Frustrated for the first time in his thirty-two years, he paced barefoot into his kitchen and found some coffee. The irony of the situation didn’t escape him. All those occasions he’d avoided bringing women back to his house because he’d been afraid he wouldn’t be able to get rid of them, and here he was wishing Kat had left her toothbrush with his.
He ran hand over his face and wondered what was happening to him.
It was just sex, he told himself firmly, pouring coffee into a mug and prowling over to the window again.
Incredible sex, but just sex.
And he was just being contrary. If she’d been lying in the bed when he’d woken up, he would have wanted her to leave. He would have been cursing himself for being so foolish as to bring her to his home. The only reason he was missing her was because she’d been the one to walk away.
He gave a half-smile and took a mouthful of coffee.
It was typical of Kat to want to be the one in control.
Typical of her to show him that it was just the one night.
And typical of her to be different to every other woman he’d ever met.
But he wasn’t prepared to settle for one night. He drained his coffee, feeling the kick of caffeine stir his brain.
And if she truly thought it was ending after one night, she knew nothing about him.
* * *
Kat arrived at work the next day wishing there was some way she could avoid Josh.
She wasn’t at all sure she could work alongside him and not betray her true feelings.
How could she ever have thought that a night with Josh would be just a one-off? That she’d be able to walk away without a second thought?
She must be have been delusional.
She felt confused and nervous and vulnerable, but most of all she was angry with herself. Angry with herself for giving in to temptation. But give in she had, and now she was paying the price. She’d unlocked a part of herself that she’d kept hidden securely away, and now she was going to struggle to return to the way life had been before.
In the staffroom, she changed into her scrub suit and lingered for a moment before finally plucking up the courage to walk onto the unit.
She’d got herself into this situation, she reminded herself crossly, looping her stethoscope around her neck, and she just had to deal with it. All she had to do was concentrate on the patients. She wasn’t going to think about an abandoned lighthouse or the way the soft grass had felt against her bare skin. And she wasn’t going to think about his hands and mouth moving over her body.
‘Dr O’Brien, I presume.’ Josh’s soft drawl came from directly behind her and she gave a gasp and turned to find him leaning against the wall, watching her.
His blue gaze was disturbingly intent. ‘I thought it was Archie that did the magic in the family.’
Just seeing him again made her body heat. He looked tough and male and more attractive than any man had a right to be. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘I’m talking about your disappearing act,’ he drawled, his eyes dropping to her mouth. ‘One moment you were in my arms. The next minute you were gone. Clearly my technique needs work.’
She gave a gasp of shock. ‘Josh, this is hardly the place—’
‘It’s a perfectly good place.’ He grabbed her arm and pulled her against him, and she felt the heat of his body burn through the thin fabric of her scrub suit. ‘You just walked out on me without so much as a goodbye.’
She tried to free herself but his arm slid round her waist. ‘Well, goodbye didn’t seem the right thing to say.’
‘So instead you chose to say nothing.’ He glared down at her, streaks of colour lighting his cheekbones. ‘For crying out loud, Kat, we made love all night! You fell asleep in my arms! And then you walked out as if we were strangers.’
‘Keep your voice down!’ Her face turned scarlet and she glanced
around self-consciously, but fortunately there was no one else in the corridor. ‘What’s the matter with you, Josh? You said yourself that you’d never invited a woman back to your house before. You know as well as I do that this was just a one-night stand.’
‘I never said anything about it being a one-night stand.’ He frowned. ‘I don’t have one-night stands. What sort of a man do you think I am?’