Momentous Kisses: Love in Sandy Beach (10 page)

Russell’s mind was on his next patient, but the afternoon had been so tedious, he needed to get his energy level back up. He hurried to his office, intending to go for a short run in the little time he had.

He rounded the corner without slowing down, but a door opened and the next thing he knew, he was colliding with a woman – one who felt strangely familiar as he reached out hands to stop them both from tumbling to the floor.

When she raised her head, a pair of brown eyes with green flecks in them pierced him with a look as sharp and painful as a sword.
Allison. What’s she doing here?

Judging by the shocked expression on her face, she hadn’t expected to find him here.

Having his hands on her again sent hot and cold shivers across his body, despite his determination to forget her. His body betrayed him and reacted with a desire that threatened to steal away his common sense.
That’s the last thing I need. A hard-on in the hallway of the hospital.

He cursed himself, her, and his life in general before asking the obvious, “Ally, what are you doing here?”

“I…”

She didn’t finish her sentence, and the pain in her eyes intensified, if that was even possible. He grabbed her elbow tighter, his heart breaking at the agony in her gaze. He was about to usher her down the hallway to his office when his gaze fell on the nameplate next to the door she’d just stepped out of.
Dr. Bartel – Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

His mind swam with questions. Why would she come visit a doctor here in Chicago? Why wouldn’t she visit the doctor in Sandy Beach if she were ill?

Suddenly, the importance of the type of doctor she’d been to see hit him, and the jumbled pieces of their recent lives fell into place. The slipped condom. The stickiness he’d wiped from between her legs and her stomach. Her stomach sickness. Rushing away without explanation.

He grabbed her by both shoulders and pinned her with his stare, voicing his suspicions, “Are you pregnant?”

She stared at the floor and shuffled her feet, but the embarrassed blush on her cheeks was enough of an answer.

He slid an arm around her shoulders and softly, but determinedly, pushed her the remaining distance down the hallway until they reached his office. He escorted her inside, pushing her down on the padded bench that was the only other piece of furniture in the room aside from his desk and office chair.

He sat down beside her and listened to her heavy breathing, at a loss for what to say next.

After a few minutes, she moved her tiny hand into his big hand and his heart broke a bit more. She looked so fragile it hurt him deep down. He squeezed her hand in an attempt to convey comfort.

She spoke in a tear-laden voice, struggling to try and keep her composure: “Yes. And before you ask, it’s your baby.”

Russell swallowed. Hard. Having a suspicion had been one thing, but hearing her confirm it shocked him to the bone.

He wasn’t cut out for a relationship, much less being a father. Fear rushed down his spine at the enormous responsibility a child would mean, but in the same instant a warmth spread, starting from his chest, as images formed in his mind.

An image of Allison playing with their baby on the beach. Allison nursing their infant. Allison playing in the garden with their child.

He wanted to be part of that. If she’d let him.

Russell didn’t say a word, but moved to face her and used his free hand to tug a strand of hair behind her ear.
God, is she beautiful.

Even now, sad and desperate, Allison brought sunshine into his empty life. In this very moment he made a decision that would change both of their lives. He was going to fight for her and for his baby. To hell with his fears.

He was a grown-up man and he could do this. He had as much right as anyone else on this planet to be happy, and he was going to do everything within his power to see that Allison and their child would be part of his life.

I love her and our baby!

Allison couldn’t quit sobbing.
Of course, I’d have to run into him of all people.
It was as if her life was out to get her.

With his arm around her shoulders, she felt the sexual attraction between them spring to life and wondered for the thousandth time if running away had truly been the best option. She’d been so afraid to tell him she was pregnant, more so because she herself hadn’t wanted to face it. It had all been too much to take in and she’d run away from dealing with it.

But this problem wasn’t going to go away. At least not for another nine months or so.

Russell stared at her, complete shock on his face as she stammered out an explanation. “I wanted to tell you, but then I was afraid of how you’d react. I didn’t want you to think I’d planned this all along.”

He let her finish without interruption, and then he pulled her against his chest and kissed her in a tender, yet passionate way. She gave herself up to his kiss, to the soft slide of his tongue. Her tears dried up and by the time he raised his head, crying was the last thing on her mind.

“That day you left,” he said, “I came home to tell you I had made several decisions. I was ready to give our relationship a try and had a special evening planned out for us. Your leaving broke my heart. But I haven’t changed my mind. I still want to be with you. If you’ll let me.”

Allison searching his eyes, and the honesty she found softened her resolve. He pulled her against his chest and soothed her with gentle words and hands upon her spine.

They sat like that until her tears finally ran dry and she relaxed into his arms.
I could stay right here in his arms for the rest of my life.

The alarm on his phone broke their embrace.

“Sorry,” he told her, moving her back a bit and turning off the offending device. “That was reality reminding me I’m due in surgery in ten minutes. As much as I hate to leave you, I have to go.

“Do you want to go to my place and wait for me? I’ll come home right after this surgery and we can talk some more and decide what to do next.”

Allison nodded her head.

He pinned her with his blue eyes. “You’re not going to run away again, are you?”

“No. I’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”

Russell kissed her on the forehead and then smiled at her. “Good. God, I wish I didn’t have to go to surgery right now. But reality is a cruel mistress. See you in a few hours?”

She nodded and waited until he’d left his office before fixing her face as best as she could and leaving the hospital. She’d barely arrived at Russell’s apartment when her cell phone rang with the family ring tone, and she answered it without glancing at the caller ID, expecting Reese to check in on her. “Sis?”

“Allison? Hey, it’s Grant.”

“Grant? What’s up?”

“I was wondering if Russell had gotten ahold of you.”

All of the peace Allison had been feeling moments before vanished. “Uhm…why? What did he tell you?”

“Uh-uh. Slow, sister. Is there anything I should know about?”

“No,” she snapped. Okay, now he would know for sure she was hiding something from him.

His next question confirmed her belief.  “I know when you’re lying, little sis. Don’t tell me you got involved with him.”

“What would be wrong if I did? And why is that any of your business anyways?”

Another mistake. Grant would rightly assume she had something with Russell and would keep pestering her with his questions. To avoid that, she said, “Sorry, I’ve had a bad day. So why did Russell need to talk to me?”

Grant probably saw right through her lines of defense, and she could just about hear his grin on the phone. “Ally, do you really think I can’t see through your deflection technique? Where are you, by the way? I passed by Lake Memories but they told me you had the day off. And Reese didn’t know anything either.”

At least her sister had kept quiet. Sometimes she hated her tight-knit family.  They were always sticking their noses into each other’s business. Most of the time she was grateful for them and loved their caring ways, but not right now.

She didn’t want them interfering between her and Russell. This was something she needed to straighten out on her own.

When Allison didn’t answer, Grant continued, “Russell called me because he’d been trying to get ahold of you and your cell phone wasn’t picking up.”

“Hmm… that’s strange. I wonder if he’s been dialing the right number?”

“I don’t know. I did give it to him again.”

“Did he say what he was calling about?” she asked, hoping Russell hadn’t clued Grant in to their troubled relationship.

“He said something about his clinic wanting to buy some of your paintings.”

“Really? That’s good news. I’ll give him a call,” she told her brother, relaxing when she realized he was none the wiser.  “Thanks for letting me know.”

“No problem. Is everything okay with you?” Grant asked in his usual big brother tone of voice.

“Yes, everything’s fine.”

“Okay. Good luck selling your paintings. See you later.”

“Yeah, see you later.” She hung up the phone and grinned. She’d managed to deflect Grant’s suspicions and keep the fact she was in Chicago a secret.
Score one for the little sister!

She glanced at the clock on the wall and estimated she had a little over an hour before Russell would be home. They needed to talk, and they might as well do it over dinner.  Cooking would busy her hands and mind.

When she opened the fridge and saw it fully stocked, a happy smile spread over her face.

Russell hurried home after finishing up in the surgery room. His thoughts revolved around Allison the entire time. One question in particular had plagued him and he needed to get an answer before they went much further.
Why hasn’t she trusted me enough to tell me the truth?

As he entered his place and heard her moving around in the kitchen, a warm feeling took hold of him.
Like the sunshine has come back into my life again.

“Hello, Sunshine.”

She gave a start and turned around. The way she glanced at him with rosy cheeks and tenderness in her eyes, the sadness from earlier in the day gone, overwhelmed him and he couldn’t anything but love her.

I love her
. The feeling was so complete, so overwhelming he knew there was no way to avoid it or try to run away. And it felt good. Awfully good.

He walked into the kitchen, grabbed her around the waist, and gave her an impassioned kiss. But as he set her upright once again, guilt overshadowed his passion. “Sorry, Ally. I guess I should be more careful with you now.”

“I’m pregnant, Russ. Not sick. The doctor told me for the next four or five months I can do just about anything I like. Including sports and sex.”

She flashed him an inviting smile and plastered herself against his body, teasing the hard bulge in his pants with her hips. “Your colleague said there’s no reason to be careful.”

When Russell didn’t immediately respond, she pressed a hand between their bodies and asked, “You did hear me when I said there was no reason I shouldn’t have sex, right?”

Russell groaned as she wrapped her small hand around him, massaging his raging hard-on through his pants. “Yeah I heard.”

He sighed; he hadn’t wanted to ravish her like a starving man, but now that she was all but begging for it, how could he say “no” to her? He scooped her up into his arms and carried her towards his bedroom. “Be careful what you wish for, sweetheart.”

Allison giggled. “Why would I want to do that?”

Russell shook his head at her silliness, loving this side of her. He laid her down on the bed and kissed her face, starting with her lips and continuing all the way to her earlobes. He nibbled them until she made those sexy little moans he’d missed so much. Their plans to talk had to wait, as raw desire for her overtook him. He unbuttoned her blouse and kissed her stomach, which was as flat and beautiful as the week before.

His fingers slid down her stomach and he kissed his way to the waist of her skirt, murmuring “Hello, little darling, close your eyes and ears while Mommy and Daddy are making love.”

Allison giggled. “The baby can’t hear you, it is about three inches long by now.”

It still felt somehow odd, but as soon as he unhooked her bra and caressed her wonderful lush and firm breasts with his lips, he forgot everything other than the need to please her.

His tongue explored every inch of her breasts, taking extra time to tease her nipples by circling his tongue around them and slowly closing in to the taut and hard peaks.

Another sexy moan slipped from her throat and she squirmed beneath him, while she dragged his t-shirt over his head and let her hands wander over his back and his chest.

With his free hand he removed her skirt and found her panties already damp. His fingers slid up and down the silky material of her panties, her upper thighs, and back, trailing up her stomach to her other breast

While kissing up her stomach and down again, he squeezed both of her nipples between his fingers until he felt them growing even harder. His mouth reached her panties and he grabbed them with his teeth to drag them down her hips. Allison helped him to get them off, and a hiss of admiration escaped his lungs when she was lying naked beneath him.

She squirmed beneath him, naked and beautiful, hot and wet. He probed one of his fingers into her wetness, and found her more than ready for him. He’d never been more painfully erect in his life as he took off his pants and boxers briefs.

Allison tried to grab his head and have him kiss her on her mouth but he resisted. First he had to taste all of her. His hungry lips wandered down into her wet folds and kissed her. She tasted so sweet and full of promise. He took his time and teased that little love bud of hers that was already big and swollen. He felt her blood rushing and her arousal rising.

Her thighs tightened around his waist and she convulsed into a chain of spasms. Russell stilled until she calmed down from her earth-shattering orgasm before he started licking her again.

“No, Russell, please…” But she couldn’t finish the sentence, because the very same moment she burst out in another climax even more powerful then the one before.

When her breathing had returned to normal frequency, he reached for a condom out of habit. She shook her head at him, leaving him puzzled – even concerned.

“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”

Russell looked at the condom in his hand and then to her still flat belly. His child was growing inside of her. Yeah, way too late for protection.

He tossed the unopened prophylactic into the drawer and then lowered his body over her own, caging her in with his arms and his legs. “I guess you’re right.” He kissed her. “What about STDs?”

“I’m clean.”

Russell sighed. “So am I. I’ve never gone without protection.”

Allison giggled again. “Well, I wouldn’t say never…”

“Hey, we did try. It just didn’t work. And before you ask, that’s the only time it has ever happened.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I believe you. Are you done talking yet?”

Russell growled at her and nipped her shoulder where it joined her neck, causing her to moan in pleasure. He took her up the precipice once again, leaving her hanging there for long moments as he relearned her body. He’d missed her so much, and the outlook of sleeping with her without the extra layer took his breath away.

“God, you feel good,” he told her as she wrapped her legs around his thighs and pressed her hot core against his hard body.

“You’d feel even better if you quit tormenting me and got inside me,” she groused at him when he still didn’t claim her.

“Impatient, aren’t we?”

“Yes.” She arched up, grinning from ear to ear when she reached her prize and felt his body join with her own. “I need to be yours.”

Russell didn’t have to be asked twice. His throbbing erection longed for release. He drove into her, and the delicious sensation of her wetness around him threatened to crumble his self-control to dust.  Allison wrapped her legs around his waist and held him there, buried deep inside.

After a few moments he recovered part of his control and thrust into her with a steady rhythm. They were both so close to the edge, it only took a few strokes of his body inside hers before she was screaming his name and digging her fingernails into his back.

When his breathing returned to normal, he gazed into her brown eyes with those cute little green spots. Her satisfied smile warmed him, and the walls he’d carefully constructed around his heart during the last years fell crumbling down.

She snuggled up against him and said, “Russ, I’m never leaving your side. Not ever again.”

Russell’s chest wanted to explode with joy, as a dreadful thought entered his mind.
I’m supposed to go to Angola.
Not prepared for dealing with it, he pushed aside all thought of Angola, and asked, “When do you have to be back in Sandy Beach?”

“I have to work tomorrow, but not till later in the day. I’ll drive up there first thing in the morning.”

“Mmm. Sounds perfect to me. We can eat dinner and then maybe repeat?”

***

The next day, Russell called Toni from work. He invited her to join him for a beer at the end of the workday, excited to tell her about Allison.

“I’m so happy for you, Russell,” she said with a big sisterly hug. “Allison is the perfect woman for you.”

“Why do you say that?” he asked, curious as to what his sister saw in the woman he loved.

“She’s the exact opposite of you. You can be so serious and grumpy at times, but Allison is lighthearted and happy. You two will be good together. Opposites attract.”

Russell didn’t explain that he’d decided to leave the grief and pain behind him and move on, but she seemed to understand without words.

They left the bar and he dropped her off at her home. Then he decided he might as well deal with the elephant left in the room and called Cole.

“Hey, I was wondering if we could postpone my trip to Angola?”

“Man, not really. A few days, maybe. All the planning has been done; we assigned the nurses and have even booked your accommodation and flights already. Why? Do you have to stay longer in your clinic?”

Russell wasn’t ready to talk about Allison so he gave a noncommittal answer. “No. Just a birthday party, but it’s not that important.”

“Good.”

“Great. Talk to you again soon.” Russell hung up the phone, his heart heavy as he tried to figure out how to tell Allison about the Doctors Without Borders gig.

He struggled with it all week, knowing she wasn’t going to like the idea, especially since he’d have to leave her alone during her pregnancy. It was only for three months, but that was going to seem like a lifetime.

They spoke on the phone every night, but he never mustered the courage to tell her. He’d discuss it with her in person; that was how he justified waiting until the weekend when he’d drive up to Sandy Beach.