Reaching to the back corner of the closet, she felt the soft cotton of her favorite floral sundress whose color almost matched the blue of her eyes. It was a little worn, but it would be perfect for tonight.
Glancing at her bedside clock, she rushed to the bathroom. She had just enough time to shower and apply makeup.
When she returned to the main floor, she noticed that the lights had been dimmed. Yet through the soft glow of candles strategically placed in the great room, she could see William sitting in a chair that had been turned to face her. Had he been sitting there just waiting for her? Her heart stuttered when he stood. Dressed in dark slacks and a buttoned chambray shirt, his hair still damp and brushed back from his face, he appeared even more dangerous than normal.
She stepped toward him until they both stopped just inches from touching. A delicious tingle flowed through Hannah’s body as his eyes skimmed over her then settled on her lips. The air between them seemed to spark with a magnetic force that held the two of them in place. Her breasts felt heavy and the muscles at her core contracted, making her breath catch. She wanted to kiss him but they both seemed to know that that would be a mistake. One kiss would never be enough. They had the whole night together. There was no reason to rush things. Not tonight.
The doorbell rang, startling them out of the sensuous trance.
“I’ll get it.” William stepped away and went to the front door.
Hannah poured herself a glass of wine from the bottle he had opened and took a big sip. Her body trembled with a need she had never felt for any other man. How long had they been standing there? It was as if they could be intimate without even touching. Just the warmth of his gaze was enough to set her body on fire.
“I feel bad that Lindsey paid for our dinner,” William said as he set the cardboard box on the table set for just the two of them.
“Why? You’ve been so great helping her with her homework while I’ve been busy with my own studies. By the way, she made an A on that history paper you helped her with,” Hannah said as she took her seat, opened the box and breathed in the smell of crusty bread and tomato sauce rich with herbs. The only thing she could remember eating today was a piece of Avery’s overly sweet birthday cake. She took two pieces of the pizza without even considering the calories. Hopefully, she’d burn it off later tonight.
“She’s a smart kid,” he said, taking his seat.
“She’s had a lot of catching up to do after so much time in hospital. Lindsey missed so much school while she was sick that she’s had to have tutoring for the last two summers. But she’s finally catching up with her classmates,” Hannah said.
As they ate, she told him about the particular heart defect Lindsey had been born with and the number of surgeries and complications she’d overcome. When they’d finished their meal, neither one seemed ready to rush the time they had together.
“You’ve done a great job with her,” William said. “Your parents have to see that.”
How could she explain her parents to him when she didn’t even understand them herself?
“When Lindsey was born with a heart defect, my parents felt that it would be best if I let someone older, with more support, raise her,” she said. Not that they’d ever offered to help. Then again, that had never been the plan.
Hannah’s stomach twisted as she was reminded of the secret she’d hidden away. William wouldn’t consider her such a wonderful mother if he knew—
But keeping the truth from him didn’t seem right. She wanted him to know the real her, warts and all. Would he look at her differently when he learned the truth? There was only one way to find out.
“Lindsey doesn’t know this...but the plan was never for me to keep her,” Hannah told him. This was this one terrible truth that had haunted her as her child had lain sick and at times close to death. Who would have been there beside her child if she had let her parents have their way?
Hannah took a large swallow of wine before continuing. “When I came home from college and told my parents that I was pregnant and the father did not want to be involved, they arranged for a couple in their church to adopt the baby. A private adoption...
“I shouldn’t have been surprised. They’d always controlled my life and I’d never been given the freedom that my friends had. My parents didn’t see it as any different from deciding what college I would attend.”
She paused as if to take a calming breath. “When I found out about the adoption arrangements, I was angry. I pushed back as hard as I could, but eventually they convinced me that the best thing for my child was for me to give her parents who could provide for her.
“I’m not trying to put all the blame on them,” she quickly added. “I had the final decision on what I would do. I knew I had nothing to offer a child. I was the one who had been willing to give my daughter up. I was the one who would have signed the papers to give my daughter away.”
“You were young, Hannah. Your parents made some good points,” William said.
“I know, and sometimes I can convince myself of that. But when Lindsey was born with a heart defect and the family that was supposed to adopt her backed out, I knew I couldn’t give my baby up.
“My parents refused to understand why I insisted on keeping her. That’s when I realized that what they really wanted was for us all to pretend that Lindsey had never happened. They wanted me to leave her at the hospital, where she would have gone into foster care if another couple couldn’t have been found by the adoption agency. I refused, and they wouldn’t support my decision. Hannah took a sip from her wineglass. “It’s only been in the last year that they’ve showed any sign of wanting to be a part of our lives.”
It still hurt to admit that her parents had abandoned not only their granddaughter, but also their own child. It had taken years for Hannah to come to terms with the fact that her parents had controlled her whole life up until the moment she had walked out with Lindsey. Part of her had thought they would come after her, that they would change their minds, but they were too proud for that. They would never admit that they had made a mistake.
The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Some of the candles had burned down, leaving the room in almost total darkness.
She had told him everything now.
“I’ve never regretted the decision I made to keep my daughter, William, even though there were times I wasn’t sure how we were going to make it. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I had walked away and left her in that hospital. Just like I know you wouldn’t have been able to live with yourself if you had turned your back on Avery.”
“Hannah, you are one special lady,” William said.
“And you are one special man.”
“I’m not—” he said, stopping when she put a finger to his lips.
“To me, you are. And that’s all that matters tonight.”
William nipped at her finger and she drew it back and placed it in her mouth. His eyes blazed with heat as candlelight flickered across them. He held his hand out for hers and she gave it to him, mesmerized as he raised it to his lips and kissed each fingertip.
This was the man no one else knew. Right now, he was her William. Tomorrow he’d step back into the shoes of the William others knew as the ice-cold neurosurgeon. But that was tomorrow. Tonight, he was all hers.
They stood and she stepped into his arms as he reached for her. The first time they had made love, they had both been desperate. This time, she wanted to take her time as she loved him with her body. She would give him the tenderness of her lips, the warmth of her breasts, and the sweet completeness of their joining. They’d made no promises to each other. Tonight would be special, and they both knew it. She would make sure that he would never forget this night.
Hannah kissed him lightly on the lips before pulling away and taking his hand.
“My room,” she said as they got to
the top of the stairs. For some reason, the choice mattered to her. Home advantage? Maybe, she thought as she shut the door behind them so they wouldn’t disturb Avery.
As the door clicked softly into place, strong arms surrounded her. She turned into them as William pulled her close. His lips met hers as he held her tightly against him. She could feel every inch of his hard body. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Hannah ran her hands into his hair and gave over her mouth to him. His tongue tangled with hers and her body shuddered. She’d thought she could control this need they had for each other. She’d been wrong.
“Too many clothes,” he said, his lips leaving hers and his hands reaching behind her for the zipper of her dress.
“Yes,” she said as she pulled back and began to work the buttons of his shirt.
Hannah felt the cool air against her skin as her dress landed at her feet. She pulled the shirt loose from his pants and ran her hands up the strong chest she had not been able to forget since that first night in the gym.
William’s clothes quickly followed hers to the floor as they touched and tasted, each taking the time to explore. He moaned when she grazed his nipple with her teeth. He returned the torment as he cupped her breasts and tortured each nipple with his tongue.
He lifted her into his arms and lay her on the bed before returning to his pants to retrieve something from his wallet.
When he was back beside her, Hannah opened herself to him and welcomed him into her. She sighed with contentment as he covered her body with his. Never had she felt so complete, so whole. Reaching up, she pulled his head down and looked into eyes that spoke of something she knew he wasn’t prepared to confess.
Did he see that same desperate emotion in her eyes? What if she said the words she knew he didn’t want to hear? Would it push him away? Did he know he filled not only her body but also her heart? She had to take the chance. She had to tell him.
“William, I—” His lips crushed hers, taking the words she would give him away.
All thought left her. He moved inside her, but not with the slow, gentle loving he’d showed her before. Gone was that gentle lover, replaced by a man who demanded that she give him total possession of her body. He drove himself into her with a desperate need she answered with her own.
Arching into him, Hannah wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him closer as her body began to tremble. Holding back nothing, she screamed as the force of the climax took over. Still, William thrust inside her, claiming her body as he took everything she had to give until he joined her in completion.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SOMEONE HAD HOLD of his face. Groaning, William turned his head away only to have two small hands turn it back. So that was how the game was played. He turned his head the other way and Avery giggled then turned it back toward her. He wiggled his mouth back and forth and the giggling increased as the toddler patted his cheeks. Opening his eyes, he was greeted with deep brown ones that were all but plastered to his face.
“Good morning, Avery. And how did you manage to get in here?” he asked. He’d been so busy trying to catch up in his role as Avery’s substitute parent that he hadn’t thought about what having a young child in the house would mean for his sex life. He couldn’t imagine any of the women he had dated being happy about his new role. If there was one thing he’d learned from his father’s experiences, it was that women did not like to share a man’s attention with anyone else.
“She woke up in the night and I just let her sleep with us,” Hannah called out from the open bathroom door.
“Probably too much partying last night,” William joked as he moved Avery over to the other side of the bed while he sat up and rearranged the comforter. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear her.”
He didn’t make it a practice to wake up in a women’s bed and the few times he had, it had been extremely awkward for both him and the woman. Somehow, this morning didn’t feel that way. It was just another day for the two of them to juggle childcare and work. And that was Hannah’s doing. She always seemed to know what he needed from her.
He’d sworn he’d keep her out of his life, but somehow she’d found a way inside the walls he’d constructed to keep others out. She now knew more about him than any other person. Having someone know all your secrets was somehow liberating. And that definitely surprised him. He’d always been afraid to share that much of himself with anyone.
“Too much sugar,” Hannah said before he heard the hair dryer turn on.
William remembered the first three nights Avery had been with him. They had both been miserable, neither getting much sleep. The giggling child who was now playing with a stuffed toy was much more appealing than the one who’d cried continuously every time he had tried to get her to go to sleep in the small cot her nanny had dropped off with her. He’d ordered a crib as soon as the store had opened the next day. It hadn’t helped.
It had only been when Hannah had moved in that the situation had improved. She’d had the answer to every problem...and now she had shared hers with him. He wasn’t the same man he had been then. With Hannah’s help, he’d learned to take care of Avery as well as any other father could.
“It was her birthday. Of course she had too much sugar,” he said as Hannah stepped into the room. She’d already dressed in scrubs for her day in the office yet she looked just as beautiful as she had last night when they’d dressed up for dinner. He found her beauty a soft gentle thing that tugged at his heart as well as his body—
His mind came to a screeching halt. Was he somehow romanticizing this thing between them? Just because he was more comfortable around her than he’d ever been around another person didn’t mean there was a future for them. That wasn’t the plan.
The plan had never included becoming lovers, either.
“She hasn’t woken in the middle of the night in weeks, so I wouldn’t worry about it.” Hannah reached down and picked Avery up. “I’ll feed her this morning while you get ready. I would have woken you earlier, but I knew your first appointment this morning wasn’t till nine, so you should have time to do your rounds before you come to the office.”
He looked over at the clock on the bedside table as Hannah left the room. He had no idea where this thing between them was going. He’d been honest with her concerning the future he had seen for himself before Avery had come into his life. Now the thought of the empty life he’d planned seemed to be losing some of its appeal.
Last night they had found a passion he had never experienced before. One that had driven Hannah to almost whisper those three words that had always sent him running. Words she would have regretted once her body had been satisfied and her mind had cleared. Words she wouldn’t have been able to take back once she’d said them. Words that hurt when they weren’t returned.
He’d refused to hear them, choosing instead to protect her from the pain she would have felt this morning. If one person could understand why he didn’t believe in the love all the romantics talked about, it was Hannah. She knew he had no belief in the happily-ever-after love his father had promised not one, but four different brides. William might be able to forgive his father for moving on with his life after his mother’s accident, but that didn’t mean he could change what he had seen and experienced in the name of love.
William picked his pants up from the floor where he had dropped them and headed for the shower. Maybe the best thing was for them both to ignore what was happening between them. If he was lucky, his day would be a busy one with no time to think about the night before, because there was a part of him that couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if he’d been brave enough to let Hannah say those three little words. And that was a thought that scared him to death.
* * *
“Hannah!” Mrs. Nabors called out as Marion walked her and her daughter along the hall to an examination room.
“Mrs. Nabors, how are you doing?” Hanna
h inquired, giving the woman a hug. “You look great.”
“The rehab has really helped,” Lisa, her daughter, said.
“I can take them,” Hannah told Marion. While still not singing her praises, the older nurse had stopped hounding Hannah about everything she did.
“So you’re not working at the hospital anymore?” Lisa asked as Hannah settled them into the room.
“I’ve taken some time off to complete my remaining clinical hours for my bachelor’s degree. That’s why I’m working here with Dr. Cooper,” Hannah said as she applied the blood pressure cuff to Mrs. Nabors’s arm.
“Well, you’re working for one of the best,” the older woman said. “And he’s such a nice young man—”
A door slammed down the hall and she heard Marion cry out. Had she fallen?
“I’ll be right back,” Hannah said before rushing out of the room.
Expecting to see the nurse on the floor, she dashed around the corner of the hall and stopped. Marion was leaning back against the wall opposite a man Hannah recognized as Jeannine Jones’s husband. She glanced at Marion. “Did he hurt you?”
Marion shook her head, though Hannah could see that she was cradling her arm.
“What is it you want, Mr. Jones?” Hannah asked. His wife had been moved out of the critical care department only the day before with strict orders that he was not to visit once they had learned he’d been released on bond. Surely, the staff had not let him in to see her.
“I want to see the doctor that’s told those nurses I couldn’t see my wife. And I want to see him now!”
William had been on a call for a consult with another doctor earlier, but she knew he’d be out at any minute. In the mood that Calvin Jones was in, there was no telling what he would do. She needed to notify the security officers that minded the entrance of the office complex without letting him know what she was doing.
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