“I’m sure you can,” she replied. “But I sampled some of the cafeteria food from my grandfather’s tray the other day. It’s not bad.”
There was a challenge in her voice. If he tried to argue her out of her choice, he had a feeling she’d change her mind and decline the invitation altogether. Better than nothing,Georges told himself. “If that’s what it takes to have dinner with you, then the cafeteria it is.”
He could have sworn that the smile on her face was a wee bit nervous around the edges.
His day over, Georges changed and then made his way over to Amos’s room. He was early andVienna wasn’t waiting outside the room, or inside it once he walked in.
Since he was there, he decided to recheck the old man’s vitals one more time. Nurses came by to do a periodic update, but he had never liked being idle.
Greeting the man, Georges began to take his pulse.
Amos eyed him closely. “I hear you’re taking myVienna out for dinner.”
He nodded, releasing the man’s wrist. “Just to the cafeteria.”
“The cafeteria?” Amos repeated incredulously. The old man looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “This cafeteria? The one in the hospital?”
Georges laughed and nodded. “Afraid so.” Amos hit the controls on his handrail, raising the back of his bed a little more. He stared at the younger man, confused. “Listen, boy, if it is a matter of money, I can—”
Georges stopped him before the man could make an offer and embarrass him. “Thank you for the thought but it’s your granddaughter’s choice. She wants both of us to be close by in case you need us.”
Amos opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again. And then he smiled. Broadly. “She is one in a million, that girl.” Amos looked at Georges, his blue-gray eyes all the more imposing beneath tufts of gray eyebrows. “You do know that, do you not?”
She was certainly different, Georges thought, he’d give her that. He couldn’t think of a single woman he’d ever been with who would have been satisfied with being taken to a cafeteria. “I am beginning to get that impression.”
Amos looked at him for a long moment, as if debating saying what he was about to tell him. And then he made up his mind. The man needed to know just how uniqueVienna was. “Not everyone breaks up with their fiancé because they put family first.”
The information caught Georges off guard. And made him feel oddly hollow. “She’s engaged?” “Was,” Amos corrected firmly. “Six months ago. Before we moved here fromNew York .” He didn’t know how muchVienna had told the young physician. Probably not much, if he knewVienna . She was friendly and outgoing, but closemouthed at the same time. Not an easy feat. “My doctor said I needed to come out here for my health, get away from the cold, wet winters before they got the better of me,” he explained. For a moment, he closed his eyes. “It meant starting over again at my age.”
Georges had no doubt that the man had probably been up to it, but still, it seemed like a lonely proposition if he had to do it by himself. “Viennawould not hear of me coming out alone. She wanted us to move as a family. Me, her and Edward.” By the way he said the name, Georges had the feeling that Amos was not too keen on Edward. “Edward refused and told her it was about time she grew up and made an adult choice.” He fairly beamed. “So she did.” And then his smile receded as he clearly relived the scenario. “I did not want to stand in the way of her happiness and told her I would be fine, but she wouldn’t listen. Said that since I did not ask her to choose, she picked me.”
He leaned in closer to Georges. “To tell you the truth, I am glad. Not because I love her company or because she has a wonderful business head on her shoulders, but because that Edward was not any good for her. He did not appreciate the girl that she was.”
“Doesn’t sound like he did,” Georges agreed. It earned him a wide, approving smile from Amos. “Everything was always about him, never about her,” Amos continued. “You can not love someone if you do not put them first.” He looked at Georges for a long moment, as if to see if his words had penetrated. “Do you understand what I am saying?”
Lessons in love from a seventy-four-year-old, Georges mused. He did his best not to grin. “I do.” “Good,” Amos pronounced. He was about to say more, but the door to his room opened. Wearing a simple blue sheath and her hair pinned back from her face,Vienna entered.
She looked suspiciously from one to the other. “What are you to talking about?” she asked.
“I was just telling him to let an old man rest,” Amos informed her, never missing a beat. He waved a thin hand toward the door, then closed his eyes. “I am tired.”
She crossed to the bed. “Don’t you even say hello?” she asked him. He opened one eye for a moment. “Hello. Goodbye.” His eyes were shut again.
With a laugh, she leaned over and brushed her lips against his cheek. “Good night, you old devil.”
She thought she heard him chuckle as she left the room with Georges. The elevator was crowded. Georges andVienna made their way to the rear, claiming a space as best they could. She stood in front of him. He was aware of the scent of her hair, aware of her body as it pressed against his.
Georges lowered his head so that she could hear him. “Not too late to change your mind about eating here,” he told her as the elevator made a stop on the second floor. “I hear I can still get a table at McDonald’s without having to book it first.”
She turned slightly, brushing her hair against his lowered face. “The cafeteria is fine,” she told him. “I have very simple tastes, Doctor.” They stopped at the first floor and most of the elevator emptied. Taking advantage of the space, she took a step to the side and turned to look at him. “This isn’t about the food, anyway.”
The scent he’d detected earlier seemed stronger somehow, wrapping itself all around him. “What is it about?”
“Getting to know each other.” Her eyes searched his face to see if he agreed. “That’s why people go out, isn’t it?”
It would have been simple to coast and go along with everything she said. But something about her demanded the truth from him at all times. “Sometimes.”
“And other times?” The elevator doors opened in the basement and they stepped off, along with a nurse and another person.
He took her arm. “And other times, it’s just a prelude to the real point of the evening.”
They made their way down the winding corridor to the cafeteria doors. Subdued noise greeted them as they entered. She turned toward him. “Which is?”
He laughed shortly, shaking his head. Maybe he should have just agreed after all. “You don’t make this easy, do you?”
She stopped short of entering the food service area. “It can be as easy or as hard as you like, Doctor. But I really do value honesty.” He plunged ahead before he could weigh his options. “All right, here’s some honesty for you. You’ve been on my mind since I first pulled you out of the car. For some reason, I can’t stop thinking about you and that’s saying a lot since, as you seem to know already, I don’t exactly live like a monk.
“I postponed a date to remain with you,” he continued, drawing her aside as another couple made their way into the cafeteria, “which isn’t unusual. But then I didn’t reschedule, which is.” The more serious he became, the lower his voice grew. “I haven’t wanted to see anyone else since I met you, which isdefinitely unusual for me. You kissed me that first evening and ever since I keep wondering what it would be like to make love to you. I think about it almost all the time, even when I don’t want to be. I have to admit that I’m not really happy about it because I never wanted to commit to anything but my work—and now…I don’t know anymore.”
For a very long moment after he finished, she said nothing. She wasn’t exactly sure what she’d expected him to say, but this was far more than she’d been prepared for. He’d overwhelmed her. Overwhelmed her and taken her breath away. It took her a moment to find it. And to make up her mind.
Vienn
asmiled up at him. “You weren’t kidding about being honest, were you?”
“No, and I’m not kidding about anything else, either,” he told her.
“All right.” Slowly, she nodded her head, her eyes never leaving his. “All right,” she repeated, turning away from the food service area. He’d blown it, Georges thought. A feeling of desperation, of wanting to fix what had been broken, washed over him. But he hadn’t a clue where to start. He could only ask numbly, “All right what?”
She touched his face before answering, her fingertips lightly gliding along his skin. Her heart hammering wildly in her chest. “All right, we’ll go to my place. So you can stop wondering what it would be like to make love with me.”
Chapter Ten It took Georges several seconds to regain use of his tongue, which, along with the rest of him, had momentarily gone numb afterVienna ’s invitation. He stared at her now, wondering if he’d misheard. “You’re kidding.”
Nerves shimmied up her spine, but she’d come too far to back down. “I never kid about something like that.” Georges continued looking at her, somewhat uncertain. It wasn’t like him to refuse an offer like this from someone he was interested in. But the offer itself confused him. Perhaps for the first time in his life, he felt like a man standing on the middle of a tightrope without a clue about how he’d gotten there.
He wanted to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood. “You’re sure?” She sighed and laughed at the same time, confusion reigning supreme. “God, no.”
The laugh was a nervous one. The mystery deepened. Was he missing something? “Then why…?”
She took a breath. “Because I know it just has to be.”
“Another ‘feeling?’”
For lack of a better way to explain it, she agreed. “Something like that.” But her feeling had nothing to do with touching him and that ensuing sensation that sometimes carried a premonition. There was no premonition here. She just had a need, an overwhelming, stunning need she couldn’t ignore, even though this would probably turn out badly for her.
And yet, she couldn’t make herself walk away. Couldn’t make herself run and hide, to wait this out. Because if not tonight, then tomorrow, or the day after that, when she least expected it, she’d succumb. She’d wind up making love with him. This way, while her grandfather was still in the hospital for one more day, she could call the shots.
Sort of. Okay, he thought, this was good. This was better than good. Working hard to keep his brain from scrambling, he tried to remember his manners. “Do you want to have something to eat first?”
She pressed her lips together. Committed, she needed to see this through. “No.” He’d assumed that she’d suggested the cafeteria because the noise and people were, in a way, a protective shield for her. To keep their relationship from moving forward. Now that they were all but racing to the finish line, there was no more need for that kind of barrier. “I mean in a really decent restaurant.”
Viennadidn’t say anything. Instead, she gazed at him for a long moment. The longing she felt inside, the hunger eating away at her, grew to almost unbearable proportions.
Maybe it was because of everything she’d been through these last few days. Maybe it was fueled by the emotional turmoil she’d endured, confronted with her grandfather’s mortality.
Or maybe it just had to do with the extremely magnetic connection she felt whenever she was around this larger-than-life heroic doctor. She didn’t know. All she knew was thatthis really needed to happen between them. “No.”
Well, he’d tried, Georges thought. And to be honest, eating was the furthest thing from his mind right now. Calmly breaking bread in a five-star restaurant might be more than he could manage to pull off at the moment.
“All right, then,” he agreed. “Your place.”
Her eyes held his for a flickering of eternity. “My place,” she repeated. Vienna’s hand was trembling as she tried to put the large silver key into her front door lock. Trembling so hard that her first attempt to open the door failed. The key ring slipped from her hand and fell with a jarring clang to the blue-and-gray welcome mat.
Before she could pick them up again, Georges stooped down beside her and retrieved the keys. He selected the right key and unlocked the door for her. But even as he placed his hand on the doorknob, he refrained from turning it. Instead, he whispered to her, “You don’t have to do this, you know. We can just turn around and—”
Placing her hand over his,Vienna pushed down and opened the door. She entered her house and swung around in the foyer in one smooth motion.
The next moment, her mouth was sealed against his lips.
Sealed as closely as her body was to his, filling every space between them until there wasn’t enough left for a whisper of air.
Something suddenly ignited between them. Within them. It occurred so fast that whatever breath Georges thought he had left was stolen away. He’d never had that happen with a woman before. Oh, he’d been breathless before, but always by his own design and calculation. And he had always, always been in control of the situation, of the moment.
Here, he was free-falling without a single recollection of how it had begun.
Only that it was. He liked to make love to a woman at his own pace, but withVienna , he was losing control. There was an urgency that spurred him on, running like a flame along fuel that had been spilled on the ground, speeding to encompass every inch.
Within moments of slamming shut the door, holdingVienna ’s supple form trapped between the wall and his body, Georges swiftly stripped her. She did the same for him. Shirt, pants, dress and assorted undergarments went flying in all directions, a flurry of material and colors left to fend for themselves.
Georges wanted her with a fierceness that made his teeth ache. It would have scared the hell out of him if he’d taken so much as a microsecond to pause and consider. But he couldn’t. All he could do was hold on for dear life.
Hold on and savor. God, could he savor, he thought, his lips traveling up and down the length of her throat, the breadth of her breasts. Thoughts and desires all swirled into one another as he methodically worked his way down her torso.
Then, dropping to his knees, he continued to hold her against the wall as best he could while moving downward, ever downward.
He heard her whimper and thought he would dissolve in a cloud of vapor. Small, almost animal-like noises escaped from her lips. His tongue caressed her in all the places that his hands, his mouth, touched. Her whole body felt as if it were vibrating. Throbbing.
She could hardly breathe as she wound her fingers through his hair, pressing him against her. Urging him not to stop even as her body jerked and trembled. The sensation that exploded within her as his tongue found her inner core caused the world to go dark just for a heartbeat. Weakened, she all but sagged down to her knees beside him.
But then he pushed her back, weaving the magic more forcefully, more urgently this time until another climax found her. Rocked her. Sounds, almost guttural, rose in her throat, lodging there, fighting for space with her ragged breath.
With her last bit of strength, her fingers digging into his shoulders,Vienna managed to drag him back up to her level.
Or maybe he came of his own volition, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that the next moment, he was kissing her and their bodies were entwined. She could feel him harden against her. Jumping up, she wrapped her legs around his torso, her invitation clear. With a sob, she cried out his name as Georges drove himself into her.
Her head spun. She began to move against him, more and more urgently. His arms tightening around her so hard she could hardly breathe. All the while, their lips slanted over and over again in kiss after endless kiss. They reached the apex together. She thought his lips would be forever imprinted upon hers.
And then, suddenly, they were tumbling onto her sofa, their bodies covered in a slick sheen of sweat as exhaustion drenched them both. His back was to the cushions and she was on top of him and far too spent
to notice.
She was never going to draw a normal breath again,Vienna thought as her chest continued to heave. But that was all right, she told herself, because her head was lost in the stars.
As was the rest of her.
After what seemed like an eternity, Georges opened his eyes and looked up at her. “You are a surprise, Vienna Hollenbeck,” he marveled fondly. Viennafelt a smile spreading in response. “You’re not.” She took a moment to draw more air into her lungs. Would there ever be enough again? “You’re exactly what I thought you’d be.”
Well, that made one of them, he thought. Because he’d even surprised himself with the level of sensations that had telegraphed through him. With the desire that had all but torn him in half as it rammed itself into his body. As for his level of exhaustion, well, even at his most vigorous, he’d never felt as if he’d just run a twenty-six-mile marathon.
Shifting, he continued to hold her against him, feeling her warmth seeping into his body. Arousing him. Was that possible at this point? If he was half-dead, did that mean he was half-alive?
He felt her smile against his side. Georges raised an eyebrow as he looked into her face. “Is this cuddling?” There was amusement in her voice. Had that ex-fiancé never held her as if she were something precious? While the thought took form, he felt the sting of something unpleasant.
Jealousy? “This is called holding on for dear life until the room stops spinning,” he informed her whimsically, using humor to hide the fact that his own reactions had left him shaken.
Viennadug herself out of the pocket he’d created for her. Propping herself up on her elbow, she looked down at him. The tips of her blond hair skimmed lightly, teasingly, over his chest with each word she spoke.
He began to feel his stomach tightening in anticipation.
“Does this mean that you don’t want to do it again?” she asked. More than he wanted to breathe, he thought. But there were limitations. “There’s a world of difference between desire and execution,” Georges told her. “I’m afraid that you’re going to have to give me a few minutes so I can pull myself together.”
[The Sons of Lily Moreau 02] - Taming the Playboy Page 10