by Emily Forbes
James leant across the table, bending his head to hers, and his voice was soft in her ear. ‘Are you ready for dessert?’
His lips nuzzled at her earlobe. Ellie nodded and tipped her head back, exposing her throat, and James pressed his lips to the soft spot under her jaw where her pulse throbbed to the beat of her desire. ‘Sooner or later we’re going to give in to this feeling,’ he said as his fingers brushed across the fabric of her knickers. ‘I think it might as well be sooner.’
Ellie couldn’t argue. She couldn’t even speak. She felt as though she was going to melt into the floor.
She pushed herself to her feet, taking her weight on the table as she wasn’t certain her legs would hold her. James’s hands moved to her waist and, for the second time in as many days, he supported her weight. She took his hand in hers and led him to the staircase. She gripped the banister as she concentrated on getting her feet to negotiate the steps. James followed behind her and she felt his hand on the inside of her thigh, connecting her to him as he trailed in her wake. She only just made it to the landing and into her bedroom.
James pushed the door shut and grabbed her hand, pulling her to him. His lips covered hers as his fingers popped the buttons on her shirt. She tugged his shirt out of his jeans and unzipped his pants, freeing him from the denim, before shrugging her shoulders out of her top. Her shirt fell to the floor and was joined by his shoes and jeans, and all the while their lips were locked as they feverishly touched and tasted.
He picked her up, as though she weighed nothing at all. She wrapped her legs around his waist and as he carried her to the bed she could feel his erection straining against his boxer shorts and she knew he wanted her as urgently as she wanted him.
She was wearing only her underwear; he still had too many clothes on. She reached out to him and slid her hands under his T-shirt, feeling the heat coming off his skin as she dragged his shirt up his back before pulling it over his head.
He bent towards her, kissing the hollow at the base of her neck where her collarbone ended. She tipped her head back and his lips moved down to the swell of her breast. She felt herself arch towards him, silently crying out for his touch. His hand reached behind her and with a flick of his fingers he undid the clasp on her bra and her breasts spilled free. He pushed her back, gently laying her down beneath him before he dipped his head and covered her nipple with his mouth. She closed her eyes as bolts of desire shot from her breasts to her groin. As James’s tongue caressed her nipple Ellie could feel the moisture gathering between her legs as her body prepared to welcome him.
Her hands slipped under the waistband of his boxer shorts and she pushed them off his hips. His buttocks were round and hard under her palms.
James moved his attention to her other breast as she moved one hand between his legs and ran her hand along the length of his shaft. She heard him moan as her fingers rolled across his tip, using the moisture she found there to decrease the friction and smooth her movements.
She arched her hips towards him and he responded, removing her knickers and sliding his fingers inside her. She gasped as he circled her most sensitive spot with his thumb. He was hard and hot under her palm; she was warm and wet to his touch.
She was ready now. She didn’t want to wait. She couldn’t wait.
She opened her legs and guided him into her, welcoming the full length of him.
He pushed against her and she lifted her hips to meet his thrust. They moved together, matching their rhythms as if they’d been doing this for ever. She had her hands at his hips, controlling the pace, gradually increasing the momentum. James’s breaths were short and she wasn’t breathing at all. All her energy was focussed on making love to him. There was no room in her head for anything other than the sensation of his skin against hers, his skin inside hers.
James gathered her hands and held them above her head, stretching her out and exposing her breasts, and he bent his head to her nipple again as he continued his thrusts. The energy they created pierced through her, flowing from his mouth, through her breast and into her groin, where it gathered in a peak of pleasure building with intensity until she thought she would explode.
‘Now, James, do it now,’ she begged.
His pace increased a fraction more and as she felt him start to shudder she released her hold as well. Their timing was exquisite, controlled by the energy that bound them together, and they cried out in unison, climaxing simultaneously.
Never before had Ellie experienced the sensation of two people becoming one but there had been no way of separating the two of them, they had been unified by their lovemaking and it was an experience Ellie would treasure for ever. It had been everything she had expected and more. Their bodies had been made for each other.
Ellie woke at dawn as the first rays of sun hit her window. In their haste to tear off each other’s clothes and get into bed last night she’d forgotten to close the curtains. James was lying beside her, still sleeping. He had his arm draped across her stomach but even without the contact she would have known he was there—she could feel the humming in the air and her room smelt of limes. It was almost as though even the particles in the air reacted to his presence. Nothing went unaffected, certainly not her.
She rolled onto her side to look at him. His face was relaxed and calm with just a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He stirred with her movement and opened his eyes.
‘Good morning.’ The smile that had been hovering at the edges of his lips burst across his face.
Ellie breathed out, relieved to see he was quite comfortable waking up in her bed and didn’t appear to be looking for the nearest exit.
He rolled towards her and kissed her on the mouth. ‘How did you sleep?’
‘Short but sweet.’
‘Sorry about that, I was enjoying our evening,’ he said as his fingers found her breasts and started tracing circles around them, grazing her nipples.
‘I’m not complaining,’ she said.
She stretched her arms above her head, arching her back, and James groaned and ducked his head, taking her breast into his mouth and sucking on her nipple. His mouth was warm and moist and as his tongue flicked over her nipple Ellie felt it peak in response. She was ready for James to make love to her again. It would be the perfect way to start the day.
She brought her hands down to his back and ran them along the ridge of his spine. She felt the small indentations at the base of his spine and kept her hands moving further until she could cup his buttocks. She slipped one hand to his groin. His erection pulsed under her palm. He was ready too. She pulled him over on top of her until his weight pressed her into the bed. He covered her body with his and she opened her legs, allowing him to join the two of them together again.
‘You’re going to make me late for work,’ he said once they had satisfied their desires. Again.
‘You could have refused,’ Ellie replied.
He grinned at her. ‘I didn’t want to appear ungrateful.’
Ellie thumped him on the arm. ‘Hey, watch it.’
‘I couldn’t resist, does that sound better?’ he asked as he kissed her on the mouth, before sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, preparing to go to work.
In a frame on Ellie’s bedside table, just inches from where he was sitting, was a family photograph.
He turned back to look at her as she lay on the bed. ‘Are they your parents?’
She nodded.
‘You’ve got your mother’s eyes,’ he said. ‘Is it a recent photo?’
Ellie knew why he asked that. Despite the fact the photo had been taken twelve years ago her parents looked old enough to be the parents of a twenty-three-year-old. She shook her head. ‘No. I was a late-in-life baby. They tried for ten years before they got pregnant with me. They were both thirty-nine when I was born and that was after several years of IVF treatment. They died in a car accident when I was eleven.’ She picked up the photo in its frame. ‘This was the last
photo taken of them.’
‘Oh, Ellie, I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay, you didn’t know.’ She never normally volunteered the story of her parents’ deaths, it was a part of her life she preferred not to revisit. Normally she would have only admitted that the photo wasn’t recent and left it at that but around James things were anything but normal.
‘What happened?’
This was her chance to say she didn’t like to talk about it but instead she heard herself begin the story.
‘We were coming back from the skifields—’
‘We? You were with them?’
She nodded. ‘We were coming down the mountain and we came around a corner and a grader was on the wrong side of the road. We ran into it and my parents were killed instantly.’
‘And you? Were you hurt?’ His eyes were roaming over her naked body, looking for scars and marks he might have missed while they’d been making love.
‘Only minor injuries.’
‘What about your siblings?’
‘I’m an only child.’
It had been a long time since she’d revealed this much about herself in one conversation. Even Ruby, Jess and Tilly had only heard the story in bits and pieces. But she knew why she was confiding in James. It was partly because of the humming, that vibration that infused the air around them and made her feel as though they were encased in a private bubble, where time was suspended, and reality couldn’t intrude. And it was partly because they’d had the most amazing sex of her life. If he could be that in tune with her physically she didn’t think it could hurt to share some of her emotional self with him as well.
‘That’s why you don’t ski any more,’ he said. She nodded in response. ‘So what happened to you then?’ he asked.
‘I went to live with Mum’s parents.’
‘And then to boarding school,’ he filled in the gap. ‘What about your grandparents, are they still alive?’
‘My grandpa died a few years ago and my grandmother died recently. She was my last family member. I’m all that’s left.’
‘Just you? I had no idea.’
‘Why should you? It’s hardly a normal happy-families-type story. One day I’ll have my own family, one day I’ll belong to someone again, but in the meantime I have Jess, Ruby and Tilly. They’re my surrogate family.’ And meanwhile she could have some fun with James, she thought. ‘What about you? What was your childhood like?’ She’d talked enough about her story.
‘Not quite as calamitous as yours, maybe a bit closer to normal and relatively happy. I have an older sister, she’s married with three kids. We were brought up by my mum.’
‘What about your father?’
‘Not in the picture.’
James had said ‘relatively happy’ but Ellie found the idea of an absent father unbearably sad. In her opinion, not knowing your father was worse than having a father who’d died. At least she had her memories.
He stood up. ‘I’d better get moving. I’ll grab a shower at the hospital.’ He started picking his clothes up from where they were scattered over the floor. The conversation was obviously over. Ellie lay in bed admiring the curve of his buttocks as he bent forward to pull his boxer shorts on. She could get used to this view. She just hoped she would get a chance to do it all again. What if he wasn’t planning on revisiting last night?
He was buttoning his jeans now and he turned to see her watching. He winked at her and her fears receded. He retrieved his shirt and pulled it over his head before he came back to the bed. He picked up a pen from beside the bed. ‘Give me your number so I can call you later.’ Ellie recited it and he wrote it on his hand before he kissed her goodbye.
She lay in bed, a smile playing around the corners of her mouth. It was okay. Everything was okay. He would call her, she knew he would. She’d see him again. He could be her transition man. She didn’t have to fall for him.
‘Doing the breakfast dishes already?’ Tilly asked as she came into the kitchen to find Ellie with her hands in the washing-up water. ‘Or are they last night’s plates?’ She looked from Ellie to Jess, who was sitting at the kitchen table. ‘I know one of you got lucky, I saw someone sneaking out early this morning. Who has a confession to make?’
Ellie could feel herself blushing.
‘Ah, Ms Nicholson, care to share? Who was he?’ Tilly grinned and pulled out a chair, making herself comfortable beside Jess.
‘James Leonardi,’ Ellie admitted. She knew Tilly would get it out of her eventually.
‘Who is he?’
‘Do you remember the hot guy from the Stat Bar?’ said Jess.
‘I do!’ Tilly’s eyebrows shot up. ‘The hot guy, wow. What’s going on?’
Ellie shrugged. ‘I’m not sure really, it’s a bit soon to know, but I’ve never felt like this before.’ Last night had been amazing but she wasn’t ready to share the details yet.
Tilly raised an eyebrow and smiled. ‘Really? You don’t remember feeling like this with Rob and Nick and—?’
‘I know what you’re thinking.’ Ellie knew that Tilly’s list could go on and on and it was true, she did throw herself into her relationships and she tended to fall hard and fast. ‘But it’s different with James. We have a connection.’ She knew that didn’t come close to explaining how she felt around him but how could she describe the feeling, how could she describe that invisible hum of electricity that surrounded them both, the one she knew only they could feel? How could she describe the sensation of knowing when he walked into a room even when her back was turned? She was sure they wouldn’t understand. She was convinced no one else had ever felt like this.
‘I thought you were having a break from dating?’
‘I’m not sure you could call this dating and I’m not going to fall in love and start dreaming about babies. He’s already told me he’s a confirmed bachelor with no plans to settle down. I’ve been forewarned. This is just a bit of fun.’
‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’
‘Not at all,’ Ellie confessed as she emptied the dirty water from the sink and dried her hands. ‘But I can’t seem to help it.’
‘Promise me you’ll be careful,’ Tilly said as she stood up. ‘I don’t want you to get hurt again.’
Ellie grinned. ‘Is that today’s motto—if you can’t be good, be careful?’
‘Something like that,’ Tilly replied.
‘I will be, I promise,’ Ellie said as Tilly hugged her.
Ellie wasn’t sure how good or how careful she was over the next few weeks but she had a lot of fun. James was delightful company, attentive and funny, not to mention gorgeous and sexy. She was happy.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ELLIE was happy until Rob put a pin into her bubble of joy and popped it.
She was enjoying work, her initial reservations about dating another orthopaedic surgeon had worn off as she and James settled into a very easy relationship. James had no problem with people knowing they were an item and after dating Rob, when she’d had to be so careful to keep their relationship very private, this was a welcome change. She and James had lunch together as often as possible, he would meet her after work and walk her home whenever their schedules allowed it and even on the ward, while there were no huge displays of affection, there was always a touch of his hand or a wink or a smile to let her know he was thinking of her. Even with the hours he worked and the stress of his job Ellie found James to be very composed and relaxed at work and his attitude in turn kept her relaxed. She was even finding it easier to keep a calm head around Rob, or at least she thought so.
Ellie had paged Rob to sign Dylan Harris’s discharge papers. After the debacle around George Poni’s discharge she had decided to ask Rob first when his patients were ready for discharge rather than assume James could organise it. That way, it was Rob’s decision and it helped to keep her head off the chopping block. She did her best to be efficient and succinct in order to keep Rob on side. She’d completed the paperwork and was standin
g beside him, handing him the relevant pages to sign, when James reappeared at the nurses’ station after visiting a patient. He winked at her as he approached the desk and Ellie beamed at him.
‘What time is your lunch break?’ he asked. ‘I’ll try to meet you in the cafeteria.’
Ellie glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘Twelve, I hope,’ she replied.
‘Okay, I’ll catch you later,’ James said as he headed for the lift, leaving her alone with Rob. She watched James’s back as he made his way along the corridor.
‘You’re still seeing Dr Leonardi, then?’ Rob asked, interrupting her thoughts.
She was a little taken aback and wondered why it was any of his business but she had no reason to deny it. ‘Yes.’
‘You didn’t waste any time.’
She knew she shouldn’t get into a discussion about James with Rob at work or anywhere else but she thought his thinly veiled criticism was a bit out of line. ‘What do you mean?’ She couldn’t stop herself from rising to the bait.
‘Straight out of one bed into another.’
‘How dare you?’ Ellie fumed. ‘I don’t think you’re entitled to comment, seeing as you had me in one bed and your wife in another at the same time!’ They were alone at the nurses’ station but Ellie was conscious of keeping her voice low regardless. She didn’t want anyone to overhear this conversation.
‘Not exactly. Penny wasn’t in my bed, she wasn’t even in the country.’
‘She’s still your wife and you were having an affair.’
‘Information which I’m sure you would prefer to remain between us. As would I. You’re not planning on creating waves, are you? That could make things awkward.’
‘Awkward how exactly?’ Ellie said through gritted teeth.
‘You’re a good nurse, I’m sure the hospital wouldn’t like to lose your services.’
‘You’d get me fired?’
‘I don’t think that would be necessary but if people got wind of your indiscretion you might find it embarrassing to continue working here.’
