In Bed With the Boss

He gave her a frown. ‘What’s with all these questions? She’s just my registrar, nothing else.’

‘I hope they’re not ice-blue, like you know who’s were,’ she said with a cheeky grin.

Ben shifted his eyes to search the crowd again. ‘No, they’re not,’ he said somewhat absently as he saw a slim figure weaving her way through the crowd on the George and Market Street intersection, the brilliant white slash of her apologetic smile as she bumped into someone seeming to light up the entire street. ‘They’re the colour of caramel … or toffee … a soft brown.’

‘Uh-oh,’ Hannah said, as she saw who her brother was zeroing in on.

Ben opened his mouth to say something in return but closed it as soon as a flowery perfume invaded his nostrils.

‘I’m so sorry I’m late,’ Georgie rushed up to them, her unfettered hair blowing across her face in the hot breeze.

‘Not another accident, Dr Willoughby?’ Ben asked with an inscrutable look.

‘No,’ she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She turned to the petite dark-haired figure beside Ben and put out her hand. ‘Hi, you must be Hannah. I’m Georgie.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Georgie,’ Hannah said with a friendly smile. ‘Ben’s told me all about you.’

‘Oh, dear,’ Georgie said, flicking him a quick reproving glance. ‘I hope you won’t hold it against me.’

Hannah’s eyes were dancing as she looked between her brother and his new registrar. ‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘Anyway, you’re a whole lot nicer than his last girlfriend. She was—’

‘Hannah!’ Ben warned.

Hannah gave him a guileless look. ‘What?’

‘Georgie doesn’t want to hear about my private life,’ he said. ‘Besides, I need a caffeine hit. I hardly slept last night.’

‘Were you called in?’ Georgie asked as she walked alongside him with his sister on the other.

‘Er … no,’ he said. ‘Hannah was snoring.’

Hannah swung around in mock affront and jabbed him playfully in the chest. ‘I was not! You were the one keeping me awake.’

‘Don’t tell me you snore, Mr Blackwood?’ Georgie said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

He gave her a glowering look from beneath his dark brows. ‘I haven’t had any complaints in the past,’ he said.

‘He talks in his sleep,’ Hannah piped up authoritatively. ‘He’s done it since he was a little kid. Mum told me.’

‘Shut up or I won’t buy you those outrageously expensive running shoes you wanted,’ he said with a laugh, feigning outrage. ‘I’ll make you go home and do your homework instead.’

Hannah leaned around the front of her brother to speak to Georgie. ‘He doesn’t mean it,’ she said. ‘He’s always teasing me.’

Georgie couldn’t help smiling at the playful interchange between older brother and much younger sister. She could see the de

ep affection they had for each other, the banter and mock glares not able to hide the rock-solid relationship they shared.

Hannah now had her arm tucked through his and was beaming up at him adoringly. His dark blue eyes were soft and a half-smile was playing at the edges of his mouth as he looked down at her.

Georgie felt her stomach tilt sideways at the thought of having him look at her with such love shining in his eyes. He was certainly attracted to her if that kiss was anything to go on but, then, it had obviously been a while since he’d played the field so perhaps she was a convenient diversion. Maybe even the fact that she’d said she was in a no-dating phase had made her all the more alluring to him: a case of wanting what he couldn’t have. She even wondered if that was why she couldn’t stop thinking about him—because he was technically off limits.

‘Is here OK?’ Ben asked.

‘Sorry?’ Georgie blinked up at him vacantly. ‘What did you say?’

His gaze dipped to her mouth, watching as her tongue flicked over the soft shiny lips, removing a fine trace of lip-gloss. He felt the sudden hard kick of desire deep and low in his belly again and wondered if he had been in his right mind to accept her offer of accompanying him and his sister. How on earth was he going to keep his hands off her? She was temptation from the top of her silky hair to her fuchsia-pink painted toenails peeking out from the high-heeled sandals she was wearing with her sexily tight jeans. Her close-fitting pink top had a scooped neckline which showed a hint of her luscious cleavage, and there was a red cherry emblem just above her right breast, which kept drawing his gaze like a powerful magnet.

Hannah gave him a nudge with her elbow. ‘What is it with you guys?’ she asked.