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  Either way, the result was the same: hot coffee spilled everywhere. Quickly.

  Black liquid pooled and spread over the coffee table and then threatened to spill on the small runner that ran beneath it.

  A mad scramble for something to wipe up the coffee before it could reach anything else somehow led to a great deal more sudden, unexpected contact. That in turn led to forgetting all about potential coffee stains on cushions, runners and tabletops.

  But she looked at his suit jacket and suit and was simply horrified. He was soaked. “I am so sorry,” she apologized, feeling awful. “I got coffee on your suit,” she said, in case the dampness he was feeling wasn’t enough of a clue.

  Ethan waved away her apology. “Nothing a dry cleaner hasn’t seen before, I’m sure,” he told her. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “I’ll pay for it,” she quickly volunteered.

  But he shook his head, turning down her offer. “I can still afford to pay for my own dry cleaning.”

  “I didn’t say you couldn’t,” she protested. “But it is my fault that the coffee spilled on your suit.”

  He could tell that she was about to rush off to get who knew what from the kitchen in order to try to erase some of the damage that had been perpetrated on his suit. Wanting to reassure her that everything was all right and that she hadn’t accidentally ruined anything of importance, Ethan put his hands on her shoulders just to anchor her in place.

  When she looked up at him, another apology hovering on her lips, the expression on her face seemed to burrow directly into his chest, taking his heart hostage.

  Time suddenly stood still, making him keenly aware of absolutely everything. The way she was breathing, the way he could see her pulse throbbing in her throat. Most of all, it made him extremely aware of how much he wanted to kiss her at this very moment.

  But if he did kiss her, Ethan thought, would she think he was just trying to take advantage of her, of the moment that had been accidentally created?

  The debate was an extremely short one, because before he even realized it, Ethan was kissing her.

  Instead of that simple act being the end of the matter, one kiss seemed to naturally lead into another—which in turn led to a third.

  And then, suddenly, it felt as if someone had lit a match, not just under him, but under her as well. Passion just exploded between them.

  Each kiss aroused a deep-seated hunger that he hadn’t even been aware of existing until this very moment.

  Working all those long hours at the clinic for the last nine months had drained him to the point that the only thing he had enough strength for was the drive home and then getting to his bed once he had unlocked his door.

  Because his schedule was so hectic and full, Ethan found that he didn’t even have any time to miss being with Catherine—not that there was all that much to miss after a while.

  And if, as a man, he had missed the spirit-rejuvenating intimacy of lovemaking, he had never been the type who just availed himself of any willing woman to satisfy his mounting needs and urges. Instead, he had always needed to feel something for the woman he was with in order for the experience to be satisfying.

  He felt something for Liz. So much so that he grew more and more aroused with every kiss that they shared. He became so aroused by her that he was beginning to have serious doubts he could put on the skids if he had to.

  Which was why, even as he was sliding the zipper of her dress down her back, he forced himself to pull his head back. He looked at her, his eyes searching her face for an answer.

  “Are you all right with this?” Ethan asked her, his voice thick with desire.

  “Any more all right and I’d be on fire right now,” she answered.

  Then, to prevent any more conversation between them, which she saw only as delay, she stood up on her toes and surprised Ethan by sealing her mouth to his.

  Anything else he might have wanted to say or ask dissolved in the heat of the moment and vanished.

  Liz could feel her dress sinking down, then pooling around her ankles, resting there like a discarded blue cloud. Her body on fire, she began to tug away his coffee-dampened shirt—his jacket had already become a casualty along the way, on the floor now beside her newly removed gown.

  Once she managed to get his shirt off his shoulders and down along his body, that left only his slacks as a barrier.

  Her fingers felt like they had all turned into thumbs as she struggled to undo his belt.

  In the end, he was the one who unnotched the belt, sending both his belt and his slacks down along his sinewy body and legs until they, too, became part of the discarded, forgotten heap on the floor.

  They hardly took any notice. They were far too busy tangling their limbs together in an effort to feel the reassuring, overpowering warmth of bodies that were in search of one another, desperate to be completed. Wanting to complete the promise of what was being created in the wake of strong waves of desire.

  Ethan wanted to rush the process, to get to the ultimate moment, but instead, he forced himself to take his time, savoring every part of her that was available to him.

  His hands as well as his lips slid along Liz’s warm, willing skin, feasting as if he had never been confronted with anything like this before. There had been a few women in his life before he had gotten engaged, but there hadn’t been any since he and Catherine had gone their separate ways. He was reveling in this very heated moment, enjoying making love to every part of her as if he had never experienced lovemaking before.

  Because, in a way, he hadn’t. Certainly not with this sort of intensity, this fervor. It felt all brand-new to him. And, in a way, it was.

  Liz could hardly catch her breath.

  Ethan was doing things to her that she had only fantasized about. Granted, she wasn’t a total novice to all this, but right now it almost felt as if she was. What was happening to her now was the difference between a chaste kiss and plunging, headfirst, into a swirling kaleidoscope of wild, unending heated emotion.

  Liz drew in a long breath. She desperately wanted this to be an equal experience for both of them, but each time she felt she could reciprocate, he would begin doing something else, something even more wondrous, to her body, to all of her, practically sending her over the edge. Liz completely lost herself in the magic of his mouth, his igniting touch.

  When he moved his mouth down lower, teasing her very core until she almost screamed as first one climax, then another rocked her body, she fell back, spent and thinking that would be the end of it.

  But it wasn’t.

  It was just the prelude to what was to follow. Ultimately, he rocked her entire world two more times. And then he finally slid up along her heaving torso until their eyes were level. And then, as he captured her mouth again, she could feel him moving her legs apart, feel him becoming one with her. And once he had, he began to move, at first slowly, then more and more intently.

  And faster.

  With every move that Ethan made, Liz echoed.

  Each move caused them to run madly together, striving to reach the very pinnacle of the mountain at the same time.

  And when they finally did, that one moment seemed to freeze in time briefly. And then it finally exploded, sending them tumbling back to earth at breathtaking speed, clinging to one another in hopes of somehow preserving this one moment in time and making it last for all eternity.

  But it didn’t, although the euphoria did manage to linger for a while, enveloping them both in a soft, warm tissue of ecstasy, whispering seductively to them in words they couldn’t really hear or make out. They could only feel the unspoken words silently undulating along their skin, a whispered memory to store away.

  And that was enough for now.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Making love with Liz had been far more spectacular than he could have ever anticipated.
Even so, Ethan had only intended to remain in bed with Liz for a little while longer. After that, he was going to get dressed and go home. He had not planned on lying with Liz in her bed after they had made love for a second time—at least, not for long.

  And he certainly had not intended to fall asleep while lying there with her.

  But he had.

  Whether it was exhaustion that enveloped him or a feeling of euphoric contentment that did it, he really didn’t know. The only thing he did know was that one minute he was awake, and the next minute he had just drifted off to sleep, his arm still tightly wrapped around Liz’s waist.

  To make matters worse, he only realized that he had fallen asleep when he woke up the following morning. He woke up suddenly, roused out of a deep sleep by the strong, tempting scent of breakfast.

  Ethan took a deep breath. Scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese if he didn’t miss his guess, all of which was being prepared just a very short distance away.

  His stomach rumbled in response, reminding him that it was empty.

  Ethan pulled himself up into a sitting position. Even so, it took several seconds for his mind to catch up to his body. When it did, it began to orient him as to where he was as well as what day it was—minor facts that seemed to have gone missing from his brain when his eyes first opened.

  The next glaring fact that burst on his brain like a water balloon that had found its target was that he was alone in this queen-size bed. It was something that hadn’t been true when he’d drifted off to sleep—or he wouldn’t have fallen asleep in the first place. He would have just gone home at that point.

  It also occurred to Ethan that, other than the sheet that was now wrapped around his body like an ill-fashioned cocoon, he was naked. Not the best way to greet a new day in a strange bedroom, he thought as he tried to remember just where he and his clothes had parted company.

  And then, just like that, it came back to him. He needn’t have worried. His clothes—his suit, shirt and the rest of it—were sitting about two feet from him, all neatly folded on a chair that looked rather out of place in the functional bedroom. His best guess was that Liz must have brought the folding chair in to have some place to put his clothes so that they were the first thing he saw when he woke up.

  Ethan hurried into them now, noticing that Liz had somehow managed to get the coffee stains out of his shirt and that she had dried it.

  Fully dressed now, Ethan went into the kitchen in search of the woman who had managed to upend his world so intensely just a few short hours ago.

  His brain still a little foggy, he found Liz in the kitchen just putting breakfast on the table. Another first for him, he thought, a warm feeling seeping into him. Breakfast usually came in a paper bag with a fast-food logo on its side, as did most of his lunches and dinners.

  He indulged himself for a moment, watching her move about the kitchen, getting things ready.

  “Hi.”

  Busy hurrying to get everything ready and on the table before she had to leave, the single-word greeting coming out of nowhere like that really startled her, and Liz jumped.

  “You’re up,” she said needlessly, swinging around to look at him.

  Ethan’s easygoing smile was just a little endearingly crooked. “So are you,” he observed.

  A wave of awkwardness washed over Liz. This was an entirely new experience for her, having someone she had made love with the night before waking up in her apartment the next morning. Liz found herself at a complete loss as to what to say.

  Banter with a fare was one thing—banter with a lover was entirely another matter.

  So she fell back on the obvious.

  “I made you breakfast,” she said, nodding at the table.

  “It certainly looks that way,” Ethan acknowledged. “And it smells really great.”

  The compliment seemed to relax her, and she smiled at her guest now. “And it doesn’t taste bad, either.”

  Ethan glanced around the small kitchen. Everything had been washed and neatly put away. On those really rare instances when he did a little cooking, his kitchen looked as if a traveling circus had come through it, leaving chaos and a huge mess in its wake.

  “Anything I can do to help?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Liz answered. “You can sit down and eat.” Taking the chair opposite him, she sat, her shoulders looking slightly tense. And then he found out why. “I don’t mean to rush you, but I’m going to have to leave very soon.”

  Six days a week, he worked like a demon from dawn to long after dark in some instances. But Sunday was his day off, and unless he got called in for an emergency—which had been known to happen—Ethan made a point of kicking back and catching up with the rest of his life.

  Or just relaxing.

  Although he hadn’t given today any specific thought as to its structure, he was disappointed now to find out that Liz was going to be leaving shortly.

  “You can’t take a little more time off?” As he asked the question, Ethan absently cut into his omelet and put a forkful of it into his mouth. The flavor that greeted him exploded on his tongue like an unexpected surprise. He looked at her, pleased. “Hey,” he cried, “this is really good.”

  Her smile moved from her lips up to her eyes. “Thank you.”

  “I mean, it’s really good,” Ethan emphasized, aware that compliments in Catherine’s world fell like rain during the rainy season and left about as much of an impression.

  But he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had anything that resembled home cooking. So-called home-cooked meals that he made emerged out of his own kitchen and were, for the most part, things he threw together that initially came in a box that had microwave heating instructions printed on the side.

  “Thank you,” she said, then added, “I don’t usually try to poison anyone with my cooking on a first date. Glad that you like it.”

  “Like it?” he echoed incredulously. “I’m tempted to propose to it.”

  Amused, Liz laughed as she shook her head. “Didn’t anyone ever cook for you?”

  Ethan knew she meant his fiancée, but he didn’t go there. Instead, he answered, “My mother tried when I was a kid. She was a warm, loving person, but my mother and the stove had an ongoing feud that went on for years. She finally gave up and surrendered, allowing the stove to win. Takeout became a way of life in my house.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” Liz said with genuine empathy. “My mother wasn’t much of a cook, either,” she confided. “But my stepfather was. He was always in the kitchen on Sundays, creating all these wonderful meals. He taught me everything he knew,” she said, a fond look descending over her face for a moment as she thought of those years.

  The next moment, she was back in the present—and the present required that she get moving. Finishing her breakfast, she quickly rose and went to wash off her dish and fork.

  “I take it by the way you just consumed your breakfast that it’s a no on you taking any more time off today,” Ethan surmised. He paused to savor another bite of the breakfast she had so expertly prepared.

  She looked really contrite as she told him, “I’m afraid not today. I promised the person who took over my shift yesterday that I’d double up and take over theirs today.”

  “All right,” he said. “How about when you’re done?”

  Liz did a quick calculation. She’d be cutting it close, but it was doable. “Barring any massive traffic jams, I’ve got an hour between when that ends and my makeup bartending shift begins—”

  “I’ll take it,” Ethan told her quickly. And then he took her hectic lifestyle into account. “Unless you have something else you’d rather do for that hour.”

  “To be honest,” she told him, “I was planning to study for a test I’ve got coming up later this week—”

  He couldn’t very well put himself above her plans to earn a colleg
e degree. “Oh, well, then—”

  “But I’ve got that pretty much down pat,” she went on. “Why?” she asked, her mouth curving. “Just what did you have in mind?”

  Doing anything with you, he silently answered. Out loud he said, “I thought it might be a nice day to take a walk on the beach or have a picnic in the park. What I do isn’t really important.” His eyes swept over her, drinking in every tiny nuance that was Liz Bellamy. “It’s the company that matters.”

  She had to admit what he was saying sounded wonderful. But Liz was very aware that from everything she had gathered, the handsome young doctor who had also turned out to be a fantastic lover could very well be on the rebound right now. If he was, then the feelings he thought he was having might not actually be real.

  “Are you sure about this?” Liz asked. “Wouldn’t you rather be doing something else on your one day off? With someone else?”

  “The answer to both those questions is no,” he told her in all seriousness.

  Finished with his breakfast, Ethan rose from the table to bring his plate over to the sink the way that she had.

  But Liz got in his way and took the plate from him. She brought it over to the sink herself, quickly washing it. She placed it on the rack to dry next to her own plate.

  “Well, if you’re sure about that—” she began.

  “I am,” Ethan answered her without a second’s hesitation.

  Liz knew she shouldn’t be getting carried away like this, but she couldn’t help it. Smiling at Ethan’s response, she told him, “Then I’ll meet you when my shift is over. Just tell me where you’ll be.”

  Ethan didn’t bother to pretend as if he took her answer in stride. It was obvious that he was very pleased. “Tell you what, I’ll make it easy for you,” he told Liz. “How about right outside your apartment?”

  She looked at him, uncertainly. “You’re going to stay here?”

  “What? No,” he assured her. “I’m going to go back to my place so I can shower and change into something a little less formal than a tux,” he quipped. “But I’ll come back here later,” he promised. He realized that he was making plans for them without consulting her. “Unless you have something else in mind.”