She pulled away, smiling. ‘I wasn’t flirting with you. I was chatting with friends. Rachel’s going to think I’m a loony, sending her home in a cab while we… What was it you said? Talk about ward policies?’
‘I was thinking on the hoof. You were driving me mad.’
‘You think you’re mad? Because I was trying not to think about you…us…this… I’ve signed up to kayak across an ocean, run myself ragged on a touch-rugby field and do a three-day cross-country skiing event. And I hate sport.’ She laughed into his chest and he hauled her closer, feeling the press of her breasts against his diaphragm, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo. He’d never been so aware of a woman in his whole damned life.
‘Really? I reckon you’d be good at anything you put your hand to.’ He pulled her hand to his waist, ran his fingers over her bottom towards her thigh. ‘With these gorgeous legs you’d excel at sport.’
‘Oh, I used to. I was a pretty good athlete once, but it all…’ Those pupils contracted. Heck, her whole body contracted. There was more to this but she’d clammed up. Turned away. ‘Never mind.’
He grasped her wrist and turned her to face him, wishing there wasn’t such a veil of secrecy over everything. Wishing trust wasn’t something he’d heard about but never experienced. ‘So what happened?’
The lift pinged and they were in his apartment before she answered. The vulnerability in her face tugged at his heart, raising more questions about her past. ‘Life got in the way. You know how it is.’
‘Do I?’
She wrapped her arms around his neck. Nibbled along his lip. ‘Shut up and kiss me.’
He smacked a kiss on her mouth. Short. Hot. Hard. Pulled away before she got too comfortable. ‘Stop avoiding my questions. You are allowed to talk just a bit.’
‘Talking never achieved anything.’
‘But it might help. This doesn’t just have to be about sex.’
What? Since when had he encouraged a woman to talk? Since when had he wanted anything other than sex?
But Gabby—she was too many shades, too complex to get his head round. She wanted him to talk but refused to illuminate him on her past. She held back so far it was bordering on retrograde—but when she did let loose it was like setting off fireworks. He was caught firmly in her glare.
‘Says the guy with commitment issues.’ Frowning, she jabbed him in the ribs before walking through to the lounge.
He shrugged as he followed her. ‘Commitment’s overrated.’
‘So I heard.’
‘From whom?’
Her eyebrows rose. ‘The hospital grapevine.’
‘Again? We’ve been over this. You’ll probably hear a whole lot of stuff. Doesn’t make it true.’
‘It was about Jodi and Mitch.’ She paused, dark eyes scrutinising him.
God, it had to happen at some point. Now he felt like he was being put on trial. The truth serum was no doubt burning a hole in her pocket. Why the hell had he been encouraging her to talk? Kissing. Kissing’s what mattered. Losing himself in her. Not relating a sad, sorry tale that benefited no one. He sucked in air. ‘So what about Jodi and Mitch?’
‘Well, actually, Jodi and you. Apparently you had a thing with her.’
‘I did.’ He didn’t need the damned truth serum. Just one look from those eyes had him spilling the facts. Or at least as much as she needed to know. He had to wipe that dark look from her. Stat. ‘But it was before Mitch ever got involved with her. Me and Jodi had a thing. Not a big thing but a thing.’
‘A relationship thing? Serious?’
He winced. So that’s where she was going, digging to see whether he was capable of caring. The bad news was he didn’t believe he was. ‘It’s complicated. My whole damned life is complicated. Which boils down to the fact that I’m not good at relationships. I can’t do it. Apparently I don’t give enough, I’m too driven and I work too hard. Women don’t like that.’ He didn’t even want to acknowledge why he did that, why he had to be the best at the cost of everything else.
But his uncle’s endless stream of insults came back to haunt him, along with the relentless competition to excel that marked both Maitlands as the top students through med school. The endless comparison that had been instilled into both of them from a young age. Mitchell’s got his driver’s licence, you’d better pass yours. Make sure you get an A in maths—show Mitch how much better you are. Mitch doesn’t want to see you at Christmas. He’s too busy.
The wedge that had been driven between them grew larger every year, until… ‘After Jodi and I finished, Mitch asked her out.’
‘Tacky.’
‘Broke just about every rule as far as I was concerned. You don’t date your brother’s ex. Period. We were barely communicating as it was. But this just about finished us off.’
Similar to this conversation right now. Ignoring the barrier she’d thrown up between them, he stepped back into her space, wrapped a finger in one of her luscious curls and rested his forehead against hers. ‘And that was a real passion-killer, right? I vote we forget about that stuff and rewind. Or fast forward or something.’
He also didn’t want to admit how lately he’d ached to talk to Mitch. Just talk. Bridge that gap. Making Jamie better had been a good step, but he didn’t know how to take the next one.
Gabby stared up at him. ‘Not yet. I’m not done.’ Hell, she sure knew how to drive a hard bargain. ‘So that’s why you two are at each other’s throats?’
‘Yeah. Yes, it is.’ She didn’t need to know the rest of his ancient history. It was easier to finish it there.
She cupped his cheek and smiled, although there was still a slice of distrust simmering there in her eyes. But somehow she just knew when he was holding back. And somehow she knew when to stop needling him. ‘Just so you know, I’m glad the rumours weren’t true. I never thought you’d do something like that.’
‘Good.’ Finally. ‘So where were we?’
Placing a finger to her lip, she thought. ‘Commitment’s bad, but talking is…?’
Clearly not a good idea. ‘Oh, but there’s all kinds of talking…’ He kept his arms round her as he guided her to the kitchen in a kind of klutzy waltz, hoping to lighten the mood. Tightened his grip on her waist and swirled her round, then took the opportunity to kiss her again. ‘There’s sweet-talking.’
‘Obviously you’re good at that, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.’ Her palms touched his chest as she giggled. A jolt of awareness surged through him.
If he didn’t get her into bed soon he’d go mad, but if she needed convincing he could do that. He could do slow. He could wait. God knew, she was worth it.
He reached for the top button of her blouse and carefully undid it, then whispered into her neck, ‘And there’s shop talk… We really could discuss updating the policies.’
‘Woo. Infection control has suddenly got very attractive.’ She stepped back. ‘But now you’ve just reminded me of another good reason why we shouldn’t be doing this. Work.’
‘I can think of lots of reasons why all of this could be really dumb, but can’t say I’m focusing on those right now. Good God, woman. Let me kiss you.’ Okay, so slow was killing him.
His lips brushed just behind her ear and he inhaled her sweet fragrance. Managed three more buttons. Just enough to reveal the lace of her bra and the creamy skin of her breasts. ‘Extra-curricular bonding. That can only help team relations.’
‘I don’t know. It seems so wrong. Ooh.’ Curling deeper into his arms, she gasped as he ran fingers over the lace cup of her bra. Her words and actions were out of sync. ‘What if people find out? I don’t want to be the subject of gossip, I’ve only just started there. I don’t want my clean slate sullied.’
‘Sullied? By me? I do not sully.’ Reaching behind her, he unfastened the bra, skimmed his fingers over her skin and tweaked a nipple, enjoying the tight puckering at his touch. ‘So we keep it to ourselves. Our secret. Seriously, no one needs to know.’
‘I mean it. No one, not Mitchell or anyone.’
At the mention of his brother the familiar irritation rushed through him. He dropped his hand to his side. ‘Like I’d tell him anything.’
‘Don’t you have some kind of spooky twin telepathy? Doesn’t he know already?’
‘Nah. But we do understand each other well enough to keep our distance.’ His hand slid to her hip. ‘Let’s not talk about him. This…this is much more fun.’
She didn’t look convinced. ‘And we’re both woefully bad at sharing things about ourselves.’
‘But we’re very good at making each other feel better about it. Neither of us wants to get involved. When it’s over, it’s over. We walk away.’ He ran his thumb over her swollen lips. ‘No harm done.’
‘No harm done. Really? You think that’s likely?’ She licked round the thumb tip, sending wild jolts of electricity through him. Then she sucked his thumb deep into her mouth. And out. And he felt powerless against this raging need zipping through him. ‘We’re consenting adults. We both know the score.’
She smiled hesitantly. ‘So we do this? Bed buddies? Friends with benefits?’
‘Can you stop it?’
She shook her head and stared at his chest, thought a while. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘So we do it when we want to. Because we want to. As soon as we stop wanting to we call it quits. We may not want to spill our guts over our past lives, but we can at least be totally upfront about this. As soon as the spark dies, we’re out.’
Tilting her chin up to him, he finally, finally held her gaze. Caught the need and the fire and knew it mirrored exactly what was in his eyes, too. But there was a glimmer of fear, too. Something that begged him not to hurt her. She was protecting herself. Had she been hurt before?
When her mouth opened he covered it again before she could add to her damned list. Add to his own list.
And he promised her, with his kiss, that he wouldn’t hurt her. Not if he could help it.
They didn’t need a conversation, didn’t need a mating dance. Didn’t need anything to convince them they were headed straight to bed. They both knew it was as inevitable as night following day.
When he pulled away her breathing was ragged. Her eyes filled with that mist he’d seen the other day. The one that told him she needed him. Now.
‘Which leads me nicely on to the best kind of talking…pillow talk.’ He nuzzled against her throat as his fingertips ripped her blouse off and dropped her bra to the floor. Eyes feasting on her two perfect breasts, he felt the smile spread through his body. ‘Would you look at that?’
‘Oh.’ She smiled and pretended to be surprised. ‘Naked. How did that happen?’
‘Not naked enough.’ He gripped her hips and dragged her back to him, struggling with the need to have her now. On the kitchen floor. Against the bench.
Knowing that if he took her into his bed he wouldn’t want her to leave. Would want to wake up with her tomorrow. And maybe the next day. But not knowing how the hell to control this ache inside him. ‘I know, let’s have some champagne to seal our deal.’
‘Are you trying to get me drunk? Just one small one.’ Standing behind him, she peered over his shoulder. The fridge light lit up her face. No—her laughter lit up her face. ‘Max Maitland, you have four bottles of champagne but no milk. No food…at all. What do you eat?’
‘I eat at work.’
‘That’s it? Don’t you cook?’
‘No. I can cook—I just don’t. We could phone out for takeaway. But in my book eating is cheating.’ He popped open a bottle and poured bubbles into two long-stemmed glasses. Offering her one, he pointed towards the bedroom. ‘Now, Nurse Radley, we have a lot of policies to work through… Shall we…?’
Her mouth formed a playful pout as she pretended to weigh up her options. Then she smiled, long and slow, and led the way. ‘Hell, yes.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘HOW COULD YOU?’ Gabby tied Max’s shirt-tails into a knot at her hip as her post-the-best-sex-of-her-lifetimes-three glow withered, just like the poor scrap of life she was looking at. Wilting and thirsty, the geranium’s head hung limply in the weak early-morning sunlight. ‘What the heck have you done to my plant?’
A bare-chested Max stepped onto the deck and handed her a cup of coffee. ‘Yours, is it? I thought it was a present.’
‘It’s a present that now needs life support. You clearly can’t look after it, so I claim part custody until you learn. It’s ours then.’
‘Okay. But you have to take charge of feeding time.’ His arms snaked round her waist as he hugged her from behind. His heat wrapped around her like a cocoon. She leaned against him, unable to be angry after such an amazing night. He’d made sure she’d got exactly what she wanted, and when. And now she was hungry for more.
But still she was confused by the new turn of events. She had a bed buddy. It was the kind of thing other women did. People she read about, women she heard chatting in bars, sophisticated women, women who knew what they wanted and where they were going. Not grown women who, in their families’ eyes, could never make up for a mistake committed over a decade ago.
And yet here she was. In a penthouse apartment with six feet three of sinful sex. Making up for a long time of celibacy.
Her nonna would be screaming a tirade of insults down from heaven. Brazen. Sinful. Devil’s child.
She fought the instinct to put her fingers in her ears and block out the imaginary noise. Old Gabriella would have hung her head, like the plant, and withered and conformed to what was expected. New Gabriella laughed. ‘We have something. That’s a hoot.’
But as she peered more closely at the droopy leaves the laughter melted away. Nonna would be grinning along now. Serves you right, wicked girl. Again.
‘Well, we did have something. Maybe it’s a sign.’ Celestial retribution. She touched a leaf. It came off in her hand.
Max grinned and stooped to pour his coffee into the plant pot. ‘I’m not good at these kinds of things. I did warn you.’
‘Wait! What are you doing? It needs water, not a caffeine hit. What are you trying to do? Kill it off completely?’ She dashed inside to get a glass of water and poured it over the wilting plant. ‘And it looks so lonely out here.’
‘It’s just a plant, for goodness’ sake.’
‘It’s the beginnings of a garden, Max. And it needs care and attention.’
‘So do I.’ He wrapped her in his arms and leaned in for a kiss. ‘Starting right now.’
Her back arched as she leaned away from him, hands flat on his chest. The towel from after their shower hung loosely at his hips. One false move…one very good move…and he’d be naked. She could already feel how hot she was making him. How hard. ‘Promise me you’ll take more care of it. Or no more kisses.’
‘Na-ah. No promises.’
She shook her head. Wove her leg around his and pressed her nipples against him. Gyrated her hips in a dance of wanton desire. ‘Promise, or no more of this.’
‘Uh…huh.’ At her insistence he nodded. ‘Okay. Okay, I’ll take more care of it. You are one crazy woman.’
‘That’s me. The crazy plant lady.’
‘Maybe I like crazy plant ladies. Maybe you’re my ideal woman.’
What happened to just friends with benefits? Her heart hammered in her chest. Ideal woman wasn’t what she’d expected to hear. She’d been led astray before with that kind of comment and it had been the beginning of her downfall. So she’d learnt that lesson all too quickly. Never be charmed by a charmer.
But coming out of Max’s mouth on such a beautiful morning, it felt like being caught in a ray of sunshine. ‘How so?’
‘Apart from that amazing thing you do with your finger…’ He tapped her on the nose and guided her back towards the bedroom, his hand cupping her backside. ‘You don’t expect anything. You don’t ask for anything. And you’re pretty damned hot… God, I have so many things I want to do to you.’
‘
Ooh…’ She turned into his arms, laughed at the glint in his eyes. ‘That sounds very, very promising. But I should be going.’
His warm breath stroked the nape of her neck. He unbuttoned the shirt, let her breasts fall free. Closed his eyes for a second and sighed. When he opened them again he gazed at her. First her face, then a long slow gaze down her body. ‘My shirt has never looked so goddamned sexy. What do you say to taking it off and staying a bit longer? I have nothing planned all weekend except packing for a conference that suddenly seems deeply dull.’
‘Oh? Where are you going?’ Her teeth grazed the side of his neck as she arched against him. He hadn’t mentioned anything about going away. It would happen, she supposed, as he was an eminent, internationally in-demand surgeon. She just hadn’t expected the prospect of him not being around to feel so bleak.
‘Singapore. Then a lecture tour in Malaysia.’ His head dipped as he took a nipple into his mouth. Heat fizzed through her at every lick of his tongue. ‘But what I really want is to stay here with you.’
‘Gosh, the life of a surgeon is so glamorous.’ She tugged playfully on the fold of towel at his waist, hoping to make the most of the time they had left. ‘How long will you be away?’
‘Too long. But you’re not back at work until Monday, so how about we spend the next twenty-four hours in bed?’
‘God, yes.’ She couldn’t help the moan escaping from her lips. He had a way of driving her mad with one touch. One look. But her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten for a long time. ‘But at some point we really do need breakfast. I need to replace some of that well-spent energy.’
‘Later… I’ll phone out later. I have other plans for my mouth right now.’ His lips were on her breast, sending arcs of need spiralling through her. He edged her back onto the bed, kissed a trail down her ribs.
Suddenly, uninvited and unwanted, a shrill, silly pop tune stalled them.
Max’s phone.
Already anticipating much more of what they’d spent the best part of the night doing, Gabby placed her hand on his arm. ‘Don’t answer it.’
How To Resist A Heartbreaker Page 7
