Will’s unconcern at having him around also troubled him. The other man’s friendly understanding and curious comments were puzzling. Nathan had made it clear he still loved Annie and wanted her back, but rather than feel challenged it was almost as if Will was on his side. How could that be? Unless Will was so secure in Annie’s feelings that he knew he didn’t need to worry?
The only way to find answers to his growing list of questions was to pin Annie down once and for all—no easy matter when she evaded him at every turn. Renewed determination fired within him. He would see her tomorrow at work, and somehow he would have to convince her that they could no longer put off the talk they needed to clear the air between them. Where that talk would lead, and if they would come out the other end with any hope of salvaging the special relationship they had once shared, he had no idea. He only knew that the thought of losing Annie for good terrified him.
Running one hand across his unshaven jaw, he returned his attention to his study. Never before had he experienced so much trouble concentrating on his work. Never had his single-minded determination been so tested. Even when Annie had first left him he had thrown himself into work as a way of coping with the desolation. And he’d had the responsibilities of home weighing on him, shackling him. Now he was free—free and at a crossroads. What happened with Annie would influence the course of the rest of his life. And define whether he could know happiness again or would always remain alone.
An hour later the sound of the doorbell disturbed the concentration he had fought so hard to achieve. Who on earth could that be? He’d not had much contact with the people in the two flats on the floors above him, and he hadn’t established social networks with his colleagues at the hospital. Frustrated at the interruption, he left his books open on the table and walked barefoot to the door, his breath catching in his throat as he swung it open and discovered the identity of the visitor who waited on the step.
‘Annie…’
Surprised, it took him a moment to let it sink in that she was real, and not some figment of his imagination. Under the glow of the porch light her face was pale, the expression in her eyes wary, and the slight tremble of her lips was evidence of her uncharacteristic nervousness. Then, as a gust of wind whipped strands of ebony hair around her face, he realised she was standing in the cold, shivering, and hadn’t even put on a coat.
‘Come inside before you freeze.’
He took her arm and drew her with him into the warmth of the flat. No way was he going to let her escape now she had sought him out and he had a chance to see her alone.
Hesitantly she stepped across the threshold and allowed him to lead her to the living room. ‘I’ve been to see Mum—’ She broke off and blinked, looking unsure, almost disorientated. ‘I had no idea you’d kept in touch with each other all this time.’
A mix of incomprehension, accusation, envy and hurt laced her voice. Nathan paused, unsure what to say. It had never been his intention to shut her out or deceive her, more the acknowledgement that she had not wanted to know about or to speak of him. He had cared about both her parents, had revelled in their acceptance of him, the way they had drawn him into their family and made him feel one of them. And he’d been affected by her father’s death, masking his own feelings as he had focused on caring for Annie through her grief, as well as being there for Annie’s mother, Eve.
When Annie had left him her mother had insisted on remaining in regular contact with him. He had been shocked, but relieved. Eve had shown no recrimination, only quiet understanding, and their friendship had continued, with Annie an unspoken shadow between them. At the time he had felt most alone and had needed wise counsel, Eve had been there. Now she knew bits about his life that no one else did, not even Annie.
Clearly the last few days had been a shock for Annie. It showed in the strain on her face and the confusion in her eyes. Not only was she being forced to face up to the events of five years ago, but she had learned of her mother’s friendship with him. Concerned for Annie’s well-being, and wondering what Eve might have revealed to her daughter, Nathan took a step closer, stilling when she visibly tensed, her hands knotting in agitation.
‘Would you like something to drink?’ he asked, reining in his impatience to discover the reason for her visit in order to set her more at ease.
‘OK.’
‘Hot chocolate?’ He tempted her with what had always been her favourite treat—second favourite after the doughnuts, he amended with a reminiscent ache.
‘Thank you.’
Myriad questions and emotions rampaged through him as he walked towards the kitchen, hearing her soft footsteps as she followed. He was reaching into a cupboard for a saucepan when he heard the hitch in her breathing and the strangled sob she tried unsuccessfully to mask. Forgetting the pan, he turned to face her, all thought of their separation and the awkwardness between them gone as he saw the tears shimmering on her lashes. His only need was to comfort, to protect, to care.
‘Sweetheart, what is it?’ His voice was husky with his own emotion. He’d never been able to bear it when she cried. Annie was always full of life and laughter, so to see her like this was rare and disturbing. The only time she had been so distraught before was when her father had died. As he wrapped his arms around her she burrowed against him, unresisting as he drew her close, her own arms lifting to slide around his waist. ‘Tell me what’s wrong.’
‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t understand what I was doing. Or why.’
The words were fractured, broken, ripped from within her. Her pain tore at him. The wetness of her tears soaked through his shirt to bathe his skin, and he cradled her closer, keeping her safe, breathing in the familiar scent that mixed with the very essence of her. Whilst he hated her distress she felt so good, so right back in his arms. He allowed the fingers of one hand to slide under the fall of her hair to begin a soothing caress over the nape of her neck, marvelling anew at the softness of her skin. At last he was touching her again, holding her after five years. Five long years in which he hadn’t been living, only existing without her.
‘Shh,’ he whispered, bending his head to nuzzle against her, feeling the tremors racking her body with each sob, her ragged breath as she clung to him. ‘Stop, Annie, please. You’re going to make yourself ill—and you’re tearing me apart.’
Drawing back a fraction, he cupped her face in his hands, bending to remove the evidence of her tears with his lips and tongue, tasting the slightly salty moisture on the downy soft skin of her cheeks. Damp, spiky lashes parted and bruised blue eyes looked into his brown ones. Mere millimetres separated them.
‘Nathan…’
He felt rather than heard his name as a whisper of her breath caressed his face. His chest felt tight. Her hands loosened their grip on his shirt, her fingers a hesitant touch over his back sending waves of sensation coursing through him. They were on the cusp of something momentous. They both knew it. Nathan fought to remember Will, to remind himself of howAnnie had hurt him, to recall everything that remained unsettled between them. The timing was all wrong. He didn’t yet know why she had come to him this evening.
But right at this moment none of that seemed to matter a damn. He couldn’t think straight with Annie so close, their breaths mingling, her warmth and her scent surrounding him. He could no more stop touching her or prevent himself from kissing her than he could stop his heart beating fast and uneven beneath his ribs.
Temptation overrode his common sense.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘PLEASE—’
Nathan wasn’t sure who voiced the plea, or which of them moved first to close the last of the gap between their lips…Annie or himself. Maybe it was both of them, responding instinctively to the mutual pull. He only knew that in the next moment their mouths met—open, hot and ravenously hungry. At once the flames ignited and raged between them. He had to touch her, had to take more. The needy sounds she made in her throat, familiar but too long unheard, drove him crazy, and
he deepened the contact, exploring every remembered atom of her honey-sweet mouth. He welcomed her urgent participation, allowing her tongue to twine with his, duelling and teasing before he drew her back into him, stroking her, sucking on her, swallowing her moan of pleasure.
Annie sagged against him, her fingers spearing into the thickness of his hair, holding him to her. As if he was going anywhere. His own hands roved down her back to cup her rear, flexing and shaping her delicious curves as he drew her even closer, making them both aware of how hard he was for her. Teeth nipping at his lower lip, she rubbed wantonly against him, her fingers abandoning his hair so her hands could burrow between their bodies and set to work on the buttons of his shirt.
For the briefest moment a flicker of sanity tried to prevail, reminding him of Will, of all the obstacles yet to be overcome—including the fact that he didn’t know Annie’s motives for being here with him now. But before he could regain a fragment of control Annie had thrown herself back into the eroticism of their kiss, sliding open the material of his shirt to expose his chest, her fingers brushing against his skin. Her touch scalded him, searing his flesh, sending flares of sensation to every nerve-ending, heightening his arousal to breaking point. Any hope of discernment was lost.
Neither of them could stop the whirlwind that had overtaken them and was now carrying them along in its wake. Hands dragged at clothes, uncaring where they fell. His loosened shirt went first. Then Annie’s skirt. Her hands were fumbling with his belt and the fastening of his jeans. Nathan was scarcely aware of moving, but Annie was in his arms, her legs locked around his hips, and he was all but weaving down the corridor to the bedroom, bumping against a wall and then into the doorway in his haste, cushioning her from any harm. He was focused solely on Annie…the taste of her, the scent of her, the feel of her.
They fell to the bed in a tangle of limbs, and he reluctantly released her mouth long enough to drag her jumper over her head. Annie’s boots followed, and then the last of their clothes were wrenched away. Fabric ripped, then, finally, they were flesh on flesh, their bodies gliding together, exploring, relearning, eager and impatient.
Aroused beyond bearing, Nathan couldn’t believe Annie was here, back in his bed, and that he was touching her, kissing her, loving her.
‘It’s been so long, so long. I need you so badly.’
He mouthed his refrain against her warm, satiny skin, paying homage to the rounded firmness of her breasts, drawing each erect dark rose nipple into his mouth in turn, loving the way she cried out and arched her body to seek more of his touch. Needing to feel and taste all of her at once after years of deprivation, he feasted on her, welcoming the way her hands and mouth roved over him with equal hunger.
‘Hurry.’ She nipped at his earlobe, soothing it with her tongue. ‘We don’t have much time.’
Nathan silenced Annie’s words with another deep, thorough kiss. They were words he didn’t want to hear or think about or examine for meaning. A distant part of him was aware that they should slow down, that they had to talk, to resolve their issues. But Annie was back with him, they had found each other again and, despite what she had just said, they had all the time in the world to reconcile the past and plan for the future. Once they had taken the edge off this desperate hunger.
There was no extinguishing the wild conflagration that had taken on a life of its own, driving every reasoned thought from his mind. Five years of need and want refused to be denied for another second. He had enough presence of mind to fumble for a condom—purchased more in hope than expectation when he had come to Strathlochan to find Annie—then they were coming together, frantic, untamed, rough, urgent in their desire, their joining.
It was like regaining home. He belonged with Annie, in Annie. She felt incredible…so hot, so tight, so very right. Made just for him. Only she made him whole. Only she brought his body alive. For a moment he paused to savour the magnitude of his feelings, then she was dragging at him, her nails leaving marks on his back, demanding more. Nathan moved, beyond thought, and Annie matched his rhythm, taking and giving, wrapping her legs higher around him until they were so deeply and tightly joined they might never be parted. As one they raced towards the precipice, hard and fast and blissfully perfect, and unimaginable pleasure built and built until he thought he would explode.
They clung together as they soared over the edge and into the endless void, spiralling, falling, spinning out of control, crying out as their pleasure crested with the force of a volcanic eruption and ecstasy took them in its thrall. Their hearts pounded in unison; their breaths were ragged, tortured. Collapsing against Annie, he wrapped his arms around her, keeping her safe and grounded, never wanting to let her go again, overwhelmed at the out of body experience they had just shared.
Annie had no idea how long it was before she could breathe again, let alone think about moving a muscle. She was too exhausted and shaken to even attempt to open her eyes. What on earth had just happened? Making love had always been amazing for them, with Nathan taking her to the stratosphere every time, but this… What they had just shared together defied description or explanation. How could she have lived without Nathan these last five years? How could she have deceived herself so thoroughly? Something about this man called to everything within her. He completed her. Made her whole. And she had stupidly wasted so much of their lives.
Just thinking about that brought to mind all that still remained unsettled and unexplained between them. She hadn’t come here this evening with the intention of doing anything except talking, but events had overtaken her and she had fallen into bed with Nathan without a second thought. Now doubt and anxiety welled inside her. Once again she had acted without thinking. But Nathan only had to touch her, to kiss her, and all common sense deserted her.
What did this evening mean to him? Had it just been a spur-of-the-moment one-off thing because she was available? There was so much yet to be discussed, but the thought of how they were ever going to sort things out daunted her. She still had no idea why Nathan had come to Strathlochan to see her, or what this crossroads in his life was that her mother had mentioned. Did he plan to move on without her once the past had been laid to rest? And what of her own part in events—then and now? Owning up to her selfish mistakes scared her—as did admitting the fact that she had been lying to him since they had met up again.
A ripple of sensation flowed through her as Nathan stirred. He was resting in a position long familiar to her, his head on her abdomen, his warm breath flowing over her navel, the strands of his hair teasing the undersides of her breasts like silken ribbons. One arm was flung over her hips, the other draped across the pillow, curved around her head, his fingers in her hair. Nathan had always made her feel cherished and protected and special, but particularly so after they’d made love.
Her tummy muscles clenched in reaction as Nathan nuzzled his face against her. The rasp of stubble on his jaw across her skin was a caress that had always thrilled and excited her. He moved so that he could swirl his tongue-tip teasingly over her flesh and dip it into her navel. She didn’t think she could possibly respond again so soon, but her body proved her wrong. Arousal and a fresh knot of need were curling inside her, stoking the fire of passion into an inferno once more.
‘We have to talk, Annie,’ he murmured, pressing kisses over her stomach and up the valley between her breasts to the hollow of her throat. ‘About so many things.’
Her fears returned with a vengeance. She had come here with the intention of talking, but now she didn’t want to. Didn’t want all they still had to face to intrude on the magical eroticism and closeness of this moment. What if she never had another chance to be with him?
‘Not now.’
Whatever happened afterwards, she wanted this evening. She drew him to her, taking his mouth with hers, determined to distract him from the questions she knew were preying on his mind. It didn’t prove to be a difficult task. Nathan was immediately on the same wavelength, taking possession of t
he kiss until she was weak and trembling, all her other worries forgotten, and her body was tight with needy desire, craving the fulfilment that only he could bring her. He looked down at her with drowsy sensuality, his eyes darker than ever, filled with the promise of hot passion.
‘You are so beautiful, Annie.’ The husky roughness of his voice made her warm all over, the reverence of his words tightening her chest with emotion. ‘So special.’
After the wildness they had just experienced Nathan now took his time, driving her insane with wanting as he set off on a journey of discovery, refamiliarising himself with every particle of her body. As his mouth blazed a trail of flame from her throat down to her breasts, her hands grazed over his back and the width of his shoulders, feeling the ripple of muscle under supple flesh. She loved the texture of his skin…masculine, smooth, warm. And every time she breathed in she inhaled the subtle but heady male scent of him.
A whimper escaped as the heat of his mouth captured one nipple, swollen and peaked with arousal. His teeth nipped teasingly, before his tongue salved the sensual sting. His lips closed, drawing on her hypersensitive flesh. Annie bowed off the bed, arching up to him as he suckled strongly, the deep, rhythmic pull sending shockwaves straight to her womb. One hand shaped her other breast, rolling the crest between finger and thumb, driving her crazy. She couldn’t halt the sobs the dual assault evoked, her fingers clenching in his hair, holding him to her as she writhed beneath him.
Already she felt as if she was balanced precariously on the precipice of release. ‘Nathan, please,’ she begged, unable to bear the delicious torment.
A gust of warm breath huffed over her painfully aroused areola as he chuckled, subjecting her throbbing nipple to one final long, slow, spine-tingling suck before allowing his prize free. Then his sinful mouth began to trail a zigzag path of whisper-soft kisses down her abdomen, around her navel, where he lingered for heart-stopping moments, before continuing down her over the gentle curve of her belly. As her thighs parted wantonly to allow him access he settled himself between them. His fingers zeroed in to explore and caress the feminine treasure he discovered, tormenting her with skilful, wicked touches that had her crying out in response.
Six Sexy Doctors Part 1 (Mills & Boon e-Book Collections): A Doctor, A Nurse: A Little Miracle / The Children's Doctor and the Single Mum / A Wife for ... / The Playboy Doctor's Surprise Proposal Page 68
