Breaking Her No-Dates Rule

by Emily Forbes

  She should go to bed and forget all about James Leonardi, but going to bed wasn’t the answer. All she did was revisit all the things she knew about him. The way his hair curled at his temples, the creases that appeared at the corners of his eyes when he smiled and the warmth of his hand on her skin. The ripple of his abdominals when he’d changed his shirt and the beautiful golden tone of his skin.

  Quite simply, he was gorgeous.

  But, despite all that, he was still off-limits.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  FOR two days he thought she’d disappeared, like Cinderella after the ball, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Was she rostered off or was she on nights? Why hadn’t he thought to ask about her shifts?

  Because he wasn’t thinking straight, that’s why.

  And the more time that passed, the more he thought about her. About the golden glow that surrounded her and seemed to warm everything and everyone around her. It had wrapped itself around him and pulled him to her, drawing him in close. He’d had to drag himself away to go back to the bucks’ party on Saturday night and it hadn’t been easy. If he hadn’t been Pete’s best man he would probably have ditched his mates but duty had called.

  He’d wanted to stay with Ellie and he’d wanted to kiss her. But he’d fought the urge. He couldn’t take that liberty, especially not while she was refusing to go on a date with him. But he was sure that she’d been tempted to say yes. He was certain she’d been wavering. It wasn’t possible that he was the only one who felt the chemistry between them. It was too strong to be one-sided.

  He found it hard to believe that just two weeks earlier he’d talked himself out of asking her on a date. Despite Mavis’s advice he’d gone with the sensible option, sticking to his bachelor ways, knowing he was busy concentrating on his career. Combining his career with a relationship hadn’t worked out so well for him before but the minute he was alone with Ellie he’d forgotten all about being sensible. All he could think of was her and how she made him feel. He wanted to suffuse himself in her golden glow, he wanted to let it wrap itself around them both, cocooning them away from the world. She made him forget all his past failings. She made him believe anything was possible and he wouldn’t rest until he worked out how to convince her to go out with him. But first he had to work out what shift she was on.

  He finally remembered the nurses’ roster that was pinned to the board on the orthopaedic ward. He checked it and was pleased to find that Ellie was on for an early shift the following day. He’d be in Theatre in the morning but he’d make sure he caught up with her at some stage.

  The morning dragged, the cases on the operating list were routine, boring even, and James found himself, on more than one occasion, with one eye on the clock, waiting for the end of theatre. The only thing that helped to pass the time was quizzing people about Ellie. Did she date? What did she like to do? What could anyone tell him?

  Rob didn’t participate in the conversation and James could only assume it was because he had nothing to contribute. He seemed to be in another one of his moods, which James chose to ignore. Despite his infatuation with Ellie he was able to focus on the job while he was in Theatre so he knew Rob couldn’t have any issue with him.

  He changed out of his dirty scrubs as quickly as possible at the end of the list and headed for the canteen, hoping to run into Ellie. The canteen was busy and he scanned the room as he waited for his salad roll and coffee. She was there, sitting with Charlotte, the ward physio, and there was a spare table beside them. With luck that table would still be free once he had his order.

  He paid for his lunch and weaved his way through the throng towards Ellie, grateful the canteen was bustling as it made it look quite natural that he would cross the room, searching for one of the few vacant spots. He was within a few metres of the empty table when two orderlies claimed it. He stopped, his plans thwarted. There was a third vacant chair at the table but it would be most unusual for him to sit with other hospital employees, particularly non-medical staff. The doctors tended to sit together, no one seemed to expect anything else, and to do otherwise would no doubt make everyone feel uncomfortable. He’d have to search for a different table.

  As he stood there, pondering his options, Charlotte spotted him and came to his rescue.

  ‘Hi, Dr Leonardi, you’re welcome to sit with us.’

  He gratefully accepted her offer. ‘Thank you.’ He closed the distance between them and put his coffee on the table. ‘I haven’t seen you on the ward for a few days, Ellie. Have you been off?’ he asked as he sat down.

  Ellie shook her head, her blonde hair shining in the light. ‘I had yesterday day off, but I’ve been on nights.’

  Nights. Of course. Movement to his left caught James’s attention. Someone had stopped beside their table and was pulling out the last remaining chair.

  Ellie made the introductions as this stranger, very confidently in James’s opinion, took a seat.

  ‘James, Damien Clark is a physio, he works in Out-patients. Damien, this is James Leonardi, the new orthopod.’

  Damien extended his hand. ‘I’ve seen your name on some case notes, it’s nice to put a face to a name,’ he said as he shook James’s hand. ‘Welcome to Eastern Beaches.’ He didn’t wait for a response from James. He sat on the other side of Ellie and James noticed that he moved his chair a fraction closer to hers as he sat down. Was he another one of Ellie’s admirers?

  ‘Are you thinking any more positively about the movie today, Ellie, or is it still not your favourite?’ Damien was asking.

  ‘It’s nowhere near my favourite,’ Ellie replied.

  They’d been to a movie together?

  James saw how Damien looked at Ellie, desperate for her approval, wanting to please her, and he experienced a sudden, unexpected flash of jealousy. Had Ellie been on a date with Damien? He knew it was none of his business except she’d told him she didn’t date people from work.

  ‘In that case, we’ll have to try again,’ Damien was saying.

  James moved his leg, just a fraction, enough to bring his knee into contact with Ellie’s. The slight touch had the desired effect. He could feel the energy pulsing between them and it moved Ellie’s attention away from Damien and his proposal. Ellie looked at him and he knew she could feel the heat too, he could see it in her eyes. The feeling of jealousy that had surged through him was replaced with one of satisfaction.

  James knew he was being juvenile but he couldn’t help it, he wasn’t going to sit here and compete with Damien for Ellie’s attention. Not unless he was going to win. And he knew he held the trump card. He and Ellie had a connection, a strong connection, and he wasn’t going to let go easily.

  Ellie pushed her chair back from the table, her gaze still locked with his. ‘I’d better be heading back.’

  She leant down to pick her handbag up from underneath the table and her hair brushed over his forearm. He quickly gathered up the remains of his lunch and stood too.

  ‘I’ll walk back with you,’ he said. He wanted to walk away from this lunch victorious and the only way to do that was to make sure Ellie left with him and not Damien.

  ‘I’ll call you,’ Damien said to Ellie. Whether Ellie noticed it or not, James knew that Damien recognised the competition and he was making sure James knew it too.

  ‘You didn’t enjoy the movie?’ James asked as they walked together towards the lifts.

  ‘Not particularly,’ Ellie replied. ‘It was supposed to be a romantic comedy but it wasn’t very romantic nor was it particularly funny. The two lead characters had no spark.’

  ‘You went with Damien?’ He tried to keep his tone neutral but he wasn’t sure how successful he was.

  ‘And Charlotte and her fiancé,’ Ellie replied as she pressed the button for the lift.

  ‘And Damien works in Outpatients?’

  ‘Yes.’

  They stepped into the full lift and James saved his question, waiting until they got out again. He didn’t want to have thi
s conversation in front of a crowd.

  ‘I thought you didn’t date people from work?’ he asked as the lift delivered them to the Orthopaedic ward.

  ‘People from other departments don’t count.’

  ‘That’s discrimination,’ he said.

  ‘Against who?’

  ‘Me.’

  Ellie laughed. ‘Sorry, but that’s my new rule.’

  ‘Well, I’d like to go on record as saying that I think it’s an extremely bad rule and I’d like to object to it.’

  ‘You can object all you like but it makes no difference. Besides, I’d hardly call it a date.’

  His response was a raised eyebrow.

  ‘Going to the movies with a group of friends doesn’t count,’ she clarified.

  ‘Does Damien know that?’ he asked.

  She shrugged. ‘It wasn’t ever a proper date.’ Not in her mind anyway. Charlotte had bullied her into going to the movies. She’d been one of the few people who knew of her relationship with Rob and she’d been convinced it would do Ellie good to get out and meet someone new, someone who wasn’t a doctor. Ellie had insisted that it should all be very casual and she’d only gone on the proviso that Charlotte and her fiancé came too. Charlotte thought she was helping to cheer Ellie up but Ellie had accepted for a different reason altogether, to distract her from her fantasies about James. Maybe Damien would suit her and maybe he’d get her mind off James, who was most unsuitable!

  But of course it hadn’t worked. There was no spark, no connection with Damien. She didn’t get all warm and tingly when he looked at her. She didn’t want to touch him, taste him, devour him the way she did James. No. The movie date hadn’t done anything except show her that she could resist some men and remind her how she felt about James.

  ‘So, by your admission, a date isn’t a date if there are other people involved,’ James said with a grin.

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘So, a game of beach volleyball, two on two, wouldn’t count?’

  ‘Possibly not.’

  ‘Good, because I need a partner on Sunday morning. Would you come and play with me?’ He must have sensed her hesitation because he added clarification. ‘It’s not a date, we’ll be in a public place with lots of other people.’

  It wasn’t the where or when that bothered her, it was the ‘what’. ‘Beach volleyball?’ she queried. Ball sports were not her forte. ‘Surely I’m too short?’

  ‘You’ll be fine. I’ll cover for you.’

  ‘Wouldn’t you rather get someone else to partner you? Someone taller? Someone with better hand-eye co-ordination than me?’

  James shook his head. ‘I want you.’

  She had no retort for that. He wanted her! A girl would have to be crazy to pass up the invitation now.

  She’d sworn not to date another orthopod but if James was insisting this wasn’t a date she could choose to believe him. Surely she could trust herself not to fall under his spell.

  But she knew she wasn’t immune to his charm when they were on the ward, she wasn’t immune to his charm when they were in his car, and she didn’t imagine she’d be immune on the beach, in broad daylight, surrounded by crowds. The more time she spent with him, the harder it was going to be to resist the attraction.

  She shouldn’t accept his invitation. It was madness. But she didn’t have enough willpower to refuse.

  ‘Okay, I just hope you know what you’re doing ’cos I’ll tell you now, I have no idea.’ If James thought she was just talking about beach volleyball that was fine by her, but her comment covered a multitude of situations.

  The morning sun was warm on her skin as she made her way down to the beach but it was nothing compared to the warmth that flooded through her when she saw James waiting for her. He crossed the beach, his movements effortless even through the soft, dry sand, and met her as she descended the steps. The air around them hummed as she was enveloped in his lime scent. He reached for her hands and the humming travelled through her body. She was convinced she could feel every individual nerve ending pulsing as it responded to his touch.

  He leant forward and greeted her with a kiss on each cheek. His gesture took her by surprise. Unlike after the Kings Cross incident, when she’d half expected him to kiss her and he hadn’t, this kiss was completely unforeseen and therefore all the more exciting. Her skin tingled where his lips met her cheeks but he was behaving as if his greeting was nothing unusual so she attempted to follow his lead.

  ‘Good morning, I’m glad you could make it. Come.’ He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and guided her to the courts marked in the sand. His arm was warm across her bare skin and she fought hard to concentrate on getting her feet to move forward. It was difficult to focus on anything else while he was touching her.

  She’d spent ages choosing her outfit and now she wished she’d chosen something that covered her up a bit more. Despite there being a limited number of outfits that were suitable for a game of beach volleyball she’d managed to change her clothes half a dozen times before settling on a blue sports singlet and short white shorts. Bikinis were out, she wasn’t prepared for the stress of worrying about which bits of her were spilling out of a pair of bathers, and she was too short to wear board shorts. Jogging clothes were the most flattering, she’d decided.

  But slightly more protection might have been wise. It wasn’t the sun she needed protection from, she’d applied plenty of sunscreen, but if James was going to keep touching her exposed skin there was no way she was going to be able to concentrate on a game of volleyball. She didn’t have a clue how to play the game anyway and she knew James was going to be a huge distraction, albeit a very pleasant one.

  Several people were already warming up, hitting the ball back and forth over the net. It didn’t look too difficult. Normally, she would have declined the invitation, ball sports were not her thing, but it hadn’t taken much for James to persuade her. Perhaps she could do this.

  ‘Let me teach you some of the shots,’ he said as he stripped off his shirt and tossed it onto a towel that was lying beside the beach wall. His skin was a smooth golden brown, his shoulders nicely square and his abdominal muscles rippled. A shirtless James was a sight she didn’t think she could ever grow tired of. He took her beach bag from her as she stood admiring the view and put it with his things. If he noticed her fixation he didn’t comment. ‘It’s a pretty easy game, there aren’t too many things you need to know before you can make a decent go of it. You need to know a throw, a dig, a spike and a serve.’

  ‘That’s all?’ That sounded like an awful lot!

  ‘Here.’ He picked up a ball that was lying on the sand and tossed it to her. To her relief, she caught it. ‘First, the throw. Generally you try to use this when you receive a serve, it takes the pace off the ball and lets the next person set up a dig.’

  Her expression must have been one of total confusion. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not hard. Throw the ball to me, I’ll show you.’

  She threw him the ball, a flat pass aimed at his chest, just like she remembered learning in netball. James caught it.

  ‘Good throw but in volleyball you do it like this.’ He lofted the ball into the air and as it came down towards him he lifted his arms above his head pushing the ball back up into the air. ‘There, that’s all there is to it.’

  Ellie had no idea what he was talking about. She hadn’t seen what he’d done, her attention had been distracted by his arm movements and the flow-on effect it had had on the muscles of his back and shoulders. ‘Can you show me again?’

  He repeated the action and this time she forced herself to concentrate. She watched the ball, keeping her focus on the inanimate object.

  ‘Your turn,’ he said as he looped the ball to her.

  Ellie reached up for it, squinting into the sun. The ball collided with her fingers but instead of flying back up into the air, as it had done for James, it stopped dead and fell to the ground.

  ‘You need to keep your elbows
bent and straighten them as you push the ball up,’ James explained. He took a step to her side and held her elbows, lifting them up in line with her ears, with her hands above her head. ‘Start here and when the ball lands on your fingers then straighten your elbows. You want to push the ball back to me. If you throw, I’ll dig.’

  ‘You know I’m not understanding a word you’re saying, don’t you?’ Ellie laughed. And I can’t concentrate when you’re touching me, she wanted to add. She didn’t give two hoots about volleyball, all she wanted was for James to run his hands back down her arms and from there to her waist. If she closed her eyes she could imagine exactly how it would feel. How he would feel.

  ‘Trust me, it’s not hard.’

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want to choose a different partner while you’ve still got time?’

  ‘Positive. I’m going to teach you how to dig now.’ He let go of her elbows and she could breathe again but her skin ached for his touch. ‘You’ve got to use a different grip for this,’ he said as he took hold of her hands. ‘You have to interlock your fingers…’ he threaded her fingers together ‘…palms facing each other…’ he closed her hands ‘…and make a flat surface from your thumbs to your wrists…’ He ran his fingers along her thumbs and up to her wrists. ‘You want to hit the ball here,’ he said as he circled a spot on her wrist.

  Her skin was on fire, every nerve ending in her wrist, hand and fingers was quivering and she was surprised that she could see no visible shaking. ‘Still no idea what you’re saying.’ She laughed. She knew she didn’t have a hope in hell of getting the ball to do anything when her hands felt as though they didn’t belong to her.

  ‘Give it a shot.’ James threw the ball to himself and used the ‘throw’ to pass it to her.

  Somehow she managed to hit the ball but it went sailing backwards over her head. She collapsed in a fit of giggles. ‘I’m guessing it wasn’t supposed to go in that direction.’