A Dangerous Affair Chapter 59

Where is Tom?

Stephanie sat staring out of the window of her hospital room, a pained look on her face. Where the hell was Tom?

The nurse had informed her that morning that Brick had not wanted to disturb her sleep last night but that he wanted her to know that Tom had not taken the later flight either. It was not known where he was but he most definitely was not in Ireland. She felt so helpless stuck in that hospital bed when she wanted so desperately to find him. Picking up a magazine from her bedside table, she flicked mindlessly through the pages before eventually throwing it down in frustration.

Moments later there was a knock on the door and Brick entered, pausing at the doorway with a grin on his face. She froze when she saw his expression, holding her breath in expectation of what he was going to say next.

“It would seem that my office last night was used as a doss house for down and outs…well one down and out in particular, and an Irish one at that!” he smiled, stepping aside to reveal a rather dishevelled looking Tom.

“Hello Stephie, miss me?”

Her face was a picture of surprise, delight and relief. “Tom! Thank god!”

Tom’s face broke out into a broad smile as he entered the room. He had only one thought and that was to head for Stephanie, however he paused after the first few steps and turned back to see Brick standing there watching him. He willed Brick to leave. Brick raised an eyebrow when Tom hesitated. After an awkward silence, during which time Tom realised that Brick wasn’t planning on leaving the room, he groaned inwardly and approached Stephanie, bending to kiss her on the cheek. He felt the smile that crept across her face as his lips brushed her skin. She felt soft and warm and she smelt wonderful. He hesitated longer than he had planned to and gave into temptation, moving his mouth to her ear to whisper, “I’m dying to kiss you. When’s he going to leave?” He moved away from her and she shrugged, trying to hide her smile. He took a seat on a chair beside her bed.

“How are you feeling today Stephanie?” Brick asked. “You look…” he assessed her and nodded with a serious expression, “…almost human again.” He put his hand on the doorknob. “Make sure she doesn’t over exert herself,” he said to Tom before leaving the room.

“Thank god you’re okay. I was worried sick about you. Where were you?” Stephanie asked.

Some of the initial pleasure of first seeing her again drained out of his face then as he contemplated his response.

He sighed loudly. “I messed up Stephie, big time.” It was a difficult admission for him to make, especially to her, and especially under those circumstances.

“Well you’re not in Ireland, you’re sat here…alive I might add! So you can’t have messed up that much,” she said cheerily, trying to make light of the situation.

“I wasn’t talking about me, I was talking about you,” he replied, running his hands over his face. He suddenly felt utterly exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Stephanie watched him with concern. “What’s wrong? What are you talking about?”

He avoided eye contact with her and stared out of the window with a far away expression. “I had your life in my hands…and I didn’t know what to do,” he said, holding up an empty hand and clenching it into a fist.

She was adamant in her response; she wasn’t going to let him take the blame for this. “You didn’t have my life in your hands,” she contradicted him, “that murdering b*****d did when he opened fire on us!”

He continued as if he hadn’t heard her at all. “I got to the airport and I realised that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing so I booked myself on a later flight, figuring that I would have more time to think things through. I drove around for hours, I don’t even know where I went, but I couldn’t pull it together. My first thought was that I was crazy putting my trust in a man like that. I mean how did I know he wouldn’t come after you anyway? So I figured that I should stay and stick with you, make sure he never came near you. But then with a man like that you just never know, and I couldn’t be with you every second of every day. Just look what happened at the casino. He said there was only one way you’d be safe and it was down to me, depended on how much I cared about you. But either way it seemed like a risk and I just couldn’t think properly. I mean I’ve always gone with my gut instincts, I’ve always been able to read the situation…but I couldn’t this time…I didn’t know what to do,” he repeated helplessly.

“Look, it was an impossible decision to make for anybody. You did what you thought best at the time,” she reassured him.

“Yes, but that’s just it! I didn’t do anything…and this was the result,” he said, gesturing to her.

“Oh come on Tom, nobody could have predicted what was going to happen!”

“I should have been with you,” he snapped, unconsciously venting his anger and frustration on her.

“Right, and if you had been there you’d have been shot too. Where’s the sense in that?”

“You wouldn’t have been shot if I’d have been there. I wouldn’t have let you go near that lake for a start!” he replied angrily.

She bristled at his angry tone. “I called for my father Tom!”

“Why didn’t you wait for him then?” Tom didn’t want to argue with her but his fear for her safety and his own guilt pushed him on. “You should have waited damn it! But instead you went rushing to the lake with Samantha. What the bloody hell did you think you were doing?”

She answered him with barely controlled anger. “Samantha wasn’t prepared to wait for the police to arrive; I just about managed to persuade her to wait for me to make the call! What would you have me do, leave her to go to the lake alone?”

His eyes glittered back. “If she wouldn’t wait then yes! It never made any difference you being there anyway, did it?”

She stared at him furiously, at a loss for words. She had tried to make a difference! She hadn’t wanted Samantha to get hurt! “Well thank you Tom, you can leave now. I really don’t think that this is doing my recovery any good.”

He realised that he shouldn’t have shouted at her like that but irrationally her rejection of him hurt and angered him further.

“Fine, if you want me to leave I’ll leave!” he said, standing up abruptly and striding out of the room.

She sat in the bed and seethed, wanting desperately to storm after him and give him another piece of her mind. Moments later however he opened the door and remerged.

“Oh what now?” she grated out.

“I forgot something,” he said, striding angrily towards her.

“What?” she growled.

“This,” he said, putting firm hands on either side of her face and kissing her soundly on the lips. He took her by surprise for a moment and she sat motionless in shock as his lips moved on hers. Then she came to her senses and outrage ensued. How dare he! Did he really imagine that she’d just fall into his arms after the way he'd spoken to her? Well she wasn't like all the other woman he was used to.

She went to turn her head away and was further incensed when she realised that he had no intention of letting her do so. She put up her hands and pushed at his chest to move him back but he simply brushed away her hands and continued with the onslaught. His body was like an impassable wall in front of her and the longer the kiss went on, the more that impassable wall pressed itself to her. She struggled in vain against him but that only seemed to make their close proximity more evident as her body moved against his. She was livid with him, and with her own inability to stop him. It was perhaps partly her anger that sparked off other feelings that slowly began to emerge from somewhere inside her and that anger, without her consent, began to metamorphize into excitement. She felt it in him too and, to her horror, just knowing that aroused her further. Her mind wasn’t functioning anymore; her body was taking over.

She made another attempt at pushing him away, raising her hands to his shoulders, but the action was half hearted and they both knew it. Tom knew it enough to release her head and hold her hands down, continuing the kiss as he did so. She was slow to react but now she had the opportunity to move her face away from his demanding mouth so she turned her head sideways. Her face was flooded with colour and he thought to himself that he’d never seen her looking sexier as he followed her movement and placed his lips on hers again. She immediately twisted her head to the other side but he followed her once more. It soon became clear that which ever way she turned he would be there, catching her lips in his and breaking down her willpower further. The moment she stilled he knew that she wasn’t going to stop him anymore and he lightened the kisses, teasing her in the way that he knew she couldn’t resist. His mouth hovered so close to hers, his warm breath mingling with hers and she suddenly wanted more. She opened her mouth to him and the kiss that followed was slow and deliberately sensual. He was beginning to know what she enjoyed, how to give her the most pleasure, how she wanted to be kissed and touched. He ran his hands through her hair, over her shoulders and down her back, pushing her closer to him. She shuddered underneath his touch and gave herself up to the intense sensations he was creating. He took hold of her hands and placed them on his shoulders before reclaiming his hold on her. It was pointless trying to fight her need for him and she slid her hands to his neck, up into his hair, back to his shoulders and over his back. He groaned and the sound filled her with elation, she could arouse him as much as he could arouse her. He began to feel his control slip, he wanted more, so much more, and he wanted it now!

God, what was he doing? That wasn’t really the place! He tore his lips away from hers and moved back slightly, grabbing her torturous hands and holding them away from him. She twisted them out of his grip and glared up into his face. He smiled nonetheless as his eyes moved from hers to her lips and back once more. He couldn’t stop himself and on impulse he reached for her again, cupping her face in his hands and covering it with feather light kisses.

“You’re a b*****d,” she mumbled, still not immune to his kisses.

“Hmm,” he agreed shamelessly, running kisses down her cheek.

“I could kill you,” she added weakly.

He chuckled. “You’ll have to get in line with everyone else.”

She couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Tom,” she said quietly, nuzzling her face against his.

“Hmm.”

“Brick said for you to make sure that I didn’t over exert myself!”

He laughed loudly at that and moved back to take a look at her. “You’re not going to faint on me are you?”

She tutted. “No, you’re not that good!”

He grinned. “Oh I am that good. You’ll see.”

She growled at him, picking up a pillow that had slipped from behind her and flinging it into his face.

Reviews

[Daydreamer54]

LOl, the ending was funny and I'm glad tom's ok. Though i have to say there would have been a lot of action if he did meets the guys after he laning in ireland. I just love how they can't stay mad at each other. their fury is equal to their passion for each other! ^^

[Dupree]

Yay! Tom. I missed him so. I'm glad to see that Stephie is okay. Can't wait to see what happens next!