Page 55 of Prognosis Incompatible

The mere thought made her sit up straighter and she felt a pain in her heart just thinking about it. She loved Marcus. And she wanted to tell him because her heart was so full of emotion at the moment she wanted to share the magic with him.

But she wasn’t brave enough to lose him over it either.

She may not have ever intended to fall in love with him but now she was here, she needed to be careful of her heart. He had an ex-wife who had left him with baggage — permanent commitment scared the hell out of him. She needed to tread gently.

Tonight might not be the night for declarations of undying love but she needed something to cling to. Maybe she just needed to start talking about the future a little more? Her feelings a little more. Maybe she could get an acknowledgement that they were more than rebound sex, that they’d moved on from there.

That they were in some kind of relationship.

She heard Marcus rustling around in the kitchen a few minutes later and her heart pick up its tempo.

Strike while the iron was hot?

Marcus stepped on to the deck. ‘Here you are,’ he murmured, leaning over and kissing her on the head.

He could see straight down her top from his vantage point behind her and Marcus liked what he saw - very much. He put his coffee on the table and nibbled down her neck, his hands sliding from her shoulders down under the collar of her shirt, until he was cupping her naked breasts. He rubbed his thumbs over her nipples and felt himself twitch.

Madeline shut her eyes and gave herself up to the erotic rub of his fingers. Her internal muscles tightened and she wanted to stretch and purr like a contented cat.

After a few more strokes, he growled into her neck then slowly unhanded her. Straightening, he collected his coffee and sat in the chair beside her and they sat in silence for a few moments, looking at the river.

Watching the breeze lift her curls off her neck Marcus felt the urge to nibble there return again. ‘Penny for them,’ he said.

Madeline glances at him, her heart beating a mad tattoo in her chest. Strike while the iron was hot. ‘We’re not having rebound sex any more, are we?’

Marcus looked assessingly at her earnest face. No, they weren’t. It had been an easy thing to continue to believe they were. There had been no insistence from her, no suggestion that it was anything else. No hints they make it more permanent, buy a ring, move in together.

But deep in his heart he knew they’d moved into a relationship. ‘No,’ he confirmed.

She smiled. That was the first hurdle.

He cocked his head. ‘What brought this on?’

‘I’ve been thinking about Trent and Abby and how fragile life can be,’ she said quietly.

Marcus nodded. It was hard not to reassess the course of your own life when confronted with someone else’s mortality. Especially a six-year-old boy’s.

‘I think I’m falling for you.’ Madeline didn’t know where the words had come from and cursed herself for letting them out. It hadn’t been her plan.

At least her disobedient mouth had the good sense to not completely blow her cover.

Marcus blinked. He waited for the alarm bells to start ringing and the denial to spring to his lips. But there was nothing. Just the intriguing possibility that Maddy was actually serious.

‘Aren’t you going to say something?’ she asked after long, silent moments.

Marcus stood and leaned against the railing, facing her and, when she slid her foot onto his thigh, he absently rubbed at it because he liked touching her. ‘You know that’s not the idea of a rebound thing, right? You’re supposed to just use me for sex. And then have several other sexually based relationships until you fall for someone else. I’m rebound guy. You’re supposed to use me up and leave me. It’s not wise to fall for rebound guy.’

Hmm. So he hadn’t rejected her outright. Madeline felt amazingly heartened. ‘Sorry.’ She shrugged and then smiled, obviously not that sorry at all.

He smiled back. ‘Think about it, Maddy. You’ve been with one person for ten years. You should have a period where you date other men, sample what’s out there before you chose from the menu.’

His foot massage although unintentional, was sexy as hell, and Madeline was finding it difficult to concentrate on the conversation. She’d found her entrée, main and dessert in one. ‘Is that what you want?’ she asked. ‘You want me to go off and date other men?’

Marcus stopped rubbing her foot. Was it? The thought of another man touching her, being with her, made him want to break things. She was his. He did things to her, and she did things to him that he’d never experienced before. He had no idea why he was playing devil’s advocate. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘No, I don’t.’

She smiled. ‘Good. That’s enough for now.’

She dropped her leg to the ground and walked into his arms. He opened his mouth to talk to her but she silenced him with a deep lingering kiss. ‘Don’t say anything, just take me inside and make love to me,’ she said softly.

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