Tempted by the Heart Surgeon

by Lucy Ryder

  Then it was his turn to shudder, the sensation of her nails scraping his scalp, streaking the length of his spine, sending heat and lust clawing at his belly. He was rapidly spiraling out of control and he worried that when he did, he would be forever changed.

  Unaware of the impending collapse of his iron control, Sam playfully evaded his teasing attempts to pursue her mouth, building the tension while he tamped down the primitive impulse to crush her close, to take what she was offering.

  He knew the instant her teasing turned serious. Her fingers tightened and she murmured a command that finally snapped the fraying edges of his control. He opened his mouth and caught hers in a ravenous kiss the same moment his hands closed over her hips and tugged, rolling backward as she fell against him.

  In an instant, he’d rolled her onto the thick rug before the fire, one thigh nudging hers apart as the kiss exploded. Wild and ravenous, then slow and deep, he took and gave back in equal measure until they were both breathless, writhing with need.

  Frantic for the feel of smooth feminine skin sliding against his, for the hot intimate dampness of her need, Adam swept his hand up one long thigh until he encountered the narrow band of lace at her hips. Slipping his fingers beneath the elasticized lace, he tugged and quickly stripped the garment away, tossing the lace aside before cupping the soft firmness of her bottom in his hand.

  He squeezed, and she moaned, arching into him as her nails trailed a torturous line of fire down his torso in retaliation. Her fingers curled into the waistband of his jeans, brushing his erection. He jolted at that teasing touch and, fearing he was seconds from embarrassing himself, he grabbed her hands.

  “I’ve got this,” he rasped in a voice he barely recognized as his own. God, he was so aroused that just the accidental brush of her finger across the wide sensitive crown had him shuddering like a kid.

  Cursing the need to get naked, he yanked at the zipper and shoved his jeans and underwear down his legs. Even before the material cleared his ankles, she wrapped a hand around him and squeezed firmly enough to have his eyes roll back in his head.

  “Not yet,” he growled, gently removing her hand before he lost the last of his control and tore her dress in his desperation to get her naked. And he wanted her naked. He wanted to rediscover every inch of her lush body—every curve and dip and secret place. He wanted to taste the underside of her breast, curl his tongue around the tight pink bud and feast on her velvety skin. He needed to slide his mouth down her body, dip his tongue into her shallow belly button and then kiss her more intimately than any other man.

  Adam’s senses swam. Every touch felt new. Every hitched breath an aphrodisiac. He couldn’t seem to decide what to sample next; what would elicit the most delicious shiver, the hungriest moan or the throatiest sigh.

  San Francisco, it seemed, didn’t count because he hadn’t known her. Hadn’t known the sound of her voice, the curve of her jaw and the way her eyes darkened when she was aroused. Now he could tell when she was nervous by the way she first licked and then nibbled on her bottom lip, the way warm color raced up her throat into her face.

  Now he welcomed the hitch in her voice and the tiny shivers that moved across her skin. He wanted to fill his hands with her breasts and swallow the low sounds of her arousal because no woman had ever taken him from zero to a hundred in less time that it had taken for him to yank down his zipper.

  “Adam—” she protested, and he quickly covered her mouth with his, snatching her breathless protest before it could fully form. He fed her kisses that were ravenous and just a little desperate, kisses that stripped him of his sanity and her of her protests.

  She fisted his hair as their mouths tangled, giving him access to the rest of her body; access he ruthlessly exploited by bringing her to the edge over and over again until her breath was a ragged moan and her muscles quivered with the effort to reach for that elusive peak.

  Glorying in her taste, the slide of her skin against his as she moaned and writhed, Adam mercilessly whipped the tension higher, tighter, until he was blind and deaf to anything but her pleasure. And when he joined their bodies with one hard thrust, she gave a sharp ragged cry, her body arching beneath his, her inner muscles clamping down on him like a hot fist.

  He froze, panting roughly as she spasmed helplessly around him. “Did—?” he huffed tightly. “Are you okay?”

  Sam opened her mouth but the only sound to emerge was a low breathless moan. She bit her lip and gave a quick jerky nod, her eyes blind and turned inward as her body undulated helplessly beneath his. “Don’t stop,” she gasped, wrapping her long legs around his hips and clutching at his shoulders as though she would bind him to her.

  He wanted to tell her that there was nowhere he’d rather be but the sight of her beneath him, the feel of her around him fascinated him. It was nothing like he remembered. It was hotter...better...and in that moment she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  A flush of arousal stained her breasts, rushed across her chest and rose up her neck into her face. He wondered briefly how any man could look at her as she was now, head thrown back, lush curves and long slender limbs entwined with his, and want anyone else.

  Slowly pressing deeper, Adam growled when she gasped and squirmed, yanking at his hair. “Move!” she ordered in a tight demanding voice, even as she arched her back and wrapped her limbs around him.

  He simply tightened his grip and pressed her into the rug. “Look at me,” he murmured deeply, and when her eyes fluttered open, the dazed expression in them nearly had him climaxing. “I want you to see me when you come.”

  “Adam—”

  “Yeah,” he growled roughly, leaning down to nip at her mouth. “Me. Only me.”

  And with his eyes locked on hers, he began to move. Slowly at first with long measured strokes meant to gradually build the tension. But Sam wasn’t interested in gradual and tried to force him to increase his pace when he wanted her blind to everything but him. He wanted her to see him, feel him, breathe him as he took her over.

  And when her blue eyes went hazy and dark, those sexy little sounds that he’d never thought he’d hear again bursting erratically from her throat, he changed the tempo to shorter, harder strokes that jolted her and had her clenching even tighter around him.

  He saw her eyes go wide the instant before her body bowed and shattered, the long low moan tearing from her throat.

  The sight and sounds of her release triggered his own and he followed her over, pounding his way through his own climax until, with a grunt, he slammed home one last time and stilled, emptying himself into her shuddering body.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “SO THAT’S A YES?” Samantha asked calmly into the telephone while inside she was doing a little victory dance. She had one more donation for the foundation’s first fundraising event with her at its helm. That it was a life-size sculpture—the centerpiece and drawcard she’d been looking for—meant it was guaranteed to generate a lot of interest. And money.

  “That’s very generous of you, Jack. I’ll call you next week to arrange collection.” She listened to his reply and then said, “Oh, no, it’s the least we can do.”

  She thanked him again and disconnected, flushing at the memory of standing in his studio with her mouth hanging open after he’d asked if she’d consider modeling for him. It had been hugely embarrassing as the man was well-known for his erotic nudes.

  Okay, so Jack Cesar was hot and fast becoming famous for his art, but there was no way she could get back to her plan with the memory of Juniper Falls so fresh in her mind. So she’d told him she was seeing someone, although she hadn’t seen Adam since he’d dropped her off after that weekend.

  From the moment she’d opened her eyes to find herself naked in an empty bed and the sounds of activity coming from the cabin’s small kitchen, she’d started freaking out because their one-night stand had just become two
. She could no longer tell herself that it had been the result of too much alcohol or the reaction of a woman discovering her fiancé with another man.

  This time there was no rebellion to blame her actions on, only—oh, God, she was afraid to even think about what it was. She only knew that the previous twenty-four hours had irrevocably altered her opinion of Adam and wrecked the stability of her world.

  When he’d dropped her off, she’d thanked him politely for the weekend, and belly cramping with nerves, told him nothing had changed when everything had changed.

  For several heartbeats, he’d just looked at her and then the worst had happened. He calmly accepted her explanation, a hint of amusement in his eyes as he’d gently pushed her back against her front door, trapping her with his big body. Captured by his mesmerizing gaze, she hadn’t put up even a token protest when his head had lowered and he’d caught her mouth in a kiss so potent it had scorched the bottom of her feet.

  Just when she felt her body melt against his, he’d stepped back. With a, “See you soon,” he’d casually descended the stairs, leaving her head buzzing with confusion.

  Then she’d gotten mad, which had her even more confused because she had no right to be angry with him for giving her exactly what she’d said she wanted. It wasn’t logical, it wasn’t fair but she was learning firsthand that her feelings for him had no roots in logic.

  Where they came from she wasn’t sure—only that they were deep and terrifying.

  Fortunately, she was busy planning her first charity event or she’d probably have gone insane obsessing about what he’d meant by that kiss and his parting remark. It was something she thought about constantly when she was alone at night, her body and her soul yearning for something she told herself she didn’t want.

  But she did. Oh, God, she did. And it scared her. Especially as the most she’d seen of him had been in passing and then briefly during a foundation meeting before he’d been paged. His gaze had been hooded and intense when it settled on her, and horror of horrors—she’d fluttered.

  She still wanted Adam with an intensity that made her ache.

  And she was lonely, dammit. When she’d never been lonely for a man before.

  Glancing at her desk monitor, she was surprised to find it was nearly seven o’clock. Reaching up to remove the hairpins digging into her scalp, she shook her hair free and sank her fingers into the heavy mass to give her beleaguered scalp a good massage. Closing her eyes in relief, she let out a long sigh and sank back in her chair only to jolt upright when a familiar voice drawled, “Finally letting your hair down?”

  Her pulse jumped and her darned heart fluttered at the sight of the man she’d just been fantasizing about lounging in the doorway. He looked even better than she remembered, and for just an instant, she struggled to recall exactly why she was so determined to keep him at arm’s length.

  “Literally speaking,” she murmured, trying not to recall the last time she’d let her hair down with him or the way her body began buzzing like she was plugged into a transformer. “It’s been a crazy week.”

  He scrubbed a hand down his face, his rough laugh drawing her sharpening gaze. He was still the hot, hunky Dr. Knight women sighed over, but something was very wrong. She could see it in the bleak amber gaze, the paleness of his normally coppery gold skin stretched tight across high cheekbones and the tension around his mouth.

  “Yeah,” he rasped, his gaze locked on her with burning intensity. “A bad one too.”

  Alarmed, Sam straightened in her chair, heart tripping over itself as her planned apology for her behavior slipped away. “What happened?” she asked, her gaze searching his.

  For several beats, he stared at her, then his breath escaped in an audible whoosh. “We lost a patient today,” he admitted quietly, lifting a hand to rub his chest and then grimacing as though he were in pain.

  Alarm morphed into terror.

  Lurching to her feet, she rounded her desk, her mind desperately skittering over everything she knew about treating a coronary. If she hadn’t panicked in Juniper Falls, she railed at herself, and paid more attention with Gladys, she would know what to do now.

  And God, she thought, when the blood drained from her head, she didn’t want Adam to die. Anything...anything but that.

  “T-tell me what to d-do,” she babbled, grabbing his wrist to search for a pulse and panicking because she couldn’t find one. “I can’t p-promise not to f-freak out but I’ll do exactly as you s-say—”

  The next thing she knew Adam grasped her chin in warm fingers and firmly lifted her face to his. “Hey, hey,” he repeated firmly when her breath hitched on a sob. “Look at me, Samantha. I’m not having a heart attack, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  She froze and stared at him, her heart feeling like it was going into spasms and would burst out of her chest any second. Her vision began to fade around the edges.

  “No!” She shook her head violently, dislodging his touch as she tried to push her hands against his chest right over his heart. “I—I’ve seen it before and—”

  “Samantha!” The gentle firmness of his voice finally reached her. She froze as he cupped her face firmly in his hands and gave her a little shake. “Look at me,” he ordered softly and waited until her gaze met his before assuring her calmly, “I’m fine. I promise. Now breathe.”

  She blinked and finally noticed that his skin didn’t have the same gray color of Gladys’s and Mrs. Hopkins’s and his lips weren’t blue. Needing something to hold onto, she wrapped her hands around his brawny wrists and focused on his mouth as her world slowly settled.

  Finally, she lifted her gaze to search his. “You’re—sure?”

  He reached out to smooth an unruly lock of hair behind her ear. “Yeah,” he murmured softly. “I’m sure. It’s just—” He sucked air into his lungs and tugged her against him, wrapping her up in his embrace and burying his face in her hair.

  Shocked by the move—the raw emotion in his voice—Sam could only slide her arms around him and press her body close in an instinctive need to offer comfort. She was glad of the support too since her knees wobbled alarmingly.

  “It’s just what?” she murmured, her throat working furiously as she burrowed close.

  His big body shuddered and he tightened his hold, pulling her impossibly closer. “It was a long shot but we were hoping—” He broke off and sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” she offered lamely, turning her face into his throat to press her lips against his warm skin. “I know how awful it can be. It’s terrifying having someone’s life in your hands. I don’t know how you handle that every day.” She pulled back a couple of inches to look up at him, experiencing an odd little thrill that he would seek her out when devastated by a loss.

  He gently nudged her back and took her hand, guiding her to the desk.

  “Something happened, didn’t it?” he asked quietly, sitting on the edge and pulling her between his legs, his hands a warm weight on her hips. “Is that why you didn’t follow the rest of the family into medicine?”

  Damn. The last thing she wanted was to rehash old demons. But then maybe he deserved to know after talking her down from not one but three freak-outs. It was her turn to sigh as she slid her hands up his muscled arms to his shoulders, forgetting that she’d told him not a week ago that nothing had changed.

  Everything had changed; she was just terrified of what it meant.

  “I was ten,” she admitted with a ragged laugh, abruptly turning sideways in his arms so she didn’t have to look at him when she confessed her deepest darkest secret. “My parents had died about a year earlier in an accident and we were already living with my grandmother,” she said quietly, thinking back on those awful years. “My brother and sister were rarely home because being much older, they were already in med school. Grandmother often went out at night and I was left alone with the housekeeper. Anyway
—” she sucked in a shuddery breath before continuing “—one night Mrs. Hopkins had a h-heart attack. A huge storm had knocked out the power lines and I’d hidden in my closet with a flashlight. I expected her to come and find me and when she didn’t, I went downstairs and f-found her—on the kitchen floor.” She realized she was holding her breath and exhaled on a rush. “If—if I hadn’t been afraid of the dark, I might have been able to save her.”

  “You were a kid,” he reminded her gently. “What about 911?”

  She shook her head. “Because of the storm, they took almost two hours to arrive. I s-spent almost two hours alone with—” She broke off and shuddered at the memory.

  “With a dead body,” he finished quietly, tugging her closer. She nodded and rested her head on his shoulder, glad of its solidity and width.

  “Yes.”

  “Hell,” he cursed on an explosive exhale. “No wonder you have panic attacks. It would have traumatized anyone, let alone a ten-year-old.”

  “I’m not ten anymore, Adam,” she said tiredly.

  “Yeah,” he murmured, turning her into his arms. Sliding his hand beneath her hair, he tipped her face to his, eyes gleaming with warm amusement as he slid his lips along her jaw to her ear. “I noticed.” She shivered and arched her neck to give him more room, enjoying his warmth and strength. “Fears don’t always make sense, Sam, but everyone has them.”

  “I can’t see you letting some childhood trauma paralyze you,” she murmured, sliding her hands up his hard abdomen and melting inside when the flesh beneath bunched and rippled.

  “You’d be surprised,” he growled, brushing his lips against the pulse in her throat that felt like it bumped against her skin, yearning to get closer. “The thought of asking you on a date terrifies me.”

  She stilled as the words registered and he took the opportunity to nip her jaw. “A d-date?” she squeaked moving back to gape at him, unsure why she was so shocked by the concept of a date. With Adam.