Page 42 of One Night with the Doctor

Sebastian chuckled. ‘Yeah. She is.’

They sat locked together for a long while, neither saying anything. Just touching. Nothing sexual. Trailing fingers. Dropping a kiss. Rubbing a cheek. Not wanting to move, to disconnect.

Sebastian liked the weight of her legs wrapped around him, the feel of her breasts squashed to his back. But when he glanced at the time it was almost one and he stirred, knowing he had to go. Talking had been cathartic and the last thing he felt like doing was getting out of Callie’s bed.

But it was the rule.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, easing out of her embrace, rubbing the fatigue from his eyes. ‘I should go. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.’

She put her hand out, touched his shoulder. Slid it along the ridge that thickened into his neck then trailed it down his back. ‘Stay.’

Sebastian stilled, his heart suddenly thumping loud in his ears. He turned slightly, capturing her gaze. She knew him, this woman. Callie. She knew more about him than he’d ever let another woman know and he wanted to leave her bed about as much as he wanted to drill a hole in his head but he also knew her and she had to be sure.

If they were going to do this – it couldn’t be undone. ‘If I stay tonight, I’m going to want to stay every night.’

Because that was the truth of it. Leaving night after night had been getting harder and harder so, if they were going to do this, he didn’t want to undo it.

‘Good,’ she said with a smile and opened her arms.

‘Here you are.’

Callie glanced behind her and smiled, her heart doing a funny little giddy up in her chest. ‘Here I am.’

She’d woken early and had slipped out of bed to enjoy the early morning ambience of her deck. Leaning against the railing she could see over the rooftops of the neighbourhood, hear the stirrings of suburbia.

Wearing only a towel slung low on his hips, Sebastian padded across to her, stopping directly behind and placing his hands on her shoulders. She shut her eyes at his touch. He felt good and smelled better and she leant into him, turning her face slightly so she could rub her cheek against his hand.

‘Having second thoughts?’ he murmured, his mouth brushing down the side of her neck.

Callie sighed as goose bumps broke out along the trail he was blazing. ‘No.’

‘Why so pensive, then?’

She returned her attention to the houses and greenery of her neighbourhood. ‘I guess I’m just wondering what this means now.’

After all they’d shared last night, the thought of him leaving one day, of this having to stop and to never be with him like this again, was increasingly disturbing.

Callie could tell he was smiling from the way his lips curved against her skin. ‘I think it’s time to face it,’ he said, continuing his nuzzling. ‘We’re in a relationship. Just because we’ve been too wrapped up in each other to define it doesn’t change the facts.’

Relationship.

Before last night Callie would have shrunk from the word. It was a big word. With a lot of expectations. But it was suddenly very tantalising, too.

An adult relationship with a man she liked, whose company she enjoyed and who could make her laugh. Who could touch her body and make her see stars. But more than that, a man who shared himself with her and who understood, better than anyone, the things from her past that had shaped her into the woman she was.

She turned in his arms. His broad naked chest was warm and inviting and so damn sexy that even now in the middle of this momentous discussion she wanted to relieve him of his towel and give her neighbours a show they’d never forget.

‘The thing is, Sebastian, we’ve never really talked about us in any kind of future terms. I thought we were just living in the moment?’

‘I suppose we were. But I think that all changed, last night, don’t you? We transcended the moment.’ He kissed her nose, her forehead, before seeking and holding her gaze. ‘What if we were to keep this thing going? Even after I go back?’

Callie’s breath caught in her throat. A long-distance relationship? It was a startling thought to someone who didn’t have the best track record with maintaining romantic relationships at all let alone beyond the city limits. It was certainly one she’d never entertained.

But one, even now, despite the suddenness, was insidiously entwining itself in her grey matter. Was it possible?

‘Really?’

‘Sure, why not?’ He trailed a finger along her jaw and down her neck, a wave of goose bumps breaking out in its wake. ‘We’re having a good time. We’re both adults who are free to come and go with no commitments to other people. Who says we have to follow conventional rules? Melbourne’s only a two-hour plane trip from Brisbane. I can fly here or you can fly there. Or we can fly somewhere else and meet in the middle. There’s long weekends and holidays. Business trips. Why not?’