Rescue Nights (12 page)

‘Abso-bloody-lutely,’ she replied, as she pulled away from his grounding grasp, her green eyes meeting his evaluating gaze.

Her reply certainty got a laugh from the nearby waiting Reid. He beckoned Andrew, so he left the girls to their goodbyes and went to the side of the room with the man.

‘We are going the other way to the manager’s quarters,’ said Reid.

Andrew wondered why the man was sharing this trivia with him. He knew already that Lucy lived in the opposite direction.

‘Lucy must trust you,’ Reid continued. ‘It is not every man that she would leave with her tipsy best friend.’

Andrew looked at the stocky police officer and knew that according to secret men’s code this was as much a warning as a compliment.

‘Hey, we are colleagues,’ he reassured. ‘Of course, I will get her home safely.’

Reid raised his eyebrow in reply, went to his girlfriend and wrapped his arm around her, letting his hand rest securely on the dent of her lower back. Andrew envied him that intimacy. It had been too long since he had shared that level of comfortable touch with a woman.

‘OK big boy, let’s get home.’ Kate’s words brought him back to the present.

‘Bye guys.’ At least he and Reid didn’t need to share enthusiastic kisses on both cheeks and numerous ‘call me in the morning’s.’

He finally found himself walking along the wooden boardwalk with Kate padding along beside him.

‘Don’t they make a good couple?’ Her slightly too loud question broke the late night stillness.

‘Yeah, nice. Although I couldn’t imagine her with a policemen until we met.’

‘That is because you are very probably, very maybe a snob, Andrew.’

Turning around to watch her, Andrew could see the overly deliberate way she put one high-heeled shoe in front of another on the wooden surface. He put his hand under her elbow, again, and did his best to ignore the softness of her skin.

‘I’m certainly not that, not that I expect you to believe me.’ He pitched his voice low, even in protest; after all, they were very close to darkened bungalows in which people were trying to sleep. ‘Even with his tattoos Reid just seems unlike what I imagined Lucy’s taste to run to.’

‘I think Lucy had enough of well-heeled hotel guests who hit on her, whether or not they had wives and partners at home. Reid is a good guy. He is a great cop and has the added bonus of being sexy as hell.’

Andrew was going to ask her if she had hunted in that particular pond but decided against it. Kate, however, didn’t seem to share his restraint.

‘Doctor, who gets your engine running?’ she asked, turning an amused gaze towards him.

Even drunk, Andrew knew better than to reply the current truthful ‘you’.

‘I don’t really have a type,’ he parried instead.

‘What a lie, everyone has a type.’

‘Not everyone does.’ Andrew maintained, trying to ignore the fact that in her enthusiasm she had brought his hand to her side where it tantalizingly brushed again her breast. That proximity, even in an accidental pass, had his suit pants tightening.

‘Are you going to make me guess?’

Andrew didn’t answer, although Kate didn’t seem to need verbal encouragement now her thoughts were on a runaway train.

‘Smart but not too smart,’ she started. ‘Flexible schedule, so she would never complain about your hours. Definitely immaculately groomed. Posh enough to not embarrass you at a Christmas party, so I’m thinking a perfect but invisible accent. And you are fit so she’d need to have a rocking body too.’ Kate came to a stop, forcing him to do the same. ‘Perfect hair as well. Come on, how did I do?’

‘Terribly,’ Andrew replied. He wasn’t going to tell her that she had described both his former fiancé and the three girlfriends previous to that. ‘Maybe I’m into girls with an Essex accent who give great blow jobs.’

Standing in front of him, Kate burst into laughter. She was so loud that he put his hand over her mouth in an effort to stop her waking the neighbours.

‘Shh,’ he said, keeping his body away from hers lest she feel the bulge in his pants at the feel of her lips against his hand.

There was some relief as the noise ceased, but then her wet mouth opened and she not so gently applied her teeth to one of his fingers.

‘Damn it. Jesus, Kate you didn’t have to bite me,’ he said, as he pulled back his hand, more in shock than in pain.

‘I just wanted to know how you figured out who is going to provide the good head. Let’s face it, everyone wants tips on finding a talented person to go down on them.’

Breaking away from the frank twinkle in her eyes, Andrew didn’t bother to suppress a chuckle. He put his hand, still slightly stinging on the pad of his index finger, into his suit pants and started walking again.

‘It is an economies of scale kind of thing,’ he said. ‘After you’ve tried enough, you’ll find you just know.’

Talking about sex with her walking beside him was seriously distracting but he couldn’t help asking, ‘OK, I’ve spilled, so to speak. What kind of man sparks your interest?’

‘Who said it is men who interest me?’

Andrew almost stumbled over his feet but regained his rhythm. The light of flirtation he had seen in her eyes earlier quickly put paid to any doubt. Kate was straight.

However, he played along. ‘New question,’ he ventured. ‘What qualities, in a gender neutral person, turn you on?’

Kate shrugged expressively, ‘I wouldn’t turn down a talented mouth. I like clever and for me there is no too clever. Men who are doing something with their lives, and handsome doesn’t hurt either.’

For the first time in a long time, Andrew worried if a woman found him attractive enough. He kept moving, hands in pockets, facing forward until they reached the end of the boardwalk and their villas.

Kate fumbled in her evening purse for the key-card to open the door. ‘I like the privacy that comes with being out here in the rainforest. You’re the only neighbour who could complain about a loud TV or music. And seeing you came home at the same time as me, I don’t think you’ll be able to complain about the volume.’

With a soft exclamation of triumph, Kate pulled out her card. She had a look of accomplishment at this simple task, something which told Andrew she was still intoxicated.

‘Would you like to come in for a Berocca?’ she asked. ‘Maybe it will perform magic and stop tomorrow’s almost inevitable horrible hangover.’

Andrew had the moment of indecision of a man who wasn’t sure he was being hit on.

Kate obviously wasn’t so drunk she couldn’t recognize that. ‘Berocca, Andrew. Not sex, just Berocca.’

‘OK,’ he said. The way she was now hopelessly trying to get the card into her door lock, it seemed that accepting her invitation was the only way of getting her inside.

After pulling the card out of her hands and getting the lock to click open, he turned to Kate. ‘You’ll have to stick to cold hangover cures. I don’t think I’d trust you with any sort of boiling liquid.’

‘That is totally unfair,’ Kate protested. ‘I only drank the same amount as you. And for the official part of the evening I hardly drank at all.’

‘I’m a fair bit taller. And a hell of a lot wider. And I’m sure the whole team is grateful that you didn’t start drinking earlier. A tipsy paramedic is hardly going to inspire confidence.’

Dropping her bag as she went towards the villa’s small open plan kitchen, Kate also kicked off her high heels, leaving them where they lay in the hallway. ‘That is the highly unfortunate part of being sober at most events. It only takes four drinks to get me like this.’

Andrew propped himself against the kitchen bench. ‘Med school is what built up my alcohol tolerance.’

Kate had flicked on the living room’s television before she reached into the cupboard for the red tablets. Andrew didn’t have the heart to tell her that nothing was going to stop her waking up in the morning without a headache.

‘OK,’ she said, after pushing the fizzing glass towards him. ‘I’m going to get in my pyjamas before the Real Housewives marathon starts.’

Not giving him time to reply, Andrew could only watch as she walked towards the bedroom door pulling on her dress’s zipper.

Despite her frank talk earlier, he genuinely didn’t think this seemed to be a come-on.

His breath caught in his chest when she only kicked the door half closed. Probably a gentleman would look away, but he was damned if he was going to. Damnit, if she really wanted her privacy, her bedroom had a door that fully closed; hey, it even locked.

The dress peeled away and exposed a strapless bra and very, very brief black panties. Her body rocked. Long sleek thighs and high breasts beautifully displayed.

However, Andrew did see something that jolted him out of his lusting haze.

‘What the hell, Kate?’ he called out.

She started and he realized that her impromptu strip had definitely not been for his benefit.

‘What is that?’ Andrew continued, moving away from the kitchen bench and towards her doorway.

The ‘that’ was a huge blackish purple bruise, running down her left side, from her ribcage to mid-thigh.

Kate had belatedly registered his gaze and slung her arm across her chest.

‘It’s nothing. I took a knock when we were loading that cargo crewman. It happens all the time.’

Andrew was suddenly furious. She must have been walking around in quite considerable discomfort for days.

‘What medical professional has confirmed that you didn’t chip a rib or bruise a kidney?’ he asked.

His harshness was enough that the still tipsy Kate took a step back. One arm still bracketed her breasts and Andrew couldn’t break it to her that in pushing her breasts up, she was doing nothing for any attempt at modesty.

‘I looked at it,’ Kate protested. ‘That funny thing that is my university degree allows me to assess injuries.’

Andrew turned his back; she probably didn’t want to see what was tenting his formal pants.

‘I’m looking at it before I leave here tonight, so you might want to get it over with now. And if you are lucky enough to just be bruised, think yourself doubly lucky that I’m not going to report you for breaking protocol. Any injuries that you get onsite have to be seen by me or another doctor at Cairns Base Hospital.’

‘I’ve seen how many drinks you had tonight Andrew. This isn’t exactly the most professional medical assessment of the year.’

Andrew turned towards where Kate was standing. She had pulled an old t-shirt over her head but her legs were gloriously bare.

‘I’ll look at it again tomorrow or you can go to hospital for a medical report. I’m just going to check to make sure that you aren’t going to die on me tonight. I haven’t had so many drinks I can’t correctly diagnose a blood clot. Apart from anything, I don’t want to have to train another paramedic on how I like my med bags packed.’

‘Tool,’ was the word he was sure he heard murmured under Kate’s breath.

Andrew went to the leather sofa that was identical to his own, and sat down. He motioned for Kate to come and stand between his legs.

She moved but was still too far away. Andrew put his hand on her hip and pulled her closer.

‘You are going to have to pull that top up,’ he said, glad to hear no break in his voice. He didn’t want to be so affected by the sight of her perfect body — within just scant inches of his.

Kate gathered her top up and held it just under her bra. A good look at the extent of her bruising gave him some professional distance

‘Ouch,’ he said, in sympathy.

Andrew tried to keep the touching to a minimum, feeling for broken ribs and looking closely for the kind of discolouration that would indicate the kind of blood clotting that could disconnect and end up in her lungs or brain. Andrew was good at being a professional, good at compartmentalizing his job. However, a man would have to be dead if some part of his brain didn’t register the silky texture of her skin.

Kate stook stoically until his hand came in contact with what must have been a particularly tender part of flesh.

‘Shit Andrew, that hurt,’ she said. ‘Are you punishing me for my correct diagnosis that my injuries are superficial?’

Her body swayed slightly but he could tell that the last five minutes had gone a long way to sobering her up.

Andrew put his hands on his thighs and with words clipped short, said, ‘You’re lucky enough to only have deep tissue muscular bruising. You’ve been a paramedic long enough to know that self-diagnosing is for amateurs and if we didn’t have a few days rostered off, I’d be recommending one or two days out of action.’

‘Told you it was nothing,’ said Kate, petulance evident in her tone.

Andrew wanted to shake her for her stubbornness in having an injury and not reporting it. ‘Bloody hell, Kate, you know you don’t get extra points in life for being the bravest girl in the world.’

‘OK, Andrew, point taken’ she said, annoyance definitely not banished. ‘I’ll only serve you coffee if you can stop being the doctor for long enough to drink it.’

With her standing there, barely dressed, telling him the professional portion of the evening was over, Andrew did the thing he had felt absolutely compelled to do. He lifted his hand and ran it softly across the unmarked portion of her perfect smooth stomach, just above the waistband of her low-cut panties.

Her body shivered, almost quaking under his hand.

Kate’s breath caught almost painfully in her throat, as she stood there, trying to still her body’s response to Andrew’s touch. His mouth was close enough to her hip that she could feel the warmth of his exhalation against her skin. She could even hear the almost undiscernible rasp of a man trying to slow a rapid breath. That gentle, definitely-non-professional touch, had made every cell in her body sing.

Kate didn’t know how to respond to that overture. She wanted this man. Her body had made that very clear. However, she needed to buy time.

‘Do you take sugar in your coffee?’ she asked, as she took a step backwards and pulled her t-shirt down as far as she could.

Now she wanted her jeans, or really any cover up. But, she thought, going to her room for them would make it seem like too big a deal.