Page 22 of Crash: Love in Scrubs
“You not sleeping, Sametra. I can tell.”
“I’m trying. It’s hard sometimes.”
I stood in front of her, inhaling her scent, touching her soft skin, feeling the brush of her hair against my palms. Her chest was rising and falling to the rhythm of my hands massaging. I applied gentle pressure to the trigger points where the trauma had settled, feeling the tight muscle fibers that had been guarding against pain for weeks.
“Exhale,” I murmured, working along the areas where the seatbelt had yanked against her neck during impact. This was more than stress, this was her body still protecting itself from a trauma it couldn’t forget.
Her soft moan told me I’d found exactly where she’d been hurting. I wanted this to be her whole body, but I had to chill. I was thankful I didn’t have her too close, she’d know for sure how happy I was to see her.
“Again, inhale.”
“Shit,” she moaned softly. “That feels so good.”
I stopped and lifted her chin, just enough to make her look at me. Her eyes fluttered open. “Why’d you stop?” she asked dazed. I laughed a little.
“You know why I stopped,” I said, licking my lips. I wanted to kiss her so damn bad. She grinned but her eyes dropped to my lips, then flicked away. For a second, I thought she was going to pull back, say something slick, fold into that hard shell again. But she didn’t. She stayed right there, heart in her throat.
There was something about the way her eyes closed slowly, innocent. Every breath that passed between us felt like the beginning of something neither one of us could stop.
And I didn’t want to stop. Not now. Not ever.
I leaned in slowly, giving her time to stop me. She didn’t. Instead, she grabbed my neck and kissed me like she’d been waiting all damn week. I didn’t hesitate. My hand slid to the back of her neck, deepening the kiss. She tasted like strawberries and yogurt, sweet and addictive. Sametra melted into me like she’d been holding her breath since the accident. When she finally exhaled into me, I lost it.
She’d crossed the line, exchanged energy with me, and I wasn’t going to let up.
I pushed her back against the wall, my hands finding her hips, pulling her into me. She moaned again, so soft, so perfect, and that sound went straight through me like a drug.
I had no business kissing her fine ass back, but I’d been dying to. I wanted her to cross the line first, not me. But now that she had all that falling-back bullshit was dead. As a man, there was no way I was letting her slip through my fingers. From the second I saw her, I knew, before it was all said and done, I’d have her, her time and attention.
MISSION ONE: ACCOMPLISHED.
She pulled back, lips parted, trying to catch her breath. I stepped away, jaw tight, dick hard as hell.
“Thank you,” she whispered. She didn't mean to, but her hand drifted to my beard, testing the softness. Her fingers lingered longer than they should have. Neither of us spoke, but everything shifted.
“Let me take you out,” I said, voice low and ragged. “Fuck the other shit I said about being patient.”
“Watch it,” she whispered, a breathless laugh escaping. “We’re in the chapel.”
“He knowswhat’s up. He made you fine for a damn reason.”
“Malik.”
“My bad.” I grinned. “Don’t switch the subject on me. Let me take you out this weekend.”
“Did you hear what I said, Malik? I got a lot going on. I don’t have any business dating let alone dating you.”
“I heard you, and I can handle almost all of it. We’re all complicated, and life can shift and change at any minute. You ain’t really saying anything.”
“I’m afraid to do this with you. Isn’t it a conflict of interest? And just because you fixed my neck with your perfect hands and kissed me like you missed me...I care more about Samaj getting his life back than getting my heart broken by you.”
“How you gonna put that on me? You kissed me, MiMi. Like you’ve been starving for it, now you wanna act like it didn’t happen? Nah, we’re way past that.”
“No, we aren’t past it. That wasn’t supposed to happen. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“Here we go. I told you I was gonna chill, but now I can’t let you walk out that door without giving me a chance to prove I’m the man for you.”
“I need to go get the car,” she said suddenly, stepping around me toward the door. “My daddy let me borrow his car. See another thing I need to worry about.”
