The Visiting Surgeon
Page 18
He checked his watch. ‘One thousand, seven hundred and eighteen hours and twelve minutes. All of them unbearable.’
Susie’s lips parted as the pent up air escaped her lungs. Her eyes misted over with tears and she sniffed.
‘Don’t,’ he groaned, and covered the remaining distance between them. Susie put out her hands to stop him but this time he ignored them, crushing her to him. ‘Don’t cry, my sweet Susie.’ His mouth was warm and possessive on hers.
‘Susie,’ he groaned again, and folded his arms about her. ‘It’s over. It’s over.’
Susie clung to him, desperate to believe his words. ‘I love you,’ she sobbed into his shoulder. She eased her head back to look into his eyes, her lips quivering. ‘I love you,’ she repeated. ‘Don’t leave me again.’
‘Shh.’ Jackson brought his mouth to hers once more, silencing her. ‘I won’t,’ he promised. ‘Never.’ He held her for a good five minutes, marvelling at how incredible she felt. Susie loved him. She loved him! ‘I took this job,’ he said, softly stroking her hair, ‘because I was determined we should be together. I was determined to move to Brisbane, to work with you every day, to court you, to do it right.
‘When I went back to Melbourne…’ he paused ‘…things were…different. Not at all how I remembered. The house Alison and I lived in felt as though it belonged to someone else. I realised then that I wasn’t the same any more. I’d changed. I was a different person inside. There are still some issues I need to work through…but I can’t do it alone. I need you to help me, Susie.’
He edged her back and tilted her chin up so their gazes could meet. ‘I loved Alison. It was a love that grew slowly and steadily over time and I was…content. When she died, a part of me died right along with her, and I thought it would be impossible to go on.’
Susie’s heart lurched at his words and she brought her hand up to caress his cheek. He turned and kissed her hand.
‘Yet when I left you at the airport to continue with my tour, the pain, the separation from you was sheer torture. But I still felt guilty about Alison, and it took me quite some time to come to terms with everything.’
‘Jackson, you don’t—’
He placed a finger over her lips. ‘Let me finish. Susie, I know that I can finally move on, and I want to be with you. I love you. More than anything in the world.’
Fresh tears welled in her eyes but these were tears she didn’t mind. Tears of happiness.
‘With you, I’m not just content—I’m extremely satisfied. I’m not just happy—I’m ecstatic. I’m not just in love—I’m devoted. With passion, with adoration, with tenderness.’ He kissed away the tears that trickled down her cheeks. ‘I need you, Susie.’ He pressed a soft and persuasive kiss on her lips. ‘Be my wife.’
She gasped at his words, dazed by what had taken place.
‘Let me show you I’m not like those other jerks who broke your heart. I don’t want to ruin your independence, I want to embrace it, meld it with my own. I love your intellect, the way we can talk about operating techniques, to share the highs and the lows of our jobs. I’ve never had that with anyone before, but when I found it with you it was as though a part of me became complete. Then another part and then another. Be my wife,’ he urged. ‘Complete me.’
His mouth was once more hungry and possessive as it met hers in a kiss filled with passion and promise. The promise of a long and devoted life together.
‘Say yes,’ he ground out as he nibbled his way to her ear lobe. ‘Say yes.’
‘I will.’ She laughed, happier than she’d ever been in her life. ‘If you’d give me half a chance.’ Goose-bumps shivered down her body as he continued his assault. Giggling, she planted her hand in his hair and gently tugged his head away. ‘Jackson!’
‘Sorry. It’s been seventy-two days, remember.’
‘Forget them.’ Her words were filled with love, love for the man who was her soul-mate, her other half. ‘I’ll agree to complete you if you complete me. Jackson, you don’t need to show or prove anything to me—because you’ve already done it. I’m not talking about moving to Brisbane but the fact that you accept me just as I am. No man has ever done that before. You’re the first—and the last.’ She brushed her lips across his. ‘Marry me quickly.’
‘As you wish.’ His mouth met hers in a mutual declaration of love, one they were both willing to contribute to and work at. ‘How am I going to be able to keep my hands off you?’ he groaned as he buried his face in her neck, unable to resist kissing the soft skin. ‘Working with you every day. Sitting next to you in departmental meetings. I don’t know if my self-control can take it.’
‘Or my patellar reflexes.’ She laughed.
Jackson raised his head to look at the woman he loved. The woman who had made him the happiest man on the face of the earth. He smiled at her.
‘I guess we’d better work out some…’ she paused and raised her eyebrows suggestively ‘…guidelines, then.’
His gaze darkened with desire. ‘I look forward to it, Dr Monahan.’
‘So do I, Professor!’
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5718-7
THE VISITING SURGEON
First North American Publication 2002
Copyright © 2002 by Lucy Clark
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