“Anterior superior iliac spine,” she answered his silent poke.
He moved his poking finger a little lower, just inches away from her center, which still pumped from their lovemaking.
Her smile bloomed when he poked again, voice sleepy as she responded. “Anterior interior iliac spine.”
The pads of his fingers moved lower. This time, he didn’t poke, but instead gave a soft push.
“Mmm…” She nibbled her bottom lip, a flash of pleasure zooming through her skin where he’d touched it. “Head of femur.”
His touch traveled even lower, dangerously close to the swollen lips of her pussy.
She giggled when he pushed again, his finger sinking into her skin, tickling her slightly. “Neck of femur.” She gasped as his touch grew lower. “Ischium…” She drew in a soft pant. “Pubis…”
With nowhere else to go, his fingers sank into her lips, still swollen for him—wet for him—and the gasp that left her mouth stole the rest of her words when his curious fingers found her aching clit.
“So smart…” he whispered, circling the nub with his fingers, teasing for round two that his flaccid member, still recovering between his legs, was nowhere near ready for. “So sexy. I think your mind is the sexiest thing about you.”
She barely managed to speak as he stroked her. “If you’d seen… the state I was in… during those Anatomy classes, I doubt “sexy” is the word that would spring to mind. Nothing but pajamas—” She clapped her thighs around his hand when her clit proved too sensitive for round two just yet, squealing softly. “Bifocals. Sleep bags under the eyes. Hair not combed. Both semesters. I was no prize, I’ll tell you that.”
Gage smiled as he visualized her in college, working on zero sleep, stressed out of her mind, suffering through the biology classes that had taught her to name every bone and muscle in her body on command. A skill that he still found himself in awe of to that very day, often pointing out parts of her body in an attempt to prove to himself that no woman so amazing could ever be his, more amazed still when she proved him wrong every time.
“I want this every day for the rest of my life,” he said, softly, after several quiet minutes, having left her sensitive lips to softly caress her back.
Veda moaned her agreement—floating so high she could no longer bother to form coherent words.
His fingers froze in the midst of stroking her back.
“Can I ask you something and you’ll promise to be completely honest with me?” he asked, his voice freer and more open than it had been in ages. When Veda remained silent, he resumed trailing his fingers up and down her back with one hand while massaging the arm she had slung across his chest with the other. He smiled when her lips warmed the edge of his pec in a soft kiss.
Looking up at him, she nodded.
He took a deep breath, making her body rise and fall along with his chest. “Did you and Linc—”
“No,” Veda answered immediately, a small frown pinching her face as she dug her nails into his chest.
“Has he tried anything—?”
She laughed softly. “No, Gage.”
His hand left her arm, and he pinched the corners of his eyes, exhaling deeply, making her body fall with his chest. “I told you I’ve been having nightmares. About you and him. I can’t remember the last time I had a full night’s sleep.”
“Nothing has happened or will ever happen between Linc and me.” She took a moment. “I love you.”
He met her eyes just as his hand fell and clapped down over his heart. She covered it with her own. Their fingers entwined.
“I love you with all my heart,” he whispered back.
She hesitated. “Did you and Stephanie ever…?”
“No.”
Relief washed over her, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking for ways to kill it. “Did you kiss her?”
His arm tightened around her. “Yes, Veda, we kissed.”
Her stomach bottomed out.
He sighed. “Every time, I felt nothing. I would go to this place in my mind where your face just wouldn’t leave me. Your lips. Your voice. Your smile. I couldn’t even close my eyes because I knew all I’d see was you. It was never right. She was never you.”
Her teeth reclaimed her bottom lip. A part of her understood for the first time why Gage always came unglued when he saw her so much as talking to Linc. Just the thought of him talking to Stephanie—let alone kissing her—caused a dull ache to prickle across her body that was damn near unbearable. It nearly drove her to start an argument.
She didn’t, however, because she knew she had no one to blame but herself. She was the one who hadn’t trusted Gage. A lack of trust that had been breathtakingly unfair to him. One that had led to the untimely end of their engagement. One that had ripped his heart to pieces for no good reason—driving him to search for distraction in another woman—any other woman.
It was her fault.
So she bit her lip harder and fought the words away.
He watched as she nearly gnawed it off, eyes darkening. “If you want, before I leave the hospital, I can restore your hours back to full time.”
Her voice went deadpan. “I can’t believe you haven’t offered to do it already.”
“These past few weeks have been a real whirlwind. It didn’t cross my mind until now.”
“Now that you’re no longer out to destroy me?” she teased, giving his chest a soft slap, her stomach warming when his laughter tickled her cheek. “It’s okay, though. I don’t want to go back to full time.”
“But staying part time will add another two years to your residency.”
“That’s fine. I love working at Dante’s.” And all of my worst enemies love drinking at Dante’s.
“You love Dante’s?” he asked, voice laced with laughter. “The last time I saw you there you seemed on the verge of murdering all your patrons. If they didn’t kill you first, that is. Because they despised you equally as much.”
“We’ve learned to love each other.”
“Somehow I find that very hard to believe.”
Gage was right. Veda didn’t love working at Dante’s. Quite the contrary, in fact. But Veda also knew that she couldn’t tell Gage the real reason she wasn’t ready to give up that miserable bartending job. Working at Dante’s was going to make it ten times easier to finish exacting revenge. Gage cutting her hours in an attempt to hurt her for ending their engagement, forcing her to take a second job, had been a blessing in disguise. The rich pricks of Shadow Rock had deemed Dante’s their territory, which meant no more stalking. No more late night stakeouts. From that day forward, her quest would go like butter. That was more important to Veda than getting her hours at the hospital back. It was more important to her than completing her residency in a timely fashion.
It was more important to her than anything.
Because now she wasn’t just doing it for herself.
Something unpleasant shot through her—something that threatened to rip her away from the serene world she’d just been sinking into, so she rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him, hoping the sight of him would help ease the darkness, the way it always did.
This time, it didn’t.
She reached up to run the tips of her fingers along his face, taking her time tracing the sharp outline of his jaw, his thick black eyebrows, and his strong nose. She caressed his plush lips, which prompted him to kiss her fingers before she moved her touch to his chin. His short beard prickled at her fingers. Her thumb stroked the sensitive skin next to his eyes, so expressive she felt like she could see his every thought—even the ones he’d never dare speak out loud—screaming at her right then.
He was simply beautiful. Not just a beautiful man, but a beautiful soul. A once in a lifetime grace and splendor. A visceral warmth that could only make the world better. As far as she was concerned, the only way a world with Gage in it could get any better was if there were two of him instead of one.
Another sharp blas
t hit her when she realized there almost had been.
Almost.
With a deep breath, she laid her hands on his chest and used its hardness to push herself up. The weight of his arm was still around her waist, however, making it difficult to move. He flexed, tightening his hold in an attempt to keep her lying down.
“Where’s the fire?” he implored. “Your next patient isn’t for another fifteen minutes.”
She managed to wiggle free and seize her bra, slung over the bedrail at the foot of the bed.
“Don’t get dressed,” he complained when she began to fasten the bra clasps.
Veda’s eyes ran the room as she slipped her arms into the straps, making a mental note of where the rest of her clothes had landed, mapping out her plan of attack for how to get them all back on her body as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy lying naked in bed with Gage.
She would’ve happily lived and died there if she could.
But she didn’t want him to see the tears burning her eyes.
She didn’t know how to explain them.
Still, his voice came in from behind her as she left the bed and began getting dressed, making her way around the room, throwing on a new article of clothing each time.
“Veda, don’t do this. Don’t pull away from me. Not again.”
She froze, already dressed in her bra, her scrub pants, her top, and in the midst of slipping on her socks.
“I’m not pulling away,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of paperwork to take care of before my next patient…”
She tried to relax and maintain her center as she slid her foot into one of her sneakers. Just as she was slipping the second sneaker on, he took her arms from behind.
Veda froze at his touch, eyes falling closed.
His breath warmed her earlobe. “Talk to me.”
“I am talking.”
“No… I want you to really talk to me.” He squeezed her arms.
Veda’s heart swelled. “I’m fine.”
His hold on her arms moved to bone-crushing levels, but she didn’t mind the soft shot of pain it sent through her. Nothing could be more painful than the shots blazing through her heart.
“How many times do I have to say it?” he continued whispering in her ear. “There’s nothing you can say or do that will ever make me give up on you. I’m not quitting you, Veda. I never will. And I won’t let you quit me either. Ever. So stop trying. Talk to me.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
She tried to snatch free and walk away, but his fingers were around her arms like a padlock. She clenched her teeth when she realized he was planning to make good on his word. He wasn’t going to let her quit. He wasn’t going to let her walk away.
“Gage…” Her voice grew weak as tears threatened her eyes. “Please…”
He pulled her body back against his, laying every inch of his solid form against hers. When his voice came in her ear this time, it was chock full of emotion, alerting her to the fact that his eyes were surely just as red and wet as hers.
“I’ll give you another one,” he promised, his whispered voice trembling as he did. “I’ll give you a thousand more.”
“I don’t want another one!” she cried, this time succeeding when she yanked her arms away. She stumbled forward with a hand over her mouth, pausing for a moment before spinning on her heels. When she caught sight of his stricken face, her voice lowered. “I don’t want another one. I didn’t even want that one until… until…”
His eyes shrank, shoulders collapsing as he nodded softly. “Until you did?”
Her nostrils flared as she drew in a sharp breath. “I don’t want another one. I want—” Her voice broke, moisture filling her eyes as she pointed her finger toward a random corner of the room. “I want that one. I want that one, Gage—”
“I know you do, baby.” He moved forward, closing the space between them.
“I want him back.” Her face crumbled.
“I want him back too.” He buried a hand in her hair and pulled her in.
The moment Veda’s nose was buried in his chest, the dusting of hair between his pecs tickling the tip, his wonderful scent engulfing her, she couldn’t stop herself from surrendering to the lump that had been living in her chest. The cry that raced up her throat and through her downturned lips warmed the space between them, creating a muggy heat almost unbearable as he wrapped his other arm around her body and drew her in closer. Her cries moved to sobs, and those sobs wracked every bone in her body, making every inch of her shake so hard that, eventually, he was shaking too.
“I want him back too, baby,” he whispered into her hair, voice low and hoarse, so full of emotion that it made Veda wonder if it was actually the other way around. If it was actually his body shaking out of control and bringing hers over the edge of the precipice with him. “I’m so sorry.”
“This is my fault,” she wept.
He shushed her, tightening his hold. “No, it isn’t. Don’t ever say that again.”
“It should’ve been me.”
With a deep heave, Gage buried his lips and nose into her hair, no longer trying to talk her out of the words leaving her mouth. No longer admonishing her.
In an instant, he realized what she really needed.
So he held her in silence. Until every tear had tried, every tremor had subsided, and every strangled word had petered away, leaving them both embracing in nothing but quiet, sinking into the stillness they both needed so desperately.
21
Across town, Linc’s biceps pulsed and rolled under his skin, threatening to burst through his white t-shirt—as well as the stitches still healing on his chest—as he laid both of his fists on the stainless steel table of the interrogation room. As he leaned in, his hair fell forward as well, casting a shadow across his green eyes, which had previously gleamed under the wisp of sunlight radiating into the barred window in the corner of the concrete room. His eyes shrank as he fought not to flip that table on top of the asshole smirking at him from across it.
“Look…” The African-American man with dark, pockmarked skin, who Linc now knew as Gideon Sinclair, sat in a chair across the table with his wrists cuffed behind his back. Gideon smiled at Linc, which put even more strain on his already dry, cracked lips. His naturally red eyes danced back and forth, searching Linc’s face. “Look, I left the scene of an accident, all right? Give me a slap on the wrist so I can get the fuck outta here already.”
“You wanna get the fuck outta here?” Linc asked conversationally.
“Yes!”
“A’ight.” Still leaning, Linc nodded. “You can get the fuck outta here. Sure.”
Gideon shot up from his seat and craned his body to the side, motioning for Linc to undo the cuffs behind his back.
“In about fifty years,” Linc spat, unable to fight an amused frown at his abysmal stupidity.
Gideon froze, studying Linc. Then his face collapsed, and he rolled his eyes, falling back into his seat.
Linc smirked at the idiot actually thinking it would be that easy. He pointed to himself. “You don’t remember me do you?”
Gideon met his eyes. “Can’t say I do.”
“Man. I do look different with my hair down,” Linc pushed away from the table and snatched at the black elastic around his wrist, yanking his hair into a sloppy bun before leaning back down again, smiling softly.
Gideon studied his face, and then his eyes fell closed.
“That’s right,” Linc nodded. “I’m the cop you opened fire on the other day. At your dead grandmother’s house. The house you were stupid enough to return to after a high-speed police chase in a cab registered in her name.”
Gideon slumped forward, his forehead hitting the table with a thump.
The door to the interrogation room clicked open behind him, and Linc didn’t even have to look to see who it was, nodding over his shoulder. “And that woman who just walked in? That’
s my partner. You shot at her too.”
Gideon shook the head he still had laying on the table.
Linc stood tall. “See, when those officers detained you at the airport—where you were attempting to flee—they told you it was in regards to you leaving the scene of that hit-and-run accident. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Not only did you leave the scene of an accident, resist arrest, and open fire on a couple of cops a few days later, you were also driving a car with an underage escort in the backseat and an incapacitated woman in the trunk. That’s sex trafficking and kidnapping. And since that underage escort was beaten half to death when we found her, you’re also looking at aggravated assault. So I’d get real comfortable in that chair if I were you.”
Gideon lifted his head, avoiding Linc’s eyes. “I want a lawyer.”
Linc zeroed in, leaning his fists on the table once more, voice falling. “Yeah, and I wanna rip your goddamn throat out, but we can’t always get what we want, huh?”
Gideon looked over Linc’s shoulder at Sam. “He just threatened me. Did you hear him threaten me?”
“Nope.” Sam’s voice floated in.
Gideon’s face collapsed, wide eyes flying back to Linc.
Linc took a deep breath to center himself, his voice calming. “Here’s the thing, Gideon, when you shoot at cops, you lose all bargaining power. Not just with us, but with the DA, as well. Lucky for you, my partner and I are feeling good-natured this morning, and we’re willing to offer you a deal—just this once. The real question isn’t whether or not you need a lawyer. You’re going to prison regardless.” Linc smiled. “The real question is… are you looking at ten…” He curled his lips down with a shrug. “Maybe fifteen years? Eight, with good behavior? Or are you looking at life?”
Gideon slammed his forehead onto the table once more.
Linc sighed. “Are you gonna give us a name, or are you going to prison for life? Simple question. And since being shot at has left us feeling a little impatient, we’re gonna give you ten seconds to answer before the offer is off the table and we just go ahead and charge you with everything. Ten… nine… eight—”
Pulse (Revenge Book 5) Page 19
