“Autumn,” he muttered against her lips, needing to say her name. It felt so good on his tongue that he said it again. “Autumn.”
Her fingers toyed with the hair at the back of his neck. He shivered, burying his face in her softly scented throat, tasting the glistening skin there. She arched her neck for him, allowing him freer access. He pressed another kiss to her throat, then lifted his head, wanting to look at her.
God, she was so beautiful. Her fair skin was flushed with passion, her hair tousled and shining in the golden patio lighting. Lips kiss-darkened, eyes closed, lashes lying softly against her cheeks. Everything in her pose and expression told him that she was more than willing to increase the intimacy of their embraces. All he had to do was lead her inside, unfasten the button of that stunning dress and he could have her. At last.
5
JEFF BROKE into a cold sweat, his body tensing in protest at what he had to do. Somehow, from somewhere, he had to find the strength to step away from her. For he knew without a doubt that if he took her now, he would lose her.
She was offering her body, her passion. An affair, glorious though temporary. He wanted her love. Her future. Everything she had to give. He wanted to offer the same. But she wasn’t ready to give or receive love. Only passion. And, God help him, that wasn’t enough. He’d thought it would be, but it wasn’t.
Taking a deep breath that burned its way into his lungs, he reached up with trembling hands and removed her arms from around his neck. Reluctantly he stepped back toward the glass doors that led into his house. Unaware that he was bringing the evening to an end, Autumn gave him a sultry smile that went straight to his clenched stomach. She spread her slender fingers across his chest, then leaned forward to plant a butterfly kiss on his jaw.
Jeff almost whimpered. But then he brought himself sternly under control and took her wrists in his hands, turning to walk inside with her. He didn’t pause in the den but kept walking, straight to the front door. “I had a wonderful time tonight, Autumn,” he told her, unable to make his voice sound completely normal. “Thank you.”
Her expression stunned, Autumn blinked and looked up at him as if she couldn’t quite believe she was hearing him correctly. “I had a good time, too,” she said finally, “but—”
Jeff reached for the doorknob, avoiding her eyes. “Drive carefully, okay? After all, it is late.”
“It’s not that late,” she replied curtly, and he could see confusion turning to annoyance in her emerald eyes. He could deal with her anger later, he assured himself, resisting an urge to cross his fingers.
“It’s after one. And I’m on call tomorrow,” he told her, deliberately casual. He dropped a light kiss on her unresponsive lips, smiled brightly, bade her good-night and politely closed the door in her astonished face.
He leaned weakly against that door for a moment before turning abruptly and heading back to the pool, shedding his clothes as he went and leaving them strewn behind him. He was halfway into his first lap before the sound of Autumn’s Fiero faded into the distance. He lost count of the laps long before he crawled out of the pool, quivering with exhaustion but still taut with frustration.
AUTUMN STARED at Jeff’s front door for a full minute before closing her mouth, spinning on one high heel and stalking to her car. She slid behind the wheel and slammed the door but could not bring herself to start the engine immediately. Instead, she sat in dazed silence, trying to decide what had just happened.
Jeff had thrown her out! First he’d kissed her like she’d never been kissed before, made her want him like she’d never wanted anyone, then he’d thrown her out! Slammed the door in her face, left her standing on the doorstep like…like a cat he was putting out for the night, she thought indignantly. A person could get whiplash from that abrupt a reversal!
Wouldn’t you know it, she thought glumly, eventually reaching out to turn the key in the ignition. I finally decide I’m mature enough and sophisticated enough to handle a brief affair, and I have to choose a genuine, old-time Southern gentleman who won’t take a woman to bed on the first date.
At least she assumed that Jeff had considered he was being courteous by ending their intimate interlude so unsatisfactorily. She would never believe that he hadn’t wanted her as badly as she wanted him. After all, she’d been pressed as closely against him as possible while they were still wearing clothes. The man had definitely been interested. Remembering the solid, heavy feel of him, she shivered with another ripple of desire. How could he leave her this way? she wailed silently, shifting uncomfortably on the vinyl seat.
It was during the cold shower she took before turning in that she decided she wanted Jeff Bradford, dammit, and she was going to have him! How dare he think that he was the one responsible for deciding how far their relationship would go, and at what rate it would proceed! She was a woman of the eighties, fully capable of deciding for herself whom she would sleep with and when. And though she had no intention of becoming seriously involved with Jeff, she would admit to being very attracted to him and willing, if not eager, to pursue that attraction to its logical conclusion. One night, a few weeks, perhaps even a few months, and they could go their own ways, Jeff to continue his search for a suitable doctor’s wife and Autumn to continue to work toward owning her own company.
Curled on the bed beside Babs a few minutes later, Autumn closed her eyes and tried to will herself to sleep. But memories of being held in Jeff’s arms, being kissed and caressed by him, continued to plague her until she groaned and buried her face in her pillow. She would make him pay for this, she thought vengefully. And she’d make him enjoy every minute of his punishment. Just as she would.
JEFF LIFTED the feverish toddler from the examining table and snuggled him for a moment against his shoulder. “Poor little fella,” he murmured for his tiny patient’s ears. “You really feel rotten, don’t you? Well, that medicine I just prescribed is going to make you feel better almost immediately, so just don’t you worry about it, you hear?”
With one last pat on the lethargic little boy’s diapered bottom, he passed the child to his mother, who smiled sweetly at him. “You are so wonderful with children, Dr. Bradford,” she told him gratefully. “You really should have some of your own.”
“I’m working on it, Mrs. Evans,” he replied cheerfully as he escorted her to the door, a hazy image of a child with red hair and emerald eyes flitting through his mind. Then he mentally laughed at himself for being an incurable optimist. At this point he’d be lucky to get another date with Autumn, and here he was fantasizing about having children with her!
Still thinking of Autumn, he sat behind the massive desk in his office and reached for his tape recorder to dictate diagnosis and treatment for the file of the child he’d just examined. He’d just snapped the recorder on when he was interrupted by Pam’s appearance in the doorway. “Well?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against his desk.
Jeff turned the recorder off. “Well, what?”
Pam sighed impatiently. “Have you called her yet?”
He knew who she meant, of course, but he couldn’t help teasing her a bit longer. Pam was so teasable. “Have I called who yet?”
“Darn it, Jeff, you know who! Autumn! Now tell me, have you?”
“No, Pam, I haven’t called her,” he answered, relenting.
“Well, why not? This is Friday! If you’re going to ask her out for this weekend, you’d better get busy. She’s probably got plans already. Or are you waiting for her to call you?”
“I’ll call her as soon as I get home this evening,” Jeff assured his partner, throwing an arm over the back of his desk chair as he smiled at her. “Now are you satisfied?”