know,’ Zack said. ‘Are we awkward?’
‘A bit.’ Freya shrugged slightly. ‘But that’s because I’ve never done this before.’
‘Done what?’
‘Not now,’ Freya said, and shook her head. Now really wasn’t the time to explain how she was struggling with her feelings for him and the inevitable ending of them. Maybe there would never be a suitable time to tell him all he was starting to mean to her, Freya realised. ‘I’d better go.’ Only that was the problem—she didn’t want to go. She wanted to be here with him and she’d never stop wanting him.
The energy between them was undeniable.
How much easier would this all be if she could simply stand up and walk away, instead of looking down at him where he lay?
Zack broke his own ‘nowhere near work’ rule and his hand went to the back of her head to pull her down to his mouth. The long, slow kiss that evolved she wanted just as much he did. And it blew beyond proportion in a moment as her hand moved down. He put his hand over hers, though not to halt it, and then Freya moved her mouth back from the kiss and licked her lips as she had the night they had met.
She wanted to sink to her knees just as much and just as naturally as she had that first time, and he wanted ten minutes of pleasure to get out of his head.
‘Do I stay or go?’ She ran a finger along his erection.
‘I thought you said you didn’t like it?’
‘A concession?’ Freya smiled.
‘Lock the door.’
She got up and did so and as she walked over he went to check in that she was okay with this, because he had pulled back from the two of them last night, Zack knew that. ‘Freya—’
‘I get it, Zack.’
They did not need a long discussion tonight so they got back to what they were supposed to be about—sex.
Yet this was different, because Zack never brought it to work and he never just lay there and did nothing except moan with want and relief.
And he could never have known that for Freya this was very different indeed; she had never done this before. She just knelt on the floor and lavished him, loving the pressure of his hand and how he held her hair tight. She took him first with her tongue and then deeper as her hand worked his base.
‘More,’ Zack moaned, just as she did on occasion, and she took him in as deep as she could and gave him the oblivion he craved.
He sank into bliss and she knelt up higher and her thighs were pressing together at the noises they made, and on the most hellish day and at a less than romantic coupling, they were possibly the closest they had ever been.
Feeling him start to come in her mouth, hearing his shout of relief, Freya came to the salty taste of him.
He made her dizzy.
Her cheek rested on his stomach and she gathered back her breath as Zack lay there. She took it as no insult that his hand slid from her head and he was already asleep.
There was one odd talent Freya had, from too many years hiding in the bathroom, and that was performing a quick tidy up. Freya dealt with all that, she popped it all back and retied his scrubs, then slunk out of his office and sat silent in her own.
And she admitted it properly then.
The life goals she’d had just a short while ago had all shifted.
She was thirty-one years old and, for the first time in her life, Freya was wondering if she was falling in love. Never could she imagine she’d have done what she just had. Zack had no idea that the thought had always made her feel ill.
Not now.
Was this love?
Very possibly, because the thought of him leaving, hurt enough for it to be.
‘THE DONATIONS ARE pouring in,’ Freya said to James early on the Saturday after a meeting about Paulo.
It was a reluctant meeting on both their parts.
James had been ‘too busy’ during the week to touch base, but given the publicity surrounding Paulo, James slotted in a brief catch-up.
Freya didn’t want to be there either. It had been a very busy week with work, and Zack aside, the only place Freya now wanted to be was on the back of a horse and letting go some of the tension that she was carrying.
‘Donations for the Bright Hope Clinic have started to take off,’ Freya said. ‘And the general feedback regarding The Hills is positive.’
‘General feedback?’ James checked.
‘As to whether or not the charitable side will be maintained.’ Freya pulled no punches. ‘The Hills is high-end luxury and people are waiting to see if it’s a gimmick.’
‘We’d play with a five-year-old’s life as a gimmick?’
‘I’ve pretty much responded with that,’ Freya said. ‘Still, given that it was such a risky procedure, had it not paid off some people are asking if that would have been it for your foray into charitable work.’
‘Well, they don’t know me,’ James said. ‘Still, hopefully not every case will be as complicated. Maria has given her consent to Paulo being photographed, if you could get onto that now.’
‘Sure. Will you be in one of the photos?’
‘He’s not my patient.’
‘No, but I’m not going to get Zack to agree. I am working on another angle for him, though. I’m trying to get in touch with an older patient of his—perhaps he’ll agree to that—but for now we’ll just make it about what’s so far been achieved and that’s thanks to The Hills partnering with Bright Hope.’
Yes, Freya was tense.
In the absence of Zack, the best photo would be both Mila and James with Paulo, but Freya wasn’t game to suggest that!
Things weren’t great between them and she guessed now wasn’t the time to be asking James about her starting to see her own clients, so instead they finished things up.
‘Freya?’ James said as she folded up her laptop.
‘Yes?’
‘I’m still angry.’
‘I get that,’ Freya snapped, ‘but surely you can see that both sides benefit and I happen to care about both sides.’
‘I’m not discussing that now,’ James said. ‘I’m just saying that, even though I’m angry, I’m still your brother and if there’s a problem...’
