Playing Doctor (8 page)

Her eyes popped open and she felt a moment of anxiety, expecting the criticism to come after all, but the frown he attempted slipped. His warm, brown eyes crinkled at the corners, and his mouth split into a wide grin. He was teasing her, playing with her, and her heart gave a little flutter.

“I guess we’ll just have to keep trying,” she said.

“I do like a woman with a plan of action.” He skimmed his hand over her hip and eased his thigh between her legs.

“The plan at the moment is to go to the bathroom.” Easing out of his arms, Beth sat up and scooted off the edge of the bed, the sheets smooth and cool against her still highly sensitized flesh.

Padding to the bathroom in her stocking feet, Beth was conscious of the dark eyes that watched her from the bed. The low groan that followed her progress said he was enjoying the view. The knowledge that she could pull that reaction from Gabe brought a smile of pure feminine satisfaction to her lips. If there was any doubt that she’d made the right decision in inviting him to share her bed, what had just happened between them laid that concern to rest.

She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, hardly recognizing the woman staring back at her. This woman’s lips were swollen from a man’s kiss, her hair tangled from his fingers combing through it. This woman’s skin held the faint abrasions of whiskers. But it was her eyes that held Beth’s attention. The eyes that looked back at her were indolent, sex-hazed—sated. The eyes of a woman who’d been very properly made love to.

No, she corrected, she’d been very properly…fucked. By a man who very definitel
y
knew what he was doing, and despite the fact that he’d given her three soul-wrenching orgasms in less than thirty minutes, her sex swelled, greedy for another.

Turning from the mirror, Beth looked around the luxurious bath. Her gaze settled on the large, step-up tub—a Jacuzzi. The smile that curved her lips might have belonged to the woman in the mirror, but the thoughts behind it belonged solely to Beth.

Beth peeled off her stockings and walked to the tub. She stepped up and turned on the water, testing the temperature with her hand. Connie’s comment about doing bad things in the Jacuzzi snuck in and Beth found herself humming the tune in her head. It appeared this was one of those times when she had to give her friend credit where credit was due because there were a number of very bad things she wanted to do with Gabe in this tub.

…

Folding his hands behind his head, Gabe stared at the ceiling and grinned.

He couldn’t feel his legs.

Other than his first time with a woman, he couldn’t recall ever having come so hard and for so long. Hell, he hadn’t just come, she’d wrung it out of him, wrapped those long legs around his ass and took until they were a tangle of weak, sweaty limbs and gasping breaths. Even with his body a mass of relaxed muscle and tired bone, his cock stirred against his thigh in anticipation of a repeat performance.

He could hear her moving around in the bathroom. Was she humming? His grin broadened. Nothing like a woman with post-coital humming to stroke a man’s ego.

His dry throat screaming for hydration, Gabe rolled out of bed, walked to the mini bar and grabbed a bottle of water. He drained it and then reached for another, glancing around the sitting area and at the personal items Beth had sitting around.

Their clothes lay in a messy pile where they’d stripped them off and dropped them on the floor. Wouldn’t be needing those for a while. Still, he picked them up and draped them over one of the chairs.

In the office area, her laptop was out on the desk. Several yellow folders lay open beside it, their contents scattered across the surface. Gabe picked up a staffing schedule with the hospital name, Ridgemount General, in the header. He glanced over it, noted the impressive number of nurses, clerks and techs under her supervision and then placed it back on the file.

Resumes and applications made up another stack. She had highlighted certain areas, circled others, and made notations in the margins. No doubt the potential staff for the expansion she had mentioned. A large black bag sat on the floor beside the chair holding more folders. Gabe dropped the paper back on the desk and frowned. Beth had been working before the wedding, he realized, and had obviously intended to continue with it this evening. Alone. Gabe shook his head, gave a quiet laugh of incredulity. A woman as passionate as Beth should never spend a night alone.

“There’s a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge, if you wouldn’t mind opening it,” Beth called out from the bathroom.

Turning, he went back to the fridge and found the wine she’d called out for, opened it and snagged a couple of glasses from the cabinet over the sink. As he headed back to the bed, he heard the sound of water running in the bathtub. Well, she wasn’t alone now, he thought, and with a grin, made a detour for the bathroom.

The sight that greeted him almost took him to his knees. She stood on the step of the tub, bent at the waist, one hand braced on the tiled edge, while the other alternately adjusted the faucet and tested the water. The position presented him with the enticing view of her ass, and just below, peaking from between her slightly parted legs, the twin almonds of her pretty, pink pussy. And that step up to the tub…well, it looked to put her at just about the right height…

He set the wine and glasses on the marble sink and decided to test it out.

…

The clink of glass against the sink top had Beth glancing over her shoulder to find Gabe walking across the polished tile floor toward her. He was, as Connie had predicted, tall and ripped, the muscles of his thighs flexing and bunching with each step, his erection full and proud as he walked toward her.

His eyes moved hungrily over her backside and down to her sex. As she watched, he reached down and lazily stroked the underside of his cock, a touch that appeared to soothe as well as arouse, as if promising a treat. A tremor of heat rolled through her. He was completely at ease with his sexuality, and it was by far the most erotic thing she’d ever witnessed. She gave him a welcoming smile, and as his hands slid over her hips, her arousal bloomed into full-blown desire.

“Have I told you how soft your skin is?” He pressed his mouth to the small of her back, dragged his tongue up her spine.

“You’ve told me many things tonight, but I don’t think that was one of them.” Beth stretched into the caress as Gabe’s hands slid up her back, over her shoulders, then down and around to cup her breasts.

“Umm, soft as…” He pressed forward, slid his erection between her legs. She looked down, watched the broad tip peek and retreat between her thighs, shiny and wet with her juice as it massaged the sensitive bundle of nerves there. She squeezed her legs together, increasing the sensation. Her clit fluttered.

“…Soft as…”

She pressed her bottom against his stomach and rocked her hips, easing into the rhythm.

“…Soft as…ah hell, I lost my train of thought,” he growled and pulled her up against the broad warmth of his chest. She reached back, curved one hand around the firm muscle of his ass and snaked the other up to curl around the back of his neck. Gabe’s hand abandoned her breast to cup her jaw as he leaned around her and took possession of her lips. The kiss was hot and unapologetically carnal. “I can’t get enough of you.” He grazed the shell of her ear with his teeth, soothed it with his tongue. “Are you okay? Can you take me again?”

That he would ask told her he would back away at her request. That he was concerned enough to ask made her want him even more. That he was hard for her again set her on fire.

“Yes, I want you…I can take you…again.” He pressed the palm of his hand between her shoulder blades and gently urged her to bend forward until her hands rested on the edge of the tub, and then pulled his erection from between her legs.

“Open for me.” The low command sent a jolt of lust straight to her core. Shifting, Beth widened her legs and he carefully pushed in. There was a moment of discomfort that caused her to tense. She felt him pull away, but tilted her pelvis, eased back and took all of him, rotating her hips as her hunger quickly built.

“Like that, do you?” His hands smoothed down her back as he eased out of her and sank back in again.

“Umm, yesss…” She glanced over her shoulder, robbed of further speech at the raw hunger in his eyes as he watched his cock slide in and out of her. Her pussy clenched, tightening around his shaft.

“Fuck, that feels good. Squeeze me again. Yeah, just like that,” he gritted out.

He squeezed her buttocks, and then slid his thumbs down, massaging the lips of her sex as he pumped and rolled his hips. Each time he pulled out, she tightened her inner muscles around him, squeezing his shaft and dragging a deep groan from his chest.

He reached around, cupped her breast in one hand and thrust the other between her legs, teasing the swollen bundle of nerves above her clit. The position left her vulnerable, submissive. He curled over her, around her, covering her from neck to ankles. His arms banded around her, caging her to him.

Beth sucked in a breath, waited for the panic to set in, but the weight of his big body pressing down on her back was anything but frightening. She felt…protected, cherished. It was the strongest kind of aphrodisiac. Her entire body throbbed with need.

“Gabe, please,” she moaned, pushing her ass tighter against his belly. “I need…”

“It’s okay, sweet. Let me take care of you,” he murmured. “I’ll give you everything you need.”

He gave her that and more. His hands caressed and soothed, tormented and teased. He took her to the brink, held her poised on the edge, then pulled her back, only to drive her up again. For a moment, just this moment, nothing else existed but the burning fire raging between them.

She could feel the supple muscles of his thighs tense and release against the backs of her own, the soft rub of his balls against the sensitive lips of her sex. His breath was hot and harsh against her neck as he whispered dark, sensual words of encouragement. Words that caused her to quiver and clench around him as he moved over her, around her, and so deep, deep inside her.

Pleasure blew through her like a storm, and she abandoned herself to the sensations. Her need for him overrode everything else. Her breath came in low, surrendering moans, and when the tension built, he eased her over the edge so tenderly that when he came with her, her body was so sensitized to his she imagined she could feel him release inside her.

She’d never known such gentleness, had never felt so…taken care of, never known, never dreamed that hands could feel so warm, so gentle, yet so demanding. The emotions that welled up inside her threatened to undo her. She feared that when the night was over and he was gone from her life, it would never be this good for her again.

Chapter Eight

Gabe eased Beth down into the warm, swirling water. He settled back, rested his arms on the edge of the tub, and willed himself not touch her again…at least for a little while, but she wasn’t making it easy on him.

She’d told him it had been four years since she’d had a man—of course she’d be tender, especially after the way they’d gone at it. They’d both been hungry, desperate for it. He’d taken her hard and fast, and she’d met him stroke for stroke.

Now, straddling his lap as the water churned around them, she reached around and tugged the black elastic band from his hair. Her slender fingers combed through his dampened hair, massaging his scalp. If she kept it up, he’d end up doing something utterly embarrassing, like drooling or purring or some shit.

Like a favored pet eager for its master’s touch, he leaned his head into the caress, and if the contented sigh that rumbled in his throat had an odd tone to it, who cared? If one night was all he had with her, he was damn well going to wring every ounce of pleasure, every nuance of luxury he could from it.

She lifted her arms, and her breasts rose along with them, wet and glistening with tiny beads of water dripping from her rosy nipples as she worked her own hair into a high ponytail at the back of her head. All he’d have to do was lean forward, just a little, and flick his tongue over those tight little buds. It was as if they were just
calling
to him, saying, “
Well, here we are, come play with us!”

But that would lead to other things, like wrapping her legs around his waist and sliding into her hot, tight—

Nope, he needed to leave her alone. Instead, he reached out and grabbed her by the waist to drag her to him for a loud, smacking kiss that made her laugh. He turned her around and pulled her back snug to his chest, and in doing so, pressing her sweet ass up against his dick, which had definitely enjoyed the show.

Then
he played with her breasts.

He missed this—the easy, after-sex closeness with his partner. He enjoyed cuddling, the warm afterglow, the scent of sex and woman. He hadn’t wanted this with any of his former partners since Rita’s death, but tonight, with Beth leaning back against his chest, her head resting against his shoulder, her breasts filling his hands, it just somehow felt…okay. Right. And because it felt okay and right, Gabe chose not to question it, to enjoy it for what was left of his time with her. He settled back against the tub, tucked her a little closer, and tried to ignore the streak of possessiveness worming its way into his heart.

“Can I ask you a question?” Beth’s hands skimmed up his thighs, coming to rest on his knees as they swished back and forth in the water.

“Sure, ask away,” he said happily, amusing himself with her nipples.

She turned her face into his neck, nuzzled her nose against his jaw. “It’s personal.”

Gabe ducked his head, buried his face in the crook of her neck. Steam rose up from the water, surrounding him with her scent. He breathed her in, filled his lungs with her fragrance. Beneath the swirling water, Gabe’s cock stirred, tapping against her lower back. “It doesn’t get much more personal than this, sugar.”

“Will you tell me about your wife?”

…