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The waiter arrived with their meals and once he’d left, Allegra said into the little silence that had fallen, ‘You never told me what your parents do for a living.’
Joel put his glass back on the table before answering. ‘My father is a teacher and my mother hasn’t worked outside the home since my brother and I were born.’
‘That must have been nice for you and your brother,’ she said, ‘having a full-time mum at home.’
‘It certainly had its advantages.’ He reached for his cutlery and asked, ‘What about your early childhood? Did your mother choose to work or stay at home?’
‘My mother wasn’t the stay-at-home type. My father did a lot of the child care in the early days, but I seem to remember a few child-care centres along the way.’
‘But you had a happy childhood?’
‘Of course. My parents were a bit “out there” at times, but I can’t remember ever being unhappy. Even when they went their separate ways, they did it so wonderfully well that I was the envy of all my friends for having such trendy, cool parents.’
Joel looked at her in silent envy. His childhood had been marked with tragedy, a tragedy relentless and ongoing. The last time he’d visited, just two days ago, his mother had aged and visibly shrunk even further, and his father’s face had become a mask of pain from their situation, each line more deeply etched, each shadow a darker curtain.
Allegra became aware of his silence and wondered if she was boring him. ‘I’m sorry …’ She pushed her glass out of her reach. ‘I tend to talk too much about myself when I drink wine.’
He gave her a lopsided smile. ‘Truth serum?’
‘Next I’ll be telling you all my innermost secrets.’
‘You seem to be pretty much an open book to me. You wear your heart on your sleeve, which is unusual in a medico. It usually gets hammered out of you at medical school.’
She lowered her gaze to the small flickering candle on the table, a small frown bringing her finely arched brows together for a moment. ‘Well I must have been absent that day at medical school.’
‘What happened?’
Allegra brought her eyes back to his, surprised yet again at the warmth she could see reflected there. ‘I lost my best friend during second year.’
‘An accident?’
She shook her head. ‘Suicide.’
‘I’m sorry. That must have been a tough time.’
‘It was … I blamed myself for not seeing the signs.’
‘Most people who know a suicide victim suffer the same guilt. Look at Mr Lowe today. I’m sure that’s why he’s unable to cope. He probably thinks it’s his fault.’
‘Yes … but in Julie’s case I should have known. I was her best friend. We’d shared everything since the first day we met during orientation week at university.’
‘You can’t always read people’s minds,’ he pointed out.
‘My mother would totally disagree with you,’ she said, trying to lighten the conversation. She gave him a little smile and added, ‘She insists she can infallibly detect what people are thinking just by looking deeply into their eyes.’
‘Oh, really?’ He didn’t bother disguising his scepticism but this time it was tempered with a smile. ‘And have you perhaps inherited this little gift?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t really put it to the test.’ She leaned forward to look into his eyes. ‘Let me see now … Hmm—you definitely have sleep on your mind. I can see you haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks if not months.’
‘Not bad,’ he said. ‘There might be something in this after all.’
She leaned closer to peer even more, her hair falling forward to brush the back of his hand where it rested on the table near his glass in a soft-as-air caress that sent a charge of electricity straight to his groin as her greener-than-green gaze meshed with his.
‘What do you see in my eyes now?’ he asked, his voice sounding a little rough around the edges.
Allegra looked deeply into his darker-than-night eyes, an unexpected pulse of desire beginning to beat a steady tattoo low and deep in her body. Her chest felt as if it had shrunk to half its size, the air she tried to breathe into her lungs catching on its way down. She moistened her lips, her skin lifting in awareness in a way that had never happened to her before. Her breasts felt full and heavy, her nipples puckering beneath her black lace bra as she felt the searing burn of his dark gaze as it held hers.
She sat back in her chair and tucked her hair behind her ear as she gave a little self-conscious laugh. ‘I’ve definitely had way too much wine to drink.’
‘The eyes are supposed to be the window to the soul,’ he said as he signalled to the waiter for the bill. ‘But what if you don’t have one?’
‘Everyone has a soul,’ she protested.
He gave her one of his cynical smiles. ‘Don’t go looking for one in me, Allegra, for you won’t find one. It died a long time ago.’
Allegra followed him out of the restaurant a short time later, her heart contracting painfully at the thought of what he had seen and experienced out in the field to have hardened him in such a way. She’d seen shadows of pain in his eyes that she knew no amount of sleep would ever erase. And she knew if he’d looked deeply into her own he would have found the very same shadows lurking there …
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘THANK you for dinner,’ Allegra said once he’d walked her to the door of her apartment block. ‘I had a good time. It was a nice restaurant. Not a pizza in sight.’
‘Aren’t you going to ask me in for coffee?’
‘I was going to but I wasn’t sure if you would take it the wrong way.’
‘I take it the same way you do—black.’
She gave him a quelling look. ‘I meant … well, you know what I meant.’
He smiled at her flustered expression and before he could stop himself lifted a finger to her cheek, trailing his knuckle over the creamy curve where a spot of heightened colour had pooled.
Allegra ran her tongue over her lips in a nervous gesture. ‘I’d better go in. It’s getting late and I’m on early and …’ She stopped when she saw the dark glitter in his eyes as they caught and held hers, her stomach hollowing in anticipation.
His head came down slowly, his warm breath brushing over her lips before he placed his mouth on hers in a soft, hardly touching kiss.
She looked up at him, her heart increasing its pace as he ran his tongue over his lips as if tasting her sweetness.
‘I probably shouldn’t have done that,’ he said.
She swallowed the restriction in her throat and croaked, ‘Why?’
‘Because now I know what it feels like, I want to do it again.’
‘Oh …’
‘It could cause all sorts of problems,’ he said, taking her by the shoulders and bringing her one tiny step closer, her breasts brushing against his chest.
‘You think so?’ she asked, leaning into his hardness instinctively.
‘I know so.’
‘Too bad …’
He held her gaze for several pulsing seconds. ‘The gossip would be unbearable.’
‘Totally …’
‘And then there’s the problem of shifts.’
‘Yes …’ She moistened her lips again. ‘That’s always a downside.’
‘And then there’s the issue of your place or mine.’
‘Tricky.’
He smiled and tipped up her chin. ‘You are one hell of a temptation, Allegra Tallis, but I’m going to be the strong one here and step back before we drift into dangerous territory.’
‘OK …’ She swallowed again as she felt the hard ridge of his growing erection against her. ‘That would be wise, I guess.’
‘Very wise.’
A full thirty seconds passed.
‘So … so why aren’t you doing it?’ she asked.
‘Doing what?’
‘Stepping back,’ she said. ‘You said you were going to be the strong one and step back.’
‘You’re right,’ he said, his gaze dipping to her mouth. ‘Now would be a good time.’
‘A very good time …’
Her stomach did a complete somersault as his hands slid down the length of her bare arms to encircle her wrists.
‘Why don’t we do it on the count of three?’ he suggested, after another heart-stopping pause.
Allegra’s fingers curled around the length and strength of his. ‘Right … let’s do that. On the count of three.’ She took a breath and began the countdown, ‘One …’
‘Two …’ he said, and released her wrists to place his hands on her hips.
Another deep throb of silence passed. Allegra knew it was her turn to say the last number but somehow she couldn’t get the one word past the trembling shield of her lips. Her gaze locked with his as the time beat on, his hands on her hips feeling like a slow burn as his heat passed from his body to hers.
‘Aren’t you going to say it?’ he asked, his breath caressing the surface of her mouth as his head came inexorably closer.
‘I was getting to it …’
She felt the imprint of his lazy smile on her lips before he gradually increased the pressure, each slow drugging movement of his mouth on hers sending her senses into overload. The sexual charge of his tongue probing for entry made her legs buckle with instant uncontrollable need and she pressed herself against him, relishing in the feel of his body’s instant reaction to hers. She wasn’t without experience but never had she felt the energy and force of such fierce attraction before. It was like her body had been storing up its need for this moment when his mouth scorched its timeless message on hers.
Her tongue played with his boldly, each movement inciting her desire to a higher level, moving even further out of her control. Her mind swam with images of how they would be together, his strong leanly muscled body pinning her beneath him.
A passing car’s headlights brought her back to earth with a shaft of exposing light that she knew would do her no credit with her overly conservative neighbours.
She eased her mouth away from his and said somewhat breathlessly, ‘Th-three.’
Joel’s hands moved from her hips, his wry smile sending another wave of longing through her. ‘There, I knew you could do it.’
‘It was a tough call but I guess someone has to do it.’
‘Yes,’ he said, brushing the curve of her cheek once more. ‘Someone does.’
‘So …’ She tried to sound casually unaffected, as if she kissed handsome, full-blooded men on her doorstep all the time. ‘I guess I’ll see you at work tomorrow.’
‘Yes, I guess you will.’
‘‘Night …’
‘Goodnight, Allegra. I really enjoyed this evening. You’re surprisingly good company.’
‘Better than an internet date?’
‘Way better,’ he said, staring again at her mouth.
‘Um … this is the bit where you go down those steps and get in your car and drive home,’ she said, pointing to where his car was. ‘Do you think you can manage that?’
‘I’m working myself up to it.’
She couldn’t help laughing. ‘You have definitely graduated with honours from the school of irresistible charm.’
He bent his head and pressed a soft kiss to the side of her mouth. ‘So have you, Dr Tallis.’ He gave her cheek one last gentle flick with his finger and stepped away, walking with long strides towards his car.
‘Have a good sleep,’ she called out, as he got in his car.
He turned his head to lock gazes with her. ‘Are you joking?’
‘No … not really …’
He lifted his hand in a wave and with a deep throaty roar of the engine drove off and disappeared around the corner.
Joel hadn’t expected to sleep but when the phone rang beside his bed at three a.m. he realised he’d been in a deep dreamless slumber that took some effort on his part to come out of. He reached blindly for the phone and answered it groggily, ‘Joel Addison.’
‘Dr Addison, it’s Brian Willis, I’m on night shift for the unit. We’ve got one hell of a problem here. I thought I should tell you about it now instead of when you come in the morning.’
Joel rubbed his face and sat up. ‘What problem? What’s going on?’
‘It’s Mrs Lowe,’ Brian said. ‘Her ventilator has been tampered with and she had a respiratory arrest.’
‘What?’ Joel leapt off the bed, his pulse accelerating. ‘What the hell do you mean, her ventilator was interfered with? Interfered with by whom? Is she all right?’
