Page 30 of One Night with the Doctor

‘How long have you known Brent?’ she asked distracting herself from the ridiculous craving.

‘Since uni.’

‘He seems like a real jack-the-lad.’

‘Oh, yeah.’ Sebastian nodded. ‘He wasn’t always, though. He was engaged at twenty to this girl from uni. He was besotted with her, wanted the white picket fence and two-point-four children, the whole catastrophe. She broke his heart.’

‘Twenty?’ Her mind boggled. How could someone know at that age they wanted to spend their entire life with one person?

Callie thought back to what she’d been like at that age. She’d been in the middle of her nursing degree and trying to keep her family together. Life had been chaotic. Frivolous things such as happily-ever-afters hadn’t been on her radar.

But, she supposed that’s what normal adults in their twenties did – she’d just never had the luxury.

Thankfully they’d arrived back at the hotel, passing the doorman on their way to the lifts. ‘Are you ready for today?’ he asked as he pushed the button a couple of times.

‘Ready as I’ll ever be,’ she replied, concentrating on the day’s programme and not the way his bicep bunched as he gave the button a third push. ‘You?’

‘Yep. Are you on before or after lunch?’

‘Before.’

‘Same here. Maybe we should do lunch afterwards – compare notes?’

Callie hesitated. Lunch was usually a stand-up affair with finger food. A time to network and mingle with other attendees. Not a cosy affair for two. But, oh, with perspiration making his shirt cling to flat abdominals, she was so tempted!

The lift arrived as Sebastian said, ‘It’s just lunch, Callie,’ and she was so grateful for the reprieve of the opening doors, she almost skipped into the lift.

Except it was a little too full for skipping. Sidestepping as they were herded to the back was more accurate, crowded in on all sides by bodies but conscious only of one.

‘Eleven please,’ Sebastian asked and Callie tried not to groan at the row of lit buttons she could just see through a gap between the press of body parts.

Like it or not, they’d caught a slow ride and they were going to be squashed close like this for way longer than was probably good for her sanity.

The doors closed and several people carried on their conversations while Callie feigned interest in the carpet. But the heat from Sebastian’s arm rubbed against hers and as more people got in and the passengers shifted to accommodate them, she was pushed closer until her breasts were brushing against his side and her nostrils were full of his healthy male scent.

No amount of carpet gazing could negate the fact that she was in an enclosed space squashed up against a sweaty, muscular man she was already way too hot for, at the mercy of her raging hormones.

When they reached their floor, Callie pushed through the people in front with an insistent, ‘Excuse me,’ practically jumping from the lift. She was almost at her door when Sebastian caught her up.

‘I’ll see you later, then?’

‘Yep.’ Callie’s lock whirred and clicked and she pushed open the door throwing a, ‘Good luck today,’ over her shoulder as she disappeared inside her room without looking back.

Callie had no idea if Sebastian was in the audience when she presented her paper on the latest clinical drug trial in which Jambalyn had been involved. The lights on the stage were too bright to see anyone from her vantage point and she hadn’t noticed him in the audience prior to the session commencing.

Despite knowing that several other sessions were running concurrently – most way more interesting than hers – she couldn’t quash a streak of disappointment.

None of the audience questions had come from him – not that they would, seeing that he’d been heavily involved in the trial too – and he wasn’t around afterwards either. She felt curiously flat about it as she helped herself to fresh muffins at morning tea and chatted with interested delegates about her paper and the anti-psychotic’s practical applications in a community setting.

And then it was Sebastian’s turn. Brent gestured to her when she entered the room and Callie made her way over, sitting when he patted the seat beside him. It was a few rows back but central with a great view of the stage.

Sebastian was busy talking to the tech guys and didn’t see her but it didn’t stop her gaze wandering to him as Brent kept up a running commentary of witty observations on the rest of the audience. Watching as Sebastian crouched down to accept a hand-held microphone, she couldn’t help but notice the tempting pull of his trousers across his truly fabulous backside.

She almost sighed as she remembered just how fabulous it had felt beneath her palms as he’d slid inside her over and over again.

‘Earth to Callie,’ Brent called.

Callie jerked her gaze off Sebastian. ‘I’m sorry.’ She smiled to cover her confusion. ‘What were you saying?’