"Doctor, you're needed stat in ER."
Dr. Eric Levine tossed the X rays down in front of him and followed the ER nurse, Tina, down the hall. She ran, so he did as well. For a laid-back kind of guy, it seemed he was always running, especially since he'd moved into surgical residency this past year.
Being a doctor used to be his entire life. Then he'd had his heart broken, and things had changed. He still wanted to be a doctor, a good one, but he also wanted to be…Eric.
"What do we have?" he asked Tina, expecting the worst, as he tended to be called into ER for bad-case scenarios only.
"Sprained ankle. Slight contusion to the head and chin."
Huh? None of those things required a surgeon.
"Just hurry."
He'd known Tina since his first year of residency. She was cool, calm, and in charge. When she said hurry, he hurried, without any of the hang-ups that a lot of other doctors had about letting the nurses run the show. Together he and Tina skidded to a stop before the third ER cubicle.
She thrust the patient's chart at him. He glanced down at it, saw the line Patient Name: Daisy Arnett, age: 23 — and his heart, an organ he didn't often use, jerked hard.
With kind, worried eyes, Tina gently patted his arm and walked away.
Thoughts swirling, Eric stepped around the curtain and looked at the woman who'd broken his heart. She lay still on the gurney. Her long, wild red hair was a riot of curls. She had a bandage around her head and a sheet up to her scratched and bruised chin. Which really shouldn't be too much of a surprise, because although she was a petite little thing, Daisy had always been about as graceful as a bull in a china shop. Still, just looking into her pale face, not animated as it usually was, made him ache all over again
They'd met right here in this very hospital six months ago when she'd come running down the hall, in her brown UPS uniform that fit her hot little body in a way that had made his eyes glaze over. She'd been making deliveries to the sick kids, and had shown such warmth and patience, always bringing them goodies and letting them crawl all over her, that he'd melted on the spot. When she'd accidentally plowed him over that afternoon, knocking him right into a hibiscus plant, she'd fallen, too. Right on top of him.In the planter, surrounded by dirt and dying hibiscus, a sexual sizzle had singed and startled them both. They'd gone out that night, walked around the lake, and had made love, all on that first date. For two days afterward they didn't take their hands off each other. She'd made him laugh, made him think, made him ache, and had clearly felt the same about him. The way she looked at him, touched him, kissed him, all told him so.
And then one afternoon his pager had beeped, calling him back to the hospital. Half in love after only two days, he'd tried calling Daisy on his break. On his next break. On his next break after that. She'd answered once, speaking quickly, her voice thick and teary, saying she was sorry, she'd made a huge mistake, she wasn't interested in seeing him again.
He'd thought he'd moved on, and yet here she was and he felt sucker-punched from just looking at her. Damn it, just looking at her made him yearn to see her racing down the hall carrying too many packages, dropping everything, smiling so happily…. He wanted her all over again, and that really bit.
Steeling himself, he softly said her name. Her eyelids flickered, and then her dark, melting eyes opened. Dazed, she stared up at him. "Eric?"
"What happened, baby?" Baby. Though she'd destroyed him, the endearment slipped out. It would be the last time.
"Uh…" Fumbling for the sheet, she made sure it was still up to her chin. "I was at a Tupperware party…and I got a gift bag." She closed her eyes. "I wanted Josie's bag, though — she got the handcuffs."
Ah, hell, she was delirious. With a frown, he leaned in to check her pupils. Her scent, peaches and cream shampoo, tickled his senses.
"Somehow I slipped," she murmured. "I think it was on the strawberry-flavored vaginal lubricant Cassie opened. I bumped my head."
His brain stopped functioning after "vaginal lubricant."
"I didn't know you were in the ER," she said.
"How would you know?" He put the ends of his stethoscope into his ears, warmed up the pad the best he could. Even if she didn't deserve it. "I was a mistake, you said. You were moving on, you said. Don't call me, you said. You said that last quite clearly." He reached for the sheet covering her. "I'm going to listen to your heart now."
"No!" She held on to the sheet like a lifeline. "Um…isn't this a conflict of interest? Or something?"
A conflict of interest. She'd rocked his world; he would have staked his life on the fact he'd rocked hers as well, and now he'd been relegated to a "conflict of interest." Since that only twisted the knife, he said nothing and tugged her sheet down.
She gasped.
At the sight of her and what she wore — or rather didn't wear — he gasped, too. His heart jerked again, then stopped entirely. She had on a cream lace demi-bra that barely covered her nipples and matching panties that were nothing more than the merest of triangles over her mound. Her softly rounded belly rose and fell as she let out a sound that could have been a moan or a horrified laugh.
"Daisy." His voice was low, hoarse, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Her body might have been petite in stature, but she had glorious, lush curves that had always made him melt, even fully dressed. "Where are your clothes?"
She closed her eyes. "Forget it."
"As it has to do with handcuffs and vaginal lubricant," he said tightly, trying not to cross his eyes with lust when she lifted a hand to put it to her head, thrusting her breasts high with the movement, "I don't think I can forget it."
Eric stared down at Daisy in her miniscule-and-brain-cell-destroying lingerie, still bulldozed by the sight of her half-nude body on the hospital gurney. As he watched, both nipples hardened. She raised her hands, and he expected her to cover herself, but she covered her eyes instead.
"I can't believe this is happening to me," she whispered. "Or, actually, of course I can believe it — I have the worst luck. I should have gotten the bag with the vibrator in it. I couldn't have gotten hurt on a vibrator."
His mind reeled with visions of vaginal cream and vibrators, and he struggled for a professional distance. He was a doctor for God's sake, and she'd been hurt.
But she was also part of his past. The best part.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I knew seeing you again would jump-start my heart and —" She bit her lip and turned her head away while he stared at her in shock.
"What did you say?" he asked very slowly. Surely he couldn't have heard her right. Jump-start her heart? But she was the one who'd walked away! "Daisy?"
She didn't respond, not then, and not while he doctored her up, bandaging her chin, checking her head. Not when he'd stroked her long, beautiful hair from her face and wished like hell he'd been off tonight.
Seeing him again had jump-started her heart? "You know," he whispered, leaning over her, knowing she wasn't really asleep, "the way you're dressed tonight is reminding me of old times. Remember our first night together? You wore cream satin panties then, too. I remember because I still have them."
Her eyes flew open at that, and as always, looking deep into her emerald eyes gave Eric a shiver of need. She shivered, too, which oddly enough, reassured him.
She hadn't "moved on" quite as much as she wanted him to believe. Maybe she hadn't moved on at all. And though it shouldn't, it gave him a surge of satisfaction.
Because as it turned out, he hadn't moved on either, not one little bit.
Daisy watched from beneath lowered lashes as he left the room. She was no more immune to the wildly sexy Dr. Levine than the day she'd nearly killed him in the hallway of the hospital six months ago. He'd stolen her heart that day with his warm, smiling green eyes and crooked, mischievous smile that promised so much. Stolen her heart, then broken it.
No, wait, that had been her. She'd broken her heart, but she'd only done it before he could, theoretically saving herself unspeakable pain.
Theoretically.
And now here he was, looking at her, touching her, smiling at her as if he still had the right to melt her heart right out of her chest. God, she'd had such high hopes that he could be the one, but when the haze of sex — really great sex — had cleared from her eyes, she'd realized the truth. He was a doctor, married to his first love, his work.
A woman like her, who flew through life by the seat of her pants, living from one moment to the next, had nothing to offer a man like him, a man whose work was more important than anything else in his world. And he had nothing to offer her, not with his long, long workweeks and no free time to be with her.
Still, lying there now in the emergency room on the cold gurney, wearing nothing more than the ridiculous — and far too tiny — lingerie from the party bag she'd gotten at Bare Essentials, she wished for a moment that things could be as easy as they had been those glorious nights she'd had with him. If they had been, Eric would have gathered her chilled body into his arms and shared his incredible body heat, making her feel cherished, wanted. Cared for.
"You okay, hon?" A pretty nurse touched her hand. It was Tina, whom she'd met many times while making deliveries. "I'm going to help you into this pair of scrubs Dr. Levine found for you," she said. "So that he can take you home."
Daisy's stomach quivered. "Eric's not taking me home."
Tina helped her sit and held out the light blue scrub top that looked big enough for a linebacker. "Of course he is. He cares about you."
"Not anymore." Daisy swam in the huge top.
"Hmm." Tina didn't say a word about the extremely revealing cream satin demi-bra and itty-bitty matching panties Daisy wore, didn't ask why in the world that happened to be all she was wearing beneath the blanket she'd been brought in with. "You know Eric nearly had heart failure at the sight of you in here, right?"
Daisy sighed. "I was at an opening for that new lingerie shop, Bare Essentials. I got the lingerie in a gift bag and everyone wanted me to try it on. Somehow I slipped —"
"On the vaginal lubricant," Tina said. "I heard. Big surprise, hon. You know, I'd have liked to have gotten my own gift bag. Maybe something in a wicked black… But that's not what I meant about the condition of Eric's heart."
"Tina —"
"Yeah, yeah. You only dated him for a bit, and you have your reasons, I'm sure, even if every nurse on staff thinks you're insane for not jumping his bones on a daily basis. I just wanted you to know, he looked alive just now, for the first time in a while." She patted Daisy's knee. "And you know what else? When you were looking at him, you looked pretty damn alive, too. Think about that, honey."
"Tina —"
But the nurse was gone. Lying back, Daisy closed her eyes against the pounding in her head. Eric had looked alive for the first time in a while? Why? He couldn't still be sad…
Daisy shook her head firmly. She shouldn't be worried about him anyway. He had his work to keep him warm at night.
"Daisy." His almost unbearably familiar voice came low and husky near her ear, startling her out of the uneasy sleep she'd drifted into. She opened her eyes and looked at him, and just like that, just like it always had, her heart caught.
Damn it. Damn him.
Daisy might have hit her head, but Dr. Eric Levine was still the most gorgeous man she'd ever met, with those see-all eyes, wavy mahogany hair that fell nearly to his collar, and a mouth that brought wicked sin to mind. But even Daisy, in her woozy state, knew it was more than a physical thing. From the first, there had been this almost chemical reaction between them, a bond that had only strengthened those nights they'd shared.
What had Tina said? She should be jumping his bones every night? Yeah, she could go for that, in a big way.
And yet her greatest fantasy was having a close-knit, large family like she'd never had. With that, she wanted a man who'd be at her side at the dinner table, talking to their kids, available for soccer games and pizza/movie night.
Not a man attached to a pager and an eighty-hour workweek.
His mouth brushed near her ear, making her skin tingle and her pulse race. "Don't go back to sleep, not yet." His long, leanly muscled frame was still covered in scrubs, but the stethoscope was gone. "Your friends are gone."
Cassie, who co-owned Bare Essentials, and who'd hosted the party with her cousin Kate, had driven her here, but Daisy had sent her home a little while ago. "I thought I'd get a cab."
"I'm taking you home." Once again he tugged her sheet free, letting out an almost inaudible groan when he saw she hadn't put on the scrub bottoms. The light blue top came to the very tippy-top of her thighs, showing just a little peekaboo of the cream panties.
Unapologetically, he stared down at her, letting her see his hot, hungry expression. "I'm really wishing you'd fallen in your regular clothes."
Every hormone in her body quivered hopefully while her brain rebelled. "I can get home by myself."
"Humor me." He held out the scrub bottoms, the backs of his fingers gliding over the fronts of her shins, her thighs…higher, as he pulled them over her hips.
Her entire body tightened. Reacted. Bad, bad body, she silently admonished.
"Let's go," he said a little tensely, as if suffering the same problem as she.
Not good. With the two of them on fire, who was going to be able to keep their wits about them?
His eyes were shuttered to her, his mouth grim, signifying he was still unhappy at the sight of her, even angry. In spite of that, he slipped an arm around her, settled a hand low on her spine, guiding her to the waiting wheelchair.
He'd drive her home, which meant more time with him. Alone. It'd taken her a long time to get over him, but he was like a bad habit. It wouldn't take but a moment, a second, to want him all over again. "Wait," she said.
"Why, so you can vanish on me? Don't think so."
Yep, definitely a little angry. In spite of her pounding headache, another tingle raced down her spine, and it wasn't fear. Eric was a man who strode through life with a confidence she'd always admired — and secretly been aroused by.
Oh, boy. She definitely needed to avoid being alone with him, otherwise she'd never be able to resist him or their always shocking physical hunger for each other. "Eric…letting you take me home is a really bad idea —"
"No, actually, the bad idea was you putting on that outfit, then showing up here for me to look at you, to remember, to yearn and ache over you." His voice went from silky to hoarse. "I'm dying here, Daisy."
With that shocking statement, he cupped her jaw, ran his thumb over her bottom lip until it trembled open. The other skimmed over her bare shoulder where the too large shirt had slipped off. Her body, bombarded with sensations already, mostly pain and confusion but a lot of headier sensual haze as well, shivered again.
"I thought you were mad," she whispered.
"Well, I'm not superhappy to have to look at you dressed like that and ache all over again," he admitted. "You made the choice not to see me again, so yeah, I'd rather have had you stay far, far away. But you're here now so I might as well tell you. I never quite got over you." He was close enough that his warm breath brushed her cheek. "Help me get over you, Daisy. Tell me you can't stand to look at me, that it gives you hives. That I kiss like a toad or make love like a baboon. Anything."
Every part of her wanted to lean into his warm strength and tell him the truth, that she'd never gotten over him either. But in order to save her own hopes and dreams, she had to find a way to stay strong here.
Instead, her mind played games with her. All she could think of was exactly how well he kissed, made love….
"Daisy…"
"Okay, I can't stand to look at you. You kiss like a toad, you make love like a baboon —" She stopped at his choked laughter. "You asked me to say so."
"Yeah, but now I want to prove otherwise." His eyes ran over her body, and a rough groan rumbled from deep in his throat. "This is going to be a long night, Daisy."
She wasn't sure if that was a threat or a promise, but it made her shiver either way.
"Hey, this isn't my house." Daisy opened her sleepy eyes. In them Eric could see the headache from her fall at the party and the incredibly sexy-eyed look that stirred up a powerful need within him.
Which, in turn, stirred up his temper because, damn it, how could she turn her back on this, on them, when just sitting next to each other steamed up the car windows? "It's my house. You bumped your head, you shouldn't be alone. You're staying with me tonight."
"Oh, boy," she whispered.
"What does that mean?"
She hugged herself, reminding him she wore next to nothing beneath the scrubs he'd found for her. "It means you were right before. It's going to be a long night."
"No doubt."
He got out of the car and came around for her. He'd make sure she got rest. Afterward, he'd take her home and go on with his life. Forget that just looking at her made him ache.
Hunkering down at her side, he tried not to notice how the scrub top had slipped off her shoulder, revealing creamy, smooth skin he wanted to put his mouth to. "Okay, how about we pretend we're just friends."
"Do friends lust after each other's bodies?" she asked. "Would 'friends' have seen each other naked? Would 'friends' have licked and sucked every inch of the other person?"
"Uh…"
"No," she said. "So I'm thinking we don't qualify for that particular word."
She'd never been more right.
Eric stared at Daisy. She was clearly upset, which made no sense at all. He was the one who was upset, damn it. He was the one who'd been dumped. Leaning in, he scooped her up in his arms. She squeezed her hands together in her lap, refusing to touch him. Because he wanted those hands on him, because he wanted her to admit to wanting that, too, he let her slip a little, just enough to make her gasp and fling her arms around his neck.
Oh, yeah. Better.
"I can walk," she said stiffly, mashing her breasts against his chest to grip him even tighter when he let her slip another inch.
Even better. "Your ankle shouldn't bear weight." Ah, the feel of her against his chest… Bending his head a little, he buried his head in her glorious, long, wild red hair and inhaled. God, he'd missed the scent of her, too. He'd missed everything. He carried her inside. "Push the door shut," he murmured, his mouth to her ear.
With a sexy little stretch, she reached back, slammed the door, then let out a breathy laugh when he stumbled back against it, which put his mouth a fraction of an inch from hers. "Hi," he whispered, and their lips brushed.
"Hi back."
His knees actually wobbled, and he took her down the hall to his bedroom, setting her on his bed. "Stay." He went for aspirin, came back, and gave her two.
When she'd taken the pills, he reached for the hem of the scrub top.
Gripping it tight, she stared up at him. "What are you doing?"
"You'll sleep better with them off. Trust me, those scrubs are scratchy after a while."
"Uh-huh. You first."
"Me first what?"
She lifted a brow, looking awfully awake for someone who'd hit her head and landed in the hospital in her panties. "You take off your clothes first."
"Daisy."
"Eric," she mimicked, then lifted a shoulder. "You first or no go."
"Fine." He stripped off his shirt, kicked off his shoes and socks.
She stared at his chest, her mouth open a little.
Definitely boosted by the pure lust in her eyes, he smiled a little grimly. "More?"
"Yes, please."
He shoved his pants down, kicked them off and straightened, knowing he was more turned on than he could remember being, the proof of that fact bouncing hopefully.
Her gaze slowly dropped southward. Her eyes widened, a little sound that sounded like an "Oh!" escaped her lips
Being a red-blooded male, it had his engines revving to go. "Problem?"
"Uh…no. No problem, no problem at all." She licked her lips, a nervous gesture that turned him on even more fiercely, if that was even possible, and all intentions of staying far, far away from her flew out the window. "Now you," he said.
"Me — Oh!" she squeaked when he came close, helping by reaching for her top. "Yes, m-me."
"Lift up," he said, tossing her top across the room. Then he slid his fingers into the loose waistband of the scrub bottoms. "Ready?"
"Y-yes."
Careful of her injuries he slowly slid off the pants, leaving her lying there in that mind-blowing, microscopic lace bra and panty set.
Her breathing quickened, and looking down at her mouthwatering nipples, hard and pouting against the lace, at the way the panties barely hid her from him, his breathing quickened, too.
She shifted her legs restlessly and the panties rode up a little, perfectly outlining her body between her thighs. All anger, all lingering resentment found itself replaced by a far baser emotion. "God, Daisy. You're so beautiful."
"You said I wouldn't be cold," she whispered, and shivered.
"You won't be." Eric stretched out next to her and slowly, very slowly, as if she were the most precious, exquisite piece of china he'd ever held, pulled her close against him.
Daisy closed her eyes and just soaked up the sensations bombarding her from being in his arms again. He was big and warm and so very strong. And despite her promise to keep her distance, she had to admit, she'd never felt safer or more secure than she did right here against him.
"Daisy," he whispered, and very gently, very carefully, tipped her face up. He stroked her jaw, then sank his fingers into her tangled hair. "Maybe you should knock me into another hibiscus plant."
"That was an accident."
"I need another accident to keep my mind off…"
"Off…?"
"Other things," he whispered, and leaning in, he kissed her.
It was a glorious kiss, a deep, long, wet connection that stole her breath and made all the bones melt right out of her body. The way he touched her face, the rough groan that was torn from his throat when she sucked his tongue into her mouth…she couldn't stop writhing beneath him, arching up, needing more, so much more.
"Eric," she whispered when they broke apart for air. "God, Eric. Wait."
Lifting his head, he looked into her eyes. Slowly he captured her hands in his, drawing them up over her head as he settled himself between her thighs. "Wait for what?"
"We — we're not dating."
"I know." With a flex of his hips, he nudged her with a most impressive erection.
"We —"
He thrust his hips again.
Oh. My. God. Her entire body trembled, desperately needing…needing so much she could hardly stand it. It was worse this time, she decided, because she knew what kind of more he could deliver. "We decided not to be friends. Remember?" She hoped he remembered, because she hardly could. She certainly couldn't, with his body towering over hers, remember why.
Another nudge that had her eyes crossing. "Again," he murmured, "friends isn't the word I was thinking of." Then he dipped his head and kissed her, and this time, neither of them came up for air.
Kissing Daisy was like coming home, and if Eric could think, he would stop. Because kissing Daisy was also something that had led to a lot of hurt the last time, and nothing had changed. She'd never explained walking away from this, from him, from everything he instinctively knew they could have had together.
And it was that last that made him pull back, stare down into her wide, expressive eyes. In them he could see the hunger for him, the yearning. "What is this?" he asked quietly.
She licked her lips, making him want to taste them again. "It's…kissing."
"It's more."
With a sigh, she lay back and closed her eyes. "I told you, bringing me here was a bad, bad idea."
He could see her exhaustion in the delicate bruising beneath her eyes, and knew she must have the headache from hell. It was why he'd brought her here, to make sure she got rest.
Not to kiss them both senseless. Not to walk down memory lane. Not to wonder why she hadn't wanted him.
"I'm sorry," he said, stroking a finger over her jaw. "Go to sleep."
She opened her eyes, looked into his. "I don't want to hurt you."
"That's why you're going to turn over and go to sleep. Go on," he said, gently flipping her over, snuggling her body back against his in a spooning position that put his forearm between her breasts and her tight little ass right up against his lap. Such was the torture of her soft, curvy body plastered to his as if she belonged there. He let out a helpless little groan.
She went utterly still. Then slowly arched into him, pressing her bottom to the biggest hard-on he'd ever sported. "Daisy —"
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice all breathy and fluttery. "I didn't mean to, my body just… It won't happen again."
And it didn't. But it still took him hours to fall asleep, hours during which he went over ever little detail of the time they'd spent together once: laughing, talking, kissing, making love…wondering where in the hell he'd gone so wrong that she'd walk away from that.
"Eric," she sighed sometime in the middle of the night, turning over to face him, thrusting a thigh between his, snuggling her face to his throat, slipping her arms around him, pressing those glorious breasts to his chest.
He groaned, pulled her even closer, dipping his head down to see into her face….
She let out a soft snore.And he let out a rough laugh. She was fast asleep, snuggling to him in her dreams. He might as well have been a damn pillow.
Then she whispered, "Missed you," so softly he almost missed it. She lifted her arms to entwine them around his neck, smacking him in the nose in the process, making him see stars. "Missed you so much," she sighed.
He rubbed his nose. "How, Daisy? Why? Because you left me, remember?"
But she was still again, her soft, steady breathing in his ear drawing tingles down his spine.
"Daisy?"
No answer. She was fast asleep, and he'd never felt so hungry, so desperately full of heated desire in his entire life.
Daisy felt nice and toasty. She was wrapped in a set of warm, strong arms that made her sigh in bliss. A thumb stroked her bare nipple and she purred, arching into the hand. A muscled, powerful thigh thrust between hers and she opened to him, shamelessly riding that thigh until she smoked and smoldered and came close, so very close, to bursting into flame.
"You're so wet," said a husky voice in her ear. "Is that for me, Daisy, or are you still dreaming?"
Eric. Her eyes flew open, met his hot, hungry gaze.
"Yeah," he said, rubbing his jaw to hers. His thumb rasped over her nipple again. "It's me."
Her hands fisted, and he winced, making her realize she gripped him by the hair, holding his head close — "Oh my God." She pulled away, scooted off the bed in such a hurry she got caught up in the panties wrapped around her ankles, and fell to the floor. Before he could move, she popped up. Stared at him. Pointed at him with a finger that had her bra hanging off it. Looking down at herself, she got confused. "When did I lose my underwear?"
"I don’t know, I woke up with you all over me."
"The dreams," she moaned, and sighed. Of course it was the dreams. She’d done nothing but dream of him since she’d stopped seeing him. Long, erotic, hot dreams that left her quivering, on the very edge of orgasm, every single time.
Last night had been no different. Her entire body was still quivering. So was his, and since he hadn’t bothered to pull the sheet back over him, she got a good, long look at his gloriously nude, aroused body. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and started redressing herself, fastening her bra, pulling up her panties, finding the large hospital scrubs.
With a low groan, Eric rolled to his back and stared up at the ceiling. "Great. You're sorry, and I'm going to die of DSB."
"DSB?"
"Deadly sperm buildup. It's a killer virus."
"You're making that up."
"Yeah. But don't worry about me. Go on your merry way, back to your life where you fall at lingerie parties on cherry vaginal cream and go into the ER in sexy underwear. I won't be working the next night you're brought in, though. I'm moving to a more normal schedule this week. I'll actually have my own life."
"It was strawberry-flavored vaginal cream, and… You're not working nights anymore?"
Clearly remembering he had to drive her home, he got out of bed, thrust his legs into a pair of soft, faded-looking Levi's. Wincing when he tried to close them, he gave up, leaving them unbuttoned. "Nope, no more nights. I'm a free man, baby."
Her ankle didn't hurt at all. She walked out of his bedroom, down the hall, and got to the front door. She stared at the wood. She could hear him behind her, shrugging into a shirt, and yet all she could think was… He hadn't sounded consumed with work, as she'd always believed about him. He was going to work days only, leaving nights free to be with the people who mattered to him.
"You said you missed me," he said behind her, startling her into facing him.
"What?"
"In your sleep." He'd left his shirt opened, too, revealing a wedge of rigid chest and flat belly that made her mouth water. "You said you missed me." Lifting a hand, he stroked a wild strand of hair away from her face. "Wonder why you'd say such a thing, when you were the one to walk away."
"I wonder," she whispered, then turned away, once again facing the door. She put her hand on the handle. Turned it and opened the door.
He cared about her. It was in his eyes. He made her smile, made her think, made her ache. No other man had ever done that. She'd been so certain he wouldn't be there for her when she needed him, but now she wondered if she'd made a huge mistake.
"Daisy?"
"For the record, when you say you want me…" Eric stepped close, so close Daisy could feel his chest brush her back, his thighs slide to hers as she stood facing his front door. "We're talking physically, right?"
If that was all she could have… She closed her eyes in the echo of that thick, husky voice. "Yes."
It was her own fault, she'd been the one to walk away, thinking his dedication to his job as a surgeon would take precedence over every aspect in his life. It was her own fault she'd not been able to see past her dream of having a large family, including a loving, wonderful husband to take an active part in that family. It was her own fault she hadn't been able to understand that love could conquer all, including her own fears.
"Yes," she whispered again. "I want you. Physically. Now," she said, doing a slow burn, closing her eyes on a moan because he was touching her, running his hands up and down her body, beneath her scrubs.
She could feel the pumping of her blood, and the sizzle of the heat between them. When he cupped her breasts, she arched her back, grinding her bottom into his erection. They weren't horny teenagers. If they were going to do this, they could go back to the bedroom, maybe shut the drapes so she could hide the truth from him, that she wanted more than this, so much more.
But driven by a need long suppressed and overpowering, she stayed where she was, head down, breath panting in her lungs, hands on the door, writhing under his touch. Then the scrubs fell away from her body, as did her bra and panties.
"Be sure," he growled behind her, his mouth nuzzling beneath her ear, one hand full of breast, the other between her thighs, making her whimper his name over and over.
"I'm sure," she managed. "Love me, Eric," and almost before the words were out of her mouth, he'd whipped her around, backed her to the door. He shrugged out of his shirt. Helpless to keep from slipping her hands into his opened Levi's, she wrapped her fingers around him and stroked, ripping a rough groan from his throat. He was so hard, so in need of release, and she wasn't that far behind him.
He gripped her hips, lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist. They were both gone then, lost to the passion that had gripped them, seized them, demanding everything they had. She opened her mouth on his throat; he thrust into her. She cried out his name. He thrust again, then again and again, while she clung to his neck, panting, burning from the inside out. With a low, guttural cry, he came, and watching him, hearing him, triggered her own shuddering climax. The world dissolved around them, melted away, leaving nothing, no worries, no thoughts of the future, nothing but this.
Eric drove her home. Walked her to the front door with an arm around her in the early morning chill, though she hugged only herself, having already mentally pulled away.
He tried not to be hurt by that. He'd known what they'd just shared was supposed to be purely a physical reaction to the amazing chemistry between them. No more, no less.
But damn, he'd have sure liked more. His pride wouldn't allow him to say so, though, because what was the point? He knew what she'd say.
He just didn't know why.
Still, as she opened her apartment door and shot him a shy smile, as if she hadn't just been panting and whimpering and begging him to take her "harder, faster" only ten minutes ago, he had to shake his head. "So…"
"So." Her smiled looked strained now.
"If you go back to Bare Essentials for another goody bag, I'm around if you need anything."
She let out a little laugh. "I'd get something different this time. Something that wouldn't require a hospital stay."
"Like…"
"Like…I don't know…" She laughed. "Maybe some body jewelry. I've always wanted to try a nipple ring."
His mind got caught on the image of Daisy with a nipple ring, and he tripped over his own two feet.
"And someone got Mr. Red. That'd have been fun."
"Mr. Red?"
"An eighteen-inch-long dildo with attachments."
He tripped again, and she laughed. At the front door, she turned to face him, her smile slowly fading. "I guess this is it."
"Yeah." Utterly unable to help himself, he moved in close, cupped her face and tilted it up. "But why, Daisy? Why is this it?"
Her mouth trembled open but no words came out. Gliding his thumb over that full lower lip, a surge of lust speared him when her tongue came out and sucked his thumb into her mouth. With a groan, he bent and kissed her, and for a long moment they both got lost.
"See?" he managed shakily, finally pulling back. Her head thunked against her front door, her pulse at the base of her neck fluttering madly. "It doesn't feel like we're done," he said. "It doesn't make any sense to me."
"It makes sense to me, at least when you're not touching me."
"Because when I touch you, you can't think? Well, me either," he said. "Go out with me tonight."
"Eric —"
"Look, it's just that I can't stop thinking about the last time we went out. I mean, it felt so right that once we met, we spent days together. So right I couldn't stop thinking about you afterward. I know you felt that way, too, Daisy. I saw it in your eyes. I felt it in your touch, your kiss —"
"Okay." She sighed. "I felt it," she admitted. "But I let it go because I knew you'd break my heart."
Eric stared at Daisy, confused now. Not a usual state for a surgeon. He'd break her heart? Is that what she'd just said? "But you have that backwards," he said slowly. "You're the one who walked away. My heart was the one stomped on."
She looked at him, her eyes filled with so much yearning he felt his heart leap.
But she turned away and opened the door to her apartment. Without asking, he followed her inside, to her kitchen.
"It's time to tell me why," he said, watching her drink a tall glass of water. "Why you walked away after two of the most amazing days of my life. I feel like I'm missing such a huge piece of the puzzle…"
She set down her glass. "It's complicated."
"Everything good always is."
She bit her lower lip, and he sighed. "Look, go out with me tonight. Just dinner. Just talking."
"Oh, Eric. I don't know…"
"Come on. We'll have a good time."
"I never doubted that — it's just…"
With bated breath he waited, needing to know, more than he need his next breath, what it was that held her back. "It's just…what?"
"It's —"
His beeper went off, piercing the early morning, and she closed her eyes. "You have to go."
He glanced down, saw the hospital's number, and wanted to toss it against the wall.
"Goodbye, Eric."
"No. Not yet." Reaching behind her, he swiped aside the papers on the counter and backed her to it. "This first." He held her face for a hot, hungry, desperate kiss. Just like that, they became a wild, passionate tangle of grappling limbs and searing mouth.
"Again, Eric?" she panted.
"God, I hope so." He lifted her to the counter. He placed his big hands on her thighs and pushed them apart so he could step between them.
She was breathless already. He did that to her, like no one else ever had. "Here?"
"Here. Now." He kept his mouth on her — her jaw, her ear, her throat, everywhere he could reach — while he removed his clothes, shucking them, tossing them across the room in different directions. After sending her clothes flying in the same manner, he brought her body hard to his. She cried out at the pleasure of him filling her, arching against him, bare skin to bare skin. She couldn't get enough. He was heaven, he was home. With his hands, his mouth, he drove her higher and higher. It was shattering and soul-soothing at the same time, building into a shuddering climax that had her crying out again. She was still in its throes when he found his release.Sinking over her, muscles still quaking, he turned his head and kissed her. For a long moment she kissed him back, wishing, wishing….
"No. No regrets," he said, helping her off the counter, helping her right her clothes.
She let out a half-hysterical laugh at that. No regrets? They were already filling her, because nothing had changed. "You have to get to work —"
"This is more important."
"No. Your work is everything to you. Last time, you made that clear. All you've ever wanted is to be a doctor, working at the hospital night and day, whatever it takes to be the best."
"And what do you want, Daisy?"
Her eyes were huge on his. "I want a relationship with a man who puts me first. I want a family, a big one. I want…"
"Lots of love and affection and joy?"
"Yes," she whispered. "Not empty dinner tables and people too busy with their individual lives."
"Ah." His eyes glittered with sudden knowledge. "So we came to the crux. Finally."
"It's all true."
"Okay, yes, all I've ever wanted to be was a doctor. The best doctor I can be. And, yes, when I said that to you, work was everything to me. But that was because I had nothing else, Daisy. No one in my life more important to me than being a doctor. That changed…" Running his hands down her arms to her hands, he linked their fingers. Brought them up to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. "That changed the day I met you and couldn't let you out of my sight."
"Nothing can change just like that."
"This has never been just casual sex for me, Daisy. And don't even try to tell me it was for you. I can see into your eyes, damn it. I see —"
"I'm a delivery person, Eric. You're a doctor, for God's sake. You can't just pretend that those aren't two completely different lifestyles."
"So you don't believe in love at first sight? Or that love conquers all?"
She sucked in a breath and looked away, and he smiled grimly. "I was willing to prove it to you back then, and I'm still willing….""Don't be ridiculous. We're not in love."
"Right. Because you would never take such a reckless chance with your heart, not on me."
Her gaze flew to his.
"You're such a hypocrite," he said softly, cupping her face. "A beautiful, kind, loving, warm hypocrite. Telling yourself you can't fall for me because of what I do, when all along it was your own fears that had you running."
"Eric —"
"Are you going to run again, Daisy?" He sank his fingers into her long glorious hair. "Or are you going to let this take its course?"
"I don't want any promises."
"Fine. I can take it one day at a time. What I can't take, baby, is not trying at all." He drew her close and covered her mouth with his own before she could say another word.
Not that she would have. With his very first touch, her will fizzled, sizzled, burned into something else entirely. This was what the lonely part of her, the part that woke in the night dreaming and remembering, wanted. "The hospital —"
"I'm going. Say you'll see me tonight."
"I —"
He nibbled her lips open and swept inside, and instantly she remembered why she'd never been able to forget him. When they were together like this, she could almost believe that love could conquer all, could conquer anything, including two lifestyles that didn't seem as if they could logically mesh.
"Think about it," he whispered, and with one last stroke to her cheek, with one last look of such searing heat and longing it stole her breath from her lungs, he was gone.
Think about it, he'd said.
As if she could do anything else.
Eric worked a rather brutal shift at the hospital, but he still managed to think about Daisy. Every time he did, a smile would split his face, and not just because they'd had wild sex twice that morning.
Okay, that was a good part of it, but it went far deeper than that. She belonged in his life, he belonged in hers, and she was crazy to think that what they had didn't deserve a chance.
He walked out of the hospital and through the parking lot toward his car, hoping she gave them that chance.
"Eric."
At that soft, almost unbearably familiar voice, his heart caught and he looked up. Daisy leaned against his car. She wore her delivery uniform, a brown shirt and a pair of brown shorts that managed to look both adorable and sexy on her small, curvy frame. Her work truck was parked next to his car and she glanced at it. "I have one last delivery… I was wondering if you'd come with me."
She was looking at him with a mixture of nerves, hope, and fear. He understood her fears now, or at least he hoped he did. They were valid. As a doctor, he had demands on him that could conceivably keep him busy and away from his life for long days and even nights. But he believed in the power of love, that it would be enough to carry them through anything. "I'd go anywhere with you, Daisy. Surely you know that by now."
"All right." Suddenly she looked so sorry she'd asked him to come he laughed and hurriedly got into her truck before she could change her mind.
She drove through downtown and stopped before a brand-new shop that hadn't yet opened but was the talk of the town: Bare Essentials…a naughty women's shop, emphasis on the naughty.
Daisy went into the back of the truck, got out a box and gave him an indecipherable look. "Do you want to come in or wait here?"
Was she kidding? "I'm coming."
They got out of the truck and walked up to the shop. "They open next week. I've been bringing in their shipments." Suddenly she set down the box and turned to him. "I'm stalling," she said in a rush, and grabbed the front of his shirt, hauling him close. "I'm sorry I didn't trust what we experienced the first time. I'm sorry I tried to destroy it by not seeing you again. I'm sorry —"He put his mouth over hers, joy and heat rushing through him. After a quick, hard kiss, he pulled back and put his fingers to her wet mouth. "No more sorries. Let's just take it one day at a time from here."
She shot him a dreamy smile. "I'm sort of hoping there're a lot of days."
"There will be," he vowed. "And a night for each of them. So make your delivery so we can get started on all of them."
"Yeah." They entered the store, and at the sight of wild and sexy lingerie in every color and hue, Eric's mind went on overdrive. They passed shelves filled with things that made his tongue fall right out of his head, things like body art and body jewelry, and all sorts of battery-operated toys. Picturing Daisy buying something from here, anything, had all the blood in his brain draining for parts south.
There was a gorgeous, tall, stacked blond sitting on the floor surrounded by pale pink lace. She picked up a piece of it, which turned out to be a woman's thong panty.
Eric swallowed hard.
Daisy grinned. "Hi, Cassie."
"Tell me you have my shipment."
"I have your shipment." Daisy glanced at Eric, who despite Cassie's mind-blowing beauty, hadn't taken his eyes off her, and her grin turned a little wicked. "Remember that party bag you gave me?"
"How can I forget? How's your head?" Cassie asked.
"Good. Great. It's just that —"
She broke off as Josie, a woman she'd met at the lingerie party, came into the shop, handcuffed to a mouthwateringly handsome man. "Cassie, the next time you give me a damn gift bag, it'd better have something fattening in it to eat."
Cassie divided a glance between Josie and Daisy. "Are you telling me none of the gift bags worked out?"
Josie stopped, stared at the hunk of a man attached to her. "I never said that."
Daisy looked into Eric's eyes and remembered exactly what her own set of cream lace lingerie had done for her. "I never said that either."
"Well then what are you saying?" Cassie demanded.
"I'm saying…" Daisy looked at Josie's wrist and shivered, picturing herself handcuffed to Eric for the rest of her life. "That another bag would be good. I know you're not open, but I'll pay —""Me, too," Josie said. "I want to buy something else, too."
Cassie looked at the two of them and laughed. "Well, speak up, I'm busy. What is it you want?"
Josie looked at Eric, then Daisy. "Your lingerie set seems to have done wonders for you." She lifted her shackled wrist. "And trust me on this. These worked wonders, too."
Daisy grinned.
So did Josie.
"I'll take what she got," they both said at the same time.
Eric let out a slow smile that torched Daisy all the way to her toes. "No key required," he said silkily. He leaned in, hauled her close, and kissed her thoroughly.
When they broke apart, panting for air, she said breathlessly, "What was that for?"
"Because I love you. Now let's go —"
"Wait." She looked stunned. "You…love me?"
"Yep." He steered her toward the door, enjoying the way she was staring at him with shock and wonder. "I have since the first day you knocked me into the hibiscus plant."
They stepped out into the sunshine. He heard a clink of metal on metal and looked down at his wrist, where he was now handcuffed to one Daisy Arnett. "I really didn't get a key," she warned him.
"Like I said, no key required."
The End