‘Sure,’ Natasha nodded, trying to stay calm because calm was what she always was, but elation was starting to creep in. ‘I’ll just get changed.’
‘What,’ Mark asked, following her into the changing room, ‘is Joshua Mason doing here bringing you flowers?!’
‘He helped me deliver the baby.’ Natasha smiled at the high-pitched whine to Mark’s voice. ‘Do you know him?’
‘I’ve seen him come in a couple of times when he’s been here for guests. Now I’m jealous again – he’s gorgeous!’
‘And?’ Natasha asked, snapping her fingers because Mark knew everything about everyone, but Mark shook his head.
‘I haven’t been able to find out any real gossip on him and believe me I’ve tried. He came in for a guest once who had pneumonia and stole my heart, and do your remember that guy who died in the bath… he came for that too.’
‘Is he married, engaged…?’
‘I hope for her sake he’s not!’ Mark smiled. ‘Given that he’s brought you flowers. Lucky cow!’
Natasha let her hair down and was actually glad she’d been out last night because the clothes she quickly put on were better than she’d usually wear to work, and though a sexy disheveled man in a suit might get away with it in the restaurant, Natasha was glad to be wearing a skirt and heels as it was glamour all around here, even at breakfast.
Joshua was waiting for her in the foyer. He’d washed his face but his suit was pretty torn and, as she headed off, she saw Gene Chatsfield arrive at the desk and speak with a rather flustered Mark.
‘Go!’ Mark mouthed as Natasha hesitated. She used her swipe card to get them up to the restaurant in the lift and they just stood a little shy but smiling at each other.
‘What I said…’ Natasha started, because she felt that she really needed to clear the little phone sex comment up. ‘If I was inappropriate on the phone last night, I was just joking…’
‘I know.’
‘I’m very boring.’
‘You’re very not.’
‘Oh, but I am.’
The lift doors opened and they went through to the restaurant. Natasha ordered coffees to start with.
‘Do you feel better now?’ Joshua asked, referring to last night’s tears.
‘Much better!’ Natasha admitted. ‘I’m sorry that you had to hear that!’
‘It’s fine.’
‘Honestly, I haven’t cried like that in…’ Natasha thought for a moment. ‘In forever. I don’t know what happened.’ She blinked as she thought about it. ‘I just…’
‘Let go.’
‘I did!’ Natasha smiled. ‘And I don’t usually. Honestly, I live a life of few tears.’
‘Tears are good.’ Joshua said.
‘Do you cry?’
‘Not often,’ Joshua shrugged as he thought about it. ‘Sometimes.’
‘Stop!’ Natasha said. ‘You’re ruining my fantasy.’
Oh, god, Everything she said was sort of provocative and an admission that she fancied him. Not that Joshua seemed to mind.
‘So what was the last thing you cried over?’ he asked.
‘My gran’s funeral.’
‘How long ago was that?’
‘I think I was sixteen, so about nine years ago.’
‘Are you serious?’
Natasha nodded.
‘You don’t cry over breakups?’
‘God no,’ Natasha shook her head, ‘Normally by the time it gets to that point I’m cheering at the thought of being free…’ She was very, very honest then. ‘I find a lot of men shallow – that’s why I lied to you last night.’
And yet, Natasha realised, here he was. ‘Don’t you care about stuff like that?’ she asked.
‘I used to,’ Joshua admitted.
‘And?’
‘It wears thin after a while,’ Joshua explained. ‘Especially when your entire marriage consists of looking the part, acting the part…’
‘You’re married?’
‘Divorced.’
‘Children?’
‘Nope.’
‘Amicable?’ Natasha asked hopefully because wasn’t that a bad sign if the break up had been bad?
‘Sorry, fail there, it wasn’t an amicable divorce.’
‘Why?’
‘I found out that she was sleeping with her cosmetic surgeon.’
‘Oh!’
‘I just got all angry that I’d paid him for her breast implants that I didn’t want her to have in the first place…’ he started to laugh and so did Natasha. ‘It was all territory and male ego… we actually talk now, not often but if I see her at work we say hi. We got married far, far too young, I can see that now.’
‘How young?’
‘Twenty three, straight out of medical school,’ Joshua said. ‘I took a rotation in London and Juliet let go of a really good surgical rotation for me and moved to London too. I think we should probably have long-distance dated and let it naturally fizzle out, instead I felt guilty that she’d moved …’
‘So you married her?’
‘In a nutshell!’
‘Is she still with the cosmetic surgeon?’
‘Yep, he’s still molding her into his perfect woman and Juliet’s still happy to go under the knife and strive for whatever her version of perfection is…’ he looked up as Justin, a waiter, came over with a huge jug of orange juice and a bottle of very nice French champagne.
‘Wrong table,’ Natasha said, surprised because the staff here rarely made a mistake.
‘It’s from Gene,’ Justin explained. ‘And so is breakfast. He appreciates how smoothly you handled things last night, Natasha and also,’ he added to Joshua, ‘your work at the crash. He just wanted to say thanks.’
‘How nice is this?’ Natasha said as they chinked glasses.
‘So nice,’ Joshua agreed and neither were really talking about the champagne, though it did taste nice, especially after the night they’d had.
It was a dreamy breakfast, poached eggs with tiny roasted potatoes and chorizo all on thick buttery toast, which was possibly the perfect hungry-after-a-night-shift breakfast and Natasha couldn’t actually remember when she’d enjoyed a meal to this extent or chatted so easily with another person.
‘How bad was the crash site?’ Natasha asked.
‘It was pretty grim, I don’t want to think about it.’
‘Did you always know that you wanted to be a doctor?’
‘Always. How come you ended up in hospitality?’ Joshua asked.
‘I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left school. It did appeal and I do enjoy it, especially working here. I’m really good at it,’ Natasha admitted and then qualified her statement a little. ‘Well, apart from when women start giving birth in front of me, but I just…’ she thought for a moment before continuing, ‘Mark, who’s on this morning, completely loves it, he’ll be here forever and takes it so personally if a guest is upset of if something goes wrong. I’m quite detached, I guess, I know that on each shift someone will get upset and that I’ll have to sort it – I don’t take it personally. I guess I know what needs to be done and what it is that people want.’
‘Like?’
‘Well, if their room’s not ready, offer them a drink at the bar and make sure the bar manager knows. If something isn’t working, make sure it is – though I’m lucky I work here because the staff are excellent and most things run smoothly.’
‘Is there a lot of gossip?’
‘God yes,’ Natasha nodded. ‘I don’t gossip though, which is why I’m good at my job.’
‘Please! Give me one bit of salacious gossip,’ Joshua asked.
‘Nope,’ Natasha said, ‘but I can tell you that, even though I don’t gossip, I am an avid people watcher and there’s no place better for that than here.’
‘Just one bit of gossip.’
‘I don’t know you well enough,’ Natasha smiled, finding the very last piece of chorizo, and then as he went to top up her drink they both r
aised their eyebrows when they realised the champagne had gone.
‘Drinking in the morning!’ Joshua wagged his finger. ‘It’s a very slippery slope.’
‘Ah, but this is my bedtime,’ Natasha said and their eyes met at the same time and both looked away just as quickly too.
She was heading into rather unfamiliar territory here, because Natasha always held onto her emotions and not just at work, yet they were careering all over the place now.
‘So are you seeing anyone,’ Joshua checked and Natasha shook her head.
‘I just came out of a two-year relationship.’
‘What happened?’
‘He asked me to marry him.’
‘Oh!’
‘I think he expected me to say yes…’ Natasha admitted, ‘it was really awkward.’
‘Did he have a ring?’ Joshua grimaced at the discomfort of it.
‘Oh, it was the full down on one knee stuff,’ Natasha said, ‘which is just the sort of thing I loathe.’ She watched as a smile spread over his lips. ‘Looking back, I don’t think he knew me at all.’
‘He missed out then,’ Joshua said. ‘Are you working tonight?’
‘No,’ Natasha shook her head as her stomach curled over in delightful anticipation that this wasn’t ending here and now.
‘Would you like to get together,’ Joshua said, ‘we could make a list.’
‘A list of what.’
‘Your likes and dislikes, maybe see if your obsession with barnacles could translate into your dream job. I’d like to get to know you some more…’
‘I’d like that too,’ Natasha said, because she’d really, really like that.
She kept waiting for the bubble to burst, for something to change, yet all he did was get better and they chatted and laughed some more.
It was edging to nine and Natasha wasn’t even tired, she could have sat chatting forever. ‘The trouble with nights is you get your second wind.’
‘I know,’ Joshua said. ‘If I could bottle that 5am feeling when you’re so tired and cold and translate it to 9am…’ he glanced at the time. ‘Come on,’ Joshua said, ‘we’ve got a patient to visit, she’ll be discharged if we leave it any longer…’ he took out his phone. ‘Actually I’ll call them and check that Maya’s still there.’
Natasha watched as he did, even his fingers were sexy, long and thin, and she liked how he smiled as he chatted to whoever was on the end of the phone.
‘Maya’s going home this afternoon,’ Joshua said. ‘Her husband is there with her. He speaks English.’
‘How come she was out in the middle of the night?’
‘With no knickers on?’ Joshua smiled, recalling her shock. ‘Apparently he was on a night shift and her phone wasn’t working. She tried to drive herself to the hospital but didn’t make it.’
‘Oh, the poor thing.’
‘She parked to use a pay phone but when she couldn’t fine one she ended up here at the Chatsfield.’ Then he added. ‘Luckily for us.’
There was a flutter in her stomach at his words.
Chapter Four
There was no bill to sort out or argue about going halves over, thanks to Gene. They headed out of the restaurant and walked towards the lifts. The hotel was busy, there was a large business conference on, and as Joshua and Natasha stepped into the lift they were soon crushed by grey suits on their way to the second floor.
‘I thought it was going down,’ Natasha commented as the lift moved up.
‘It will in the end,’ Joshua said.
That they were going up wasn’t the problem though.
It was the utterance of the words going down because that’s where both minds suddenly headed.
It was a matter of proximity perhaps, that had the air humming between them, though that didn’t really make sense because she was rather more awkwardly pressed against a Japanese businessman than she was against Joshua, but she couldn’t smell the cologne on the Japanese businessman, though she could smell Joshua’s male scent. Neither could Natasha tell a single thing about the Japanese businessman’s position, though she knew Joshua’s in detail.
He was behind her and to the left, one hand on her elbow, the other on the brass rail to the side. His chin came just above the crown of her head; she knew that because she felt as if she were skewered on a rotisserie and fighting the urge to turn, to rotate, to simply move as her body was telling her too.
They arrived at the second floor and all the dark suits got out and here was where she should have stepped away, leant against the brass rail and let out a sigh of relief that the crush was over. She didn’t though. The hand on her elbow was still there and had it not been for the little family making their way to the eighteenth floor…..
His hand was just a little more noticeable on her elbow now, the contact unnecessary for the lift was almost empty, yet somehow it was vital, it was the only thing she could think about.
Surely fingers through fabric couldn’t make you feel as if you were being stroked from the inside?
Correction, Natasha thought, remembering again just how long and sexy said fingers were and yes, somehow, their gentle, idle pressure was suggestive.
‘The thing is…’ Natasha said to the doors as a two year old gave the very red-faced lady a curious look, ‘the thing is…’ she attempted, wondering how she could possibly explain that she really didn’t do the type of thing she was contemplating. ‘What I said last night…’
‘I get it.’
‘I don’t think you do,’ Natasha said, willing the lift up and that family out, and finally they were at the eighteenth floor and she could feel the burn from his palm on her elbow and as the lift doors closed she turned, simply rotated, in urgent need of contact.
His kiss was blistering, the feel of being scooped into his arms and pressed to him confirmed in an instant that restraint was unnecessary and that the want and need came from both. Natasha had never tasted such passion, never felt her skin flame with such rapid arousal. It was so vital, so intense, so volatile, that it had her reaching for her card and halting the lift.
‘What I meant was,’ Natasha said, pulling back from his mouth, ‘I’m usually a good girl…’
‘Not with me you’re not,’ Joshua said, pulling her hips into his erection as his mouth ravaged hers.
No, not with him she wasn’t because her kiss was just as bold and her hands were everywhere also.
‘Not here…’ Natasha breathed, hardly able to believe she’d actually contemplated it. She forcibly peeled herself from him, like a label that didn’t want to come off and started the lift again, but this time to the twenty fourth floor.
Natasha peeked out and there was the chambermaid’s trolley but thankfully no chambermaid and they ran silently on the plush carpeted corridor towards the door at the end.
‘How do you know that it’s empty?’
‘It’s my job to know.’
Oh, wow!
Was she really putting a do not disturb sign on the door? Her?
Oh yes, one hand was trying to hang the sign as he pulled down the zip of her skirt, and as she turned to him the bed seemed way, way too far away, except his kiss was pushing her there, his hands were stripping her even as she walked backwards, and Natasha’s hands were doing the same, she even felt the ping as one of his shirt buttons flicked off and onto her chest and then Joshua slowed things down. ‘I haven’t got…’
It was nice for Natasha to know that despite last night’s little comment, he hadn’t arrived prepared.
‘No problem.’ Natasha smiled and walked into the luxurious marble bathroom and found the Chatfield goody basket and then turned to the sound of the shower being turned on and the delicious sight of Joshua undressing.
God, he was gorgeous - lean, toned and long-limbed, yet there was a fresh purple bruise on his arm and one on his back.
It really had been a rough night and for both it was so nice to step under the shower and let the tensions wash away as they soaped each ot
her with fragrant gel, kissing, tasting, getting to know each other more intimately with each passing moment. The franticness had gone, for they’d confirmed where they were heading. She loved the feel of his slippery hands on her breasts and the nudge of his manhood on her stomach as they explored each other. Her hands roamed over his back and then down to his hips, digging into taut buttocks as his lips found her neck. He nuzzled the tender skin as he massaged her breast, and she wanted his mouth there now and the moan in her throat told him that she did. Instead his hand moved down and explored her intimately, those long sexy fingers vivid in her mind as he brought her so close to orgasm that she could not sustain their kiss. Natasha rested her head on his chest as her legs jellied under his skilled hand, crying out at the delicious flood of warmth and the slight collapse as she found her release.
There was no moment to recover, as he turned the water off and they kissed all the way from the bathroom to the bed.
Naked, wet, still crashing back to the planet, Natasha felt the soft thud of the mattress and a moment of cool as he quickly sheathed himself. She ached for the reward of his weight but he smiled down at her, kneeling on the bed between her legs, recalling the moment she possibly entered his heart.
‘I like looking at yours.’
‘Stop!’ Natasha laughed and then she could bear it no more, for she had to have him inside. Greedy hands lunged for him but Joshua’s patience had reached breaking point and, even as her hands met the back of his head, he was already crushing her with his mouth.
Never, for Natasha, had sex been more vital, or more fundamental. The ache between her legs only strengthened as he filled her. She tried to remember which side the bruise on his back and arms were but then gave up trying, because her hands needed to pressure his skin.
With each long, slow thrust they savoured the pleasure of intimate union, eyes holding the other’s, staring down the barrel of lust, locked in an unsustainable rhythm though trying to hold on, just for the delicious sensations the other delivered and the sensual noises they made. It was Natasha who gave in first, raising her hips in surrender, moaning and arching. He felt her release building and stopped any attempt at holding back, thrusting rapidly, loving the arch of her body and the deep pulses around him. Then he groaned out the tensions and teasings of the night into her and lay sated above her.
Doctor at the Chatsfield Page 3
