Dr. Forget-Me-Not (Matchmaking Mamas)

by Marie Ferrarella

  Melanie shrugged indifferently. “I’m cold,” she lied.

  Mitch frowned. He wasn’t buying her excuse. “Then you’re coming down with something because it’s really pretty warm tonight.”

  This wasn’t getting her anywhere and she could feel herself weakening. Could feel herself growing more and more in need of the feel of strong arms around her, holding back the darkness.

  “Fine, I’ll unlock the door.” Inserting the key into the lock, she turned it, then opened the door.

  Turning around in her front foyer, Melanie started to ask him if he was satisfied. But the words never materialized. Instead, just as she was afraid of, the full impact of the past few emotional hours hit her.

  The thought of what could have been April’s fate if they hadn’t arrived at the accident when they did and if Mitch hadn’t been the skilled surgeon that he was hit her full force and she began to cry.

  As a rule, Mitch avoided being around a woman’s tears. They made him uncomfortable and he had no idea how to even begin to offer any sort of words of comfort or condolences.

  But the past several hours had definitely left their mark on him. He had fought death and won—and he wouldn’t have if not for Melanie and her refusal to give up.

  Moreover, because of Melanie and her almost militant cheerfulness, the past several weeks had left an impression on him, as well. She’d softened him, filing down his hard edges. So rather than mumble some inane words of comfort that he neither felt nor believed, or offer Melanie the handkerchief he had stuffed into his pocket, Mitch found himself crossing the threshold, closing the door with his elbow and taking her into his arms.

  He held her close to him as she cried, moving his hands along her back soothingly.

  And somewhere in those first couple of minutes, something came completely loose within him, as well.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he told her. “The worst part is over. She’s lost her mother and her brother, but she has you and you’ll help her heal. We both will,” he added quietly.

  Melanie raised her head from his chest, tears staining both her cheeks. Mitch had said the one thing that made her feel less alone. Rather than abating her tears, he’d just made them flow more freely. But now they were tears of relief mingled with joy. “You really think so?”

  Why hadn’t he realized how beautiful she was before? “I do,” he told her softly.

  “You’re the one who really saved her.”

  He knew he would have given up when he’d thought April was dead. Melanie was as responsible for April being alive today as he was.

  “And you made her realize she’s not alone. It’s a joint effort,” he concluded.

  “You really believe that?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I do.”

  And then, because he couldn’t seem to help himself, he lowered his head and kissed her.

  He only meant to brush his lips against hers, to comfort Melanie more than anything else—or so he told himself. But kissing her reminded him just how attracted he really was to her.

  He realized now that all along, he’d tried to bury it, to deny it and to talk himself out of it every time he felt things stirring within him—like when he’d kissed her in the exam room.

  And all the while, he’d tried to keep her at arm’s length. But the tragedy that had befallen April’s family and then the battle to save her life had unleashed all his tightly wound emotions. He’d forgotten what it was like to actually feel something, what it was like to immerse himself in another person and to allow his emotions to flower.

  So, for just a moment, he went with the moment, telling himself he was in complete control—until he realized that he wasn’t. Because if he had been in complete control, he could have stopped himself, walked away from what was happening with a few well-placed words and made his way back to his car.

  And driven away like the very devil was after him.

  But any plans for a quick getaway evaporated in the heat of his desire. The more he kissed Melanie, the more he needed to kiss her until the matter was entirely out of his system. He found himself caught up in a sea he couldn’t begin to navigate.

  It all came racing back to her.

  She’d forgotten what it was like. Forgotten what it felt like to be a woman with a woman’s needs. Forgotten how it felt to be wanted.

  His kiss had brought it all back to her.

  She had no illusions. This wasn’t something with “forever” attached to it. This was a onetime deal because he had saved April’s life and she just desperately needed to make human contact again. To shed all her concerns, her fears and all the dark, shadowy things that haunted her days and her nights, consciously or otherwise.

  Just for tonight, she wanted to make love and to be made love to. Tomorrow she would go back to her austere world, knowing there was nothing else waiting for her. Not in this venue, not ever.

  But that didn’t matter because tomorrow there would be a little girl waiting who needed her. Someone to whom she mattered. Someone who depended on her—and that was more than enough.

  But tonight, well tonight she needed something else, something more.

  She needed to revisit the ability to have fiery passions explode within her, to just be a woman alone with a man.

  So when Mitch’s lips touched hers, at first softly, then with more heat, more passion, she kissed him back. And then she kissed him again and again, each kiss more demanding than the last, until she lost all track of just who was seducing whom.

  All she knew was that for the duration of the evening, it felt wonderful and she was grateful to Mitch for everything.

  For being able to feel normal and real again.

  Inhibitions and clothing came off and with each layer, something wondrous took a firmer hold. She shuddered with pleasure as he ran his hands along her body, and she kissed him with passion as a frenzy seemed to take hold of her.

  Maybe she’d known all along that this was waiting for her. Maybe that was why she’d backtracked on several occasions, afraid of getting closer to him, afraid of where it might lead because there was always a price to pay for feeling like this and she didn’t want to ever be in that position again.

  But even so, she couldn’t deny what her body already knew. That she was very attracted to this man, not just physically, but emotionally, as well. She saw that he tried to keep a distance between himself and everyone he ministered to—and yet he had gotten involved nonetheless. He had stepped out of his comfort zone for her, for April and for the people at the shelter.

  That was a kindness she found even sexier than his handsome face and athletic body. He was a package deal and for the evening, he was hers and she was his.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It seemed clichéd and almost absurd to Mitch. He knew he would have been skeptical if someone had been relaying all this to him as something they were going through.

  But he had never felt this way before.

  Moreover, he had never believed it was possible to feel like this, like something inside of him had suddenly lit up and was close to, Lord help him, singing.

  Certainly he could have sworn that there was music humming through his veins.

  Music as well as an overwhelming need to not just unite with this woman, but to just be with her without anything physical happening at all.

  He had never felt that way before, never thought that people, that he, could feel like this before. But rays of light and something akin to sunshine seemed to be shining all through him. Whatever it was—and he was fairly convinced that it was her—he didn’t want it to stop, to change or go away even though it meant, most likely, saving himself in the end.

  Cradling her against him, he kissed Melanie over and over again, finding himself desiring more with each kiss rather than drawing closer to the point of satiating himself.

  His excitement heightening each time he kissed not just her lips but every single part of her soft, yielding and heating body. With each pulsatin
g moment, he felt more and more as if he had crossed some sort of a line, going from a place he was vaguely familiar with to a place he hadn’t believed existed. A place that seemed to welcome him with both arms.

  A place he never wanted to leave ever again.

  He knew he had to be going crazy.

  He didn’t care.

  Finally, close to the brink, he moved his primed and more than ready body over hers. His eyes locking with hers, Mitch took the final step and united them.

  His entire body pleaded for instant release but he went about it slowly.

  Gently.

  Bringing the union to an ever faster growing, more intense rhythm.

  And as it increased, he could feel her response, could hear her breathing becoming more rapid, more ragged. The very sound of that brought his own excitement to an even higher level.

  Joined together in the most intimate of dances two people could undertake, the tempo seemed to increase of its own accord until they reached the peak together—he could tell by the way she grasped onto his shoulders, arched her body into his and moaned his name that she was climaxing at the exact same moment as he was.

  Enraptured by the moment, he found to his surprise that he was more taken with her reaction than just his alone. That was different and once he would have thought that there was something wrong, but he had never felt anything so right in his life as this eternal moment he was sharing with her.

  And then it was over, fading into the very air around him.

  Spiraling downward, he held on to her, shifting his position so that she was resting her face against his chest.

  Words still failed him, but words weren’t necessary here. Not when the touch of his hand along her hair conveyed the very intensity of what he was experiencing this second with her.

  So they lay there, separated from time and the rest of the world for this very short, very precious interlude. And he held her and just absorbed the goodness of the moment and of the woman who was in his arms, lying against his heart.

  Melanie had lost track of time.

  Raising her head, she looked at Mitch, almost afraid of what she would see.

  But there was no smug expression, no look of distance in his eyes the way there had been when she had first met him. There was a look she had never seen before and she was afraid to put a name to it because she knew what she was hoping for. Something that she had already accepted as not possible.

  Not from him—and, besides, she had told herself that above all else, she didn’t want it. Didn’t want it because she didn’t trust it. She knew all the pitfalls that were waiting for her if she did truly become involved with a man. The exhilaration of love—my Lord, was she actually even thinking in those terms?—had a very dark downside to it.

  It was bitter, burning and she wanted no part of it.

  And yet, what was the point of life without it?

  “Well, that was unplanned,” Mitch murmured as he ran his hand along her silky hair in a movement that was not quite possessive and yet definitely not indifferent.

  “I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Melanie said defensively.

  At least, she hadn’t meant for it to happen in the absolute sense, she thought.

  All of this was a result of an incredible moment of weakness on her part and in no way had she ever expected him to respond with this amount of intensity.

  And she certainly hadn’t expected him to have rocked her world the way he had.

  She supposed that at best she had hoped for a few minutes of diversion that would in turn help her stop hurting and caring and just respond on a basic, automatic level.

  In no way had she expected something of this magnitude to affect her.

  “Well, I did.” It was as if he had stepped out of his own body and was watching all this at a respectful distance. Supervising events rather than actually being involved in them.

  And yet, what else could he possibly call it? He was involved. He, who almost took pride in being removed, was involved.

  Mitch raised her chin with the crook of his forefinger until their eyes met. “Are you sorry?” he asked.

  His eyes seemed to look straight into her soul. She couldn’t lie, not when he was looking at her like that. “No.”

  “Then stop talking,” he told her.

  His hand along the white column of her throat, he tilted her head back and captured her mouth with his just for a moment.

  Or so he had thought.

  But just as before, a moment stretched out into two which multiplied into four. And that just continued at a breathtaking pace as he found himself wanting her all over again, even more than the first time.

  Mitch was completely stunned by the event and completely captivated by the woman he had initially taken into his arms a small eternity ago.

  * * *

  The second time turned out to be as wondrous as the first. He knew what to expect and yet was still stunned by what he was feeling.

  Once was a complete surprise.

  To feel that twice bordered on a miracle as far as he was concerned. And he knew he wasn’t feeling this because he was overworked or overwhelmed by the intensity of what had happened with April.

  Granted, he was tired, but he was still far from wiped out—which would have been his go-to excuse for feeling like this.

  So what, really, was going on here? If he were being honest with himself, Mitch knew that he was almost leery of finding out.

  It was enough that it had happened and that he was lying there, in the dark, with her in his arms.

  Just then, his phone went off.

  Both of them jackknifed up in bed in unison to the jarring sound.

  “April?” Melanie asked, fear lacing itself around her voice.

  Guilt instantly raised its head. What kind of a person was she, to seek refuge in a physical coupling, not once but twice while that poor child was lying in a hospital bed, very possibly still closer to death than not.

  Mitch reached for his cell phone. “I do still have a day job,” he reminded her. He glanced down at the caller ID. “And I think it’s calling me. Dr. Stewart,” he said, his voice formal as he swiped his phone and answered it.

  She could feel the distance coming between them as Mitch listened quietly to whoever was on the other end of the line.

  Not only did the man have a day job, she silently upbraided herself, but in all likelihood, he probably had a full life, as well. Just because he had never mentioned it to her didn’t mean he didn’t have one. He hadn’t mentioned a great many things to her.

  She knew very little about the man. For all she knew, he was involved with someone already.

  No. If he were, she’d know. She was certain that she’d know. He would have allowed something to slip, allowed a telltale piece of information about his personal life to surface.

  This was a man who had no personal life. She would have sworn to it.

  After all, she couldn’t be that bad a judge of character, could she?

  Melanie watched as he terminated the call. “You have to go,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

  “Van versus truck,” he recounted simply.

  Her stomach churned just thinking about the incident. “Anyone left alive?”

  He nodded. “So far, according to the hospital, all four drivers and passengers.”

  She slid to the edge of the bed, ready to throw her clothes on at a moment’s notice and follow. All he had to do was say the word.

  “Can I do anything to help?” she asked.

  “Not unless you’re a nurse,” he answered matter-of-factly as he hurried into his clothes.

  “I can pray,” she replied simply.

  Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Melanie getting her clothes together, then quickly getting dressed, as well.

  “You need clothes to pray?” he asked, mildly curious as to what she was really up to.

  “No, but I need clothes to get back into the hospital,” she answered, pulling her hair ou
t of the collar of her pullover. “They frown upon naked people unless they happen to be lying on one of their operating tables.”

  Mitch stopped putting his shoes on for a moment. “I said there’s nothing you can do,” he reminded her.

  “Not for the people you’re going to be operating on who were involved in that awful accident, but I can go back to the hospital in case April wakes up earlier than we thought she would.”

  “I left a nurse with her, remember? And you need your rest,” he told her seriously. “Doctor’s orders.”

  Something warm and precious moved within her and she smiled up at him. “You’re not my doctor,” she told him sweetly, and then added, “Besides, I rested.”

  Mitch raised a dubious eyebrow. “When?” he asked. “Seems to me that wasn’t exactly the most rest-provoking endeavor we were engaged in just a little while ago.”

  “Maybe not restful,” she allowed, slipping the remainder of her clothing on, “but definitely energizing which, on some levels, is even better,” she concluded with a satisfied smile.

  Ready, Mitch paused for a moment to study her. He was definitely getting to know sides of her that hadn’t been evident initially, but this was something that had been there right from the start.

  “What was it you said you were before you took your leave of absence?” he asked her.

  She might have mentioned it in passing, but she had never been specific about it. “A second-grade teacher. Why?”

  “You sure you weren’t really a lawyer?” he asked, pretending to scrutinize her closely. “Because you use words like a weapon and you’re stubborn, all useful skills for a top-grade lawyer.”

  “And a teacher,” she told him. “You would be surprised how devious some of those innocent-looking second graders can be.”

  “Maybe not so surprised,” he qualified, pausing to give her a fleeting kiss. It was all he could trust himself to do at the moment. Anything even slightly deeper and he’d be sorely tempted to linger with her a little while longer. Time in his chosen profession was always of the essence.

  “Okay,” she announced as he headed for the door and she fell into step beside him, “if I can get you to swing by the shelter, I can pick up my car.” Opening the front door, Mitch looked at her blankly for a moment, not following her. “When this all started, you took me out to dinner from the shelter in your car.”