The Midwife's Marriage Proposal (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 3)

With a supreme effort of will, she slid away from him and stooped to retrieve her cardigan, glancing ruefully at the buttons.

‘We always were in too much of a hurry.’

‘And why was that?’

He should have looked ridiculous, standing there naked, but he didn’t. He looked magnificent. Staggeringly male and shockingly sexy. It was all she could do not to reach for him again and satisfy the craving of her body.

But she couldn’t afford to do that.

Tom had all the qualities of an addictive substance. Lethally attractive and dangerous in equal quantities.

And she was going to resist him.

No matter how her body throbbed or her heart ached, she was going to resist him.

‘We’re both passionate people, Tom. These things happen.’

‘Do they?’ His gaze burned into hers and he reached for his jeans, dragging them on in a lithe movement. ‘You often have mindless sex without even bothering to remove your clothes?’

Her gaze slid pointedly to the untidy pile of clothing remaining on the floor. ‘We removed our clothes.’

‘Don’t do this, Sally. Don’t reduce this to nothing.’ He yanked up his zip and in two strides he was in front of her, his hands on her arms. ‘Have you done that with anyone else?’

She tore her greedy gaze away from the perfect musculature of his chest, determined not to follow the tantalizing line of dark hair that trailed down his taut abdomen.

‘My sex life is none of your business, Tom.’

In truth she didn’t have a sex life, but there was no way she was sharing that information with him. It would reveal far too much about herself.

‘You’re saying this was just sex?’

No. It had been an

expression of everything she was. Everything she felt for him.

‘Let’s not analyse it, Tom.’ She pulled away from him before she did something she’d regret. Said something she’d regret. ‘I’ll make you a coffee before you go.’

‘That’s it?’ His tone was incredulous and his blue eyes raked her pale face with ill-disguised frustration. ‘We have white-hot sex against the wall and you offer to make me a coffee before I leave? What the hell is going on here, Sally?’

Self-protection. That was what was going on.

She looked at him, struggling to keep her expression neutral. ‘What do you want?’

‘I want you.’

His words pierced her heart more effectively than the sharpest weapon.

‘You just had me, Tom.’

His jaw tightened and he inhaled sharply. ‘That isn’t what I meant, and you know it.’

‘I’m not a commodity, Tom. You can’t put me down and then expect to pick me up again when it suits you. Last time you wanted me I gave myself to you. I gave every part of myself.’ Her voice shook with passion as she spoke the words that she’d been too shattered to speak seven years before. ‘I held nothing back. Do you know what it’s like to give like that? Because I didn’t until I met you. I’d never trusted anyone with what I gave you.’

He flinched, guilt flaring in his gaze. ‘Sally …’

She nodded, her green eyes flashing sparks and her chin lifting with dignity. ‘And you rejected it. I’m an adult woman, Tom, and I have a right to give or withhold as I choose. I enjoyed the sex. But that’s all it was. And now what I want more than anything is to be by myself.’

‘No.’ He shook his head, his hard jaw set in a determined line. ‘That isn’t what you want, and we both know it. You were hurt tonight. Do you think I didn’t know? When that boy was talking about not having a family, did you think I didn’t know what that did to you? I want you to share that with me. I want to be there for you. Talk to me, Sally.’