Playing Doctor (6 page)

“You’re quiet.” Gabe reached across the table and ran the back of his fingers over hers.

“Sorry.” She brought her attention back to Gabe and found him watching her with a curious intensity. “I was just taking all of this in. It’s very…”

“Too much?”

The softly spoken question caught Beth off guard.
Was
it too much? Too soon? She glanced around again with a more discerning eye—soft music, low lighting, private tables—the perfect setting for romance, for seduction. Her earlier admission of having missed sex notwithstanding, Beth was feeling a bit overwhelmed. But when she looked back at Gabe, into his warm, brown eyes, the uncertainty threatening to ruin her evening slipped away. She wanted this, wanted to see where this evening would lead.

With Gabe.

Her resolve in place, Beth smiled and said, “No, not at all. I was thinking…intimate.”

Gabe reached across the table and plucked at her fingers until they loosened and then wrapped his around them. “And how do you feel about that?”

And wasn’t that the question of the evening? Her gaze drifted over his broad shoulders, the muscles that strained and flexed under the soft fabric of his shirt. “I feel good about it. Very good.”

The rough pad of Gabe’s thumb swiped over her knuckles. His features hardened. The muscles in his throat flexed with a swallow. “Me, too.”

A waiter arrived with their drinks and then moved on to another table. Gabe lifted his and drank deeply.

Beth swirled the pale gold wine in her glass and took a sip. Closing her eyes, she welcomed the bite of alcohol as the cold liquid slid down her throat and felt Gabe’s fingers tighten around hers. Her lashes flew up. He was staring at her mouth with a hunger that took her breath away. A delicious shudder of warmth formed in the pit of Beth’s stomach. She was shocked at the impact of Gabe’s gentle grip, the heated look in his eyes—he made no effort to hide his attraction to her.

His touch upset her balance, made it difficult to form a coherent thought when all she wanted was to lean across the table and feel his mouth on hers again. What she was feeling had nothing to do with reason and everything to do with desire—desire for a man she barely knew. She needed some distance, time to gather her reawakened senses and put them into perspective.

Setting her drink aside, Beth cleared her throat and, with a gentle tug, pulled her hand from the warmth of his. “What made you decide to go into medicine?”

As though coming out of a trance, Gabe shook his head. His chest rose and fell as he settled back in his seat. “I got hooked in high school when we participated in a community disaster drill—F5 tornado. I was Patient Number Twelve— head trauma with an open fracture of the right arm and leg.”

“Great injuries.”

He grinned. “Yeah, bloody, too. The art and drama clubs did an awesome job with the makeup and props.”

“Aside from the gruesome injuries, what impressed you so much that you wanted to become a doctor?”

He looked past her shoulder, as if visualizing the scene all over again. “Everything. I was a senior, so as soon as I hit the halfway mark to eighteen, I enrolled in EMT classes, and then worked Fire and Rescue through college.” He took a drink of his liquor and studied her over the rim of the glass before placing it back on the table. “What about you? What drew you in?”

“Wait.” Leaning forward, Beth grinned. “You were a fireman?”

“Yeah.”

“So”—her brows lifted speculatively—“Did you pose for any of those sexy eye candy fireman photos?”

A red stain crept up his neck.

“You did!”

“Yeah, okay, I did.” He shifted, rested his forearm on the table, charmingly embarrassed by the admission. “But only once, and it was for a fundraiser.”

“Calendar?”

He nodded.

“What month?”

“December. And yes, I wore a Santa hat.”

“And a wreath?”

“Yep.”

Her brows lifted.

“Around my neck. You have a dirty mind, Ms. Roberts.” The gleam in his eyes said he approved. “Back to my question. What drew you to nursing?”

“Nothing as dramatic as you, I’m afraid.”

“Ever pose for a ‘naughty nurse’ photo?”

A laugh slipped out. “Okay, I deserved that.”

“Does that mean…?”

“No.”

His gaze drifted over her. “Pity.”

She cut him a look, took a sip of her drink and set it back down. “After Drew was born, I took a job as an ER tech and knew I’d found my niche. The hospital offered a tuition reimbursement program, and I went for it.” She shrugged. “There’s no other field I’d want to work in. Where else can you feel good that you’ve made a difference, be frustrated out of your mind and entertained all at the same time, and get paid for it?”

“I hear you.” He reached for her hand. “Or meet an incredibly sexy woman while doing CPR on a wedding guest.” The rough pad of his thumb skated over the soft flesh of her inner wrist. “A woman I’d very much like to spend more time with.”

She stared wordlessly across at him, unable to deny the spark of excitement that curled low in her belly at the prospect of extending their evening together. He had turned their conversation around so easily, taken them full circle back to this invisible web of attraction building between them. An attraction she was eager to explore to the fullest.

“Will you show me some more of your moves?” Connie would be so proud of her bold, flirtatious behavior.

“Yeah, but right now, I’d really like a repeat of yours.” His gaze dropped to her mouth.

“So, what’s stopping you?”

It was all the invitation he needed. With a low curse, Gabe scraped his chair over, moved closer until he left her no room at all. His mouth took hers, claimed it for his own, not giving her a chance to recant the invitation. Not that she would. Not when she could taste the sweet, almond-flavored liquor of his drink as his tongue plunged inside, tangled with hers, only to retreat and plunge again.

“God, you taste good,” he murmured against her lips, before diving in for another taste. “Like wine and woman and sin.” His left arm slid over the back of her chair, circled her shoulders and pulled her close. His right hand moved over her stomach, the tip of his thumb brushing the soft underside of her breast. She arched up, offering him more. A soft moan rose up from her throat when he took it, encompassing her breast in the warmth of his palm.

Desire, dark and rich as the most potent wine, flowed with a fevered rush through her veins. Heat flooded her sex. The soft murmur of voices barely penetrated the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

Pulling back, Beth broke the seal of their lips. Her lids drifted up. His eyes blazed back at her.

The maître d’ breezed past them, seating another couple a few tables away. Gabe’s eyes tracked her progress, and then swung back to Beth. “This isn’t the place…”

The unfinished comment hung between them like bait dangling on a hook. The implication was clear—the choice was hers. She could rise up, take the bait and all it offered. Or she could cut and run. She took a breath, made the plunge.

“No, it isn’t.”

A muscle ticked in Gabe’s jaw. “Let’s go.”

He tossed a couple of bills on the table, took her hand, and led her out of the lounge.

Beth settled deeper into the car seat and watched the streetlights glide past her window as they drove back to her hotel, the silence broken only by the song playing on the radio.

Her body continued to thrum with feelings, sensations she’d thought long dead. She’d never had a one night stand, had never even contemplated having one…with
any
man, especially one she’d only known for a few hours, but that’s exactly what she was doing.

Thank you, Connie, for planting that seed in my head.

Who was she kidding? Placing the blame on her well-meaning friend wasn’t fair. She was human, after all. Had the same fantasies, desires, and needs that most women had. She had the secret toy—and a couple of its cousins—with all the bells and whistles tucked in the back of her lingerie drawer that served an immediate purpose, but a quick fix wasn’t what she wanted, what she needed tonight. She needed strong arms holding her against a long, muscled body, rough hands skimming over her skin…the smooth glide of a hard cock inside her.

She slid a sidelong glance at Gabe and watched the city lights play across his face. Yeah, she knew exactly what she needed, what she wanted, and who she wanted giving it to her. But he was quiet now, his elbow resting on the car door and his thumb absently tapping his mouth, a thoughtful frown worrying his brow as he concentrated on the traffic. The silence was killing her.

“Talk to me. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

Gabe pulled into the hotel parking lot and cut the engine. Hooking his wrist over the steering wheel, he turned and looked at her.
“
I’m not ready to end this, and I think…
hope
we’re on the same track. If not, then I apologize, but I think you should invite me up so we see where this goes.”

She was surprised and so very relieved to hear his words echo her own thoughts. There was no second-guessing what he was suggesting, no point in pretending otherwise. The anticipation sent a shimmer of excitement through her. Adrenaline raced through her veins at what she was about to say, what she was about to do.

“Yes, I’d like that,” she murmured, her voice a little shaky. When Gabe heaved out a sigh of relief and reached for her, she held up her hand. “But I have a stipulation.”

The expression on his face would have been comical if the situation wasn’t so emotionally charged, and Beth almost smiled. She’d bet her new stethoscope he was expecting her to say,
no sex.
Well, he couldn’t be further off the track. She wanted everything he could give her…and more.

“I have no room for romance or a relationship in my life, nor do I want it. I want no complications, and you can expect the same from me. This is for one night only,” she said.

Gabe nodded. The relief on his face told her they were of the same mindset where emotional involvement was concerned. Good.

“You should know that I’m free of any sexually transmitted disease. I was tested after my husband died.” She continued when he nodded again. “What we’re considering is sex, pure and simple, between two consenting adults, nothing more. Are we agreed?”

“No.”

For a moment, Beth wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. “No?”

“No. I have a couple of stipulations of my own.”

Well, she certainly hadn’t expected this. Beth shifted in her seat. Wary and more than a little apprehensive, she said, “Please, go on.”

“First off, you should also know that I’ve never had an STD in my life. Secondly, I agree with the no romance, no relationship, no complications part and that we’re considering consensual—emphasis on the
sensual—
sex,” he corrected.

Gabe leaned across the seat, drove his fingers in her hair, took her mouth and her breath along with it. It was quick and thorough, a little rough with urgency. “Now,
my
stipulations.” He looked at her, his eyes grave. “You set the comfort level in everything we do. I want you to know you’re safe with me. I’ve been hard for you since the moment I first saw you. I want you easy and slow, hard and fast.” His gaze dropped to her mouth, the rough pad of his thumb skimmed over her bottom lip, and what he said next took her breath away. “I want to feel you come around my cock and against my mouth, and more than anything, I want to feel you swallow me deeper than I’ve ever been swallowed before. I want you on your back, straddling my hips, and on your hands and knees. It can be sweet and innocent or I can flat out fuck you until you can’t walk if that’s the way you want it, but there will be
nothing
pure or simple about it. Are we agreed?”

Heat rippled over her sex. Her nipples tightened until even the soft satin of her bra felt abrasive. She couldn’t form a response, could only nod as she stared into his heavy-lidded, lust-filled eyes. His words were dark and erotic, his voice deep and rich with promise, and she wanted it all. She’d never been so turned on in her life.

“
Are we agreed
?” he repeated.

“Yes, we’re agreed.”

He held her gaze a moment longer, and then slid out of the car. There were no words of praise for her vehicle this time when he helped her to stand. His focus remained solely on her.

She felt the power, the hunger within Gabe as he adjusted his long stride to match hers. They crossed the hotel lobby and stepped into the elevator.

“What floor are you on?” Gabe asked, studying the numbered panel on the wall. He slid his arm around her waist, holding her to his side with a possessiveness she found both soothing and arousing.

“Eleven.” Now, having made the decision to spend the night with Gabe, Beth fully intended to take Connie’s advice to set her inner vixen free. Tonight was about sex. About dropping her insecurities and inhibitions for one night with the first man she’d wanted to go to bed with in years. A man she would walk away from in the morning and never see again. He wanted her, no doubt about that. The things he’d said to her in the car made his intentions explicitly clear, his voice, rough and deep as he told her in no uncertain terms what he wanted to do to her…and for her to do for him. A shiver of anticipation moved through her.

Chapter Six

Following Beth into her room, Gabe closed the door and blew out a silent whistle of appreciation. Spacious and decorated in shades of cream and white, there was a small sitting area with a pair of overstuffed chairs and a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall over a fully stocked wet bar. Tucked in a corner, a compact office area was already in use, a laptop and several open folders occupying the desk.

To his right, an open door revealed a bathroom, but the focal point of the room was the California King.

She set her purse on the entry table, looked around, and ran her hands down her hips. Her teeth worried her lower lip and he could almost see the wheels turning, thoughts swimming in her pretty head, thinking,
Now what
?