The Doctor's Gift

by Fiona McArthur

  ‘Isn’t it?’ Ailee sighed back into the chair. ‘I love this place and it’s fab to be inside the formal rooms.’

  Fergus needed to hold Ailee close in his arms, and maybe run his fingers down her amazing cheekbones, circle her beautiful mouth with his fingertip, before doing what he needed to do — kiss her. He had to kiss her. Taste her.

  His ears buzzed with the need.

  ‘I said, aren’t you going to have any food?’ Ailee’s lips curved, enticing, soft and smiling at him, and he blinked and came back to the present.

  The waiter stood resplendent in his uniform beside their table. Regally, the man presided over a silver-handled trolley festooned with tiny delicate cakes and slices, obviously waiting for a decision.

  Fergus wasn’t that kind of hungry. Not that kind of hungry at all.

  ‘I think you need your bed,’ Ailee said as she accepted a miniature butterfly cake onto her plate.

  ‘I think I do, too.’ His voice came out softer and deeper than he’d intended and there was no doubt what he meant. He watched the blush run up her cheeks.

  Fergus cleared his throat. ‘Sorry. You’re right. I’m tired. I’ve gone absent-minded on you.’ He chose a chocolate slice he didn’t want and forced himself to swallow a bite past his dry throat.

  Disapproving of their meagre selections the waiter moved on. Fergus didn’t even notice.

  This woman had him in a state he hadn’t been since a kid on his first date. It would be amusing. If it wasn’t so dangerous.

  ‘Perhaps we could meet for dinner after a few hours’ sleep,’ Fergus suggested.

  ‘I’d like that,’ she said.

  Chapter 6

  Ailee

  * * *

  After a tight-lipped and awkwardly tense trip back to their hotel with growing awareness tingling her skin, Ailee was glad to be helped out of the limousine by the doorman. Even the steamy warmth outside the limo seemed cooler than the heat inside.

  Things had changed since afternoon tea.

  The previous ease she’d felt with Fergus was now overlaid with an awareness that both of them were trying, desperately, to hide. She’d felt it rise at the table in Raffles and shift into the tangible sexual tension that vibrated between them now. Maybe it had been the discussion of families, or the sun, or the sling, or maybe it had just grown during the time they’d spent together.

  Ailee wasn’t sure, but there was no denying they were very, very aware of each other. When Fergus cupped her elbow as they stood together and waited for the lift, Ailee felt the warmth of his hand as if she’d brought a bubble of the Singapore heat from outside into the air-conditioned coolness of the hotel.

  The lift bell sang its chime and the golden doors opened in front of them. Her gaze was caught by the mirror at the back of the lift and the reflection of the two of them standing so close, eyes meeting in the mirror. Goosebumps lifted the hairs on her arms and her belly began a slow burn. Fergus turned and stretched one hand out to the control panel and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  ‘Ten,’ Ailee said softly, and he pressed her floor button along with his own. Half of her sighed with relief and the other chewed her lip with indecision.

  If she said something she knew he would come to her room, but she couldn’t do it. She didn’t know him that well. They had met barely twenty-four hours ago.

  So why did she feel she knew this man on a level she’d never known any man?

  Fergus squeezed her elbow and slid his hand up her arm, her neck, her cheek, and he cupped her face and turned her to him. She felt the heat slice through her.

  ‘Thank you for your company,’ he said as the lift stopped at her floor and he leaned in to kiss her goodbye.

  His breath, chocolate-cake and male, followed by his mouth, firm and brushing, as his lips met hers. A soft, gentle brush that made her breath pull in. His warmth captured her as he brushed softly, teasingly again, his mouth provocative and she leaned in. Suddenly his hard chest pulled against her own softness. Mixing her breath with his in tiny nibbles, until his tongue brushed the center of her lips in a slow sweep. She gasped and her heart sped.

  Her mouth opened to his, drawing him in. The lift doors closed, locking them together. The restraint they’d both held disappeared into the small space as all thoughts of leaving the cage were lost and she jammed closer. Into him. Harder.

  Strong arms circled her as all the dancing around the attraction that flared between them was declared a waste of precious time, because this was where she wanted to be. His hand on her face, his other around her shoulders pressing her into him. His thighs against hers.

  The lift carried them swiftly to the top floor of the building.

  Ailee didn’t know how they passed through the penthouse door, but obviously Fergus had found his key and inserted the card successfully, because when she opened her eyes, she was being carried across the room in his strong arms.

  Ailee sank her head back against his gorgeous chest. She’d always had a weakness for muscular chests. No one had actually carried her for many years — not since she’d grazed her knees as a skinny five-year-old — and Fergus carried her as if she were still as tiny as a child.

  She savoured being whisked through the rooms in this man’s arms, she was flying, light as a feather and she could almost believe she was one of those petite women she’d always admired. He settled her at the edge of his bed and traced her brow with his finger as if she were the most fragile of Dresden china.

  * * *

  ‘You captured me the first time I saw you. Do you know that?’ His quiet words lifted the hairs on her arms and she smiled at the way this man could make her feel more sensations and emotions than any man from her past.

  Her mouth turned suddenly dry from nerves. ‘When I sat next to you on the plane?’ She remembered that moment. She’d thought she’d been the only one who’d been aware of attraction.

  He traced her cheeks and lips and pressed a soft, fleeting kiss on her mouth before going on. ‘Before that. In the terminal, across a crowded room, like in all the best movies, you shone like a golden star.’

  There was nothing she could do against the power he held over her. He was kind and funny and the sweeping conversations they’d had exposed the ferocity of his intellect. She felt as if she’d found someone who understood her.

  But why now? When she couldn’t commit to anything beyond this moment.

  But when he drew her into his arms there was no real world, nothing beyond here and now. Only Fergus to lose herself in.

  He kissed her again and she was swept into a storm of sensation. The taste and feel and scent of him surrounded her. Engulfed her.

  His strength and gentleness created havoc as he slipped her dress straps down her arms and exposed her body to the air-conditioned coolness in the room. The way he looked at her made her want to purr with unexpected pride and blush with her own wantonness.

  Shameless, her fingers flew as she unbuttoned his shirt and slipped her hands beneath the fabric to run them over the hard planes of his chest. So hot, so hard, so perfect and masculine and sexy and here. Hers. She needed to feel more than his skin under her hands, she needed to feel all of him against her body. Now.

  He stripped her dress lower, brushed her taut breast with his tongue before staring down at her with a fierce delight. Leaving her nipples damp. Cold. Puckering.

  She felt powerful, strong and fiercely desired by this golden man above her, and she reached up and stroked his muscled neck and shoulders as he lowered his face again to kiss her mouth. Tongue hot and thrusting and ravenous for her. As if searching for secrets they could share together.

  There was nothing she could do against the power he held over her.

  Nothing else she wanted to do but be here.

  The rights and wrongs of this craziness and knowing she couldn’t follow up their encounter in Sydney were all swept aside as her body responded to the feel of him against her.

  ‘Yes.’

&nb
sp; The shrill sound of the room telephone finally penetrated the fog that surrounded them both.

  Fergus groaned and reached with one hand to lift the phone. With the other he captured her fingers to stop her instinctive pull away.

  But his caller created that distance.

  ‘Daddy?’ She heard the word.

  So did Fergus of course. ‘Simone! What’s wrong? Why are you crying?’

  Fergus let go of Ailee’s hand and turned his shoulder to face away from her. His voice dropped in volume and Ailee looked away. Heard, ‘What do you mean, not good?’

  Cold sense splashed her alert. It wasn’t just them. He’d told her about his young daughter who lost her mother.

  What was she doing here? She pulled the top of her dress up and slid to the edge of the bed.

  Simone didn’t need her father being with another woman.

  Didn’t need him even falling for another woman if that was where this was going.

  Let alone one who was going into surgery for an operation that was anything but minor. One with risks far greater than those that had taken Simone’s mother. Ongoing risks.

  She blew out a sad sigh. Shook her head. She could search him out when all this was over if she was well and he was interested.

  She thought he was interested. Smiled grimly at the stupid thought. Not just sex and a Singapore Sling, but perhaps something more.

  She looked around the room and reluctantly thanked Fergus’s daughter for the phone call. Ailee’s loyalties lay in a different direction too for the next few months and she couldn’t divide herself at this point. Couldn’t distract herself from what mattered.

  He put the phone down and gave her a whimsical smile. ‘Where were we?’

  ‘I was about to leave.’

  ‘Because my daughter rang?’ he asked quietly, carefully, as if wanting to understand.

  She gestured with her hand. ‘Because this isn’t the right time for this... for whatever this is between us.’

  Fergus raised his eyebrows. ‘What else have you got planned that makes this timing so bad?’

  She nearly told him then, but what if he said that didn’t matter, when she knew it did? What if he tried to talk her out of the operation — not that he could — but it would create more dilemmas that she couldn’t face. She’d had enough of that from others. Better to leave the whole subject alone.

  She said, ‘It’s a family thing.’

  His face twisted into a cynical smile. ‘What if this is our one chance?’

  She lifted her eyes to his and acknowledged that the concept was possible, and something she too had considered, but there was nothing she could do about that. Not now. Look where it had got her. Sitting on a bed with a stranger.

  She lifted her gaze to his. ‘That would be sad but I can’t do this now.’

  He stared back. Eyes dark and a little despairing. ‘I think it would be more like a tragedy. This could be the start of something special, Ailee. Do you feel that?’

  She nodded but her heart told her she really should go.

  He smiled. Sadly. Warm and compassionate, still sexy but not about sex and she had no idea how he’d done it. ‘Let’s slow the whole thing down.’

  She almost laughed. But it would have come out bitter. ‘I was. I’m leaving.’

  His hand rose slowly – like he wanted her to take it. To trust him. Really. She’d just been half naked with his mouth on her skin.

  ‘Please.’ Softly, teasing but again not with sex. ‘We could do something really radical?’

  She blew out a breath. Totally off balance now. ‘I think this is all radical enough.’

  He chuckled. ‘I was thinking how good you felt in my arms. How amazing you make me feel just by being here. And if that’s the same for you, and we don’t want to rush... What say we sleep? Platonic but close.’

  She looked at him. His shirt open. His glorious chest making her ache to run her nails down the corrugated muscles.

  Making her burn to bury her face in him. ‘Yeah, like that’s going to happen.’

  ‘You slept in the plane. I know. I watched you. I’ve been awake all night. Seeing you. Enjoying the scenery but tired. Come back down beside me. We could both rest, even sleep. When we wake, have dinner with me.’ He patted the bed. ‘I’ll put my shirt back on. Just lie beside me and we can talk.’ Fergus smiled one last, entreating smile at her and any resistance she’d had melted like snow in Singapore. ‘I could hold your hand.’

  If any other man had promised her bed with no seduction she would have doubted him.

  But somehow, what Fergus said, she could believe.

  If she didn’t make love with him, then she hadn’t lied by omission or led him on too much. Had she?

  ‘I won’t sleep,’ she dithered.

  ‘Then just rest.’ He patted the bed again. ‘We could eat in the room later if you prefer, we don’t have to change.’ He waved his hand. ‘It’s much more fun here than in your lonely room.’

  That was true and the bed was soft and the cushions indulgent. The penthouse, now she looked around, was a sumptuous suite with panoramic windows. The view city scape and distant harbour – spectacular - and that was apart from Fergus.

  His hand slid into hers and she lay back down beside him. He didn’t try anything, and his hand held hers warmly but with gentle pressure. Slowly she relaxed. After some desultory conversation, to her surprise, her eyes grew heavy.

  Chapter 7

  Ailee

  * * *

  Ailee woke, the room dark with block-out curtains pulled shut, and a man she’d met twenty-four hours ago asleep, breathing deeply, beside her. Their hips touched, hands loosely clasped as if they were old friends or lovers, but she was even less sure she was doing the right thing by the widower Fergus.

  There may be something unknown and powerful between them, and she hoped one day she’d find out if fate, who’d sat them next to each other on that long-haul flight, decided to help again. Or even if, when she could – if she could – she’d try to at least ensure they met again and reconsider the possibilities.

  Surely she could find him again, another surgeon in Sydney, especially one who lived near her.

  She’d make that happen.

  Ailee gazed at the ceiling and thought of what lay ahead of her. And what lay behind Fergus and his twelve-year-old daughter.

  She hadn’t forgotten, she’d just been submerged under the powerful forces of the man lying asleep beside her. Ailee contemplated her impending operation and the undeniable risks attached to a major operation. A long anaesthetic, and after, living the rest of her life with only one kidney. Not huge risks statistically but risks nevertheless.

  There were physical restrictions for the first few months post-surgery, and changes in body image she would have to come to terms with, like a scar and tenderness. And a slightly greater risk in pregnancy if she was so lucky later in her life.

  Her teenage brother’s deteriorating health was more important than everything at this time, a decision she’d make every day of her life, to stay on standby until the timing was medically perfect for him to be a recipient of her kidney.

  Then Fergus had mentioned how difficult his relationship with his daughter had become – no doubt she was terrified something would happen to her father. Ailee couldn’t expose them to the next few months of her life. To the prospect of bringing back all Simone’s memories of her mother’s death with her own impending operation.

  And if she’d told Fergus upfront...

  In reality he wouldn’t want her to. No matter how much she could dream at this moment, she knew she would have reservations later on, and so would he. Fergus would probably have reservations as soon as he woke up.

  Though he had said, “What if this is our one chance? This could be the start of something special, Ailee. Do you feel that?” The words he’d spoken had fitted so well with what had gone between them and what she’d most wanted to hear, but in the pale light of the clock illumination, a
clock in a stranger’s bedroom, she couldn’t allow herself to listen to him or acknowledge his power over her.

  It would be better to stop now and see what the future held, if anything, when her family commitments had been met.

  Ailee looked across at the sleeping man, his face gentle in repose, and her eyes stung with loss from even this brief a connection. She couldn’t tell her family about Fergus either.

  Her mother and brother would say that they couldn’t risk her early relationship with Fergus and call off the whole thing again.

  It had taken her so long to get through to her family that she didn’t consider donating her kidney a sacrifice. It was a privilege to be able to so vastly improve her brother’s quality of life at such little personal cost.

  ‘Fergus, I’m sorry,’ she whispered on a soft breath and swallowed the tears in her throat.

  Ailee rose, dressed and scribbled briefly on the embossed hotel notepad beside the bed. Shivering, she let herself out.

  It felt surreal to come from a stranger’s hotel room, dressed in her day clothes, her lips still swollen from his kisses and the scent of him still on her clothes. She should have been wrapped in his arms until their flight early tomorrow morning.

  After a scalding shower that didn’t warm her, Ailee lay and stared at the ceiling. She half expected him to ring her or knock at her door with a question about dinner. She wasn’t hungry, or sleepy, so climbed back out of bed.

  She booked her reminder call for the flight and went back to working on her report, ears strained for a knock.

  * * *

  It was six a.m. Eastern Standard Time when Ailee’s flight docked at Sydney airport’s Terminal One, and their aircraft must have been one of the morning’s first arrivals as the big hall wasn’t crowded. With no heavy luggage, Ailee passed quickly through immigration and customs and she came out into the arrivals hall to see her mother waiting for her.