of blonde hair above her panty line and he could see a bit through the lace too.
And he did not want to give her this needle. He could hear her gulping and soft whimpers and feel her breath on his cheek, and he did not want to do it.
But he’d signed up for the gig so he swabbed her skin and though he hesitated over her stomach, he finally stuck the needle in.
‘There,’ he said. ‘You’re done.’
Ethan rubbed her stomach and then she took over. His hand did not linger, he just wanted this over and done, wanted out and home. Maybe tonight he’d call Kelly, get this Penny fantasy out of his head once and for all.
Then he saw the lust in her eyes and her lips were moving towards his and he jerked his head backwards. ‘Penny!’ he warned.
She screwed her eyes closed at his rejection. She’d have to resign, it was all just so unlike her. ‘I’m so sorry, Ethan. I think it’s the drugs, it’s like I’m on heat.’
He’d embarrassed her, Ethan knew that, which he’d never wanted to do. She had no need to be embarrassed. He wanted her too, so he tried to soften things, except he was rock hard. ‘I just don’t want to start something with someone who’s trying for a baby.’
‘I know. I get that completely. I’m never like this …’ She attempted her excuses again as he dropped the needle into the dish behind her. ‘It’s the drugs.’
‘It’s not the drugs, Penny,’ Ethan said, because he wasn’t taking any, but hormones were certainly raging and he stopped fighting it then, his mouth coming down on hers the way it had wanted to last night.
She almost came just at the pressure of his mouth as her stomach hollowed with lust. It wasn’t a brief kiss, it wasn’t unsure and whatever the opposite of tentative was should be called Ethan, because his tongue was deliciously crude, his unshaven jaw surely shredding her skin. Penny was no saint either. Her hands were in his hair, her scantily clad body pressing into him, feeling his fierce erection, and he pulled away just a little.
‘Penny …’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know this is going nowhere.’
‘You understand?’
‘Of course.’ She was in her office, with her dress undone, and it was all so inappropriate, especially for someone like Penny, so much so that she fought an incredible urge to laugh. Then she stopped fighting and laughed a little bit. ‘If you knew me, you’d know that it is the drugs. I’m going to be so embarrassed later.’
‘Why?’ He smiled down. ‘It’s just a kiss,’ Ethan said, ‘a one-off.’
‘An anomaly,’ Penny said. ‘Never to be repeated or mentioned again. As soon as you walk out the door we’re done.’
‘I’m not out the door yet.’
She was more than happy with the ground rules, just for the bliss of the return of his mouth.
It was just a kiss but it was a kiss with a secret. His fingers were working her nipples through the silk of her cami till she moaned in his mouth and then he slipped his hand up the cami so that skin could meet skin. He worked them a little more firmly. Normally she loathed that, hated the beat of disappointment when they found out that she really was quite flat-chested, but it just didn’t matter right now. If anything he was even more turned on because he pressed his erection hard into her, and she almost came undone—a ball of hot tension in his arms.
And it was still just a kiss, but the secret was deepening, his hand now sliding into her panties, and they would both never repeat or mention it again, but in this too he knew what to do. He cupped her for a moment before he began to stroke her with precision, and he couldn’t for a moment kiss and concentrate, so he let her mouth work his neck, and then he warned her to be careful because there must be no evidence, and as she removed her mouth, Penny lost her head.
She just gave in to the bliss and the scent of him, her hands around his neck to steady herself, her legs shaking as she fought the urge for him to lift her, to wrap her legs around his waist, yet she stood as she forgot how to breathe.
Ethan felt the rip of tension and her quiver and her thighs clasp around his hand and he stroked through her pulses as frantic need left her and leached into him, and he got back to kissing her, but with urgency. Pressing himself hard into her, Ethan’s hands moved to lift her, a fierce need to be inside her, but then sense reared its head and moved into his and he released her hips, because if he didn’t, he would have her over that desk.
And, no, Ethan told himself, that he did not want.
Except he did.
No wonder he didn’t like being responsible, Ethan thought, peeling them apart. ‘And now I’m handing you back to Jasmine.’ He looked down and smiled and she looked up and nodded, and there was that awkward bit, because she had come and he hadn’t, and she wanted more too, yet he was releasing her, about to head out there to where this had never happened.
‘Ethan …’ She wanted more of him, wanted more than a corner of chocolate before it was wrapped and returned to the fridge, and she didn’t care if they were in her office; right now, she simply didn’t care.
‘Penny.’ He gave her a small kiss to interrupt her invitation, and then he made it very clear where they were. ‘You go and concentrate on getting that baby.’
IT WAS ALL happening.
It was like a train she had boarded and she so badly wanted the baby at the end, but she’d lost something along the way. Ethan was a bit aloof and she was back to being frosty but she missed the Ethan she had glimpsed and, in turn, he wanted more of Penny, just not that much more.
Because Ethan knew what was happening now. He didn’t turn a hair when she asked if they could swap their days off at short notice.
‘Sure,’ was all he said.
He asked no questions, though he did look things up on the internet, knew that when she came back after her couple of days off, there was a high chance she would be as horny as hell.
But no orgasms allowed, Ethan thought with a black smile as he knocked on her office door to update her on one of her patients.
‘I feel like a delivery boy,’ he said, holding a card and chocolates.
She wished she had a delivery boy who looked like Ethan—she’d be ringing for pizza every night, Penny thought as he handed his wares over. ‘Heath’s parents asked me to give these to you.’
‘You should have buzzed me.’ Immediately Penny stood, but Ethan shook his head.
‘I went to, but they were getting upset so they asked if I could just hand these to you. I think they were a bit overwhelmed being back in Emergency.’
Penny nodded and sat back down.
‘I spoke to them for a bit,’ Ethan told her.
‘How
