The Australian's Proposal (Mills & Boon By Request): The Doctor's Marriage Wish / The Playboy Doctor's Proposal / The Nurse He's Been Waiting For (24 page)

Mind you, that hadn’t been half as disconcerting as what had happened later. Ryan had been entertaining hopes of finding Susie’s company perfectly enjoyable. Of maybe being able to learn why his attractive colleague was so uptight and had taken such an instant dislike to him.

To have Susie incapacitated and Hannah stepping in to fill the breach had been a cruel twist of fate. Not that he’d allowed his disappointment to show, of course. Not when Emily had looked so happy. When Emily looked that happy, Mike was happy. And if his best buddy was happy, Ryan certainly wasn’t going to do anything to tarnish the glow.

He’d go through with this and he’d look as if he was enjoying every moment of it. It would be hard
not
to enjoy it, in fact, and if he could only make sure his resolution regarding Hannah Jackson didn’t go out the window, he could be sure he wouldn’t spoil that enjoyment by getting some kind of personal putdown.

But it would help—a lot—if she didn’t smile at him like that. As though she had put aside her preconceived and unflattering opinions. Opened a window in that wall of indifference to him and was seeing him
—really
seeing him—for the first time.

She did look a bit taken aback when he offered to take her home after the rehearsal but she rallied.

‘Sure. I guess it’s on your way, seeing as you’re staying in the doctors’ house. I might even go as far as the hospital and check on Susie.’

‘It’s good that she decided she would stay in overnight and get that intensive RICE treatment. It should help a lot.’

‘Mmm.’ Hannah’s tone suggested that nothing would help enough unless, by some miracle, Susie awoke after a night of compression bandages and ice and elevation to find her foot small enough to wear her shoe and the ability to stand and walk unaided, which was highly unlikely. ‘I need to stop at her house and collect a few things she might need, if you’re not in too much of a hurry.’

‘Not at all.’ Ryan lowered his voice. ‘With a bit of luck, I’ll arrive at the Athina
after
all the potatoes are peeled.’

Hannah made no response to that and Ryan kicked himself mentally. What was he trying to do here? Prove how shallow and lazy he was?

‘Tell Susie I’ll be up to see her later,’ Emily said as they left the church. ‘If she can’t come to the hens’ party, we’ll just have to take the party to her.’

‘I think Jill might have something to say about that,’ Mike warned. ‘She’s not big on parties happening in her wards.’

‘Yeah.’ Emily nodded sadly. ‘She’d say that I should know the R in RICE stands for rest. Tell Susie I’ll come and get her later in the morning, then, so she can come and supervise. Kylie can still do her hair and make-up.’

To Ryan’s disappointment, Hannah was ready for the wind when they stepped outside. She had wrapped her skirt firmly around those long brown legs and was holding it in place. On the positive side, the action affected her balance and a good gust sent her sideways a few moments later to bump into Ryan. She could have fallen right over, in fact, if he hadn’t caught her arms.

Bare arms.

Soft skin.

Enough momentum in the movement for Ryan to feel the press of her breasts against his hands. It wasn’t the first time he had touched her skin but the tension of that incident in the plane hadn’t really afforded an opportunity to analyse the effect. It was, quite simply, electrifying. Or was that because this contact had come about so unexpectedly?

No. He’d known, all along, that there would be something very different about touching this woman.

Something very special.

He didn’t want to let go. The urge to pull her even closer and kiss her senseless was as powerful as what felt like hurricane-force winds funnelling through the church car park, whipping their hair and buffeting their bodies.

Simply irresistible.

Oh …
God!

The strength of the grip Ryan had on her arms was
sending shock waves through Hannah, not to mention the delicious tingle of what had to be that latent lust kicking in.

And he looked … as though he wanted to
kiss
her!

Even more shocking was the realisation that she
wanted
him to.

Letting her hair down and being prepared to enjoy this weekend was one thing. Making out with Ryan Fisher in a church car park was quite another. And quite unacceptable.

Hannah wrenched herself free. ‘You’ve got Mike’s car?’

‘Yes. That Jeep over there.’

The vehicle was vaguely familiar. Hadn’t that been the one that had hooted when her skirt had blown up around her neck on that walk around the cove? Had it been Ryan getting a close-up view of her legs?

The tingle became a shaft of something much stronger that was centred deep in Hannah’s abdomen but sent spirals all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes. Battling with the door of the Jeep so it didn’t catch in the wind and fly outwards was a welcome diversion. Why was she feeling like this? Had she somehow flicked a mental switch back there in the church that could lead her rather too far into temptation?

How inappropriate.

But intriguing.

Ryan wouldn’t think twice about following his inclinations, would he? Sleeping with someone on a first date or having a little weekend fling? Hannah couldn’t help casting a speculative glance at her companion as he started the Jeep and they moved off. His hands gripped the steering-wheel with enough strength to keep the vehicle straight despite the strong winds but they didn’t look tense. Strength and a capacity to be gentle. What had Susie said about bad boys and getting the best sex you ever had?

Maybe her thoughts were too powerful. Something made Ryan turn his head. He held her gaze for only a heartbeat and then gave her one of those smiles.

Oh … help! Hannah spent the next few minutes until they were driving over that rickety bridge wondering if Ryan was discreet. Whether what happened on camp would stay on camp. Seeing as she’d never actually heard any firsthand gossip about his previous conquests, it seemed likely that the answer was yes. The added bonus of dealing with that distracting attraction as well as proving she could be fun might well mean that her working relationship with Ryan could be vastly improved. Even when she got the consultancy position and, effectively, became his boss.

It was quite difficult to rein in her thoughts and focus on her immediate intentions.

‘I might change my clothes before I go and visit Susie.’ Thinking out loud was partly to ensure Ryan didn’t know what she’d really been thinking about. ‘I’ve still got my bikini on under this and it’s not as if I’m going to get a chance to swim.’

‘That’s a shame. The pool’s great. Very refreshing.’

‘It has been a long day, hasn’t it?’ Hannah agreed. ‘Feels like for ever since we left Auckland.’ A different time. A different place. Different rules were definitely allowable.

‘You could have a swim after you’ve been visiting.’

‘I’d still need a change of clothes and, besides, it gets dark early here, doesn’t it?’

‘About eight, I think. But there are lights around the pool. People often swim at night over summer from what Mike was telling me.’

‘Tempting. I might just do that. This heat is really getting to me.’ It wasn’t the first time that day that Hannah had
lifted the weight of hair off her neck to try and cool down a fraction. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt this hot in my life.’

‘Mmm. You look pretty hot.’ Ryan’s grin suggested that he was commenting on her sexual appeal rather than her body temperature but, for once, Hannah wasn’t put off. Was that because the flirtatious comment was acceptable under the new rules that seemed to be forming?

She laughed. ‘You’re hopeless, Ryan.’ Then she pointed ahead. ‘Stop here—that’s Susie’s cottage.’

Ryan followed her as far as the veranda. When Hannah emerged a few minutes later, wearing light cargo pants and a shirt over her bikini and with a towel and underwear and things for Susie in a carry bag, he was lounging against one of the posts framing the steps. Strands of bougainvillea snapped in the wind and a shower of dark red petals had left blooms caught in the dark waves of his hair.

‘Why am I hopeless?’

Had he been stewing over the casual reprimand the whole time he had been waiting for her?

‘Because you’re an incorrigible flirt,’ Hannah informed him. ‘You can’t talk to women without …’ She had to leave the sentence unfinished. ‘Without making them feel like you’re attracted to them’ had been the words on the tip of her tongue but what would happen if he responded by saying he
was
attracted to her? In theory, letting her hair down was great, but this was actually quite scary. What if he said she had nothing to worry about because there was no way he could be attracted to her? Hannah’s mouth felt oddly dry.

‘Most women appreciate a compliment,’ Ryan was saying. ‘I try to be nice. To establish a good rapport with the people I work with.’

‘Hmm.’ Hannah didn’t have to try and make the sound
less than understanding. Professional rapport had boundaries that Ryan clearly took no notice of.

He hadn’t moved from the support of the post. To get to the car, Hannah had to go down the steps, which meant moving closer to the stationary figure.

‘I work with you, Dr Jackson.’

‘You do, Dr Fisher.’ Hannah gripped the handles of her carry bag more firmly and made the move to the top of the steps.

‘I’d like
us
to establish a good rapport. I don’t think we’ve really got one yet, have we?’

‘No.’ She was close to Ryan now. She could almost have reached out and plucked petals from his hair.

‘Why is that, Hannah?’

‘I … ah …’ It had been a mistake to make eye contact at this proximity. Words totally failed Hannah.

‘Maybe we could try again,’ Ryan suggested softly. ‘We’re in a new place that has nothing to do with work. We could make this weekend a new start.’

‘Ah …’ Something had already started. Hannah watched the way Ryan’s gaze slid from her eyes to her mouth. The way his head was tilting slightly. She had to close her eyes as a wave of desire threatened to make her knees wobble and send her down the steps in an undignified stagger.

Had she mirrored that tilt of his face? Leaned closer to Ryan? Or had he just closed the gap of his own accord so that he could kiss her?

Not that it mattered. The instant his lips touched hers,
nothing
else mattered.

Yes, it was the start of something new, for sure. Something Hannah had never experienced. The first brush of paint on a totally new canvas.

Soft lips. A gentle pressure. Long enough to be intensely arousing but not nearly long enough. Hannah wanted more.

A
lot
more.

She wanted to taste this man. To touch him. To have him touch her. To fill in more of that canvas because she had no idea what colours and textures it would encompass or what the finished picture might be like. What that brief kiss
had
told her, however, was that the picture would be bigger and more exciting than any she’d ever seen.

It was Ryan who bent to pick up the carry bag, which had slipped, unnoticed, from Hannah’s fingers.

‘This way, Dr Jackson,’ he murmured. ‘Your chariot awaits.’

Hannah didn’t want to move. Unless it was to go back into the cottage and take Ryan with her. It was disappointing that he hadn’t suggested it himself. Surely he would normally follow through on a kiss like that?

Perhaps he intended to. He smiled at Hannah.

‘Maybe,’ he said lazily, ‘we can do something else about establishing that rapport later.’

‘Rapport, huh? That’s a new word for it.’ Susie lay on her hospital bed with her leg elevated on pillows, bandaged and packed in ice. ‘So what was it like, then?’

‘The kiss?’ Hannah chewed the inside of her cheek. ‘Not bad, I guess.’

Susie pulled a pillow from behind her back to throw at her sister.

‘OK, it was great. Best kiss I’ve ever had. Satisfied?’

‘No. Are you?’

Hannah smiled wryly. ‘No.’

‘So what are you going to do about it?’

‘What can I do? OK, he might have been tempted to kiss
me for some reason but I can’t see it going any further. He doesn’t even like me. I don’t like him. I’m just … attracted to him physically.’

‘Maybe he’s pretending not to like you because he’s really attracted to you and you haven’t given him any encouragement.’

‘I kissed him! What more encouragement could he need?’

‘Maybe he likes to take things slowly.’

‘Ha!’

‘Yeah.’ Susie grinned. ‘He doesn’t look the type to take things slowly. Never mind, you’ve got the whole weekend in a tropical paradise. Something’s bound to happen.’

‘Forty-eight hours isn’t that long.’

‘But weddings are very romantic. And it’s not as if you won’t be seeing each other after you go home.’

‘We won’t be “seeing” each other when we go home. This is purely physical, Susie. An opportunity to get it out of my system. I mean, what if I’m sitting in a rest home when I’m ninety-five and I regret never trying a one-night stand? Doubt that I’d have the opportunity then.’

‘So Ryan’s not a long-term prospect, then?’

‘Are you kidding? Would you take up with Richard the second with the benefit of hindsight?’

‘No … Yes … Maybe …’ Susie sighed. ‘But Ryan might be different. He might not take off as soon as he spots greener pastures.’

‘Ha!’
Hannah put even more feeling into the dismissive response this time.

‘Will you be seeing him again tonight?’

‘No. I’m going to finish watching this movie with you, go and have a quick dip in the pool and then go home to sleep. I’m stuffed.’

‘Why don’t you skip the movie and see if you can find
him over at the doctors’ house? I’ve got some stuff about Emily I was going to tell him so he could put it in his best man’s speech.’

Hannah groaned. ‘He’s probably got it written already. One long string of blonde jokes.’

‘It’s a good excuse to talk to him.’

‘He’ll be at the Athina. Peeling potatoes or something.’

‘He might be back by now. He got up as early as you did so he’s probably equally stuffed.’