‘SO THIS IS Silvertrees Old Town?’ Evie breathed. ‘It’s incredible up here, so peaceful. And I can see for miles.’
Max watched her angle her head to let the rays of sun heat her skin, despite the cool breeze of the high viewing platform, her hands resting on hip-height grey stone wall.
‘It is stunning,’ he agreed quietly.
‘Do you get chance to come here that much?’
He dropped his hand to cradle the back of Imogen’s head as she nestled against his chest in her baby harness, buying himself a moment to think whether he wanted to answer.
Somehow, it felt like something particularly personal. Ever since they’d first been intimate again, he’d begun to open up more and more to Evie, trusting her in a way he had never trusted anyone before.
‘When I can, usually on a run,’ he found himself admitting with more ease than he’d anticipated. ‘Especially if I want to clear my head before a particularly complex operation. Although I come here less during tourist season—you wouldn’t believe how busy it gets then.’
‘Really?’ She glanced around, taking in the boarded-up stalls. Barely a soul was around at this moment, except for a few artists sketching or painting the spectacular vista. Only the ticket office was open, although a couple of owners were taking advantage of the off-season to repair and repaint their little shops built into the rock face.
Max nodded, feeling himself relax more and more as Evie seemed to fall for the beauty of the place the same way he once had. It was like another small confirmation of how well matched they were.
‘It used to be Silvertrees itself before the hospital was built a mile out of town and all the housing sprung up around that. Then the hospital took the name Silvertrees and this place became the Old Town, or Outer Silvertrees,’ he explained. ‘How is it you’ve never been here?’
With a rueful smile, Evie lifted her shoulders at his light teasing.
‘I only ever came here to go to the hospital, either for work or for myself. I didn’t even know they had a funicular railway here.’
He arched his eyes in surprise.
‘Did you know it was built in the late nineteenth century?’
‘Oh, right.’ She only hesitated a fraction of a moment before following suit. ‘But it’s electricity-powered?’
‘Good eye.’ He nodded, impressed. ‘It was rebuilt in the forties specifically for that reason. And the original wooden cars were replaced with lightweight aluminium carriages. But the original line used a simple system of gravity and water. They pumped water into a two-thousand-gallon tank underneath the top car until it outweighed the lower car. Once the top car reached the bottom station they emptied the tank and pumped it back up to a tank at the top station.’
‘You know a lot about it,’ Evie remarked with a grin.
‘I originally wanted to be an engineer when I was growing up,’ he answered evenly. No need for Evie to know that she was the only person, outside his parents, who he’d ever told.
Still she glanced at him sharply.
‘What happened?’
Max opened his mouth; best to tell her that he’d changed his mind as he’d grown up.
‘My parents told me not to be so stupid. That I was going to become a surgeon like them, and that was all there was to it.’
He forced a smile as her eyes slid over him, assessing.
‘Oh. Well, for what it’s worth, there are thousands and thousands of patients out there who are very glad you were their surgeon.’
‘Thanks.’ He grinned wryly. ‘I appreciate you not trying to psychoanalyse me.’
‘At least out loud,’ she couldn’t resist. ‘For the record, though, I can also see you taking that funicular-style technology with you to some foreign country. And manually building one out there for them, if they needed it.’
‘Yeah, I guess that’s the geeky side of me coming out.’
‘I like it,’ Evie offered shyly before teasing him. ‘It’s better than being the demon of discipline.’
‘Oh, I see. Hitting below the belt, are we?’ he quipped as he stepped towards her, careful not to crush Imogen as he drew Evie into his arms.
The kiss was slow and thorough, and full of promise.
Something was changing deep inside him, something fundamental. It felt as though Evie was finally unlocking a part of himself he’d never even known existed, and he liked it.
More than liked it. He welcomed it.
Eventually they pulled apart with reluctance as Imogen made her objections known. Evie dropped a kiss on her daughter’s head before lifting her head to meet his gaze. Something indefinable clicked inside him, and Max slid protective arms around both of them.
‘I think I could live here.’
‘Sorry?’ He pulled his head back to look at her.
‘In Silvertrees,’ Evie clarified nervously. ‘Back at my brother’s house when you first talked about Imogen and I coming up here, I told you that I wouldn’t want to move that far away from him or Annie. But, if it meant you and Imogen having a closer relationship, then I could learn to love living here.’
None of the words that came into his head seemed to adequately express his emotions at Evie’s generosity of spirit. Instead, he just pressed a hard kiss to her lips, gratified when she smiled her relieved acceptance.
But that indescribable something still hovered on the periphery of his mind. What was it? And why was he finding it so difficult to express?
‘We’d better get back so you can get ready for your three-week check-up.’
They were starting to extend the time between check-ups. It was a good sign, it meant Evie was making good progress.
In companionable silence, they wandered off the viewing platform and slowly rambled alongside the long stretch of stone wall towards the railway, which would take them back down towards the lower section of Old Town.
‘Mr Van Berg?’
They both whirled around as a man hurried towards them, a large sheet, clearly just torn from his sketchpad, in his outstretched hand. It was one of the artists from before.
‘You saved my sister’s hand a couple of years ago when she got it crushed in a car door.’ His voice was heavy with gratitude. ‘We never knew how to repay you but...well, I hope this goes some way towards it.’
Before Max could reply, the man had thrust the painting at him and was hurrying back off up the wide, cobbled tourist route, only turning briefly to wave his hand in acknowledgement. Turning the sketch around, Max lowered his head.
His heart drummed a tom-tom solo in his chest.
‘It’s amazing,’ Evie whispered, her chin resting against his arm.
And it was. A striking likeness of the three of them, capturing the moment Evie had dropped a kiss on their daughter’s head, the two of them encircled protectively in his embrace. But more than that, an intense love radiated from the drawing, the lines, fine here and thicker there, drawing the viewer deeper into the picture.
And the simple caption. Family.
Max stopped dead. That one word finally gave him a name to that something that had clicked inside him earlier, to the feeling playing at the edges of his mind.
Family.
The idea of Evie moving to Silvertrees in order that he should enjoy a better relationship with his daughter was commendable, but it wasn’t a good enough reason. He needed Evie to want to move here for herself. To be with him. Because he wanted to be with them both. He wanted them to be a family in every sense of the word. For ever.
‘What is it?’ Evie had pivoted in concern as he stopped so abruptly.
‘Wait,’ he commanded hoarsely, desperately trying to clear his head of the crazy thoughts now swarming.
How much time had he wasted? How much energy? Focussing on his career and excluding the poss
ibility of anything else, anything more, just because he didn’t want to be the kind of parent his own had been to him.
Now he knew he never would be like them. It wasn’t who he was. He wasn’t emotionally unavailable as they were, and Evie had been the one to show him that.
‘Max? Is everything all right?’
She was obviously worried, and yet he still didn’t know how to tell her. What would he say? It wasn’t as if he even knew that she felt the same way he did. What if he told her he wanted more than they’d ever agreed only to scare her off? He suspected she felt as he did, but, then again, family life with him wasn’t something she had ever suggested she wanted.
‘What about you?’ he rasped.
Her eyebrows knitted together in nervous confusion.
‘Me?’
‘You talked about living here in order that Imogen and I would have a closer relationship. But what about us? Would you and I have a closer relationship, too?’
He heard her breath catch in her throat.
‘Is that what you want?’
‘It is,’ he confirmed without hesitation, but held back from saying anything more.
‘Right.’ Evie nodded, swallowing hard.
‘Is it what you want?’ he echoed her question carefully.
She nodded again but said nothing more.
He couldn’t be sure what that meant, but in that moment he swore to himself that he’d prove to her they could be, they should be, a proper family. In every sense of the word.
* * *
Evie quelled the flitting butterflies in her abdomen as she stood in the doorway to Imogen’s nursery and watched Max lower their sleeping daughter into the ornate cot. Quietly, she backed away down the hall and into the master bedroom, into which she’d pretty much decamped after that first night of sexual intimacy.
But since their venture into Old Town together five days ago, something had changed. It wasn’t just about their sexual intimacy, but about their emotional intimacy.
And that was on a whole new level.
Max loved her. She could feel it. She knew it. And from the moment he’d seen that sketch entitled Family she’d known Max knew it, too.
She just didn’t know whether he was ready to acknowledge it to her, yet. And so she bit her tongue and reined herself in, wanting him to tell her when he was ready. In his own time.
Which, she had to admit, was having its perks.
Every day that Max tried to tell her he loved her but couldn’t, he resorted instead to trying to show her how he felt. Ways which were growing more and more intensely passionate as though to compensate for the words that were eluding him. And Evie had never felt so desired, or needed, or wanton.
But as exquisite as it was, tonight she intended to take matters into her own hands. She’d tried a few nights ago, with her sexual assessment of his anatomy, which had been even more fun than she’d hoped. But in the end, when Max had taken charge again, she’d bottled it and let him. But this time, she was going to run things if only to prove to him that she was the same woman he’d known a year ago, not this vulnerable, ill Evie, as he’d begun to think of her. And if he couldn’t tell her he loved her after that...well, she was just determined that wouldn’t be the case.
She heard Max creeping out of the nursery and heading down the hallway and ducked into the shower room, shedding her clothes quickly and efficiently. It was another boost to her self-esteem that she was now able to do this for herself, a far cry from when she’d needed Max to help her to wash her hair.
This shower experience was going to end up very differently from back then, Evie determined. Just as long as Max adequately interpreted the trail of clothes leading from the bedroom door. Her heart lodged somewhere in her throat; it would be just her luck for the door to have closed on her artfully placed heeled shoe and for Max to walk straight downstairs.
With relief Evie saw his shadow entering the room and heading towards the bathroom door, only hesitating slightly as he heard the sound of running water.
‘Everything okay, Evie? Do you need any help?’
She was touched by his consideration. Just because they’d been intimate every night he didn’t take it as his right to simply walk in. She licked her lips despite the shower water running over her from head to toe.
‘No help.’ Good job her voice didn’t betray her racing heart. ‘But company would be nice.’
Through the steamed glass she watched him round the corner, entering the doorway and approaching the shower. Standing as proudly as she could, she indicated the spacious shower area with a confident jerk of her head.
Her skin heated as his eyes swept slowly over her, taking in the head-to-toe view, darkening appreciatively as the pupils dilated, turning them almost black.
She held out the soaped-up body puff.
‘Well, are you going to join me, then?’
He didn’t need a third invitation.
Within seconds he’d stripped down and stepped around the expanse of glass. Tall, proud and wickedly masculine, his desire for her was unmistakeable and Evie didn’t bother to suppress her grin of delight.
He took the proffered body puff but before he could make use of it, he was pulling her against his hard, already gleaming wet body, and bringing his mouth down on hers. Hot and demanding, more so than any nights before.
She slid her hands around to his back, moving them over strong shoulder muscles, down to his athletic waist, and lower to cup his backside and draw herself closer to him, right against the heat between her legs. Carefully, Evie rocked her hips against him before bringing her hand around to stroke him, gripping him more firmly as he flexed against her. She remembered only too well just how Max had liked it when she’d taken the lead a few times during their fling, and tonight she intended to replicate that. Banish the idea of her as weak and vulnerable, once and for all.
Tightening her grip slightly, she moved harder, faster, all the while nibbling at the hollow of his neck and up to his jawline.
His husky groan sent a shiver rippling down her spine. It felt good to wield sexual power over a man like Max, but she had to be careful; she was barely hanging onto her own sense of control by her fingernails.
She rocked against him again, feeling his whole length flexing, solid against her skin. The sigh escaped her lips before she could stop it, only for Max to react to the sound in the most primitive way. Desire flooded straight down to her core. Parting her legs slightly, she nestled him even deeper against herself, not doubting that he could feel how hot and slick she was. How ready for him.
‘Stop,’ he managed hoarsely, breaking the contact with what was clearly supreme effort. ‘We need to slow it down.’
‘No,’ whispered Evie cheekily, ‘we don’t.’
His eyes locked with hers, narrowing slightly as he saw her intent.
‘Evie, you’ve no idea how much I want you, but we can’t. Not yet. Your incision—’
‘Is fine,’ she cut him off before he could finish. ‘I checked today. They said it’s up to me. It has been almost a month.’
Then she saw it. That brief moment of hesitation before he shook his head.
‘No, it’s been three weeks, five days. I won’t let you risk it. Not yet.’
Too late. She grinned inside. She’d seen all she needed to see. Max wanted her as much as she wanted him, and tonight she didn’t intend to wait any longer.
‘What difference will two more days make? They’re satisfied the wound is healed, that I won’t cause any damage or stress on the site. As far as they’re concerned, now it’s all down to when I feel ready. And I feel ready now.’ She chuckled weakly, hoping to cover up her nerves.
‘That’s why you asked me to get Imogen whilst you had that last appointment,’ he exclaimed. ‘You wanted to ask them without me there.
’
‘I knew you’d argue we should wait for the full six weeks. But it’s my body and I know how strong it is. And I can’t wait. I don’t want to. I need you and I know you feel the same.’ She grinned to soften her next words. ‘So will you please just shut up and kiss me, Max?’
She barely had time to exhale after her hurried monologue before his mouth crashed down on hers with a ferocious desire, chasing every other thought from her head. He slid one hand around to slip between her legs. Gripping hold of Max’s shoulders, Evie just clung on and prepared to let herself be swept away, but then she recalled the split second before he’d kissed her, and the air was sucked from her chest without warning. The way he’d looked at her—no man had ever looked at her with such intense longing before, making her feel more confident than she ever had.
Summoning all her strength, she pushed him away and took the unused body puff from his hands as she turned the water off. It wasn’t exactly what she’d planned but in some ways that made it even better to know that neither of them were completely in control.
‘Shall we take this through to the bedroom?’ she managed hoarsely before giving an apologetic smile. ‘There’s protection on the nightstand.’
She might be feeling good enough to bring forward the sex part of things, but she knew there was no point in being stupid and risking a pregnancy on her still-healing body. And by the expression now crossing Max’s face that had been one of the worries holding him back.
As if to prove her point, he suddenly bent down and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her out of the shower and through to the bedroom in an echo of that previous encounter. Only this time, Evie was confident it wasn’t going to end with him depositing her on the bed and walking out.
She was right. Lowering her down, Max immediately joined her, intent clear in his dark eyes as he began to move down her body trailing whorls on her stomach with his tongue as he moved lower. She fought the urge to simply give herself up to him.
‘Uh-uh,’ she croaked out, catching his head. ‘This time it’s my turn. Get on your back.’
Max only paused for a moment before obeying, but when she straddled him and began to move down his body, just as he had with her a moment earlier, he let out a deep groan.
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