A Surgeon To Heal Her Heart

Probably the rest of her life she’d look back and wish circumstances had presented her with the option to throw caution to the wind with Stone Parker.

To forget the pain of Tony turning his back on her.

To embrace all the warmth and urges Stone stirred.

Because she’d like him to kiss her. Had not been able to stop the late-night thoughts about what it would feel like to be kissed by him.

Now, he’d said he wanted to kiss her.

How was she ever supposed to get him out of her head when he’d verbalized things she’d fantasized?

“Carly?”

His voice was so close, her name whispered against her cheek.

“Hmm?”

“Open your eyes.”

She bit the inside of her lower lip. “I can’t.”

“There’s a lot of things you say you can’t do, lady.”

“Exactly. You should run.”

“I don’t believe there’s anything you can’t do.”

He was definitely closer. She’d swear she just felt his breath tickle her ear.

“For the record,” he continued, “I’m not going anywhere.”

The brevity of his words dug in deep, breaking through barriers that were best left alone.

“Not unless you tell me to,” he clarified. “Then I will leave you alone, because I’m not some psycho stalker, just a man wanting to date a beautiful woman.”

Tell him to go away.

Tell him sticking around is futile.

Tell him...

Stone’s lips brushed against her hairline, near her ear. Soft, gentle, tentative. Not a sexual kiss, but one full of longing and question and space. Space that gave her control of what happened next.

Carly’s eyes shot open, stared into his eyes, and she wondered at what she saw there.

Desire, confusion, so much she couldn’t label.

“Tell me you aren’t curious, Carly. Tell me I’m crazy when I look in your eyes and see a kindred desire. Tell me to put you in your car, watch you drive away, never think of you again, and I’ll try to do just that.”

Tell him.

Not to do so would be selfish.

Self-destructive.

But her lips refused to cooperate so she said nothing.

“Tell me what you want, Carly.”

She didn’t know what she wanted.

Not true. She wanted him to do exactly what he’d said he wanted to do. She wanted him to kiss her.

Crazy.

She wasn’t free to have a relationship. To pull some unsuspecting man into her chaotic life wouldn’t be fair.

Plus, with two jobs and her mother, she barely slept as it was. Where would she fit in a relationship?

She opened her mouth, determined to tell him she only wanted a professional relationship, that he needed to forget about her and whatever it was he thought he’d seen when she looked at him.

So why did she hear her address spill from her lips?

She was crazy. She couldn’t let him into her house, couldn’t let Joyce or her mother hear his voice.

Surprise lit in his eyes, then, with a smile, he nodded. “I’ll follow you home and carry in the box.”

What had she done?

And why?

Because she wanted to know what it felt like to kiss Stone?

It wasn’t as if she were actually going to kiss him.

Only in her deepest darkest late-night fantasies and even then she barely gave her mind license to imagine Stone’s lips against hers.

She’d made a horrible mistake by giving him her address. Just what did he think it had meant? If he was thinking he was staying the night, he was going to be in for a rude awakening when he realized an invalid woman also lived at Carly’s address.

Carly got into her car, leaned forward, and rested her forehead against the steering wheel.

Clearly, she’d lost her mind.

Or maybe, because she hadn’t been able to verbalize the reasons why they could never be, her subconscious had taken control, and was going to confront Stone with the harsh reality of why he needed to forget her.

That harsh reality had certainly scared off the last man Carly had brought home.

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