Medical Romance November 2016 Books 1-6

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE GALA HAD some twinkle lights of its own. Everywhere she looked there were signs of Christmas. From the garland-draped refreshment tables to the large ornate tree in the corner, filled with presents. Those boxes, mostly filled with toys and hygiene supplies, would make their way to needy kids all over the globe. Max had brought a small gift too, placing it gently under the tree.

‘What is it?’

‘A couple of toy cars.’ He smiled at her. ‘Not very practical.’

She smiled back at him, touched by his thoughtfulness. ‘Some little boy is going to love it. Especially since it’s not practical.’

When Max had suggested staying at her parents’ house, she’d heard what she thought was a note of yearning in his voice. She’d been so tempted to just fall back into old patterns, but her parents might have started asking some harder questions if they’d stayed for the meal. Questions she didn’t have the answers to. Or maybe she simply hadn’t wanted to face those answers.

So here she was, with her ex-husband, at a party. And she had no idea what she was going to do about him.

No expectations. Wasn’t that what she’d said?

Yes. So she was simply going to enjoy this night. Max was right. She’d worked herself into the ground over the last couple of weeks. Didn’t she deserve to just let her hair down and have a little fun? He’d suggested using this time to celebrate Hope’s successful surgery, so she would. And maybe she’d even send a wish up to the universe that the baby have a long and happy life.

That was what she’d do. She’d worry about what happened tomorrow when it came.

But for now, they had the whole evening in front of them, and she intended to enjoy it.

‘Do you want something to drink?’ Max’s voice brought her back from wherever she’d gone.

‘I’d love a glass of red wine, if they have it.’

‘Wait right here. I’ll go and see.’

He went off in the direction of the bar where there was quite a large crowd waiting to get something. He’d be up there for a while. She took the opportunity to study her surroundings.

Were all of these people doctors who volunteered with the organisation? Surely not. Some of them must just be donors who were here to pledge their support. Or people like her who simply wanted to know more about what happened in the places those volunteers served.

A leader board hovered over the raised platform to the left. Annabelle assumed they would unveil an amount at the end of the evening. There were also wooden boxes at all of the doors where you could drop in either a pledge card or a one-time donation. She’d gone to do just that when they’d arrived at the building, but Max had stopped her. ‘I didn’t bring you here for that.’

‘I know you didn’t.’

She’d wanted to give. Annabelle had often thought of going on one of the medical missions with the organisation, but, once she and Max had separated, the idea had been put on a back burner. Maybe she should rethink that. She glanced at the bar again. He was still waiting so maybe she could find some more information in the meantime.

She took the opportunity to move over to one of the doors where the boxes were, along with some colourful brochures about the organisation. Taking her purse out of her clutch bag, she pulled out several notes and dropped them into the slot of the box in front of her, then she went to peruse the pamphlets.

‘What can I help you with?’ A voice to her right made her look up.

A man in a tuxedo stood there, hand outstretched. ‘I’m Dale Gerrard.’ He flashed a set of very white teeth. ‘I should warn you that I’m a recruiting agent for Doctors Without Borders. And I’m very good at my job. Are you in the medical profession?’

‘I’m a nurse.’ She accepted his handshake, although it felt weird doing so with her long white gloves in place.

The man epitomised the meaning of ‘tall, dark and handsome.’ With raven-black hair and tanned skin, he probably had more than his share of female admirers. He smiled again, giving her hand a slight squeeze before releasing it. ‘Have you been on a mission with us before?’

‘No. But I’ve thought about it in the past.’

‘Really?’ His level of interest went up a couple of notches. ‘What stopped you?’

And that was something she wasn’t about to tell him. It was too personal. And too painful. She glanced back at the line. Max was still over there. But just as she caught sight of him he suddenly turned, his eyes sweeping the crowd. Probably wondering where she’d gone.

And then he saw her. Just as the man next to her touched her arm to get her attention. Even from this distance she saw Max’s brows pull together.

She looked away in a hurry, trying to focus on what the person beside her was saying. He was trying to hand her a clipboard and a pen.

Taking it with fingers that suddenly shook, she tried to corral her emotions. So what if Max had seen her? Surely he didn’t think she’d stood around pining for him year after year.

What had started off as an enjoyable evening morphed into something different as a wave of irritation slithered through her innards. They weren’t together any more, so Max had no say in her life. None.

Lifting her chin, she focused again on the man next to her. ‘Yes, I would love to fill one out.’

‘Great. Why don’t you come behind the table with me and you can have a seat while you do?’

So Annabelle did just that, following Dale around the edge of the table where there was a line of seats, although no other representatives were there at the moment.

She sat down, suddenly glad to let her shaking legs have a break. Then she ducked her head and did her best to concentrate on the questions on the form, filling them in and hoping that Max didn’t storm over here and embarrass her.

He wouldn’t.

Her ex had never been a particularly jealous type. And there was no reason for him to start now. Especially since they were no longer a couple.

She was scribbling something in the box of the sixth question when a glass of red wine appeared in front of her. Swallowing hard, she glanced up. How had he got back that fast?

Sure enough, Max was standing in front of the table, taking a sip of whatever amber liquid was in his glass. ‘Are you thinking of going on a medical mission?’

‘I... Well, I...’

Dale, probably realising something was amiss, smoothly filled in the blanks. ‘Annabelle was filling out a form to get more information on what we do.’ He glided to his feet and offered his hand. ‘I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Dale—’

‘I remember you. You were in Sudan with me two years back.’

‘That’s right. I haven’t been back in a while. I’m doing recruiting work now.’

Max was gracious enough to smile at the man. ‘And you’re doing a great job of it, from what I can see.’

Looking from one to the other of them, Dale thanked him, and then said, ‘I take it you two know each other.’

‘You could say that.’ His smile grew. ‘Annabelle and I are married.’

‘You’re...’ All the colour leached out of the man’s face, leaving it a sickly grey colour. ‘I didn’t realise...’ He glanced down at the form she was filling out. She had indeed put Annabelle Ainsley. She’d thought about using her maiden name, like at the hospital, but Ainsley had just seemed to flow out of the pen of its own accord. She had no idea why, but right now she could clobber Max for making this poor man feel like an idiot. Except a tiny part of her wondered why he’d spoken up and claimed she was his wife. He could have just played it off with a laugh and said that, yes, they knew each other from long ago. It would have been the truth, and it might have saved everyone some embarrassment. And yet he hadn’t. He’d spoken the truth, without actually speaking it. Because they had not been husband and wife for almost three years.

Dale recovered, though. ‘Well, maybe you can go on the next mission together, then. And since you already know the ropes, I’ll let you help Annabelle finish filling out the form. I’m sure you can answer any questions as well as I can.’

With that, the man headed over to another person who was glancing at the literature, engaging him in conversation.

‘Why did you do that?’ She peered up at him.

‘He’s a flirt. I was trying to save you from being hit on.’

‘Maybe I wanted to be hit on.’ That was unfair. She didn’t want to be. But she also didn’t want Max taking it upon himself to be her rescuer when he hadn’t been in her life for almost three years.

His gaze hardened. ‘Did you?’

And it now came down to telling the truth. Or lying just to get back at him. ‘No. But I could have handled it on my own.’

‘I’m sorry, then.’

Annabelle let her emotions cool down. No harm done. And maybe he really had been trying to keep her from landing in an awkward situation. ‘It’s okay. And thank you for the wine.’ She picked up the glass and took a sip.

‘Did you really want to fill out a form?’

‘I did. I’ve thought about volunteering in the past, but it never worked out.’

Max came around the table and dropped into the chair that Dale had vacated. ‘I remembered us talking about it years ago. I thought you only said that because it was something I wanted to do.’

‘It’s been in the back of my mind for a while. I just never got around to doing anything about it.’

The sleeve of his tuxedo brushed against her upper arm as he leaned over to see what she’d filled out so far, his warm masculine scent clinging to her senses in a way that no one else’s ever had. If Max had been worried about Dale, he needn’t have. She had no interest in the other man. While she could recognise that the recruiter was good-looking and charming, she’d felt no spark of attraction.

In fact, those sparks—as Max had called them—had been few and far between. And they’d never been strong enough to make her want to be with someone else. Not while there was still a piece of paper that had gone unsigned for far too long.

Maybe it was time to confront the issue. ‘Do you want to sign the divorce papers? Is that why I’m here?’

His gaze darkened, lips thinning slightly. ‘I brought you here so you could see what I’ve been doing with myself for the past three years. If I remember right, you were the one who expressed an interest.’

The soft anger in his voice made her fingers clench on the pen. Okay, so maybe it had been rude to come out and ask, but the subject was like the elephant in the room that no one wanted to talk about.

And evidently, Max still didn’t want to talk about it. Something in her heart became lighter, though, at the words. So he wasn’t any more anxious than she was to finally close the chapter on their failed relationship.

But why?

Did she really want to sit here and dissect all the possible reasons? Or was she simply going to take another sip of wine and go back to filling out the papers? She lifted the glass to her lips.

A few seconds went by, and then a warm hand touched her arm. ‘Hey. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to come here alone, and you were the person I chose to bring. Can’t that be enough?’

Yes. It could.

She drew in a deep breath and let it out in a whisper of sound. ‘I’m sorry. And I wanted to come too. So yes, let’s just leave it at that for now, shall we?’

His fingers moved slowly down her arm, along her glove, until his hand covered hers on the table. ‘Then as soon as you’re finished with that form, will you dance with me?’

Letting her fingers circle his for a brief second, she lifted them with a nod. ‘Yes. I’d love to.’

* * *

Max’s hand slid around her waist and swung her around the room for a second time, the music pulling him into a world where nothing else existed but her touch and the synchronised movements of their bodies as they danced together. It had been ages since he’d held her like this.

It felt good and right, and he wasn’t exactly sure why. What he did know was that he didn’t want this night to end any time soon.

Maybe it didn’t have to.

Annabelle had said she didn’t want any expectations or any preconceived ideas.

Had she meant that she didn’t want the past to stand in the way of them being together tonight? He had no idea. But if she was willing to just take tonight as it came, then maybe he should be okay with doing the same.

And with her cheek pressed against his left shoulder, he wasn’t in a hurry to do anything to change the situation.

He’d been an idiot about Dale being there with her at the table. But the man—a general physician—had somehow charmed his way into more than one bed when they’d served on the medical mission in Sudan that year. The women hadn’t complained, but back then Max had been too raw from his own heartache to take kindly to someone jumping from one person to the next.

He’d fielded some veiled invitations of his own from female volunteers, but he hadn’t taken any of them up on their offers. In reality, he hadn’t wanted anyone. The sting of rejection when Anna had asked him to leave had penetrated deep, leaving no room for anything else but work. In reality, he’d been happy to be alone. It was a condition he was well acquainted with.

And something he didn’t want to think about right now.

‘Are you okay?’ He murmured the words into her hair, breathing deeply and wondering what the hell he was playing at.

‘Mmm.’

It wasn’t really an answer, but the sound made something come alive in his gut. How long had they been here, anyway?

Not that he wanted to look at his watch. In fact, he didn’t want to leave at all. But they couldn’t stay here all night, and once they left...

It was over.

‘Anna?’

‘Yes?’

He paused, trying to figure out what he wanted. ‘Are you still okay with spending the night in London?’

Her feet stopped moving for a second. ‘Yes. I can stay with my folks if you don’t want me at the flat, although I didn’t ask Mum if she had room.’

‘We can share the flat. I just wasn’t sure if you’d decided you wanted to get back to Cheltenham—’

‘No. As long as we can check on Hope at some point, I have no plans until my shift starts midday tomorrow.’ She eased back to look into his face. ‘Unless you’ve changed your mind.’

Not hardly.

But he should have told her he had. Because holding her brought back memories of dancing with her other times, when life was simpler and all that mattered was their love for each other. Seeing that picture on the wall at Anna’s parents’ house had made all those feelings come back in a rush. He’d been having trouble tamping them down again, but he’d better work out how.

Because, as of now, he and Anna were going to be sharing their flat one last night.

And the memories and feelings that haunted that place were a thousand times more powerful than anything he might have felt as he’d looked at that wall of pictures. His heart thudded heavy in his chest as the music changed, the singer they’d hired shifting to a lower octave, his voice throaty with desire. The mood in the place changed along with it, dancers beginning to hold each other a little closer.

Right on cue, the arms around his neck tightened just a hair, bringing his face closer to hers. And suddenly all he wanted to do was kiss her.

‘Anna...’

Her eyes slowly came up and focused on his. He saw the exact same longing in them that he felt in his gut. Tired to hell of fighting what he’d been wanting to do for days, Max lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers.

* * *

Nothing was fast enough.

Annabelle’s body couldn’t keep up with the ricochet of emotions as Max spun her back into his arms the second they were inside the lift at their old flat, heading towards the fourth floor. Thank heavens no one else was in the compartment, because it felt as if she were on fire, and the only one who could quench the blaze was having none of it. He was keeping the flames fanned to inferno-like proportions.

Her gloved fingers gripped the expensive fabric of his tuxedo jacket as she tried desperately to return kiss for kiss...to respond to his murmured words. In the end, all she could do was hang on and pray they reached the flat before the dam totally broke and the camera caught them doing something that could get them arrested.

Ping! Ping!

Finally. The soft sound signalled they had arrived at their destination. The only thing left was to... The doors opened.

‘Max.’ His name came out as half chuckle, half moan as she tried to tug him to the side. ‘We need to get off.’

His fingers tunnelled into her hair, his lips nibbling on the line of her jaw and making her shiver with need. ‘And if I don’t want to move out of the lift?’

‘Then...ooh!...then we’re going to be stuck riding it for the rest of the night.’

‘Bloody hell.’ His pained smile put paid to his words, but he stuck a hand between the doors just as they were getting ready to close. ‘The image of you “riding it for the rest of the night...”’

They slid into the foyer, a ring of doors lining the fourth floor. She tried to call to mind the number of their flat, but, with her head this fuzzy with need, she was having trouble. ‘I don’t—’

‘Four-oh-three.’

Gripping her hand as if afraid she might try to flee before they made it inside, he came up with a set of keys from one of the pockets of his trousers.

No way. She wasn’t about to run.

Somehow Max got the key fitted into the lock and turned it. They practically fell inside the door.

Home!

No, not home. But close enough.

Dumping the keys onto the marble table in the foyer, he navigated through a hallway, switching lights on as he went, towing her behind him. She glanced around as they went through the flat.

It was immaculate. He’d said that Suzanne came once a month to clean. Annabelle didn’t even want to think about how much money that added up to over the course of the last couple of years.

The place looked just as she’d left it. Her mum had told her to take the furniture with her to her new flat, but Annabelle hadn’t wanted anything to do with the sad remains of their marriage. So she’d just left it all for Max to dispose of. It looked as if he hadn’t wanted to be left in charge of that task any more than she had.

Down the hallway, past a bathroom and two guest bedrooms, until they arrived at their old room. Three years later, the brown silk spread still adorned the bed, looking brand-new. It could have been a mausoleum preserving a slice of her life that had been both happy and filled with anguish.

‘I can’t believe it’s all still here.’

That seemed to stop Max for a moment. He looked around as if seeing it all for the first time. ‘I haven’t been here in ages. I always meant to change things, but...’

He hadn’t been able to any more than she had.

‘Let’s not think about that right now.’ She wrapped her arms around his waist, unwilling to ruin what had been building between them ever since they’d come face to face in the corridors of Teddy’s. It seemed as if every tick of the clock had been leading to this.

Whatever ‘this’ was.

He cupped her face in his hands. ‘Let’s not,’ he agreed before moving in to kiss her once more.

Again and again, his lips touched hers until the fire was back and this time there was nothing to hold them back.

Annabelle pushed his tuxedo jacket from his shoulders, moving to catch it when it started to drop to the floor.

‘Leave it.’ His knuckles dragged up the length of her neck, smoothing along the line of her jaw until he reached her ear. He toyed with one of her chandelier earrings, making it swing on her lobe in a way that made her shudder. He’d always known exactly how to make her melt like a pot of jelly that had been exposed to a heat source.

And he was the ultimate heat source, his body generating temperatures that threatened to scorch her until nothing was left but smouldering embers.

And she was fine with that.

He reached around and found the zipper on her dress—began edging it downward.

‘Wait!’

She wasn’t sure quite why she said that word, other than the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra under the gown, and if he got her dress off—well, she would be standing there in only her underwear while Max was almost fully clothed.

He evidently misunderstood because he went very still. Too still.

‘Max?’

‘Do you want me to stop?’ He leaned back to look at her face.

‘Yes. I mean no.’ She shook her head, trying to form her words in a way that wouldn’t sound completely off the wall. ‘I’m not wearing...um...anything under this. I was hoping to even up the odds a little bit first.’

‘You’re not wearing anything?’ He took a step back and dragged a hand through his hair. ‘I am very glad I didn’t know that while we were out on the dance floor. Or driving over here. Or in the lift.’

‘I’m not totally naked. There was just no way to wear a bra with the back of the dress the way it is.’

He moved in again, his fingers trailing up the length of her spine and then walking back down it. ‘Very glad I didn’t know that, either. But now that I do...’ His fingers again reached for the zipper and tugged it down, while Annabelle scrambled to hold up the front of her dress.

‘What happened to evening up the odds?’

‘I kind of like the odds the way they are.’

‘You mean when they’re in your favour?’

Max grinned at her but took a step back and began undoing the knot of his bow tie. ‘You want even? You’ve got it.’

Not fair!

‘But I wanted to do that.’

‘It’s much safer this way.’ He pulled the tie through the starched white collar of his shirt and let it drop on top of his jacket.

‘Safer for whom?’

‘For me. And for you.’ His fingers went to the first button of the shirt.

This time she groaned. Then a thought came to her. He’d done this on purpose. If she was holding up the front of her dress, she wouldn’t be able to touch him, which meant...

That the thought of her doing so was making him as crazy as he was making her.

Well, two can play at that game, Max Ainsley!

‘Oh, Max...’ She let his name play over her tongue.

His hands stopped where they were, his brows coming together.

With what she hoped was a saucy smile, she let go of her dress, glad when it whispered down her body and pooled at her feet, instead of just staying put and forcing her to awkwardly push it to the ground.

His reaction was more than worth it. A blast of profanity-laced air hissed from his mouth as he stood there and stared. And when she started to move a step forward, he lurched backwards.

Annabelle was glad she’d decided to wear her laciest underwear ever, the red matching her dress to a tee. They rode high up on her hips and, while not quite a thong, they’d been advertised as Brazilian cut, which meant there was only a narrow band of fabric that covered her behind.

She peeled one of her gloves off in a long smooth move, and then the other, letting each of them land on top of her dress. ‘Now the odds are even, don’t you think?’ She moved forward again, and this time Max stayed put. Maybe he was just incapable of thought right now, which had been her exact intent. She pressed her palms against his chest, gratified to feel the pounding of his heart beneath her touch. ‘Let me help you with those buttons, since you seem to be having trouble.’

He still didn’t say anything as she somehow managed to flip open one white button after another, until she reached the one at the top of his cummerbund. Pressing herself against his chest and gratified to hear yet another gust of air above her head, she reached around him to find the fastening at the back that held the wide satin band in place. It too hit the floor.

Evidently, Max had had all he could take, because his hands wrapped around her upper arms and eased her away from him. ‘You’re a witch, you know that?’

‘Mmm-hmm. Be careful, or I might cast an evil spell on you.’

‘A spell? Yes. I think you already have.’ He swooped her up into his arms and dumped her in the middle of the bed, the brown silk rippling out from her landing spot. ‘Although whether it’s evil or not is yet to be seen.’