Falling at the Surgeon's Feet

by Lucy Ryder

  She sighed and swallowed the instinctive urge to say she had other plans. Which might have been the truth but if she told him she had a date with her bed, he might offer to join her there. Maybe. Or maybe he was happy with the whole “This is just a one-off thing” and just needed some friendly company.

  “Fine,” she said a little impatiently, but it was mostly at herself for feeling a bit insulted by his “Then we talk” comment.

  Abruptly realizing that she’d dropped her cellphone, Holly sighed and turned. She really had to stop doing this.

  Suspiciously quiet, Gabriel bent to retrieve it.

  “What?” she demanded, when hooded eyes continued to watch as she shoved it into her purse. He shook his head, a small smile teasing the corners of his mouth as he lifted a hand and tucked a dark, errant strand of hair behind her ear.

  The move, the feel of his fingertips brushing her skin, sent a shiver of longing through her. A longing so powerful that even as her nipples peaked and her breath hitched in her throat, she experienced a moment of panic. Damn it. This was precisely what she’d wanted to avoid. Being reminded of what she was missing by the “this-is-a-one-off-thing” promise she’d made.

  “Any preferences?”

  “For?”

  An image popped into her head about preferences and she had to bite back the urge to tell him she’d liked…loved…everything he’d done. So much so that she couldn’t stop thinking about him…it.

  Realizing she was having hot, racy thoughts while he’d been talking about food, Holly ducked her head to hide the heat crawling up her neck into her face.

  Gabriel’s warm hand curled around her neck and his thumb slid beneath her chin. Very gently he lifted her face. His expression was filled with simmering heat and gentle humor. “Dinner, Holly. Just dinner. Tonight I need a friend.”

  After the day from hell, Gabriel had honestly planned for just dinner. But that had been before he’d sat across a candlelit table from her and watched her expressive face go through a host of emotions he got dizzy trying to identify. She gradually relaxed enough to smile and laugh at his stories while sharing a little of her childhood—of herself.

  “Tell me about the accident,” he said, when it was clear that she wasn’t going to go there without some prompting from him.

  Her laughter faded and he tried not to feel bad. He had a feeling her plan to avoid everything but her career had something to do with whatever had happened to her.

  She dropped her gaze to the tablecloth and fiddled with first the silverware and then her wineglass until he reached out and took her hand in his. Her fingers jerked and a fine tremor went through them.

  For long moments she stared at their hands, hers delicate and pale against the tanned bulk of his. Finally she slid her hand away and reached for her wineglass again, downing the contents.

  Face pale, she cleared her throat and, still not looking at him, she said, so quietly that he had to strain to hear her, “I was with a few friends at a mall and the company contracted to service the elevators had a reputation for cutting corners. Their maintenance schedule was forged and the elevators hadn’t been checked in nearly a year.”

  She drew in a deep breath. “Well, apparently there was some malfunction that had been reported but ignored. Anyway, I…um, left my friends in the music store to go up a couple of levels to the book store and took the glass elevator because the escalators were out. On the way down I had the misfortune of picking an elevator that a noisy group of boys followed me into. The instant the doors closed they started jumping up and down, trying to frighten me.”

  Recalling her terror and claustrophobia, Holly paused to suck in a couple of breaths. She hated talking about it and only had nightmares when she was stressed.

  “Little bastards,” Gabriel muttered, and when Holly lifted her head she caught the hard light in his eyes. Strangely, that angry glitter on her behalf steadied her as sympathy could not.

  “They were just kids,” she excused, recalling that one of the boys had paid for that stupidity with his life. She lifted her hand in a vague gesture at her scars. “The wheel casing on the elevator car that held the cable wheel snapped and we plunged nearly three stories. There was a lot of glass and twisted steel and…and I was in the way.”

  After a long moment he said quietly, “It’s not your fault.”

  Holly sighed. “I feel like I should have done something.”

  His eyebrow rose up his forehead. “Like?”

  “Like stop them from jumping up and down.”

  Gabriel grimaced. “A bunch of teenage boys? Not likely.”

  Holly gave a small laugh of agreement and shook her head. There was nothing she could have done and she knew it.

  “I guess that explains a lot.”

  “About?”

  “Your nervousness in lifts.”

  Holly groaned. “That was just clumsiness on my part.”

  His expression was unfathomable as he slid his gaze over her face. “It could have been worse.” Yes, it could. She could have died along with that other boy. “You want dessert or coffee?”

  Holly let out a shuddery breath of relief. He was giving her the space she needed to get her emotions under control again without spouting off a lot of platitudes. “Coffee would be great, thank you.”

  Although Gabe hadn’t had more than a couple glasses of wine with his meal, by the time they stood on the street outside her house he felt a little drunk. And staring into her upturned face, he discovered he couldn’t keep his promise.

  He couldn’t let her go. Not tonight.

  Yanking her against him, he closed his mouth over hers in a kiss filled with heat and a wild desperation that might have scared him if he hadn’t finally had his mouth and hands on her after what felt like a lifetime of frustration.

  After her initial surprise, she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung, returning his kisses with as much hunger and heat as he felt. God. He’d never experienced anything like it. Like she was as eager to get as close as she possibly could, maybe permanently imprint the feel, the taste and the smell of her on his senses.

  Unable to resist, he drew her closer and then closer still, sliding his tongue against hers even as he molded her against him until there was nothing between them but a few too many layers of fabric.

  And before he knew it they were in his house and he was pushing her roughly against his front door to ravage her mouth and slake his raging thirst.

  With shaking hands they tore at each other’s clothing until he could thrust a hair-roughened thigh between her silky-smooth ones and take her breast in his mouth.

  Clutching at him, Holly arched her back and emitted a long low moan that grabbed his gut and gave it a vicious twist. He didn’t know how they ended up on the floor in a tangle of limbs and discarded clothing. He was too busy whipping her up again and again until she was moaning and begging him to take her.

  And then he did. With one hard thrust that drew a ragged moan from her throat even as she arched her back, her inner muscles clamping down on him so hard he saw stars.

  He froze, eyes locked on her face.

  “Did I hurt you?” he gasped, his sides heaving like he’d run the length of Manhattan Island in three minutes flat.

  Looking flushed and dazed and so incredibly beautiful that Gabe had to keep a tight rein on his inclination to pound his way to completion, Holly blinked her eyes open. Damn, he thought, feeling a little dazed himself, she took his breath away.

  Or maybe that was just because she was wrapped around him like a ball of twine, arching her long, curvy body and making those breathy little sounds that had the top of his head threatening to explode.

  “Whydidyoustop?” she demanded in a breathless rush, sinking her nails into his back, sending shudders of pure heat streaking down his spine to his groin.

  “You…” He swallowed the groan building in his chest and felt his eyes cross when she slid her inner thighs up his flanks and clenched her inner muscles a
round him. “Damn it…Holly…stop a minute, will you?”

  Her response was to lift her head to give his lip a punishing nip. He shuddered and the last slender thread of his fraying control snapped. Grabbing her hands, he tethered them beside her head and pressed her writhing body into the floor. “Look at me,” he commanded, waiting until her eyes fluttered open and locked with his.

  “I want to see your eyes when you come,” he growled fiercely. “I want to look at you and know I’m all you see…all you feel.”

  “Gabriel…”

  “Just,” he murmured, dropping a hard kiss on her mouth, “just as I see only you.” And then with a groan that seemed to originate from somewhere near his knees Gabe withdrew only to slam back into her body as though to fuse them together for all time.

  Light burst behind his eyes and Holly cried out, trying to wrench her hands free, but Gabe knew if she touched him he’d lose it big time. He was that close.

  He wanted this to last. Needed it to last.

  Slowly, savoring the incredible sensations of being inside her again, Gabriel withdrew and with his eyes locked on hers entered her more slowly. She gave a soft mewl and her eyes darkened to midnight. Dropping his lips to the soft spot at the base of her throat, he smiled at the feel of her pulse fluttering wildly beneath the delicate skin.

  Her hands tightened into fists. “Gabriel,” she pleaded softly, her breath catching when he softly kissed the outward sign of her rioting emotions. Hell, his emotions were all over the place too and when he lifted his head and stared down into her flushed face the world tilted wildly on its axis. Some inexplicably painful emotion gripped him then and before he knew what was happening he’d lost the last fragile grip on his control.

  All too soon Holly was arching in his arms, her smoky gaze locked on his as he pounded into her like he couldn’t get enough—would never get enough. Then her eyes went dark, blind, and with a low ragged sound she went hurling off the edge, leaving him helpless against the violent storm crashing through him.

  CHAPTER TEN

  HE DIDN’T KNOW how long they lay there in a tangle of limbs, damp skins clinging as their thundering hearts slowed and their ragged breathing eased.

  Tiny aftershocks spasmed through her, keeping him hard until she finally drew in a shuddering breath. “Oh, God,” she rasped. “Wha—?” He felt her swallow convulsively and draw in another wheezing breath. “What the hell was that?”

  He grunted. Besides being the only response he could manage, he didn’t have a clue either. He hadn’t had nearly the number of relationships that people liked to believe but he was thirty-five years old, for God’s sake. Granted, he was more experienced than he cared to admit but not even when he’d been a randy fifteen-year-old had he lost it so completely.

  With a groan he got his elbows beneath him and levered the bulk of his weight off her. He was about to roll off her but he caught sight of her face and he froze. She looked dazed.

  His chest squeezed and he lost his breath all over again. This time with dread. “What?” She stared at him for a couple of seconds then blinked as though coming out of a trance.

  “Sorry, what?” she rasped.

  He frowned, beginning to think something was seriously wrong. “Are you okay?”

  Her cheeks reddened. “Define…um…okay.”

  “Oh, God, I hurt you, didn’t I?”

  “What?” Her eyes widened. “No! Why would you think that?”

  “You’re acting weird.”

  Her eyes slid away. “Oh. Well. I…um…” She paused and licked her lips, another blush working its way up her throat. Her pulse beat a rapid tattoo in her throat. “You’re…heavy, is all.”

  “Uh-huh.” He didn’t buy it for a minute. Especially not now when he’d shifted most of his weight off her. “Try again.”

  Her gaze slide to him and then away. She licked her lips, looking adorably flustered.

  “You’re saying I didn’t hurt you?” he pressed. She gave quick headshake and tried to wriggle away but he was still buried deep, tearing a distressed squeak from her throat when he hardened even more.

  “Holly.”

  Her breath escaped in a loud whoosh along with an eye-roll. “You’re…um…you’re still hard.”

  A smile of pure deviltry curved his mouth. “Oh, yeah. And I’m going to take care of it. Right now.”

  “Now?” she asked a little breathlessly, her eyes going wide. “So soon after…well, that?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he repeated, his voice emerging on a low growl when her inner muscles fluttered around him. “As soon as I can move without my blood pressure shooting out the top of my head, I’m going to try and repeat that.”

  She giggled and smoothed her hands down over his abs to where they were locked together like two puzzle pieces. Drawing in a ragged breath, Gabe gritted his teeth and slipped out of her body. He froze when she made a tiny sound of protest then surged to his feet in one determined move.

  “But I’m not doing it here,” he said, reaching down to wrap long fingers around her wrist. With a tug he hauled her to her feet, wrapping his arm around her waist when her knees threatened to buckle and dump her on her very delectable ass. She clutched at him. Okay, they clutched at each other, because if he was being perfectly honest here his knees were a little shaky too. Especially when her incredibly good parts bumped his.

  “Bedroom,” he croaked.

  “Can’t move,” she managed sleepily, smoothing her hands over his flanks to his back. And in the wake of that languid caress, his skin tightened and he was suddenly impatient for her all over again.

  “That’s okay,” he murmured against her temple. “I’ve got this.” I’ve got you.

  Unlike the last time when she’d awakened to find something heavy and deliciously warm pinning her to the bed, Holly knew exactly where she was and how she’d got there.

  And like the last time Holly blamed the wine. Okay, maybe it was also because she couldn’t resist dimples and wicked blue-green eyes.

  She was weak.

  And it was all his fault.

  For two years she’d managed to concentrate on her surgical career without once forgetting her plan or losing sight of her goal. Okay, and maybe there’d been no one who had tempted her, but then Dr. Hot Stuff had flashed his package and his dimples her way.

  Her breath hitched.

  Darn dimples.

  And darn the hard warm body currently pressed against her back—heavy arm pinning her to the bed and a large hand cupping her breast—tempting her to repeat her mistakes.

  Holly didn’t normally repeat mistakes but it seemed all he had to do was ply her with food and wine and she was a goner. No more, she told herself, she was going to be strong.

  Slowly, carefully, she lifted each finger and then the rest of his hand from where it cupped her breast. Just as she was about to inch out from underneath his arm he moved, pulling her back against his body. His very aroused body.

  She slammed her eyes closed with a muffled little squeak, hoping he’d think she was just moving and making noises in her sleep.

  “Where are you going?” His voice, a sleep-roughened rasp in her ear, had her body tingling in unmentionable places. Holly held her breath, conscious of her heart trying to punch its way through her ribcage. She wondered if he could feel it too since the panicked boom, boom, boom shook the bed like a five on the Richter Scale.

  He moved a hair-roughened leg between hers, his huge sigh disturbing the long tangle of hair obscuring her vision. Her breath escaped in a silent hiss when she felt something hard poke into her bottom. She rolled her eyes and stifled a snicker. Damn. Who’d have thought the sexy surfer would be a snuggler? Or that he’d awaken with his surfboard between them.

  She waited until he was breathing evenly again before easing out of his hold. Once she was clear she edged her way carefully across the huge bed and was just congratulating herself on having made a clean getaway when he said, “Do I have to tie you down?”
/>   Slapping a hand over the shriek that emerged, Holly cast a wide-eyed look over her shoulder and caught sight of Gabriel lying sprawled across the bed in nothing but gloriously tanned skin, looking at once satiated and exasperated.

  Looking better than he had any right to look after being up half the night.

  Finally realizing he was studying her nudity with open interest, she gave a strangled squeak and grabbed for the sheets. Unfortunately, she had to stretch about a mile for them and because he was closer he simply snagged the soft cotton and yanked it out of reach.

  Her mouth dropped open and she glared at him for a couple of beats until she realized she was caught out in the open in nothing but her Wildman from Borneo hair.

  Slapping both hands over her naked breasts, Holly blew hair out of her face and narrowed her eyes as she considered her options. It was either sit there like an embarrassed virgin or get up and saunter from the room.

  Buck naked, of course. Because her clothes were littered all over Gabriel’s entrance floor. Again.

  He must have read her mind because he simply arched his eyebrow and waited. She finally sucked in air and made a dive off the bed, but he moved like lightning and before she could clear the edge of the bed he caught her, fingers wrapped around her ankle, holding her as effectively as if she’d been shackled.

  Holly gasped at discovering she was face down and hanging over the edge of the bed—oh, boy—her position giving Gabriel a view that made her blush.

  She gave a squeak of distress because he tightened his grip and began to reel her in until she was all the way back on the bed. There was a moment of silence. She sucked in air and waited—anticipation buzzing through her blood like a swarm of excited bees.

  His hand smoothed a path of fire up the back of her leg to her knee. There he paused and something brushed the soft skin. Fiery heat that she’d thought extinguished in the dark early hours of the morning arrowed right up the insides of her legs to ground zero and Holly had to bite back a whimper of need. A quick glance over her naked shoulder told her he’d kissed that tiny erogenous spot and was looking up the long length of her thigh. Right where his touch had sent an erotic message.