Page 67 of My Heart Before You

MoreColin.

Between them, his pager beeped, and she felt his grip on her loosen unwillingly. She held her grasp tight at the base of his neck, fingering the tendrils of his hair while he traced her lips with a scorchingly soft lick.

“I had to see you.” His voice was hoarse against her lips.

A laugh spilled from her mouth. “You’d just seen me.”

His smile rose before he started weaving kisses over her ear and then ever so slowly down along her jaw to her neck. This time a moan fell from her lips.

“I had to kiss you then,” he whispered.

The pager went off again.

“You should probably look at that.” She tilted her head away to maximize the area that he could kiss.

Continuing his path with a series of hot kisses to her collarbone, his rough voice said, “In a minute.”

At its third sounding, she knew he could ignore it no longer. They separated just enough for him to glance down at the device. His jaw was set firm in a way that meant he would leave in just a moment, so she took the next few seconds to revel in him.

Today his eyes were more blue than grey, the lighter center ringed by dark ocean circles. His scent was distracting enough when he strode past her in the hall, but this close it was intoxicating. Her thumb itched to trace the sharp corner behind his ear down to the tip of his chin and over his swollen lips. When his eyebrows furrowed, she glanced up to his thick hair, which was a complete mess from her fingers.

“Colin. Your hair.” Emilie chuckled.

He ran his hand through his hair, nearly putting it back to perfect. Such an unfair thing for a man to be so handsome with such little effort.

“Better?”

“No,” she lied.

He took his scrub cap out of his pocket and placed it over his head, tucking the wayward strands underneath it before tying it behind his head. “I’ve got to head back to the OR anyway. My resident needs help.”

Her head bobbed in agreement. She’d better get back to work too; she hadn’t told anyone she was leaving this time.

Taking her face in both of his hands, he tenderly rubbed the thumb of one hand over her cheek before sliding it to her chin, giving her the sweetest graze of his lips over hers.

“Emilie. . .”

Her name sounded like a confession.

Like it was breath and water and food and shelter to him, everything he needed to live contained in three syllables. The sound zipped through her muscles, threatening to drop her straight to the floor.

This time his cell phone rang in his pocket.

“Go,” she whispered to his lips.

His eyes raced all over her face before he stepped out of the room with his phone to his ear. “Abernan.”

???

She didn’t see Colin for the rest of her shift, but figured he was busy in surgery. After tromping home in the beginning snow, Emilie kicked off her winter gear and changed into pajama pants and a baggy long-sleeve shirt. Her slippered feet padded into the kitchen, and she pulled a large, plastic container of chili out of the fridge. Scooping out a bowl for herself, she was about to put it in the microwave when a sharp knock sounded on her door.

Colin stood on the other side, breathing hard, his face flushed from the freezing fifteen degree night. He had snow in his hair and on the shoulders of his white coat. It took her a second to register that he was wearing his scrubs and running shoes and not warmer gear. What distracted her was the most intense focus she’d ever seen as his eyes bore into her.

“Colin.” The surprised word dropped from her mouth. “Wha—”

Her question went unfinished as he pressed all the intensity of his eyes to her mouth with his cold-stung lips.

She responded instantly, lacing her arms around his neck, and he picked her up with one arm, using the other to slam the door behind them. Her legs wrapped around his muscled torso, and a low growl pushed back against her furiously sweeping tongue. His body was freezing from its exposure to the frigid temperature, his hands surprising her with their cold touch as they explored her back.

---