More Than Lovers (6 page)

Charlie asked only once, and as Sarah relayed the details, he buried his head between her legs, opened his mouth and feasted on her pussy.

She came twice before she managed to tell him everything.

The second date wasn’t quite as successful as the first.

Myles Brenner, lawyer, was a good-looking guy. No question about it. Dark hair, brooding eyes and long legs, he turned more than one woman’s head as he strolled with her through Double Bay to a café of his choice.

He’d insisted on collecting her rather than meeting her at the restaurant, and while at first Sarah had thought it quaint and gentlemanly, after a while his chivalry became stifling.

As polite and mannered as he was, Myles was old-school all the way. He ordered for Sarah after finding out what she wanted. He applauded her dedication to her studies and work, though clearly frowned at her aspirations to remain at the uni long-term. Over the course of the evening Sarah came to understand Myles’s way of thinking. Women should,
of course
, be equal to men in every way, but he didn’t think he could ever work for a woman. The idea made him uncomfortable. Furthermore, he believed women were innately better at nurturing children than men, and so when the time came, he expected his wife and the mother of his children to stay at home and raise the kids.

His somewhat archaic perception of life spurred an interesting discussion with Charlie later that night.

After Sarah had made it clear Myles was nice but not for her, and after Charlie had fucked her senseless on the kitchen counter as the kettle boiled for tea, she broached the subject with him.

“Char?”

“Mmmm?” His cheeks were still flushed, his breath not quite back to normal. He looked criminally sexy.

“Do you ever think about having a family of your own?”

“Sure.” He took out a couple of mugs, popped some teabags in them and added hot water. “Why d’ya ask?”

“Something Myles said this evening. About having children.”

He paused to look at her, a cheeky glint in his eyes. “He wants you to have his kids? Already?”

“Ha-ha, very funny. Not. No, we spoke in general, nothing so specific as me bearing his children.”

His blue eyes turned dark. “When I see you sitting all naked on my kitchen chair,
I
want you to bear my children.”

“Yeah, right,” she laughed. “I don’t have the energy to breathe after what you just did to me. I’m hardly going to find the oomph to make a baby now. Besides, you’re getting sidetracked again.”

“I always get sidetracked when you’re naked. Now, what about children?” He added a splash of milk to one mug, then held the bottle up to her in question.

She shook her head. “Black, one sweetener.” Funny how after all this time he never knew how she liked her tea. “You ever wonder what kind of father you’ll be? Involved, stay-at-home, working?”

“Involved. Very involved.”

“Like stay-at-home involved?”

He handed her the tea with a thoughtful expression. “I’m not sure. Never considered it that deeply. I guess it would have to be the kind of thing my wife and I decided together. Who stays home, who raises the kids. Do we do it jointly? Would one of us take the role of primary caretaker or would we split it?”

“So when the time comes you see yourself with a wife, not a partner?” She tried not to show her astonishment. She’d just assumed Charlie would never get married.

“Yeah. I’m traditional that way. I want to do it like my parents did. Married and committed.” He took a long sip of tea, looking thoughtful. “When I picture myself with kids, I don’t really see the early years. I see us all at the beach. Me, my wife, the kids. Swimming, playing. I’m teaching the kids to surf.”

“Kids, as in plural?”

“Yeah. I want a few. Maybe three or four.”

Sarah blinked. “That many?” She’d always thought two would be a good number. One more than her single-child status.

He smiled. “I come from a big family. Grew up with three sisters and a brother. Can’t imagine not having a big family of my own.”

Again Sarah blinked. “I’ve known you for ages and had no idea you even had siblings.”

“Four of them. I’m the baby.”

“What else don’t I know about you?”

He wrinkled his nose. “I’m not sure, Sar, since I don’t know what you do know about me.”

“Very little, apparently.” The realization distressed her. “How could we spend so much…intense time together and yet I know so little about you?”

“Hey, don’t look so worried. You know the important bits. Like what turns me on and what gets me all horny, and you know exactly what to say or do at just the
right
moment.”

“But…but apart from sex, I don’t know anything about you. Like your favorite color or your lucky number or your parents’ names or what school you went to or who your best friend was growing up. Heck, I didn’t even know you have three sisters and a brother or that you’re the baby of the family and you want children.”

“Okay, let’s see. In order… I don’t have a favorite color or number, but if you pressed me I’d say red and eight. Red to match your hair and eight because my birthday’s on the eighth of the eighth. My parents are Walter and Elizabeth, but everyone calls them Huddo and Liz. I went to Cronulla Public and my best friend was Wes Brown. He’s still my best mate, but he lives in California now. Followed the waves and a woman there. And yes, before you ask, I miss him. As for my family, present and future, well, now you know.” Charlie leaned forward and tucked a curl behind her ear. “Don’t look so upset, beautiful.”

“I am upset. In the last week, I’ve been on two blind dates and found out more about two complete strangers than I know about you.”

Charlie sat back and opened his hands. “I’m an open book. Ask whatever you want to know.”

Sarah chewed on her lip. “Okay, the best movie you’ve ever seen?”

“I have two.
The Godfather
and
A Fish Called Wanda
.”

Maybe those two weren’t a surprise. She’d heard Charlie quote both of them on several occasions. “Favorite subject at school?”

Charlie grinned at her. “That’s a trick question. I didn’t have one. Hated school too much.”

Sarah knew that. Charlie made no bones about the fact that he’d dropped out of school the minute he was legally able.

“Right, political beliefs. Labor Party or Liberal?”

A second before he answered she knew what he was going to say.

“Neither. Greens.”

Yep, he’d told her he’d gone the environmental route in the last election and voted for the Greens.

“Peanut butter or vegemite?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Just answer.”

“Peanut butter. Afraid vegemite never rocked my boat—no matter how many times my mum put it on my school sandwiches.”

She grinned. Her choice too. “Who would you rather work for, a man or a woman?”

He looked at her askance. “I’d equally hate to work for either, which is why I run my own surf school.”

Duh, another thing she knew about him. Charlie loved being his own boss. Loved the freedom that came with it and with surfing every day. “Okay, the building’s burning down. You have just minutes to save five things from your unit. What do you get?”

“My surfboard. The one signed by Kelly Slater.”

Yeah, he loved that board. Had won it in a charity auction. Charlie never surfed on it though. It had a prime spot beside his front door, so anyone who visited could admire it.

“My MacBook and iPhone,” Charlie said.

“Not your iPad?”

“Nope. I’d need my phone to call emergency Triple Zero. All my data is backed up on my MacBook anyway, and an iPad is cheaper to replace than a computer.”

“Fourth thing?”

“The bottle of Blue Label my family gave me when I started Bondi Surf.”

She’d seen the bottle in his glass liquor cabinet, but had no idea of its significance. “Nice, I’d save that too if I were you. Final item?”

He gazed at her with solemn blue eyes. “The most important one. You really need to ask?”

She racked her brain to think what it could be and came up empty. “I really need to ask.”

“If the building were ablaze, Sar, you’d be the first thing I’d save. Everything else could go up in flames—the surf board, the phone and computer, the whisky—but you I’d fight fire for.”

Sarah suddenly found it difficult to breathe, difficult to think. The only thing she was able to do was stare back into that startling blue gaze as her heart beat unsteadily. “Th-that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

He held her gaze for just a second longer, and the intensity of emotion in his eyes made Sarah swallow down a lump she hadn’t known was in her throat.

But then Charlie blinked and the intensity was gone, making Sarah wonder if she’d imagined it. He winked wickedly at her. “Have to save you, Geek Girl. Who’d I turn to for a booty call if you weren’t downstairs anymore?”

She snorted. “You’d find someone else, I have no doubt.” There was no shortage of gorgeous beach babes for Charlie to choose from. Sarah had seen plenty of beautiful women call on him over the months. “So, you going to ask me the same question? Which five objects I’d save from my flat?”

Charlie shrugged. “No need. I know already.”

“You do?” Yeah, right. “Go on then, tell me.”

“Number one, your PhD thesis.”

She nodded. That would definitely be on her list.

“Number two, the silver candlesticks you picked up at the antique market last summer.”

She stared at him. “H-how did you know?”

“You spent a full hour telling me about them the day you found them. I swear, you were more excited about the candlesticks than about the sex that night.”

She grinned. “Jealous?”

“Enchanted.”

“You charmer, you. Go on.”

“Number three, your grandmother’s pearl necklace.”

She gaped at him this time, dumbfounded. “You don’t think I’d choose my computer over the necklace?”

“Never. Whatever is on your computer at home is backed up at work, on the net and at your parents’ place. The necklace means way more to you. You’d never leave it behind.”

He was right. For the second time that night, Sarah was forced to swallow down a lump of emotion in her throat. Her grandmother had died five years ago, and while she’d left everything to her children, she’d singled out the necklace for Sarah. Sarah saw it as her last link to the grandmother she loved and missed every day.

“Okay, three out of three so far. Number four?”

“The antique ruby ring your parents gave you after your first graduation.” He took her hand in his and stroked her finger—the very finger she wore the ring on.

“How on earth…?”

He shrugged. “I told you, I know.” Charlie offered no more explanation than that.

“Number five?”

His grin was devilish. “Your purple bra and panties. Fact, I hope when I come and rescue you from the flames, you’re wearing them specially for me.”

Sarah’s laugh was born of sheer delight. “Yeah, Surfer Dude. As the building burns around me, I’m going to stop and put on the purple lingerie just for you.” She loved how he managed to make something as serious as their homes catching fire into a sexy romp. But even as she pictured Charlie carrying her—wearing nothing but the purple lace panties and bra—out of her door while flames flickered all around them, she thought about the real fifth item on her list she’d save.

“Know what I’d do as I carried you and your purple lingerie out of your flat?”

“Tell me.”

“I’d stop and let you take your doctorate off the wall.”

“Charlie…” This time she couldn’t finish her sentence. She raised a hand to her throat, trying to ease the sudden ache in it. This time it wasn’t a lump making swallowing difficult, it was raw emotion.

When had he gotten to know her so well? When had he paid all that attention to the small details of her life? And how did he know they weren’t actually small details, but the things that mattered most to her?

Chapter Five

“You seeing anyone, Doc?” Charlie hated asking. Hated it with every fiber of his being.

“You mean anyone other than patients, all day, every day?” Sam Sherman answered.

“I mean anyone as in do you have a woman in your life?”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t. Seems the only people I ever see are my patients, their parents, my receptionist and the hospital staff.” He held his surfboard at his side and stared out at the sun rising over the ocean. “In fact, the only time I get away from work is when I’m surfing.”

“Ah, but what a way to spend your free time.”

“Agreed.” Sam grinned. “There’s nothing like catching a wave to help escape the stress of my job.”

His response made Charlie pause. “You don’t like your work?”

“I love it. It’s not just a job. It’s my life. But sometimes the stress gets to me.”