Until tonight she’d never thought of herself as a particularly sexual person. In all her years with David, she’d never felt an overwhelming need for sex. They’d kissed, of course, and made love, but it had always been a very dignified experience, whereas she and Oliver…
They’d virtually ripped each other’s clothes off.
Oliver was talking on the phone, asking pointed questions and scribbling a few notes on a pad. When he finally replaced the phone he seemed to have recovered some of his composure. But he kept his eyes on the notepad.
‘That was one of my pregnant mums. Lily Henderson.’ His voice still sounded gruff and he cleared his throat and ran a hand over the back of his neck as he studied his notes.
Perhaps he wasn’t so composed after all.
‘She’s having severe pains but she doesn’t think she’s in labour.’
Helen made a valiant attempt at normal conversation. ‘Shouldn’t she go straight to hospital?’
‘Yes, but she had a hideous time with her first one—born down south somewhere—and she’s determined to have this one at home.’
‘Oh, dear.’
‘She only moved to the area a month ago and I haven’t managed to persuade her to meet Tom, which was what I had in mind.’ Oliver drew in a breath, cursed softly and finally looked at her, his gaze acknowledging what had happened between them. ‘I’ve never had trouble concentrating on my job before.’
Her own breathing was suddenly shallow as she connected with those intense blue eyes. ‘So are you going to do a visit?’
Her voice sounded disconnected from the rest of her body. As if somehow it were trying to distance itself from the confusing spiral of emotions that were inside her.
‘Yes. I’ll take a look at her and try and persuade her to go in. But I was talking about us.’ His eyes held hers. ‘Or are you going to pretend that that kiss didn’t happen?’
She swallowed hard. If only it were that easy.
‘Oliver—’
‘Because it’s probably only fair to warn you that I’m not going to let you.’ His voice was soft but grimly determined. He ripped the piece of paper from the pad and tucked it into his pocket. ‘I know you think that you’re on the rebound but I’m not going to let you dismiss this thing between us just because we’ve only known each other for two weeks. What we have is too special. When we get back from seeing Lily, we’re going to talk about this.’
Her stomach lurched and she looked at him helplessly. ‘There’s no point. I wouldn’t know what to say. All I know is that I’ve never behaved like that with anyone before. You must think I’m…’ She covered her face with her hands, just mortified, and felt him gently tug her hands away.
‘You really want to know what I think of you?’ His eyes darkened and his gaze dropped to her mouth for a lingering moment. ‘On second thoughts, this is not the time to have that conversation. Pretty soon I’m going to tell you what I think of you, Helen,’ he promised hoarsely, ‘but not two minutes before we go to see a patient.’
He was standing so close to her that she could feel the warmth and strength of his body, see the rough stubble on his hard jaw.
‘You want me to come with you?’
He gave her that boyish smile that never failed to charm her. ‘I could do with some moral support.’
It was late, she was tired but suddenly all she wanted was to be with Oliver. ‘All right.’
Some of the tension seemed to leave him. ‘Good. Let’s go. She lives in a village on the other side of town.’ He grabbed his coat and bag and then turned to look at her, a strange gleam in his blue eyes. ‘And, Helen—’ his voice was soft ‘—when we come back, we’re having that conversation.’
She stared at him, too confused by her own response to answer him.
She’d thought that the only man in the world for her was David, but suddenly the only man on her mind was Oliver.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LILY HENDERSON opened the door to them but it was obvious that she was in severe pain.
‘You should be lying down,’ Oliver scolded, and she gave him a weary smile.
‘How? I’ve just put the other one to bed and Nick isn’t home yet. I’ve rung him. He’s on his way. Come into the sitting room.’
She flopped down on the sofa and took a deep breath. ‘Something’s not right, Dr Hunter I can feel it. This pain isn’t right.’