by Amy Andrews
Thump. Thump.
‘You chose your job over me.’ Thump, thump, thump. ‘You…’ thump ‘…moron.’
Thump, thump, thump.
Adam looked at the yelling she-devil rearing over him, wielding a cushion, her ponytail swishing madly, and laughed.
Jess thumped him three more times for good measure. ‘Don’t laugh at me!’
‘Jess,’ he said, grabbing her hand and easily removing the offending cushion. ‘Enough.’
He pulled on her arm and she toppled on top of him. ‘That’s not the way to greet the man you love,’ he murmured.
Jess pushed against his chest as her traitorous body bloomed into heat. Then he cut off the protest she was just about to launch into with a very masterful kiss.
When he pulled his mouth away she was breathing hard.
They both were.
‘Now, that’s a greeting.’
Jess felt tears prick the backs of her eyes. ‘Let me go,’ she murmured huskily.
‘Jess.’
‘Let me up, damn it!’
Adam took his hands off her very delectable butt and let her slide off him. She sat on the side of the bed and stared at the floor.
‘What do you want, Adam?’
Adam stroked a finger up her bicep. ‘You.’
Jess felt a well of despair rise in her. She turned and looked down at him. ‘Why?’ she demanded.
‘Because I love you.’
Jess sat very still as his words came to her in slow motion. Had he just said he loved her?
No.
She must have misheard. ‘What?’
Adam smiled. ‘I said I love you.’
He put his hand out to stroke her arm again and she shrank from it. ‘That’s not funny, Adam.’
‘Tell me about it.’
Jess stared at him. He had a slight smile on his mouth and sincerity shone in his lapis lazuli gaze. ‘I don’t understand.’
Adam sat up. ‘Oh, darling, neither do I. All I know is that I’ve been miserable without you. And an absolute pig to work with. The chief would be very proud. Then I saw Lai Ling a few days ago and she saw your picture on my phone and she said I loved you and I knew. Suddenly, right there in that jungle, I just knew she was right. The reason I’ve been feeling so wretched the last six weeks is because I’ve been in love with you all this time and in total denial.’
Jess held her breath. Dared she hope? ‘Really?’
He nodded. ‘Really.’
Adam could see the battle blazing in her blue eyes. She wanted to believe him but she was wary. Still, she didn’t look like she was going to slug him with a cushion again so he moved a little closer and dropped a kiss on her shoulder.
‘I had a lot of time to think on the plane and I realised you were right. I was asking you to make all the commitment and not giving you any of mine. Asking you to wait around for me, thinking only of my career and ignoring your ambitions. And I don’t want that. I want to be in a partnership where we both get to do what we want.’
She swayed a little closer to him and he pushed her ponytail back behind her shoulder. ‘I don’t know how we’re going to work it out but I love you, Jess. And I want to be with you for ever. I want to marry you and have kids with you. I want to give you the fairy-tale.’
Jess couldn’t believe her ears. He was saying all the things she’d fantasised about.
Maybe she was dreaming?
‘Just please say you’ll love me too,’ he murmured as he nuzzled her shoulder.
Jess looked into his eyes and smiled. She leaned forward and laid her forehead against his. ‘Of course I’ll love you. I’ve loved you for the last three years. And I’ll love you the next three hundred if I can.’
Adam groaned as he inched his mouth closer to hers. ‘I’ve missed you.’ And he pressed his mouth against hers in a kiss that was one of pure tenderness and love.
He pulled back. ‘I’ll quit Operation New Faces, whatever you want.’
Jess opened her eyes. The world was still spinning so she anchored her forehead against his again and clutched his biceps. ‘No, Adam.’ She shook her head slightly. ‘I don’t want you to give up what you love doing. Not straight away. Not altogether. Surely you can just cut back the number of missions you do? I know how much it means to you, how much a part of you it is.’
‘I thought you wanted me to quit?’
‘No, Adam. I wanted you to need me more than your work. To realise that I needed you more than they did. Knowing you love me, that you’re committed to me is enough. I do want us to talk about a plan for the future, though, for us spending more time together. But it doesn’t involve quitting.’
Adam’s shoulder’s sagged. ‘Thank goodness. For an awful moment I thought you were going to suggest I go into private practice like my father. I couldn’t bear that. Getting all stuffy and full of myself.’
Jess smiled. ‘So don’t. Go into the public system. God knows, it needs good doctors too. Or how about the bush? Do you know what waiting lists are like out there? People need surgeons in places where there aren’t any. You could do so much out there.’
Adam pulled back to look into her face properly. He smoothed his hand down her cheek. ‘That’s what you want to do, isn’t it? Go back and work in the bush?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, I do. But it doesn’t have to be for ever, Adam. I know you like the beach. So we compromise. That’s what love’s about. It’s what you do for the person you love. You compromise.’
Adam smiled at her. His practical country girl. ‘I love you,’ he murmured.
‘Oh Adam. I adore you.’
He kissed her then. Once, twice, three times. He couldn’t believe how incredibly lucky he was.
‘I know something else that love’s about,’ he whispered against her mouth as his hands slid to the buttons of her shirt.
Jess smiled as his mouth travelled down her neck and she angled her head more to give him full access. She pulled the sheet away to reveal his beautiful male nudity. Her eyes grew large at the sight of him.
‘Mutual admiration and respect?’ she said huskily.
‘Sure,’ he said, urging her down on the bed. ‘Let’s call it that.’
Jess smiled at him then got lost in his kiss.
EPILOGUE
One year later…
THE murmur of conversation and clinking of cutlery filling the Edwinburra Community Hall hushed as the sound of tinkling glass grew louder. Everyone turned to face the bridal table.
‘In a break from tradition,’ Ruby said, ‘I’ll be proposing the toast to the bride and groom.’
Jess smiled at her new husband looking sublimely sexy in his tux and then up at her new sister-in-law.
Everything about today had been perfect.
The full fairy-tale.
‘Firstly, I’d like to congratulate both Jess and Adam for completely ignoring every piece of sage advice I ever gave them about staying away from each other. Clearly, for the first time in my life, I was wrong.’
The wedding guests, who included the entire town of Edwinburra as well as a contingent of city folk, laughed, clapped and cheered.
As Ruby’s witty speech continued Jess looked around her at the tables filled with family and friends.
Her parents and grandmother beamed at her and Adam, radiating joy and love. Their adoration of Adam was gratifying and, she noted, reflected in all the faces of Edwinburra. They had embraced him and his long-term plans for a flying surgeon service like a prodigal son.
Adam’s mother, pride and happiness glowing in her face, sat beside Jess’s grandmother. The chief had had a prior engagement, some conference in the US where he was keynote speaker, and no one—not Ruby or Adam or Sylvia—cared.
In six months’ time she and Adam were embarking on a two-week holiday in Egypt and had surprised Sylvia with a ticket. Jess was determined Adam’s mother would see the Sphinx.
Jess’s gaze found Tilly and Marcus. Tilly was trying to watch Ruby with rapt atte
ntion but with Marcus attempting to distract her by nuzzling her neck it wasn’t working so well. Jess smiled as Tilly’s eyelids fluttered shut briefly.
It had been a full year for them both. The Eastern Beaches obstetric unit had celebrated its first year under Marcus’s directorship with amazing good-outcome/low-intervention figures. They’d almost finished the renovations on their cliff-front mansion and they were due to tie the knot in a few months.
Jess was looking forward to that wedding!
Opposite them sat blissfully married Ellie and James. A glowing Ellie sat with her back, snuggled against her husband. Her five-month-pregnant belly, already obvious on her diminutive frame, was on proud display. A doting James cradled it with his hand.
Truth be told, they were both glowing and Jess wondered who would win the battle of wills over how much longer Ellie worked. James had wanted her to stop the moment she’d found out she was pregnant but Ellie loved her work on the ortho ward and working with her husband too much to give it up before it was necessary.
The jury was still out but she had a feeling that James enjoyed the way Ellie distracted him from his goal as much as she did.
The reception crowd laughed and Jess was drawn back to Ruby, an adoring Cort gazing up at her. They were both tanned and gorgeous, having just come back from a holiday in the wilds of Venezuela where they’d secretly got married.
Ruby was now studying and working in mental health and Cort was still senior registrar in the emergency department at Eastern Beaches. They’d moved into his beach-side flat one suburb over from Coogee and Jess seemed to spend as much time there as she did at Hill St.
There was more laughter and Jess tuned back in to Ruby’s speech as she realised her friend and sister-in-law had turned to face her and Adam.
‘It’s been an eventful year.’ Ruby paused and slid a hand onto Cort’s shoulder. ‘A lot of us have found out that despite differences and stumbling blocks and even well-intentioned friends…’ more laughter ‘…that true love will find a way. So if I can ask the bride and groom to be upstanding, we’ll drink to that.’
Adam smiled at her, dropped a kiss on her mouth and offered her his hand. Jess took it, her heart swelling so much she felt sure it was going to punch a hole in her chest.
She rose to her feet, fussing with her skirt for a moment, still unable to believe how timeless her grandmother’s cream Chantilly lace wedding dress was and how well it had endured the march of time.
Adam took her hand and smiled down at her before raising his glass. Jess followed suit.
‘True love,’ he announced to the packed hall. Everyone repeated the toast and took a swig of their champagne.
Adam turned to his wife. His beautiful Jess, who looked like Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty rolled into one.
‘To fairy-tales,’ he murmured, touching his glass to hers.
Jess smiled back at the man she was going to love for ever. ‘To fairy-tales.’
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1614-3
WAKING UP WITH DR. OFF-LIMITS
First North American Publication 2011
Copyright © 2011 by Amy Andrews
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