, she could do it instantly. Not knowing when they would have another chance to slip away from prying eyes again, he wanted to make this time between them last a while, give them both memories to savor when they were alone, miles apart in their individual beds.

  He began tracing a path downward to the center of her and he could tell she was wet for him. A sharp moan escaped her lips the moment he touched her. “You like for me to touch you there, don’t you?” he asked huskily, stirring up her sensual scent as he continued to stroke her.

  “Yes, I like it,” she responded in a voice that sounded strained to his ears.

  He smiled. “Do you want me to stop?”

  “No, please don’t stop,” she implored quietly in a sensual ple
a.

  His fingers moved beyond the springy curls to slide a lone finger between her womanly folds. And then he began caressing her there, stroking her while hearing the sharp intake of her breath. He stroked her into deep, heavy passion. He glanced up at her, studied the intensity of her features, heard the moans from deep in her throat.

  “Mmm, you okay?” he asked, thinking her arousing scent was getting the best of him. His mouth watered and his manhood throbbed.

  When she stared at him through glazed eyes, her pupils were drenched in yearning. “I want you, Lucien.”

  He decided this time he would let her be in control, do the leading and call the shots. “Then take me, Jaclyn. Any way you want. “

  Chapter 12

  Any way she wanted.

  Lucien’s words gave Jaclyn pause. Their gazes held for a long moment as ideas flowed through her head and she liked each and every one of them. She took a moment to study the handsome contours of the face staring at her. Every angle, every sensual plane displayed strength.

  Her mother once told her that you could tell a lot about a man not only by the strength of his features, but also the strength of his character. She knew the man looking at her had both.

  And she knew something else as well. He was someone she could not only enjoy spending time holding conversations with, but also someone with whom she could indulge her fantasies. There wasn’t a single night that she didn’t go to bed dreaming about him, basically making love to him in her sleep. Some of those sessions were so brazenly hot that she would wake up in the middle of the night sweating. But now she was here with him. They were both totally naked and completely aroused. And he had offered himself to her—any way she wanted.

  She leaned up and slowly slid her hand up his thigh while holding his gaze. “That’s a nice offer, Lucien.”

  “Glad you think so,” he said, his voice showing signs that he was getting more aroused by the minute and that her hand touching him was only adding to his torture.

  “I do. No man has done that before. You’re my first. But then I’ve never wanted a man with the intensity that I want you,” she said honestly.

  His breath quickened and she knew why. She had taken hold of his thick erection. She could feel it thickening even more in her hands. “Nice piece of work you have here, Lucien.”

  He chuckled, at least he tried to, but to Jaclyn’s way of thinking his chuckle sounded more like a groan. “Glad you like it.”

  “I do, and do you know what I wonder about each and every time I watch you remove your pants and free yourself in front of me?”

  He groaned again and she responded by stroking him with her fingers. “No, I don’t know what you wonder about when I do that,” he said, his breath sounding ragged.

  She lowered her gaze and watched for a second as her hands continued to grip him, to stroke him slowly, and automatically she licked her lips before returning her gaze to his face. “I wonder how you taste. You know my taste and I think it’s such an injustice that I don’t know yours. And because I can have you any way I want, I want to have you that way.” With that said, she then rolled the condom off his erection.

  She pushed him back on the bed and straddled him, leaned down to place a kiss on his lips. When he tried deepening the kiss, she pulled back but returned to use the tip of her tongue to lick him along his jaw, throat and neck. She liked the taste of his skin and knew she would enjoy the taste of another part of him as well.

  “Do you plan on torturing me?” he asked, his voice almost a hushed and husky whisper.

  “Not intentionally.” was her response. “I like to think we’ll be sharing the pleasure. I’ll make sure you enjoy it when I get what I want.”

  His eyes, she noted, were simmering in desire, the red-hot kind, and she thought that was good. He had shown her what he could do with his mouth; now it was time they both found out what she could do with hers. She’d never done this before to a man—not even to Danny. Once when she’d mentioned wanting to do it, he’d seemed to have gotten turned off by the very idea and she’d never brought it up again. But it seemed Lucien was just the opposite and she was glad for that.

  Her tongue left his chin and began moving lower toward his chest. After placing kisses there it moved on down but stopped long enough to prod around his belly button. She thought he had a cute one. She smiled upon feeling the way his abdominal muscles clenched beneath her mouth.

  Her mouth was on the move again, going lower, and she lifted her head slightly when she noted his thick erection was stiff and jutting straight up as if waiting for her tongue’s visit. Her breath quickened at the sight of something so beautiful. He was hot and he was ready.

  So was she.

  She leaned forward and slid him into her mouth, liking the taste of him, and it seemed her mouth automatically stretched to accommodate him. Grabbing hold of his hips she began working her mouth on him and she could tell from the sounds he was making that she was stirring pleasure within him of the most intense kind.

  She felt his fingers run through her hair and the feel of his doing so aroused her even more with a wantonness that was new to her. “Jaclyn.” He called her name in a voice that was throatier than anything she’d ever heard from him. She thought there was something special in savoring the heat of him this way, tasting all of him—every engorged muscle, every thick vein. When his body jerked and he gripped her hair to pull her mouth away from him, she locked her mouth tighter, refusing to let go.

  “Jaclyn!”

  He came hard as his body exploded. Just knowing what they were sharing sent sensations flooding through her the same way he was flooding her mouth, and she still did not let go. She wanted this as much as he did. And when he didn’t have anything left to give, she slowly loosened her grip on his hips.

  It was then that he took over and flipped her on her back, quickly donned a condom he grabbed off the nightstand and, with his gaze holding hers, he entered her in a hard thrust. He began moving inside of her in sure, rapid strokes with such precision that she cried out.

  But he kept on going, shifting various times and in several ways to provide the ultimate penetration. Their gaze met each time and the look that held them together was another kind of arousing factor that was seeping into their bones.

  And then their world exploded and they were tossed into a sea of ecstasy that had them clinging to each other for life, for pleasure. Jaclyn’s heart began beating too rapidly and she had to take long breaths to get it back in sync.

  For long moments they lay beside each other with labored breathing. To say Lucien had pushed her over the edge was an understatement. She glanced over at him and couldn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. She had gotten what she wanted.

  “You hungry?”

  His question reminded her she hadn’t taken the time to eat anything before rushing off to meet him. “I guess I have worked up an appetite.”

  He smiled. “Good. Although I don’t think it would be wise for us to go out any place, I know my way around the kitchen and would love to prepare something for you here,” he said, caressing the line of her jaw.

  “You would do that for me?”

  He chuckled. “Haven’t you caught on yet, Jaclyn Campbell, that I will do anything for you?”

  And knowing the risk they were taking by being together, she couldn’t help but believe him.

  Lucien glanced across the patio table at Jaclyn. He had enjoyed preparing dinner for her and having her help. At first he’d been kind of leery to accept her offer because he remembered the times he and Nikki had tried doing that same thing and failed miserably due to her competitive nature. She’d taken his suggestions as orders and stated more than once she didn’t like being bossed around.

  It hadn’t been that way with Jaclyn. She had taken his suggestions as suggestions and they had worked well together in the kitchen. He bit into the steak he had grilled outside in his backyard and appreciating his privacy fence more than ever. At least he wasn’
t looking over his shoulder wondering who was watching them.

  “This place is like a beautiful flower garden. It’s so peaceful out here, Lucien.”

  He smiled. “I think of this as my peace zone. Lori planted a lot of the flowers herself. Most of them are common in Jamaica. During winter the harsh cold usually does them in, but in the spring they miraculously come up again. All I do is water them and sometimes I even forget to do that.” He chuckled. “Lori’s known to call from time to time and remind me.”

  “She sounds like a nice person.”

  He smiled. “She is. You’ll like her and I know she’s going to like you.” He leaned back in his chair. “I wished you didn’t have to go home tonight.” Earlier he had mentioned the possibility of her spending the night, but they both finally agreed doing so would not be a good idea.

  “I wish I could stay, too, but it is what it is.”

  He knew she was right. They had agreed to continue their affair and take the risks. After making love they had redressed and gone into the kitchen to prepare dinner. They had used that time to talk. They knew how they would have to react toward each other at work. They also knew even when they met at their secret hideaways they would need to be careful as well. You never knew who you might run in to.

  So they figured getting away together for out-of-town trips would be best. They had enjoyed the time they’d spent together at Wades Point Inn and discussed the possibility of going back again soon.

  “I have a trip to Florida coming up. One of those medical conventions,” he said, missing her already. But then maybe it would be good to put distance between them for a week. It was going to be hard to see her each day at work and not let anyone know they were involved. He didn’t like the thought of their sneaking around, but there was nothing they could do about it.

  “When do you have to leave?” she asked him.

  “A couple of weeks.” He paused for a moment and then said, “I know things are going to be crazy for us, Jaclyn, but I believe that no matter what, we’re going to make it work.” And then what, De Winter? What can you offer her other than more clandestine meetings? More behind-closed-door affairs? Secrets kept hidden? Lies to people you and she cared about?