Single Dads Collection. Lynne Marshall
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as shaken as she was.
Her whole body screamed in protest that he’d stopped and she looked at him in dazed confusion.
‘Jack?’
She saw him tense and then he turned to face her, his handsome face totally blank of expression. ‘Now do you see?’
She swallowed, finding it terribly hard to concentrate, still suffering from the aftershocks of his kiss. ‘Now do I see what?’
‘That kisses can get out of control.’ His eyes dropped to her parted lips, still swollen and damp from the ruthless demands of his mouth and then dropped further still to the outline of her breasts which pushed boldly against her dress. He dragged his gaze away and stared into the darkness. ‘That’s what would have happened if you’d invited David Armstrong back for coffee.’
Bryony stared at him in silence.
She felt as though the world had changed shape. As if everything should look different. It certainly felt different.
For her, their entire relationship had changed in an instant. The moment his mouth had touched hers, everything had become different.
But evidently he didn’t feel the same way.
Chewing her lip, she reminded herself that this was Jack. Jack, whose parents had divorced when he was eight and who had vowed never to get married himself when he grew up. And then he’d grown up and had shown no intention of changing his mind about that one fact. Jack didn’t do relationships. Judging from the few conversations she’d overheard between her brothers, Jack did sex and not much else.
But even knowing that, her whole body flooded with disappointment as she realised that obviously the kiss hadn’t meant anything at all to him. He’d actually been proving a point and in doing so he’d proved something to her, too.
That she’d been right all along about Jack.
He was an amazing kisser.
And she knew that the same thing would never have happened had she invited David Armstrong back for coffee. David might have kissed her, that was true, but she knew that there wasn’t another man on the planet who would make her feel what Jack had just made her feel.
But it was totally hopeless.
And the raw, sexual attraction she felt for Jack shouldn’t interfere with her determination to find a father for Lizzie, she told herself firmly.
That was just lust and lust always faded anyway. She needed a man who would be kind, good company and a caring father to Lizzie. She didn’t need raw sexual attraction. In fact, raw sexual attraction was starting to turn her into a nervous wreck.
So she lifted her chin and smiled at Jack, proud of how natural it seemed. ‘Well, thanks for the practice,’ she said lightly, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek, resisting the almost overwhelming temptation to trace a route to his mouth with the tip of her tongue. ‘I’d forgotten how to do it, but you reminded me. Now I know I’ll get it right next time I go out with David.’
And with that she opened the door, climbed out of the car and walked to her cottage without looking back.
DAMN. Damn. Damn.
What the hell had he done?
He’d kissed his best friend.
Jack stared after Bryony, trying to decide what shocked him most. The fact that he’d kissed her, or the fact that he hadn’t wanted to stop.
He sat in the car with the engine switched off, staring into the frozen darkness feeling as though something fundamental to his existence had changed.
Where had it come from? That sudden impulse to kiss her…
Blondie was family.
As much a baby sister to him as she was to Tom and Oliver.
And until tonight he’d never thought of her in any other way.
Or had he?
Had he really never thought of her like that or was it just that he’d trained himself not to?
He sat still, watching the house, and then suddenly the lights went on. He saw her walk into her cosy sitting room and shrug off her coat, revealing that amazing red dress and an avalanche of blonde hair.
For years he hadn’t seen her in a dress and suddenly she seemed to be wearing a different one every week.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, still able to detect the tantalising scent of her hair and skin. The instantaneous reaction of his body was so powerful that he gritted his teeth and shifted slightly in his seat, trying to find a more comfortable position.
There wasn’t one.
Suddenly, somehow, she’d invaded every part of him.
He’d made an unconscious decision never to cross that boundary but now he’d crossed it there was no going back.
Whichever way he looked at her, he didn’t see a surrogate sister any more. And he didn’t see his best friend. He saw a woman. A living, breathing, stunningly beautiful woman.
But he couldn’t do anything about it.
Lizzie was looking for a father. Someone strong who could swing her in the garden. Someone funny who’d let her watch television before school and who wouldn’t make her eat sprouts.
Well, he could do that bit with no problem. He wasn’t that keen on sprouts himself so he was more than happy to collude over their exclusion from their diet. And he had no trouble swinging her in the garden, hugging her and making her laugh. In fact, he was great at all those things.
The problem came with the last bit of her letter.
I want a daddy who will hug my mummy and stay with us for ever.
Jack leaned his head back against the seat and let out a long breath. He didn’t do for ever. He had trouble doing next month. The whole concept of ‘for ever’ frightened the life out of him.
And Bryony knew that.
She knew him better than anyone.
Which was probably why she’d looked so shocked when he’d kissed her. Hell, he’d been shocked! And now he was confused, too, which was a totally new experience for him. He was never confused about women. He knew exactly what he wanted from them.
Everything, as long as it wasn’t permanent.
Which meant that he had absolutely nothing to offer Bryony.
He started the engine and clenched his hands on the wheel. He had to stop noticing her as a woman. Surely it couldn’t be that hard? After all, he’d only just started noticing her that way. It couldn’t be that hard to go back to seeing her as his best friend.
He’d just carry on as they always had. Dropping round to see her. Chatting in her kitchen. And seeing other women.
It would be fine.
If working with Jack had been hard before the kiss, for Bryony it became even harder afterwards.
When he walked into a room she knew instantly, even when she had her back to him.
She didn’t need to see him. She felt him. Felt his presence with every feminine bone in her body.
And she noticed everything about him. The way the solid muscle of his shoulders moved when he reached up to yank an X-ray out of the lightbox, the way his head tilted slightly when he was concentrating on something and the way everyone always asked his opinion on everything. She noticed how good he was with anxious relatives, how strong and capable he was with terrified patients and how well he dealt with inexperienced staff. He was the cleverest doctor she’d ever worked