Читать книгу One Night With The Italian Doc - Kate Hardy - Страница 13

‘PIZZA MAN!’ ANTON said, as he came into the dark room.

‘Oh, my, and an authentic Italian one too!’ Louise smiled in the dark and sat up and then took out her light from her pocket and shone it up at him. ‘And so good looking.’

‘You changed your mind about the pizza?’

‘I did,’ Louise said. ‘A bowl of cornflakes wasn’t going to cut it tonight.’

‘I could have told you that half an hour ago—you need to eat more.’

‘I do eat.’

Anton shook his head very slowly. ‘With my sister’s line of work I know all the tricks, all of them,’ Anton said. ‘Tell me the truth.’

‘Okay, I do watch my weight,’ Louise admitted, ‘a lot! But I am not anorexic.’

‘I can see that you’re not anorexic but you do seem to live off salad.’

‘Ah, so you notice what I eat, Anton, how sweet!’ Louise teased, and then she answered him properly. ‘I love my modelling work,’ Louise said. ‘I mean I love it and it is my job to present at a certain weight but I don’t do the dangerously thin stuff. Yes, for the most part I have to watch what I eat but, in saying that, I eat very well. I’m nearly thirty. I can’t believe I’m still working …’

‘I can.’ Anton smiled.

‘Anyway, I’ve got a huge photo shoot on Christmas Eve,’ Louise explained, as she ate warm pizza. ‘It’s for Valentine’s Day and I’m going to pay a small fortune to get dressed up to the nines and have my hair and make-up done so, yes, I’m being careful.’ Her slice of pizza was finished and he handed her the other one. ‘I’m just not being very careful tonight.’

‘If you are looking at trying for a baby …’

‘I would never jeopardise that for work, Anton. I’m just eating healthily. What happened this morning is unrelated to that.’

‘Good to know.’

He glanced at the stirrups over the bed. ‘You really sleep here?’

‘Of course,’ Louise said, and then she looked to where his gaze fell. ‘Do you want me in stirrups, Anton?’

He actually laughed. ‘No. It is that I don’t want you in stirrups that means you can’t be my patient.’ He explained as best he could. ‘Louise, I know I have given mixed messages. Yes, I like you but I never wanted to get involved with someone at work.’

‘We’re not at work.’ Louise smiled a provocative smile. ‘Officially we’re both off duty.’

‘Louise, the thing is—’

‘Please, please, don’t,’ Louise said. ‘Please spare me the lecture, because, guess what, I’m the same. The last thing I want now is a full-on relationship, particularly with you.’

Anton frowned in slight surprise. He’d come in having finally given in and deciding that they should perhaps give it a go, only to find out that a relationship with him was far from her mind.

‘Why particularly not with me?’

‘Okay, I think you’re as sexy as hell and occasionally funny but I think you’d be very controlling, and that’s fine in the bedroom perhaps—’

‘I am not controlling,’ Anton immediately interrupted. ‘Well, I know that I am at work but not when I’m in a relationship.’

‘Oh, they all say that.’ Louise put on an Italian accent. ‘I do not want my woman posing in her underwear …’

‘That is the worst Italian accent ever.’ He frowned at her opinion of him. ‘I happen to think your work is very beautiful.’

‘Really?’

‘Of course it is.’ He was still frowning. ‘Have you had trouble in the past—?’

‘I have,’ Louise said quickly, hurrying over that part of her life, ‘and so I keep things on my terms. The only thing I want to focus on right now is myself and becoming a mum. I’m not on a husband shop.’

A flirt, some fun, was all she was prepared to give to a man right now.

Though she had fancied Anton for ages.

Ages.

Pizza done, Louise went into her pocket, peeled off some baby wipes from a small packet she carried and wiped her hands. Then she went into her pockets again and pulled out a breath spray.

‘What the hell have you got in those pockets?’

‘Many, many things—basically my pockets are designed so that I don’t have to get up if I’m comfy.’ Louise smiled and settled back on the pillow. ‘The breath spay is so that I don’t submit a labouring woman to my pizza breath, and,’ she added, ‘it’s also terribly convenient if you want to kiss me goodnight.’

‘Louise,’ Anton warned. ‘We’re not going to be skulking around in the shadows.’

‘I know,’ Louise sighed regretfully. ‘How come you left fertility?’ She yawned, but was pleased when Anton sat on the edge of the bed.

‘I missed obstetrics,’ Anton admitted, though he too chose to avoid the dark stuff.

‘Is it nice to be back doing it?’

‘Some days,’ Anton said, ‘like yesterday with Hannah’s son—that was a really good day. Today …’ He thought for a moment. ‘Yes, it is still good. Thanks for your help today, you were right to stay—it is good for Emily to have you nearby.’

‘You’re making me nervous, Anton—you’re being too nice.’

Anton smiled and watched as she put her hand under the blanket and turned the hot pack on her stomach.

‘Still hurt?’

‘Yep.’

He wanted his hand there.

Louise wanted the same thing.

She wanted him to lean forward and Anton actually felt as if her hand were at the back of his head, dragging him down, but it wasn’t her hand that was pressuring him, it was want.

‘I’m going to go,’ Anton said. ‘I just wanted to clear the air.’

‘It doesn’t feel very clear,’ Louise said, because it was thick with sexual tension, a tension that had come to a head last night but had had no outlet for either of them.

‘You’re right, it doesn’t,’ Anton agreed. ‘You are such a flirt, Louise,’ he said, his mouth approaching hers.

‘I know.’ She smiled then asked a question as his lovely mouth approached. ‘If you were intending to just pop in to clear the air, why did you brush your teeth before you came in?’

‘I was hoping to clear the air but you have worn me down.’

They were far from worn down as their mouths finally met. It was supposed to break the tension but instead it upped it as, in the dark, Louise found out how lovely that sulky mouth could be.

The mixture of soft lips and rough stubble had her break on contact.

Anton had decided on one small kiss to chase away a wretched day but small was relative, Anton told himself as he slipped in his tongue and met the caress of hers, for it was still a small kiss if he compared it to the one he really wanted to give.

For Louise, it was bliss. She could not remember a kiss that had been nicer, and her hands moved up to his head and their kiss deepened from intimate to provocative. As he moved to remove her hands and halt things he changed his mind as his thumb grazed her breast. Anton heard the purr and the nudge of her body into his palm, like a cat demanding attention, and so he stroked her through the fabric, until for both of them he had to feel her.

Anton went to lift her top, just to get to her breast, but the heat pack slipped off and she willed his hand to change direction, her tongue urging him on as Anton obliged.

He could feel the ball of tension of her uterus as his hand slipped down instead of up, stroking her tense stomach as he kissed her more deeply.

Louise lifted her knees to the bliss and the sensation but then she peeled her mouth from his.

‘Anton …’

‘I know that you do,’ he said, not caring a bit. ‘What colour underwear?’ he asked, as he toyed with the lace.

‘Cream and green, with a red bow—it’s from the Mistletoe collection.’

She loved his moan in her mouth and the feel of his fingers creeping lower. His warm palm massaged low on her stomach as his finger hit the spot and Louise felt her face become red and hot as she kissed now his neck then his ears. One of his hands was behind her head, supporting it, while beneath the other she succumbed.

The tension hit and his mouth suckled hers as he stroked her through the deepest come of her life and then she felt the bliss abate as her stomach lay soft beneath his palm. Her intimate twitches stilled and Louise lay quiet for a moment.

‘Better?’ Anton asked.

‘Positively sedated.’

She lay in sated bliss, pain free for the first time today, and trying to tell herself it was just the sex she wanted as she moved her hand and stroked his thick erection.

‘Poor Anton,’ she said.

‘There have been way too many poor Antons of late,’ Anton said. ‘I’m going to go and you’re going to sleep and—’

‘We never discuss this again.’ Louise smiled. ‘Got it!’

How was she supposed to sleep after that? Louise thought as Anton made his way out.

It took about forty-seven seconds!