He slid the stick between her waist and her left arm. She grabbed the back of it and shifted her body. Noah wrapped his right arm around her and was careful not to touch her shoulder.
His face was mere inches from her mass of subtle curls. Inhaling, he pulled in a tropical, fruity scent that always seemed to surround Callie, filling his home with her signature intoxicating scent. He eased a bit closer until his mouth was at her ear, her hair tickling his lips.
“Lean into it,” he whispered as he eased her body down his own.
Her body bent at the waist and Noah went with her. Together they leaned over the table and he eyed the cue ball.
“Relax,” he whispered. “You’re breathing hard. Take your time. Focus on what you want to happen.”
Damn. If he didn’t keep his mouth shut he was going to start pitching a tent in his jeans, and wood behind a zipper was never comfortable or concealable.
“I’ve done this before, you know.” She tilted her head to look at him over her shoulder, but when she did, her mouth brushed against his jaw and he had to steel himself not to turn and take advantage of her lips.
“But it’s been a while,” he reminded her. “I’m just here to help you remember how everything works.”
“Oh, I think I remember,” she said with a sultry smile.
Noah swallowed. She was good at this, the flirting and sassy talk she’d done before her accident. She was slowly coming around to her old self.
“Hold the stick firmly,” he told her, holding his left hand over hers on the stick. “Don’t rush it. Practice stroking it and not letting it go too early.”
For pity’s sake, shut up, Noah. Why was he using a game of pool as a pathetic form of foreplay? If he wanted her so badly, why was he making himself miserable by holding back? He’d already admitted to her that he wanted her in his bed. There was no going back on that. Sex was simple. It was all that other emotional garbage he couldn’t and wouldn’t deal with or allow himself to get wrapped up in.
“I got it,” she told him and pushed the stick forward until it hit the cue ball into the other balls, sending the various colors rolling around the table.
Two stripes sunk instantly.
“Good job,” he told her as he stood up. And yup, there was that pressure against his zipper. Well done, Noah. Well done. Way to avoid getting an erection.
“If you thought that was good, you’re going to be really impressed,” she told him as she rounded the table. “In fact, I think I can take you without your help and using only one arm.”
Impressed and intrigued, he crossed his arms and smiled. “Then let’s see it, hotshot.”
She proceeded to show him just how amazing she was at this game and he was damn glad his friends weren’t here to see it. Max would give him hell for losing so easily.
By the time the game was coming to a close and she was ready to sink the eight ball, Noah had had more than enough of seeing her bent over the table wearing those little shorts and his shirt. In the two weeks she’d been at his house, he never got tired of seeing her wearing his shirt. He loved the way it hung on her, occasionally giving him a glimpse of a swell of her breast or the curve of her slender shoulder.
Before she could sink that last ball and totally embarrass him, he snagged an arm around her waist and pulled the stick from her hands. “I think you’ve shown off enough.”
Her gasp of surprise quickly turned into a wide grin. “Sore loser, Noah? I’m not surprised. You’re very competitive, but I hate to break it to you. I own this game.”
He laid the stick across the end of the table and used both hands to span her narrow waist. “Yeah, well, there’s something else I’d rather own right now.”
That smile of hers faltered as she bit her lower lip a second before licking them. Her hand came up to his shoulder, slid around his neck and toyed with the ends of his hair on the nape of his neck.
“I’d swear you planned this, but you had no idea I was getting this table.”
Her brows drew together. “Planned what?”
“Those shorts,” he told her. “Bending over the edge of the table to take your shots and throwing your rear in my face at every opportunity.”
“I certainly had no clue you’d be getting this,” she defended. “Besides, it was you who practically dragged me out of bed.”
Noah inched closer, pulling her lower body taut against his. “I should’ve kept you there.”
His mouth slammed down onto hers and she responded in an instant. Her body arched against his and he palmed her lower back while his other hand slid up to thread his fingers through her hair.
Her tongue invaded his mouth and Noah nearly sank to his knees. This woman knew how to take as much as he was willing to give. With one arm banded around her waist, he hoisted her up onto the edge of the pool table and stood between her legs. He pulled her forward a tad to stay as close to him as possible. He wasn’t about to let her get away, not when he’d been denying himself for so long.
Keeping his mouth locked on hers, he reached between them and slowly unbuttoned each of the buttons, one agonizing hole at a time.
She pulled her mouth from his. “Pull the darn thing.”
Noah laughed. “It’s my shirt.”
“Buy a new one.”
“As you wish.”
He gave a yank and the last of the buttons scattered across the hardwood floor. Easing the shirt off her shoulders, Noah kept his gaze on her chest. He was a guy—where else was he supposed to look?
“You’re magnificent,” he whispered. “Don’t look away, Callie.”
She shook her head. “I’m not. I just… It’s hard to have you look at me like this. I mean, you create beauty for a living and I’m just…me. Flawed, but even before nothing special.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her softly before pulling back. “Listen to me. I’m sure as hell not comparing you to anyone. I want you, Callie. You. Because I’m attracted to you. It’s that simple.”
She reached with her left hand and palmed his cheek. “Then don’t let me complicate things with talking, because I’m about to explode.”
As if he needed any more of an invitation. He peeled his shirt off and flung it to the side and quickly pulled off his jeans and boxers—but not before grabbing a condom from his pocket and tossing it onto the table.
Callie’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m optimistic,” he defended with a grin.
“I’m glad, but I’m more shocked at you,” she told him, her face turning a cute shade of pink. “It’s just…wow. If I were you I’d totally walk around naked and stare at myself.”
Noah kissed her. “Shut up, Callie. Let me show you what else we can be doing.”
He unfastened her shorts, and with her help of rocking from side to side, he eased them along with her panties down her toned legs before dropping them to the floor.
Noah stepped back to look at her, and even though he knew she was uncomfortable, he wanted her to get comfortable with the fact he enjoyed looking at her.
* * *
Callie wished he’d do something. The way he kept looking at her was making her nervous. He might say he wasn’t comparing her to patients, and that was probably true, but he had to at least be comparing her to his past girlfriends, who were no doubt model-perfect.
“Noah?”
“I just wanted to see you. All of you.”
He stepped forward again and wrapped his hands around her waist, helping her to ease forward on the table. One hand slid between them to her heat and Callie spread her legs wider. When he parted her, stroked her, she felt unable to stay upright anymore, and she leaned back on her good hand to expose herself more to him.
“That’s it,” he whispered. “Relax.”
He lifted her feet one at a time to rest on the edge of the pool table as he continued to stroke her. When she was splayed before him, he slid one finger inside and started to move slowly in and out. Her hip
s lifted, needing more, silently begging for more.
“Slow down,” he told her. “We’ve got time.”
She looked up at him and saw that he was smiling. He was enjoying her torture. But she wasn’t going to beg. He’d like that too much.
She lay back all the way on the table and closed her eyes. Let him take his time with her. She wasn’t about to complain.
The sound of the condom wrapper filled the room and she waited with eager anticipation.
With his hands on either side of her inner thighs, he eased her open even more, and she braced herself as he slid into her.
She reached her left arm up and he grabbed it, pulling her back up so her torso met his, causing him to sink fully into her. Her hard nipples rubbed against his coarse hair, his hard chest, and she groaned as he started moving within her.
His hand remained on the small of her back, guiding her body against his, keeping it where they both wanted it.
His other hand clutched the nape of her neck as his mouth captured hers again. His tongue swept through her mouth, mimicking the actions of their bodies. Callie had never felt so much of a man from her head to her toes and all delicious points in between the way she felt Noah.
His breathing quickened as did his rhythm. Callie clutched his shoulder as she kept her body flush against his. His lips left her mouth, but he rested his forehead against hers. Eyes shut, jaw muscle ticking, Noah groaned.
Knowing she could bring him to the point where he looked as if he’d burst was all the initiative she needed to let go. Her body clenched around his as her ankles locked behind his back, her knees digging into his sides.
Noah’s head tilted back as his body slammed into hers one last time and then froze as he released. She held him until they stopped trembling, until her body had chilled and he eased back.
With a wry grin, he brushed the hair away from her face. “This was the best addition to my house I think I’ve ever added.”
Twelve
Noah walked down the hallway of the assisted-living facility toward Thelma’s room. Her door was slightly ajar and he eased it all the way open to find her sitting in her favorite recliner, asleep. Her color wasn’t too good today and it wasn’t the first time he’d noticed she was looking more run-down.
As a doctor, he knew she probably didn’t have much time, but as the one person who was the closest thing she had to family, the thought seeped into his heart and left a gap that he feared might never close. This was just another piece of Malinda he couldn’t hang on to. Not that he wanted to hang on to those nightmare memories, but he wanted desperately to cling to the good times, the dreams they’d shared before drugs murdered their life together.
Noah eased into the room and closed the door. The slight click of the knob had Thelma stirring. She looked up at him and smiled.
“I didn’t know I was going to have such a handsome visitor today. What’s your name, honey?”
He laughed. Apparently, she wasn’t lucid today, but he found it kind of cute at her age she still had that flirty spunk left in her.
“It’s Noah, Thelma.” He took a seat in the small wooden armchair next to hers. “You remember me. I’m engaged to Malinda. Your granddaughter.”
She studied his face for a moment and he didn’t think she’d register the names, but finally a slow smile spread across her wrinkly face. “Oh, my beautiful Malinda. Why isn’t she here? Is she working?”
“No, she couldn’t make it today.”
Thelma’s smile held. “Well, can you tell her to stop by? I miss seeing her. She’s all I have left of my own daughter.”
Noah knew Malinda’s mother had been gone several years before he’d met Malinda, and Noah hated that Thelma was struggling with that pain all over again. Every time her memory was jogged, she had to relive losing her daughter all over again. There was no way he could tell her about Malinda. He’d let the woman go on believing.
“I’ll see what we can do,” he assured her. “But I want to know how you’re feeling.”
Thelma shrugged. “I’m okay. Um…could you call Malinda? I’d really like to talk to her.”
That was a first. Usually he could dodge the question of bringing her in, and she’d never asked him to call her.
“She’s busy today,” he lied. “I promise she misses you, too.”
Thelma nodded and grabbed his hand between her frail ones. “She’s such a sweet girl. And to be engaged? I bet she’s so happy. I can’t wait for the wedding. I know my Malinda. She’ll be a beautiful bride.”
Noah swallowed the lump that crept up with the image. Yeah, she would’ve been a beautiful bride. A beautiful wife. Had she stayed clean.
“She always played dress-up when she was little,” Thelma went on. “She wanted to be an actress and she would dress up in different costumes and show off. Most of the time she played a bride and would come down the stairs with a pillowcase on her head as her veil.”
Noah could easily picture a young Malinda playing dress-up. Acting had been her thing for as long as he’d known her. And eventually that was what killed her.
And he was shocked to realize that for the first time since he’d been coming here alone, the memories didn’t hurt nearly as badly. He knew Callie coming into his life was easing that hurt, that guilt. Little by little, Callie was making his life better.
“Did you eat breakfast today?” he asked her, silently pleading for her to dodge the topic.
She pursed her lips and let his hand ease away from hers. “Hmm…I’m sure I did, but I can’t recall what it was. Fruit, maybe?”
Because so many patients with Alzheimer’s forgot to eat, he wanted to make sure she was getting enough calories. “How about if I get you some juice and yogurt?”
“I don’t think I have any,” she told him.
He moved to her small fridge in the kitchenette and opened it. “I brought a few things over the other day. You have yogurt or cheese and crackers. What would you like?”
“The yogurt, please.”
He put it on the small tray and set it on her lap, then went back to get her some juice. He’d wait until she ate and drank it all. He knew it wasn’t much, but it was something and he’d been asking the staff to watch her at meals to make sure at least half her plate was clean.
Even as she ate her yogurt, she kept bringing up Malinda. Noah merely nodded and smiled.
But it was so hard to picture Malinda, not because she’d been gone a little over a year, but because when he imagined anyone, it was Callie whose image appeared in his mind.
Guilt slid through him. Did that mean she was replacing Malinda? Could he truly be that heartless? Or was his mind telling him to finally move on, to let go of something, someone who would never be his?
Every time he thought of Callie, the same erotic visual flooded his mind from last night. Callie leaning over his new pool table. Callie spread out on the pool table. Callie wrapped around him on the pool table. He hadn’t wanted to let her go when she’d gone up to bed alone.
God, he honestly hadn’t meant to cross the line from doctor to man with her, but there was nothing he could’ve done to stop it. He’d seen the inevitable coming and had warned her, and himself, what to expect, but he’d never expected their uniting to be so powerful, so…memorable. So, yeah, apparently he was replacing Malinda, but not in his heart. He didn’t even know if there would ever be room for another woman to fill that gaping hole.
But Callie’s warmth and sweet spirit, which was slowly easing back, made him think things he probably shouldn’t. And he’d gotten so used to her being in his home, always there when he thought of her. He could admit to himself how much he enjoyed her company on a personal level…sex aside.
Thelma laughed and brought his attention back.
“What?” he asked.
“You have the most peaceful smile on your face,” she told him. “I’ve seen that look. You’re in love.”
Noah started to deny it, but Thelma assumed he’d been thi
nking about Malinda—the woman he had been completely in love with.
He just laughed instead of commenting. What could he say that wouldn’t be a bald-faced lie?
“I remember when I fell in love with my William.” She took a sip of her juice and grinned. “He was the most handsome man ever. Almost as handsome as you.”
“Thanks.”
“My granddaughter has good taste,” she told him. “We don’t pick out the ugly ones, but we definitely make sure they’re gentlemen, too. I know you’re going to treat my Malinda right, like a good husband. Caring for her and providing for her, that’s what she needs. She’s vulnerable at times, but you’re a strong man. I’m so happy she found you.”
Noah came to his feet. He couldn’t sit here any longer and listen to her go on and on about what a good provider and caring man he was. He wasn’t any of those things or Malinda would still be alive.
“Thelma, I have a meeting and need to be going, but I promise to come back tomorrow.” He took her tray and set it in the kitchenette. “Is there anything else you need before I go?”
She smiled up at him and shook her head. “Just make sure to bring my Malinda by and tell her I love her.”
Noah nodded, kissed her on the cheek and left. Good God. He couldn’t keep doing this. How did he release this guilt of letting down not only Malinda, but Thelma? He was a fake, sitting in there smiling, laughing with his dead fiancée’s grandmother.
He was a doctor, a profession known for healing people, but right now he felt like a complete failure. And he’d failed the one woman who loved him. He refused to fail Callie, too.
* * *
Callie slid her cell back into the pocket of her shorts and resisted the urge to throw something or just break down and cry.
When she’d called her mother to see how her parents were, Callie knew something was wrong. After getting her father on the phone, he claimed a storm had come through and torn off a piece of their roof. He’d put a tarp over it and was hoping to be able to at least patch just that part even though they couldn’t afford to do the entire house just yet.
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