Page 30 of Prognosis Bad Timing

It was like a bucket of cold water. The bucket of cold water he needed. The fact that her body was lying on top of his, pressing and rubbing in all the right places, was temporarily forgotten.

Jesus.What the hell was he doing? He couldn’t be doing this.

Charlie sucked in a ragged breath before moving abruptly out from underneath her, displacing her rather inelegantly.

‘Sorry,’ Carrie said, groping for Dana’s favourite toy, her body already lamenting the distance. The buzz inside her cells grew to a roar, demanding to be sated.

‘No...I’m sorry...’

Charlie ran a frustrated hand through his hair. What the hell was he doing? What the hell had happened to his iron-clad self-control?

He couldn’t do this.

He still had over a week before he went for his final test. And even if he had been stupid enough to make one exception in his self-imposed celibacy, he didn’t even have a condom. And she was holding his financial strings.

Oh and she had a kid. He had to get out of here.

Now.

Carrie found the ‘off’ button and the silence was suddenly deafening as she rose from the bed and placed it in the basket beside the bookshelf. She could tell by the way Charlie’s gaze kept sliding to the door that there would be no more kissing tonight.

She cringed, thinking about how easy she’d been. How desperate she must have seemed. But still every cell in her body hummed with arousal.

‘I’m sorry...’ Charlie apologised again, his breathing still ragged.

God, what a mess. She looked so lovely, so desirable in the subdued light and he wanted nothing more than to push her back on the mattress and finish what he’d started. He had to clench his fists to stop himself following through.

‘I have to go. I can’t do this.’

‘It’s okay, I understand.’ Carrie injected a briskness into her voice that required supreme effort.

Sure, this liaison wasn’t wise but damn him to hell. Why did he have to tease her with the possibilities, and then snatch them away before she’d experienced their full potential?

Charlie drew a shaky hand through his hair. Arousal, hot and demanding still flushed through his system but she’d gone back to being Ms Pinstripe again.

Ms Untouchable.

For a moment there he’d had Ms Tie-Dye back and she’d morphed into Ms Touch-Me-Everywhere, and it had been wonderful. Self-loathing competed with the heat of his arousal. ‘I don’t think you do.’

Carrie shrugged. ‘It was a reality check. A lot of men freak out over getting involved with single mothers.’

Charlie opened his mouth to deny it and then shut it again. This thing between them was crazy. His life was on hold. And even if it came off hold next week, he didn’t need anything heavy in his life.

Not for a very long time. Perhaps never.

And what did he have to offer a single mother and her daughter? He sure as hell didn’t have any great parenting examples to draw on. Maybe it was best for her to think the worst of him?

He reached out to touch her shoulder, dropping his hand when she took a step back. ‘I really am sorry.’

Carrie heard the genuine note of regret in his voice and couldn’t bear it. She was frustrated and she just wanted to be alone with her foolishness. ‘Please leave.’

He seemed to hesitate for a beat or two before turning and walking out. Carrie didn’t watch him leave, didn’t move until she heard the front door clicking shut, then she kicked off her shoes and threw herself on the bed. Pulling her legs up to her chest she wrapped her arms around them trying to ease the ache between them.

Damn him. Damn Charles Wentworth to hell.

How stupid was she? Had she learnt nothing from the whole Rupert disaster? How could she fall for the attentions of another posh doc? Another man who ran at the thought of a child.

Thank goodness for Dana’s toy. If they hadn’t been interrupted she had no doubt that she would have gone all the way with Charlie and that would have been monumentally stupid.

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