Reunited...in Paris!

‘No, you didn’t want to wake me up when you got home late at night because I’d just finished a sixteen-hour shift.’ Her smile widened, and then she tripped because she wasn’t looking where she was going, and he was catching her and holding her close.

‘You were exhausted.’ Her length pressed against him. Now he’d definitely be in trouble. There was no denying his need for her pushing into her belly.

Tori stretched up on tiptoe and placed that beautiful mouth against his. Her tongue slipped inside to taste him and all his good intentions dissolved in a flash of heat and desire and longing so deep it hurt.

‘Tori,’ he groaned against her lips. ‘I’ve missed you something terrible.’ What had happened to moving on?

Her kiss deepened. Her arms wrapped around him, her hands joined at the back of his neck, pulling him closer—if that was possible. Those sweet breasts he remembered so well flattened against his chest. Under his hands her buttocks were soft globes of heat. If his heart didn’t explode out of his chest it would beat itself to death against his ribs.

‘Ben,’ she whispered, and then returned to kissing him.

He stopped thinking and focused entirely on Tori and deepening that kiss. Until he ran out of oxygen. Pulling back, he dragged in a load of air and returned to her mouth.

The street sweepers would probably have found them still kissing in the early morning if a group from the cruise hadn’t walked past, making loud, lurid comments at their expense.

Tori tensed, then turned in his arms to glare after them. ‘Sad puppies.’ She leaned back and folded her arms across her waist. Tried to keep air between her butt and his very obvious need.

Ben laid his chin on the top of her head and breathed in the combined scent of Tori and the city. Paradise. That’s where he was right now. Torturous paradise. Would this...? Stop overthinking everything. Stop thinking at all.

Tori broke away and asked, ‘Do you mind if we walk a while? I’m not ready for sleep.’

Disappointment surged even though he knew she had done the right thing. He wanted her, suspected she felt the same, but falling into bed together wasn’t going bring him closure. Or would it? Who was he kidding? But Tori had to be willing. That kiss suggested she might be but he wouldn’t push the advantage. One step at a time. And not making love to Tori might save his heart. But going ahead might help him to stop wondering what it would be like to make love to her once more.

Tori dropped her arms to her sides and stepped out along the pavement. ‘You’ll have to keep track of where we are. I don’t relish getting lost.’

They walked in silence for a while. The night was warm and the streets busy despite the late hour.

Then Tori said, ‘Ben, about that kiss, I shouldn’t have. But I couldn’t help myself. You were there, warm and distracting, being Benji.’

If he’d thought he was handling this situation with aplomb, he needed to think again. Now he felt gutted. And hurt. ‘I’m not going to drag you into my bed when we get back to our suite, if that’s what’s worrying you.’

‘I’m not worried about a thing, Ben. I’m apologising for not showing any restraint.’ Her chin tilted upwards and her eyes held his. ‘For not following up on your reaction to me.’

A direct hit. ‘I’m a red-blooded man. You’re a beautiful, sexy woman. It would’ve been rude of me not to react.’

She smiled.

If only there was more light for him to read her clearly. He thought he saw longing reflected in her gaze, but that could’ve been wishful thinking on his part. ‘We agreed to enjoy our time here, and it’s not always going to be easy for us. In more ways than one.’ He jammed his hands deep in his pockets and began walking again, moving more quickly than before. He needed to get to the hotel and his room so he could put some space between them. Not that it would be easy, knowing she was only through the door. He liked it that she hadn’t been totally in control. It was also best that she’d found some before they did go too far.

‘Want to walk all night?’ There was no way he’d be falling asleep tonight.

‘That’s a no from me.’ Her laugh warmed him all the way to his toes and did nothing to relieve the tension inside him.

CHAPTER NINE

TORI CLOSED HER emails, worry gnawing at her. Dean was not responding to the antibiotics he’d been given for his strep throat. His third strep throat in weeks.

‘What’s up?’ Ben strolled through from his room, looking good enough to eat with his shirt open, exposing his sculpted chest.

Do your buttons up. Now. Before I make an idiot of myself again. Bare chests and remaining impervious don’t go together, and it would be best for both of us if I remain aloof from you and your sexy body. Except... If we are finally being honest and open with each other, does it mean there is hope for us? As a couple again?

Her heart hammered in her chest. That would come with a load of logistical problems, but if they wanted it badly enough they could sort those.

Ben was looking at her strangely. What had she been talking about? A glance at her phone and she was back on track. ‘I’m worried about Dean. I put an assist device into his left ventricle before I came away.’ She clicked back into her mail and found the photo Dean had sent her days ago. ‘Look at him. The picture of health.’

‘So where’s the problem?’ Two steps closer to her and Ben’s aftershave was taunting her.

‘The other day I had him recalled after learning that he’s not sleeping. He’s got another strep throat. Not uncommon for Dean.’

‘Do you think he has another underlying problem?’ Ben asked.

‘It’s possible. Or the procedure hasn’t worked properly and we have to repeat it.’ She moved across the room to put space between them. That masculine scent followed her. Her body ached from lack of sleep. Or was it the tossing and turning she’d done while fighting the urge to visit Ben in his bed? Only the sensible part of her brain had kept her in her own bed. ‘Maybe I should go home early.’

Ben crossed to stand directly in front of her, his very presence forcing her to look up. Those eyes that had drilled her brain all night were filled with concern. For her? ‘Is that really what you want to do? You don’t trust your staff to get this right?’

Her spine stiffened. ‘Of course I know the others can handle it, but I feel responsible. Dean’s parents moved their family from Dunedin to Auckland so I could treat their son. I should be there for them.’

‘Tori, you don’t have to take on guilt for a decision they made. That will only wear you down.’

‘You might be right but that doesn’t make it any easier.’ The time and effort she put into her patients did take its toll. This was the first real break she’d had since opening the clinic.

&nb

sp; ‘Why don’t you arrange for the parents to come online to talk to you while the other doctors are with them?’

‘Good idea.’ She was all out of those at the moment. Tiredness and the mammoth distraction Ben was to her equilibrium had knocked her for six. And she still wanted to kiss him again.

‘I could listen in, if that’s a help.’

‘Would you? I’d like that.’ Togetherness.

‘Set up a time now.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘If the parents are there we’ve still got an hour before we have to leave for the hospital.’

‘That might be rushing things. Dean’s parents live on the North Shore. But we could talk to Conrad now anyway.’ She stepped around him, maintaining that distance she needed between them, and quickly sent an email to Conrad. Only minutes passed before Conrad’s face was filling her screen.

Tori introduced the men. ‘Conrad, Ben Wells is a cardiac surgeon in London.’ She saw the man blink when she gave Ben’s surname. He’d be able to put two and two together and come up with some answer close to the truth. ‘Ben’s done lots of these procedures.’

Ben leaned forward. ‘Hello, Conrad. Do you mind if I ask a few questions about Dean’s health? Tori has filled me in on the procedure and it sounds as though it was straightforward with no complications.’

‘Go ahead. I should tell you Dean is showing similar symptoms to those he presented before we operated.’

Tori tried to lean sideways, away from Ben, but it didn’t work. Too far from Ben meant too far from the screen. ‘It’s not post-op exhaustion, is it?’

‘Is the wound completely healed?’ Ben asked.

‘There’s no inflammation. Dean says the pain’s gone. But he’s wide-awake and totally exhausted at the same time. His mum is beside herself with worry.’ Conrad looked equally worried. ‘I’ve requested bloods and microbiology to see if he’s got an infection at the operation site.’