The Doctor's Tender Secret by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

THE next morning, Zoe woke and her dreams faded fast. She was lying on her side and there was a warm body curved around hers. Brad’s. His face was against her neck and she could feel the regularity of his breathing, which told her that he was still sound asleep. His right arm was curved under her pyjama jacket, and his hand was flat against her abdomen. Just a couple of handspans away from revealing a lot more than she wanted him to know.

How could she have been so stupid? She’d made love with him. More than once. She’d let him through every single defence. Which left her with two choices—tell him the truth or tell him they had to stop. Now.

Telling him the truth was a risk. A huge risk. She knew Brad wouldn’t reject her the way her college boyfriend had done—the boyfriend whose name she couldn’t even remember now. He’d been little more than a kid himself, immature and selfish, and he hadn’t meant to hurt her so badly. But Brad was an adult. An honourable man. He might feel he had to stay with her out of duty. Out of pity. And she really couldn’t bear that.

As for telling him they had to stop—that would hurt. Badly. But knowing that he was only with her because he felt sorry for her…That would be far worse. It would break her heart. And she knew she’d never, ever get over that.

Put like that, she didn’t have a choice. Badly hurt or broken heart. Either way, she lost.

Slowly, very gently she moved his hand. Wriggled away from him. Left their bed without disturbing him. And went back to her own room to prepare herself for what she knew was the right thing to do.

Brad knew something was wrong when he woke up to find himself alone in bed. Zoe’s pillow was cold enough to tell him that she’d been gone for some time. She’d gone, rather than staying in bed with him and waiting for him to wake up. Which meant…what?

She’d been running scared the first time he’d kissed her. And on the beach, when he’d stopped her slipping on the rocks. Someone had obviously hurt her very badly in the past. But last night she’d trusted him enough to make love with him. To offer him the ultimate intimacy. She’d been his, completely.

So what had changed since last night?

He discovered just how badly wrong things were when he went downstairs, wearing just his boxers and a T-shirt. Zoe was sitting at the kitchen table, fully dressed, and there was a brittleness to her smile that turned his insides to ice.

‘Good morning,’ he said cautiously.

‘Good morning.’ She smiled again. And then she plunged the knife into his heart. ‘About last night. I think we should forget about it.’

‘Forget about it?’ His jaw dropped. ‘Zoe, we made love.’

‘We had sex,’ she corrected.

It had been more than just sex, and they both knew it. But her chin was tilted up to maximum stubbornness level.

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