Hollywood House Call

Fourteen



Noah had taken off as much time as possible and Callie’s arm was healing nicely, though he still managed to find reasons to assist her and he was pleasantly surprised she let him.

But he’d gone back to work today with his regular hours and the load was full, which meant he left the office later than he wanted to. Marie was wonderful, but he missed seeing Callie’s bright, chipper smile at the front desk.

Truth was, he missed Callie. Period. Their relationship had changed the last time they’d been intimate. A change he wasn’t ready for and certainly couldn’t define. But there was another level of trust, of caring. And that was a place he couldn’t visit, couldn’t think about and couldn’t get wrapped up in. This had to be just sex.

Tonight, though, he had a surprise for his houseguest.

When he finally pulled into his garage, he nearly sighed with relief. He loved his job, truly he did, but after two and a half weeks of staying home with Callie, he found he’d spoiled himself.

He was anxious to see Callie’s reaction to her gift. Though the pool table might have been his best gift ever, he was still eager to see how she would react to something more…personal.

When he stepped into the house from the garage, he didn’t spot her right away.

“Callie?” he called as he walked through the foyer and headed up the stairs.

He didn’t find her in the living room or her bedroom. Curious, he went outside, and sure enough she was lounging by the pool wearing a loose halter top and matching shorts. The sun had kissed her skin, and her nose was a subtle shade of pink. He assumed she’d put her antiobiotic ointment on her scar, so she should be fine, but if she turned red, he’d have to get her inside.

“Getting some sun?” he asked, coming to sit on the foot of the chaise longue.

She’d been reading and she put the book across her stomach. “Trying to. I was starting to look pretty pale.”

His eyes traveled down her legs and back up. “Looking pretty good to me.”

With a soft smile, she eased forward. “How was your first full day back to work?”

“Everyone asked about you,” he told her. “They all wanted to know when you were coming back. I told them I wasn’t sure.”

Callie sighed. “Why didn’t you just tell them the truth? I’m not coming back.”

“You might. The only person stopping you is you.”

She motioned to her face. “No, this is stopping me.”

“A scar?” he asked. “You would be so surprised at how many people will be glad to see you and that you’re healing. Please, at least try to come back for one day a week and we’ll go from there.”

Callie glanced out to the waterfall trickling into the pool. “I’m not sure, Noah. I don’t even want to go out to the grocery store, much less work in an office full of beautiful people.”

Noah took her hand, pulled her to her feet as he stood. Her book fell to the stone patio.

“Wait,” she told him before he could pull her away. “I’m not saying that to anger you, really I’m not. I just don’t want you to think me working in your office is a long-term thing or something I’ll be comfortable doing. Even if I did come back for one day a week, I still wouldn’t be staying there.”

He admired her—how could he not? But he was so damn tired of her thinking her beauty was superficial.

“I want to take you somewhere.”

She started to protest, but he held up his other hand. “I promise no one will see you, but even if they did, they’d think you were beautiful just like I do. You don’t even need to change.”

She slid into her flip-flops and followed him through the house and to the garage.

“But aren’t you tired?” she asked as they got into the car.

“Not too tired for this.”

Somehow they’d arrived at a deeper emotional relationship than just colleagues or friends. He didn’t know where it would lead, but it was past time she learned a bit more about him, about why he was so adamant that she realize beauty was from within and there was so much more to life.

He hit the freeway and blended into the thick traffic, all the while hoping he didn’t infringe on some unspoken code of plastic-surgeon ethics.

Callie wasn’t going to believe his platitudes just because he kept preaching them. She needed a visual and he planned to give her just that.

“Where are we going?”

He threw her a sideways glance and a smile. “I knew you couldn’t just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

“Well, you’re right. So, where are we going?” she repeated.

“We’re going to a place that will remind us both of how something good can come out of a bad situation.”

Callie sighed and leaned against the door. “I’d rather be home.”

The word caused a tightening in his stomach that caught him off guard. By home, she meant his house, not her apartment.

He didn’t comment, didn’t really know what to say, but he was glad she was comfortable and felt as if she could call that her home.

But she’d still never been in the bedroom that he’d shared with Malinda.

He pulled into a familiar subdivision and found the place he was looking for.

“Here we are,” he told her as he shut off the car. “Come on in.”

Callie looked at the stone-and-brick home that was obviously fairly new and beyond gorgeous. Then she jerked her gaze back to his.

“Wait,” she said, reaching for his arm. “Come in? Who lives here? You said I didn’t have to see anybody.”

“I own this house,” he told her before he got out. “This is the one that has sat empty.”

Callie opened her car door and followed Noah up the thin steps to the front door with a small stained-glass window adorning the top.

He unlocked the door and gestured her in first.

“Noah, this house is stunning.” She moved through the open floor plan, trying to take in the giant room all at once. “I love how this is all so cozy, yet open.”

There was a tall stone wall only a few feet wide that was the center of the main floor and somewhat separated the living area and the dining room and kitchen. Water trickled down the stone, making her instantly relax. The neutral colors weren’t masculine or harsh.

She turned back to him. “This house is so different from your other one.”

He nodded. “That’s because I had this one built to my specifications after my first house on this property nearly washed away.”

“Washed away?”

He motioned for her to enter the living area on the other side of the stone waterfall.

“This was the first house I purchased after I started my practice.” He pointed to a picture on the end table. “I lived here about five years before flooding took it. I remember thinking that I had nothing but an empty, muddy lot.”

Callie stared at the photo, trying to even fathom a house simply washing away.

“I didn’t realize there was a flooding problem out here.”

He came to stand beside her. “The drainage isn’t great, so if it rains too much, too fast, we have floods.”

She turned to face him. “I know you’re trying to teach me a lesson here, but I’m not getting it.”

His bright eyes bored into hers as he rested his hands on her shoulders. “I had an ugly thing happen in my life and I had a choice of whether I wanted to let it consume me and feel sorry for myself or if I wanted to take control of my life and turn this unwelcome disaster into something positive.”

Callie glanced to the picture and back to him. “Are you comparing me to this house?”

He turned her body to face the stone centerpiece again and eased her closer.

“That stone was all I had left when my home was destroyed,” he told her. “I used all I had to rebuild my life. But I not only rebuilt it, I made it better.”

His words hit her straight in her heart. She wanted to rebuild her life, truly she didn’t want to be that person who sat around and cried for herself, but she had no clue how to rebuild.

“If I thought I could take my life and make it better, Noah, I would.”

He eased her back around to face him as he gathered her into his warm, caring embrace.

“It will be better.” He kissed the top of her head and eased back. “The microdermabrasion went well and we can do another soon. I’ve talked with a few colleagues and we all seem to think that will make a tremendous difference over the next few months until we can further explore surgery options…if we even have to go that route.”

Callie tensed. “Really? You think surgery may not be needed?”

“The swelling is gone in the tissues beneath the laceration and the wound isn’t as deep as we’d first thought. The healing is looking remarkable.”

Tears burned Callie’s eyes. “I want to hope, Noah. I don’t even mind surgery. I just want to be me again, but I’m afraid.”

Noah tilted her face up to his and captured her lips. Softly, lovingly he coaxed her lips apart and showed her how he felt.

“I’m not afraid, Callie,” he whispered. “I’m excited for your future. This is going to work and we are going to battle it together.”

She lifted her lids and looked him in the eye. “You’re always such a confident doctor.”

“I won’t lie to you,” he told her, still framing her face with his hands. “It will take time. But I believe we can really make this minimal. The wound itself isn’t as bad as I’d first thought.”

Callie nodded and smiled as a tear slid down her cheek. Noah swiped it away with the pad of his thumb.

“I trust you.”

She slid her arms around his neck and toyed with the ends of his hair. His hands spanned her waist as he pulled her fully against him.

“I want you,” he murmured. “In my house, with the sunset coming in that window. I want you, Callie.”

Shivers slid over and through her body at his honest, raw words. “Then have me.”

Noah captured her mouth again and walked her back to the living area, where he eased her down onto the cushy chaise. Noah pulled his polo off, flinging it to the side.

Callie stared up at him in all his golden, muscular glory. As he finished undressing, her heart picked up just a bit faster and her body quivered with anticipation. Each time they were intimate, each time they took their relationship to another level, she wanted to know where this was headed. But right now she only wanted one thing. Noah.

With ease, she took off her halter top, exposing her bare breasts to his appraisal, and tossed the unwanted garment to the floor with his clothes. Noah held his hand out and she took it as he helped her to her feet. After sliding out of her shorts and flicking them off to the side with her toe, she moved to mold her body against his. She never got used to how amazing that initial contact felt. Never got over that first feeling of how right it was being with Noah.

Callie threaded her hands through his hair and pulled his mouth down to hers. Noah’s strong hands covered her back, his fingertips gripping her. Her breasts flattened against his chest, her hips bumped his. And it was still not enough. Not close enough, not emotional enough. She wanted more.

“Noah,” she whispered against his lips. “I need you to know—”

“Shh.” He nipped at her lips again. “Later.”

Callie wasn’t sure if she should tell him she was in love with him or if fate had just saved her from making a fool of herself. But when his hands came down to grip her rear and lift her off the floor, she didn’t care.

Noah eased a knee onto the chaise and he slowly laid her down, never breaking their contact. He didn’t want to break this bond, didn’t want to ruin this perfection. If he could crawl inside this moment in time and live here forever, he would. Right now, at this second, he was happier than he’d been in a long, long time. He owed Callie so much for showing him how to live again. This little trip to the old house wasn’t just an eye-opening experience for her; reality had also slapped him in the face. He’d come to the conclusion that no matter what he’d lost, he could still make that decision to move forward or let the past consume him.

And right now he was making the decision to make love to Callie in his living room.

“I want you. Here. Now.”

And that was all Noah needed to hear before he slid into her, without the barrier, without anything between them, just like the past two times.

But this time was different. He’d laid his heart out there for her to see and that vulnerability could get him hurt again. But he couldn’t stop this emotional spiral he was on when it came to Callie and her sweet, sometimes innocent ways.

His body moved over hers, but he was careful to hold himself up on his elbows. He didn’t want to crush her, but seeing her look up at him, with all the trust and love in her eyes…

Love?

Yes. When he looked at her, he saw love. And if he were honest with himself, he’d seen it in Kansas, too.

Noah kissed her, unable to look into those expressive eyes for another moment, because what if she could read his? What would she see?

His tongue mimicked their bodies as he increased the pace and her ankles locked together behind his back.

Before he could think too much about what he’d seen, her body tightened around him, causing him to lose control and give in to the pleasure that only Callie could provide.

As his body settled half on hers, half off, he tried to shut out the fact that every time he closed his eyes and thought of a woman in his life, Malinda wasn’t even in the mental picture. Callie filled his mind. She was filling his bed, his house, and he feared she’d fill his heart if he let her.