Page 195 of Bad Blood

“Got you to smile. Point.”

I smack his injured arm, and he cringes. “I’m sorry. See, bad decision-making on my part.”

“I’d be okay with a couple bad decisions if you’re willing to make them with me. Let me take your mind off things.”

“Can I take a rain check?”

“Only because you’re literally falling asleep as I sit here.” He leans over me, nipping and kissing my neck. Until his movements slow and become deliberate, he trails his tongue up my neck, and I arch back, allowing him more access as I tangle my fingers in his hair.

“Stay.” The words rush from my lips between his kisses.

“Are you sure?” His tongue continues up the side of my collarbone and stops at my ear, where he starts to nibble.

I groan and ball his shirt into my fists, pulling him closer, hoping this will be the only answer he needs.

“Wait,” he pulls away from me, and I immediately deflate. “Does this mean you get Liam back?”

“I don’t know what the hospital will do with Kline’s patients.” I huff out my irritation and drop against the cushion, pulling him with me.

He jerks away, his eyes searching mine. “What? Why? He won’t go back to you?”

“I’m kidding.”

His shoulders slump with relief. “Does that change things, now that—” He gestures between the two of us.

“We’re two grown adults. Kline’s not watching my every move anymore, and I don’t care what anyone at the hospital thinks.”

“Good, then there’s nothing stopping me from doing this.” He licks along my collarbone and nuzzles his nose along my cheek, his breaths cascading over my open lips.

He pauses.

And I wait.

Until my impatience gets the better of me. I take him by the neck, grasp onto the strap of his sling, and pull him into me. We’re a clash of crashing teeth and eager tongues. And I don’t know how the night turned to this. But it’s not gentle, and it’s not slow. He groans into my mouth, wrapping his fist in my hair as he pulls my neck back, biting and nipping.

“Are you sure about this? I don’t want you getting in trouble.” He pulls away, resting his forehead against mine as he tries to catch his breath.

“My moral code has taken a backseat, and I have decidedly chosen yes.” I lean into him, taking his mouth with mine as a surge of electricity courses between us.

“So, it was never a professional issue?” he murmurs from between our mashed lips.

“Stop pulling away from me to talk. There is plenty of time to talk later. I’ve been waiting to do this for—”

My phone buzzes from my front pocket, the moment between us ripped away.

Dax smirks and kisses my forehead. “Get it. I’m starving, and I’ve been craving Yogi’s.”

“I thought you didn’t want to leave me?”

His stomach growls. “Well, when you put it like that—”

My phone continues to ring. “Go,” I tease. “I’ll be fine. Grab me some chopsticks so I can refine my skills.”

He leaps off the sofa and heads toward the door, returning a second later, right as the call goes to voicemail, and grabs my face with one hand, slipping his tongue between my lips before nibbling on my lower lip and pulling away. “I’ll be quick.”

I wipe my hand over my swollen lips and grin to myself. I pull a pillow over my lap, and Dax disappears to the door before he returns.

He laces his fingers into my hair and tilts my head back, staring into my eyes. “Mine,” he growls and leans into me, his mouth asking permission as he slows the intensity with a whisper of a touch.

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