Page 29 of Healing Hazel
“I’d say that’s a round earned,” he said, stepping closer and lifting his hand.
Not to swat me, but to wipe his fingertip across the corner of my mouth. Pulling it away, he grinned. “For someone who was so determined to hide her DNA, I’d say she needs to remember to wipe her mouth.”
“Oh,” I said a moment before his hand slipped behind my head and his fingers closed around the nape of my neck.
“Oh indeed.” He let me watch as he licked the evidence off his fingertip and then bent to kiss me.
Turned out it didn’t matter how much taller he was, we fit together just fine.
“Keep that up and that baby boom is never going to stop,” Quincy said as he passed us on the way to his office.
I giggled and Nigel pulled back with a grin.
“Laugh now, Zellie, but tonight, your arse is mine.”
A couple of weeks ago, that statement might have made me freeze, but now it simply made my nipples harden and my panties dampen. “Yes, Master,” I said, loving the way the title made his eyes go a deep brown that made me want to sink into the warmth they promised. “Oh, and, um. Dr. Berringer?”
“Yes, Miss Waltman?” he said, leaning forward again.
“You have patients waiting.”
“Oh!”
“Oh, indeed,” I returned, stepping back and grabbing the chart for yet another pregnant woman who stood smiling ear to ear as she signed in.
Chapter Fifteen
Nigel
Hazel had been taking baby steps for a month now, the stride of each step growing a bit longer with every chat she had with Mira as well as those nights when she brought bits and pieces of her story out of the dark to share with me. But despite her reference in the café that night, she’d not yet torn that Band-aid off completely. From the slight tremble I could feel as her fingers clasped mine, I knew she didn’t yet trust me not to rip it off myself and bare her physically and emotionally to an entire room full of people on her first return to an actual Dungeon.
Since she’d made her choice, we’d played out a few small scenes like the one in the doctors’ lounge, but those took place in either her apartment, or one afternoon in my office in the clinic after hours. She’d lowered her walls a bit further with each one, but those would pale compared to tonight’s scene. Tonight she was going to take her first giant step beginning the moment she crossed over the threshold of Rawhide’s Dungeon.
The elevator doors opened and I only took a single step before realizing she’d not moved with me. I didn’t tug on her hand, didn’t roll my eyes or chide her. I simply allowed the doors to close, shutting us inside. I didn’t reach out to push the buttonto return us to the first floor. Instead, I stepped back and bent to kiss the top of her head, offering her my strength and reinforcing my promise that while she was the one taking those steps, I wouldn’t rush her to do so.
When the elevator began to move, she seemed surprised and looked up at me. “It’s okay, babygirl. Just means someone called for the elevator.”
She looked from me to the doors and then back. “So, we’re getting off?”
“If you wish.”
Another glance to the doors as if trying to decode a simple phrase, she watched them slide open. Hazel didn’t speak as a couple I didn’t know joined us. Their destination was pretty obvious as the woman wore a cape over a pale-blue lingerie set that was practically sheer, heels that added several inches to her height, and a collar around her throat. Her partner held the end of the leash attached to that collar. Both gave us easy smiles, which I returned. The doors slid shut and when they opened, I wished them a good evening. Neither so much as gave us a funny look as if to question why we were simply standing in the corner and not joining them in exiting.
The cycle repeated twice more before I felt Hazel’s trembles easing as more and more guests joined us briefly for the ride. After the third time the lift doors opened to discharge a foursome, Hazel said, “This is kinda silly, isn’t it?”
“Not silly at all,” I countered, stroking the pad of my thumb over the nape of her neck.
She shook her head. “So you’re good with standing here, riding up and down all night?”
I smiled. “If you’re asking if I’ll ride until you’re ready to take that next step, then the answer is most definitely yes. However, we might be doing some of that riding with you sitting on my lap on the floor because all night is a pretty long time.”
This time she let out an amused huff. When the elevator rose yet again, she moved for the first time in quite a while. It was very slight, but it was a shift away from my side. I took it as a victory for it meant she was standing on her own two feet even with her hand still clasping mine.
The doors opened to dispel the elevator occupants, Hazel took a deep breath and looked up at me after the other people spilled from the lift. “Baby steps.”
I smiled and looked down at her. “Babygirl, I think this qualifies as a big step, don’t you?”
Her smile was a bit shaky, but she nodded. “Definitely… oh!”
