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Getting through the shift without climbing the walls with need seemed a remote possibility. Flapping her hands in front of her fiery cheeks, she straightened her back and blew Mac a kiss to be going on with. ‘That was merely a warm up.’
* * *
Mac followed Kelli out into the department, his gaze locked on those endless legs in baggy scrubs. Whoever designed the shapeless, boring outfits hadn’t had a woman like Kelli in mind. She filled the loose folds out in all the right places and turned the ugly scrubs into a fashion statement. Her butt rounded out the back and was moving in a tantalising way that made his mouth water and his heart do cartwheels. Not thinking about the tightness in his groin.
End of shift was for ever away. Might have to find an empty storeroom next break. So much for moving on from the weekend and calling it a day. He wanted Kelli more than ever. Hadn’t got enough of her yet. Would he ever?
He had to. There was an engagement to call off. Once that happened those protective brothers wouldn’t allow him near her. Nor would her mother.
A breath hissed over Mac’s lips as Kelli reached the counter and leaned over the top for a file. Those scrubs took on a whole other rounded shape as her butt stretched them tight.
She’s mine.
‘Looks like we’ve got an urgent case on the way in.’ Kelli waved the file at him. ‘Sixteen-year-old male, knocked off his skateboard outside school. Suspected fractured tib and fib.’
‘How far away?’ Mac dragged his concentration back to where it should be.
The buzzer sounded.
‘About now, I’m thinking.’ Kelli grinned as she thrust the file at him and immediately headed for the ambulance bay.
How was a bloke supposed to focus on a patient when that involved working with a siren?
Drawing air in right down to his stomach, Mac counted to ten and stared at the file in his hand. The words flickered, came into focus, and the details nudged Kelli aside in his mind. The teen had a history of broken bones from skateboarding. Slow learner or a lad who didn’t believe in holding back when it came to putting his body on the line?
The only good point was that time would whizz past and the shift would be over sooner than later. And then the fun could really start.
* * *
At five past nine Kelli leaned back in the chair where she’d been entering data on her last patient. ‘I’m for a coffee. Anyone else?’
The waiting room was suspiciously quiet. It’d probably fill up at ten forty-five and there’d be no getting away for hours.
Can’t happen.
Her body hadn’t stopped thrumming with need since that sizzling kiss in Mac’s office. If they didn’t get down and busy together soon she was going to explode.
‘I’ll be along in five,’ Mac called from the resus directly opposite.
‘Want me to order your usual?’
‘Please.’
Settled in a corner of the cafeteria, two coffees and a donut that looked as if it’d been made a week ago in front of her, Kelli read her emails. Nothing earth-shattering. Tamara was still pregnant and getting antsier by the hour. Dad wanted to do lunch one day this week.
‘You’ve got a donut,’ Mac drawled as he dropped into the chair opposite her.
‘I more than made up for it over the weekend with all that exercise,’ she retorted around a grin as she put the phone down on the table.
‘Kelli.’ He drew her name out like warm liquid honey. ‘Tonight. You want to stay with me?’
Oh, boy. Did she what? ‘As in a sleepover in your apartment?’
He spluttered with laughter. ‘Something like that.’
The phone rang. ‘I could ignore it, but it’s Mum.’
‘We know she won’t go away. Better see what she wants.’ Mac leaned back and sipped his long black.
‘Hi, Mum. Getting back to normal now the wedding’s over?’ The moment the words were out Kelli wanted them back. She just knew what was coming and had no way of stopping any of it.
Mac reached for her donut and took a big bite.
‘Hey.’ She snatched at it and got cream squeezed over her hand for her trouble. Mac’s eyes locked on her as she began licking her fingers clean.
‘I thought we could start planning yours.’
See? ‘Mum? What did you say?’ The donut tasted like glue.
‘That you and Mac should come to dinner one night next weekend, then we can set a date and start the ball rolling for your wedding. What do you think?’
That I’m in deep doo-doo.
‘There’s no rush, Mum.’ She couldn’t look at Mac. Didn’t want to see the truth blaze out from those sexy eyes she dreamed about every night. The fun would be over as soon as she explained to her family she was no longer engaged. It was going to finish when he heard her tell Mum they wouldn’t be coming to dinner this weekend. Or any weekend.
‘Maybe not in your eyes, Kelli, but I like to be prepared.’
When Kelli remained mute her mother sighed heavily before continuing.
‘At least come for a meal. Your father and I would love to spend more time getting to know Mac better.’
Getting harder.
‘I’ll talk to Mac and get back to you. Love you, Mum.’
Click.
Now what? All the fun and the greatest sex ever and falling in love with the man responsible had not gone any way to prevent the fact that she needed to tell her parents the truth.
‘The game’s up?’ Mac leaned forward, his hand reaching for hers. ‘It doesn’t...’ He hesitated, stared at her for so long a wart must’ve begun growing on her chin, and then he leaned back against his chair again.
Raw pain sliced through
her. ‘It doesn’t what?’ she asked in a high-pitched squeak.
He shrugged. ‘Nothing.’
The pain opened wider. Nothing? This was nothing? The weekend, the way they fitted together so well, how they were opening up to each other was nothing? He knew what her mother had asked. The knowledge was there, darkening those eyes, crowding out the previous look of fun and laughter. ‘Nothing. As in we’re done now that it’s Monday? When you’ve just invited me to stay at your apartment tonight?’
‘The deal was I was your fiancé for the weekend, Kelli. This was how it was always going to end.’
‘In the beginning there’d been the suggestion we’d take a couple of weeks before calling it off so it didn’t look so obvious it had been a hoax.’ Except I went and fell in love with you. ‘Wait a minute. That kiss earlier on? That was a break-up kiss? A false kiss for a false break up? You weren’t really going to take me to your apartment?’
Now he reached for her hands. She was shaking. And so was Mac. Maybe there was hope after all. She’d got it wrong, hadn’t given him a chance to say anything before leaping in the deep end to rabbit on and on at him.
‘I kissed you because I couldn’t not. You’re beautiful, amazing, and I have had a wonderful few days. Could go on having some more, but in the end we have to tell your family the truth no matter what we get up to.’
She gaped at him, trying hard to keep up, and failing.
He hadn’t finished. ‘Your mother’s invitation to dinner is the wake-up call we need. Continuing what we’ve started would only make it all the harder to pull the plug further down the track.’
Pull the plug? Nice turn of phrase for her heart to hear. ‘Why do we have to finish at all?’ The words were out before she’d thought about them. Thank goodness she hadn’t cried out that she loved him. How humiliating would that be?
Her hands were suddenly bereft of warmth, or anything, as they were dumped. Mac’s face was white, his lips flat. ‘I am so sorry. I never meant for this to happen.’
