by Emily Forbes
‘Are you sure?’ Oliver checked. ‘You promised George you’d stay away from me.’
She grinned. ‘We both knew that was never going to happen.’
Her capitulation had not so much been a matter of time as a matter of timing. Of opportunity. And she knew this was her opportunity. She couldn’t spend the whole night with him but they had a few more hours.
There was nothing that made her think this was a bad idea. Which wasn’t to say it was a good idea. It probably wasn’t one of her best, but there had been so many experiences she had missed out on in life because she worried about what other people might think.
She knew that never bothered Oliver. He had publicists and agents to worry for him.
There was no one here to see what she was up to.
There were so many reasons why this wasn’t a great idea. They were complete opposites. She was all about family and helping people. He was about himself. He wasn’t staying and she wasn’t planning on leaving. But that was exactly why it could work. It could only ever be a fling. She was under no illusions that they could have a proper relationship and she assumed he was of the same opinion.
There were so many reasons why this wasn’t a great idea but she didn’t care. They were both consenting adults. No one was going to get hurt, she thought as she started the car and left the drive-in.
* * *
‘Wow.’ Kat collapsed onto the bed. Despite the fact that she was in Oliver’s underground hotel room, where the temperature was a constant twenty-five degrees, a thin veil of sweat coated her body, testament to their energetic lovemaking.
‘You can thank Lotte,’ Oliver said.
‘Lotte?’
‘A German girl who took my virginity when I was fifteen and introduced me to the wonderful delights of women.’
‘If I ever meet Lotte I will remember to thank her,’ Kat smiled.
‘You’re not shocked that I was fifteen?’
Kat laughed. ‘I might have only been having my first proper kiss, if you could call it that, at fifteen, but most of my friends skipped that bit. They went straight to getting married and having babies, sometimes not in that order. How old was Lotte?’
‘Nineteen.’
‘Now, that’s a bit shocking. Is that even legal?’
‘I have no idea. Possibly not. But I didn’t care.’ He shrugged and grinned. ‘Show me a randy fifteen-year-old boy who is going to say no to a gorgeous, experienced older woman.’
‘Where does a fifteen-year-old go to meet a nineteen-year-old Mata Hari?’
‘My father was stationed in Germany at the time. I had one of my brother’s IDs. We looked enough alike that the bars and clubs didn’t really care. Isaac had just left home—Dad kicked him out when he announced he was gay. That really started my rebellious years. I was sick of following the rules. What did it get us? I realised it was always going to be my father’s way or the highway, so I started exploring the highway. Sneaking off, lying. I couldn’t wait to get out of home. I was miserable and I missed Isaac.’
‘Where did he go?’
‘He got a scholarship to university. He’s an architect now. Living in Spain.’
‘Do you see him very often?’
‘Not often. Our lives are very different. He’s married now, to his long-term partner.’
‘Do you like his partner?’
‘I do. But we don’t have a lot in common any more. Our careers are different, our lifestyles too. I don’t mean because he’s gay, but he’s very settled, nine-to-five work days, four weeks’ holiday, vacations in Europe and Africa. He’s happy.’
‘And what about you? Are you happy?’
‘I am now. Leaving home was the best thing I ever did. Our father was constantly disappointed in us. Nothing we did was ever good enough. I stopped trying to please him. Leaving home was the only way I was going to be able to find out who I was. And what about you? When are you going to leave home?’
‘I went to Adelaide to study when I was eighteen but I came back when my mum died.’
‘That was a while ago now; you said your friends are married with kids, but not you? You’ve escaped all that? Or do you have an ex-husband hiding in a mine, waiting for the chance to hunt me down?’
‘You’ve been in too many movies. I don’t have an ex-husband. I want to find someone who will give me what my parents had. My parents were married for thirty-two years and they adored each other. I am looking for my soulmate.’ She rolled onto her side and tucked her leg over Oliver’s, craning her head to kiss him firmly on his mouth. ‘And now I need to go.’
‘You’re not staying?’
She shook her head. ‘My father will expect me home. He always leaves a light on and he’ll look for my car in the morning. If he doesn’t see it, he’ll worry.’
‘Why don’t you call him?’
‘And tell him what? That I’m staying out all night to have wild sex with a gorgeous man?’
‘I’m flattered. But perhaps your father doesn’t need to hear all the details.’
‘You do remember what he does for a living?’
‘So, it’s not an ex-husband but a father I have to worry about.’
‘Remember, he warned me against men like you.’
Oliver burst out laughing. ‘Men like me? What does that even mean?’
‘Charmers. Heartbreakers. Men who are only after one thing.’
‘I told you, don’t believe everything you read. I’ve dated a lot of women—it keeps me in the headlines and is good for my career—but I certainly haven’t slept with them all. I will admit, though, that I am after you.’
‘And now that you’ve had me, is that it?’
‘No. Stay here and I’ll prove it to you.’ His fingers found her naked breast and he brushed lightly over her nipple, sending waves of desire through her.
She placed her hand over his and lifted it from her body before she capitulated. ‘I can’t, I have to go. I need to get some sleep.’
‘You can sleep here in a minute,’ he said as he lowered his head and took her nipple in his mouth.
Kat arched her back as his tongue circled her breast. She almost gave in. ‘I have to go to work early tomorrow.’ He sucked on her nipple as his hand slid from her waist over her hip. ‘But why don’t you come over for dinner tomorrow night?’
She hadn’t intended to invite him but the invitation was out there now and she couldn’t take it back. She would blame her hormones. She couldn’t think clearly while his mouth and hands worked their magic.
She wriggled out from underneath him and sat up. She needed to go before she said anything else she didn’t really mean. Her mouth was working independently of her brain, or maybe her brain just wasn’t working at all; maybe it was too overloaded by her other senses.
‘I can’t. We’re filming tomorrow.’
‘At night?’
Oliver wouldn’t meet her eyes and she knew he wasn’t telling her everything. She should just let it go. She should be relieved that he said no but she knew he was lying to her about something and she couldn’t leave it alone.
‘No,’ he admitted.
‘So, you have got what you wanted and now you’ll walk away?’
‘I’m not walking away but I don’t do family.’
What the hell did that mean? She was desperate to know but she let it slide. She knew from his tone he wasn’t going to discuss it further and she didn’t need to know.
She bit her tongue as she got dressed. She didn’t want to end the night on a fight. She didn’t need to push the point. She shouldn’t have invited him in the first place.
* * *
Oliver had been tempted to accept Kat’s dinner invitation for this evening before common sense prevailed. Going on a few dates and fixing his reputation was one thing. Meeting her family was another thing altoge
ther. It wasn’t something he needed to do. It wasn’t something he was prepared to do.
He was only in town for a few weeks, long enough to have some fun but not long enough for anything serious, and that suited him fine. Besides, he didn’t have a great track record with families, his own included. And even if hers were wonderful, what would be the point of meeting them? He liked Kat but he wasn’t going to get involved in her life. He knew he couldn’t give her the things she wanted.
She’d told him she wanted to find her soulmate, and that wasn’t him. He didn’t believe in soulmates. His brother was the one exception. He though Isaac and his partner were a perfect match.
Oliver had never let himself fall in love. He’d had one relationship that he’d thought had the potential to become something serious but it had ended badly. His girlfriend had cheated on him, blamed him for not paying her enough attention. He knew he’d failed, he’d been focused on establishing his career, and he’d disappointed her.
He didn’t want to be in a position again where he could disappoint someone, so he chose to keep his distance from people. He didn’t date seriously and he didn’t see his family. It was better not to get involved. That way people didn’t develop expectations and he wouldn’t disappoint.
His family was fractured.
He was a disappointment.
He avoided families for those very reasons.
But he couldn’t get Kat out of his mind. He spent the afternoon filming a scene with Julia but it was Kat’s face he was picturing. Her dark eyes, her smooth, lithe body. Her full red lips that did, amazingly, taste like summer cherries.
Jesus, he was hard again even now.
And, even though he knew he wouldn’t go to dinner, it didn’t stop him from thinking about Kat, from imagining what she was doing right at that moment, from thinking about what he was missing.
He knew that Kat’s family had shaped her into the person she was. Into the compassionate, generous and open-hearted woman he was enjoying getting to know. He knew they were close and assumed they weren’t as broken or as complicated as his own, but that still didn’t mean he needed to meet them. He didn’t want to risk disappointing Kat. Or her family. He knew he wasn’t the man she was looking for. There was no need for him to meet her family.
It wasn’t family he was missing. Kat’s or his own. He was simply missing Kat.
* * *
Kat was glad she was rostered on to work; it gave her something to keep her mind occupied for the day. She might as well be at work, seeing as Oliver had blown her off. Being busy would stop her from thinking about him. Well, that had been her reasoning. She’d thought it would keep her busy but the shift had been quiet. Usually she was happy about that but today she needed the distraction. Just a minor vehicle accident or a suspected heart attack that turned out to be indigestion would have been enough. But she’d had far too much time on her hands and she spent it vacillating between reliving last night and wondering why Oliver wouldn’t come to dinner. Was it really that he just didn’t like being around other people’s families, or did it mean he’d got what he wanted and she wouldn’t see him again?
She’d been kidding herself to think they could have something meaningful. Family was everything to her and she couldn’t imagine being with someone who didn’t understand that.
She’d checked the filming schedule—Sunday was supposed to be a rest day—and she’d seen that nothing was listed. She hated that she was checking up on him but she couldn’t stop herself. He’d said it was a closed set. Was it a love scene? Was he lying? Her thoughts went backwards and forwards...there were a thousand possibilities and she knew she could go crazy trying to work out what it all meant. Maybe it meant nothing.
She was relieved when the phone finally rang.
‘Ambulance. What’s your emergency?’
‘I’ve got a fifty-eight-year-old man with severe stomach pains.’
‘Oliver? Is that you?’ she asked before her initial excitement at hearing his voice gave way to the realisation that he’d called 000, not her specifically.
‘Kat? Yes, it’s me. I’m with George. He’s in a lot of pain and I don’t know what to do.’
‘Where is his pain?’
‘Right side. Under his ribs. Could he be having a heart attack?’
‘Tell me what other symptoms he has,’ she said, trying to keep him calm. ‘Any shortness of breath?’ She could hear Oliver relaying her questions to George.
‘No,’ came the reply.
‘Oliver, can you put the phone on speaker? George can hear my questions—he’ll only have to nod yes or no and you can then pass the information on to me.’ She paused briefly and then continued, ‘Chest pain?’
‘Yes,’ came Oliver’s reply.
‘Back pain?’
‘No.’
‘Arm pain?’
‘No.’
‘Has he vomited?’
‘Yes.’
‘But he’s not having difficulty breathing?’
‘No.’
Kat scribbled a note to Dave while she spoke to Oliver.
Chest pain?
Abdominal pain?
Dave began a quick check of their supplies before lifting the keys for the ambulance off their hook.
‘I don’t think I can get him in the car to take him to the hospital,’ Oliver told her.
‘It’s all right. We’ll come to you. Where are you?’
‘Still on set. We’re in George’s trailer.’
Kat was mollified. Oliver hadn’t been lying to her about having to work. ‘We’re on the way.’
Kat and Dave arrived on set to find a restless George; he was unable to find a comfortable position.
The air-conditioning was working overtime but he still felt hot to the touch. Kat took his temperature and observed his colour. He had a tinge of yellow about him.
Kat removed the thermometer from his ear and relayed the elevated reading to Dave. She lifted George’s shirt to palpate his stomach.
‘Where is the pain?’
George indicated his right side.
‘When did the pain start?’
‘After lunch, maybe a couple of hours ago,’ he said.
There was a small, faded scar in the right lower quadrant. ‘Have you had your appendix removed?’ Kat asked.
George nodded as Kat continued to feel his abdomen.
Dave was busy attaching ECG leads to George’s chest. Kat clipped an oximeter onto his finger and listened to his respiration rate. His oxygen saturation was slightly low, heart rate was elevated, respiration rate rapid, temperature high, but the ECG trace was normal.
‘Take a deep breath for me, George,’ Kat instructed as she pushed her fingers into the upper right quadrant of his abdomen. George gasped with pain, holding his breath until Kat released the pressure on his gallbladder.
‘OK, George, good news—it’s not a heart attack and it’s not appendicitis.’
‘What’s the bad news?’ Oliver asked.
‘I think it’s probably a blocked bile duct.’
‘What causes that?’
‘Gallstones. I’m not surprised you’re feeling terrible, George—it is a very painful condition, but easily remedied. You’ll need further testing though.’
‘Here?’ Oliver asked.
Dave drew up a dose of analgesia to start controlling George’s pain.
‘No,’ Kat replied. ‘We’ll take him to the hospital for pain relief but he’ll need to go to Port Augusta or Adelaide for further tests.’
‘And then what?’
‘If it’s gallstones he’ll probably need surgery.’ Kat was almost certain that her diagnosis was correct and with acute cholecystitis surgery was almost always required. ‘It’s not emergency surgery but it should be done some time in the next three days. The flying doctor
will transfer him if necessary.’
CHAPTER SIX
KAT EMERGED FROM the water and Oliver’s brain froze. Droplets of water clung to her body and her skin glistened. She wore a black bikini; he’d seen a thousand different women wearing black bikinis before—he had a house on Malibu Beach and gorgeous women were everywhere—but none of them had affected him the way Kat did.
He couldn’t believe she’d accepted his invitation to come to Adelaide with him.
George had been transferred to Adelaide for surgery, so filming had been put on hold, giving Oliver, and the rest of the cast and crew, a few days off. Oliver had offered to fly down to Adelaide as well. George didn’t need him—he had his assistant, Erica—but Oliver used it as an excuse to invite Kat to go too. And here she was.
They would have at least three days in the city. Three days that had the potential to be so much better than any date he had imagined. He’d booked them into the only five-star hotel at Glenelg Beach and as he watched the sway of her hips as she came towards him he wondered about his chances of getting her back to their suite and ravishing her before dinner.
No, he’d show her that there was more to him than the persona that the tabloids loved to write about. His womanising ways were, as he’d told her, mostly fabricated for publicity and he wasn’t searching for publicity today. He had a corporate credit card and he’d used his alias when he’d booked the hotel room. The next couple of days were about him and Kat. He hadn’t asked what she’d told her father—he didn’t care; it wasn’t any of his business.
Her olive skin was tanned and golden and Oliver feasted his eyes on her as she came out of the ocean. Her dark hair was slick and wet and he watched as she lifted her arms and gathered her hair in one handful and squeezed the salt water from it. Her breasts rose with the movement, two perfect golden orbs, and Oliver struggled to keep his eyes up.
Jesus, she made him feel like a horny teenager. He was in a constant state of arousal when she was near him, and her being almost naked was not helping. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had driven him to distraction the way Kat did and it made it difficult to remember that he was trying to be on his best behaviour. But try he would.