Redeeming the Rebel Doc

by Susan Carlisle

  “Lie back on the bed.” She gave his chest a gentle shove with the palm of her hand. He fell back onto the mattress. Seconds later she was beside him. Her hand roamed his chest as she planted kisses along the crest of his shoulder. Again he attempted to touch her but she wouldn’t allow it. “No, this is my turn.”

  Frustration built in him like pressure in a volcano.

  Her fingers found his hair and brushed it out around his head. “I love your hair. All wild and wonderful.”

  “I thought you wanted it cut short,” he said with a grin.

  * * *

  Tiffani leaned back so that he could see her face clearly. “No. I think you’re like Samson, you get your strength from it. It’s a statement of who you are.” She threaded her fingers through his and stretched her arms out. Letting her breasts sweep his chest, she gave him a wet, hot kiss.

  Rex’s restraint was close to his limit. She straddled him and every muscle in his body constricted. His manhood rested in the crease of her behind. Just one small movement...

  She rose up on her knees. “Protection?”

  “Drawer,” he croaked, and pointed to his bedside table.

  Tiffani leaned over him. After pulling the drawer open, she rummaged around until she came out with a square package. He took it from her, opened it and quickly covered himself. He fisted a handful of her hair and brought her mouth back to his.

  As they kissed Tiffani positioned her moist, hot center over him. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she slid down his shaft. Rex clenched his teeth at the exquisite pleasure. He couldn’t have stopped the lift of his hips if he’d wanted to. With one swift surge she took his entire length. Her eyes closed as an enraptured look covered her face. She pulled upward and pushed down again. When she started to repeat it, he met her action with an instinctive reaction.

  She pulled her mouth from his and straightened, throwing back her head, hands braced on his chest as their pace became more frantic. He watched her breasts bobbing, keeping time with their joined rhythm. He would remember this view forever.

  Tiffani’s mouth formed a small O, as if this second orgasm had taken her by surprise. She shuddered over him.

  Male satisfaction filled him. He felt like he should be standing at the top of a mountain, thumping his chest, letting all the world know how great a lover he was.

  She eased down over his chest like melting ice cream in the sunshine and sighed.

  He rolled her over and reentered her. Gathering his hair in her hands and wrapping her legs around his waist, she joined him in his frantic ride to the finish. With a low grunt of release, he was transported to paradise.

  * * *

  Rex didn’t know what time it was when he woke but there was still daylight and he was sprawled out on the top of his bed with the most amazing woman he’d ever met curled into his side, sleeping.

  It had been a surreal day. Nothing had been as he’d expected. Tiffani had made it different. There was movement beside him. He looked at her. Her eyelids rose slowly. She blinked and her eyes went round.

  “Hey,” she said shyly, and looked away.

  “Hey, yourself.”

  She shifted away from him and climbed off the bed.

  He reached for her and just missed her hand. “Where’re you going?”

  “I should find my clothes.”

  Rex watched her bare butt as she exited his room. This unsure Tiffani was a new side of her he found intriguing.

  A few seconds later, as he was pulling on his shorts he saw her dashing into the other bedroom with clothes in her arms. So much for the soft afterglow moments. Did she regret what had happened between them? He wasn’t going to let the situation become awkward. What they had shared had been amazing, nothing to be was ashamed of.

  He was in the kitchen when Tiffani showed up again, wearing the clothes he’d let her borrow. He informed her, “I put our clothes in the dryer. They should be done in a little while. I thought you might like a glass of tea while you wait.” He sat the two cups on the table.

  “I don’t think I’ll wait for my clothes. I’ll get them later.” She moved toward the door.

  “Whoa.” He grabbed her forearm. “Where’re you headed?”

  She looked at his hand and he let it fall away. “I just think it’s time for me to go.”

  Rex stepped close to her. “Take a breath. Slow down. Why don’t you have a seat and we can talk about any arguments you might have to me kissing you again.” He grinned at her and pulled out a chair. “Because I’m certainly going to kiss you again.”

  She gave him an odd but endearing smile before she dropped into the chair. A few seconds later she took a sip of tea.

  Rex sat at the end of the table to give her some space. She appeared to relax. The silence, to his surprise, wasn’t tense but more like that of two friends sharing a few quiet moments.

  “This sure is a nice kitchen,” she said, looking around. “It looks like it’s used regularly. Some woman isn’t going to come home and find me here, is she?”

  Her sense of humor was starting to return. “You’re asking me now if I have a wife or girlfriend?”

  “I know you don’t. Remember I read your bio.” She played with the condensation on the glass.

  He nodded. “That’s right, the big folder of doom.”

  She cracked a smile.

  Progress. He wanted the fun and open Tiffani back. “For your information, I do the cooking here. I consider myself a gourmet chef when I have time to prepare a meal.”

  “Really?”

  He smiled. “That wasn’t in the folder of doom either.”

  Her eyes lit up. “No, but that’s great information. I could really use it.”

  “Tiff, I didn’t tell you that so you can use it for the campaign. Can’t you be off work for a little while?”

  “I’m sorry. It’s really all I have and I sometimes get carried away.” She looked both sincere and sad.

  Rex turned serious. “If I tell you something few others know, are you going to tell the world?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I might want to but I’ll keep it to myself. So what is it?”

  Satisfaction ran through him. He’d captured her attention. “I grow most of my food.”

  “I noticed your garden outside. That’s really wonderful.” She walked to the glass door and looked out onto his rainy patio. “Did you learn to cook from your mom?”

  “Hardly. We had a housekeeper. My mother was too busy spending her time at the country club and planning bridge parties to cook.”

  Tiffani’s attention came back to him. Had she heard the bitterness in his voice? “My daddy wouldn’t have a garden. He could have. People offered to build boxes high enough for him but he didn’t want anyone’s help.”

  “You would’ve liked to have had a garden, wouldn’t you? I learned to cook by watching late-night cooking shows to wind down after a long day. The cooks talked about using fresh vegetables and herbs and I thought I’d give it a try. Turns out I’m good at it.”

  “You’re good at a lot of things.”

  He gave her a lopsided grin and a pointed look. “I like to think so.”

  Tiffani blushed a lovely shade of pink. “I’m just going to get my clothes. If they’re a little damp it won’t matter. I’m sure the good-looking bachelor must have a date on a Saturday night.”

  She didn’t wait for him to respond before she headed for the laundry room.

  That was it! Rex followed her. “Let me get this right. You actually think that I’d have sex with you in the afternoon and go out on a date this evening? You think that little of me?”

  Tiffani straightened from where she had been looking into the dryer. She clutched a couple of articles of clothing in her hands. “I don’t know what I think. I hadn’t planned on this afternoon happening.”

 
Rex stepped closer. “I didn’t either.” His hands came to rest on her waist. “But I thought it was amazing. More than amazing.” He placed kisses along her neck.

  “I need—”

  He brought her against his growing manhood, letting her know what he was thinking. He murmured, “What do you need?”

  Her mouth found his. The clothes she held fell to the floor as her arms circled his neck. Rex lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his hips. Taking a step back, he set her on the top of the dryer. She let him go and shimmied out of her pants while he pushed his shorts down and kicked them away. His lips found hers again.

  He could learn to love this Tiffani.

  * * *

  The next morning the sun streamed through Tiffani’s bedroom window. The storm had passed. She moved and a sweet soreness reminded her she had used muscles for activities she hadn’t enjoyed for far too long. Sex on a dryer. That was a new one for her. One she’d like to repeat.

  Her lack of control yesterday still shocked her. But she’d loved every second of touching and being touched by Rex. Her body heated at just the thought of him. She didn’t know how she would concentrate on the campaign now. Whenever she was around him all she’d be thinking about was finding a place where they could be alone.

  He’d not asked her to stay the night. She was glad because she wasn’t sure she could have said no. And the way she’d acted like a loved-starved ninny who had never had a man look at her was still horribly embarrassing. But she hadn’t ever had a man look at her the way Rex had. He was the first real man she’d ever been with.

  Intelligent, caring, attentive, as interested in her pleasure as his own, giving and fun. How had she been so wrong about him? Worse, how could she have let things between them become personal? A real relationship between them would never work. There were too many variables working against them. His job, hers. Him in Memphis and her wanting to move away. Her betraying her father. Rex had said nothing about ever wanting to settle down. He was, she assured herself, the love-them-and-leave-them type. All they’d done yesterday had been to create a big tangle.

  From now on any interaction between them would be strictly business. Tiffani groaned in despair, but his kiss goodbye last night had been perfect. For a second, she would have sworn she had floated.

  But no more thinking like that.

  She climbed out of bed. Enough of the daydreaming. Her father was expecting her to visit. She wouldn’t disappoint him. He had called, asking her to do some shopping for him.

  If she didn’t discipline herself, she’d stay in bed and relive every second of those moments with Rex.

  * * *

  The last few days were ones to remember, but not in a good way. They didn’t improve when Rex’s cellphone rang around seven that evening as he pushed open the hospital door leading to the parking lot with thoughts of calling Tiffani.

  “Rex Maxwell,” he answered, trying not to snap but just missing it.

  “Dr. Maxwell, you’re needed in the OR. Auto accident.”

  He sighed. “I’m on my way.”

  Despite his regular surgery schedule, he’d done his share of emergency surgery in the last few days. He hadn’t even had time to call or see Tiffani. He only hoped she didn’t think he had used her and forgotten about her. He didn’t believe in being intimate with a woman and then ignoring her. The least he would do was explain how he felt if he didn’t plan to see her again. In Tiffani’s case, he had every intention of seeing more of her, as well as experiencing her.

  The problem was he couldn’t get away from the hospital. He didn’t remember another time he’d resented his job but he did tonight. Tiffani pulled at him. Like a need he didn’t think would ever be fulfilled. But right now he had a job to do.

  He hurried up the stairs to the second floor. Pushing through the surgery suite doors, he asked the unit secretary which OR.

  She called as he continued down the hall toward the locker room, “Six.”

  Minutes later he was changed, back in scrubs and washing his hands.

  His scrub nurse came up beside him with a hat and mask. He leaned down and she helped him finish dressing. “So, what do we have?”

  In a solemn voice she said, “Teen. One-car accident. Rollover. Thrown out. Internal injuries.”

  Rex let out a string of expletives beneath his mask.

  “I know what you mean,” his nurse replied. “It seems like it happens every full moon.” She looked closely at Rex. “When was the last time you slept in your own bed and not in an on-call room?”

  “Three or four nights ago,” he said, remembering how Tiffani had left and he’d wished he’d insisted she stay. But he hadn’t wanted to push. She was skittish enough about them being together. He’d missed her all night long. “Anesthesia ready?”

  “Will be by the time we get in there.” His nurse finished tying his mask.

  “Then let’s go.”

  They headed into the OR.

  “History?” he said to his physician’s assistant, who was already standing beside the patient on the table.

  “Sixteen-year-old male, good heath, no allergies. Only issue is that his car didn’t win the war with the tree.”

  “Let’s get him patched up. What’re we going after first?” Rex glanced at the X-rays on the wall screen.

  “Spleen,” the PA said.

  “Turn on the rock ’n’ roll and let’s get started.” Rex stepped to the table. The music filled the room as he removed the organ, stitched up two perforations to the boy’s kidney, one to the stomach. He had hopes of closing when the monitors started beeping.

  “BP’s going down,” the anesthesiologist said urgently from by the patient’s head.

  “There has to be a bleeder somewhere. Suction.” Tension started to well in him. He needed to find it, and fast.

  Over the next few minutes he searched frantically with no success. Rex was still looking when the anesthesiologist said, “That’s it.”

  “Continue CPR while I look,” Rex demanded.

  “It’s over, Rex.” The anesthesiologist met his look over his mask and shook his head. “He was already too far gone when he came in.”

  That wasn’t what the family was going to want to hear. Rex left the OR. In the locker room, he jerked off his cap and slung it to the floor. Sitting on the bench, he put his forearms on his knees and hung his head. Now he had to go tell the boy’s parents he’d been unable to save his life. These cases took a bite out of his heart every time.

  Had he done all he could do? What had he missed? Should he have made the repairs in a different order? For all his bravado about it, before the lawsuit he’d never questioned himself like he did now. It was hard to admit, but it was true.

  Picking up his cap, he stood and headed for the waiting room. Talking to the parents couldn’t be put off any longer.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  IT HAD BEEN easier to avoid crossing paths with Rex than Tiffani had anticipated. Sunday she had spent with her father. It hadn’t been pleasant. He’d harped on about her job being a betrayal of her loyalty to him. She knew she mustn’t ever let escape the least hint of how she’d spent her afternoon the day before. Even so, her father noticed her mind wandered more often than usual.

  The next three long days at the office she spent managing social media, a magazine interview and other details of the campaign. Rex must have decided, as she had, that what they had done couldn’t continue, because he hadn’t tried to contact her. She didn’t have a good reason to call him so she left things well enough alone. Yet he was constantly in her thoughts. When she wasn’t dreaming of being kissed by him, she was forced to speak his name in the course of her job.

  Her doorbell ringing just before midnight woke her. Someone needing something this late couldn’t be good. Her phone buzzed, indicating a text message. What was going on?
/>   She looked at her phone.

  The doorbell rang again.

  The number was Rex’s.

  Let me in.

  Her heart hummed. Her common sense balked. Why was he here? It didn’t matter. He just was.

  She didn’t bother with a robe and hurried downstairs in her nightshirt. Flipping on the porch light, she checked through the peephole. He was leaning against the doorjamb. The doorbell rang again. She unlocked the door. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

  There was a weariness that hung heavily around him. His shoulders slumped. Concern pushed away any excitement she felt over seeing him. “Tell me what’s wrong. What happened?”

  He wrapped her in his arms and buried his face in her neck. “I don’t want to think about it. Talk about it. I just want us. To know again how good you make me feel.” His mouth found hers. There was hunger, desperation and need in his movements. His tongue mated with hers, becoming more desperate with every thrust.

  All her vows fled. The glow only he could ignite with his touch grew. Sheer joy filled her. Her nerves tingled and her heart hammered against her ribs. This was what being alive felt like! She had no fear other than that Rex might pull away. He was hurting and she was here for him.

  He lifted her and carried her inside far enough to kick the door closed, holding her so tight her breath was erratic. His mouth found her earlobe and his teeth bit down until she winced. With a brush of the tip of his tongue, he eased the pain. He cupped her butt and jerked her against him. His manhood was thick, long and solid beneath the fabric of his scrubs.

  “I need you,” he growled, then kissed her neck. “Now.”

  She sensed his desperate fight for control more than felt it. To know she’d driven him so close to his breaking point empowered her femininity, set her own desire to boil deep inside her. Blood rushed to her center, to where she urgently craved Rex.

  He needed her. Had come to find her.

  Happiness gushed within her. She brought her legs up around his hips. “My bedroom is upstairs.”