‘Why?’
He shrugged, unable to find the words. He’d shut off his past so firmly that he’d almost forgotten about the fighting. Now it was hard to articulate it.
‘Did you want the attention from your parents?’
‘No,’ he snorted. ‘And if I had it would have had the opposite effect. They found it hard enough to tell me they were proud of me when I achieved all they expected of me—they could never have dealt with talking about any problems I was having. I think that would have made them retreat into their careers even more.’
‘Your parents didn’t think you ever had problems? Almost every kid has a problem growing up one way or another.’
‘Not me,’ Max disagreed. ‘As far as they were concerned, I was intelligent with a stable background and parents who made sure I went to school, and did my homework to get good grades.’
‘What about talking about general growing-up issues?’
‘What issues?’ he asked flatly, echoing his parents’ attitude. ‘I was a kid—how could I possibly have issues?’
‘So you started fighting?’
‘Yeah. I didn’t like bullies, so it started there. If I saw another kid getting picked on I’d go after the bully. They got bigger and harder, and I got angrier.’
‘How long did it go on for?’
‘A while.’
Longer than he cared to admit.
‘And what did your parents do?’
‘Nothing.’ He closed his eyes for a moment. ‘One single teacher noticed and took me under his wing. He got me into a mandatory after-school sports programme with swimming, cycling and running.’
‘And the fighting stopped?’
‘Yeah. All the kids had gone home by the time I got out, so the same opportunities to fight were gone. Besides, I’d always been too busy and too knackered to fight after that.’
‘And your parents?’
‘It was like it never happened.’
‘You’re in contact with them?’
There was an odd note in her voice.
‘They called when I got back from Gaza.’
‘To tell you they were proud of you?’ she guessed.
‘No,’ he answered flatly. ‘They called to say they were glad I was safe and to remind me I should write a medical paper on the medical practices out there.’
‘Do you...that is...what do you think they’d make of Imogen?’
‘Honestly? I don’t know.’
They would probably tell him that he’d made a grave mistake, and that he’d never be able to focus on his career the same way with some kid in the background. But he couldn’t tell Evie that. He couldn’t hurt her that way.
It shocked Max to realise that he might have felt a similar way himself once, before Imogen had burst into his life and enriched it in a way he would never have considered possible.
* * *
She shook her head but her silence spoke volumes, her eyes trained on the coffee mug, around which her hands were cupped tightly.
‘Just don’t be so quick to believe nothing has ever got to me,’ he continued, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. ‘I’m not as infallible as you seem to think.’
Or indeed as he had thought himself. Shocked by his own revelations, Max changed the conversation to something less charged. Something that he knew Evie would jump to discuss.
‘Tell me more about Sally.’
Her questioning glance made him smile.
‘I’m interested. Please, humour me.’
‘Okay,’ she said slowly. ‘Like I said, she struggled with issues of feeling unwanted. Like...you, I guess. She somehow managed to get herself into university but she wasn’t ready for the demands of the course and she really started to spiral. She started going out clubbing and drinking, every night to excess.’
‘Like most students.’
‘Not exactly. Then she started on recreational drugs. But when she was with the campus counsellor about to be thrown off her course she had enough guts to tell her what was going on. That’s when she came to me.’
‘And you helped her to turn it all around?’ Max asked.
‘Yes, but only because she wanted to do it herself. She just needed the support. There’s obviously a lot more to it than that, but ultimately she managed to get back into uni and graduate well. She could get a good job, too, if only health-assessment boards would look beyond the scars of her past to see what she’s like now.’
‘I could do something with them.’
‘Sorry?’
‘I could help her with the scars,’ he repeated quietly.
‘How? There are too many of them over too large an area, and they’re deep into the subcutaneous level. How would you eradicate them?’
‘I’m not saying I can eradicate them,’ Max replied. ‘But I could abrade the cicatrised area and then use a split thickness skin graft to over-graft. She’ll still have a scar, but it won’t look like those lined scars from cutting any more.’
‘So people won’t stigmatise her?’ Evie’s voice caught. ‘That would be incredible, but she can’t afford it.’
‘I know that.’ He blew out a breath. ‘Call it my charitable act.’
‘You would do that for her?’
‘I’d do that for you,’ he responded quietly. And part of him felt the need to do it for himself, as well. It was incredible but after his unexpected confession he wasn’t dwelling on the past; in truth he felt lighter than he had ever felt before. Telling his secrets to Evie had been cathartic, not because it was her job but because he felt as though he was sharing a part of himself with Evie that no one else even knew existed. Right at this moment, Max knew he’d never felt as close a connection to another human being as he felt to Evie.
But he knew his confession had startled her, even though she was doing her best to conceal it. So right now he needed them to get back to the fun of earlier that day, and forget everything else but the fact that they’d both realised how much they still wanted each other.
‘Oh, and one last thing.’ He shot her a wicked smile. ‘So there are no further misunderstandings, let me make it perfectly clear. I still want you. Whenever you’re ready. You’re sexy, exceptionally desirable and, for what it’s worth, you’re also someone I want to be with.’
And Evie could take from that whatever she wanted.
* * *
‘Our daughter’s out for the count and she looks perfectly angelic.’ Evie managed a shaky smile a few hours later as she descended the stairs from checking on the baby. ‘You want to see her?’
She was stalling; she couldn’t help it. The need for Max, intimately and completely, had been gnawing at her ever since their easy exchange in the nephrologist’s office. She’d spent so long feeling bad about herself since her illness, but Max was the one person who made her feel like a whole woman again.
The whole day had been one of revelations. The fact that he hadn’t abandoned her the other night but that he’d been uncertain as to how much she wanted him, had always wanted him. His acceptance that her job meant so much to her, and his offer of helping Sally. But, most incredibly, Max’s confession about his childhood, which had made her feel simultaneously closer to him, yet all the more disconnected.
She needed to tell him. But the closer she got to him, the more scared she was of him turning against her. So she would first need to convince him that they could be more, so much more, than just co-parents of a beautiful daughter. They could be a proper family.
And even though she wanted to prove to Max that the two of them could be so much more than just incredible sex, right now it still seemed like the best place to start.
So, when he took her hand and drew her up the hallway, Evie silenced the last voice of doubt.
‘Tonight I’ll take your word for
how angelic our daughter is. But right now, Evangeline,’ he uttered, his voice gravelly with desire, ‘I don’t want to wait any longer for you.’
In spite of her fears Evie actually giggled as she raced him up the hall, tumbling to her bedroom together and stopping still by the door.
She could feel Max’s breath on her skin. Her heart picked up speed as her own breathing came shallow and fast and when she dared a glance at Max, he was watching the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Then his mouth crashed onto hers with exquisite need.
She responded without hesitation, drinking in his taste, his touch. He dipped his head to kiss a scorching trail from her lips, down her throat and to the sensitive hollow. Arching towards him as he dropped his hand to lazily skim the exposed skin of her chest then cup her breast, his thumb drawing slow whorls over her hard nipple through her top, the fabric proving a frustrating barrier for her. But Max didn’t seem to be in any great hurry. He seemed happy teasing her, exploring, nibbling.
She slid her fingers up his thigh, making for his crotch, a thrill coursing through her as she felt him hard beneath the rough material, but his other hand reached down to still any further movements.
‘Slow down, Evie.’
His voice was thick with longing and he practically growled, but it only turned her on even more. She pushed his hand off hers and propelled them both towards the bed, pushing him gently down and moving across him so that she was sitting on his lap, her legs wrapped around him, ignoring the stab of pain at her incision site. She was determined not to wince; she didn’t want to give Max any reason to insist they take things slowly.
She shifted, wondering if he could feel the heat from her body, when he sucked in a sharp breath, and she gave a wicked gurgle of triumph. That would be a yes, then.
Evie slid her hands down and tugged at the hem of his tee shirt, pulling it up and only pausing in their kissing for long enough to haul it over his head. She balled the fabric and threw it across the room with a grin.
‘Making a point?’ he muttered, amused.
‘Might be.’
Her hands reacquainted themselves with the muscled chest she’d been dreaming about for the last twelve months. Weaving her fingers into the smattering of dark hair, Evie pushed him back onto the bed, her eyes grazing over him hungrily.
‘Like what you see?’
It was a challenge. Almost a dare. Evie smirked at him wickedly, feeling more sexually assured than she ever had before.
‘Purely a professional assessment.’
Max quirked one eyebrow.
‘Oh, really, Dr Parker?’
‘Mmm-hmm,’ she murmured, tracing an unhurried line along the tense chest muscles, which were, incredibly, even more impressive than she’d recalled. Lowering her head, Evie pressed a kiss into each of them. ‘Pectorals.’
‘You liked your anatomy classes?’ he managed.
‘I did.’ She dipped her head lower. ‘Rectus abdominis. Upper.’
‘Yup,’ but his voice quivered slightly as she kissed again.
Evie moved across.
‘Transversus abdominis.’
Another kiss. And this time he didn’t offer any kind of quip.
Lower again, Evie ignored the pain shooting across her side. She wanted him more than she was prepared to give in to anything else. Which meant she was ready.
‘Evie...?’
‘Shh...’ she instructed. ‘I’m fine, don’t ruin it.’
The moment with Max felt too precious, and too fragile to risk breaking. Besides, she needed to prove this to herself. She wasn’t just mentally recovered, she was almost physically healed, too.
‘Oblique.’
The requisite kiss and she could feel his body straining against her forearm. A sense of power surged through her. He was relinquishing control to her because she was claiming it. It was a heady feeling. She moved back to his middle.
‘Which brings us back to rectus abdominis. Lower.’ Her voice sounded thick with lust as she dropped a final kiss before straightening up to offer him an innocent stare. ‘So, Mr Van Berg, where should I go from here?’
Her hands moved to his belt buckle but before she could do anything else Max pulled her to him, hooking his hands around her backside, and stood up with her legs still wrapped around his hips.
‘You made your point,’ he growled. ‘You’re healing well. But I can make a point, too.’
Before she could worry that he was going to back away from her like last time, Max set her back on the bed and reached for her zip, waiting a few tantalising moments before he divested her of her top. Her bra didn’t last much longer. Then he pressed her gently down until her back sank into the soft mattress, and covered her body with his, taking care not to place any weight on her. Skin to skin now, the muscles Evie had just been kissing grazed her breasts, making her nipples stiffen even more in response.
Obligingly, Max lowered his head and circled them with a hot, wet tongue before taking them into his mouth. She squirmed underneath him, desperate for more, but he locked her down, taking his delicious time.
It was pointless to resist, Evie reluctantly concluded a few moments later as she gave herself up to the butterflies currently performing spinning and twirling Viennese waltzes throughout her entire core. When he seared her skin with his lips it was all she could do to hold still, contenting herself with familiarising her hands with the solid contours of his back and shoulders. And when he raised his head back up to reclaim her mouth she matched him, demanding kiss for demanding kiss. Evie ached to hold him in her hand again, feel him rock solid and so turned on by her that she could barely circle him with her fingers. But he held himself too far away, making her the sole focus of the evening’s intimacy, and, given the skill with which Max was arousing her, it wasn’t exactly a hardship to relinquish the power again. By the time he finally trailed a line with his tongue down her lower abdomen and to the waistband of her jersey trousers, she was powerless to contain her moan of anticipation.
The last of the Steri-strips had come off and the scar was looking less angry and welt-like than it had a few days ago, so Evie forced herself not to cover up the incision as Max paused for a moment to inspect it. Satisfied, he finally slid her jersey trousers down over her hips, cocking an eyebrow at her as he saw she’d replaced her comfy knickers with a scrap of lace that sat well below the scar.
It was on the tip of her tongue to claim that was all she had left, having thrown the rest of her underwear in the wash, but she figured that might be as transparent as the turquoise lace, and instead she ignored the unspoken question, focusing instead on the aching need for him to touch her right where she needed him most.
As if reading her thoughts, Max hooked his finger around the scrap and brushed a knuckle against the aching bud. Evie gasped, instinctively lifting her hips to deepen the contact but he moved his hand away again, in exquisite torment. She laced her fingers through his hair.
‘Max.’ The raw voice didn’t sound like her own. ‘I need you inside me.’
He barely paused in his attentions.
‘Not tonight.’
It was a wrench but Evie forced herself to pull away from him, lifting her shoulders off the bed so that she could see him.
‘You heard the nephrologist—four to six weeks post-op,’ he reminded her, moving to lower his head again, but Evie pressed her hand against him, stopping him.
How could he sound so casual about it? This was torturous for her.
‘Max...’
‘That’s a minimum of two weeks, three days and twenty-two and a half hours.’
‘You’re counting in days and hours?’ A gurgle of laughter escaped her. He wasn’t as composed about all this as she’d thought. And she was glad about that.
‘From the moment we made that damned deal,’ Max gro
und out. ‘And it’s taking more willpower than you can possibly imagine not to take you right now. So will you please shut up, and let me concentrate on just...exploring you?’
Evie hesitated. This wasn’t exactly going as she’d planned in her head.
‘Max...’ Her objection evaporated from her brain as Max pulled aside the lace material again and flicked his tongue against her swollen skin. Unable to keep herself upright any longer, she fell back onto the pillows as he sucked and licked at the sensitive bud, sending mini fireworks exploding through her belly.
Max slid his finger inside her, his mouth unrelenting in its devilish benevolence as she jiggled in response. She gave a guttural moan moments before the orgasm shattered through her, and Max instinctively slid his hands around to hold her bottom in place, stopping her from writhing away; his tongue and finger coaxing a longer, more intense orgasm than she’d ever known. Evie’s body shook with the impact of it as she cried out his name, but he didn’t let her go until he was convinced he couldn’t tease anything more out of her.
Falling back down, she held her breath in anticipation until Max pulled himself up the bed to haul her into his arms. Evie nestled against his shoulder gratefully, wishing she would never have to leave the security of his embrace. It had been too long. Not just since the last time she’d had sex. But since the last time she’d been with Max. There would never be anyone else for her who would match up to him.
But if there was to be any chance that this could be more than just sex, she knew she was going to have to start by telling him about the fact she’d met his parents. And she needed to do it now.
Okay, tomorrow.
Or maybe the day after that.
She needed to be more sure of how Max felt about her. His love for his daughter was clear, but what then?
Lying down, Evie allowed Max to snuggle her in his arms. For all her efforts to take the lead, in the end her confidence hadn’t been as high as she’d hoped and she’d been only too happy to let Max take over. So for now she was just going to enjoy this moment. She’d been dreaming of it for long enough.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Surgeon's Baby Surprise Page 14
