Page 3 of Rescuing Dr. Marian (Made Marian Legacy #1)

The way he said “sexy” with his eyes locked on mine made my blood thrum. I’d known this was pretend, but something in Tommy’s gaze seemed genuine, making me wonder if he was still acting.

Maybe if I could ditch my ex, the two of us could figure it out, preferably back in my room.

“But,” Matthew began.

I felt a flicker of anger. My history with him was years in the past, and I had no interest in giving oxygen to the fire he was desperately trying to light.

“There were a lot of reasons you and I didn’t work out, Matthew,” I reminded him, surprised by how little I gave a shit anymore. “It’s hard to be serious with someone who fucks your best deputy.”

Matthew flushed.

Tommy’s eyes lost their twinkle. “He slept with your deputy?” His face darkened.

I could tell he was gearing up for a response, likely something equally protective and passionate, and maybe that’s why I did what I did.

Or maybe it was simple greed. Basic hunger. A desperate desire to get closer to the man who’d intrigued me for the past few hours.

I’d meant the kiss to be brief. A performance. A middle finger… with tongue. But the moment our lips met, something surged—hot and wrong and absolutely right.

Tommy stilled. Then surged forward like he’d been starved.

My world narrowed to the weight of his hand on my neck, the burn of his mouth.

This wasn’t pretend. This was a detour to a future I didn’t dare believe in.

Everything around us seemed to fade away—the bar, the music, Matthew’s shocked expression. All I could focus on was the softness of Tommy’s lips, the warmth of his touch, and the surprising rightness of it all.

Under the table, I guided his hand to my thigh, needing more contact, more of this unexpected connection. His fingers tensed against my leg, then gripped firmly as our kiss deepened. I felt his breath hitch, matching the sudden leap of my pulse.

When we finally pulled apart, both slightly breathless, Tommy blinked at me in shock as if the man had never been kissed before. “Oh,” he breathed.

Oh was right. His palm still rested on my thigh, burning through my pants like a brand. If I had my way, there was going to be a whole lot more of that as soon as I got Tommy back to my room.

“Fine, whatever.” Matthew sniffed. “You’ve made your point.”

“Take care,” I murmured without taking my eyes off Tommy, surprised to find I almost meant it. After all, Matthew’s presence had led to this .

He flounced off just as the bartender appeared with our bill.

Tommy blinked rapidly for a beat before clearing his throat. “You can, um… charge it to mine. To me. To my room. Mommy Tarian.” He squinted. “Tommy Marian. Room… something. It has a number. I think it starts with a two?”

I tilted my head at him before glancing at the bartender hiding a grin. “Room 428. Foster Blake. Thanks.”

I was surprised to find that my voice sounded normal and unaffected when I felt anything but. Kissing Tommy Marian had realigned every molecule of my body. Not one single normal part of me remained.

As soon as the bartender walked away, the breath escaped Tommy’s open mouth on a strange sigh as his eyes and mouth opened in my direction. “Fuck. Sorry. I just…”

Somehow, Tommy’s hand had ended up in mine, and I clasped it firmly. “It’s okay. It’s kind of nice thinking I have that effect on someone.”

I glanced out at the water and away from the people in the cabana bar. As much as I wanted to get him upstairs, I didn’t want to rush this. Tonight, with him, I wanted to take my time. “Want to walk down to the beach? Maybe get some air?”

Tommy nodded, his eyes still a little wild. “Yeah,” he managed. “Yeah, okay.”

We left the bar area and followed the sandy path between swaying palms. The music faded behind us, replaced by the rhythmic crash of waves. Away from the bar area, the night felt cooler.

Neither of us spoke as we walked to the water’s edge. The moonlight laid a silvery path across the dark ocean, and I felt more of my stress fade with every step along it. Tommy’s quiet company was easy and welcome.

“Thank you,” I finally said, turning to face him. “We’re making quite a habit of rescuing each other.”

Tommy shrugged, his profile sharp against the night sky. “It was nothing.”

“Hell of a kiss to be referred to as nothing,” I said with a soft laugh.

His eyes met mine then, and the intensity I saw there made my breath catch. Without thinking, I stepped closer, wanting to touch him and possibly kiss him again, if he was up for it.

“I, uh…” He pursed his lips together as if unsure what to say. “Yeah. That was a hell of a kiss.” He let out a nervous laugh. “Not sure I’ve ever had a kiss like that.”

I closed the remaining distance between us and reached for him.

This time when our lips met, there was no audience, no pretense. Just desire, raw and honest. My hands moved to his waist, slipping beneath the hem of his button-down shirt to touch warm skin. He shuddered against me, his own hands coming up to grip my shoulders.

We stumbled slightly, moving deeper into the shadows of a cluster of palm trees.

My back hit the rough trunk of one, and Tommy pressed against me, our bodies aligned from chest to thigh.

The kiss grew hungrier, messier. My fingers traced the ridges of muscle along his back as he made a sound low in his throat that shot straight through me .

“Wait—” he gasped as I nipped at his jaw. “I can’t?—”

I pulled back, brushing my lips closer to his ears. “What do you need?” I breathed against his skin, not wanting to put any actual distance between us. My stomach tightened with want, and my heart thundered with excitement.

“Foster,” he whispered. The way he said my name—reverent but conflicted—made me pull back and cradle his face, searching for an explanation in his expression.

His eyes were dark with desire but also swimming with confusion. I wasn’t sure, but I thought maybe there was some guilt in there, too. Whatever it was, it clearly meant kissing time was over for now.

Fuck .

My stomach dropped. Until that moment, I truly thought he was like any other attractive man I’d flirted with in the past few years—the kind I could enjoy, then walk away from fairly easily. But sitting here in the face of his rejection, I realized I really liked this guy.

Really liked him.

“Hey, sure,” I said stupidly. “No, it’s okay.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I was desperate to keep this from ending completely. I’d loved the fuck out of kissing the man, but I’d also enjoyed getting to know him. “You could come back to my room—just to talk, I mean.”

Tommy’s expression looked both pained and conflicted. “I, um… I can’t. I mean, I want to, but… I… shouldn’t.”

The rush of euphoria I’d experienced simply being in his presence and wondering what the night ahead of us held suddenly changed course, like the world’s most powerful vacuum had decided to suck my happiness away.

“Why?” I asked. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

He reached over and gripped my forearm. “I’m… I’m straight.”

I watched him carefully. “Not a dealbreaker, Tommy,” I said softly, breaking one of my own rules.

Nothing good ever came with hooking up with “straight” men, and I knew it from personal experience.

But there was something about this guy that made me want to throw the rule as far out into the deep, dark ocean as I could possibly fling it.

His cheeks, already flushed pink from the kiss, darkened even more. “It… I… I just can’t. I’m sorry.”

I pasted on a grin I definitely didn’t feel. “Understood. My loss. But I really enjoyed hanging out tonight. And thanks for being a great wingman. That was very cool of you, all things considered. I wouldn’t have kissed you if I’d known you were straight.”

He nodded a little erratically. “Yeah, no, uh. It’s all good. I have a lot of gay and bi uncles and cousins. And one of my sisters is gay.”

“And you grew up in San Francisco,” I joked, suddenly feeling very awkward.

His hand tightened around my arm. “Foster… will you come back to my room and let me give you a clean T-shirt? I have extras, and you don’t have anything clean to wear until your luggage gets here.”

I put my hand over his and squeezed. This time, my smile was genuine. “Now, that sounds like a proposition too good to pass up.”

Thankfully, the awkwardness passed when we walked back past the bar and shared a laugh at the sound of Matthew’s even more drunk voice crooning about something that rhymed with heartbreak.

As we continued along the path toward the building where Tommy’s room was—thankfully, nowhere near my own—we fell into easy conversation again.

Tommy pulled a faded T-shirt from his suitcase—soft cotton worn thin from years of washing.

“From my family reunion,” he explained with a slight smile. “Annual Marian madness in Montana. Fair warning—it might smell like mountain air and nostalgia.”

I laughed. “My favorite.” I shucked my shirt off and quickly donned his, trying not to see the gesture as something more intimate than it was—an offering of something personal, something that had touched his skin.

The shirt fit better than I’d expected, stretching over the extra inches in my bulkier frame.

“Well,” I said with a smile of thanks, clutching my flannel in my hand and feeling awkward again. “Guess I’ll be going. Nice meeting you, Tommy Marian.”

I was tempted to stick around and talk to him a little longer.

But he’d already put the brakes on anything more than friends, and I hadn’t come to Hawaii to make friends with a straight doctor from New York.

Besides, I already had the world’s stupidest crush on the man, and that was more than I could handle.

After returning to my room, I took a long, hot shower and indulged in a very short session with my hand before falling into bed naked. Even then, sleep eluded me for a long time. And when I did finally fall asleep, images of a smiling Tommy Marian followed me into my dreams all night long.

Little did I know that particular affliction would end up lasting my entire life.