‘Have a really good time, now,’ Amy ordered them. ‘What time will you be home?’
‘By midnight, Mother,’ Nikki laughed, swooping her small daughter up to give her a kiss. ‘Don’t wait up for me.’
‘Don’t spifflicate her too hard, will you, Dr Luke?’ Amy warned.
‘I make no promises,’ Luke grinned. His arm came around Nikki in a proprietorial gesture. ‘Vengeance is mine, Dr Russell. For tonight, you’re at my mercy.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
IF THERE was to be only one evening left in the world, this could well be the evening. It was a night to forget the past, forget the future and just be.
Something had snapped inside Nikki’s controlled head. Who knew what had caused it? Was it the culmination of long years of work and worry, Charlotte’s lovely dress floating around her slim form, the balmy tropical night, or the presence of the man at her side-a man whose smile made her heart do crazy jumps inside her body and made her forget that she was Dr Nikki Russell with the weight of the world on her shoulders? Which of these things was causing the feeling of euphoria creeping over her? Nikki didn’t know, and she no longer cared. The night was hers.
And somehow for Luke it seemed the same. The world was put on hold. They were alone together and nothing else mattered.
Miraculously there was a table available in the best part of the club-a sheltered alcove with windows looking out over the lights of the harbour to the sea beyond. The waiter showed them to their seats with an astonished second look at the town’s transformed lady doctor. I didn’t know you existed, his glance said, and Luke’s hand tightened on Nikki’s waist as he guided her forward.
The lady’s mine for the night, his hand said. Keep off. Nikki should have shrugged the hand aside but she wouldn’t. Not tonight.
Afterwards Nikki couldn’t remember a thing they’d talked about. Inconsequential nonsense, she suspected. Luke kept her in a ripple of laughter as they ate. The tiny pieces of calamary still tasted of the sea, and of the lemon groves in the hills above the town-and the grilled whiting melted in Nikki’s mouth, blending in with her perfect night.
He made her seem the most desirable woman in the world, Nikki thought, and wondered fleetingly how many other women had been given the same treatment. It didn’t matter. Not tonight. Tonight was hers.
They ate huge red strawberries and farm-fresh cream, drank their coffee and then rose reluctantly to leave. Miraculously the beeper in Luke’s pocket stayed silent. It was as if the world were holding its breath.
‘A walk, I think,’ Luke told her as they emerged to the star-filled night. ‘I’m not ready for bed yet, Dr Russell, and I don’t think you are either.’
‘N-no.’ It was true. Nikki didn’t want this evening to end. In the morning she would be back with her books, and Luke would be back to being her locum, and the world would have shifted on to its rightful axis. But not yet…So they walked along the sand, barefoot, with shoes dangling in their free hands. One hand of each was in use, linked unconsciously with the other.
They walked far from the lights of the jetty and of the town, around the headland where the beach stretched out for mile upon endless mile of deserted sand. The moonlight played on their faces. From somewhere a long way off Nikki heard herself talking of her childhood-telling this man things she had told no one-of a lonely childhood with eccentric parents in a house too big for her-but with love and laughter always present. And Luke talked too-a little-of his family in Melbourne and his life before…before he knew he had cancer.
It was as if the last few years were taboo. They weren’t spoken of. The night was magical, and ugly realities weren’t allowed to intrude.
And finally their wandering feet came to a halt and Nikki’s voice fell silent. Luke let his shoes drop to the sand, removed Nikki’s sandals from her grasp and then took her shoulders, turning her to face him in the moonlight.
‘So what now, my lovely Nikki?’ he said softly. ‘Are you going to let the world in again? Is your life going to have ended when Scott walked out the door?’
‘I don’t…’
‘You can’t let that happen,’ he told her, his fingers tightening on her shoulders. ‘I’m pushing you hard, but when I go, will you close the door on life again? Retire back into your parents’ house and shut the world out?’
‘When I go’…The words hung between them and Nikki was aware of a rush of desolation sweeping through her. This was a transient thing. This moment was just what she knew it must be-a dream-a fantasy of something that could never be.
‘It’s none of your business what I do when you go,’ she managed to whisper.
‘But it is.’ His hands came up to cup her cheeks. Tilting her face, he looked deeply into her troubled eyes. ‘I care about you, Nikki.’
‘Yes, you care,’ she agreed bitterly. ‘The way you care about Karen. And the way you care about Sandra. Like all the other waifs you’ve decided to adopt as part of your healing process.’
It was unfair. Nikki’s accusation was contemptible and she knew it, but somehow…somehow it was so important that she be different.
And she was. She saw it in the sudden blaze of anger in Luke’s deep eyes and the tightening of his mouth. His hands held her harder.
‘Why do you do this?’ he said softly, his voice dangerously low. ‘Why do you want to lash out at me?’
‘I don’t…’ Nikki’s voice fell away. ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered miserably. ‘I’m sorry, Luke…’
Her words trailed away. Between them there was a long silence, broken only by the rush of the sea in its constant washing of the vast stretch of beach.
Luke gave a low, savage moan and turned to stare out to sea. Nikki’s hands came up to touch her face where he had held it. What now? What?
And then slowly, as though driven by something he didn’t understand and couldn’t fight, Luke turned. He reached out to take her face again, and when she tried to pull away his hands gripped harder. For a long, long moment he stood looking down into her bewildered face, and then, infinitely slowly, he stooped to kiss her.
It was a harsh, demanding kiss. It was a kiss of confusion and pain, and of punishment. You’ve hurt me, the kiss said, and I take my revenge…
But then it was more than that. The lips that demanded possession of her mouth were asking something more than appeasement of anger.
They wanted her. They wanted to know her mouth-know the secrets of her tongue-possess the smooth contours of her even teeth. They wanted…
It wasn’t the lips that wanted. It was the man… And the woman wanted in return. Nikki felt the hardness of Luke’s body against hers, and a flame started deep within her. This was a sweetness that she had never known. She could smell him, taste him, feel him, and she wanted more! She wanted to be closer than she had ever been to a man in her life before.
Where were the memories of her long-gone husband? They were certainly not here. In fact they no longer existed-blown away by the sensation of these hands holding her, these fingers caressing the smooth contours of her thighs, pulling her closer to feel the. urgency of his want-his need.
‘Luke…’
She wasn’t sure that she whispered the name aloud but it crowded her consciousness. It was a cry of desperate loneliness, need, and the start of some crazy hope. Soon this man would be gone, but if only…if only…
It didn’t matter. For tonight there were the stars and the sea and this man holding her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. Nikki arched herself against him and felt his head drop to her breast.
Somehow the loose silk of her dress was put aside and Luke’s mouth covered the taut wanting of her nipples. The sensation was so sweet that Nikki cried aloud and tears of joy coursed down her face.