Книга - Tempted At Twilight

Tempted At Twilight
Jamie Pope


Summer fling or lifetime love affair?Nothing fires up Elias Bradley's adrenaline like the risk of thrilling adventure. But when a serious wrist injury threatens both the Miami trauma surgeon's career and coveted promotion, he heads down to his family's island retreat to relax and regroup. At a bar, he meets a woman who awakens extreme emotions that take him by surprise. Even after they part ways following their passionate twilight tryst, Elias longs to connect with Dr. Cricket Warren on a deeper, more intimate level.Heiress to a billion-dollar tech fortune, Cricket has two PhDs but zero experience when it comes to the opposite sex. So when she spends her vacation back home on Hideaway Island sharing the bed of a sexy stranger, she's caught off guard by their sizzling attraction. And now she's having Elias's baby… He's ready to step up and do the right thing but they barely know each other. Together, can they turn a moonlit fantasy into a lifetime of romance?







Summer fling or lifetime love affair?

Nothing fires up Elias Bradley’s adrenaline like the risk of thrilling adventure. But when a serious wrist injury threatens both the Miami trauma surgeon’s career and coveted promotion, he heads down to his family’s island retreat to relax and regroup. At a bar, he meets a woman who awakens extreme emotions that take him by surprise. Even after they part ways following their passionate twilight tryst, Elias longs to connect with Dr. Cricket Warren on a deeper, more intimate level.

Heiress to a billion-dollar tech fortune, Cricket has two PhDs but zero experience when it comes to the opposite sex. So when she spends her vacation back home on Hideaway Island sharing the bed of a sexy stranger, she’s caught off guard by their sizzling attraction. And now she’s having Elias’s baby... He’s ready to step up and do the right thing but they barely know each other. Together, can they turn a moonlit fantasy into a lifetime of romance?


She opened the door and her heart jumped. Flipped. Went right from her chest into her throat. Elias was there, looking absolutely gorgeous and a little unsure of himself.

“Hi.” She was breathless. She couldn’t help it. She couldn’t hide it from him. She never thought she would see him again, but he was at her doorstep.

“Hi. I know it’s early, but I was hoping I could take you out for lunch today.”

She grabbed his arm and tugged him inside without saying anything.

“I should have called. I was going to call, but I didn’t have your number.”

She smiled. He definitely seemed uncertain at the moment and it amused her. He was such a beautiful man with a smile that must have made hundreds of women jump out of their underwear. Yet he acted as if she might turn him down.

It was wildly satisfying to her. She stepped forward, looped her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the lips. “You want to take me out, huh?”


Dear Reader (#u4d85d225-6e5d-5229-8afc-0d2ad548d64b),

Have you ever had an overpowering connection with someone that you couldn’t explain? In Tempted at Twilight, you’ll meet Elias and Cricket, total opposites who can’t understand why they just can’t get enough of each other. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing about them!

Happy reading!

Jamie


Tempted at Twilight

Jamie Pope






www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


JAMIE POPE first fell in love with romance when her mother placed a novel in her hands at the age of thirteen. She became addicted to love stories and has been writing them ever since. When she’s not writing her next book, you can find her shopping for shoes or binge watching shows on Netflix.


To every girl who wears her Blerd status proudly.


Contents

Cover (#uebea6e9a-9e6d-5dc9-8784-d5320d76b409)

Back Cover Text (#u6f15989f-9141-5e2f-8e68-581ed692b29d)

Introduction (#u1f4881b4-5df7-56d0-bea1-239e825f3d05)

Dear Reader (#u76012eb5-7f7e-511e-b501-ded87ff27e19)

Title Page (#u9dfa3254-89e5-58c1-a3f6-b15eaa8b1ff6)

About the Author (#uc8bed633-3a92-50ba-95b3-1c317ef429d9)

Dedication (#ub4bebd82-045c-5819-81a4-89b3592b9742)

Chapter 1 (#u69a0e07d-e344-57be-a45a-2756334b87f8)

Chapter 2 (#u8c5675fe-b31b-5db6-a5a0-8f4004e49a7c)

Chapter 3 (#u1484bf5b-6c32-5601-992e-2933a1600597)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)


Chapter 1 (#u4d85d225-6e5d-5229-8afc-0d2ad548d64b)

“Have you taken leave of your senses?”

Elias Bradley sat in the chief of surgery’s office and quietly listened as she berated him. It wasn’t the first time she had done so. He seemed to have a way of getting under his boss’s skin.

“You’re not even cleared to be back yet, and you get into an altercation with a patient’s boyfriend?”

Elias’s already injured hand was radiating with pain, a reminder of the scuffle he had gotten into, but he remained silent, knowing it was better not to speak until Dr. Lundy was done yelling.

“How can I make you head of trauma if you act so impulsively?”

Impulsive.

It wasn’t the first time he had heard that word used to describe him. Teachers. Girlfriends. Even his own family had said it. But being impulsive wasn’t always a bad thing. His rash decisions had gotten him pretty far.

“With all due respect, ma’am. One of the things that makes me a good trauma surgeon is the fact that I think and act very quickly. I saw a man grab a patient and try to yank her out of the hospital before she could be treated. I feel that my actions were necessary and in the end protected that patient from further harm.”

He was impressed with how calmly he defended himself. He wanted to scream, That guy was an abusive jackass. Somebody should have kicked his ass a long time ago. But he kept that in. Sometimes he did think before he acted.

“You punched him!” she roared. “Hard enough to break his nose, and even if I cared about his face or the potential lawsuit that might be coming, it doesn’t compare to how much I care about your hands. What good is a surgeon who cannot operate? Right now, you are a highly paid pain in my behind.”

He had never heard the normally proper chief speak that way, but he had never seen her this enraged before, either. “I was only in the hospital to try to make myself useful. Even if I can’t operate, I can work in the ER. I can still see patients.”

“No, you cannot. I handpicked your orthopedic surgeon and your occupational therapist. They have both reported to me that you are nowhere near able to return to surgery, that even if you weren’t a surgeon, that you would need to be on light duty. Working in the ER in the biggest, busiest hospital in Miami isn’t anyone’s idea of light duty. And taking into account your penchant for championing the abused and less fortunate, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ban you from the hospital until you are medically cleared.”

“You’re banning me!” He’d never thought it would have come to that. At most he’d thought she would yell at him and relegate him to paperwork, which he would be fine with, because he loved being in the hospital. He loved the sights and the smells and knowing that what he did made a difference. He didn’t have much else in his life at the moment. His siblings were all very happily married and busy with their own families. There was no special woman to go home to. His life revolved around the hospital. He ate all his meals there. He slept there much of the time. Hell, all the people he socialized with worked there. He wasn’t sure what he would do with himself if he couldn’t come to work.

“Yes, you are banned. I have put an alert out to all the security guards that if they find you here, you are to be escorted out. Your swipe card has been deactivated.”

“You’re treating me like a criminal!”

“No, I’m treating you like an asset that needs to be protected.” She took a calming breath. “You are probably one of the most talented young surgeons I’ve seen in years, and you are excelling in a difficult, highly specialized field. You want to take over as head of trauma, but how can I promote you if I can’t trust you to act rationally? Your hand is not even a quarter of the way healed, and you go and punch someone. Did you think about your career? Did you think about the potentially irrevocable damage you could have done to your future?”

The truth was he hadn’t thought of it at all. He’d just acted. That big guy dragging that scared woman through the ER had made his blood boil. He wished he could say that if it happened again, he would have called security or ignored it, but he knew himself too well. Hand damage be damned. He still would’ve knocked that guy on his ass and given him a big taste of his own medicine.

He had two sisters. He hoped some guy would do the same for them if they were ever in that situation.

“You have nothing to say to that?”

“Nothing that wouldn’t cause you to yell at me again.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Go home, Dr. Bradley. In fact, leave Miami. You’ll be out of commission for quite some time. Do something you wouldn’t normally do. But considering the way you broke your hand, maybe you should sit in a room and not move for a couple of months.”

A couple of months.

A nauseating twinge rolled in his stomach. He didn’t think he could sit at home for a couple of months. He was immediately mad at himself again for breaking his hand. He had been doing one of those extreme mud runs with his brother and brother-in-law. He had crawled under barbed wire and had been submerged in a fifty-foot pool of mud. He had even run through fire, only to get tangled in the cargo net. He was on his way down when his foot got caught, and as he yanked it free, the runner just above him lost his balance and they both fell. The other guy had landed on top of Elias as he had put his hands out to break his fall. It was almost a twenty-foot drop.

He had replayed the incident in his mind a thousand times that day, but there was no way he could have prevented it. No way he could have changed the outcome. He had badly broken his hand and wrist, the pain so extreme he had passed out for a moment. He had to have surgery, from which he had yet to heal. His hand had already been swollen and practically immobile before he punched the guy. He was surprised he’d even been able to make a fist. Lord knew he couldn’t do anything else with it. But that was the power of adrenaline.

His older brother, Carlos, was a baseball superstar who had been on the disabled list for nearly a year because of a ruptured Achilles tendon. Elias had lectured him about overdoing it, demanded that Carlos rest, acted like the smug doctor he was. But when he was doling out that advice, he’d never thought he would end up in nearly the same situation.

“Get out of my office, Dr. Bradley. You have been working nonstop since medical school. You’re a young man. Take some time to enjoy yourself.”

He stood up and left the hospital. It wasn’t bad advice. He just didn’t know how the hell he was going to do it.

* * *

Cricket Warren glanced at her phone...again. Only four minutes had passed since she’d last looked, but those four minutes seemed like a hundred years to her. She was seated in the bar area of a small oceanfront restaurant on Hideaway Island, waiting for a ghost from her past to appear. Well...maybe ghost wasn’t the right word, but she wasn’t sure what to call the person she was supposed to be meeting. They certainly weren’t friends. They never had been. Just two people who happened to be born to parents who ran in the same social circle.

“Miss? Are you sure I can’t get you something to drink?” the bartender asked her from behind the bar. “It’s still happy hour for another fifteen minutes. Drinks are half-price. Our special is pineapple margaritas. They come in a pineapple cup. Everyone seems to like them.”

Cricket was tempted. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but she must look kind of sad sitting in a bar by herself, twiddling her thumbs. “Oh, I probably shouldn’t. I’m still waiting for my friend.”

“Your friend is late,” a man said. He was sitting at the end of the bar with a domestic beer in his hand. His back had been to her most of the time she was there, his eyes glued to some sporting event on the large television over the bar, but she had definitely noticed him. She didn’t have to see his face to know he was one of those hypermasculine men whose pheromones filled the air and made otherwise sensible women turn into a pool of senseless goopy jelly. His was broad backed, tall, muscular. He sat up very straight, which Cricket’s mother would have appreciated. He wore his inky-black hair in overlong curls, which might have been considered boyish or feminine on another man, but worked on him. He was brown skinned, some beautiful shade that she couldn’t begin to describe. And just when she decided that she had better stop cataloging his features, he turned to face her.

Well...damn.

He might be the most gorgeous man she had ever laid eyes on, and a tiny spark of recognition went off in her brain. She had seen this man before, but she couldn’t immediately place where she would have met such an extraordinary-looking human.

Maybe in her dreams.

“Yes,” she said quietly, hoping he wouldn’t hear her embarrassing breathlessness. “My friend is quite late.”

“Have a drink. They won’t get mad at you. And if they do, they aren’t the kind of friend you need.”

She opened her mouth to speak but then hesitated.

“I’ll buy you the drink. My sister-in-law loves those pineapple things. You should try it.”

Cricket was twenty-nine years old. She spoke four languages fluently and had studied with the best and brightest around the world, but she’d never had a stranger offer to buy her a drink in a bar.

Ever.

But then again, guys never made passes at pudgy girls with two PhDs who were named after bugs.

“Say yes,” the man said to her, the corner of his mouth curling in an appealing way.

She swallowed hard and warned herself not to be the awkward person she was ninety-nine percent of the time. “I need to know who I’m saying yes to.”

“Elias.” He got off his stool and walked over to her, his hand extended.

“Cricket,” she responded absently as she took note of his hand. Normally she introduced herself as Cree, because scientists named after bugs didn’t usually garner respect, but this time she had forgotten and introduced herself by her given name.

He had recently had surgery. There was a barely healed incision running from his wrist all the way up the palm of his hand and one along his thumb.

“Do you inspect everyone’s hand you shake so closely?” he asked. It was then she realized that she hadn’t shaken his hand at all—she was holding it with both of hers as her thumb ran along the still-angry incision line.

“You shouldn’t be shaking my hand. Yours is swollen. You should wave, or do that head-nod thingy that guys do.”

“Would a wink suffice?” He took the chair next to her at the four-top.

“Oh, no. Winks can be kind of creepy, don’t you think?”

He smiled at her, fully this time, showing off a set of perfectly white teeth. He became even more gorgeous, if that were possible. “They could be sexy, too. I guess it depends on who is doing the winking.”

“And on the winkee. No?”

“I wouldn’t find it creepy if you winked at me. Is your name really Cricket?”

“Yes. Like the bug,” she admitted with a small sigh.

“That can’t be true.” He laughed. “Your parents must have thought it was a cute name for a girl.”

“No, they thought I looked like a bug, so they named me Cricket. Cricket Moses Warren.”

He slanted a brow at her. “Moses as in part-the-seas Moses?”

“I suppose, but I think I’m named for my great-great-grandfather, who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. His name was Moses.”

He winked at her. “It’s nice to meet you, Cricket Moses. I am Elias James Bradley.”

“Oh, how normal of you to be called Elias James. I suppose your parents were too unimaginative to name you after a noisy, beady-eyed bug and an ancestor of the opposite sex.”

He grinned at her. “No, I’m named after a soap actor and my father.” He raised his hand to signal the bartender. “A pineapple margarita for my new friend, and another beer for me.”

“Friends now, are we? I don’t even know one embarrassing thing about you, and you know two about me.”

She wasn’t normally so chatty with strangers, especially deliciously beautiful strange men, but she was feeling kind of nervous. “You know I just had surgery on my hand and I have very limited movement in it.”

“Is that embarrassing?”

“Yes. I work with my hands. I can’t do my job now because of it.”

“You work with your hands, huh? Are you an MMA fighter?”

“No.”

“A football player?”

“No.”

“A boxer? Did you hit someone so hard your hand shattered in tiny little pieces?”

“I didn’t break my hand at work.”

“How did you break it? Freaky sex accident?”

“You’re weird.” He grinned.

“I know.” She nodded, not believing she wasn’t censoring herself like she normally would. “I have been my entire life.”

“I like it.” He looked down at his swollen hand and attempted to bend his fingers without much success. “I broke it doing a mud race. I fell from a twenty-foot landing and then had a 250-pound man land on top of me. My wrist snapped.”

“Ouch.” She gently took his large, swollen hand in hers again and studied it. “Your hand should still be immobilized. Judging from the healing of this incision, you’re about a month post-op.”

He frowned at her. “Are you a doctor?”

“No,” she lied—or half lied. She was a doctor, just not a medical one, and according to her mother, her PhDs were little more than expensive pieces of paper. “I just know a little about this.”

“Who’s this man you are meeting?” Elias asked as the bartender set down their drinks in front of them.

“I’m not meeting a man,” she said as she studied the drink she’d allowed him to order for her. It actually came in a hollowed-out pineapple and was very interesting to look at.

“You’re not?”

“No.” She picked up her drink and took a sip. She found it delightful. “Why would you think I was meeting a man?”

“Because you are a beautiful woman sitting in a bar with a nervous look on your face.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” She grabbed his beer and slid it away from him. “How many drinks have you had?”

She was smart. She was creative. She was great at board games, but she had never thought she was beautiful. She tried to look her best. But at most she was pleasant to look at.

“I didn’t even have a sip of my second. I wouldn’t tell you that you were beautiful unless I thought you were. I like your hair and your mouth and your huge doe eyes.”

She tried to ignore the fact that his compliment made her feel warm all the way down to her toes. “That’s why my parents named me Cricket. Because of my eyes. They call me Bug.”

“Do you mind?”

“I didn’t at first, but then everyone in school started to call me Bug, and not in the cute, endearing way my father intended.”

He nodded. “That must have sucked.”

“It did,” she agreed. “I bet you were popular in school.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I’m purely judging a book by its cover. You were a jock. You played football. All the girls loved you because you are so perfectly gorgeous.” She swept her eyes over him again, enjoying how he looked more and more by the second. “You can hold a conversation, so I’m guessing you weren’t just an athlete but participated in something like student council. You were prom and/or homecoming king. How much of that did I get right?”

“All of it,” he said with a grin. “But you missed something.”

“What?”

“I sang in the choir.”

“That is surprising. Did you join to impress girls?”

“I liked to sing.” He shrugged. “You never told me who you were meeting.”

“A childhood...friend?”

“You don’t sound too sure about that.”

“I’m not sure I like her. I don’t think she likes me, either. She always makes little digs at me. ‘I’m seeing the most incredible man. I guess you haven’t found anyone yet. I’ve been promoted at work again. Are you still doing research in that dark little lab of yours? Don’t worry, you’ll change careers when you get up the courage.’ It makes me want to spill something on one of those thousand-dollar handbags she carries around.”

“If you don’t like her, then why do you see her?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s completely irrational, isn’t it? But we grew up together. We attended the same private school. We took violin lessons together. We even have horses stabled at the same barn.”

“Horses?”

“Yeah. My guy is old and overweight and his name is Seymour, and hers is this exquisite Arabian who wins prizes for his beauty.”

“What’s his name?”

“Adonis.”

He shook his head. “Sounds pretentious.”

“It is and he is! He’s a mean horse. I bet he makes little catty remarks about the other horses behind their backs. My boy is sweet as pie. Beauty and speed aren’t everything in a racehorse.” She looked up at Elias, realizing that she was having a longer conversation with him than she’d had with any man that wasn’t about science for the first time in years. And he actually seemed interested in what she had to say. Most of her conversations with the opposite sex were purely intellectual, about topics that most people without PhDs couldn’t follow. And at times, they bored the heck out of her. Sometimes those men even asked her out, and rationally those men should have been stimulating to talk to. But this handsome stranger with a broken hand made her feel more comfortable than anyone else ever had. “Why are you letting me ramble on like this?”

“I don’t know. We’re the only two people in this bar. It seemed like we should meet.”

* * *

Elias was being truthful when he told Cricket he didn’t know why he was having this conversation with her. He had been feeling restless since he had been banned from the hospital. Staying in Miami, being around all the sights and smells, knowing that people were being gravely injured every minute, all over the city, and he could do nothing about it, was making him nearly jump from his skin. So he had escaped to Hideaway Island, home of his brother and twin sister. They had been supportive when he told them that he was going to be out of work for some time as he healed, both offering their homes for him to recuperate in, but he couldn’t be around them, either.

They were both married. Carlos had a daughter. His twin was still a newlywed and so ridiculously in love with her husband it sometimes made Elias’s stomach churn. They were all happy and settled, and Elias felt very out of place with them.

He was the only one of his siblings who was single. He didn’t want to get married. In fact, he planned to remain single for years, but when he was with Carlos, he felt...unsettled. Like he was missing out on something. So he had escaped his sister’s house and come to the nearby restaurant for a change of scenery.

He had immediately noticed Cricket when she walked into the bar. She was much different from the women he encountered in Miami who lived in slinky dresses with lots of exposed skin. They were overtly sexy.

Cricket was sexy, too. Oddly sexy, in a way that discomfited him. She was not his type at all, but when she walked into the bar that night, his senses went on high alert. He took in everything about her. She wore a short pretty sundress with a bold graphic floral print. Her legs were by no means long, but they were beautiful and thick—the kind of leg that a man liked to slide his hand up and down in bed. Her hair was in loose, almost fluffy curls. It wasn’t a modern style. Hell, it wasn’t classic or chic or anything, but it suited her. She looked perfectly sweet, with wide innocent eyes and beautiful full lips.

And he had been sitting with her for the past ten minutes, unable to pull himself away.

“Is there any particular reason you are meeting this woman you don’t like here tonight?”

Cricket shrugged. “She asked to see me. It’s been a while. Said we need to do some catching up. She’s probably feeling a bit low about herself and would like to take a few jabs at me to boost her confidence.”

“Why do you let her do that to you?”

“She must not be very confident if she has to tear me down to pull herself up. In an odd way, it makes me feel better. If someone that physically perfect has doubts about themselves, then I realize that I’m not so different.”

“Everyone feels shitty about themselves sometimes.”

“And that applies to you, too?”

“Of course.” He nodded.

“Not about your looks. I wouldn’t believe someone who looks like you would.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Am I? I never tried before. I didn’t think I knew how!”

He grinned at her again. He was doing that a lot tonight. He felt a little bit like an idiot, but it felt good. He needed any reason to feel good lately. Without the hospital he was feeling lost, empty. For the first time in his life he was idle, and he sure as hell didn’t like it. “If you weren’t flirting, what do you call it?”

“Being honest.” She took a long sip of her drink. “Maybe it’s this stuff that’s making me extra honest this evening.” They both heard the sound of heels clicking on the floor in the distance, and Elias knew that his conversation with this quirky woman was about to come to an end.

“I’ll leave you to enjoy your friend. It was nice speaking to you, Cricket.”

“I enjoyed speaking to you, too, Elias.”

He got up and walked back to his spot at the bar just as a woman rounded the corner. Cricket was right. Her friend was beautiful. She was tall, with caramel-colored skin and light eyes. Her body was toned, her hair long and ruthlessly straight, highlighted with different shades of blond. She was perfectly made-up and perfectly dressed. She was perfectly boring.

“Hey, Bug!” She smiled brightly. “It’s great to see you.”

“Hello, Giselle. How are you?”

“Great! Just great.” She hugged Cricket. “What a cute little dress you’re wearing. I could never pull it off, but you have never been afraid of wearing things you find in the thrift store.”

“I didn’t get this in a thrift store. I got this in a little boutique downtown. The one you’re always talking about.”

“Oh.” She took the seat across from Cricket. “Do they carry your size there? I didn’t think they carried anything over a size ten.”

“They do,” Cricket said, her nostrils flaring a bit.

“Good. You can carry the extra weight so much better than most people I know. I’m glad they have clothes for larger ladies.”

Elias felt his nostrils flaring a bit. He wanted Cricket to tell the woman to go to hell.

“Everyone deserves nice clothing,” Cricket responded cheerfully. “So what’s going on with you? I know there must be something if you wanted to see me.”

“I just wanted to catch up. You are one of my dearest friends.”

“Were you working late? That promotion you got must be keeping you busy. You were nearly a half hour behind schedule. But I know you must have been too busy to text me. Us career girls have to really put our noses to the grindstone to prove we’re just as good as the men, so I understand your tardiness.”

Elias wanted to applaud Cricket. She wasn’t a pushover. He liked that.

“I’m sorry about that. I was on a call.” She reached across the table and gave Cricket’s hand a light squeeze. “So, are you seeing anyone? I’m still with Arnold. It’s getting serious! But don’t worry, sweetie. You’ll find someone someday. Women can have children well into their late forties nowadays.”

That was it. Elias left his spot at the bar and walked back over to Cricket’s table. He didn’t spare a single look at her friend before he took Cricket’s chin between his fingers and kissed her full, pouty mouth. He wasn’t sure if that was the stupidest thing he had ever done or the best decision of his life, because he felt the immediate spark of sexual attraction in their kiss.

He lifted his head briefly, looked her in the eyes and kissed her again. This time she slid her hand up his jaw and kissed him back a little more deeply than he had kissed her.

“I’m sorry that took so long,” he said to her as he slipped into the chair next to her. “I got our dinner reservations moved back another half hour.”

“Dinner.” Cricket nodded, giving him a conspiratorial grin. “Can’t wait.”

“Um,” Giselle said. “Hello. I’m Giselle, and you are?”

“Elias.” He nodded his head but didn’t extend his hand to shake. “I’m Cricket’s boyfriend.”

“Isn’t he gorgeous?” Cricket laughed.

Giselle looked stunned. “Uh... I... I—I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

“Well, Elias walked up to me and introduced himself, and I’ve been taken with him ever since.”

“Oh, how sweet,” she said, looking and sounding disbelieving. “I’m happy for you.” Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me, Elias. What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a trauma surgeon.”

“Here on the island?”

“There are very few traumas here. I work at Miami Mercy. I’m on leave right now. I broke my wrist and haven’t been cleared to return yet.”

“My boyfriend is in pharmaceutical sales. He’s at your hospital a lot. Maybe you know him.”

“I don’t. I don’t ever speak to drug reps unless they are bleeding out on my table.”

“Where did you go to medical school?”

“Miller.”

“You got into one of the best hospitals in the country.” She nodded. “Did you meet Bug at a work function?”

“No. It was purely by chance, and I couldn’t seem to get her off my mind ever since.”

None of those things were lies. If it were any other day, he might not have been there. He might not have even given a second look to Cricket or cared that she was being disrespected by her rude friend. But it wasn’t any other night. Tonight he wanted something to take his mind off not being able to work, and he was glad that Cricket was that something.

“So, are you getting serious? Your mother will be pleased, I’m sure,” she said rather stiffly. “Who wouldn’t love another doctor in the family?”

Another doctor? She’d told him she wasn’t one, and he had believed her because he spent a lot of time around doctors and she seemed a little more free-spirited than most of them. But maybe he didn’t know as much as he thought he did.

“It doesn’t matter what my mother thinks. It only matters that I’m happy, and right this minute, I’m incredibly happy.”

Giselle frowned, almost like she didn’t understand what Cricket was saying. “I didn’t mean to keep you two from your date night.”

“You’re not!” Cricket said. “Elias wanted to meet you.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” He nodded as he took Cricket’s hand and raised it to his lips. “I want to know all of Cricket’s friends.”

“That’s nice.” She stood up. “I’m meeting Arnold tonight, so I have to run. It was good to meet you, Elias. Cricket, I’ll call you?”

“Yes. Catching up with you is always fun.”

She walked out then, and as soon as her heels clicked out of earshot, Cricket turned to him. “What on earth possessed you to do that?”

“I don’t like the way she speaks to you.”

“I can handle myself, you know.”

“I know.”

“You kissed me.” She tilted her head and studied him.

“I did, and then you kissed me.”

She had soft, plump lips. They were perfect for kissing. He could have just sat down beside her, held her hand and pretended like he was her boyfriend, but he’d kissed her. He had to kiss her. It seemed like the right thing to do in that moment. It might have been one of those impulsive moments that his boss was so fond of pointing out. There had been no thinking involved. His mouth just moved toward hers.

“Do you like tacos?” she asked.

He blinked at her for a moment, confused by the change in topic. “Yeah.”

“What about frozen custard?”

“The soft-serve kind?”

“Of course.”

“Yes.”

“Let me wine and dine you,” she said with a grin. “Or maybe I should say convenient food and converse with you.”

“You are so weird,” he said again, shaking his head. “I would love to have tacos and custard with you.”


Chapter 2 (#u4d85d225-6e5d-5229-8afc-0d2ad548d64b)

Hideaway Island was one of those small coastal islands that felt a little bit like paradise wrapped up in a warm blanket. Cricket had spent her childhood in Miami and her early adulthood in the New York area. But she had spent all her summers there on the island. It was how she recharged her always draining batteries, and tonight she felt full of electricity.

There was a beautiful man strolling down the beach beside her. His feet bare, his pants rolled up, his eyes taking in the scenery around them. She didn’t blame him. Hideaway Island had to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Especially at twilight, when the sky was purple and orange and the breeze kicked up and the air smelled like ocean and sweetness and something magical that she couldn’t identify.

They had stopped at the food trucks lined up in front of the boardwalk and dined on a bench before they embarked on their stroll. She felt at ease with Elias when she shouldn’t. He was a stranger. A stranger whom she had met in a bar! He could be some kind of con artist or murderer. She had already witnessed how smoothly he lied to Giselle about being her boyfriend and a surgeon at one of the best hospitals in the country, but despite all of that, despite all the rational thoughts that were always firing in her head, she liked him. She liked talking to him, being in his large presence. There was something safe about him.

There was also the fact that he’d kissed her tonight. She had been kissed before, but his had been the sweetest, because it had been so unexpected. She didn’t have time to worry about her breath, or what he was thinking or how she looked. She had just let herself be kissed. And she had kissed him back. Tingles, warmth and sparks all felt like trite ways to describe how she had felt when he was kissing her, but there didn’t seem to be other words for it. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to feel that sensation again, and it was going to have to be tonight.

Before her rational thoughts returned and she talked herself out of having more fun.

“Do you live on the island, or are you here just visiting?” she asked him.

“Visiting. I have family here. You and I met tonight because I needed to escape them.”

“Not a wife and kids, I hope.”

“Yeah, Serena is pregnant, too. I can’t take all her complaining and the kids running around the house like a bunch of wild animals.”

Cricket stopped in her tracks and looked up at him.

Elias took out his phone and snapped a picture of her.

“What the hell!”

“I had to get a picture of your face. It was priceless. You’re gullible.”

“You’re a great liar. Let me see the picture.”

“No.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “You might delete it.”

“Is it that bad?”

“No. It’s cute.” He wrapped his arm around her as they continued to walk. It was nice. His body was so large and hard, and for once in her life she felt petite and protected and liked for who she was. “No kids, wife or girlfriend. I’m single. My sister is a newlywed, and there is nothing worse in the world than being stuck hanging out with two people who are in love.”

“I could think of a couple worse things.”

Elias sighed. “I really like my sister’s husband. He’s exactly who I would have picked for her.”

“But?”

“We’re twins. We went to the same college. We lived next door to each other until she sold her town house. She used to call me every day. We were close.”

“You’re not anymore?”

“We are, but it’s different. Her husband comes first, which he should. But I kind of miss being the first person she tells all her stupid crap to. It used to annoy the hell out of me when she called me just to chat, but it was a part of my day. Now it feels like something is missing.”

She smoothed her hand down his back, and he looked down at her with a sheepish grin.

“If you ever tell anyone I said that, I might be forced to kill you.”

“Got it. Men break out in hives whenever they think someone might know they have a feeling.”

“I’m a manly man,” he said, deepening his already-deep voice. “I snapped my wrist and went in to work the next day with duct tape wrapped around it.”

“You didn’t.”

“No. It hurt like hell. I’m pretty sure I started crying and passed out.”

She laughed. “I don’t believe that, either.”

“I just remember my brother cursing and saying something about our mother flying to the States to kill him.”

“Your mother doesn’t live here?”

“Costa Rica. She moved there after my father passed away.”

“Oh.” She went quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s been many years now.”

They continued to walk on in silence until they came up to a set of houses that were directly on the beach. “My house is right up there.”

“Is it?” He looked at the house and then back at her. “It’s nice.”

“It is nice. Would you like to see it?” She was inviting him inside. She didn’t want this night to end. It had been surreal and comfortable and wonderful, and it wasn’t even 8:00 p.m. yet.

“Yes, I very much would.”

Her heart beat faster as they walked quietly up the path that led to her beachfront home. She had never done this before. She had never met a man who she was this attracted to, who she wanted to spend so much time with. First dates had always been horrible for her. Awkward. Panic inducing. But she had met Elias by chance. There was no time for her to get worked up, to overthink, and tonight she wasn’t allowing herself to think at all. She was living in the moment. Doing what made her feel good.

“Whoa,” he said when she let them in.

Her home was beautiful, a gift from her parents, but Cricket really knew it had been her father’s idea to give her this house when she finished her second doctorate. It was an overly generous present, but her father adored her and knew how much she loved this island and cherished the summers she had spent there as a child. It was nothing to him to give her this gift, even though her mother was against it.

Cricket, after all, was the heiress to one of the largest tech fortunes in the world.

“I know it’s a little sparse right now. I haven’t spent much time here until recently.”

“Where were you?” he asked, looking around.

“My lab was based in Boston, but I traveled a great deal.”

“I heard you say something about research. What kind of research do you do?”

She hesitated for a moment. There was nothing romantic or sexy about her job, but she was proud of her work. Her mother told her she should never be embarrassed of showing off her brain. But the older she got, the more she realized that men didn’t necessarily want to date a woman with a bunch of fancy letters after her name. “I’m a medical scientist.”

“A PhD?” he asked, stepping closer.

“Yes, I’m afraid I have two of them.”

A devastatingly sexy smile crossed his lips. He then grabbed her bag and tossed it aside before he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her again. His lips were open, his mouth wet, his tongue warm. She immediately went slack, and he brought her body closer to his. Large, hard, hot. Those were the only words she could think of to describe him. He smelled so good, like ocean air and aftershave and soft-serve vanilla ice cream. She could get drunk off his scent.

“Tell me to go home,” he said into her mouth. “Right now. Tell me to leave.”

“I can’t. You leaving is the very last thing I want.”

“I was hoping you would say that.” He pulled her cardigan off and kissed that little curve that connected her shoulder to her neck.

A moan escaped her as his hands slipped up her dress to skim the backs of her thighs. “You’re so beautiful,” he told her as he hooked his thumbs into her underwear and slid them down. “I want you so damn much.”

She sought his mouth again, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him with a heat that she had never experienced before. She felt his erection against her belly, and it caused her to grow wetter, even more aroused than she was when he had started all of this. She’d had only one serious boyfriend, one sweet, lovely man whom she would have happily spent the rest of her life with, but he’d never made her feel this way. He never wanted her with as much hunger as Elias possessed.

“Take me to your bedroom.”

She took his hand without thinking, and he winced.

“I’m sorry!”

“Don’t be. You can kiss it better.” He lightly pressed his lips to hers.

“When’s the last time you took anything for your hand?”

“This morning. But I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I am worried. I need you to touch me all over my body, and for that to happen I need to know you’re not in pain.”

“If you take me to bed, I promise you the only kind of pain I’ll be in is the good kind.”

She smiled at him and took his other hand, leading him into her en suite bathroom. It was a luxurious bathroom by anyone’s standards, with a huge jetted tub and a rainfall shower. There was a view of the ocean from the window.

“This bathroom is bigger than my bedroom,” he said to her in a low voice. “I would like to spend some time in here if we can.”

“We can.” She went to her medicine cabinet and opened it up in search for a bottle of pain reliever. Some of the contents came spilling out, including her birth control.

“I guess I don’t have to wonder about that,” he said and then unzipped her dress. She had on the ugliest underwear. A beige strapless bra. Her white cotton panties had been left on the floor somewhere near her front door. She had never thought she would be here in a million years. She didn’t even own sexy underwear, but Elias didn’t seem to mind at all. He unhooked her bra and with his uninjured hand cupped her breast, squeezing it ever so slightly as his thumb stroked over her nipple.

She swallowed hard, almost forgetting what she was supposed to be doing. But then she remembered she wanted him to have two pain-free hands so that she could experience even more of his pleasure. She picked up the bottle and closed the door to the medicine cabinet only to come face-to-face with herself in the mirror. Only she didn’t recognize herself. Her hair was windblown and wild, her mouth was slightly open, her lips pouty and kiss swollen. She was completely naked, and a large fully dressed man was looking at her with such open appreciation that it made her knees weak.

But the most marked change was the look in her eyes. There was arousal there, pure and naked lust. She hadn’t thought it was possible to look like that. It didn’t mesh with the image she had of herself in her mind.

“Do you see how sexy you are?” he asked as he pulled her nipple between his fingers. She bit her lip as the pleasure took over her. “I can’t wait to be inside you. To feel you wrapped around me. I can’t help but feel that you are what I need right now.”

She trembled. The power of his words alone made her tremble. She took a small step away from him and filled a glass with water and handed it to him.

“Pills now.”

“Open the bottle for me.”

She complied, but she did it as she walked back into her bedroom, feeling freer and more confident in her body than she had in all her twenty-nine years. “Sit down,” she ordered. He did so with a sexy grin that she was growing to love more by the minute. “Take these.” She handed him the pills and began to work at the small buttons on his shirt. She knew his body was in spectacular shape, because she felt every hard-muscled line when she was pressed against him. But now she could see him in all his glory. Beautiful brown skin covering tight abs and a powerfully built chest.

“I like bossy women,” he said and set his glass of water on the nightstand before he pulled her closer. “Have I mentioned how incredible your behind is?” He cupped it, his fingers digging into her flesh.

“No, but a lady always loves a compliment.” She pulled off his shirt and then pushed him back on the bed. She unzipped his pants and gave him a silent signal to lift his hips. She was growing wetter and wetter with each piece of skin she had revealed. It was something special to have a gorgeous naked man in her bed, one who she knew wanted her, one who was so aroused that she was afraid he wasn’t going to fit inside her.

He pulled her on top of him, their naked bodies colliding. He groaned as her breasts rubbed against him. “Beautiful girl...” His voice was husky and breathy. He ran his hand down the length of her back. “Everything you do turns me on. We need to slow this down before I embarrass myself.”

“I promise you,” she started but trailed off when his lips looked too kissable to pass up, “that you never have to be embarrassed with me.”

He rolled over so that he was on top, his body pressing hers into the mattress. “I want to touch you.” She felt his heavy erection between her legs. She had wanted to run her hands over it, her lips, feel the weight of him.

“I really want this to last.” He kissed her slowly and so deeply that she felt like she was falling. “Talk to me. Tell me something about yourself.”

“As a child I had a cat named Sophie. She was fat and orange and I loved her to pieces. Your turn.”

“My older brother played baseball his entire life, but I find the sport kind of boring and have only watched the games that he played in.” He kissed behind her ear and ran his hand over her hip. “That was a deep, dark secret that you can never tell another soul.”

“Juicy. Perfect for blackmailing.”

“Tell me something else,” he said as she felt him press against her opening, running his head down the length of her lips.

“Deep and dark?” she panted.

“The deeper the better.”

She suddenly got overwhelmingly nervous. This had felt like a dream up until now, but he was in her bed, nearly inside her, and she had never thought this would happen. She had all but given up on men. “I have something big to tell you.”

He must have heard the panic in her voice, because he stopped what he was doing and rolled them to their sides. “You’re married. You share this house with your husband, and he’s about to burst in here with a shotgun.”

“No! Of course not.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Strike two.”

“You’re not going to tell me you’re a man.” He touched her between her legs, slipping a finger inside her to stroke her. “I can tell.”

She cried out. “No. I’m a virgin.”

* * *

“Excuse me?” She was lying to him. She had to be lying to him. Cricket was definitely an enigma. She was odd and brainy and probably leaps and bounds smarter than he was. But she was so damn funny and sweet, and she had the body of a video vixen hidden beneath her cute sundress and prim cardigan.

She was a sex goddess and he was lucky enough to be taken to her bed, and she was telling him that she had never been with a man before? He just didn’t believe it.

“You don’t kiss like a virgin.”

“I’m only one in the technical sense.”

“Explain.”

“I was with a man for over five years who was born with a defect and couldn’t...you know. It was fine, because sex wasn’t terribly important to me, and he did other...intimate things to make up for it. But we broke up three years ago and I haven’t made it this far with a man since.”

“Have you tried? All you have to do is look at a man and he’ll want you.”

“I want you.” She slid her hand up his cheek and kissed him softly.

He wanted her, too, and this revelation should have shaken him, but he was surprised to find that he wanted her even more. To be the first man inside her, to be the first man to have her body like this. “I’m glad you told me.”

“You aren’t going to walk away right now. It will kill me if you did.”

“I’m not walking away. I can’t, and I don’t want to.”

She let out a sigh of relief. He was surprised by her more and more each moment. She didn’t see herself the way he saw her. Thick and delicious. So incredibly sexy that it made his teeth hurt. Being with her wasn’t just a want, it was a need. For the first time since he had snapped his wrist, he wasn’t feeling so damn empty. He stroked between her legs as he kissed her. She moved against his hand, her hips moving in a way that made it hard for him to believe that she was a virgin. He felt bad for her. She was clearly a sexual person with needs that had gone unfulfilled for so long. He felt even worse for that poor slob of a boyfriend. It must be torture to be this close to perfection without being able to have it.

He was going to have her tonight. Things had heated up so quickly between them. He liked to take his time with women. To seduce them. But he was too far gone. He had never wanted another woman so much. He was more than hungry for her. He felt like if he didn’t have her, he would die.

Without giving it another thought, he slipped inside her. The noise that escaped him was primal. She was so wet and so hot and squeezing around him so tightly, putting him in extreme danger of coming before he even started.

He forced himself to hold back and not plunge inside her like he so desperately wanted. “Am I hurting you?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Oh, God, no.” She wrapped her legs around him even tighter, taking him deeper inside. “I need more.”

He slid a little harder into her, which caused her to cry out his name. He kept his rhythm controlled and firm. He gave her deep kisses as he pumped away; he kneaded her flesh between his fingers, paid careful attention to her body, to what she liked. He kept his eyes open so that he could look down into her face. He wanted to remember this night, every single ounce of it, because he was sure he would never be able to have another night so damn perfect again.

“Elias...” She dug her nails into his back and squeezed around him so tightly that he lost all his control. She was trembling beneath him, her orgasm coming on hard and fast. He came with her, pushing into her one last time before he spilled himself inside her.

“Thank you for this, Elias,” she said a few minutes later. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for letting me be the man to do it.” He kissed the side of her neck before he lifted his head to look down at her. She was flushed and glowing with perspiration and smiling. He had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life, and he didn’t want to get out of bed to leave her. “Can I stay here with you tonight?”

“Yes. I would like that. There is nothing in the world that I would like more.”


Chapter 3 (#u4d85d225-6e5d-5229-8afc-0d2ad548d64b)

“You look chipper today,” Ava, Elias’s twin, said the next evening as they sat on the porch of the house she and her husband shared.

“Chipper?” He frowned at her. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word used before.”

“Well, it’s how you look. You’ve been down since you haven’t been working. I would say that I feel bad for you, but I like seeing you more often. When you’re working I get the exhausted zombie version of you.”

“Fourteen-hour surgeries will do that to you.”

“Did you have fun last night? You met up with some friends?”

“Yeah,” he lied, not knowing why he did. He told Ava nearly everything, but he didn’t want to share his night.

He hadn’t just hooked up with some random girl. He took someone’s virginity and spent the morning making love to her all over again. He really liked Cricket, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he was in a weird headspace in that moment or if he just thought she was refreshing. If they had met in Miami, he probably wouldn’t have spared her a second look, but they hadn’t met in Miami, and this was no typical hookup.

He wanted to see her again, to be with her again. But this morning when he kissed her goodbye, he’d made no move to prolong their connection. He didn’t ask for her phone number; he didn’t suggest they meet up again. He had just walked away.

There hadn’t been hope in her eyes, no expectation. She’d just thanked him and kissed him softly and waved him off. He respected that about her. He might have been weirded out if she wanted to turn this one-night stand into a relationship.

But she didn’t seem to want to, and he wasn’t looking for a relationship, either, but he wasn’t sure he could just leave it at one night with her.

“I’m glad you went out. Are you planning to see them again?”

“I was just thinking about that myself. I might head over to Carlos’s and stay with him for a few days.”

“You getting sick of me already?”

“No...kind of. Yeah, actually. You and your husband kiss so much I wonder how your lips haven’t fallen off. Though Carlos and Virginia aren’t much better.”

“They aren’t.” Ava smiled. “When you fall in love, really fall in love, you’ll find yourself being the gross person you never thought you would be.”

“I sincerely hope not.”

“You can hope all you want, but when you’re with the right person, you can’t help it.” She looked over to the house next door. “Since Derek opened up a new studio space, we can actually use our house as a house. This place is bigger and we aren’t going to be using the one next door. We were planning to rent it out, but I would much rather have you there. You can come and go as you please, and you won’t be subjected to my husband and me making out all over the furniture.”

“It might be nice to go forty-five minutes without having to be subjected to that, but I don’t want you to lose any rental income for me.”

“Lose money? Ha! I was planning to charge you double market value.”

“I might head back to Miami soon. I was thinking about taking a trip somewhere. Maybe I’ll visit Mom.”

“You’ll last three days there. There are five women in that house. They’ll smother you to death.”

“They will,” he said grimly. His mother and aunts were likely to kiss the skin off his face. But he had to go somewhere, because if he didn’t, he would find himself going back to see the woman whom he hadn’t been able to get off his mind all day.

* * *

Cricket sat at the desk in her office and stared at her blank computer screen. She was supposed to be writing. She had left her job to concentrate on writing her next book. She had doctorates in anthropology and biology, and she had just spent the last ten months in India and sub-Saharan Africa studying small pockets of isolated populations and the illnesses that affected them. She had notebooks full of notes, but today she couldn’t make her fingers work with her brain. And it was probably because her head was still filled with Elias. Two days later and it all still felt like a dream to her, so incredibly magical that it had to be unreal.

She had been with Phillip for a long time. He had been incredibly sweet and gentle. He would hold her for hours and kiss her softly. But there was no hope of sex for them. She had been to doctors with him. They had seen the best in the world—no one could help them. She had assured him that it was fine. That the intimacy they shared was enough. And sometimes it was. He would touch her between her legs, using his fingers and his mouth to bring her pleasure. It had been satisfying for her, even though she felt something was missing. After a while they stopped being intimate altogether. He was more like a brother or a good friend, and still she’d been willing to marry him. He’d been the one to break it off. He’d said that she deserved passion and babies and a life he could never give her. She was deeply hurt by it, because she had never wanted kids and passion faded. She had never asked for a different kind of life.

But then she had been with Elias, who was gentle and sweet with her, too, but he was also strong and powerful, and she needed that. He had made love to her that night and once again in the morning. She had stayed in bed that entire day, in her used sheets, not wanting to get up and change them because she didn’t want to lose the scent of him.

She kept thinking of how he felt inside her, that slow, hard slide that made her incoherent. Just thinking about him now was making her aroused. There was a persistent throb between her legs that wouldn’t go away.

She knew he wasn’t looking for a fling or a relationship, but she wanted to see him again, just to spend a few more hours in his strong presence. She simply liked him. She couldn’t say that about any other man she had been in contact with for a long time.

Her cell phone rang, and she looked at the caller ID to see that her mother was calling.

Her mother, the brilliant Dr. Frances Lundy. Born into abject poverty in the projects of New York City, she’d gone on to earn a perfect score on her SATs and been accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. Frances had paid her way through medical school to become one of the top cardiothoracic surgeons in the world and the chief of surgery at one of the best hospitals in the country. And to top it all off, she had snagged herself a billionaire. Her mother was the most brilliant person she knew, and Cricket was still slightly afraid of her.

“Hello, Mom.”

“How are you, honey? Your father is here. Say hello, Jerome”

“Hello, precious! I miss you. Come write your book here. We’ll have so much fun.”

They would. Her father was a giant goofball and the most creative person she knew. He’d invented a smartphone that could hold a charge for three days. It was the bestselling phone in history, and that was only in the last ten years. He had over 150 successful inventions to his name. Cricket often wondered how her parents got together when her mother was so by the book and her father was so off the rails. “I purposely didn’t come home because I knew it would be too much fun with you. I wouldn’t get any work done.”

“And here I thought,” her mother stated, “that you were avoiding the long interrogation I was going to give you about spending nearly a year in the most poverty-stricken, disease-ridden parts of the world. I worked incredibly hard to make sure you would never have to witness those conditions, and at every opportunity you go back into them.”

“My research could help millions of people, Mom.”

“I know,” she said softly. “If you weren’t so brilliant and kind, you would be a sore disappointment to me.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“We do want to see you. I’ll be away at a conference for the next two weeks and then your father will be away, so we are calling to block off a date now.”

This was common with her parents, having to schedule dinner a month in advance so they could all spend time together.

It would be a full six weeks before all their schedules aligned, and so they made a date to meet in Miami at her mother’s favorite Creole restaurant. She was looking forward to seeing her parents in person. It had been a long time. She had video chatted with them three times a week while she was away, but it had been months since she had seen them last.

She heard the doorbell ring. She glanced at the clock. It wasn’t yet 11:00 a.m., and she hadn’t been expecting anyone. No one came to visit her on the island. Most of her friends were in academia and lived all around the world.

She opened the door, and her heart jumped. Flipped. Went right from her chest and into her throat. Elias was there, looking absolutely gorgeous and a little unsure of himself.

“Hi.” She was breathless. She couldn’t help it. She couldn’t hide it from him. She’d never thought she would see him again, but he was at her doorstep.

“Hi. I know it’s early, but I was hoping I could take you out for lunch today.”

She grabbed his arm and tugged him inside without saying anything.

“I should have called. I was going to call, but I didn’t have your number.”

She smiled. He definitely seemed uncertain in the moment, and it amused her. He was such a beautiful man, with a smile that must have made hundreds of women jump out of their underwear. Yet he acted as if she might turn him down.

It was wildly satisfying to her. She stepped forward, looped her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the lips. “You want to take me out, huh?”

“Yes.” He smoothed his hands down her back, which she found arousing and comforting. “Very much so.”

“Why do you want to take me out? Is it because you want to go to bed with me again? I slept with you before. You have to know how much I enjoyed it.” She kissed his jaw.

He shut his eyes. “I like you, Cricket... I just want you to know that I’m not just using you for sex. I took your virginity. That means something to me. It’s a gift you can only give once, and I want you to look back on that night and not have any regrets about it.”

Her stomach did a weird flippy thing, and she knew in that moment that she had tumbled a little bit in love with him. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him with everything she had. “My room. Right now.” She slipped her hands up his shirt, feeling his warm muscled back.

“Lunch first.” He made no move but kissed her again, his tongue sweeping into her mouth. “I specifically came here to take you out, not to sleep with you.”

“It’s too early for lunch...”

“We can have brunch instead,” he said as he slid his hands down to her behind and cupped it.

“I look a mess right now.” She kissed his neck. “I can’t possibly leave the house looking like this.”

“You look delicious to me.”

“I’ll need to take a bath. A very soapy, very warm bath. You want to join me?”

“I can’t say no to you.”

She led him into her bathroom and turned to face him, staring at him for a moment. She couldn’t believe he was here. She had been thinking about him, craving his touch, and now he was here before her and that beautiful experience they’d had wouldn’t just be a onetime thing that she would only relive in her dreams. But she was going to feel his hands all over her body again, and she almost couldn’t stand it.

“What are you thinking about?”

“What are you thinking about?” she countered, unwilling to give up her thoughts.

“You.”

“Good answer, sir.”

“Take off your clothes. I’ve been thinking about seeing you naked for two days.”

She stripped off her tank top and the soft cotton T-shirt bra that she wore beneath it. She didn’t know how to be sexy. She had never felt sexy before, but being around Elias had changed her a little bit. She didn’t feel like her normal academic self. She felt womanly and sexual and happy. “Your turn.”

He peeled off his shirt, revealing his six-pack, and her mouth went dry. It should be illegal for one man to be so damn fine.

“Your turn again,” he said to her in his husky voice.

She grinned at him and turned around to wiggle out of her shorts. She heard him groan in appreciation and took it a step further, bending over the side of the tub to turn on the water.

“What the hell are you doing to me?”

She heard his pants unzip and his shoes hit the floor with a thud.

“Don’t move.” She felt him behind her, and then his hands were on her hips, his erection brushing her backside. She instinctively pushed her behind toward him, and he slipped inside her. She was incredibly aroused. His slow slide inside her felt so incredibly good that she almost blacked out. He shifted their bodies so that her hands were braced on the side of the tub and she was bent over before him.

He pumped into her with fast short strokes that were different from the other two times they’d had sex. She was finding that she liked it, the frenzy of it. The sound of his heavy breathing, the sound of their skin slapping together and her name on his lips. Every hard push inside was bringing her closer to orgasm.

He chanted her name. Over and over again. He was enjoying her, enjoying being inside her body. She’d never thought she would have this feeling, but this man was an unexpected gift. Had he chosen to walk away this afternoon and never look back, she would still be happy. Because he had already given her so much in such a short amount of time.

“Please, Cricket. Please come for me. You feel too good. I can’t hold on much longer.”

He didn’t have to ask, because she felt herself clenching around him, waves and waves of exquisite pleasure carrying her away. Elias let out a guttural moan and spilled himself inside her. After a few moments of recovery, he stood her up straight, pulled her into him and kissed her deeply. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “You provoked the hell out of me, but you’re new to sex and I should have waited to make love to you in bed.”

“Don’t be sorry. I might be new to intercourse, but not to sexuality.”

“That was the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard a naked woman say,” he said with a devastatingly delicious grin.

“I’m a nerd. I can’t help it.”

“You’re the most beautiful nerd in the world.”

“You’re very good at making a woman feel appreciated.” She gave him a quick kiss before she turned away to check the temperature of the bathwater and add bubbles. “I’d bet you end up going home with a lot of women you meet in bars.”

“I don’t.” He shut off the water and stepped inside the large tub. He groaned in pleasure and then held out his hand for her to join him. She leaned against him and shut her eyes.

This was what heaven must feel like. The hot water. The scented bubbles. And Elias’s large hard chest and arms surrounding her. “Why don’t you take a lot of ladies home?”

“I don’t date a lot because of my work.”

“What do you do for a living? I don’t think we discussed that.”

“We did. I’m a trauma surgeon at Miami Mercy.”

She stiffened. Miami Mercy? An uncomfortable feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Her mother was chief of surgery there. She was his boss.

“What’s the matter?” He trailed his fingers down her arm. “You don’t like surgeons?”

“No, I love surgeons. I just thought you were lying to impress Giselle.”

“I wasn’t. I broke my wrist and am not allowed to work. My boss banned me from the hospital.”

“Banned you?” The question came out more like a squeak. Her mother had mentioned him. She had been exasperated. Young, brilliant surgeon who was stupid enough to break his hand while participating in some foolish activity. Cricket knew it had to be a big deal, because her mother rarely spoke of her work. Elias must have infuriated her.

“Yes. I tried to go back and work in the ER two weeks post-op. I punched a guy I saw trying to drag his girlfriend from the hospital and hurt my hand again. My boss was so incredibly angry with me, I thought she was going to fire me.”

Dr. Frances Lundy normally would have, but Elias must be that good. Cricket knew her mother wouldn’t give him another chance if he screwed up again. She would fire him if she thought he was a major liability. And she was fairly sure her mother wouldn’t like the idea of one of her doctors picking up her daughter in a bar. She wouldn’t like it all.

* * *

Cricket absently picked up Elias’s injured hand and kissed it. “You love your job, don’t you?”

“I feel a little lost without it,” he admitted to her and bent his head to kiss her shoulder. He loved the feel of her, the way their wet nude bodies fit together. He had been restless this morning after not being able to sleep at all last night. He had been thinking about her, in a way that he never thought about anyone.

Part of him knew it was because for the past fifteen years, he had been working with single-minded focus toward becoming a surgeon. Even before that, in high school, he had been studying, working extra hard to make sure his grades were good enough. And now he didn’t have any of that. Not the smells of the hospital, not the thrill of saving someone’s life. His days as a surgeon had always been unpredictable, but now his life was unpredictable with nothingness ahead of him. He had spent most of his days trying to figure out what to do with himself. But not now, not when he was with a sweet, beautiful woman who made him wonder why he had gone so long without one.

He hadn’t planned on being there today. He’d told his brother and sister that he was planning to head back to Miami. But he had found himself at Cricket’s front door instead.

“What compels one to become a surgeon? And don’t tell me it’s because you want to help people.”

“My mother gets a kick out of telling people that I’m a surgeon. I like hearing people call me ‘Doctor,’ and I love cutting up stuff.”

She looked back at him with a slight grin. “All very noble reasons.”

“My father is the real reason I became a doctor. He once told me it was his dream to become a doctor. He was ready to go to college when his own father died and he had to take over supporting his family.”





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