Tuning out the conversation while he watched her, he lifted a glass of champagne in her direction when she finally looked back.
‘So have you been enjoying our little city?’ The hospital chair’s question brought him back into the moment.
‘Of course,’ Andrew replied, putting on his best networking charm. ‘Who wouldn’t be happy working in paradise?’
‘I heard from the Commander that you are doing great work and he told me about your cardio background. If you choose to make the move permanent I know I would love to show you around the cardiac department of the hospital.’
The overture surprised Andrew. Why would anyone think he would consider leaving a top-end centre for medical excellence in London for a two-bit regional hospital? However, smiling his professional interest, Andrew politely broke any illusion they might have of him staying in Australia longer than his contract entailed.
The middle-aged administrator took his words well and his face broke into a more unaffected smile as another guest approached them. ‘Kate. Lovely to see you here tonight as well.’
‘Hello Richard,’ Kate replied, as she greeted him warmly. ‘I hope you are enjoying the evening. Lucy and the resort have done such a good job planning it.’
‘Certainly dear. Now I can see my wife signalling me.’
As the hospital administrator walked away, Kate took advantage of a moment of privacy and said, ‘I’ve always thought of Richard Sidler as a particularly shrewd man. I’m not sure why he would think that he had any chance of luring your medical ambition away from the bright lights of London. Because, let’s face it, any more than the six months you’ve committed to is a complete waste of time.’
That may have been exactly what Andrew had been thinking but he felt some unknown need to protest it. ‘I guess he thought I would be a good fit for his hospital, or that the charms of Cairns would seduce me towards a more permanent Australian life.’
One of Cairns’s biggest wonders was probably standing before him; however, most of the time he just felt like putting her in the naughty corner. Especially when she was standing there, judging him again.
Kate shrugged her toned shoulders, in a gesture guaranteed to make him want to explode. ‘Well I guess a good networker never burns any bridges or causes any offense. And doctor, you are a master networker.’
Andrew let out a short laugh that was quite possibly too loud. ‘Darling Kate,’ he said, knowing she would hate the overfriendly endearment, ‘I’m far too much of a gentleman to point out that I overheard a very animated description of last week’s rescue when you were talking to the head of marketing for a prominent bank. As you aren’t wearing burlap and not trying to shake down those donated dollars, I wouldn’t start throwing around accusations of calculation.’
One thing about this woman was that she didn’t stand down. Instead, she acknowledged his hit with a mini toast, only replying, ‘For the good of the rescue crew. God knows we need those sponsors to help us stay in the air.’
Feeling they had come to a respectable impasse and also not wanting to make too much of a spectacle here tonight, Andrew took a step back from the intensity and said, ‘You do look very glamorous by the way. I would have said it earlier but I had to allow for a certain amount of insults to make you feel at home.’
To his surprise, her high cheekbones coloured with the very faintest of pink blushes.
‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice pitched quieter. ‘We have to represent.’
At her slight discomfiture, Andrew couldn’t resist his next action. Taking great care not to touch her actual skin, he reached out and touched the heavy intricate silver and stones that surrounded her neck and watched carefully for the slight dilation of her pupils.
‘This is unusual.’
Kate’s next breath must have been deeper because he watched her chest rise that bit higher as he reluctantly removed his hand from the cool metal.
‘I bought the necklace in Jordon on a diving holiday. Coral and blue turquoise, I couldn’t resist.’
Standing there, surrounded, in crowded room, Andrew’s mind flashed to some of the things he possibly couldn’t resist where she was concerned. In fact, some of the images had his thighs tightening and his pants feeling considerably more constrictive.
Kate must have felt some of that intensity as she took a bodily step away.
‘So it really has been a successful evening. All the tickets sold out and the donations from the silent auction should guarantee the new portable neo-natal humidicrib that we requested.’
‘The community is more generous than I expected. For the most part it isn’t huge business but individuals here,’ Andrew observed.
She seemed more relaxed discussing neutral topics and animation flowed from her. ‘The distances involved here mean that this service is vital. You’ve been in the field for long enough now to see that the work we do actually does save lives, and the community here knows and wants to support that.’ This time her shrug was far less infuriating. ‘Most people are inherently more generous than the world gives them credit for.’
‘No wonder we were seated at the corporate table. If you ever gave up being a paramedic you would excel in public relations.’
Kate seemed slightly embarrassed by the implication. ‘Well if I felt the need to check in my many years of experience as a highly trained professional for the role of cheerleader I’ll tell the Commander that you highly support my new career path.’
There he had it; somehow, they had gotten back to the point of impasse. For a minute, Andrew stopped talking and took in the rest of the room. The band behind them had picked up their instruments and began to play a familiar refrain.
‘So are you going to dance with me tonight?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Kate said.
Andrew waited for more of an explanation but nothing seemed to be forthcoming.
‘No?’ he repeated.
Kate actually looked a little discomforted and ran a nervous hand over the curve of her shoulder strap. ‘Andrew, we are the only two single people on our rescue team. Dancing together isn’t a good look unless we want to invite completely unnecessary gossip.’
‘Why on earth would you be worried about what anyone thought of our dancing together?’ Andrew asked, genuinely flummoxed.
‘Because unlike your fly-in-fly-out career move, I intend to live in this community for some time. I am one of the few women who work as a rescue paramedic at an elite level and I don’t particularly embrace the idea of looking like I shag the members of my team.’
Kate’s words might have seemed angrily expressed, but her tone was quiet. Public spectacles certainly were not her thing.
‘It must have been some dance you were imagining because I don’t remember an invitation to shag being part of my version of a waltz.’
‘Oh well, my bad.’ Kate smiled mechanically. ‘You’ll have to make that generous offer to a more receptive audience obviously.’
Kate must have seen someone approaching, because instead of kicking him, as she had looked inclined to do, she smiled. At Lucy’s approach and with more exuberant ease than she usually demonstrated, she embraced her best friend.
‘Sweetheart, you killed it.’
The woman might make his shoulder blades itch but he doubted there were many more attractive pictures than two gorgeous women hugging with genuine affection.
‘So far, no disasters,’ said Lucy, squeezing Kate’s hands in her own. ‘I’ve just come over to tell you Reid called and we thought after this winds down, you guys might want to join us for last drinks.’
Andrew wasn’t sure that Kate would appreciate them being lumped together but he accepted just the same. ‘I’d love to,’ he said. ‘May as well make the most of being on-site with no need for a designated driver.’
Two hours later, Andrew could only laugh as two beautifully dressed women incongruously threw back tequila slammers and slumped back onto the low-seated leather lounges. Gone was the professio
nal façade that they had maintained through the night, as they sat just the four of them in the low-lit, now closed, resort bar.
Lucy’s boyfriend Reid had snuck in as the last of staff were clearing champagne flutes. Dressed in uniform pants and a plain t-shirt, he had greeted Lucy with an enthusiastic kiss. Andrew had shed his own silk tie and jacket as he listened to the police officer regale them with the story of a car chase involving a local identity’s wayward son.
Andrew sat next to the dark, stocky cop and felt a surprising amount of solidarity, as a fellow frontline first responder.
‘Andrew, your turn,’ Kate challenged, as she turned over the Tequila bottle to him.
‘Glad none of us are working tomorrow,’ he said, as he bottled down the liquid fire. ‘A Sunday off for a policeman, doctor, paramedic and a resort manager. With the planets aligned like that we are definitely obliged to celebrate.’
Kate rested her head on Lucy’s shoulder, a relaxed half smile on her full lips.
‘If you two celebrate much more, we’ll need a one of the resort’s golf buggies to get you home,’ said Andrew, taking in their glazed eyes.
Kate waved her hand at him in a distinctly female airy gesture, ‘You living next door should finally have some benefit. If worst comes to worst, you can carry me home.’
No-one could accuse her of not being plain spoken but Andrew found it hard to hold a grudge, especially at the idea of having his arms full of Kate. Beautiful tipsy Kate who was currently pulling on the shoulder of her elegant evening gown.
As his level of awareness grew, watching her sultry eyes, Andrew damped it down. ‘So says the girl who wouldn’t even dance with me tonight.’
‘Straight laced Andrew-pie strikes again. I’ll dance with you now if you were so insulted by my refusal,’ said Kate, pushing to the front of her seat.
Lucy reached over and took her hand in her own. ‘Do not encourage her,’ she mock scowled to Andrew. ‘I really don’t need any need any high-heeled foot prints on top of my tabletops.’
Kate laughed, ‘Even if I took off my shoes.’
‘Even then,’ Lucy replied.
‘And you call this a party?’
Lucy got to her feet with only a slight amount of trouble. ‘Actually I call this, I’ve had too much to drink, I’ve got sore feet from being on my feet all day, and I’m dying to take my boyfriend home.’
With those words, Lucy reached over to Reid and ran her hand down his chest.
Such was the intensity between the couple, Andrew felt compelled to look away.
‘Show off,’ said Kate, affection evident in her tone. ‘Some of us aren’t going home to a hot body tonight.’
Lucy, however, didn’t seem to be handing out any sympathy medals as she grabbed the last of the bottle of tequila and gave it to Reid to stash under his arm.
‘Bad luck, darling,’ Lucy included Andrew in her expansive gesture. ‘Seeing as you are both attractive enough to have your pick of adult company, you aren’t allowed to whine about it here.’
Andrew had to acknowledge the truth of her words with a shrug. Truth be told, there had been an awareness of several women’s invitations tonight that he had glossed over in favour of being here in this company. In Kate’s company.
‘I’ve got the keys, so you two scat.’ Following Lucy’s instructions, Kate and Andrew got to their feet. He at least was steady, Kate took two attempts.
Andrew took her elbow once she reached her feet. ‘Alright?’
‘Abso-bloody-lutely,’ she replied, as she pulled away from his grounding grasp, her green eyes meeting his evaluating gaze.
Her reply certainty got a laugh from the nearby waiting Reid. He beckoned Andrew, so he left the girls to their goodbyes and went to the side of the room with the man.
‘We are going the other way to the manager’s quarters,’ said Reid.
Andrew wondered why the man was sharing this trivia with him. He knew already that Lucy lived in the opposite direction.
‘Lucy must trust you,’ Reid continued. ‘It is not every man that she would leave with her tipsy best friend.’
Andrew looked at the stocky police officer and knew that according to secret men’s code this was as much a warning as a compliment.
‘Hey, we are colleagues,’ he reassured. ‘Of course, I will get her home safely.’
Reid raised his eyebrow in reply, went to his girlfriend and wrapped his arm around her, letting his hand rest securely on the dent of her lower back. Andrew envied him that intimacy. It had been too long since he had shared that level of comfortable touch with a woman.
‘OK big boy, let’s get home.’ Kate’s words brought him back to the present.
‘Bye guys.’ At least he and Reid didn’t need to share enthusiastic kisses on both cheeks and numerous ‘call me in the morning’s.’
He finally found himself walking along the wooden boardwalk with Kate padding along beside him.
‘Don’t they make a good couple?’ Her slightly too loud question broke the late night stillness.
‘Yeah, nice. Although I couldn’t imagine her with a policemen until we met.’
‘That is because you are very probably, very maybe a snob, Andrew.’
Turning around to watch her, Andrew could see the overly deliberate way she put one high-heeled shoe in front of another on the wooden surface. He put his hand under her elbow, again, and did his best to ignore the softness of her skin.
‘I’m certainly not that, not that I expect you to believe me.’ He pitched his voice low, even in protest; after all, they were very close to darkened bungalows in which people were trying to sleep. ‘Even with his tattoos Reid just seems unlike what I imagined Lucy’s taste to run to.’
‘I think Lucy had enough of well-heeled hotel guests who hit on her, whether or not they had wives and partners at home. Reid is a good guy. He is a great cop and has the added bonus of being sexy as hell.’
Andrew was going to ask her if she had hunted in that particular pond but decided against it. Kate, however, didn’t seem to share his restraint.
‘Doctor, who gets your engine running?’ she asked, turning an amused gaze towards him.
Even drunk, Andrew knew better than to reply the current truthful ‘you’.
‘I don’t really have a type,’ he parried instead.
‘What a lie, everyone has a type.’
‘Not everyone does.’ Andrew maintained, trying to ignore the fact that in her enthusiasm she had brought his hand to her side where it tantalizingly brushed again her breast. That proximity, even in an accidental pass, had his suit pants tightening.
‘Are you going to make me guess?’
Andrew didn’t answer, although Kate didn’t seem to need verbal encouragement now her thoughts were on a runaway train.
‘Smart but not too smart,’ she started. ‘Flexible schedule, so she would never complain about your hours. Definitely immaculately groomed. Posh enough to not embarrass you at a Christmas party, so I’m thinking a perfect but invisible accent. And you are fit so she’d need to have a rocking body too.’ Kate came to a stop, forcing him to do the same. ‘Perfect hair as well. Come on, how did I do?’
‘Terribly,’ Andrew replied. He wasn’t going to tell her that she had described both his former fiancé and the three girlfriends previous to that. ‘Maybe I’m into girls with an Essex accent who give great blow jobs.’
Standing in front of him, Kate burst into laughter. She was so loud that he put his hand over her mouth in an effort to stop her waking the neighbours.
‘Shh,’ he said, keeping his body away from hers lest she feel the bulge in his pants at the feel of her lips against his hand.
There was some relief as the noise ceased, but then her wet mouth opened and she not so gently applied her teeth to one of his fingers.
‘Damn it. Jesus, Kate you didn’t have to bite me,’ he said, as he pulled back his hand, more in shock than in pain.
‘I just wanted to know how you
figured out who is going to provide the good head. Let’s face it, everyone wants tips on finding a talented person to go down on them.’
Breaking away from the frank twinkle in her eyes, Andrew didn’t bother to suppress a chuckle. He put his hand, still slightly stinging on the pad of his index finger, into his suit pants and started walking again.
‘It is an economies of scale kind of thing,’ he said. ‘After you’ve tried enough, you’ll find you just know.’
Talking about sex with her walking beside him was seriously distracting but he couldn’t help asking, ‘OK, I’ve spilled, so to speak. What kind of man sparks your interest?’
‘Who said it is men who interest me?’
Andrew almost stumbled over his feet but regained his rhythm. The light of flirtation he had seen in her eyes earlier quickly put paid to any doubt. Kate was straight.
However, he played along. ‘New question,’ he ventured. ‘What qualities, in a gender neutral person, turn you on?’
Kate shrugged expressively, ‘I wouldn’t turn down a talented mouth. I like clever and for me there is no too clever. Men who are doing something with their lives, and handsome doesn’t hurt either.’
For the first time in a long time, Andrew worried if a woman found him attractive enough. He kept moving, hands in pockets, facing forward until they reached the end of the boardwalk and their villas.
Kate fumbled in her evening purse for the key-card to open the door. ‘I like the privacy that comes with being out here in the rainforest. You’re the only neighbour who could complain about a loud TV or music. And seeing you came home at the same time as me, I don’t think you’ll be able to complain about the volume.’
With a soft exclamation of triumph, Kate pulled out her card. She had a look of accomplishment at this simple task, something which told Andrew she was still intoxicated.
‘Would you like to come in for a Berocca?’ she asked. ‘Maybe it will perform magic and stop tomorrow’s almost inevitable horrible hangover.’
Andrew had the moment of indecision of a man who wasn’t sure he was being hit on.
Kate obviously wasn’t so drunk she couldn’t recognize that. ‘Berocca, Andrew. Not sex, just Berocca.’
Rescue Nights Page 9