Playboy On Her Christmas List

Or had she been inviting him?

Hmm.

Holly still didn’t know where this might lead, but it was just so nice to be out in the real world with him and without buzzers and patients and others around. And it was definitely nice to squeeze in five minutes’ pause after work before they headed into the party.

‘Do you get on with your parents?’ he asked.

‘Very much so.’

‘They live...?’ Daniel frowned. He wasn’t sure, though he knew that it was some distance that she often travelled to get home.

‘Up north,’ Holly said, and then told him the village where her family lived.

‘So how come you’re in London?’

‘Because I get on so well with my family.’ Holly smiled. ‘I trained up there and it was all too easy to just live at home... I knew I needed a change.’

‘Yet you’re still home a lot?’

‘My mum hasn’t been very well.’ Holly said, and decided the night had already been grim enough without going further into it. ‘What about you? Are your family in London?’

She didn’t know him at all, Daniel realised.

Holly could have no idea just how refreshing that was. Even before he had started medicine there had been a constant stream of ‘Marcus Chandler’s son’. His father had been head boy at the boarding school Daniel had attended and his record was just as impressive at med school and beyond. Even Kay had made a few comments and had asked if he was any relation to the esteemed Professor Chandler.

Holly had no idea as to that side of his life.

‘Yes.’ Daniel answered the question as to whether his family was in London very simply.

‘Do you get on?’

‘Nope,’ Daniel said.

‘Why?’

‘Because my father is an arrogant git,’ he said, and then looked at her Scotch. ‘Given that I’m on soda water tonight, I shan’t be sharing.’

Holly laughed. ‘What about your mother?’

‘She’s dead.’

Well, that wiped the smile from her face.

‘He married again. I’ve got a sister...’

Daniel refused to call Maddie a half-sister.

‘Do you get on with her?’

‘I do when I see her. And that reminds me, I must get her a Christmas present before I head off.’

Holly’s phone buzzed, indicating an incoming text, and she glanced down and saw that it was Anna, asking where they had disappeared to.

‘Has our absence been noted?’ Daniel asked.

‘It has.’

The pleasant interlude was over but it had been nice, Holly thought as she drained her drink and then stood. It had been a tiny but very welcome pause before she pushed out a smile and faced the masses.

He knew it was pointless suggesting that they didn’t go through.

Holly took her Christmas party as seriously as her decorations.

‘Time to be positive...’ Holly said, though she didn’t really feel it. ‘It is Christmas and if ever there was a time for miracles...’

‘Please,’ Daniel scorned, pouring a bucket of iced water on that. ‘There’s no such thing as Christmas miracles.’

‘Are you always so negative?’ Holly asked as they headed towards the function room.

‘Always.’

The doors swung open and there were a few shouts of ‘Holly!’ but there were a lot more shouts of Daniel’s name! Clearly a lot of women were very glad to see him.

Anna, of course, leapt to his side and handed him an elaborate-looking cocktail.

‘I’m driving,’ he pointed out again.

‘It a virgin.’ Anna smiled. ‘I had it prepared just for you.’

Oh, please. Holly thought she might spit at the suggestive tone, but she refused to be rattled by Anna. Instead, she put on her smile and chatted with friends.

It was a difficult night. Everyone wanted first-hand information and Holly knew that wasn’t her place to give it. It was up to Nora what she wanted to share and for now Nora wanted upbeat and so that’s what Holly did her best to be, but by ten she was done.

She looked over and Anna and Daniel were locked in conversation.

Or rather Anna was conversing and Daniel was locked, given the slight eye roll that he gave her.

Holly smiled but it was a regretful one because she simply didn’t know how to run wild. How to go over there and be all sparkling and witty and flirt...

Except, as it turned out, she didn’t have to go over there to flirt. Holly quickly realised that standing in the middle of the room and blatantly staring at the object of your desire seemed to work rather well too!

Yikes.

She hadn’t meant that!

Holly watched as he said something to Anna and Holly realised he was excusing himself and about to make his way over.

It was time for a quick getaway.

‘You’re not going already?’ Trevor, one of the male nurses, asked.

‘I am.’ Holly kept up that smile. ‘I’m hitting the shops tomorrow and then...’ She didn’t finish. An absolute novice in the field of sexual adventure, she found her coat and headed outside.

‘Leaving?’

She turned and there was Daniel.

‘Yes.’

‘Do you want a lift?’

‘I’ve just called for a taxi,’ Holly lied.

‘It’s no problem.’

‘I live miles away.’

‘I’ll save you the fare, then.’

‘No, thanks.’

Why? Holly asked herself. Why was she saying no? Because she couldn’t say no to him.

‘Come on.’

He jangled his keys and Holly nodded. Really, it was just a colleague giving her a lift home and it would be bliss not to have to make small talk with a taxi driver or sit in the back as he chatted on his phone.

Liar, liar.

They got in his car, and this time she was in the front.

That’s better, both thought but didn’t say.

‘Address?’ he asked, and she gave it to him.

Daniel typed it into his phone and that took care of that, and then he started the engine.

‘Head north,’ his phone said.

‘I hate that,’ Daniel admitted. ‘I have no idea which way north is. I need a compass in the middle of my steering wheel.’

‘She means turn left,’ Holly said.

‘Thank you.’

‘Are you all packed?’ Holly made a feeble attempt at small talk and he nodded.

‘Sort of. I’m trying to rent out my flat. Apparently December isn’t an ideal time to find tenants.’

‘So it that why your plans keep changing?’

‘In part.’

‘Well, you might just as well stick around for Christmas...’

‘I doubt it. I might even fly out then, it’s just another day.’

‘You don’t mean that.’

‘I do,’ Daniel said, and he gave her a smile. ‘We’re polar opposites.’ And then he stared ahead at the road and it did not need stating—that opposites attracted.

Both already knew.

CHAPTER THREE

SHE SHOULD HAVE said goodbye to him back at the pub.

Then there might have been a hope that, should they meet up in the future, all they would be were ex-colleagues who had flirted a little on occasion.

Back at the pub she could have wished him well for his trip and, yes, of course she could do the same when he pulled up at her flat.

Holly didn’t want to, though.

How did it even work? Holly thought. She was way too far out of her comfort zone. Did she offer him a drink, or did she leave it to him to suggest coming in?

And what about the morning?

Holly wished that she didn’t overthink things, she wished she could be more like Anna and just worry about the day, or rather the night, at hand.

She wanted the traffic lights to turn red, for a pause, to turn and tell him that the flirty version of Holly he had met at times wasn’t the real one. That the woman who had laughed at the suggestive tone in his voice when he’d told her she’d be in discreet hands, did not, prior to his arrival on her part of the planet, exist.

Yet the lights all stayed green and afforded swift passage.

And anyway, Daniel knew all that.

While he was driving he was trying to convince himself that this wasn’t any different from what he was used to and that Holly could more than handle a hook-up. And he was also trying to convince himself that he didn’t care in the way he actually did.

He couldn’t afford to care. It wasn’t an emotion he sought, and he was leaving after all.

His phone told him that the destination was on his left and he slid the car into a parking space outside her flat and his conscience won—Daniel didn’t want to risk hurting her.

‘You’d better go in,’ Daniel said.

And so this was it.

‘Thanks for the lift.’

‘No problem.’

‘It’s been nice working with you,’ Holly said. ‘I’m going to miss your sulking face.’

‘I’ll miss your smiling one.’

And this really was it.

There was a charge in the air that should signal thunder but instead Daniel turned and looked ahead.

Holly reached to open the door and he did nothing to halt her so she got out.

They were both congratulating themselves on how adult and sensible they had been.

Now she could breathe, except, despite the cool and the drizzle, the night felt as humid as if it was summer.

Holly looked at the path to her door and she was six, maybe seven steps away from saving herself from a rather big mistake, except she wanted so badly to turn around and to follow desire rather than walk away.

Just once.

It was her choice as to what happened next, Holly knew.

Could she keep it light, without revealing how deeply she felt?

Daniel was just about to hit ‘Home’ as his destination when she tapped on the window.

‘What?’ he asked as it slid down. His voice was surly. He didn’t want to do this a second time, especially as now that she was bending down there was the pearly white of her breasts at eye level.

And she looked at him and, no, she would not be so cheesy as to ask him in for a drink and then somehow, whoops, they’d up in bed.

She wanted a kiss, Daniel knew, but he was also rather certain she wanted a whole lot more than that. Not just sex, but the part of himself he refused to give.

‘What?’ he said again, and then his face broke into a smile, as, very unexpectedly, Holly, sweet Holly, showed another side of her.

‘Are you going to make me invite you in?’

‘Yes.’

‘You’re not even going to try and persuade me with a kiss?’ Holly checked.

‘You want me or you don’t.’ Daniel shrugged. ‘There’s no question that I want you. But, Holly, do you get that—?’

She knew what was coming and she didn’t need the warning—he had made his position perfectly clear—so she interrupted him. ‘I don’t need the speech.’

She just needed this.

Holly had thought his hand was moving to open the door but instead it came out of the window and to her head and pulled her face down to his.

He kissed her hard, even though she was the one standing. The stubble of his unshaven jaw was rough on her face and his tongue was straight in.

He pulled her in tight so that her upper abdomen hurt from the pressure of the open window and it was a warning, she knew, of the passion to come.

Even now she could pull back and straighten, say goodnight and walk off, but Holly was through with being cautious.

In a second she would be falling through the open window for all the neighbours to see and sucked into the dark vacuum of his car.

Holly simply didn’t care.

Her bag dropped to the pavement and he then released her.

Holly stared back at him, breathless, her lipstick smeared across her face, and all it made him want to do was to kiss her again.

But this was a street.

Holly bent and retrieved her bag and then walked off towards her flat. There was a roaring sound in her ears and her heart seemed to be leaping up near her throat.

Daniel closed up the car and was soon following her to the flats.

She turned the key in the main door to the flats and clipped up the concrete steps.

She could hear his heavy footsteps coming up the steps behind her as she turned and Holly almost broke into a run.

Daniel actually did!

He had thought her cute, sweet and gorgeous these past months and had done all he could not to think of her outright as sexy.

Except she was, and seriously so.

Those heavy footsteps chasing her were thrilling and caught up with her just as she was getting her key into the door of her own flat. Holly was breathless with excitement and the rush and power of him grabbing for her almost toppled Holly as they burst in through the door.

The hall was in darkness; he could just make out some Christmas-tree lights in a room down the hall but there was no time to get to the lounge.

Daniel had no patience now.

Holly had never known anything like it. Never, in her almost twenty-nine years, had she had that simply-have-to-have-you feeling.

And Daniel had to have her.

Every obstacle he dealt with.

He hitched her lovely raven dress up.

Stockings?

No problem, he expertly removed them and then her knickers too.

And when he wanted a better view of her breasts he lowered her zipper at the back, just enough to free them.

Holly looked down at her exposed breasts, and then at her stockings and knickers lying on the hallway floor—she felt slutty and sexy. She liked it. So much so that she was pulling at his thin jumper just to reveal his stomach, and then running a hand up the heavy jeans-clad thighs, getting closer to the lovely bit in the middle. She dealt with the brass button deftly, though she broke a nail on the zipper, and then freed him. He was clearly as keen and eager as she, and Holly was so utterly ready for him she nearly forgot about condoms.

To Holly’s mind there was nothing sexy about condoms, but he changed that in an instant, for he pulled out his wallet, found one, tossed the wallet to the floor and tore the foil with his teeth.

‘Put it on,’ Daniel told her, and he started to squeeze and play with her breasts as she did just that.

She rolled it down slowly, which was quite a feat, given the way his fingers were exploring her, and she felt the jerk of impatience in her hand.

Then he said the two little words that tonight she was desperate to hear.

‘Get on.’

Gladly she did.

He bent his knees just enough that he could thrust into her and Holly’s shoulders hit the wall. She arched back at the consuming pleasure as he stabbed inside her.

Totally consumed and controlled by him, Holly was close to coming as Daniel lifted her legs even further; she wrapped them around his hips.

‘I’ve been wanting you all night.’ He told her as she wrapped her legs tighter, wiggling herself down further so he could push deeper. ‘I wanted you on sight.’

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