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‘Look, Charlie, Rupert tore a hole in my heart. I was OK to sleep with for two years, but not to marry. Even carrying his child, I still wasn’t good enough for his education, his six-figure bank account or his grand career plans. He hotfooted it to England and eloped with a Nobel Prize winning geneticist two months after my revelation.
‘He never took me home to his parents. And the one time he visited my family he was barely civil. Now that’s my fault too for being so blind, so in love, but I’m not naïve any more. I’ve already been rejected by one wealthy man. I don’t want to set myself up for that again.’
Charlie took two paces closer. He placed a finger across her lips. ‘Carrie,’ he said, ‘Rupert was an idiot. Please, tell me you understand that this isn’t about your background. Who you are, where you’re from means nothing to me. Don’t lump me in with snobs like Rupert and my father.’
He looked so earnest, his thumb rubbing erotically along her bottom lip, her head was spinning. She knew he was right. There was a clarity and an honesty in his steady grey gaze that couldn’t be ignored. And she’d seen enough of him in the last two weeks to know he was nothing like her ex.
He’d knelt on the road to help a stranger, he’d been gentle with a rape victim and helped an overdosed addict without batting an eyelid. He tolerated rap music, knew the complexities of street lingo and spent his lunch-hours with a group of needy boys looking for a role model. He was as far removed from Rupert as a prince from a pauper.
She nodded. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ve just been badly burned, Charlie. I had a touch of déjà vu.’
She leant against his chest for a brief moment, dragging herself away from him with difficulty. No matter how good it felt to be held by him, it wasn’t where she belonged. She belonged with Dana. There was no place for a man who didn’t want them both.
‘You’d better go,’ she said.
Charlie clenched and unclenched his hands. Her voice was husky and he wanted to throw caution to the wind and stay for ever. ‘So where do we go from here?’
Carrie shrugged. ‘Pretend it didn’t happen.’
He snorted. ‘Good luck with that.’
She gave him a wry smile. He was right. Last night was going to be with her for ever. ‘OK, then…you’re right. How about we just be adult about it? We had a great night but it’s not in our destinies to go any further. Let’s just shake on it and be friends.’ She held out her hand.
She was right, of course. But friends? He nodded, took her hand and yanked her against him hard, giving her a decidedly not-friendly kiss hard on her mouth. ‘Friends,’ he agreed, using all his willpower to break away. ‘I’ll see you Monday.’
Monday morning came around and Carrie approached the front door of the clinic nervously. She’d deliberately come in later than usual, ridiculously shy at the thought of seeing Charlie again after their intimacies. She blushed, thinking about them as she pushed through the front door.
‘Morning, Angela,’ she called as she passed the front desk.
The receptionist grunted at her. Carrie was still in her bad books. As far as Angela was concerned, Carrie was a threat to the centre, to her livelihood and to Charlie’s. And Angela was fiercely loyal towards Charlie. She was like a pit bull guarding her territory and her master.
‘Morning, Charlie,’ she called, not even daring to flick a glance into his office. ‘Oh!’
In one quick manoeuvre Charlie, who had leapt from his desk the moment he’d heard Carrie’s voice, had grabbed her arm and yanked her into his room, kicking the door shut and pushing her roughly against it. He gave her a hungry kiss, his hands pulling the prim clasp out of her hair and luxuriating in the glide of it across his fingers.
‘God, I missed you,’ he muttered, his lips trekking down the line of her neck.
‘Charlie,’ she groaned, knowing this was highly inappropriate but stretching her neck to one side anyway to give him full access. ‘I thought we’d agreed not to do this.’
‘I know,’ he said, plundering her lips again. ‘We’re not. I’ve just been thinking about you since yesterday. About kissing you since yesterday.’ And he kissed her again.
There was a loud rap on the door. ‘Police, Charlie,’ Angela called.
They froze. Carrie recovered first giggling at the absurdity of the situation. She felt like a teenager who’d been caught necking by her mother.
Charlie laughed, too, as he buried his face in her neck. She smelt so good right there. So sweet. His hot breath stirred and intensified the perfume at the pulse that beat rapidly just beneath his lips. He brushed his mouth across it lightly and pushed himself away.
