Doctor's Delight(40)

Feeling immensely satisfied, he took her hand and started walking.

Cherry had two options – pull away from him or walk beside him. There was the slightest of hesitations before she fell into step beside him.

Ah yes, it was a nice balmy evening and he had his curvy little honey by his side. Life was great.





Chapter Six





Walking down the street with the hunky Dr Rick Reed by her side, Cherry was even more conscious of the group of young teenagers approaching wearing their tight jeans and barely-there tops. The teens glanced at Rick and giggled, one of them brazenly licking her red-glossed lips.

Rick didn’t seem to notice, his gaze ahead and his hand warmly clasping hers.

The blonde teen noticed their clasped hands and her eyes widened. She spoke quietly to her friends as they neared and they all looked disbelievingly from her to Rick.

Cherry was going to die. Her shoulders stiffened and she could barely meet their gazes. Their giggles and whispers scorched her ears and she wished she’d refused Rick’s invitation.

“Don’t even think it,” Rick murmured, his hand tightening around her smaller one.

“I wasn’t.”

“You were.” He gazed seriously down at her. “They’re silly young things that have no idea of life yet, or what it’ll throw at them. Nor have they learned to value what is behind a person’s outward appearance.”

“So you think my outward appearance is less valuable.” For God’s sake, why had she said that? Why was she spoiling for a fight? Almost straight away she mumbled, “Sorry.”

“I’m not even going to go into that.” Rick steered her to the front door of the pizza restaurant and opened the door. Placing one hand behind her back, he ushered her ahead of him.

Grateful to have her attention focused elsewhere, Cherry looked around. The restaurant was almost full, and the smell of cooking cheese, onions, and assorted meats filled the air. Delicious.

Coming to a stop, she immediately felt the warmth of Rick right behind her. Even more delicious.

Right up against her.

Heat flashed through her and she swallowed. His chest was against her back, his thighs cradling her bottom, his hard abdomen against the small of her back. He was that close. When one big hand came to rest on her hip, her breath caught.

He shifted behind her and she could swear she felt a hard length push against her buttocks. All thought fled when his breath brushed her ear. “There’s a table over there, and a waitress coming now. Good. I’m starving.” He straightened. “In more ways than one.”

“Huh?” Unsure what he meant, Cherry glanced up over her shoulder to find him as disturbingly near as he felt.

The grin he flashed at her held an unmistakable heat, but it disappeared when he looked at the waitress as she came to a stop before him, and there was no indication of anything wrong as he requested pleasantly, “Table for two, please.”

“Right over here.” The waitress moved ahead of them.

Wouldn’t you know it. Cherry sighed a little. The waitress was about sixty years old and had a neat little white apron tied tightly around a very trim waist. The hem of the loose silk blouse Cherry was wearing fluttered around her bottom. No little white apron was going to be tied around there and still have heaps of ties flowing down elegantly behind her.

A warm hand was suddenly on her own oh-so-not trim waist. “Something wrong, love?”

Mentally shaking off the gloomy thought, Cherry moved forward. “Nothing.”

“I’m so hungry.” Rick’s voice was deeper than normal, but when she again cast him a sharp glance over her shoulder, his face was serious. “I could eat anything.”

She had to stop imagining these insinuations.

“I could eat a heap of pizzas,” Rick continued conversationally as they neared the table.

What the hell was he going on about? He’d already mentioned he was hungry.

“But I want to eat you.” The words were a low, shockingly heat-inducing growl in her ears. The heat of his breath against her nape accompanied by the words made her freeze.

The waitress turned at the booth. “If you’ll both sit down, I’ll be back in a minute to take your orders.”

Feeling as though her heart was in her throat, Cherry slid into the seat and watched as Rick slid with a little more smoothness into the vinyl seat opposite. His smile was friendly as he thanked the waitress and took the menu from her.

Had she imagined it? Surely not. He’d said it, hadn’t he? Cherry stared at him over the top of the menu she opened. Maybe he hadn’t said it, maybe those hot, suggestive words were a figment of her imagination. He looked so cool, so friendly, so innocent as he pursued the menu with interest.