Читать книгу Rising Stars & It Started With… Collections - Кейт Хьюит - Страница 54
CHAPTER NINE
ОглавлениеRATHER than change things, the situation brought what was already coming to a head.
Dominic didn’t know how best to broach what was on his mind.
He was used to straight talking, but on this Tuesday morning, lying in bed with Bridgette warm and asleep beside him, he didn’t know where to start. He’d been putting this discussion off for a couple of days now, which wasn’t at all like him.
‘Hey, Bridgette.’ He turned and rolled into her, felt her sleepy body start to wake, and he was incredibly tempted to forget what had been on his mind a few seconds ago and to concentrate instead on what was on his mind now. ‘When do you finish?’
‘Mmm…?’ She didn’t want questions, didn’t want to think about anything other than the delicious feel of Dominic behind her. She could feel his mouth nuzzling the back of her neck and she wanted to just sink into the sensations he so readily provided, to let him make love to her, but automatically she reached for the phone that was on her bedside drawer, checked there were no messages she had missed and frowned at how early it was—it wasn’t even six a.m.
‘It’s not even six,’ she grumbled, because they hadn’t got to bed till one—an evening spent watching movies and eating chocolate, laughing and making love, because neither wanted to talk properly.
‘I know that you’re off next weekend, but when do you actually finish?’
‘I’ve got a long weekend starting Thursday at three p.m. precisely.’ She wriggled at the pleasurable thought. ‘I’m not back till Wednesday when I start nights. Why?’
‘Just thinking.’
Though he didn’t want to think at the moment, it could surely wait for now, Dominic decided, because his hands were at her breasts, and how he loved them, and her stomach and her round bottom. She was the first woman he loved waking up with.
It was a strange admission for him, but he usually loathed chatter in the morning. Arabella had driven him mad then too.
‘Do you want coffee?’ Arabella would ask every morning.
It was just the most pointless question.
Okay, maybe not for a one-nighter, but two years on, had she really needed to start each day with the same?
He looked at Bridgette’s back, at the millions of freckles, and she was the one woman who could make him smile even in her sleep. ‘Do you want coffee?’ he said to a dozing Bridgette.
‘What do you think?’ she mumbled, and then…‘What’s so funny?’ she asked as he laughed and his mouth met her neck.
‘Nothing.’
‘So what are you lying there thinking about?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Dominic?’
He hesitated for an interminable second, his lips hovering over her neck and his hand still on her breast. ‘I’ve been invited for an informal interview.’ He was back at her neck and kissing it deeply. ‘Very informal. It’s just a look around…’
‘In Sydney?’
Her eyes that had been closed opened then. She’d sort of known this was coming. He’d always said he wanted to work there; they’d been seeing each other just a few short weeks and there had been that envelope she’d peeked at.
‘Yep—there’s a position coming up, but not till next year. It’s all very tentative at this stage—they just want me to come and have a look around, a few introductions…’
‘That’s good.’
And that wasn’t the hard bit.
They both knew it and they lay there in silence.
Like an injury that didn’t hurt unless you applied pressure, they’d danced around this issue from day one, avoided it, but they couldn’t keep doing that for ever.
‘Come with me,’ he said. ‘We could have a nice weekend. You could use the break before you start nights.’
She didn’t want to think about it.
Didn’t want to think about him going to Sydney, and there was still something else to discuss. Bridgette knew that, and Dominic knew it too.
There was a conversation to be had but it was easier to turn around, to press her lips into his. ‘Bridgette…’ Dominic pulled back. ‘It would be great.’ He gave her a smile. ‘I won’t inflict my family on you.’
‘What?’ She tried to smile back. ‘You’ll put me in some fancy hotel?’
‘We’ll be staying at my flat,’ Dominic said—and there it was, the fact that he owned a flat in Sydney but he was only renting here. He had a cleaner there, coming in weekly to take care of things while he was temporarily away. ‘Bridgette, you’ve known from the start that was where I was going.’
‘I know that.’
‘It’s only an hour’s flight away.’
She nodded, because his words made sense, perfect sense—it was just a teeny flight, after all—but her life wasn’t geared to hopping on planes.
‘Look,’ Dominic said, ‘let’s just have a weekend away. Let’s not think about things for a while. I’ll book flights. The interview will be a morning at most. I’ll see Chris…’
And so badly she wanted to say yes, to say what the hell, and hop onto a plane, to swim in the ocean, shop and see the sights, to stay in the home of the man she adored, but…‘I can’t.’
‘You’ve got days off,’ Dominic pointed out.
‘I really need to sort out my flat.’ She did. ‘I’ve been putting it off for ages.’
‘I know,’ Dominic said. ‘Look, why don’t I come round a couple of nights in the week and help with those shelves?’
‘You!’ She actually laughed. ‘Will you bring your drill?’ She saw his tongue roll in his cheek. ‘Bring your stud finder…’ she said, and dug him in the ribs. He would be as hopeless as her, Dominic realised. After all, his dad had never been one for DIY—he wouldn’t know how to change a washer. But it wasn’t the shelves that were the real problem. Yes, it would be so much easier to talk about stud finders, to laugh and to roll into each other as they wanted to, but instead he asked her again.
‘If I can’t do it—’ he had visions of her being knocked unconscious in the night by his handiwork ‘—then I will get someone in and those shelves will be put up on your return,’ he said. ‘But it really would be nice to go away.’
‘I can’t,’ she said, because she simply could not bear to be so far away from Harry. Courtney’s silence was worrying her and it couldn’t be ignored; also, she couldn’t bear to get any closer to Dominic. To open up her heart again—especially to a man who would soon be moving away.
‘Look, I have to go back this weekend.’
‘Go, then!’ Bridgette said. ‘I’m not stopping you. I’m just saying that I can’t come.’
‘You could!’ he said. He could see the dominos all lined up, so many times he’d halted them from falling, and he was halting them now, because when talking didn’t work he tried to kiss sense into her. She could feel her breasts flatten against his chest and the heady male scent of him surrounding her, and she kissed him back ferociously. It was as close as they had come to a row: they were going to have a row in a moment and she truly didn’t want one, knew that neither did he. This way was easier, this way was better, this simply had to happen, because somehow they both knew it was the last time.
He kissed her face and her ears, he pushed her knees apart and they were well past condoms now. He slid into her tight warmth, went to the only place she would come with him and she did. They both did.
It was a regretful orgasm, if there was such a thing, because it meant it was over. It meant they had to climb back out of the place where things were so simple.
‘I think a weekend away would be great.’ He tried again. He’d heard the first click of the dominos falling and still he was trying to halt them. ‘I think we need to get away. Look, if you don’t want to go to Sydney…’ He didn’t want to let down Chris, didn’t want to reschedule the interview, but he didn’t want things to end here. He wanted to give them a chance. ‘We could drive. There’s a few places I want to see along the coast…’
‘I can’t this weekend,’ she said. ‘I told you, I’ve got the flat to sort out. Courtney’s still upset…’
‘Well, when can you?’ And he let them fall. ‘I want to get away on my days off.’ He really did—it had been a helluva weekend at work. He wanted to be as far away from the hospital as possible this next weekend, didn’t want to be remotely available, because he knew that if they called, he’d go in. What was he thinking, driving to the coast when he had an interview, letting down Chris? For what? So that they could stay in and wait for her sister to ring?
‘Look, I know you help out your sister…’ He simply did not understand her. In so many things they were open, there were so many things they discussed, but really he knew so little about her. There was still a streak of hurt in her eyes, still a wall of silence around her. ‘But surely you can have a weekend off.’
‘Maybe I don’t want one,’ Bridgette said. ‘Maybe I don’t want to go up to Sydney and to see the life you’ll soon be heading back to.’
‘Bridgette…’ He was trying to prolong things, not end them. ‘I don’t get you.’
‘You’re not supposed to, that’s not what we’re about.’ It wasn’t, she told herself. It was supposed to be just a few short weeks—a break, a romance, that was all. It was better over with now. ‘Just go to Sydney,’ Bridgette said. ‘That’s what you want, that’s where you’ve always been heading. Don’t try and blame us ending on Harry.’
‘I’m not blaming Harry,’ Dominic said, and he wasn’t. ‘I’ll admit I was a bit fed up with his aunt on Friday.’
‘Sorry to mess up your night.’ She so wasn’t going to do this again. ‘God, you’re just like—’
‘Don’t say it, Bridgette,’ Dominic warned, ‘because I am nothing like him.’ He’d heard a bit about her ex and wasn’t about to be compared to Paul. ‘I’ll tell you one of the differences between him and me. I’d have had this sorted from the start. Your sister’s using you, Bridgette.’ He looked at her, all tousled and angry, and truly didn’t know what this was about.
‘Do you think I don’t know that?’
‘So why do you let her?’ He gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘Do you know, I think you hide behind Harry. He’s your excuse not to go out, not to get away.’ Bridgette was right, Sydney was where he’d always intended to be—that was his hospital of choice and he wasn’t about to have his career dictated to by Courtney.
‘I’m going for the interview. I’m flying out on Thursday night. I’ll text you the flight times. We’ll be back Sunday night.’
‘Don’t book a ticket for me,’ Bridgette said. ‘Because I can’t go.’
‘Yes, you can. And, yes, I am booking for you,’ Dominic said. ‘So you’ve plenty time to change your mind.’
He did book the tickets.
But he knew she wouldn’t come.