Drew sat up, and Phoenix jumped down off the sofa. Stretching, he got to his feet. ‘Anything I can get for you? Before I tear off your clothes...?’
Tearing off her clothes sounded just fine to Caro. Now sounded even better. ‘Where do you find the energy?’
‘I have plenty of energy.’ Drew looked wide awake now. ‘My leg just gets in the way a bit sometimes.’
Drew had been an active and resourceful lover last night, but now he was hurting. He’d been forced to rest for so long now that all he wanted to do was shake off those constraints, but he was in danger of overdoing things.
‘I have a solution. If you’d care to try it?’
‘I’m always interested in your solutions...’
She followed him upstairs, and he caught her hand, leading her into the bedroom. Drew pulled her close, kissing her, and Caro backed him towards the bed, pushing him down onto it.
‘I want you in full working order tomorrow, Drew. You’ve been overdoing things.’
‘Whatever you say...’
‘Seriously?’
He gave her a melting look. ‘Seriously. I’m entirely in your hands.’
She’d hold him to that. She pulled off his sweater and shirt, started to undress him. Drew meanwhile had found something to do with his own hands, and they were skimming her body.
She wriggled free of him, backing away. Drew leaned back onto the bed, watching her as she undressed.
‘I’m liking this in your hands business very much.’
‘I can see...’ Caro pulled back the bedspread, piling two pillows on top of each other. When she climbed onto the bed, flipping her finger towards them, he got the gist of what was expected of him and pulled himself backwards to lean against them.
‘Is this where you tell me I won’t feel a thing?’ He grinned teasingly.
‘I have reason to believe that you’ll feel everything.’ She grabbed a pillow from her side of the bed, propping it carefully under his knee. ‘Comfortable?’
‘Very. Thank you.’
His gaze followed her every move as she crawled slowly across the bed towards him. He reached up, caressing her cheek, and she felt him shiver as she climbed astride him.
‘Caro, this is the best way of resting...’
She smiled, and saw his eyes darken suddenly. They both knew what came next, and the air itself seemed to be trembling with passion.
She bent down to whisper in his ear.
‘Just lie back, sweetheart.’
* * *
Last night had been something else. Truly something else that owed nothing to the simple mechanics of great sex. Caro had taken him as he was and had turned caring into blinding, nerve-shattering passion.
He felt different. And, however much Drew told himself that this wasn’t good, that he’d promised not to get so involved, he couldn’t help it. Caro had captured his heart, and everything she did and said only made her hold on it more secure.
Ellie had called him early, not enquiring where he was or who he was with but telling him that he wasn’t needed at the clinic today. Volunteers from local charities would be helping out with the birds, and the efforts of the environmental agencies in breaking down the oil slick were coming to fruition.
Drew knew that Ellie’s assertion that there was nothing for him to do wasn’t entirely true. He was sure he could find something, but it was clear that she and Lucas were managing. And in a perfectly co-ordinated pincer movement, Caro told him that she needed his help with the prosthetics project.
He spent the morning in her workshop, his leg propped up in front of him on the sofa. When Phoenix started to fret, jumping up onto the windowsill and pawing at the window, Caro told him to stay put, and that she’d take the puppy out for a couple of circuits of the small island.
&