Rescued by the Dreamy Doc

CHAPTER TWO

AS THE evening drew to a close, Callie was aware of Sebastian becoming quieter, his gaze more intent as a weird kind of charge grew and then arced steadily between them. Like an approaching storm.

Laden. Ominous.

It enthralled and frightened her all at once. She knew she should get up and leave while she could but she felt powerless.

Even when Gerri called for a doggie bag for the massive pizza she hadn’t been able to finish and the others took their leave en masse, she was helpless.

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at them. ‘Coffee?’

‘Kill for one,’ Gerri agreed.

‘That would be lovely,’ Callie murmured.

She should have declined. She knew that. But her fingers itched to push back the unruly lock of hair flopping across his forehead and overrode all her common sense.

No seemed to have been stricken from her vocabulary.

Besides, Gerri was giving her a lift home so she had to stay. Right?

Sebastian beckoned a waitress over and they placed their orders. As she left, Callie became aware of a raised voice behind her and all three of them turned to look at what was happening.

They were sitting in the alfresco area of a restaurant in a trendy new footpath strip in Fortitude Valley. The suburb was up-and-coming, quite hip with the movers and shakers but by and large it was still less than salubrious in places with a lot of cheap boarding-house accommodation. With a large client base here and Jambalyn being located a stone’s throw from the restaurant, Callie knew the area well.

A dishevelled man, probably homeless, definitely down on his luck, was asking customers at the tables closest to the street for spare change for food. A young, preppy-looking man in an expensive suit at a table full of suits had taken it on himself to loudly lecture the unfortunate man, who was shuffling his feet, his head downcast, much to the delight of the other suits.

Callie turned away, unable to witness such callous inhumanity. She felt sick. How could he? What would a preppy inner-city suit know about the difficulties some people faced and how life could go down the drain so rapidly? How could he judge so cruelly someone he didn’t even know?

Her gaze fell to her lap where her hands shook, and she twisted them together to still the tremor. Her heart thumped like a gong in her chest and the meal she’d just eaten felt like a lump of lead in her belly.

Gerri placed a hand over hers. ‘Are you okay?’

Callie looked up into Gerri’s concerned eyes. She could see a frown knitting Sebastian’s brows in her peripheral vision. Callie’s gaze darted to Sebastian’s and back again. She nodded but the ugly scene had opened the floodgate on memories she’d been trying to keep at bay all day, from the bridge to Zack’s little-boy voice, and she felt like she was suffocating.

Sebastian was surprised by the sudden change in the previously animated Callie. She’d gone very pale and there was an unbearable sadness in her expressive amber eyes. The arrogant fool confronting the homeless man had obviously upset her. After her fearless performance on the bridge today he’d half expected her to march over and verbally eviscerate the conceited guy, but she looked like she was about to faint.

‘Excuse me,’ he murmured.

It was Callie’s turn to frown as she and Gerri watched Sebastian’s progress towards the altercation.

Sebastian drew level with the table and looked down at the offending man just as he finished suggesting that the obviously itinerant man get a job. ‘Have you quite finished?’

Sebastian didn’t usually court danger. In fact, he’d had enough of danger this last year. He was certainly no he-man. He didn’t pick fights or go around looking for trouble. But some things just couldn’t be ignored and this man’s attitude was abhorrent. Hopefully after tonight he’d think twice about using someone else’s misfortune to make himself look good.

‘I…I beg your pardon? ‘the younger man blustered. He looked around at his friends and the rest of the people in the half-full restaurant, obviously embarrassed to be called on his appalling behaviour.

Good!

‘Feel like a big man now in front of your friends, humiliating another human being who was just looking for a bit of decency and compassion?’

The man stood, the scrape of his chair loud in the suddenly charged atmosphere. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he demanded.

Sebastian noted the younger man pale when he realised that Sebastian had four inches and several muscles groups on him. He lowered his voice. ‘A concerned citizen.’

Callie shivered as the rumble of quiet menace in Sebastian’s voice was felt all the way around the restaurant. Her heart hammered and her palms felt sweaty where they gripped the table.

‘Look…I’m sorry, mate,’ the man said, holding his hands up. ‘I didn’t mean any harm.’

Sebastian jaw tightened. This guy was nothing but a bully. Picking on someone helpless but backing down at the first sign of superior strength. He needed to apologise. He looked over to the street but the homeless man had obviously seen his opportunity and fled the ugly scene. Sebastian could see him shuffling away, his shoulders slumped.

Callie looked back at her hands as Sebastian suggested the man bring his best manners next time he came out. He was being amazing—calm but firm—and she felt ridiculously like bursting into tears.

Pressure built in her chest and she suddenly felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She half stood. ‘I…I need some air.’

Gerri inspected her face closely and then gave a brisk nod, handing over the doggy bag. Callie took the offering and slipped out of the restaurant, sagging against its door briefly, grateful for the cool night air on her heated face.

She saw the hunched old man farther down the street and hurried after him, pressing the leftover pizza into his hands when she caught up. He avoided her gaze but Callie could see the tears shining in his eyes as he mumbled his thanks. She smiled at him and backed away, not wanting to humiliate the man any further by trite words or useless platitudes.

Sebastian, who had followed her out of the restaurant, walked towards her slowly as she retraced her steps. Where was his tall, proud Amazon from the bridge, eyes blazing? Was brave Callie the real deal or was the real Callie the woman walking towards him now? Softer, more vulnerable. He’d wanted to kiss the woman on the bridge senseless. This Callie he wanted to wrap up in his arms and shield from the big bad world.

Which one was she?

‘You okay?’ he asked as she approached.

Callie stopped in front of him, still too emotional to meet Sebastian’s eyes. She bit the inside of her cheek. She would not fall apart now. It didn’t matter that she seemed to be an unwilling rider on an emotional roller-coaster that was flinging her hither and thither; she would not crack.

The memories. Her brother—years of not knowing where he was or if he was alive or dead. The bridge. Zack.

They would not break her. Not right now.

She cleared her throat. ‘Fine.’

Sebastian stopped the snort that rose automatically. Callie was nowhere near fine. Still, he admired her stoicism. Did she spend all of her life putting on a brave face?

He regarded her for a few moments. ‘I think our coffees are getting cold,’ he murmured.

Callie heard the soft don’t-spook-the-horses note in his voice and braced her shoulders. She hated it that he’d seen her like this. She didn’t need his pity. ‘Can’t have that,’ she quipped, raising her chin and striding towards the restaurant.

Geraldine rose when they arrived back at the table. She looked from Callie to Sebastian and then back again. ‘Everything okay?’

‘Fine,’ Callie said, uncaring how overly bright it sounded as she sat. Still unable to look at Sebastian, she picked up her spoon and stirred the cappuccino that had arrived during the fracas.

The others followed suit and for a few moments no one said anything as they contemplated their lukewarm coffees. But Callie could feel Sebastian’s intense gaze on her and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to wrap herself up in all that intenseness and forget every detail of this horrible day.

Geraldine pursed her lips, about to say something, but her mobile rang, interrupting her. She spoke briefly then ended the call. ‘Sorry,’ she said standing. ‘Tahlia thinks she’s in labour.’

Callie looked up from her coffee, her teaspoon clattering against the saucer, everything prior to the call disappearing in an instant. Tahlia was Gerri’s daughter and this was the first grandchild. ‘Oh, my God, Gerri!’

‘I have to go.’

‘Of course,’ Callie urged. ‘Go. Just go.’

Gerri looked at Sebastian. ‘Can you see she gets home? ‘

Sebastian looked at Callie and it was the first time their eyes had met since she’d walked out of the restaurant.

Inevitability smacked him in the face. There was no way she was going home alone tonight.

‘Of course.’

Gerri nodded. She looked at Callie as if weighing her up and then looked back at Sebastian. ‘Ask her about the bridge,’ she said, before hustling out of the restaurant.

Not that Callie noticed her friend’s departure, caught up as she was in his stare, her belly tightening, her breasts aching?knowing, now that her safety net had disappeared, there was only one way this night was going to end.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Sebastian murmured.

Callie nodded. ‘I’m fine.’

Sebastian didn’t believe her for a second. ‘Do you need to talk about the bridge?’

Callie regarded him silently for a moment then said, ‘No.’

‘Really?’

Callie nodded, trying to temper the action and not betray how desperately she did not want to talk about the bloody bridge.

Damn Gerri!

He continued to hold her gaze, seeking answers, and she couldn’t bear it. She leaned forward, lifted her hand and gently pushed his floppy fringe back a little. His skin was warm to touch and she heard the quick intake of his breath.

She dropped her hand. ‘Sorry. Couldn’t resist it.’

Sebastian, his forehead tingling, held her gaze for a little longer then nodded. Whether she knew it or not, she did need to talk. ‘My place is ten minutes away. I have…’he looked down and grimaced at his cappuccino ‘…hot coffee.’

It wasn’t a question, it wasn’t a command. It was just there, and the way she saw it she could go home by herself and try not to think about the very thing she’d been avoiding all day. That hammered at her skull even now, tearing at her shields. Or she could go home with him.

But she sure as hell didn’t want coffee and conversation.

Not tonight.

They didn’t speak as Sebastian drove the short distance to his apartment. They didn’t speak in the car park. Or the lift. Or as he opened his front door.

Neither did they touch.

He didn’t even switch on a light.

Instead, he watched as Callie strode across his lounge room, dodging boxes, towards the moonlight streaming in through his uncurtained French doors.

‘Sorry ‘bout the mess,’ he murmured as he drew level with her, his chest close to her back, his lips near her ear.

Callie frowned, dragging her gaze from the alabaster river below, and looked round, her shoulder brushing his chest. She hadn’t even noticed them. ‘I didn’t notice.’

Sebastian nodded slowly. ‘Callie. The bridge?’

She shook her head. ‘No.’

He regarded her quietly. ‘You know, maybe it’d help if you—’

Callie leaned forward and kissed him, cutting off the words she already knew back to front. It was a fierce kiss. Hard. She didn’t open her mouth, neither did he. But she felt it right down to her toes.

‘The only therapy I want tonight,’ she said, inching slightly back from his mouth, ‘involves us being horizontal.’ She snaked her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his again.

Sebastian felt her words all the way down to his groin. And when her tongue lapped against his lips, seeking entrance to his mouth, he granted it on a strangled groan, burying his fingers in her hair.

It felt good to be kissing a woman again. To get lost in one. To feel curves pressed against him and suck in all that sweet female aroma with each jerky breath. And not just any woman. A sassy but vulnerable one who had blown his mind on a bridge a mere twelve hours ago and was doing her damnedest to blow it again.

But as the kiss grew increasingly wild—desperate? his conscience pricked at him. Even though he couldn’t think of a time when he’d been this aroused, he knew this was about more than hot stranger sex for Callie.

The psychologist in him knew there were bigger things driving her.

Her fingers had worked three buttons undone by the time he managed to pull himself out of the sexual fire scorching his common sense. He covered her hands.

‘Stop,’ he whispered, kissing her eyelids, her cheeks. ‘Hold on for a moment.’

He ignored her mewed protest and the fascinating sight of her ravaged mouth. ‘Why don’t we get that coffee first?’

Callie, still dazed and weak-kneed, would have slumped to the floor had she not been leaning against him. She returned her ministrations to his neck, feeling the spike of bristles against her tongue. ‘I don’t want a coffee,’ she murmured.

Sebastian shut his eyes as her tongue stroked magic over his skin, whispering illicit promises into his pulse points. He resisted the urge to let his head fall back, give her unlimited access. Just.

‘Callie,’ he groaned, opening his eyes as her lips trekked towards his shoulder. ‘I don’t think this is a wise idea. There’s obviously something troubling you…and using sex to obliterate issues isn’t a very good way to handle things.’

Callie smiled against his collarbone. The poor man was really trying to do the right thing. But pressed into her pelvis she could feel how hard he was for her, and the convulsive clutch of his hands at her hips spoke volumes.

‘Relax,’ she murmured. ‘I promise it won’t hurt.’

Sebastian chuckled. ‘That’s not what I’m worried about.’

Callie smiled again, the rumble of his voice tickling her lips as she returned her mouth to the strong column of his throat.

He pulled back slightly and felt her lips leave his skin. ‘I’d hate you to regret this is the morning.’

Callie sighed. His honourable streak was commendable. She didn’t know too many men who wouldn’t take instant full advantage of what she was offering. ‘I’m a big girl, Sebastian. I know what I’m doing.’

She rubbed his collar point between her thumb and forefinger. ‘Or is it that a sexually aggressive woman threatens your masculinity?’

Sebastian regarded her seriously as she morphed back into Callie from the bridge. Bolshie and defiant. A man could get whiplash trying to keep up with her Jekyll-and-Hyde act.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Which one was she? The man in him found the challenge irresistible. And looking down at her moist lips and blazing amber eyes, he had to admit it’d be fun finding out.

He smiled. ‘Not me. I’m exceedingly evolved. I love sexually aggressive women. In fact…’ he pushed a lock of her hair off her shoulder ‘.I think they should take over the world.’

Callie laughed. ‘Interesting thought.’

Sebastian joined her. But it was hard to concentrate when their bodies were pressed together so intimately and just her laughter was enough to cause a delicious friction between them.

He sobered. ‘I need you to be sure, Callie.’

She sucked in a breath at the intenseness of his gaze. It took her right back to the bridge and the instant magnetism she’d felt. ‘Would you like me to sign a disclaimer?’

He shook his head. ‘Let’s just seal it with a kiss, shall we?’ And then he lowered his head.

Callie felt the flash of heat erupt down low the second his lips touched hers and she groaned, raking her fingers into his hair. She could hear his ragged breath loud in her ears and revelled in his no-holds-barred kiss.

Finally he was kissing her without reservation. Like she was a full-blooded, passionate woman. Not a fragile one. Not an about-to-fall-apart one.

And, man, did it feel good!

She broke off, her head spinning, pulse racing, breathing loud in the silence. They really needed to get horizontal. She looked around at the obviously half-unpacked apartment.

‘You have got a bed, right? I’m getting too old for the floor.’

Sebastian smiled, took her hand and led her through a maze of boxes into his bedroom. ‘Ta-da. A bed.’

Callie grinned. ‘So it is.’ More moonlight streamed through uncurtained glass and she walked in, sidestepping another two boxes. She sat on the edge and gave an experimental bounce. ‘This will do very nicely,’ she murmured.

He was lounging in the doorway, watching her with the same direct gaze from the restaurant. From the bridge. He was too far away.

‘You’re a long way away. And you’re too dressed.’

Sebastian smiled. ‘Hmm, whatever can we do about that?’

Callie looked at him for the longest time before leaning back on her elbows and crossing one leg over the other. ‘Take off your clothes.’

Her husky request stroked feathers along his groin. ‘You do like to be in charge, don’t you?’

Callie rotated her ankle, one strappy black heel dangling from her toes. ‘You’ve got to ask for what you want.’

Sebastian chuckled as he straightened and started on the buttons she hadn’t managed to undo. Callie could feel her breath getting shorter as each button revealed glimpses of a magnificent chest, and she almost sighed out loud when he shrugged his shoulders and the shirt fell away to reveal the stunning breadth of him.

Just as she’d hoped, the events of the day evaporated.

His pecs and abs were taut and flat, smooth, framed by broad shoulders and very nice biceps. She could almost feel the weight of him crowding on top of her, pushing her into the bed, moving inside her.

Her gaze drifted south, wondering if what was below his zip was as magnificent as the rest of him. She forced her gaze back to his face. She used her foot to point to his jeans. ‘And those.’

Sebastian had felt his breath stop in his lungs as her eyes had feasted on his chest and then dropped lower. ‘Yes ma’am.’ He saluted, a smile playing on his mouth as he reached for his button.

Thirty seconds later he had kicked free of his jeans and was standing before her, all but naked, watching her eyes roving over him. His thighs. His calves. His crotch. His breathing sawed in and out, in and out, waiting for her next move.

‘Oh, my,’ she murmured, pushing off her elbows into a sitting position and then rising off the bed. He looked incredible.

She just had to touch him.

She stopped in front of him, a centimetre separating them, his knowing, patient gaze boring into hers, dropping to her mouth then returning to her eyes. His clean male scent wafted towards her, making her nostrils flare.

She stroked a hand down his chest, holding his gaze, moving her mouth a little closer to his. His warm muscles shifted beneath her palm, hinting at their leashed potential. Her fingernail circled the hollow of his belly button and she felt the powerful contraction of his flat abdominals.

Dropping lower still, her hand brushed the hard ridge of his erection and she withdrew slightly before returning to trace the outline of it through his underwear. Callie smiled as Sebastian shut his eyes briefly.

When he opened them again Callie was looking directly at him. Her lips were a whisper from his. All he needed to do was move the barest amount and he could be plundering all their sweet plumpness. But he held himself in check, waited for her to make a move.

Callie could hear his ragged breath, could almost taste it as it mingled with her own. Her throat felt parched, her lips dry, despite her mouth watering at the thought of kissing him.

Her fingers stopped tracing the thick edge of him and wrapped around him, squeezing. She saw the bob of Sebastian’s throat. ‘Nice,’ she murmured, and kissed his Adam’s apple, brushed her lips across the flutter of the pulse either side then dipped to the hollow at the base of his throat before inching back to look at him again.

Sebastian didn’t think it was possible to get harder, but he was wrong as their gazes meshed and her hand continued its firm grip around him. ‘You have too many clothes on,’ he croaked.

Callie smiled. ‘Whatever can we do about that?’ she mimicked.

‘Take them off.’

CHAPTER THREE

SEBASTIAN’S husky command brushed against her sensitised skin as if he had actually touched her.

Callie stepped away slightly, swallowing, her hands trembling as she reached for her buttons. Sebastian’s gaze was firmly locked on their action. She felt her stomach clench and her nipples become two painful points, rubbing erotically against her bra as she fumbled with the top button beneath Sebastian’s stare.

She faltered for a moment.

She wasn’t ashamed of her body. Being the tallest female by far growing up may have been a fault to focus on for a normal girl in a normal family, but things had been so far from normal at home that Callie had never had the luxury of worrying about what other people thought about her.

Including lovers.

But, undressing before his intent gaze, she felt a moment of doubt. Sebastian wasn’t just any lover. Somehow he was different and every cell in her soul knew it.

And she wasn’t twenty years old and stick thin. Not that she’d ever been stick thin. Unfortunately her large-boned genetics and size eleven feet would never put her in the waif group. And Sebastian looked like he was a man who could have any woman he wanted?especially the stick-thin ones.

Men liked stick thin, didn’t they?

She couldn’t even claim to be curvy. She was more straight up and down, long, strong limbs and athletic torso. She’d bet anything he had curvy women throwing themselves at him on a daily basis.