Bachelor Doc, Unexpected Dad
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Dianne Drake
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17,6K
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10
Prologue
MATT ROLLED OVER in bed and looked at her. She was still sleeping, and so beautiful in her sleep he wanted to stay another night with her. That wasn’t his life, though. As tempting as Ellie was, and she was the most tempting woman he’d ever met, he didn’t get to have that kind of involvement in his life. In fact, he’d planned everything to fit him the way he wanted—no strings. It was easier. People didn’t get hurt.
Still, that graceful form under the satin sheets next to him was so hard to resist. And it wasn’t just the physical intimacy that had been good. They’d talked. Dined. Danced. Things he’d never done with a woman before. And Ellie was so easy just to hold, to be near.
The first night, he’d assumed it would be fun and games, she’d be gone by the time he went to sleep, and he would never see her again. But that’s not what had happened. They’d stood on the balcony for a while, looking at the beautiful Reno lights, laughing at silly things, talking much longer than he’d expected to. And the night had passed so quickly. In fact, by the time they’d gotten around to what he’d assumed would take only a short time, the sun had already been coming up and he’d been wondering where the night had gone.
Then Matt had watched Ellie, off and on that day, always having an excuse to be near her. It was a convention and medical conference after all. The hotel ballroom was filled with various displays of new medical products and pharmaceuticals. Somehow, the ones that had seemed to catch his attention had always been near her booth. And while he’d tried not to be obvious about watching her, Ellie had caught him at it a time or two, leaving him with a blush on his face and a shrug on his shoulder. Much the way a schoolboy with a crush would act.
But those looks she’d caught—they’d led to a second night, one with much less talking and much more passion. In fact, she had already been in his bed when he’d gone back to his room, having bribed a maid to let her in. And that night it had been like two desperate people clinging together at the end of the world. In some ways, that’s what it was. The end of their little world as, in three days’ time, he’d be back in a hospital in Mosul, putting pieces of injured soldiers back together. That’s who Matt was. And that was his world. Not this one.
Still, as Matt buttoned his shirt and headed to the hotel room door that second morning he wondered if something like this, someone like Ellie, could ever have a place in his life. It was a nice dream, but in his experience dreams didn’t come true, and it was all he could do to make it through his reality.
Someone like Ellie deserved more. But he was a man who had nothing to give.
Opening the door quietly, so not to disturb her, Matt stepped into the hall, took one last look at Ellie before he shut the door, then leaned against the wall for a moment, watching the hotel maid making her way slowly down the corridor with her cart. By the time she reached this room, he’d be on a plane to Hawaii, and from there a military transport back to Iraq.
