“I just bet you can’t,” Cal said, walking past her and over to the new station wagon. He opened up the back and the sides, and began the process of putting the seats down.
“You knew I was looking for this dress,” Ashley stormed, waving it around like a red flag in front of a bull.
“Uh-huh.” Cal leaned into the car and spread the quilts out, making a soft cozy bed for them.
“And the undies I usually wear with them,” she continued heatedly.
His ash-blond brows drew together as he looked over at her in mock seriousness. “Right.”
Ashley stomped over to him, her flat soles connecting loudly on the cement floor. She clasped the missing items in her hands. “So where were they?”
“I could tell you,” he said, mischief glimmering in his eyes. He leaned toward her, his voice low and sexy. “But I’m not going to.”
Ashley stiffened, aggravated at the way he’d had her searching high and low for her clothing when he had obviously known right where it was all along! “And you expect me to accept that?”
“I don’t see that you have any choice,” he said good-naturedly. “Unless you want to hire a private detective.” He squinted at her thoughtfully and screwed up the corners of his lips in comical fashion. “Or perhaps grill your clothes on where they’ve been.”
“Har de har har.” She watched him plump the pillows, remove his tie, and begin to unbutton his shirt. “And that’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me?” she demanded in exasperation.
He inclined his head to one side and thought about it some more. “Yep.” Somehow, he managed to pry the clothing from her hands and put it back in his SUV. “Now, are we going to have to do this in the dark again or shall there be light?”
A look of distinctly male satisfaction on his face, he took her resisting body in his arms. Ashley stiffened, trying hard not to notice how warm and strong and solid he felt. She tossed her head imperiously. “Who says we’re doing it at all?”
Cal chuckled and shifted her closer still. Giving her no chance to argue more, he lowered his head and claimed her mouth with his. Ashley tasted the masculine force that was Cal, felt his mastery in the plundering sweep of his tongue. She still didn’t want to give in to him, but his will was stronger than hers. She clutched at his shoulders as he moved his hips against hers and delivered a deep, demanding kiss. With a low moan of surrender, Ashley tilted her head to give him deeper access. His tongue mated with hers, and he delivered another steamy kiss that left her limp with longing and faint with acquiescence and wondering at the magical power he seemed to hold over her heart. They had been a couple for nearly ten years now, married for almost three, and yet every time he took her in his arms, every time he kissed her, her heart pounded and a shiver of unbearable excitement went through her.
“With the lights or without?” he murmured.
“Without.”
He helped her into the back of the car, then went back to shut off the overhead light in the garage and returned to her side. He climbed in after her, shutting the tailgate. There was just enough moonlight coming in from the decorative half-moon windows across the top of the garage door to let them make out each other’s shapes. The mood went from slightly cantankerous to highly charged in an instant. The back of the wagon had been a little drafty as she first climbed in. When he joined her, it soon became hot and close. Ashley’s heart pounded with anticipation, as they turned onto their sides and tried and failed for several moments to get comfortable.
Ashley began to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. And once started, she couldn’t seem to stop. He wanted to claim her, and she wanted him to claim her, and at the rate they were going, it was never going to happen; they were never even going to come close to making love in here and christening their new car. They weren’t going to be able to lie down, even if they did it at an angle. They were both too tall and the bed of the wagon wasn’t long enough, even with the two rear seats folded flat.
“This is absurd,” Ashley decided, still laughing. She was ready to call it a wash and head upstairs.
Cal caught her around the waist and brought her back to him before she could beat a hasty retreat. “Not so fast,” he told her. Laughter edging his low voice, too, his hands slipped beneath the hem of her sweater, to tenderly caress the bare skin of her ribs. “We haven’t tried everything yet.”
She sucked in her breath as he reached around behind her to unclasp her bra. Her skin tingled and heated. “Well, almost—”
Cal shifted onto his back, so he was lying flat against the blanket, and guided her on top of him. “You know what they say,” he whispered huskily.
“What?”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Ashley was about to counter that they’d never get comfortable enough, when his hands claimed her breasts, working the tips into tight, aching buds of arousal.
Suddenly, the situation was seeming much more workable.
Getting the idea of how he wanted this to work, she shifted her body until she was over him, straddling his torso, and then she framed his head with both her hands. His knees were raised, his feet flat on the cargo bed. The back of her hips brushed up against the wall of his rock-hard thighs. Nice, except their heads bumped against the back of the driver’s seat. Cal cursed and Ashley began to giggle uncontrollably. “Still no good.”
“Patience, Ash.”
“Cal—”
He brought her head down to his for a slow, leisurely kiss, coaxing response after response from her. “I’m not giving up. Not yet.”
When he put it that way…
She went up on her knees to give Cal room to maneuver as he reached around behind him and grabbed the pillows. He stacked them one on top of the other and pushed them up against the driver’s seat, then sat up partway, his long legs stretched out flat in front of him.
Maybe this would work…Ashley thought as he continued to kiss and caress her. She was certainly getting excited. Now if they could just figure out a way to enable him to enter her, make their bodies one.
“Unzip me,” he ordered hoarsely.
He caught her hand and guided it to him.
She did as he bid. He was hard and hot and so damn large in her hand.
“Now bring my pants down, just enough. Yeah. That’s it,” he said as she did his bidding. “And yours should go entirely.”
A shudder went through her. She wasn’t sure she could wait for the time that would take. “Cal—”
“I want you naked, Ashley,” he ordered gruffly. “At least from the waist down.”
What did it matter? Ashley wondered as her body throbbed and burned with wanting him. He couldn’t see her in this shadowy light. Not enough to be able to figure out what was happening with her body, anyway. Wanting to please him as much as she wanted him to pleasure her, Ashley slipped over onto her side. Her fingers trembled as she complied with his wishes. When she would have moved over him once again, he caught her against him and held her so she was still curled up on her side, her head tilted just to the left of his.
He found her mouth at the same time as his hand found her dewy softness. He kissed her and caressed her until the world faded away.
She climaxed with surprising speed. And then he lifted her on top of him once again, caught her waist in his hands, and entered her with one long, slow, incredibly sensual stroke. Ashley felt the heat. Passion. Need. All combined to fuel the fires burning within them, and soaring, they found the release they had been craving.
“YOU’RE SORE, aren’t you?” Cal said the next morning as Ashley struggled to get out of bed.
She nodded ruefully. “Not only where you might expect.” Given the heat and ardor with which they’d made love the previous night, she had expected—and was definitely experiencing—the residual tingling in the most feminine part of her that came with being well-loved. “But I’m feeling the effects of our rendezvous last night everywhere else, too,” Ashley lamented as she stretched her arms languidly over her head in an effort to work the kinks out. “Arms, legs, heck—” she chuckled and shook her head “—even my derriere hurts!” Which was what they got for never having—um—“exercised” quite that way before.
“Well, if it will make you feel any better, I’m a little stiff this morning, too,” Cal said. He swaggered toward her, looking buff and fit, clad in nothing but his boxers. Muscles flexing, he helped her to her feet. “But we can feel good about one thing.” He favored her with a sexy smile that did funny things to her insides.
“And what would that be?” Ashley luxuriated in the feeling of his arms around her.
He looked at her gently, protectively. “Our new station wagon not only got christened, it has been established as one very sexy vehicle.”
Ashley laughed at the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Just tell me we don’t have to do it again.” She ran her hand across the manly stubble on his jaw.
He caught her thumb between his teeth and caressed it softly with his tongue. “We don’t have to do it again. The SUV on the other hand…”
Ashley groaned in mock reluctance. She clapped both hands over her ears as if to shut out what he was saying.
He pried her hands from her head and held them in his as he continued, all confident male “…has a larger cargo hold. Or we could try the front seats.”
Ashley groaned louder. What had she started? “How about the bed?” she teased back.
He turned and cast a look behind him. “You mean this old thing with the comfy mattress and plenty of room and nice soft flannel sheets?”
Ashley looked at the king-sized haven with the sleigh bed frame. “Mmm-hmm.” She ran her hand over the velvety mat of ash-blond hair on his chest, appreciating the satiny-smooth skin and rippling muscles beneath.
“Well, it sounds nice. But what sounds even nicer, once you get over your newfound shyness, is the master bath.” He kissed the nape of her neck, the sensitive area behind her ear. “The master bath is perfect for showering together.”
Ashley’d had much the same thought. She curled a hand around the swell of his bicep. “Give me another ten days or so and I promise,” she said softly. “We’ll explore the master bath.”
He teased in a soft low voice that sent thrills coursing over her body, “I’m going to hold you to that, you know.”
Ashley loved the playful curl of his mouth, the seductive glint in his eyes. “I know.” She rose on tiptoe to give him a sweet kiss to seal the deal.
Cal sighed his regret as the sultry caress came to a halt. “Unfortunately for both of us, I have to get ready for work. Otherwise, I’d be content to hang out here with you all day.”
Ashley would’ve liked to stay and make love with Cal all day long, too. A fact that both pleased and bothered her. She was glad she and Cal were feeling so close, and worried that they were once again letting their desire for each other take precedence over all else. Because if they hadn’t made love last night, in the garage and then later, in their bedroom, she was pretty sure she would have found out where her dress and undies had been. Not that this was important. She was sure there was a good explanation for it since Cal was not the type to hide her clothes from her for no good reason.
Although what that reason could have been…
Was he attempting to buy her a new dress?
Had he taken the garments for sizing?
That at least made sense.
Aware he was watching her, and that if he didn’t hurry, he would be late for morning rounds at the hospital, she said, “You hit the shower. I’ll make breakfast today.”
“See you downstairs in ten.” He stripped down to his shorts, tossed them in the hamper, and naked, strode for the bath. Ashley grinned at his retreating backside. There wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t beautiful, from the width of his powerful shoulders, muscular back and handsome buttocks, to his long, sturdy legs. She had missed seeing him buck-naked, climbing out of her bed. Missed making love with him and being held in his arms all night long. She didn’t ever want to go back to the way it had been, prior to her homecoming.
And now that they were close to sharing everything—including the heartbreaking secrets that she had shouldered alone for the past two and a half years, as well as the happier secret she was dealing with now—they wouldn’t have to.
All she had to do was work up the nerve to tell Cal the truth. About everything.
“SO WHAT IS IT, DR. HART?” Polly Pruett asked anxiously as she scratched at the red bumps appearing on her abdomen.
Ashley explained as she finished examining her patient, “It’s called a PUPPP rash. Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy. It sometimes appears during pregnancy and then goes away after you deliver your baby. We can give you some topical medicine to put on it and an antihistamine to stop the itching.”
Polly frowned. “Will that make the rash go away entirely?”
“Probably not,” Ashley told her sympathetically. “But the meds will make you more comfortable, and the rash is usually limited to the body—it doesn’t appear on the face. What I am more concerned about here, Polly, is the fact you’ve begun to dilate.”
Polly looked over at her fiancé. Peter Sheridan was standing against the wall, holding the pregnancy manual Polly carried with her everywhere. “How much?”
Ashley made a notation on Polly’s chart. “Two centimeters.”
Polly bit her lip. “I could be that way for a couple of weeks, couldn’t I?”
“Yes,” Ashley told Polly and Peter gently, “but other signs point to you going into labor some time in the next seven days or so.”
Polly sat up as quickly as she could on the exam table. She fumbled with the sheet across her waist as she wailed, “But I’m supposed to be married in three days!”
Opposite her, Peter frowned. He looked as unhappy as his fiancée.
Ashley patted Polly’s shoulder. “Which is why you might want to think about moving the ceremony up a bit,” Ashley suggested.
“I can’t do that!” Polly looked as if she might burst into tears. “We have two hundred people coming, and a lot of them from out of town! We have to wait until the weekend.”
Peter moved away from the wall. “Polly—”
“Don’t even say it.” Polly glared at her fiancé, stubborn as ever. “I am having this wedding according to plan.”
Peter swallowed and looked at Ashley for help. She wasn’t sure what she could do. Polly and Peter’s baby was going to be born when he was ready, whether Polly or Peter or the two hundred guests they had invited to their wedding liked it or not. Finally, Ashley said, “My husband and I are both planning to be at the Wedding Inn during the ceremony, so if there are any problems, Cal—who is a doctor, too—will be right there.”
Peter breathed a big sigh of relief. Healthy color came back into his face. “Thanks, Dr. Hart,” he told Ashley soberly.
“Don’t mention it,” Ashley said. She turned back to Polly. “In the meantime, I want you to be sure and rest as much possible…”
While Polly got dressed and went out to make her next appointment, Ashley retired to the private office and sank down behind Carlotta’s desk. She returned several calls, then smiled as Carlotta breezed in.
“Good news,” Carlotta said cheerfully, setting down a stack of medical insurance paperwork she had taken home with her to complete. “Beatrice is back!”
That was good news, Ashley thought, fully aware how much Carlotta’s family had yearned to have their nanny with them again. But upon closer inspection, Ashley noted, Carlotta didn’t look as if the news were all that good. “So everything is back to normal?” Ashley asked, trying hard not to think about what this might mean to her.
Carlotta nodded, still looking a tad distracted. She ran a hand through her hair. “I know I’ve imposed enough as it is, but I was wondering if you would consider continuing to help me out through the end of the week, so I could go home at two or so every afternoon and be there when the kids get home from school. It would also give Beatrice a chance to settle back in.”
“No problem,” Ashley said, glad to continue to be of help. And not just because she owed Carlotta, but because she enjoyed working in the small private practice with her old friend.
But she also knew, as she packed up and left the office for the day, that she hadn’t done nearly enough looking for a permanent position for herself.
She could not delay any longer.
She went to the medical center, and caught the hospital administrator as he was getting ready to leave for the day. “Ashley!” Frank Hodges said. “I was going to call you.”
“Perhaps we could talk now, then,” Ashley said with a brisk, professional smile. Whatever it was, she wanted to get it over with.
He ushered her in and closed the door behind them. He waited until both were seated before he continued reluctantly, “I talked to the board of directors. We’re all in agreement we can’t take another obstetrician on staff right now—the medical center doesn’t have the labor and delivery rooms to support such a move. We could use another gynecologist, though. So if you were willing to give up delivering babies and limit your practice until one of the obstetricians on staff leaves or retires, then we would be able to offer you a spot.”
This, she hadn’t expected.
Frank rummaged through the scraps of notepaper on his desk. “I’ve also done some checking with other hospitals in the area. Most are fully staffed with Ob/Gyns at the moment, but Carolina Regional Medical Center has an opening. And they would very much like to talk to you if you’re interested in working there.” He handed her the name and phone number of the person to call.
Ashley studied the paper, grateful for the lead. And yet…“That’s a good hour’s drive from here.”
Frank nodded soberly. “Right.”
Doing her best to contain her disappointment, Ashley got to her feet. “I’m really going to have to think about it. And talk to Cal.”
“I suspected that would be the case.” Frank stood, shook her hand. “If I can be of further assistance, Ashley,” he finished kindly, “please let me know.”
ASHLEY KNEW there was something wrong the moment she walked in the door. She could tell by the glum, tense expression on Cal’s face. She put her things down slowly, shrugged out of her coat. “What’s going on?” she asked Cal.
He pointed to the answering machine on the kitchen counter. “There’s a message for you.”
Okay. Ashley went over to the telephone and pressed Play.
An unfamiliar woman’s voice filled the room. “Hello, Ashley. This is Shelley Denova, from Physician Search. We received your résumé and I’m happy to report Yale would very much like to interview you…”
“You told me you weren’t applying for that job,” Cal said. Once again, he seemed to be watching and weighing everything she did.
“I’m not, and I didn’t.” Ashley was already picking up the phone. She dialed by memory. Waited several rings.
Her mother’s voice came on the line. “Margaret Porter.”
Temper soaring, Ashley said in a clipped, brittle tone, “Hello, Mother.”
“Ashley!” Margaret sounded delighted to hear from her. Too bad the feeling wasn’t mutual, Ashley thought.
“I have a bone to pick with you,” Ashley said.
Margaret paused. When she spoke again, she sounded confused, “And what might that be?”
Ashley drummed her fingers on the tabletop next to her. “I had a call from Shelley Denova at Physician Search.”
“Good news, I hope?” Margaret chirped cheerfully.
Ashley gritted her teeth. She looked over at Cal, ignoring the censuring light in his gray eyes. “I never sent her my résumé.”
Another pause, shorter this time. “I had my secretary draw one up and send it over.”
Ashley felt the beginnings of a tension headache. She rubbed at her temples. “Why?” she demanded, aware she was very close to losing it with both her mother and her husband. With Margaret, because she had interfered in Ashley’s life one time too many. And with Cal, because he had thought the worst of her, when all she had wanted was for him to believe in her, believe in them….
“Because the position was going to be filled before you ever got around to it, that’s why!” Margaret scolded tersely. “Honestly, Ashley, what has gotten into you, anyway? You never used to be so lax.”
Ashley’s temples throbbed. She sat down and dropped her head into her hands. “Listen to me, Mother. I am not applying for that job. And I am not calling Shelley Denova back.” She spoke slowly, carefully enunciating every word.
Margaret harrumphed. “It would be very rude if you didn’t. You can’t afford to burn bridges.”
There was only one Ashley wanted to burn at the moment. “Then you better do something about that, hadn’t you?” Ashley hung up the phone.
“Whoa,” Cal said, looking impressed.
“You have no idea.” Ashley was shaking, she was so angry.
He came toward her, hands out. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.”
Ashley swept her hands through her hair, encountered a clip, and then just took her hair down. She realized she had a choice here, stay angry with Cal and vent her feelings on him, too. Or let it go. Move on. She found she wanted to do the latter. “It’s all right,” she told him wearily, forgiveness pouring through her. She shook her head, took a deep bolstering breath. “If the situation had been reversed, and I had come home and heard a message like that on the machine, I am sure I would have wondered what in the heck was going on, too.” She tightened her lips together ruefully. As long as they were on the subject, she figured she might as well tell him the rest of it. “Not that I’m exactly flooded with offers right now, in any case.”
Cal blinked. “What do you mean?”
He stepped behind her to massage the tense muscles of her shoulders. His fingers were like magic, bringing warmth and welcome relief.
Ashley swallowed, wishing she had better info to relate. “I talked to the hospital administrator in Holly Springs today.” Briefly, Ashley explained the situation.
Cal got another chair from the kitchen table and moved it, so they were sitting knee to knee. “Are you going to apply for the job at Carolina Regional?” He looked into her eyes.
Ashley shrugged, her feelings all over the map. Restless, she stood and began to pace the confines of the kitchen, talking anxiously all the while. “If I were to get a job as an Ob/Gyn there, I would have to live within fifteen or twenty minutes of the hospital.” She paused to regard Cal practically. “At least during the nights that I was on call. And since you have to do the same here, it would mean we would be apart again, at least four days a week, maybe more.”
Cal looked about as enthused as she felt about that prospect. Which, oddly enough, made Ashley feel better.
She didn’t want him pushing her away again, telling her they had to toughen up and make these sacrifices for their careers, and put their relationship, their marriage, second at every turn.
“Anyway,” Ashley continued softly, beginning to pace again, “I was thinking on the drive home. Maybe the thing to do is take the Gyn position at Holly Springs now, and just wait for an Ob/Gyn slot to open up. It wouldn’t be all that long. And we wouldn’t have to move or be apart.” She paused, searching his face, aware her heart was racing as she tried—without much success—to decipher his non-reaction. “What do you think?”
“I think I’d be happy,” Cal said carefully after a moment, looking as if he too were afraid to put his heart all the way out there, lest it get stomped on. He stood and walked to her side. “But,” he asked gruffly, “what about you, Ash? What about your needs, wants, desires?”
Ashley swallowed hard and went into his arms. “All I need is you, Cal.” She buried her face in his shoulder and hugged him fiercely. But even as she spoke the words, she wasn’t quite sure she believed it.