Page 85 of Back in the Saddle

‘God, yes.’

‘Don’t bring God into it. But maybe I’ll allow it.’ She raised her brow. ‘One hand only.’

Hunter didn’t have to be told twice; he squeezed her right breast, his breathing growing more laboured as it elicited a delicious moan from her.

Slowly, she lowered herself onto his penis, and his breath caught.

‘Two hands, please.’

She chuckled, her fingernails pressing the sides of his ribs. ‘Hm. I don’t know.’ She moved in an agonisingly slow circle. ‘You think I’d like it better?’

‘Yes,’ Hunter growled, his voice becoming raspier with every motion of her hips. He held her left buttock with hisother hand, digging his fingers into it hard. ‘I think you’d like it.’

She moaned, her eyes closed, her head threw back with her hair spilling over her bare shoulders. ‘Hunter.’

It was just his name, but he took it as not only permission but a sign. He moved his hand away from her ass and onto her breast.

As their joined bodies moved in rhythm, going from slow to soon more frantic, Hunter’s mind went completely blank. It was all the feel of her around him, the walls of her vagina, her thighs, her fingers on his chest … His hands on her breasts, her ass …

Hot and sweaty mess.

Hunter wasn’t sure if there was lightning flashes outside, but he was sure struck by one when Caroline came.

Her scream liquified his insides and pushed him over the edge.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Caroline

Caroline tried to convince herself there was nothing to tell and that there wasn’t any need to bring Hunter up at work. Well, if she was honest with herself, maybe she didn’t want to bring him up at all. Despite what she had told Gian, she hadn’t found a way to start the topic up with Anna yet.

She didn’t think she and Hunter were crossing any ethical lines. But sex had changed things. It somehow always did, either not having it or having it.

Most importantly for her, having it was the first time that she’d allowed herself to get lost in the moment. To enjoy the undeniable, electric connection that was developing between them and kept on pulling her in. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to stay away. She didn’t want to either.

Maybe she should feel guilty. Despite their mutual decision to split up, legally Finn was still her husband. And shedidlove him. But not like that. He had never made her feel the way Hunter did.

Her body felt hot every time she thought about their limbs tangled up in a passion she hadn’t known was even possible.

Right now, Erin was the only one who knew the whole truth, but not for long. Caroline knew she had to speak with Anna to see if she should step away from the melanoma trial. It didn’t feel right to keep working on it while doing whatever it was she was doing with Hunter. Of course, it wasn’t him who was enrolled on the trial, it was his father. And she wasn’t Alan’s doctor, just someone who collected and analysed the data. The trial was an open label, which meant that all the participants received the active treatment. There was no risk of putting herself in a situation where she would have to choose between the trial’s integrity and Hunter’s father’s health. However, it still didn’t feel right.

What if Hunter asked her about the results? Or any other confidential information to which she had access, like the protocol or interim data? She’d never been in such a situation. They covered different situational judgement scenarios at medical school and beyond.What should you do if a patient asks you out on a date? What should you do if the patient asks you for your social media profile? Why is it inappropriate to discuss medical care if you meet the patient in a supermarket? But these were all based in the clinical setting.

Here, she felt a bit in the grey, and she didn’t like it. She was still a doctor, although she wasn’t currently practising. More to the point, she had a very strong sense of right and wrong. She didn’t want to go any further in her personal life until she sorted this out.

At exactly 10.45 a.m., she finished adding in comments to a draft manuscript with recent data read-out from the multiplemyeloma clinical trial and circulated it to the remaining authors. She checked Anna’s Outlook calendar and felt a mix of relief and nervous anticipation when she saw an hour-long opening until lunchtime.

Now’s as good a time as ever, she thought resolutely.

‘Come in!’ Anna’s voice called through her office door as soon as Caroline knocked.

She took a deep breath and stepped inside.

It was a spacious, sunny room filled with modern, sharply designed furniture. Everything, from the big windows to the minimalistic bookshelves covering the entire wall to the neatly organised desk, was very different from the maximalist, moody décor in Anna and Gian’s apartment.

The only personal touch seemed to be the photographs. There was one of Gian, proudly taking up space on the desk. Then there was one of a much younger Caroline, Clara and Caitlin; it must’ve been taken the last time Anna visited Aberdeen. The final photograph she recognised was of a younger Anna with a light-haired, radiant woman wearing red lipstick.Siobhan.

Caroline looked sadly into her mother’s unmoving eyes but turned her head away before she got sucked into melancholy.

---