‘Anatomy was always my favourite subject,’ he mouthed against her skin.
‘Kyle…’
Smiling, he wrapped his free arm round her waist in support and her hands gripped his forearm as she sagged against him, writhing in his hold, her whole body shaking as his fingers explored, teased and tormented. His mouth tasted her skin, teeth nibbling, tongue caressing, before his lips worked up her neck to her ear where he knew she was so sensitive, licking the hollow before sucking on her lobe, whispering to her about all the naughty things he wanted to do with her. A sob escaped her and he tightened his hold, bracing her against him as his fingers moved more insistently, until she flew over the edge and she cried out her pleasure. He allowed her trembling body to turn, holding her tight as she pressed close, her arms winding round him as their mouths met…open, hot, hungry. Kyle lost himself in the kiss then, impatient and needy, he snapped off the water and reached for a towel, hastily drying them before he swept her up in his arms and carried her back to her room.
He dropped her unceremoniously on the bed before following her down, licking the lingering drops of moisture from her skin, taking his time, his hands exploring while his mouth loved her breasts. Gasping, her fingers burrowed into his hair, holding him to her, her body arching against him. Smiling against her skin, he slowly worked his way to her navel before moving down.
‘No!’ she whimpered, her body belying her as she moved instinctively to his touch.
‘Yes!’
‘I can’t.’
He chuckled at her feeble protest, loving the way her flesh trembled, and the little sighs and moans she couldn’t contain as she responded to him with wild abandon. ‘Sure you can. I could do this for hours.’
‘Oh…Kyle!’
He was in heaven. Once more he pushed her past the point of no return, loving her sensuality, how reactive she was, how sensitive to his touch. As aftershocks rippled through her he slid back up her body and drew her into his arms, feeling the thud of her heartbeat as it gradually slowed. He cradled her, smiling when she stirred, allowing her to push him over, his breath catching at the sultry look in her smoky grey eyes.
‘My turn,’ she insisted.
Kyle willingly gave himself up to the indescribable magic of her hands and her mouth enjoying his body. And, when he couldn’t stand the exquisite torture another minute, he rolled her back under him.
‘Don’t wait,’ she begged, her voice a husky whisper. ‘Now. Please.’
Any thought he had of taking his time vanished at her impassioned demand. He reached out for a condom, his body shaking as she took it from him and rolled it on, caressing him, driving him mad, her eyes darkening with answering need, tempting him beyond bearing as she drew him down to her, wrapping her legs around him. Helpless, he lost himself in her, caught in the magic between them. They clung together, as if needing to stay grounded while the fiery passion flared out of control once more. Overcome by the ecstasy, they finally collapsed together, their breathing laboured, their hearts thudding madly. Kyle eased his weight off her, gathering her close, never wanting to let her go.
‘You’re amazing, Lexie. It’s never been like this before. I’ve never desired anyone as I do you,’ he murmured as she cuddled against him and he admitted to himself that he wanted her here, like this, in his arms, forever.
Alex moved around the kitchen preparing a hurried meal. They had been reluctant to get out of bed, but the time had passed all too swiftly, and Kyle had to get back to Rigtownbrae to fulfil his promise to cover the BASICS shift for Hannah. Alex didn’t want him to go, didn’t want real life to intrude on the fantasy world they had created these last hours.
Kyle said he’d always enjoyed anatomy. Alex smiled. He was very good at it, and he certainly knew exactly what to do with hers! Nothing had prepared her for the magnitude of sensation, abandonment and sheer joy of making love with Kyle Sinclair. Unleashed, he was the most intensely sensual and physical man she had ever met. His stamina was impressive, too! She stifled a giggle, easing her position, feeling all the delicious aches in her body from the hours of pleasure they had shared together. He was wickedly naughty in the most delicious of ways, and she had responded to him with all inhibitions stripped away. Nothing else in her life was ever going to be like this; she just knew it. What she didn’t know was where they went from here, if—
The phone rang, interrupting her reverie, and she moved to answer it.
‘Did you enjoy your night with Kyle? It’s the only one you’re going to get.’
The icy words from an all-too-familiar source tightened her stomach and dampened the glow she had been feeling just moments before. ‘Was there something specific you wanted, Penny?’ she asked politely, determined not to be intimidated by the woman, refusing to ask how she had known Kyle was here with her, not wanting to consider that he might have told her.
‘If you think you mean anything to him you are foolishly mistaken. You know why he pays you any attention at all, don’t you? You know why he shared your bed?’ the other woman asked, a sneer in her hard, flat voice.
‘I’m sure you plan to enlighten me as to your views.’
If anything, Penny’s voice turned harsher, colder. ‘You’re nothing but a passing fancy, Alex. Kyle’s future is with me, he turns to me to meet his needs and he always will do, long after you have gone from Glenside. And, believe me, you will be gone. Soon. He plays this little game because you look like Helen, his ex-wife. He sees you and thinks of her. You’re just too stupid to realise that he used you to get her out of his system. Don’t expect more than a night. He’ll be coming home to me now.’
The connection was broken, but it took a moment before Alex could replace the receiver. Her hand shook and a chill shivered down her spine. She didn’t want to listen to Penny, didn’t want to believe her, but…Was it true she looked like the woman who had left Kyle and broken his heart? Was that really all he saw when he looked at her? Whatever she thought of Penny and her games, her comments had sown new seeds of doubt and made her feel insecure. She should ask Kyle for answers, but she was too scared, too fragile, too confused after the last hours with him.
However vindictive and maliciously delivered they had been, hadn’t Penny’s words only confirmed her own fears that Kyle was not ready for any kind of relationship after being betrayed by his ex-wife? Her doubts increased as she recalled the way he had come to her to talk over his lost baby. He wasn’t over what had happened to him, and she couldn’t be sure at the moment where his emotions really lay. She cared deeply for him but she wasn’t cut out for a meaningless fling. Until she was sure of Kyle’s intentions, perhaps she should cool things, guard her own heart, give him time.
He came into the kitchen then, dressed and ready to leave, a frown on his face as he looked at her. ‘Is something wrong?’
‘No.’ Hand unsteady, she hung up and moved away from the phone, wrapping her arms protectively around her stomach as she tried a stiff smile, unable to meet his eyes. ‘I’m fine.’
She turned away, fussing with the snack she had prepared, her mind reeling. Everything now felt awkward between them, and she didn’t know if she could trust her own feelings—or if she could trust Kyle. It wasn’t just Penny’s revelations. She’d already had doubts before last night, and in their time together they hadn’t talked about anything important, had just given in to the incredible physical desire between them. But what did she really know of Kyle’s motives, his feelings? She needed to give them space, needed to pretend she was sophisticated and worldly and wasn’t making demands on him.
‘Alexandra?’
So they were back to that? ‘Lexie’ had been forgotten? Tense and scared, she set the plates on the table. ‘The food’s ready. Help yourself.’
‘We need to talk.’
‘What about?’ she managed, clenching her hands in her lap, her nails digging into her palms, fighting for the courage to give him the chance of an easy exit…hoping like hell that he wouldn’t take it and
confirm she had been right to doubt him.
He sat at the table, not touching his meal, and she could almost feel his confusion across the distance that separated them. A distance that seemed to widen by the minute. ‘About this, about us.’
‘It’s all right, Kyle, I’m not expecting anything from you,’ she told him with a false smile, trying to keep her turbulent emotions out of her voice, scared he was going to dismiss what they had or diminish it. She needed to be strong. ‘We had a nice time together. We both know it doesn’t have to be more than that.’
It didn’t have to be more but, oh, how she wanted it to be. Desperately. The silence stretched, and she was hurting so much she was sure her heart was going to shatter into a million pieces. She wanted him to argue, to reassure her, to tell her she was wrong, to fight for what they had. But he didn’t. Instead, he rose to his feet and moved away from her, leaving her feeling his emotional and physical withdrawl.
‘Then there’s nothing left to say,’ He stated, his voice strained.
Time seemed to stand still. Alex sat there, disbelieving, wanting to call him back, but he turned from her and walked out of the room, closing the back door quietly behind him. She heard his car start, listened to the sound of the tyres crunching on the gravel, then the engine fading as he drove away. Leaving her alone. Lost. Utterly bereft. So, she had her answer. Kyle wasn’t over his past. He wasn’t ready for a relationship. He didn’t want her—not for more than a night or two.
Alex squeezed her eyes closed but tears escaped between her lashes and trickled down her cheeks. What a fool she had been, ignoring her doubts, believing in fairy tales and happy-ever-afters. Being with Kyle had surpassed her wildest dreams. But that’s all their time together had been—a dream. Not real. A moment out of time. Kyle had taken her places she had never been to before, she had done things with him she would never do with anyone else as she had trusted him implicitly with her body and her heart. Now her heart felt broken beyond repair.
Kyle had gone and she feared she meant nothing to him at all.
CHAPTER TEN
‘KYLE, we have a problem,’ Lisa Sharpe announced, closing the consulting-room door and taking a seat by his desk.
Kyle glanced up. He felt like telling Lisa he had a lot of problems. The principal one being Alexandra. Damn it. He didn’t want to think of her every second of every day. She’d made her feelings clear enough, there was nothing he could do about it, but he just didn’t understand what had happened, how things had changed so drastically so quickly, leaving him scared, confused, angry. We had a nice time together. We both know it doesn’t have to be more than that. Nice? How could she have reduced the most magical, incredible night of his life to something so meaningless, so unimportant? There was nothing to suggest she hadn’t been as fully committed as he had been, that she didn’t want more, but clearly he had made another foolish mistake, and had given his trust too soon.
He frowned, thinking back to that horrible scene in her kitchen. He’d heard the telephone ring as he’d finished getting dressed, and had come to the kitchen to see her by the phone, all colour drained from her face. Who had called her? What had they said to upset her? Did that have something to do with the change in her and her decision to send him away? Frightened, he had reacted without thinking, had bitten back confessions about his feelings for her, believing from her casual words that their time together had meant far more to him than it had to her. That it was over between them. Alexandra was backing off, retreating, and he didn’t know what to do, how to handle it.
‘Kyle, are you listening?’
‘Sorry, Lisa.’ He shook his head, trying to focus. ‘What’s happened?’
‘I’ve had Charles Frazer on the phone. His wife, Winnie, is one of your patients. Asthma. She is also one of those who didn’t turn up for her last regular appointment when she was meant to see Alex to check her flows and so on.’
Kyle’s eyes narrowed. Lisa now had his full attention. ‘Go on.’
‘Winnie is home and recovering, but she had a nasty attack and had to go to casualty,’ Lisa explained, her frown deepening. ‘Charles is furious and says someone from the surgery phoned to cancel her last appointment.’
‘What? Who would do such a thing?’
‘He says it is our negligence that made Winnie so ill.’
Kyle swore under his breath. ‘What’s going on, Lisa?’
‘You know I’ve been looking into the issue of the missing appointments?’
‘Yes. And the mix up with the home visits, too,’ he reminded her.
Lisa nodded. ‘I can tell you that no more of those have happened, but I believe the computer records were tampered with.’
‘Who?’
‘Just a minute. Alex raised the problems with me and I’ve rung several of the people who haven’t turned up for their appointments with her.’ Lisa paused a moment, shaking her head. ‘They all say that they received a phone call telling them they didn’t need to come in.’
‘And?’ He prompted, a sense of foreboding bringing a tight knot to his stomach.
‘Each one says that the person who called them gave Alex’s name.’
Kyle swore again and rose to his feet, pacing the room, struggling to take it in. All Penny’s warnings came back to him—that Alexandra wasn’t as she seemed, not to trust her. He sat down and angrily thumped his hand on the desk. ‘Tell Alexandra to come and see me, I want to talk to her about this.’
‘Don’t do that, Kyle. Not now. Please. I know you are angry, so am I, but I honestly don’t believe Alex has anything to do with this,’ Lisa insisted.
‘What makes you so sure?’ He wanted to believe, to trust Alexandra, but… ‘Have you evidence to the contrary?’
‘Not yet, but I think I know where we can get some.’
Kyle sighed, running a hand through his hair. ‘I’m listening.’
‘Look, it isn’t my business, I don’t know what is going on between you and Alex, but you’ve both been tense and miserable this week, avoiding each other the like the plague. All I know is that Alex is the best nurse we’ve ever had. Everyone loves her, staff and patients alike. The only person here who has anything bad to say about her is Penny.’ Lisa paused and Kyle watched her, seeing her uncertainty. ‘Penny had it in for Alex from the first, Kyle, and has been awful to her. I’ve heard things—nothing I have concrete proof on—but my advice from all my experience is to give Alex a chance. She was the one who brought this to our attention in the first place. Why would she do that if she was the one causing the problem?’
It was true, that side of it didn’t make any sense. And, yes, if he thought about it clearly, leaving his own personal issues and feelings for Alexandra aside, it was only Penny who had subtly and consistently whispered in his ear to make him doubt. What was going on? He suddenly thought about something he had filed away to investigate but with the events of last Sunday had put out of his mind.
‘I still want to speak to Alexandra, hear her side of the story. And I want to speak to some of the patients myself. I’ll go round to see Charles and Winnie today.’ He rested his arms on his desk. ‘Before that, I want you to tell me something, Lisa. Why has Alexandra been working longer hours and more weekend shifts than anyone else?’
Lisa’s gaze slid from his. ‘You know who does the district nurses’ rota.’
‘Penny?’
‘Yes.’
Silence stretched, and he fidgeted in agitation. ‘What’s going on, Lisa?’
‘I told you, Penny doesn’t like Alex, so she gives her the longest journeys and the most difficult patients. And she’s been taking advantage, skipping her own weekend duties, claiming to be sick and making sure that Alex has to fill in at the last minute.’
‘I see.’
‘I doubt it,’ the older woman muttered under her breath.
Kyle’s frown deepened. ‘And what does Penny do?’
‘Who knows?’ Lisa’s laugh had a bitter edge. ‘Has her hair done, most l
ikely.’
Jaw tightening, he ignored the sarcasm—for now. ‘Why hasn’t Alexandra said anything?’
‘Who to? Penny isn’t going to give her a break, quite the opposite given the snide remarks she’s always making about her and her work. And Alex wouldn’t—’
‘What?’ he pressed as the words snapped off.
‘Nothing. It doesn’t matter.’
‘Yes, it does. Lisa, tell me. Please.’
‘Alex believes you’d side with Penny.’
‘Why would I do that?’ he riposted stiffly, his body tense at the accusation.
‘Penny has let it be known how close you are with her, and she seems to have done an equally good job of convincing you to doubt Alex.’
The words stung, as did the realisation that people in the practice saw him as being likely to give preferential treatment to Penny. He frowned, thinking back with discomfort over the things Penny had said to him these last weeks, the subtle hints she had dropped about Alexandra. What was Penny doing? And why? Unwanted thoughts raced through his mind. Had Penny done this before? Maybe he’d been so wrapped up in his own troubles that he hadn’t seen what was happening, but he’d always imagined Penny was his friend, that she wanted what was best for him, supported him. If she didn’t…The thought lingered uncomfortably.
‘Could you give me a list of the other patients who received these phone calls? After I’ve spoken to them, I’ll go to the Frazer’s. And, Lisa, please ask Alexandra to come and see me when she is free.’
‘All right. I’ll bring the list shortly.’ Lisa rose to her feet and lingered a moment, seemingly reluctant to leave. ‘Kyle, please think about what I have said. Don’t take this out on Alex, I know she isn’t involved.’
‘Just send her in, Lisa.’
Although how the hell he could bear to be in the same room with her, look at her, talk with her and pretend nothing had happened, that he didn’t ache for her, care for her, he didn’t know.
His Very Special Nurse Page 14
