The Honourable Army Doc (7 page)

‘No. But can I ask another favour? Would you look after the girls for me?’

‘Of course.’ Ali didn’t hesitate. She would do anything for him. ‘Leave me your house key, I’ll take them home
a bit later and put them to bed.’ Quinn unhooked his car key and handed her the remaining keys. Ali raised herself up on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips. A kiss that was meant to bolster his spirits and let him know she was there for him. She couldn’t put her feelings into words, not yet, she could only show him through her actions. ‘Go. I’ll tell the girls something.’

By the time Quinn got home Ali had put the girls to bed and was curled up on the couch by the pot-belly stove. She had lit the fire and the room was cosy and warm. She stood up as Quinn came through the back door. His eyes were dark and tired and he looked as though he needed cosiness and warmth. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight, relishing the feel of his muscles under her fingers, relishing his size as she tried to bolster his strength.

‘How is she?’ Ali asked.

‘The specialist ordered another scan, there’s a second tumour.’

‘Another one?’ She stepped back, releasing Quinn from her arms as she sought out his face. ‘The radiotherapy isn’t working?’

Quinn kept his arms around her as he shook his head. ‘It appears so.’

‘Do you want to go back to the hospital?’ she offered. ‘I can stay with the girls.’

‘No. Helen wanted to wait there and I just need to stop for a moment. I need time to make sense of all this.’

His voice was heavy and flat, he sounded more than
tired, and Ali wondered what she could do to help. What would he need?

‘Do you want me to go?’ she asked. ‘Do you need to be alone?’

Quinn shook his head. ‘Can you stay? I can focus better when you’re near. I can breathe and my mind feels clearer.’

Ali nodded. Her heart was singing—he needed her.

‘Thank you,’ he said. He dropped his arms from her waist only once she agreed to stay. He crossed the room, heading towards the kitchen. There was a bottle of cabernet sauvignon on the kitchen bench and he took a wine glass from the cupboard and filled it. ‘Do you mind if I just have a quick shower? I want to get the hospital smell off me,’ he asked as he handed her the glass of red wine and put the bottle onto the coffee table in front of her.

Ali reached for the glass. ‘Do you need me to wash your back for you?’ She smiled, only half-joking. Her confidence was soaring, bolstered by the idea that he needed her, that he wanted her to stay.

His blue eyes flashed and they were back to their brilliant azure best, all traces of shadow gone as he grinned at her. ‘That’s a hard offer to refuse but what if the girls wake up and come looking for me? I’m not ready to explain this to them.’

‘Of course. I understand.’ And she did. But it also made her wonder what they were doing. It was hardly the right time to get involved with him. She knew that for Quinn she was probably a good distraction, something pleasant in an otherwise fairly torrid time in his
life, but what if it was nothing more than that? Did it matter? What did she want?

Quinn headed for the shower as Ali considered what she wanted. She didn’t need a knight in shining armour but She was a romantic and she did believe in happy endings. She didn’t need rescuing but she did want to find love. She wanted to be loved. Cherished. Adored. But she didn’t know if Quinn wanted that too. He’d been down the road of marriage and babies before. She wondered, not for the first time, if she was making a mistake. Did he really have room in his life, in his heart, for her?

She didn’t know the answer but she realised she was prepared to wait to find out. She didn’t need to know right now. Time would tell.

She flicked through the pages of a magazine as she waited for Quinn to shower but she wasn’t reading the articles, she wasn’t even aware of the pictures as her mind wandered. She sipped her wine, which was smooth and fruity, but she barely tasted it.

She wished she could be the person to make it better for Quinn. She wanted to tell him everything would be all right but, of course, they both knew it wouldn’t be.

Quinn had showered and changed into a pair of soft, brushed cotton pants that sat low on his hips and an old blue T-shirt. On anyone else the look would have been untidy but the T-shirt hugged his chest and arms like a second skin and the contours of his muscled upper body were clearly defined. He looked divine and Ali felt a flutter of desire as she ran her gaze over him.

He poured himself a glass of Scotch and refilled
her wine glass before joining her on the couch. He sat close enough so their thighs were touching and pulled her in against his side, his arm around her shoulders. He played with her hair, weaving the strands around his fingers and then letting the weight of it fall to her shoulders.

Ali’s heart was racing as his fingers grazed her skin, his touch sending her nerves into overdrive. She wondered what he wanted. Did he want conversation? Silent company? Physical comfort?

He sighed. She knew Quinn’s feelings for Julieanne were just ones of affection, not love. He’d told her that was the case and she believed him but, of course, he would still worry. And not just for Julieanne but for the girls too. She wanted to eliminate his worry.

‘Did the specialist give you any idea about what he might be able to do for Julieanne?’ she asked, deciding against silent company, knowing he’d tell her soon enough if he didn’t want to talk.

‘He’ll do more tests tomorrow. We’ll know more then. She’s tried everything along with the radiotherapy. Vitamin D3, fresh fruit and vegetables, increasing her seafood intake, green tea. Everything. There’s not much left.’

‘What about Avastin?’ she asked. Cancer treatments were not her forte, her experience was limited to the few individual experiences of some of her patients, but she’d done some research. She’d wanted to understand what Julieanne, and by association Quinn, was dealing with.

Quinn nodded and Ali felt relieved. He had obviously heard of this drug; perhaps her research had been correct.
‘I’ll speak to him about that tomorrow but I have a feeling it’s going to be too late,’ he said. ‘But right now I don’t want to talk about Julieanne. I just want to be here with you and pretend that my life is under control. I will worry about everything else tomorrow,’ he added as he drained his Scotch and put the glass down on the coffee table.

Ali waited to see if he got up to refill his glass but instead of standing he repositioned himself so he was lying on his back with his head in her lap. His posture evoked a strange sense of intimacy and familiarity. His T-shirt had ridden up to reveal a narrow band of skin above his waist. A thin line of blond hair ran vertically from his navel to disappear beneath the waistband of his cotton trousers and Ali was amazed at how distracting that tiny glimpse was.

She dropped her hand to his hip, which allowed her fingers to rest on his naked flesh. His skin was still warm from the shower and Ali traced lazy circles with her thumb over the ridge of his abdominals.

His eyelids closed, shielding her from view, and with the sense of anonymity she grew braver. She slid her hand under his T-shirt and ran it higher, resisting the temptation to slide it lower. She wanted to feel his skin under her touch. She longed to feel the firmness of his muscles.

Julieanne, Beth and Eliza were all forgotten as Ali focussed on Quinn. Her fingers ran across his stomach, up and over the ridge of his abdominal muscles to where they merged into his firm pectoral muscles. His chest was lightly covered with hair, just in the dip
lying over his sternum. Ali’s fingers moved out, away from his centre, and she felt his nipples harden as her fingertips brushed over them.

His eyes snapped open as he reached down to adjust his trousers. His movement caught her attention and her eyes were drawn to the unmistakable bulge in his pants. Ali’s hand itched to move lower, itched to trace the outline of Quinn’s erection, itched to feel the length and thickness for herself.

‘I think I either need to get back into the shower, a cold one this time, or we need to move this into my bedroom.’ His voice was low and deep and every word was thick with desire.

Ali knew the consequences if she allowed herself to follow him to his room but her body ached for his touch and she wasn’t prepared to pass up this opportunity. It had been months since she had been intimate with anyone, months in which she hadn’t even thought about sex, but now she was fit to burst. She was aware of an ache between her thighs and she could feel herself becoming moist, and one way or another she needed to release the tension. Her body was waking up, crying out for satisfaction, and she longed to let Quinn have that pleasure.

He rolled up from her lap and stood before her, the bulge of his erection level with her eyes. She could imagine how he would feel as he slid inside her, filling her, satisfying her. She wasn’t about to resist. She needed release and she needed to experience this.

She forced herself to lift her eyes and saw him reach out and offer her his hand.

She placed her hand in his and let him pull her to
her feet. He reached behind her with his other hand and pulled her close. Her stomach was pressed against his groin and she could feel his erection through her clothing. Her head felt light and her legs were shaky as blood rushed to her own groin in a flood of desire.

Before she could collapse into a quivering mess at his feet Quinn dipped his head and claimed her mouth with his. His lips anchored her to him and kept her afloat but this kiss wasn’t gentle or polite. It was hungry and desperate and demanded a response.

Ali’s eyes closed and her lips parted and a little moan escaped from her throat as she offered herself to him. Quinn accepted her invitation and deepened the kiss, claiming her, exploring. She clung to him, relying on him not to let her fall as she lost herself in the warmth of his mouth and the taste of Scotch on his tongue.

His hands were under her jumper, hot on her back, and her heart was racing in her chest. Between the hammering of her heart and the heat of Quinn’s kiss she was completely breathless. She needed to come up for air.

‘Does this mean you’re staying?’ he whispered into her ear as he kissed her earlobe.

‘For a little longer,’ she whimpered. ‘But I don’t think I can walk,’ she said, certain that her jelly legs wouldn’t support her.

Quinn didn’t reply. He just scooped her up, lifting her to his waist, and Ali wrapped her legs around him as he carried her from the room.

The study where he had been sleeping was adjacent the family room and it was only a matter of a few steps before he was lowering her onto the sofa bed. The distance
had taken no time to cover and certainly hadn’t given her enough time to change her mind. Not that she intended to. She’d come too far to back out now, there was no way she was leaving until she’d had her fill of Quinn. No way at all.

Quinn was lying over the top of her, his hips between her thighs, pinning her to the bed, but as her legs were still wrapped around him it was obvious she had no intention of going anywhere. Their position was intimate but they had far too many clothes on. Ali tugged at Quinn’s T-shirt. She pulled it over his head and tossed it to one side.

Quinn shifted his weight, freeing her legs as his fingers deftly and swiftly flicked open the button of her jeans and slid the zip down. He eased her jeans down her thighs as she lifted her hips to speed up the process, as eager to shed her clothing as he was to remove it. Her shoes were lying out by the couch so she was able to kick her jeans off her feet as soon as they were at her ankles.

He ran his hand back up The inside of her thigh, setting her skin on fire, and Ali gasped as his fingers and palm cupped the mound of her sex. The thin lace of her red underwear did nothing to protect against the scorching heat of his hand.

He lifted himself over her leg until he was lying between her thighs again. His hands slid under her cashmere top, tracing a path from her waist, over her ribs to her shoulders as he gathered her jumper under his fingers. His mouth followed his hands. He ran his lips over her skin as he revealed it. Ali arched her back,
lifting her arms above her head so Quinn could slide her top off.

She lay before him in her underwear and let his lips explore her flesh. He pushed aside the lace of her bra, exposing one breast. His head dipped as he took her breast in his mouth, flicking his tongue over her nipple. Ali moaned with pleasure as his hand found her other breast.

Quinn reached behind her and with an expert twitch of his fingers popped the clasp on her bra. His tongue flicked over her nipple again and Ali’s knees dropped apart as she opened herself up to him, heat from his lips and his fingers consuming her. She could feel his erection pressed between her thighs, against the lace of her underwear, pulsing with a mini-heartbeat. She lifted and lowered her hips, sliding his erection between her thighs, and her movements were rewarded with a groan.

She could feel Quinn’s hand moving across her stomach, felt his fingers slide inside her underwear, seeking her warmth. She was slick with moisture as his fingers slid inside her. She tensed, ever so slightly, waiting for any discomfort, but there was none, only intense pleasure as his thumb found the switch to trigger all her nerve endings and made her gasp. It had been almost a year since her surgery, almost a year since she’d had sex, and it was a relief to find that her body still worked. A relief to find she hadn’t lost the desire or the capacity for sex.

She was almost naked but Quinn needed to shed some clothes. She reached down and slid one hand under the waistband of his trousers. He wasn’t wearing
underwear. There was nothing to hide his desire. Her fingers ran through the golden hair that travelled from his navel to his groin and curled around his shaft. He gasped and Ali felt his erection enlarge even further under her touch. Within seconds he had shed himself of his last piece of clothing, leaving only Ali’s knickers between them. But not for long.

Quinn slid her underwear down and buried his face between her thighs. Ali moaned and arched her hips as his tongue found her centre and flicked her over the edge into a frenzy of desire.