by Jess Dee
He smiled unabashedly in an attempt to disarm her. “I did.” Her aroma continued to waft around him, through him, and he had to adjust his position as his jeans stretched taut around his growing erection.
She pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. Her eyes narrowed. “It didn’t occur to you to ask my permission?”
“Nope.” He leaned forward an inch, loath to lose her scent.
Resting her arms on the table, she said, “Do you think that’s fair?”
“Yup. With those looks, you should be a model.” She was any photographer’s dream subject. He could think of a few choice poses he’d like to film her in. None of them included clothes.
She frowned. “I don’t like having my picture taken. Please put the camera away.”
“Sorry,” he said in the nicest possible way. “Can’t do that.” All he had on film was her face. He wanted the body too. And the legs—the endlessly long legs in those foxy, high-heeled boots. Legs he’d like wrapped around his waist as they made love. She could leave the boots on—everything else would have to come off.
“C’mon Dan. You know how uncomfortable I get. Just put the camera down and let’s have lunch.”
“Morgan,” he said, addressing her by her last name as he always did. “I’ve been taking pictures of you for years. Your face was made for a camera. Don’t you think it’s time you accepted that I’m not going to stop?”
“I think you take advantage of the fact I’m your best friend and as such, won’t scream at you.” Amy pouted.
He laughed even as his lips itched to taste the full-mouthed pout. “Yeah, right. You never scream. Or lecture, or tell me when I’m doing something you don’t like.”
Her face relaxed into a smile. “Okay, so maybe I scream at you every now and again, but it’s not as if you listen anyway.”
A waitress delivered their food, interrupting their conversation. “Hope you don’t mind,” he told Amy, “but you said you were in a hurry, so I ordered for us.”
The waitress leaned over, offering Daniel an impressive view of her cleavage, and cast him a suggestive glance. He merely smiled and directed his attention back to his friend. Once upon a time he would have accepted the invitation. Not now.
“Thanks,” Amy answered as she watched the waitress strut off. She looked at him with a bemused smile. “I still get a kick out of watching women try to pick you up.”
Daniel shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a good-looking guy. Everyone wants a piece of me.” He chuckled out loud. Everyone except you.
She bit into her bruschetta and a look of ecstasy flitted across her face. “Mmm… You know this is my favorite.”
For a full thirty seconds he was winded. She had that exact look on her face in his dream last night. Need rolled through him. He tucked into his own meal, hoping the bread and soup would satisfy the hunger gnawing away at him. It didn’t. His cock was so hard it hurt.
He cleared his throat. “Do me a favor?”
“Name it.”
He lifted his camera. “Go stand there against the railing and watch the surfers for a couple of minutes.” He was taking a chance, but it was worth it if he could get a shot of her from behind. She had a great ass—round and tight.
“You’re impossible!”
“I know. You’ll do it anyway, won’t you?” He flashed a smile, one he knew she couldn’t say no to.
Instead of complying like he expected her to, she ignored him and leaned back, sipping her latte. “How was the last day of your shoot at the hospital?”
“You’re changing the subject.” He smiled again, a pleading smile this time.
“Your lunch is getting cold. And your dimples don’t work on me, so lose the smile. Besides, I have to be back at the office in forty-five minutes so it doesn’t give us much time.”
Resigned to the unhappy fact that Amy wouldn’t pose for him today, Daniel put his camera away, sighing.
“So how did your last day go?” The teasing note in her voice was now gone.
Daniel thought for a minute. “Bittersweet, I guess. I’m glad the shoot’s over. I can focus on developing the prints. But, shit,” he shook his head as emotion clawed at his gut, “it was hard to say goodbye to some of the kids.”
“You’ll go back and visit them, won’t you?”
“Yeah, of course.” His voice caught and he had to clear his throat. “I’m just not sure which of them will be there next time I go.”
Amy nodded empathically. “This project’s been hard on you.”
“Very.” He knew she understood why. After so many years of friendship, there were no secrets between them. Well, almost no secrets. Apart from the one tiny fact that he was wildly in love with her, Amy knew everything about him. But how could he confess the truth without her heading straight for the hills in abject terror?
“It’s been rewarding too,” he said. “I learned an amazing amount from the kids. Stuff that changed my way of thinking.” Understatement! The last three months had brought back his past and in doing so, reshaped his future. He was a different person from the man he had been twelve weeks ago.
“Tell me about it.”
Daniel hesitated a moment, thinking about the shoot, how much to tell her. He’d spent the last three months in the Pediatric Oncology and Hematology Ward at Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs Hospital—POWS as the staff called it—capturing the children, their families and the staff members on film. His photos were being displayed in an exhibition that Lexi, a social worker on the ward, had organized. The funds raised from the exhibition would be used to upgrade and refurbish the ward.
It was no coincidence that Daniel and Lexi chose this particular project. The siblings had a special interest in children with cancer. When they were just kids themselves, their sister, Sarah, had been diagnosed with leukemia. It had been a year of pure hell but Sarah beat the odds and the cancer went into full remission.
It wasn’t the assignment Daniel was reluctant to discuss with Amy—she knew all about it anyway. It was the consequences of the time he spent there. The lessons he learned that were so hard to share.
It was the terrifying moments of clarity that he couldn’t voice just yet. How could he describe his emotion when watching a family spend their last precious hours with their son and brother? How could he share all he learned about himself while sitting beside the desperately ill young Vicky?
Vicky had gone home. The young boy hadn’t. Their outcomes had been dramatically different. Twenty-odd years before, Daniel and his family had lived in fear that they were spending their last days with Sarah. They’d been fortunate. Unlike the boy, Sarah had survived.
Instead of answering Amy immediately, he reached for his bag and removed an envelope of photos he’d developed that morning. Flipping through them, he found one he was looking for and handed it to his friend.
The black and white print was appropriate for the subject—a young, bald girl with dark eyes. The lack of color in the picture could not detract from the pasty shade of her skin.
“Her name’s Vicky Campen. She’s ten and has leukemia,” he explained as Amy gazed at the picture. “She tried to smile for my camera, but a bout of nausea knocked her flat.” He gnawed on his lip. His hand had been shaking when he took the shot.
He frowned, forming his sentences carefully. “She reminded me so much of Sarah.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “I…we got pretty close while I was there. I spent a lot of time with her, just hanging out, talking, reading books. Then one day we had a chat about her illness.” He tapped a little faster. “She spoke so candidly about the possibility she might die.” He pictured Vicky’s face at the time, recalled the adult eyes staring out from the child’s face. “She just wanted a little more time to appreciate her family and the other people she loves. She’s fighting her cancer so she can spend time with them. She learned she can’t take anyone for granted.” He stopped, stilled his fingers and took a deep breath. “Got me thinking…I do that a lot. Take my life an
d the people in it for granted.”
Amy’s expression was gentle as she looked at him. “I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it must have been for you, spending all that time with Vicky. How many memories it must have brought back. But what you’re saying is simply not true. I’ve never seen you take your friends or family for granted. And I think I can speak from experience.”
“See, that’s just the thing. I also never used to think that about myself. But Vicky forced me to look at my life and my behavior quite thoroughly. The truth is I’m not happy with where I am right now.”
Her brow puckered as concern radiated from her. “Can you be more specific? What exactly aren’t you happy with? Where would you rather be?”
He smiled. “Truthfully? I’m not ready to speak about it.” The things he wanted to tell her would change the dynamics of their relationship and she wasn’t ready to hear them. Not yet. Not until he’d put his plan into action.
Amy pushed her sunglasses up until they rested above her forehead. Brilliant green eyes appraised him and her face shone with curiosity. “I’ve been told I’m a good listener, you know.”
He grinned at her, suddenly feeling horny as hell. Christ, he wanted to get her into bed, wanted to see those green eyes glazed with passion. “You’d be a pretty useless counselor if you weren’t.”
“Forget my job, we’re talking about yours. Or about your life anyway. So come on. Where would you rather be?”
Oh God. She should only know where he wanted to be right now. Buried deep inside her slick, hot folds. Riding high on the wave of yet another orgasm. Locked away in a place where he could ravish her body at will…
“Daniel?” Amy’s voice brought him back to the present. “You’ve got a funny look on your face. You okay?”
He looked at her. Oh, to just come right out and say it, tell her how he felt. But he couldn’t. She’d bolt if he did. Instead, he chose to appeal to her understanding, nurturing side. “I need a little time with this one, Morgan. I have to sort it out in my own mind first.” He drummed his fingers on the table again. “I promise, when the time’s right, we’ll talk about it. Today though, I’d just like to sit here and enjoy my lunch with you.”
Her face softened momentarily and she nodded. Then she shot him a suspicious look. “In other words, you want to see how much of my food I’ll eat and if there’ll be any left over for you.”
“You don’t think I’m here to enjoy your company?” He feigned hurt and injury.
“I think you enjoy the company of my bruschetta more. I don’t understand why you don’t just order two meals for yourself. You always end up eating half of mine anyway.”
He smiled at her good-natured griping. “Ah, Morgan,” he said. “It’s nice to spend some quality time with you.”
“It would be nicer if you told me your secrets,” she replied before biting into her lunch.
He smiled again and a comfortable warmth settled over him. “I promise I’ll tell you my secrets—” When making love with me will be your first priority. When the only thing you can think about is me. When your sweet body is sated by my mouth and my hands and my cock. When resistance to me is a foreign concept.
He looked her dead in the eye. “When the time’s right.”
—
Amy took another sip of her coffee and stared thoughtfully at her friend. Damn, he was hot. Handsome, charming and sexier than a pin-up model. She’d watched women drool over his honey-blond curls and sky-blue eyes. His devilish grin and impish dimples only added to his rakish appeal. Sometimes when she saw him, her breath would catch or her stomach would flip-flop for no reason.
It hadn’t happened in a long time. Yet for a fleeting moment she had an unexpected urge to kick her chair aside, stride over to the other end of the table and perch her butt on his muscular lap. Press herself against him and feel his erection grow and lengthen with every sweep of her hips.
She was sure she could get him to reveal his secrets then. She felt a sweet pull between her legs and licked her suddenly dry lips as she contemplated the thought. Hmm…even if he didn’t reveal his secrets, she might just head on over to his lap anyway.
No.
Seducing one’s friend was a very bad idea—there was no quicker way to destroy a friendship. All the dynamics of their relationship would change irrevocably if she slept with Daniel. Things would be awkward. There was no way they could go back to being just friends after that.
Instead she crossed her knees, rested her cheek on her hand and worked hard at suppressing the damn flush she felt staining her face.
Her philosophy was simple. It was one she learned the hard way. Friends were always around. Lovers left. Case in point number one: Simon left her. Case in point number two: her father left her mother. Daniel was a friend. He’d always be around. Unless he became her lover.
She’d known Daniel long enough to understand his pattern of behavior around women. He had an uncanny knack of leaving his lovers. Not cheating on them. Nope, unlike Simon and her father, the man did not have a malicious, unfaithful bone in his body. He simply did not have the capacity to sustain a long-term relationship. In the entire time she’d known him, she’d witnessed him loving and leaving plenty of women. None of them had been around for longer than six months—at most.
She wanted Daniel to stay in her life forever. The only way to ensure he hung around was to keep him as a friend. Period.
A while back she made a decision never to sleep with him. If once or twice over the years she had erotic fantasies to the contrary, well that was too bad. It would never happen.
Apart from the fact that Daniel was her friend, he was also a man. Loving a man made you vulnerable, opened you up to hurt and pain. She was through being hurt. She could survive very well without men in her life, thank you very much.
Well, except for Daniel of course.
Besides, now was not the time to be drooling over him. Daniel was under strain. His last assignment had dealt him a huge emotional blow. He was forced to face things he hadn’t dealt with in a long time and he was hurting.
Whatever was worrying him would come out soon enough. When the time was right.
She relented. “Okay. I’ll let it rest. You can tell me your secrets in your own good time.” She smiled and tactfully changed the subject. “How’s Laura?”
He rolled his eyes. “Her name’s Lauren. I haven’t seen Laura in months.”
“Laura, Lauren. Same difference. In the last few years you’ve had so many girlfriends I can’t keep up. I stopped trying ages ago.” She knew she ragged him mercilessly about his sex life, but he was commitment phobic and made no pretense to be otherwise.
“It’s over. I ended it a few nights ago.”
Unsurprised by his revelation, Amy clucked in sympathy. Another broken heart. “How’d she take it?”
He grimaced. “I tried to be as gentle as possible, but there was a lot of crying involved.”
“She never saw it coming, did she?”
“What can I say? She wasn’t the right one for me. Besides, I did tell her from the start it wouldn’t go anywhere.”
“Ah, Danny, my friend…” She smiled at him. “Have you ever told a woman it would go anywhere?”
For the briefest second his eyes darkened, turning the shade of a stormy gray sky. But then they cleared again and he grinned. “Not yet.”
“You really are a hopeless case, aren’t you?” She breathed a sigh of relief as she checked her watch, took a last bite of her lunch and pushed the remaining half of her bruschetta over to Daniel. Lucky she hadn’t made the enticing journey to his lap a few minutes ago. His attitude towards Laura or Lauren, or whatever her name was, just reinforced what she already knew. Daniel was a love-’em-and-leave-’em kind of a guy. If she ever slept with him, his behavior would be no different. They’d have sex and then he’d leave her…like he left all his girlfriends.
She watched him polish off her leftovers, and as he licked his fingers, she couldn’
t help but imagine what it would be like if those fingers were hers. How his warm, wet tongue would feel as it traced a path over her fingertips and down across her knuckles. Up her arm and over to her chest, stopping to tease her erect, tingling nipples. Pulling on them, sucking until she could bear the sweet torture no more and pushed his head down. What sensations his tongue would elicit as it licked her clit, dipped into her—
Holy crap!
There was no way she would sleep with him. If she did, she’d be hit with a double whammy. First she’d lose her lover, and then she’d lose her friend.
The lover part she could deal with—maybe. Losing her best friend was unthinkable.
Chapter Three
It was late Friday afternoon and as had become routine over the last five years of working together, Amy and her friend and colleague, Maggie McGill, sat companionably on the couches in Amy’s office. Amy was a counselor at The Sydney Fertility Clinic and Maggie one of the nursing co-coordinators.
“I saw an interesting case today,” Maggie said. “A gay couple want to have a baby.”
“Men or women?”
“Women. They just want the facts right now. They’re not ready to make any decisions. One of them will contact us if they need our assistance.”
“Sounds interesting. Count me in for counseling if they come back.”
“I will.” Maggie nodded and changed the subject. “Up to anything exciting tonight?”
“It’s Daniel’s sister’s thirtieth. She’s throwing a party at Bronte beach.” Amy checked her watch. “Dan should be here any minute to collect me.”
“Brilliant,” Maggie beamed. “I can get a look at that incredible ass. You know…” She paused, looking thoughtful. “It still beats me why you haven’t slept with him. If I had such a sexy friend, I’d just want to spend all day shagging him.”
Amy shrugged. “The opportunity hasn’t arisen.”
“It’s not opportunity you want to arise. It’s his—”
Amy cut her off with a laugh. “I tell you this all the time. We’re just friends. Period. Sex would kill our friendship and I’m not willing to sacrifice Daniel for a night between the sheets.”