Page 16 of The Doctor's Promise
“Listen to me. This is crazy talk. Tomi died two years ago, and it had nothing, nothing to do with your accident. Christ, you nearly died! I saw you when they brought you in, Noe—”
“—you saw me?”
Rafa nodded, his eyes on hers. “They let me sit with you for a while until your family could get to you.”
Noemi stared at him. “I never knew that.”
Rafa smiled sheepishly. “I don’t think your sister approved of me. She thought it was a conflict of interest. Also, I think she thought… no. I don’t know what she thought.”
“Leo?” Noemi shook her head. “Leo can be, let’s say, judgmental. And protective. But she could have mentioned it.”
Rafa cupped her face with his palm. “So…?”
“So, for now… this stays between you and me.”
He nodded. The kid was obviously mixed up and who could blame her? He hadn’t meant to seduce her—guiltily, he’d recalled that he had been at that bar to meet someone on a blind date a friend had set up.
But his dreams had been haunted by Noemi Castor for so long. “If that’s what you want, Noe. You and me. For now.”
Noemi leaned in, obviously relieved, and kissed him. “This is a dream, I swear it is.”
He drew her close, her soft, pillowy breasts against his chest, her fresh, clean scent in his nostrils and the taste of her skin on his lips. “Then let’s keep dreaming. At least for tonight.”
“You don’t have to get back for Bepi?”
“He’s with Tomi’s parents for a few days.”
Right on cue, Mouse gave a plaintiff whine. She had been shut out of the bedroom long enough. Noemi and Rafa laughed. “Hold that thought, gorgeous man.”
Mouse leaped onto the bed as soon as Noemi opened the door and curved her furry body into Rafa’s. Noemi made a face at her dog. “Such a slut, Mousie.”
Rafa grinned at her and patted his other side. “I’m greedy, I want two beautiful girls next to me.”
Because of Mouse’s presence, they didn’t make love again, but chatted until Noemi fell asleep.
Rafa lay awake, gazing at her perfect face. He wondered whether he was doing the right thing; she was so young, so vulnerable, and yet it seemed impossible that they couldn’t be together. Making love to her had been sublime, exhilarating—just being inside her, he was in heaven.
But he could tell the young woman in his arms was damaged, and knowing he was as damaged… was this responsible?
Maybe he should concentrate on getting Noemi’s head right before he looked at himself. Or was that overstepping?
“Hell, I don’t know,” he whispered. Before Tomi, he’d always been terrible at figuring out relationships.
He tightened his arms around Noemi. They’d figure it out. He couldn’t imagine his life without her now.
The manoutside the woman’s apartment waited but Rafael Genova did not emerge. So, he was sleeping with the pretty girl—he wondered who she was.
It didn’t matter. If she got in the way, then she’d suffer the same fate as Genova.
Time’s up, beautiful people, he thought, and got back into his car, driving away into the Seattle night.
9
Chapter Nine
Noemi woke and for a long moment, she just reveled in the feeling of Rafa’s arms wrapped around her. She pretended that it wasn’t complicated at all—that this was just how things were supposed to be. That they had no other responsibilities other than to hold each other.
She opened her eyes and looked up at her sleeping companion. Rafa’s long, thick, dark eyelashes rested on his cheeks as he slept, and at rest, he looked younger than his forty years and less… troubled.
