by Kay Lyons
“No.”
“Why not? He’s been sniffing around lately, and they were a couple once.”
“Until he didn’t have the balls to stick around when it mattered most,” Booker growled. “You really want that for her? For Nathan to bail out should she need him?”
“I suppose you think you’d see the worst through?”
“I would, I’d—” The doc broke off, looking confused and disgruntled.
Hal laughed. “Life’s funny, don’t you think?” Bang ’em Booker looked at him as if he was crazy, and maybe he was. He’d experienced enough to drive five men crazy, but for the first time in a long time he saw hope—for Mel—in the last person he’d expected to find it. Yeah, life was funny. God was playing a big joke on him right now, too, reminding him who was boss.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, here I am getting ready to start a new family at my age, but there you are—Taylorsville’s Most Eligible Bachelor—trying to deny you’ve finally been caught. And by a woman who has more than enough reasons to send you packing when you wise up and get down to business with her. My daughter ain’t gonna make it easy for you, Doc. She’s scared out of her mind at the thought of having a man in her life. Just like you are at the thought of being that man. But regardless of my thoughts on the matter, my gut says you’re as smart as your medical degree proclaims, and you’ve been around enough to see the depth of the woman Mel is inside, not just the illness or the damage it caused.”
“I’d like to think so. But that doesn’t change how she feels about me— or a relationship.”
“Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t want her. That if Nathan tries again, you aren’t going to fight for her.”
Booker opened his mouth but no words came out, and when the truth hit, the doc looked like a man sucker punched. Oh yeah, the boy had it bad.
Amazing. The last thing he’d thought he’d ever feel was sorry for the doc, but he acknowledged the emotion just the same. Booker was scared and it showed. Hal had felt the same way when Melissa’s mother had gotten the news, and that’s why he could sympathize. The doc had a lot to think about, a lot to handle, but love was love and he was in deep.
“Let me tell you something I’ve learned over the years. Good or bad, we don’t get to choose who we love. It just happens. Mel’s mom was the love of the first half of my life, and Ellen is the love I want to end my life with. But regardless of what I want, what will be will be. I know it because I’ve lived it. And while apparently I’m not the only one who has to get used to the idea of you and Mel together, it looks to me like nature has already taken care of things where you’re concerned. If you treat Mel badly, I’ll turn in my badge and hunt you down,” he said, meaning every word. “But if you treat her with the same respect you’ve shown Ellen and Anna, if you get my daughter to live again,” he said, his voice emerging gruff, “I’ll owe you until the day I die.”
* * *
BRYAN STARED into the chief’s eyes a long moment, then turned and left, walking the distance back to his house in a daze. Hal York, protective father extraordinaire, the chief of police who kept Taylorsville on a short leash, had given him the go-ahead. A smile crossed his face and he laughed softly. “Unbelievable.”
It was unbelievable—because the chief was right. Ashley was right. Even Joe was right, but he’d buy Joe box seats for the next five years before he’d admit it and have to watch Joe gloat.
He would, however, admit that he’d wasted precious time mulling over the past and worrying over what could happen to Melissa should her cancer return, instead of treasuring the time he could spend with her here and now.
Hal was right—what would be would be. Melissa was well. She was cancer-free. It was time he dealt with the fact that life would happen whether he was prepared for it or not. Instead of condemning their relationship by assuming it was short-term or slotting it conveniently on his calendar because he planned to cut and run—an act that would put him in a class with Nathan—he needed to plan a future.
Rachel’s words had a deeper meaning than the obvious. Well, he knew what he wanted. Whom he wanted. But convincing Melissa wouldn’t be easy, and whatever the future brought—please, God, keep her healthy—he’d face it knowing the consequences.
He leaned against the door and exhaled in a rush, then grinned again as he fumbled to let himself into his house. He laughed as he jogged up the stairs to the second floor, whistled a lively tune when he yanked his shirt over his head and groaned when he imagined Melissa’s long legs wrapped around his waist while he made love to her in his bed. Oh yeah.
Why waste years chasing women he didn’t care for when the one he loved was right in front of him?
All he had to do was convince her.
He’d told Joe he wanted a challenge. Now he definitely had one.
* * *
MELISSA COVERED the mouthpiece of the phone and glared at Bryan. What? she mouthed, uncomfortable with the way he stared at her now that the patients had gone for the day.
He moved into the reception area where she sat and leaned close. Her eyes widened, taking in his every move, and she thought she saw a smile curl his lips before he dropped the file he held onto the desk in front of her and reached out to gently snag the pen from her fingers. Standing where he was, retreat was impossible. She was stuck. Stuck sitting there with her nose practically in his chest, stuck inhaling and breathing in Bryan’s all-male scent and wanting to taste his skin.
She fought the tantalizing images in her head and closed her eyes briefly.
“Melissa?”
Bryan’s breath hit her mouth, and the moist heat made her look away and wet her lips with her tongue. Was that a groan? Was he leaning closer?
“I’m outta here!” Janice Reynolds, Bryan’s registered nurse, headed down the hall toward them with ever-increasing speed. “This first day back has been enough to convince me I should retire.”
Bryan slowly straightened, but instead of moving away, he turned and leaned against the desk, his long legs blocking the only escape Melissa had.
“You can’t retire. You’d lose your designer purse money and have to end the madness,” he teased. Janice collected them like kids collected trading cards.
The older woman sighed dramatically. “I ’spose you’re right. Guess that means you’ll see me again tomorrow. But for now, I’m going to go play with my granddaughter and pretend Mrs. McCleary didn’t tell me I gained at least ten pounds while I was off work. That woman…” She shook her head and rolled her eyes before she smiled at Melissa. “Melissa, sweetie, it’s so good to have you in here. You’ve worked wonders!”
“Thank you. Although now that I’ve seen the difference in how things run with you here, I don’t know how we made it through without you, so make sure you come back tomorrow.”
Janice smiled and waved and continued on her way toward the front door. “Bryan, you let that child go home as soon as she’s done on the phone.”
“Don’t worry about Melissa,” Bryan drawled. “I’ll take good care of her.”
Melissa stilled. Why did he make that sound enticing?
Bryan pushed himself up from the desk and followed Janice to the front door, staying long enough to watch her cross the street and drive away. He locked the door and retraced his steps. “Who are you on hold with?”
“One of the insurance companies. They’re looking into something for— Bryan, no—” She tried to keep his finger from pressing the button to end the call but it was too late. Her hand landed on top of his. “Why did you do that? Now I’ll have to call them back and wade through all the voice mail again. I hate voice mail.”
“Don’t we all. But forget that for now.” With a quick move, he rotated his palm and grasped her hand, pulling her out of her chair and very close. “Come on, I’m in the mood…”
She blinked up at him. “Ex-excuse me?”
“For a run.” His smile widened in slow, teasing degrees. “What’d you think I me
ant?”
A run, of course. She hadn’t actually thought he was flirting with her. Melissa tugged her hand free. She was in the mood for a run, too, but alone. Why tempt herself and wind up aching from a Bryan dream in the middle of the night. Again. “I need to work on the fund-raiser. You know, call the businesses on the sponsorship list?”
“It’s after five. The businesses will be closed.”
“Yes, but…”
“We’ll put together a master list you can work on tomorrow—after our run.”
“But—”
“Come with me. You know you want to.”
He couldn’t really have said that with enough emphasis to make her think—
Bryan grinned when she remained speechless. His gaze lowered, swept over her body and lingered on her legs. “I’ll see you around Oak Street in fifteen minutes.”
* * *
BRYAN ENJOYED running with Melissa. With her long legs, she could easily keep up with his pace and generate some speed when they inevitably wound up racing. But after hanging back to watch the sway of her hips one too many times, he realized he hadn’t thought his plan through by asking her to run with him.
They were in a public setting, and he couldn’t make a move without everyone in town hearing about it. Like before, they jogged alongside the river, circled the statue in the park and slowed to a cool-down walk.
“The wedding is Saturday.” The moment the words left his mouth he regretted them. They hadn’t talked much during the run, but reminding her of her father’s upcoming nuptials wasn’t the way to go.
“Yeah, it—it is.”
“Anyway, I, uh, checked on Ellen this morning before work and she’s feeling better so that’s good.” He’d never felt so awkward talking to a woman, not since his pubescent teenage years.
Melissa blinked in surprise. “She was sick?”
“Your dad didn’t tell you?”
Her head lowered. “We haven’t seen much of each other lately. He goes to work while I’m getting ready, comes home after I’m in bed.” She shot him a questioning glance. “What happened with Ellen? Is she okay?”
Melissa might not like the situation with her dad and Ellen, but she wasn’t unkind. Quite the opposite. “She’s fine now. She was just feeling a little under the weather.” Bryan spotted a bench up ahead, the same one they’d shared before. “Hey, you hungry?”
“Not much.”
“How about a cone, then? Come on, what flavor? Chocolate?”
She shook her head. “I’m really not—”
“You’re not going to make me eat alone, are you?”
Three more steps, the corners of her mouth twitched with the makings of a smile. “Strawberry.”
Like before, Melissa walked over to hold their spot while he ordered a strawberry ice-cream cone for her and a chicken sandwich and bottle of water for himself. He carried the lot of it over to where she sat and had just unwrapped his sandwich to take a bite when Melissa’s tongue swept up the side of the cone and curled delicately back into her mouth.
Pure temptation. Did she have any idea of how she looked at the moment?
“Something wrong with your sandwich?”
Bryan lowered the sandwich back onto the white bag he’d dug it out of. “It’s fine. Just, uh, decided I needed a drink first.” He drank half the bottle and stared at the Ohio River flowing by while he forced himself to eat the sandwich without looking at her, not until he heard her biting into the crunchy cone. It was gone with a minimum of fuss and before he could stop it, his mind focused on how she’d taste.
“Melissa…” He glanced around them, noted far too many people and shot to his feet. “Come on.”
“What? Where?”
He took her elbow in hand and urged her to her feet, down a path and into a wooded area closer to the water.
“Bryan? What’s wrong?”
“I want to talk to you and I don’t want an audience while I do it.”
“Oh. Then maybe we should go back to the office?”
He couldn’t take her there. It was too close to his bed. Now that he’d made up his mind about Melissa, his body responded accordingly despite the need to get other business out of the way first. “Down there,” he said, pointing. A large rock approximately four feet high and flat on top was up ahead of them. “Sit down. We need to get some things straight.”
Her shoulders dropped. “Are you letting me go now that Janice is back?”
The trial period. He’d forgotten he’d told her they’d reevaluate things after a few weeks. “No. I’m good with you working there. Aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but if it’s not that…” Wide blue eyes stared up at him, infinitely wary.
“Stop worrying about the job, Melissa. You’re doing fantastic.” He ran a hand over his hair and caught her watching him before her gaze darted away and a blush stained her cheeks. He liked it that she still blushed. “I just wanted to tell you that…men don’t require breasts to think a woman beautiful.”
Melissa gasped and tried to hop off the rock. He stepped close, crowding her until he pressed her against the rock. Leaning low, he placed both hands on the sun-warmed surface by her hips and stopped by sheer will when her succulent lips were a breath away. Now that he’d started, he couldn’t turn back.
“Bryan, don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t. Just don’t. Don’t play with me, don’t humor me, don’t treat me like a—a—”
“Woman?” he drawled huskily. “Melissa, you are a woman in every sense of the word.”
“Don’t play games. You think you know everything there is to know about me, but you don’t. You’ve no idea what you’re saying, no idea how—how untrue that is.”
He leaned forward until she dropped down onto her elbows to maintain distance between them. Seated there on the rock, her legs stretched down to the ground, thighs pressed against his, Bryan held nothing back. “This isn’t a game, Melissa. You said all men are obsessed with breasts and I told you that wasn’t true, but I didn’t finish,” he clarified, his focus dropping to her mouth. “Men like other things, as well.” He shifted, balanced his weight on one hand, and relished the gasp she released. Slowly so as not to scare her, he cradled her jaw, getting her used to his touch before he pushed his fingers into her short hair. “They like hair so soft it feels like silk, and imagine how it would feel against their skin.”
“B-Bryan.”
He curled his fingers and smoothed his knuckles down her high cheekbone, over her mouth. “Full lips made to be kissed, that make them ache thinking about them.”
He leaned even closer, his mouth parting, his eyes holding hers when he dropped his head and licked the flesh he craved.
Chapter 15
THE MOMENT Melissa opened her mouth, Bryan pulled away, slid his knuckles down her neck to her arm, careful to avoid all contact with her torso. At her hips, he paused. “They like a heart-shaped rear that’s tight and firm and just like—” he squeezed “—this.”
Melissa’s lashes lowered over her eyes, her breathing deep and measured. He knew the signs. Knew he turned her on and wasn’t alone in how he felt.
“They like,” he continued, sliding his open hand down her muscled thigh, “long, beautiful legs, so they can imagine what their woman’s legs will feel like wrapped around them.”
He kissed her then, Ashley’s reminder to make Melissa forget everything but him loud in his head. He stroked her tongue with his, slipped his arms beneath her back to protect her from the rock. He laid his soul bare, let her feel his attraction for her and hoped she understood he wanted so much more.
Bryan smothered her moan with his mouth and didn’t let Melissa come up for air. He kissed her again and again. He wanted her hot and bothered and clinging to him, wanted her to forget her scars and think only of him and the pleasure they could share.
Her hands found his head and gripped his hair tight. She seemed torn between trying to pull him away and hold him
close, all of it done with a strength he savored, a passion he craved. Her hands slid to his jaw, down his neck and shoulders, fingers splayed as though she wanted to touch every bit of skin she could. He had to concentrate to stay focused on her, block out her touch to keep from allowing her to distract him too much. Through it all, he never took his mouth from hers other than to repeatedly tease her by changing the angle of the kisses, slow strokes, gentle nudges, breath-altering explorations she not only met, but countered.
She was the very essence of his dreams. So much so his legs shook with the effort of supporting himself.
Gently, he bit a tender spot in the crook of her neck and earned a mind-blowing moan.
Just like he’d imagined.
“Bryan?”
“Shh…let me.”
“No. No, Bryan, let me—let me go!”
* * *
MELISSA CAME to awareness with a flash of unmitigated humiliation. A few kisses, a few touches, and she’d nearly given in to Bryan, let him do whatever he wanted? In broad daylight? The buzzing sound located somewhere behind her became the low hum of a motorboat, probably within sight of them and able to— What had she done?
She untangled her body from his, burning hot with embarrassment and cold with fear.
Her wobbly legs carried her a few feet along the riverbank before Bryan pulled her back and held her close. He ignored her squirming and muttering, his arms looped around her firmly enough that she couldn’t break free.
“Shh, calm down and let’s talk about this.”
“No. You—how could you—ooh!”
“Keep your voice down. We’re out of sight, but if someone hears you scream we’ll have an audience.”
She shut her mouth immediately. The last thing she wanted was for someone to find her like this. One look and they’d know what they’d… Was she so desperate for comfort, that she’d ignore the boundaries she’d already set and just give in—
Melissa lowered her head in shame, tears stinging her eyes. A few more kisses and strokes of Bryan’s hands and she would’ve done just that; even now her body quivered and ached. All for a man she didn’t have a chance of keeping.