He brought his parents back to the hospital where they fretted for a while, and then somehow the MacBrides did what families do in an emergency—they put differences aside and dealt as best they could with the new hand they had rapidly been dealt.
Most families.
He understood that look now from Victoria.
That brief look where she clearly hadn’t understood what he was saying, but he wanted her to understand.
More than that, he wanted to see her.
It was late, he was tired and, yes, he had been told by her to stay back, but instead he found himself at her door.
Victoria opened it and she was wearing the same short white robe that she had been wearing the last time he was here.
She rolled her eyes when she saw him. ‘It didn’t go well, then?’
‘What?’ Dominic frowned.
‘The family reunion.’
‘It went very well, Victoria. I’m just here to see you.’
‘Why?’ she asked, and then she laughed. ‘Stupid question.’
Sex was the last thing on his mind. Well, not quite, but with those three words he knew her a little bit more.
She didn’t get relationships.
Not in the least.
‘I’m actually here because I’ve had a crap day and I wanted to see you at the end of it. Are you going to let me in?’
Her flat was dark; clearly she had been about to go to bed but she let him in and turned on a side light.
He took a seat on the sofa and she sat on a chair as if they were in a waiting room.
‘How are your parents?’ she asked.
‘Worried, but they feel better now that they’ve seen him. They’re back at mine.’
‘How’s the baby?’
‘He’s on the cardiac unit and he’s settled for the night. Lorna’s staying with him.’
‘Is Jamie back at the hotel?’
‘No, he’s staying at mine too.’ He saw her eyes widen a fraction and chose to explain how it had come about. ‘Jamie didn’t know the way to the underground, nor about Oyster cards and things, so I offered to drop him off at the hotel. In the end I said to just check out and to come and stay at mine.’
‘Are you two talking, then?’
‘A bit,’ he said, and then admitted more. ‘Not really.’
‘Then how come he’s staying at yours?’
‘Because he’s my brother and his baby is sick, and right now the baby is the priority. The rest will have to wait.’
His voice was brusque, though he hadn’t meant it to be. ‘Sorry.’
‘No, no...’ Victoria said.
It really had been a difficult day.
‘Thomas seems to think he might need surgery.’
‘Thomas?’ Victoria checked.
‘Thomas Wolfe. He’s a new cardiologist.’
‘He’s not new,’ Victoria said, and shook her head.
‘Yes, he is. He only just started at Paddington’s the other day.’
‘No, he used to work there years ago when I first started. He’s a lovely guy.’
Dominic didn’t comment; lovely wasn’t how he’d describe any guy, but certainly it was not a word he’d expect to hear to describe Thomas, who he had found rather stand-offish.
Still, he didn’t dwell on it.
He took in a breath and closed his eyes. It was the first time he had properly paused since he had looked up and seen Victoria walking towards him with Jamie by her side and Lorna and William on the stretcher.
‘Jamie was going to call and ask me to take a look at him this afternoon...’
‘I know that.’
And it was then she knew for certain that she loved him.
She didn’t even have to ask what his response to that phone call would have been.
And yes, while she wanted happy reunions and for him to say that his family was fine, she was starting to understand that Dominic did not say what you wanted him to. He spoke the truth.
Having seen Lorna and Jamie for herself, she was starting to comprehend the magnitude of the betrayal.
It was a miracle, really, that Dominic had followed her into the underground that night when she had first told him she was pregnant, and that he kept coming back when so many men would have turned away.
She wanted to ask him about Lorna, how it had felt to see her today after all this time, but she knew that wasn’t needed now.
‘Jamie tried to talk about it,’ Dominic admitted. ‘But I told him that for now he has to focus on the baby. I am trying to work on things with my family, Victoria,’ he said. ‘But I need to do it at my own pace, not theirs.’
‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But how can you sort it out living so far apart?’
‘Because I couldn’t work on it from there. Victoria, families fall out. You yourself said you’ve had words with your father...’
‘Your family wants you to be in their lives though.’
‘Doesn’t he?’
‘He wants me there to attend functions when he’s between wives.’
‘What was the row about between you?’
‘I told you,’ she said, but she knew she hadn’t properly. ‘I said I could see why my mother left him.’
‘And what did he say to that?’
She shrugged.
Victoria simply wasn’t ready to go there.
‘Do you want a drink?’ she offered.
‘I do, but I have to drive.’
‘I meant tea.’
‘No thanks, then.’
She stood up to get him a Scotch or whatever she had to hand. ‘Have a drink. I can drive you home.’
‘No thanks,’ he said. ‘I need the car in case something happens overnight.’
She stood still. There were other solutions and both of them mentally explored them. Dominic wanted her to come back to his—he needed her tonight—but his family were all there and so he could not suggest that.
And though he wanted to stay here a while, both knew where that could lead.
Would lead.
He could see her nipples protruding through the dressing gown—life would be far less complicated if they did not so completely turn each other on.
But no, he could not stay here for the night.
‘I really do need to get back home. I just wanted to stop by and tell you what was happening.’
It was nice that he had stopped by, Victoria thought, for she had been fretting about it all evening. It didn’t really make sense to Victoria—after all, she had been to the hospital to see how the baby was, but she had just felt a bit sick about little William since the moment she had realised that the baby they had been called out to was Dominic’s nephew.
‘Will your parents worry if I keep you out late?’ Victoria teased, and he rolled his eyes.
‘My mother asked where I was going at this time of the night. They’re driving me crazy already.’
And she smiled because it was said without malice. He put out his hand and when she took it he pulled her onto his lap.
‘How are they driving you crazy?’
‘Because in the twenty years that I haven’t lived at home, nothing has changed. They hadn’t had dinner and I suggested that we get a takeaway, as you do. But no, she wanted us all to sit down and have a proper dinner, as she calls it.’
Victoria found that her smile widened.
Oh, she loved glimpses of family life.
‘Well,’ Dominic continued, ‘I don’t really have the ingredients for a proper dinner in my kitchen, so I said I’d go shopping and of course that meant she had to come with me...’
And he was smiling now as he told her about the little shopping trip. ‘Do you know how many different types of potatoes the
re are? Well, I do now. And for all the potatoes in the supermarket they didn’t have the ones she preferred.’
‘Of course they didn’t.’
He let out a soft laugh and then looked to the woman on his lap and Victoria looked back at him.
She felt his hand around her waist and the warmth of his palm through the fabric. ‘I’m sorry it’s been such a bad day,’ Victoria said.
‘It’s not now.’
The world and its problems were outside and waiting and he would give them all the attention that was needed. But right here, right now, the night felt kinder than the day.
‘I do have to go...’ he told her.
‘I know that you do,’ Victoria said, but she did not move from his lap and he made no move to stand.
He looked at her hair which tumbled down over her shoulders and he knew that she wore nothing beneath the robe. He looked at her mouth and then back to her eyes.
A train rattled past which told her the time. She actually liked the sound—it was like having an erratic cuckoo clock in her home but, Victoria knew, this train was the last of the night and she would not hear that sound again until just after five.
And what would her life be like then?
More complicated, Victoria was sure, because it was she who moved in for his mouth.
She tasted resistance—oh, yes, she did—for Dominic had not come here for that and did not want to muddy the waters...while, of course, also desperately wanting to.
For muddied waters became crystal clear as he tasted her kiss and it was all terribly simple after that. It had been a day of holding back and he could sustain it no more, for today had been hellish and now the night was not just kind, it was inviting.
Escape beckoned and he drew her in closer, hitching her up on his lap while his hands went into her hair. But Victoria pulled them down, for this was her kiss to him. And so she turned in his lap and straddled him so his hands were free to roam her.
And then he kissed her lazily as she rose on her knees to him, a kiss that simply let her lead and gladly she did. Victoria explored his mouth at her leisure as he ran his hands over her bottom and then released the tie on her robe so that it fell open.
Now his mouth was more urgent as they explored with their tongues and she knew she had never enjoyed kissing more than she did with him.
It was hungry and teasing and they shared moans of pleasure, and as his hands toyed with her breasts she was raw with need for him.
The kiss went deeper and he pulled her higher on his thighs so that she could feel him hard at her centre. She was holding his face in her hands as she kissed him and he ground her down on him.
Then she lifted higher so that he could taste her breast with warm licks, and when he pulled his mouth away, the sudden loss made her crave more.
Victoria had never wanted anyone as badly as she wanted him.
She had missed his touch and now, when there was so much to sort out, they sought the one thing that was already clear—a mutual and very deep want.
‘Please...’ she said while making room for his hands to free himself. Victoria could feel his breath on her breast as she held on to his shoulders. But when she could simply have lowered herself onto him, instead he ran his hand up her inner thigh and then played with her for a moment, sliding his fingers inside till she was quivering. But she did not have to ask twice for him to take her.
He eased himself inside her as she lowered herself down, and he swore with the bliss of her tight grip and told himself to hold on.
Victoria now wanted his skin pressed to hers. It seemed cruel that he was dressed, but she was so hot in his arms that all she could manage was a couple of buttons on his shirt before she gave up trying to open it.
He thrust upwards while pulling her down and the feel of him so deep inside her almost shot her into orbit.
It was raw and fast and there were hungry kisses in between, and then he turned his head to halt their kiss and slid his hips forward in the chair, taking her with him and allowing him to watch their union.
Victoria still held his shoulders and she, too, looked down. He lifted her hips and held her at his tip, then thrust just a little and the pleasure drove them both wild. She could not sustain it as she was starting to come so he pulled her hard down. She tightened and pulsed around him as Dominic came to her body’s command. Relishing the heat of release, she rested on his shoulder, gathering her breath, while he moved her pliant body to extract every drop of pleasure.
Victoria closed her eyes at the bliss, while knowing she did not need to wait for morning to find out how she was feeling.
She wanted him to stay.
Victoria wanted to hole them up in her bedroom and never leave because it felt as if there were too many obstacles out there.
This love felt as though it might burst from her chest if she let it; it was just too vast to handle.
There were too many feelings that must be kept in check.
For how would he react to her barrage of questions?
Her feelings were in complete disarray.
‘You need to go,’ Victoria said.
She went to climb off but he did not let her. ‘So you can say I got what I came for?’
He felt her short, reluctant laugh as he held her in his arms.
He was starting to know her a little too well and so she lifted her head up and looked at him.
‘You do have to go.’
‘I can call and tell them that if there’s a problem...’ And then he hesitated because family came first, especially at times such as this, yet she had edged her way up that list. ‘Come back with me.’
It was possibly the most stupid thing to say, but he was still inside her and that allowed a person to say the occasional reckless thing.
‘Isn’t it a bit early to be meeting the family?’ Victoria said, and got off him.
‘Exceptional circumstances,’ Dominic retorted as he sorted out his clothes. He was annoyed at himself for pushing things, and annoyed at the contrariness of her. ‘Victoria, like it or not, we’re going to be parents, and trying to sort things out from a distance isn’t working out too well, is it?’
‘I’m on nights tomorrow,’ Victoria said. ‘I just want to go to bed and have a long lie-in.’
‘So when will I see you?’
‘At work, I guess.’
‘I meant away from work. I’m not going to have our relationship dictated by how often your ambulance is dispatched to the Castle, and you kicking me out isn’t exactly helping us—’
‘I’m hardly kicking you out,’ Victoria interrupted. ‘You have a family that you need to get back to and I need to get some sleep.’
She needed him gone because she was on the edge of telling him she was crazy about him.
On the edge of asking about Lorna and how it had felt to see her again.
If he knew her—the real, insecure her—Victoria was positive that he would not want her any more.
She had never cared about anyone else in the way she cared for him, and it terrified her. She did not want to add a failed relationship between them to the mix.
‘You keep asking if there’s anything you can do for me,’ Victoria said. ‘Well, there is. Just stay back.’
‘You mean that?’ he checked.
‘I do.’
She even held the door open for him.
So much for wanting a long sleep, because Victoria was still awake when she heard the first train of the morning clack past.
Dominic, she decided, could be as involved in their baby’s life as he chose to be but she would not allow him to get closer to her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘WHAT TIME DID you get home last night?’ Katie MacBride enquired as Dominic came into the kitchen the next morn
ing.
Dominic, who hadn’t had to answer that question for two decades, was certainly in no mood to answer it now.
‘Did you hear what your mother said?’ William prompted. He was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper. No doubt he had got up at six and gone out to get one, just as he did back home.
‘I heard,’ Dominic answered. ‘I didn’t make a note of the time when I got in.’
He had tea and toast all prepared by Katie, and Dominic laughed to himself at his own suggestion last night that Victoria should come here.
Dominic loved his parents very much but they were straight into his business and he could only imagine a very independent Victoria’s response to his parents’ fussing.
‘What time will you be back?’ his mother asked as Dominic went to leave at seven when he didn’t really need to leave until half past.
‘I’m not sure,’ Dominic answered. ‘And tomorrow I’m on call all weekend so I’ll be staying at the hospital.’
‘What about Jamie and Lorna?’ William asked. ‘Will you be in to visit your nephew?’
‘I am going to be working!’ Dominic pointed out.
‘You should speak with your brother instead of avoiding him.’
‘Jamie’s here now.’ Dominic pointed down the hall to the bedroom. ‘How can I be avoiding him?’
Except deep down Dominic knew that he was.
* * *
Friday night was hell because little William had a run of atrial fibrillation and Dominic had to race Jamie back to be by Lorna’s side.
Dominic sat in the waiting room on the cardiac unit and saw on the news that there was an incident at Piccadilly.
He had never felt fear watching the news until he had met Victoria.
It was hell watching flashing lights on the screen and brawls taking place and knowing she may well be in the thick of it.
And what was he supposed to do?
Did he send a text asking if she was okay and just irk her some more?
Or did he just sit there feeling ill while hoping to God she was safe?
* * *
She wasn’t.
Victoria wasn’t gung-ho but she could never be accused of holding back, yet as she climbed out of the vehicle to the sounds of a brawl, for the first time in her career she did hold back.
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