Page 126 of Third and Ten

“It’s time to go to work, isn’t it?” she laments after a while.

“Yeah, it’s about six-thirty.”

“How’s your head?” she ventures.

“I’m sure it’s fine.”

“You know, the closer you get to thirty, the rougher the hangover.”

I roll my eyes, sitting up in bed to prove she’s underestimating me. But there’s only about a five-second delay before it feels like someone is beating a drum in the space where my brain used to be. I squint one eye in an attempt to dull the pain before I lie back with a flop.

“Oof.”

“Told you so.”

“Maybe we should both call in sick,” I suggest, rolling over to face her again. “We could spend the day in bed?”

Please say yes…

She gulps. “I can’t. My clinic schedule’s full today.”

“Five more minutes, then?” I can do a lot in five minutes, or at least get a lot of things started.

Huh. Right about now, I’d be lucky if I could last thirty seconds before—

“Five more minutes,” she consents with a smile. I scoot over, and she turns automatically so that I can spoon my body around hers again. She’s so warm…and smooth.

“Tenley,” I whisper.

She shivers. “Hmm?”

“Do you still want me?”

She draws her shoulders up as if she’s fighting against something. “Of course I want you. I love you.”

I press my hips into the backs of her thighs, and it feels so nice that I’ve got no choice but to see this attempt through. “You know what I mean.”

“Right now?”

“Mm-hmm,” I growl.

“Oh. Don’t you have a headache?” she asks, her voice cracking.

“This will cure it,” I mumble, brushing my lips over the skin below her earlobe. “Would we be…safe?” I slide my hands up the back of her shirt, catching the band of her bra and pinching the fabric so that the clasps separate in one fluid movement. It’s probably one of my smoothest moves to date, and hopefully it conveys that I really mean business this time.

“Um, I’d have to check my charting app,” she says, but her tone is unconvincing. I’ve started paying attention to this fertility-awareness stuff, doing my own research on the symptoms and charts she’s always mentioning, and I’m pretty sure she’s not worried about getting pregnant today.

I also know that if Tenley were ovulating, she’d already be all over me.

I pull her earlobe into my mouth at the same time my hands travel down to her hips, and I begin steering them in front of me. She takes in a shuddery breath. It feels so very good, and I can only hope she’s run out of objections to giving in to the overwhelming chemistry we’ve been fighting for the past few months.

However, there is the matter of the small voice in the back of my head telling me that I know better, that this isn’t how it’s supposed to go.

Dammit.

She swallows hard before she finally lets out a hoarse, “JD?”

“Hmm?”

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