‘Most women appreciate a compliment,’ Ryan was saying. ‘I try to be nice. To establish a good rapport with the people I work with.’
‘Hmm.’ Hannah didn’t have to try and make the sound less than understanding. Professional rapport had boundaries that Ryan clearly took no notice of.
He hadn’t moved from the support of the post. To get to the car, Hannah had to go down the steps, which meant moving closer to the stationary figure.
‘I work with you, Dr Jackson.’
‘You do, Dr Fisher.’ Hannah gripped the handles of her carry bag more firmly and made the move to the top of the steps.
‘I’d like us to establish a good rapport. I don’t think we’ve really got one yet, have we?’
‘No.’ She was close to Ryan now. She could almost have reached out and plucked petals from his hair.
‘Why is that, Hannah?’
‘I … ah …’ It had been a mistake to make eye contact at this proximity. Words totally failed Hannah.
‘Maybe we could try again,’ Ryan suggested softly. ‘We’re in a new place that has nothing to do with work. We could make this weekend a new start.’
‘Ah …’ Something had already started. Hannah watched the way Ryan’s gaze slid from her eyes to her mouth. The way his head was tilting slightly. She had to close her eyes as a wave of desire threatened to make her knees wobble and send her down the steps in an undignified stagger.
Had she mirrored that tilt of his face? Leaned closer to Ryan? Or had he just closed the gap of his own accord so that he could kiss her?
Not that it mattered. The instant his lips touched hers, nothing else mattered.
Yes, it was the start of something new, for sure. Something Hannah had never experienced. The first brush of paint on a totally new canvas.
Soft lips. A gentle pressure. Long enough to be intensely arousing but not nearly long enough. Hannah wanted more.
A lot more.
She wanted to taste this man. To touch him. To have him touch her. To fill in more of that canvas because she had no idea what colours and textures it would encompass or what the finished picture might be like. What that brief kiss had told her, however, was that the picture would be bigger and more exciting than any she’d ever seen.
It was Ryan who bent to pick up the carry bag, which had slipped, unnoticed, from Hannah’s fingers.
‘This way, Dr Jackson,’ he murmured. ‘Your chariot awaits.’
Hannah didn’t want to move. Unless it was to go back into the cottage and take Ryan with her. It was disappointing that he hadn’t suggested it himself. Surely he would normally follow through on a kiss like that?
Perhaps he intended to. He smiled at Hannah.
‘Maybe,’ he said lazily, ‘we can do something else about establishing that rapport later.’
‘Rapport, huh? That’s a new word for it.’ Susie lay on her hospital bed with her leg elevated on pillows, bandaged and packed in ice. ‘So what was it like, then?’
‘The kiss?’ Hannah chewed the inside of her cheek. ‘Not bad, I guess.’
Susie pulled a pillow from behind her back to throw at her sister.
‘OK, it was great. Best kiss I’ve ever had. Satisfied?’
‘No. Are you?’
Hannah smiled wryly. ‘No.’
‘So what are you going to do about it?’
‘What can I do? OK, he might have been tempted to kiss me for some reason but I can’t see it going any further. He doesn’t even like me. I don’t like him. I’m just … attracted to him physically.’
‘Maybe he’s pretending not to like you because he’s really attracted to you and you haven’t given him any encouragement.’
‘I kissed him! What more encouragement could he need?’
‘Maybe he likes to take things slowly.’
‘Ha!’
‘Yeah.’ Susie grinned. ‘He doesn’t look the type to take things slowly. Never mind, you’ve got the whole weekend in a tropical paradise. Something’s bound to happen.’
‘Forty-eight hours isn’t that long.’
‘But weddings are very romantic. And it’s not as if you won’t be seeing each other after you go home.’
‘We won’t be “seeing” each other when we go home. This is purely physical, Susie. An opportunity to get it out of my system. I mean, what if I’m sitting in a rest home when I’m ninety-five and I regret never trying a one-night stand? Doubt that I’d have the opportunity then.’
‘So Ryan’s not a long-term prospect, then?’
‘Are you kidding? Would you take up with Richard the second with the benefit of hindsight?’
‘No … Yes … Maybe …’ Susie sighed. ‘But Ryan might be different. He might not take off as soon as he spots greener pastures.’
‘Ha!’ Hannah put even more feeling into the dismissive response this time.
‘Will you be seeing him again tonight?’
‘No. I’m going to finish watching this movie with you, go and have a quick dip in the pool and then go home to sleep. I’m stuffed.’
‘Why don’t you skip the movie and see if you can find him over at the doctors’ house? I’ve got some stuff about Emily I was going to tell him so he could put it in his best man’s speech.’
Hannah groaned. ‘He’s probably got it written already. One long string of blonde jokes.’
‘It’s a good excuse to talk to him.’
‘He’ll be at the Athina. Peeling potatoes or something.’
‘He might be back by now. He got up as early as you did so he’s probably equally stuffed.’
‘I could go and have a swim.’
‘What’s the weather like out there now?’
‘Horribly windy but still hot. It’s not raining.’
‘The pool’s nice and sheltered. You probably won’t be the only one there. Lots of people like to cool off before they go to bed. You sleep a lot better that way.’
Hannah wasn’t the only one in the pool.
Ryan was there.
‘I’ve done my potato-peeling bit,’ he told Hannah. He was watching her shed her outer clothing. ‘I really needed to cool off.’
Hannah slid into the water with a sigh of pleasure. The pool area was sheltered but it was still windy enough to make the water slightly choppy and the wind on wet skin pulled the heat out quickly enough to raise goose-bumps when Hannah stood up at the shallower end of the pool. She ducked down and swam breaststroke into deeper water. ‘This is gorgeous.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Ryan was swimming towards her. Only his head was showing but, thanks to Susie’s accident, Hannah was only too well aware of what the rest of Ryan looked like. She took a determined breath.
‘Susie’s been telling me things about Emily that might be useful for your best man’s speech. Or have you finished writing it?’
Ryan grinned. ‘No. Haven’t started. Thought I might just wing it.’
‘Well, there’s a funny story about her spitting on Mike’s helicopter.’
‘Why did she do that?’
Hannah trod water, edging further away from Ryan. ‘She was terrified of flying in helicopters and there’s this Greek thing of spitting for luck. Only when the Greeks do it, it’s kind of a token spit.’ Hannah turned and swam a few strokes before shaking wet strands of hair from her eyes and taking another breath. ‘When Emily did it, Mike had to clean the helicopter and there’s a long-standing joke between them now about the paintwork getting corroded.’ Hannah trod water again and turned. She should be a safe distance away from Ryan now.
She wasn’t. He had kept pace with her.
‘Interesting,’ he said. ‘I did know that Em hated helicopters. The night Mike proposed to her, they’d been sent on a mission that got cancelled and he landed them on a secluded beach. She thought they were crashing so she was really angry but Mike said that emergency measures had been necessary because he really needed to talk to her.’
‘It all worked out, then.’
‘Mmm
. They have a very good rapport.’ Ryan twisted his body in the water so that he was floating on his back. ‘How’s our rapport coming along, Dr Jackson?’
‘Pretty good, I think.’ Was it a feeling of insecurity that made it a relief to find her feet could touch the bottom of the pool here?
‘Could be better, though, couldn’t it?’ With a fishlike movement, Ryan turned again, moving sideways at the same time so that he was within touching distance of Hannah. He caught her shoulders and Hannah seemed to simply float into his arms.
Not that she tried to swim away. She could have. Her feet were secure on the tiles at the bottom of the pool as she stood up and it would have been possible to get enough momentum to escape.
But she had no intention of escaping. This was it. She just had to get over the fear of doing something so out of character. Falling into what looked like a matching desire in Ryan’s dark eyes, it became possible to step over that boundary.
‘Yes,’ she managed to whisper.
And then he was kissing her again and it was totally different to that kiss on the veranda. This one had a licence to continue. This one rapidly deepened so that Hannah had to wind her arms around Ryan’s neck to keep her head above water. She could feel his hands on her bare skin, along with ripples from the disturbed water that seemed to magnify the sensation. His fingers trailed from her neck down her back, held her waist and then stroked their way up to cup her breasts.
At the same time, his lips and tongue were doing things that were arousing Hannah more than she would have believed possible. His face and lips were cool, thanks to the relentless wind, but the inside of his mouth was far from cool. It was hot enough to fuel an already burning desire. Hannah kissed him back, sucked headlong into that desire until she totally forgot herself. When he held her closer, Hannah found herself winding her legs around Ryan so that she couldn’t float away.
Ryan groaned. ‘God,’ he murmured, pulling her hips even closer with an urgent strength to his grip. ‘I want you, Hannah. You know that, don’t you?’
Hannah tried to swallow, but couldn’t. ‘I want you, too.’
‘Not here. Somewhere dry.’
Hannah had all the incentive she needed to throw caution to the winds for at least one night of her life. She even managed to sound as though she was quite used to being carried away by physical passion.
‘Your place or mine?’ she asked with a smile.
‘Mine’s closer. Just up those steps. It’s Mike’s old room. You can get in through a door on the veranda so nobody will see us.’ Ryan bent to kiss her again and then he took her hand in his to lead her from the pool. ‘You sure about this, Hannah?’
‘What’s not to be sure of? As you said, it’s important to establish a good rapport with the people you work with.’ She tightened her fingers around his, shivering as she climbed the steps of the pool and the wind caught at more of her exposed skin. Or was it the thought of where she was going and what she knew they would do that caused that shiver? Not that she had any intention of backing out. No way.
‘Lead on, Dr Fisher.’
CHAPTER SIX
IT WAS the curious howling sound that woke Ryan.
The first fingers of light were stretching under the roof of the wide veranda to enter his room and he could just make out the smooth hump of the feminine shoulder beside him.
Without thinking, Ryan touched the skin with his lips. A butterfly kiss that was as gentle as the way he traced the delicious curve of Hannah’s hip with his hand, loving that dip to her waist that was accentuated by her lying on her side.
Loving everything about this woman. This new version of Hannah Jackson.
Her intensity. Softness. Suppleness. The way she accepted everything he had to offer and had responded in kind.
Thank God he hadn’t stuck to that resolution to stay well away from her.
If he had, he would have missed out discovering just how good it was possible for sex to get. His experience last night had been the best he’d ever had in his life.
And Ryan knew what had made the difference. It was knowing he’d been right the moment he’d first laid eyes on Hannah. That there was a reason why the attraction had been so powerful. It was just possible he had found what he desperately needed in his life.
More of an anchor than a permanent job represented. The haven of a relationship that could be trusted. Could grow into something strong enough to last a lifetime. Could become a whole family even.
Something good. Love that wasn’t darkened by the grim side of life. He was so tired of being strong for the people he loved. Not that he’d ever stop, but he badly needed something that would let the sunshine back into his own soul.
Someone he could be totally honest with. Someone that he could actually allow to see that things ripped him apart sometimes. He was fed up with hiding. Being flippant because he couldn’t afford to share how he really felt. Making other people laugh because he’d discovered that was the best way to escape his own fear or misery.
Not that he’d ever made Hannah really laugh and, in a way, that was scary. Could she see through him? Despise him for being less than honest with himself and others? Had she been hurt in the past by a man who hadn’t been able to connect on an emotional level and was that why that prickly barrier had been between them since that first meeting? If so, he could understand. Forgive and forget any of the putdowns.
Ryan pressed another soft kiss to Hannah’s shoulder. Then he lifted her hair to kiss the side of her neck. She’d dropped that barrier last night, hadn’t she?
One night.
A perfect night.
Ryan let his breath out in a contented sigh. Never mind that dawn was breaking. Last night had been just the beginning. The connection had been established and it could be the foundation for something that was going to last for ever.
Right now, Ryan had no doubt that it was entirely possible he could spend the rest of his life loving Hannah—in bed and out of it.
The dream took on colours that were so beautiful they took Hannah’s breath away. She could actually feel them and the building excitement was something she remembered from childhood, waking up to a longed-for day that was going to bring something very special.
She was flying in her dream. Soaring over some incredible tropical landscape towards the place she most wanted to be. But she wasn’t going to reach her destination because the edges of reality were pushing the dream away. The sense of loss was only momentary, however, because the reality was the touch of Ryan’s lips. They were on the side of her neck, delivering a kiss so gentle it made her want to cry. Instinctively, she turned towards him, seeking the comfort of being held, only to find his lips tracing a line from her neck all the way to her breast. Stopping when they reached the apex and the cool flick of his tongue on her nipple took Hannah’s breath away for real.
There was still a dreamlike quality to this, though, and Hannah kept her eyes closed even as her hands moved to find and touch Ryan where she now knew he most liked to be touched. The whole night had been a dream—the stuff of erotic fantasy—so why not keep it going just a little longer?
Thank God she had given in to that urge to experience something new. To find out if Susie was right and she’d discover the best sex of her life. Even in her wildest dreams until now, she hadn’t had any idea what it could be like. Hannah could understand perfectly what had drawn her mother and her sister and probably countless other women into relationships that could only end in heartbreak.
Not that she was going to allow this to go that far. This was just a perfect ending to a perfect night. A one-night stand that Hannah could treasure the memory of for the rest of her life.
With a small sound of absolute pleasure, she slid her arms completely around Ryan to draw him closer.
It was raining when they woke again. Rain driven sideways by a wind that hadn’t abated at all during the night. If anything, it was worse.
‘What’s the time?’
Ryan reach
ed to collect the wristwatch he’d dropped by the side of the bed. ‘Nearly nine.’
‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe we’ve slept in!’ Hannah slid out from the tangled sheets, covering her bare breasts with her hands while she looked for her clothes. ‘I’ve got to get back to Susie’s place and get sorted. We’re supposed to be at Kylie’s salon by nine-thirty. It’s probably chaos out there by now.’
‘It would be chaos whatever time it is.’ Ryan put his arms behind his head, clearly intending to watch Hannah getting dressed. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
‘Where’s my phone?’ Hannah felt more in control now that she had her underwear on. ‘Susie’s probably been trying to text me. I put it on silent mode at the rehearsal yesterday and I completely forgot to reset it.’
‘You got distracted,’ Ryan said with satisfaction. ‘The wedding’s not till 4 p.m. Don’t stress.’
Hannah pulled on crumpled cargo pants. Impossible not to feel stressed with the sound of rapid footsteps on the wooden boards of the veranda behind the thin curtain and then the excited bark of a dog.
‘I need to get out of here without anyone seeing me.’
‘Why?’
‘It would be embarrassing if everyone knew I’d spent the night here.’
‘Why?’ Ryan repeated. ‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re both single, consenting adults, aren’t we?’
‘Yes …’ But there was an element of shame as far as Hannah was concerned. She’d never done anything like this in her life. This kind of selfish physical indulgence might be normal for Ryan and the women he chose, but it couldn’t be more out of character for her. She’d always made sure she was ready to commit to an exclusive relationship before going to bed with someone.
‘And it was fun, yes?’ Ryan wriggled his eyebrows suggestively. ‘I certainly enjoyed it.’
‘Mmm.’ Hannah tore her eyes away from the sight of Ryan getting out of bed. He obviously felt no need to cover himself. This was a man who was quite comfortable in his own skin. An enviable confidence that Hannah could only aspire to. She did her best. ‘Me, too,’ she added with a smile.
The Australian's Proposal (Mills & Boon By Request): The Doctor's Marriage Wish / The Playboy Doctor's Proposal / The Nurse He's Been Waiting For Page 26
