by Marie Force
“Leave it to the doctor to pick a medical movie.”
“Um, I believe it’s a chick-flick romance that happens to include a disease. There’s got to be something in it for me.”
“Who is in it?”
“Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.”
“I should probably mention at the outset that I have a huge crush on Jake Gyllenhaal. I’d hate for you to be threatened by my ogling.”
“I believe I’m man enough to handle your crush.”
As she carried the bowl of popcorn and two Cokes into the living room, she tried to remember the last time she’d enjoyed a conversation with a man as much as she enjoyed every conversation with him. He never talked down to her or made her feel like she wasn’t as smart as him, even though she was nowhere near as smart as him.
After she put the bowl and sodas on the coffee table, he handed her the movie and she popped it into the DVD player. She sat on the sofa, careful to leave at least a foot between them, and reached for the popcorn bowl.
David opened both sodas and put them on coasters.
As she dipped into the bowl, his hand brushed against hers. Daisy pulled hers back and then felt like an idiot. So his hand had touched hers. Why did she have to react like a teenage girl on a first date?
The movie’s opening credits had just begun when Daisy heard a noise at the top of the stairs. She handed the bowl to David, got up to go investigate and found Thomas sitting behind the baby gate, his blanket and teddy bear with him.
“What’re you doing up, honey?”
“I want Mommy.”
“Mommy and Daddy are out with their friends, but they’ll be home soon.”
“Who were you talking to?” Thomas looked around her to see who was visiting.
“You know Dr. David, right?”
“He gave me a shot,” Thomas said, his feathery brows knitting into an adorable scowl. “It hurted.”
“Come here, sweetie.” Daisy extended her arms, lifted him over the gate with the blanket and bear and carried him downstairs. “We have a visitor,” she said to David.
“Hi there, Thomas,” David said.
Thomas burrowed his face into her neck.
“I believe Thomas is annoyed with you. Something about a shot?”
“Ah, yes. Sorry about that, pal. Just trying to keep you healthy.”
“It hurted,” Daisy said, earning a smile from David.
“Do you know what else is really important to staying healthy?” David asked.
Thomas turned toward David.
“What’s that?” Daisy asked.
“Sleep. We need lots and lots of sleep, especially when we’re three years old and our bodies are using so much energy to grow.”
“I growed,” Thomas said. “Mommy measured me on the wall.”
“If you want to keep growing and someday be big and strong like Daddy,” Daisy said, “you have to go to sleep.” She drew the blanket up to his shoulders and rubbed his back. He popped his thumb into his mouth and cuddled up to his bear.
As Daisy brushed her lips over Thomas’s hair, her own hair slid over her face.
Before she could tend to it, David had it secured behind her ear. The brush of his fingertips against her cheek and ear gave her goose bumps. She ventured a glance at him and saw that he was watching her with sexy eyes attuned to her every move.
Oh my.
Chapter 2
When Daisy carried Thomas back upstairs, David followed to open the gate for her. She tucked him into bed and drew the covers up and over his shoulders before leaving him with a kiss to his forehead. He was such a cute little guy—all blond hair and big, blue eyes and a sweet, sunny disposition.
Maddie had him alone after the boy’s father left the island without knowing she was pregnant. After they were married, Mac adopted Thomas and gave him the McCarthy name. He was a very lucky boy, Daisy thought as she left his room, leaving the door open so she could hear him if he woke up again.
David waited for her in the hallway.
“I’m going to check on Hailey while I’m up here,” Daisy whispered.
“Mind if I take a peek? I’m extra partial to her after helping to deliver her during the big storm.”
“Sure, come on.”
With the hallway light illuminating the nursery, they tiptoed into Hailey’s room. She slept with her bum in the air and her lips pursed.
Daisy adjusted her blanket and shared a smile with David before they left the baby to sleep.
“You were good with him,” David said on the way downstairs.
“He’s adorable. I got to hold him the day he was born and fell madly in love. I’ve been like an extra aunt to him his whole life.”
“He’s lucky to have so many people who love him.”
“Now he’s got the McCarthys, too. They’re quite a family.”
“Yeah, they sure are.”
Did she detect a hint of sarcasm in his voice? It made her curious to know more about what’d happened between him and Janey, but she didn’t have the guts to come right out and ask him.
“I heard how you saved Hailey’s life the night she was born. Maddie and Mac are so grateful to you.”
He shrugged off the praise. “I did what I was trained to do.”
“Still, if you hadn’t been here… I don’t even want to think about what might’ve happened.”
“I was glad I was here and able to help. She’s a beautiful little girl.”
“That she is.”
They returned to their spots on the sofa, and Daisy reached for the popcorn bowl and the remote control to start the movie. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”
Was it her imagination or did he sit closer to her this time? His leg brushed against hers. Nope, not her imagination. Thank goodness she had the popcorn to focus on as the movie about an aggressive salesman began. Not even five minutes in and he was having sex with a coworker in the stockroom at work.
Daisy felt her entire body flame with embarrassment. Next to her, David sat perfectly still. She wondered if he was equally mortified. She breathed a sigh of relief as the encounter in the stockroom ended with Jake’s character being fired. Within a few minutes, he’d moved into a job as a pharmaceutical salesman.
Looking to dispel some of the tension, Daisy tried to think of something witty she could say about the movie. “He’s kind of a tool, huh?”
“You could say that.”
She offered him the popcorn, and he took a handful. “You still want to watch the movie?” she asked.
“I’m invested now. Gotta see if the tool gets his comeuppance.”
Daisy smiled at him and tried to relax, but it was hard with her world-class crush sitting so close to her and sexy Jake shadowing a doctor as he treated a young woman with Parkinson’s. Daisy’s hormones were on overload.
“Yikes,” David said. “Twenty-six with Parkinson’s. What a drag.”
“Is that unusually young?”
“Very.”
They went silent as Anne Hathaway’s character bared her breast to the doctor and asked about a mark that turned out to be a spider bite while Jake looked on, obviously ogling the naked breast.
“Total tool,” Daisy declared. “If this was my house, I’d throw popcorn at the TV.”
“Too bad they don’t have a dog,” David said. “He could clean it up.”
“Thomas wants one, but Maddie is holding out until Hailey is a bit older. Can’t say I blame her.”
“You and Maddie are really close, huh?”
Daisy was relieved to be talking about something other than the bare breast on the screen. “Yeah, she’s been a great friend to me. I miss her at the hotel, but I’m so glad she got the dream come true. No one deserves it more. Now how did he go from inappropriate ogling to having coffee with her?”
“It’s Hollywood,” David said dryly. “Things happen at the speed of film.”
“Oh!” Daisy cried as the scene changed and the celluloid couple tore eac
h other’s clothes off to go at it standing up in Anne’s apartment.
David shook with silent laughter next to her as Daisy watched, transfixed by the intensely erotic scene that ended with the characters on the floor panting from exertion.
“I need a cigarette,” Daisy said, making him laugh harder. “Is it totally rude for me to be staring at his naked bum while you’re sitting one inch from me?”
“Only if it’s rude for me to be taking a good healthy look at her bare breasts.”
“You probably see plenty of breasts every day at ‘work.’” She used her fingers to make air quotes.
“For your information, it’s very stressful to look at strange breasts at work.”
“You’re so full of it.” She grabbed a sofa pillow and smacked him with it.
He grabbed the pillow and her hand, giving a gentle tug that sent the popcorn bowl flying off her lap. “Whoops,” he said, but he didn’t let go. Rather, he brought her closer, so close their noses were nearly touching and Daisy didn’t dare to even breathe. All thoughts of Jake Gyllenhaal’s naked rear end fled from her mind under David’s intense gaze.
And then the unmistakable sounds of sex from the TV sent David and Daisy dissolving into laughter. As far as she was concerned, David was every bit as handsome as Jake, but when he laughed, whoa. Crazy sexy. She’d never seen him laugh as hard as he had tonight, and the urge to kiss him consumed her. It was the only thought in her entire brain. She moved toward him as he moved toward her in a moment of perfect harmony that would forever go down as one of the sweetest of her life.
There was nothing sweet about the kiss, however. The only word to describe it was hot. Seriously hot. It went from start to go in like two seconds flat as his tongue darted into her mouth. As fast as it happened, though, it was over. He drew back from her, breathing hard, his eyes wide. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
With her hand on the back of his head, she dragged him back into the kiss, taking the lead this time.
His arms came around her as the kiss transported her far away from anything she’d known before. She could barely remember to breathe as his tongue brushed against hers. Through the thin fabric of her top, her nipples pebbled and tightened when they rubbed against his shirt.
She twisted in his embrace, trying to get closer as the kiss became desperate.
He shifted them so she was under him, his body big and heavy on top of her. A twinge of panic registered at the outer fringes of her awareness, reminding her of what had happened the last time a man had pinned her down beneath him. She turned her face, breaking the kiss and drawing in greedy deep breaths. “I… I…” She pushed at his chest.
He immediately understood and sat up, releasing her so abruptly she nearly cried out from the loss.
“God, Daisy. I’m so sorry. I got carried away.” He looked positively stricken, which made her ache. He’d been nothing but kind and decent and patient with her—everything Truck had never been.
“No, it’s my fault.” Her hands were shaking and her heart was beating so fast she worried she might pass out or something equally embarrassing. “I didn’t mean to freak out. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you like that.”
“You didn’t,” she said, on the verge of tears. “You were wonderful the way you always are, and I didn’t want to stop. It was just that feeling of being smothered…”
“I get it, and I’m sorry I didn’t think of how you might react to that. It’s only been a couple of weeks.” His hand cupped her face, his thumb caressing her cheek so gently her eyes closed against the rush of emotion. “You’re so sweet, Daisy. I’ve been dying to kiss you for days. Weeks.” His voice was gruff and sexy, and her crush was on the verge of blazing completely out of control.
She opened her eyes because she wanted to see him. “Really?”
Nodding, he continued to stroke her face with just the soft movement of his thumb. “I was so afraid to touch you. I didn’t want to do the wrong thing.”
“You didn’t. It wasn’t you. It was me.”
“You’ve been through a traumatic ordeal. It’s going to take some time to be comfortable in a situation like that again.”
“I was comfortable. I was so comfortable. But then…”
“You didn’t like having me on top of you.”
She shook her head as a tear slid down her cheek. “I don’t want to scare you off. I like you so much. I look forward to our time together…” She stopped herself when she realized she might be giving too much away.
“You haven’t scared me off, and I like you, too, and the time we’ve spent together. I look forward to it all day while I’m working.”
“So do I. Every day I wonder if I’m going to see you, and I get all giddy at the thought of being with you.”
He brushed the tear from her cheek and touched his thumb to her bottom lip, rubbing it back and forth.
Daisy put her tongue in its path, touching the tip to the pad of his thumb.
His eyes narrowed with barely restrained desire that made her wonder what might’ve happened if she hadn’t panicked.
“Can we…”
“What?”
She forced herself to look at him. “Can we try again? Please?”
“I don’t want to scare you.”
“You won’t as long as you don’t do that on-top thing again.”
His hand dropped from her face as he leaned his head against the back of the sofa. “Do whatever you feel like doing. You’re the boss.”
Daisy rolled her bottom lip between her teeth as she contemplated the sexy buffet laid out before her. She released two buttons on his shirt and slid her hand inside to rest just below his collarbone.
He drew in a breath, and his heart beat fast beneath her hand.
His reaction fueled her courage as she leaned in to place a string of kisses along his jaw. Late-day whiskers poked at her lips, stinging and abrading them. She glanced down and saw his hands gripping his thighs and was encouraged to know he wasn’t unaffected by her clumsy attempts at seduction or whatever this was.
She worked her way to his lips, teasing him with light touches of lip to lip before she moved down to his neck. The pulse of his heartbeat throbbed under her lips, beating in time to the throb between her legs. It had been such a very long time since she’d experienced true desire.
“Daisy,” he said, sounding tortured. “I want to touch you. Is that okay?”
“Yes, please.”
“Come closer.” He held out his arms to her, and Daisy straddled his lap, feeling the press of his arousal between her legs as he drew her in closer to him. “Is this okay?”
She nodded, moved by his concern.
He massaged her back in small circles that made her want to weep from the undeniable pleasure.
“Feels good,” she whispered.
With his hand on the back of her head, he drew it down to his shoulder, encouraging her without words to relax against him.
She sank into his embrace, which would’ve been totally innocent were it not for the brush of her nipples against his chest or the insistent throb between her legs as she squirmed for a tighter connection with his erection.
He gasped, and his hands tightened on her back.
“Sorry, did I hurt you?”
“No,” he said with a tight chuckle. “Not at all.”
Realizing he was aroused filled her with a kind of feminine power that was all new to her. It also filled her with a sense of mischief as she rocked against him again, drawing another hiss from him.
“You little minx,” he whispered. “You know you’re making me crazy, right?”
“I am?” It was fun to be playful with a man, to know she was completely safe in his arms, to know he wanted her as much as she wanted him, even if the timing of such desires wasn’t ideal.
He continued the massage in slow, sensual circles down her back. When he reached the waistband of her jeans, she thought he might
work his way back up, but he kept going down, cupping her bottom and squeezing. “Okay?” he asked, endlessly considerate.
“So okay.” She couldn’t seem to get close enough to him as the throb between her legs intensified. “David…”
“What, honey? Tell me what you need.”
She’d never been very good at telling men what she needed, and now was no exception. “I don’t know.” Moaning, she rested her forehead on his shoulder. “I don’t know.”
“Move against me.” With his hands on her hips, he urged her to move against the hard column of his erection.
“Does it feel good for you, too?” she asked, trying not to pant like a brazen hussy, which was exactly how she felt at the moment. But she was too aroused to care.
“So good. Could I touch you?”
“Yes, yes. Please.”
He found the hem of her top and dipped his fingers underneath, drawing a gasp from her when he made contact with her back. Leaving a trail of sensation, he worked his way up, releasing the clasp on her bra as he went. “Still okay?”
“Mmm.” With her head on his shoulder, she breathed in the clean, fresh scent of him as his hands moved over her ribs, his thumbs teasing the underside of her breasts. She was on the verge of begging, but the words froze on her tongue when he filled his hands with her breasts. “Oh.”
“Still good?”
“So good. Don’t stop.”
“Kiss me.”
Daisy raised her head and brought her lips down on his right as his fingers found her nipples, rolling and squeezing ever so gently. The combination triggered a powerful orgasm. Luckily, his lips muffled the sound or she might’ve woken the kids.
Completely undone by the experience, she collapsed against him, her breasts still pressed against his warm hands.
“Feel better?” he whispered, making her smile.
“So much better,” she said through panting breaths. “As soon as my head stops spinning, I’d be happy to return the favor.”
“No need.”
She found the strength to raise her head and meet his gaze. “I know I don’t have to. What if I want to?”
