St Matthew's Passion: A Medical Romance (21 page)

Emboldened by the wine, Melissa eased the side of her foot against his under the table, increased the pressure gently. He pushed back, taking her free hand in his across the table. They talked, meanderingly, luxuriating in the surroundings and the wine and the pleasure of exploring one another’s faces with their eyes as they did so.

As the meal went on, their conversation turned ever more personal. Melissa told him of love affairs of her own, good and bad, in her past. Fin described a disastrous relationship he’d had as a student which had them both laughing at the foolishness of young people in the grip of infatuation.

Fin spoke about the fallow years in his romantic life, the ones during which he was focusing with white-hot intensity on his career as a surgeon. He seemed to Melissa to hesitate, then, and to draw back into himself. She felt a throb of sympathy. If he was touching on areas he felt uncomfortable talking about, she understood, and would grant him the right to avoid causing himself pain. But at the same time she hoped he’d feel safe enough with her to share them.

The main course arrived, then, an enormous sea bass for her with colossal piles of vegetables doused in sauce. For a top-end restaurant, it clearly didn’t favour the tiny portions its competitors served. Melissa wondered if she’d be able to breath in her dress afterwards. The arrival of the food produced a natural break in the conversation, and by the time they’d starting eating again Fin seemed distracted, given to comments about the view and the decor of the restaurant and similarly unrelated subjects.

Melissa felt especially bold, reckless even, and before she knew what she was doing she put down her knife and clasped his hand across the table once more and said, ‘Fin, would you tell me about Catherine? Please?’

The mention of her name stopped Fin dead, his fork halfway to his mouth. He put it down and stared at Melissa, something flaming in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. For a moment she was dismayed.

Oh no. I’ve blown it.

The look in his eyes was one of intense pain.

Fin said nothing for several beats. Then he reached over and took her hand in both of his.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It’s time I did.’

And it came spilling out, the words tumbling as though they’d been dammed up for too long and had suddenly found release. He told her about how he’d met Catherine, fallen in love for the first time and married her. How she’d stoically borne his late hours and sometimes distant manner, supporting him every way she could in his ambition.

How she’d gone out one day and never come back.

How he’d failed to save her. Not just because he hadn’t taken charge of her care after she’d been hit by the car, but because his habitual neglect of her had made him unaware of the fact that she was missing at all.

How his whole life, from the point of Catherine’s death onwards, had been skewed towards achievement and fulfilment in one area alone: his work. While his emotional life withered and died, and he denied himself the soul-nourishing food of love.

When he’d finished he looked utterly drained, exhausted and yet profoundly relieved, as if he’d undergone some agonising yet critical surgical procedure and understood that he’d come out the other side, alive. Melissa was leaning as far towards him as she could, wanting the table to be gone, wanting the whole restaurant to disappear and for it to be just them, together, her and this wonderful, noble man. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a waiter approaching, no doubt concerned that they’d stopped eating because there was something wrong with the food. Melissa glanced across and gave the waiter a quick smile and a shake of the head. He withdrew.

Fin pulled Melissa’s hand to his lips, pressed them against her fingers.

Softly, she said: ‘You really loved her, didn’t you?’

‘More than anyone I’d ever met,’ he whispered. ‘But she’s gone. And now I’ve met you. And I love you more than anyone I could ever hope to meet in my life, Melissa.’

She saw the glimmer of a tear on her lower lid and felt it spill over and slide down her cheek before she had a chance to wipe it away.

Despite the exquisite food, despite the glamour of the setting, Melissa barely tasted a bite, hardly noticed the view or the soft music from the Bach string quartet in the corner. Her attention was held entirely by Fin; she was drawn into his aura like a ship’s captain by a siren’s call.

The limousine ride to Fin’s flat passed with Melissa in his arms in the back seat, her face buried in his neck, his strength engulfing her. Somehow she found herself upstairs and in his apartment, a beautifully appointed testament to good taste and, in its own way, loneliness.

Melissa didn’t sit down, just followed Fin into the kitchenette and pressed herself against his back, her arms round his waist, as he took a bottle from the fridge and popped the cork expertly, filling two flutes. He turned and handed her a glass.

One hand behind his neck, feeling his own arm snug around her waist, Melissa clinked her glass against his. He gazed down at her, then tilted his eyes off to one side.

‘Shall we?’ he murmured.

They took the champagne through to the bedroom. The bed was large and low and softly lit, Melissa had time to notice, before Fin swung her to face him and slid his hands up her back and pulled her hard against him, his mouth finding hers.

She responded eagerly, winding her arms around his neck, writhing in his embrace, her lips and tongue probing and entwining with his. The heat surged from her pelvis, coursing through her entire body. Her every sense heightened, Melissa was acutely aware of the crush of his chest against her breasts, the musky smell of him as his pores opened, his deep low breathing on her face.

At her back his fingers, those strong yet delicate tools of his trade that had saved so many lives, found the clasp at the top of her dress and unhooked it. She felt the material part, heard the tiny sound as the zip was pulled down. Fin’s hands swept across the skin of her back, bare except for the line of her brassiere.

Where his hips were pressed against hers, she could feel his hardness, insistent and rising.

Desire surged through her with such sudden force that she thought her legs were going to buckle. She arched her neck and his lips and tongue found her throat, nipping at the soft sensitive skin, producing a long husky moan from deep within her.

She was reluctant to break from his embrace, to move even a fraction of an inch away from him, but hunger for him was taking over. Slipping her hands with difficulty in between them, she began to pick rapidly at the buttons of his shirt, staring up at him through lowered lids, her lips parted, her breathing coming rapidly now. His eyes had darkened with lust and threatened to suck her in somewhere she’d never escape from.

Somehow Melissa managed to unbutton his shirt to the waist. She smoothed her palms over his broad chest, his muscled belly. As she did so she felt the dress slip from her shoulders. She reached up and peeled it all the way off, letting it pool around her feet.

His eyes widened and she watched his gaze drop slowly down her body. She’d chosen lace underwear, pale red and transparent, and it was clearly having the desired effect. Fin’s throat convulsed as if he was having difficulty swallowing.

‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered hoarsely.

They joined again, then, and this time there were no pauses, no moments of drawing back to prolong the anticipation. There was just skin against naked skin as they clawed at one another, pulling off and casting away their remaining clothes without finesse. Fin unclasped her bra and threw it aside in one moment, sliding his hands round to cup her breasts. The sensation of his palms against her nipples sent another jolt of pleasure through Melissa and this time her legs did give way and she dropped to the bed. Fin grabbed at her panties and she helped him, lifting her bottom to slide the lace free and kicking it off her foot. She sprawled back, bared and open to him.

Their coupling was frantic, Melissa meeting his thrusts with her own, her hips stropping him to an ecstatic height of pleasure. Her nails clawed at his back and her mouth grabbed at the side of his neck, his ear, until she couldn’t hold back any longer and screamed, dimly hearing his own muffled cry as he too was borne along helplessly by the uncontrollable torrent of joy they’d created between them.

Later, much later, after the brief recovery followed by a more prolonged and in its way even more exquisite bout of lovemaking, and then a third, Melissa lay snuggled against Fin’s side, her arm across his chest, his around her. She listened to the soft rise and ebb of his breathing, noticed that hers had fallen into synch with his without her being aware of it.

Peace and joy were two experiences Melissa wasn’t unfamiliar with, but she’d never thought it possible that both could be present at the same time. Yet here she was, ecstatically happy, with a man she loved, a man who aroused tumultuous emotions within her; and at the same time she felt profoundly content.

She glanced up to see if Fin was asleep, saw him peering down at her. He grinned.

Melissa murmured, ‘I just realised. I never thanked you for saving my life.’

Against her ear, his voice was a deep rumble from his chest. ‘And I’ve never thanked you for saving mine.’

Melissa settled against him once more, basking in the luxury of warmth, and of love, and, eventually, of sleep.

THE END

AFTERWORD

Thanks for reading my novel – I hope you enjoyed it!
St Matthew’s Passion
is my first romance novel, and I’ve tried to bring some of the atmosphere of life and work in a busy teaching hospital to this story of a love affair between two very strong-willed people.

You won’t find St Matthew’s Hospital on any map, because it doesn’t exist. I created it as a composite of several actual hospitals I’ve worked in over the years. Similarly, most of the characters in the story, from Melissa and Fin to those with smaller roles such as Emma, Deborah and Prof Penney, are based loosely on real people I’ve met and worked with. Not that I’d ever reveal who they are…

My thanks are due to Jane Dixon-Smith of
JD Smith Design
for the book’s cover.

My second medical romance novel,
Questions Of Trust
, is now available for Kindle.  Details on the next page...

If you’d like to get in touch with me, please do:
[email protected]
.

Finally, if you enjoyed St Matthew’s Passion, I’d be most grateful if you’d consider posting a review on Amazon. Even just a few lines would be much appreciated. Reviews are the lifeblood of an author’s trade and have more influence than you might realise!

Thanks.

Sam Archer

ALSO BY SAM ARCHER

QUESTIONS OF TRUST

A Medical Romance

From the author of St Matthew's Passion, a story about love, loss, and the courage to overcome one of the greatest obstacles to happiness a human being can face: the fear of trusting another...

Chloe Edwards has it all. A successful career as a London journalist, an adorable baby son, and a wonderful marriage. Then one day tragedy strikes, and she's forced to leave the city and start again with her son in the idyllic Cotswolds town of Pemberham.

There, Chloe meets Dr Tom Carlyle, the local family doctor. Handsome, well-liked and professional, he seems the perfect match for her.

But Chloe can't trust him. Because he's a doctor - and a doctor was responsible for the death of her beloved husband.

Tom Carlyle has problems, too, however. A devoted single father to a little girl, he's started to receive messages from his troubled ex-wife that she's reconsidering her decision to allow him custody of their daughter. And before long, his ex has begun a campaign that will lead to a crisis in more lives than just Tom's.

Torn between her growing attraction to Tom and her determination to close her heart to romance for the sake of her son, Chloe finds herself drawn irresistibly into a complex and at times frightening plot to undermine the good name of a decent human being. And gradually, she's forced to reconsider everything she believes about loyalty, about trust - and about love.

At once a thrilling novel of suspense and a tale of passionate romance,
Questions Of Trust
will take you on an emotional rollercoaster ride as it explores what it is to fear, to doubt, to love... and to live.

Amazon US

Amazon UK