even his heart had stopped beating for several timeless seconds as he savoured the softness of her mouth against his for the first time.
‘Daniel?’ she whispered huskily, and while he was utterly amazed that she hadn’t immediately broken the contact between them, he was intimately aware that he could taste the salt of her tears.
The last thing he wanted was to draw back, afraid of what he would see in her eyes. Shock? Rejection? Or worse, disgust if she thought he was taking advantage of her emotional state?
In the end it was Jenny who moved just the few inches that would allow them to see each other’s expressions, and the wide-eyed wonder on her face as her gaze flicked from his eyes to his mouth and back again jolted his heart into double time.
‘Jenny?’ It sounded more like a growl than a question and he wasn’t really sure what he was trying to ask her, but to his everlasting relief she seemed to take it as an invitation.
‘Please,’ she whispered as she angled her head and leant forwards just far enough to stroke her lips over his … once … twice. ‘Please, Daniel,’ she said again as she wreathed her arms around his neck, this time pressing not only her lips against his but the whole of her body, too. ‘Please, Daniel. I need you,’ she begged breathlessly before she plunged them both headlong into the kind of kiss he’d been dreaming of ever since he’d met the tantalising woman … only better.
CHAPTER THREE
DANIEL woke to find Jenny still in his arms and an unexpected image suddenly sprang into his mind.
He’d been sent to stay with his grandfather one summer, and every morning he’d been woken by the elderly man’s favourite cockerel that used to fly to the top of a big wooden gatepost and crow.
Now, for the first time in his life, Daniel knew exactly how Ruben the Rhode Island Red rooster had felt. After the night he and Jenny had just spent together, he almost believed he could leap to the top of the roof to shout to the world how good he was feeling.
Except …
Except there was a very honest part of him that was kicking himself for his loss of control. Guilt was telling him that he should have been stronger when Jenny had been falling apart; that he should have been able to comfort her without succumbing to the desire that had been building in him ever since he’d met her.
And while he was relishing the fact that he had this precious time with her in his arms, he was dreading the moment when she woke, afraid he would see the same expression in her eyes that she’d had when she’d spoken about Colin’s attempt to take advantage of her.
It was easy to push that thought to the back of his mind when he was looking down at her curled up trustingly at his side, her head nestled into his shoulder and her forehead against the curve of his neck. He couldn’t think of a more arousing way to wake up than with the warmth of her breath soughing over his chest, ruffling and teasing the hairs and tightening his nipples into hard points that were begging for more of her attention.
Even then, with the evidence all around him, the tumbled bedding, the scattered clothing, the musky, totally arousing scent that was partly his and partly hers … he still could hardly believe that it had really happened.
It wasn’t simply the fact that it had happened at all that had him reeling, either; it was the sheer scale of it that had been enough to blow his mind for the next millennium or so.
That hadn’t been the Jenny he had thought he was coming to know at the hospital. She was the calm, caring, concerned professional who could be counted on to go the extra mile for every one of their patients with sympathy and tact. It hadn’t been the off-duty Jenny, either; the cheerful, friendly young woman with a welcoming smile for everyone even while surrounded by an indefinable air that sometimes came across almost as naïveté.
No, the Jenny he’d discovered last night had been a complete revelation; an unbelievably arousing combination of uncertainty and boldness; of alternating shyness and daring that had rendered him speechless and breathless and utterly captivated.
Making love with her had been more—much more—than he’d ever imagined, and it was something he’d be delighted to repeat on a daily basis far beyond the foreseeable future but.
He drew in a controlled breath as he fought down a feeling of dread.
Yes, it had been, without exception, the most spectacular night of his life, and hers, too, if her eager reaction was anything to go by, but would he still be basking in this contented glow thinking the night’s pleasure had been worth it if it meant he’d lost her friendship?
He’d already admitted to himself the fact that there was little chance of anything permanent between them, but he’d hoped that at least in the time they spent together they could be friends as well as colleagues. Had he ruined that, now?
A glance at the alarm clock told him that it was still early. Too early to get ready for work. In fact, it was early enough for a leisurely repeat session that he was craving more with every second, even though he knew he couldn’t have it.
He should leave the bed, now. Leave her in the hopes that she wouldn’t be too angry that he’d taken advantage of her distress.
His mobile phone suddenly buzzed into life, the vibrate function making it rattle noisily on the chest of drawers beside the bed.
Daniel was glad that at least he’d had the presence of mind to switch off the noisy ring tone. Now all he had to do was silence the wretched thing quickly enough that it didn’t wake the sleeping woman in his arms. It was going to take a while longer before he’d be ready to face her.
But before he could untangle an arm to reach for the infernal gadget, her eyes flicked open, their hazel irises glowing with golden fire as they gazed straight up into his.
The phone buzzed again and she glanced fleetingly at it before her eyes returned to his, the slumberous expression in them almost making him groan aloud as his body started to respond.
‘Are you going to answer that?’ she prompted with a hint of a grin. ‘It doesn’t sound as if they’re going to give up.’
The impish curve of lips that had met his own time and time again during the night was almost enough to make him forget his name, but there was no way he could ignore his phone when there were vulnerable patients relying on him.
‘Car—’ he began then had to clear his throat before he could continue, the husky tone far more suited to the bedroom than his professional persona. ‘Carterton,’ he announced crisply on his second attempt, mentally switching gears. The last thing he needed to be thinking about was bedrooms when he was taking a call from the hospital.
‘Hello. I’m sorry to disturb you so early, Dr Carterton, but you wouldn’t happen to know where Jenny Barber might be?’
‘What?’ He could feel the unexpected heat of a blush searing up his throat and into his face, hardly able to believe that the woman in question was still curled sleepily against him as if she was totally unaware that the two of them were wrapped around each other, completely naked.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ the voice on the other end of the line exclaimed. ‘That must have come out of left field, especially this early in the morning. And I didn’t even tell you who I am … and I probably woke you up, too. I’m so
