Open Heart (Dr. Love): A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  Like a key into a newly minted lock, and like everything else about her. It’s perfect.

  I never knew two people could feel something so magical, so intense. But it’s just the beginning, something we both realize and feel a flood of emotions over.

  We’ve found one another, finally. This is the defining moment, the sailing home into a safe harbor for both of us.

  Neither of us need to ever feel alone again in this life.

  For a first timer, Evelyn takes to lovemaking like a duck to water.

  I’m no Casanova either, but the chemistry between us is undeniable.

  Every touch of our hands across our bodies feels like we both know exactly what the other wants and our bodies are a perfect knot of passion in no time.

  Gripping those hips I’ve longed for, I grind slowly into her and after a time, I bury my face in her chest as she thrusts and bucks hard against me from underneath and then above.

  We discover as many positions as we can without me needing to be outside of her for long, until we both discover her magic sweet spot, deep inside her sweet, sweet pussy.

  I want our eyes to be close the whole time, I want to be able to kiss her. But it’s at her suggestion, on all fours with me gripping her from behind that we both feel the inevitable climax coming.

  We look into each other’s eyes in the huge floor to ceiling mirrors opposite the bed, her large chest swaying in time with her pushing back against my curved, aching cock as I feel it swell harder inside her.

  She starts to say my name, huffing it at first but then moaning it. Louder and louder.

  It’s all I can take as I grab one handful of her hair from behind and the other grips one side of her perfect ass as I thrust myself deep inside her.

  We both feel it before we come together, the newest, special place inside her that unlocks everything.

  Her whole body stiffens under me, and I growl her name as I feel my own climax starting to connect with hers.

  We both shudder and gasp in disbelief at the intensity of it all. The first time for her and my ultimate introduction to the woman I know I want to pleasure like this every day for the rest of our days.

  Collapsing, exhausted after what seems like an orgasm the lasts forever which seems to keep going and going for both of us, it’s some time before either of us have even the air left to speak.

  “Holy…” she finally gasps, making me wheeze a laugh.

  Our sweaty bodies lie tangled together on top of the sheets, a cool sea breeze coming in through the open doors that seems to bring extra relief from the warm evening to match our own.

  It’s dark out now, with a low lamp lighting the whole room as our hands find each other’s, her body turning to mine as I lay staring into her eyes.

  “Oh, I got you now,” I promise her. “You’re not going anywhere without me, understand?” I gasp, still trying to catch my own breath.

  She nods, purring and stretching a little. Mewing with contentment as she reminds me I don’t have to worry about that.

  “I’m all yours, Dr. Love. Tonight, and every other night after that.”

  It’s too easy, so simple for us just to lie still, holding each other and listening to the waves. Feeling the breeze until it becomes almost too cool, but keeping on the side of just right as it teases our shared nakedness.

  Her body jerks and she sighs, letting me know she almost asleep, but I don’t want her to sleep just yet, this is too perfect.

  I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again.

  Afraid if I wake up after today I might discover it’s all been a dream.

  I have an idea and feel her hand on my arm as I get up to leave the bed.

  “I’ll be right back,” I promise her, and after kissing her long enough to prove it, I make my way through to the kitchen.

  In moments I return to her, a picnic basket in one hand and a blanket in the other.

  “Let’s take a stroll on the beach,” I suggest. Knowing it’s still early enough and we both need a different kind of physical nourishment in the form of food as well.

  She inhales dreamily, wondering aloud what she should wear when I trace a thin dress I’ve brought from her luggage until she shivers with excitement.

  In the semi-darkness she reaches out to my growing arousal, bobbing out in front of her as I watch her lying naked on the bed.

  “What are you wearing?” she asks with a grin.

  I shrug, telling her I could wear swim trunks.

  “Just in case we get swept out to sea or something. Wouldn’t want to be found naked by the coastguard,” I quip.

  “Private beach, you say?” she asks, sounding a little suspicious, but once we’re at the top of the steps on the patio and we’re both looking down at the view, she gasps in surprise.

  The half-moon is huge in the sky, bathing the bay with light.

  Soft, shallow waves lap the sandy shore which I know stretches for a mile in either direction, walled in by natural rocks and cliffs.

  “It’s private alright,” I remind her. Wondering if two days of this slice of heaven is enough.

  Wondering if I should or even could convince her to stay here forever, not just as long as we can.

  Hunger drives us both for now, and we find a spot out of the breeze behind a natural rock wall, which I spread out our blanket by and start to set out the food.

  “It looks and smells amazing,” she chimes, gasping at each new discovery from the wicker basket.

  “So, who actually owns this place?” she asks after we’ve eaten, spiced chicken, lobster, and fish all laid out before us under the moonlight, in silence for a few minutes.

  “Not exactly sure,” I confess, licking my fingers and fishing for some napkins.

  “Pretty sure it’s the same people who own the hospital. Investors mainly, a lot of them doctors,” I tell her. “But not me,” I’m quick to add.

  “I could never share anything so beautiful,” she admits, looking back up to the house and then out across the sea.

  I’m glad to hear her say it.

  “Neither could I,” I agree, looking only at her face as it catches the moonlight. The smile and the calm in her eyes.

  The night surrounding us like a protective curtain from the whole world.

  “Neither could I.”

  We eat and then we eat some more. Evelyn impresses me with her appetite and I remark on it, making her frown a little.

  “I’ve always been an overeater,” she says guiltily.

  “What’s overeating?” I ask, taken aback. “Is it the same as beach body?” I venture, making us both laugh.

  “I have to eat, Evelyn,” I caution her. “Being a big guy I eat a lot, and I’ve never thought of it as overeating. I eat until I’m not hungry and when I’m hungry again, I eat.”

  It’s the truth, and I tell her I don’t want her skimping on food or clothes or anything else she wants.

  “We can afford a good life,” I inform her. “And you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to get used to the best of everything soon enough.”

  Her eyes widen and she looks at me, almost embarrassed.

  “I’ve never had money,” she says flatly. “My dad had his practice and was doing okay, until…” but she breaks off.

  I can see the storm clouds of the real world gathering in her eyes, threatening our mood. Menacing over this, our perfect real first night together.

  “C’mon. Let’s walk,” I suggest, breaking the solemn theme of her thoughts and lifting her by the hand, we do just that.

  Walking along the beach, the warm water splashing our toes as they sink in the sand, I’m glad when our conversation turns to other things.

  Happier still when I feel her head resting against me as we walk slowly from one end of the beach and back again, our fingers laced together and our thoughts gradually subsiding to nothing between us and the sounds of the waves on the shore.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Evelyn

  What feels like a lo
ng walk for me, and some more of the delicious picnic-style food from our basket later, I lay on the blanket with my head in Mark’s lap as he strokes my hair.

  He’s content to just sit and I realize too how easy it is for us both to be so close without the need for any conversation, even though when there is it feels natural and honest.

  Once I start to doze, Mark asks me if I’d like to go back up to the house, but the night is so pleasant, and his body so warm against me, I only murmur something until I fall asleep.

  Still feeling his fingers tracing through my hair, I wake up, feeling a cooler breeze without being cold.

  The light from the moon has turned into the pink glow of predawn and looking up at Mark I can tell he hasn’t slept a wink.

  “Hi,” he whispers.

  “Hi,” I nearly choke, wiping what I’m sure is drool from the side of my mouth. Relieved when he politely ignores my morning face.

  “Don’t tell me you sat there all night with me sleeping on your lap,” I finally manage, feeling his body rock with gentle laughter.

  “Okay, I won’t,” he says firmly, looking out to the ocean.

  “You wanna go for a swim?” I ask, hoping to change the subject, even though I don’t swim per se.

  I figure I can splash in the shallows while he actually swims.

  “Nah,” he says shyly, looking in the other direction now, tensing up a little and I can’t help but feel I’ve said the wrong thing.

  “I don’t swim,” he says finally, creasing a smile and helping me up, ordering me back to the house so he can fix me breakfast and fresh coffee.

  “I can do stuff,” I protest, but he only shakes his head. “I know you can, but this weekend, you’re all mine and I’m going to spoil you rotten,” he says, laughing again. Making me forget everything I just said about swimming.

  If the post virgin de-flowering dinner on the beach was awesome, Mark’s morning after breakfast is something else.

  He plants me at the counter in the kitchen and sets to work with the efficiency of a professional chef.

  Fresh ground coffee, bacon, eggs, and sausage. Toasted brioche rolls from the seemingly endless supply of food in the place, and finally steaks with fried tomatoes and peppers.

  He makes it look so easy and after a while, I’m glad he kindly ignores my offers to help.

  I’ve never been great in the kitchen, and I can see how his surgical skills reflect in everything else he does.

  Maybe with one exception.

  There’s nothing clinical or methodical about his lovemaking.

  I still have the pleasantly sore body to prove that.

  Or maybe it was that two mile walk afterward.

  Nope, that delicious ache inside me is all his work, and he catches me smiling to myself as I start to daydream about the best cure for my soreness.

  “What’re you thinking about?” he asks curiously, spooning some eggs next to a steak on a plate I know is for me.

  “Nothing,” I lie, my eyes flashing with emotion as I silently transmit the only thing I could ever think about from now on.

  Him.

  Mark.

  I’m his and he is mine.

  The thought gives me a shiver and what I know must be a goofy smile, but it’s just as comforting a thought as the sight of the most delicious breakfast ever.

  He excuses himself long enough to fetch his phone and mine from the bedroom.

  “Bad habit,” he admits, shrugging and checking his messages even before eating.

  I guess a doctor who works as much as Mark does would check his phone more than the average person. Leaving it unchecked all night is a first for him, I discover.

  “Argh,” he says bitterly, making my stomach drop. The food in front of me suddenly looking like a mountain I could never eat.

  “What is it?” I ask, knowing it must be something to do with my dad.

  “It’s nothing bad,” he says calmly. “You’re dad’s doing really well. Woke up all on his own and his conditions stabilized better than anyone could have hoped.”

  I sigh with relief but have to point out Mark’s disappointment.

  “You don’t seem too happy about it,” I remark defensively.

  “Only because it means we’ll have to go back before I would have liked,” he admits. He moves around to my side of the bench and moves to hug me.

  “Sorry, I just wanted this to last,” he says softly.

  But I have to disagree.

  “We don’t have to go back,” I almost shriek. The panic of the real-world setting in all over again. I want nothing more than to stay with Mark on an island, forever if I could.

  “Maybe check your own messages, Evelyn,” Mark sighs, his shoulders sinking as he pushes his own food away once he takes his seat opposite me in the kitchen.

  Checking my phone, I have a ton of missed calls, and most important is the message from the hospital.

  My dad’s awake and is asking for me.

  I groan loudly, rolling my eyes and feel them narrow as I feel angry at my dad for the first time in ages.

  “It’s so like him to try and ruin all this,” I hear myself saying, thinking about every time he’s put me down or said I shouldn’t do this or that.

  Mark surprises me by taking my dad’s side.

  “He’s just had major surgery, Evelyn. Waking up in a strange place, being told what’s happened. It’s natural he wants his family. He needs his daughter,” he says confidently.

  Sounding more like a doctor than the man who bedded me last night.

  “And I want you,” I almost shout. “I want this.” My hands go out wide, open before closing over my chest.

  Gripping my heart as if I could physically show him just how much all this means to me.

  “You already have me,” Mark reminds me, looking just as annoyed as I feel though.

  I know he’s torn about it too.

  He has a professional side and now he has a personal side from the same patient, both tugging at him as much as his entire history with my dad on top of it all.

  I try to distract myself from it all, to see what other messages are on my phone, but it’s no use.

  All missed calls, finally messages from my dad himself.

  I listen to his first one but stop myself short of being able to hear his second one before I feel it in my gut. The trembling of my voice not surprising Mark at all.

  “I’m sorry, Mark. I have to-” I blurt.

  “I know you do, I’d insist on it anyway,” he says, a matter of fact, swiping his own phone and moving out of the kitchen as he makes a series of calls I know mean we’ll be leaving this magical place as soon as humanly possible.

  I love you, dad. I’m glad you’re okay… But dammit all to hell.

  My instinct is to follow Mark, to try and explain something.

  Anything.

  But it’s useless.

  I force down some coffee and try to eat, but it’s useless. It feels like everything between Mark and me is over before it’s even started.

  Once dad realizes it was Mark who operated on him, once he finds out I have a medical scholarship waiting for me… Not to mention the hospital bills, I just know how he’ll be.

  The food suddenly has no taste. It’s like a hard lump in my mouth I can’t swallow.

  I finish my coffee though, reminding myself not to overdo that because I know what it does to me.

  As if on cue, a low rumble of thunder shakes the windows of the whole house, and looking out to the ocean, I can see thick black clouds rolling in.

  Like ink spilling over the perfect portrait I thought I’d made, the black sky is like everything I know I have to face sooner or later.

  Mark reappears after a time and looking out over the seascape he creases a smile. “Great news. There’s an air ambulance leaving from the airport in an hour, we can ride shotgun and I can babysit a cardiac case until we get home. No first-class I’m afraid.”

  I feel my heart sink lower, my whole bo
dy just wanting to climb back into bed with Mark, even back down on the beach in the rain I know is coming.

  “We’ll beat that storm too if we hustle,” he adds enthusiastically, a look of excitement in his eyes that I know is part of his job and nothing to do with me anymore.

  At least, that’s what it feels like.

  “Hey,” he adds gently, moving over to me and hooking his arms around my waist.

  “It’s a good thing you’re dad’s doing well. We can do this anytime,” he says, glancing again at the incoming storm.

  “What could we possibly have spent the weekend doing otherwise?” I groan, trying to cheer up as he kisses me.

  “That’s my girl,” he whispers in my ear, kissing that too.

  “I know we’ll have plenty to do, no matter where we land in this life. If you’ll just say you’ll be with me. Always?” he asks, his voice breaking with emotion as I feel the hot tears in my eyes spilling over as they win out.

  “Always,” I remind him.

  His kiss is like medicine of its own. Drawing out all the pain and giving me healing in a single moment I wish really could last forever.

  A moment I know can last forever if I just do what he suggests, and stay with him.

  “I’ll get ready,” I murmur, and we both set about quickly showering and changing in separate rooms for the sake of the time constraints.

  “Don’t worry about the house, the luggage, or the food,” he calls out to me. “The car will be here in a half hour and then we’re off.”

  In a few moments, Mark makes everything turn from annoying and frustrating into a new adventure again, reminding me once we’re ready and waiting for the car that this is the perfect training for my medical studies.

  “You can observe, first hand a cardiac patient in emergency transit,” he grins, as though I should be as excited as he is about it.

  Truth is, I’m just as excited to be with him, no matter what’s happening.

  And with Dr. Mark Love at the helm, I’m getting the feeling that life will never have a dull moment whenever he’s around.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Mark

  Damn you, Nick Partridge.