“How do you take it?” he asked gruffly, searching her softened expression, loving her so fiercely it felt like his heart would burst wide open. He saw her lips move into a compassionate pucker.
“Crying is healing. Sometimes a mother comes in with her baby or toddler, and she just needs to talk it out. Talking is strong, healing medicine, Matt. And so are tears.” She looked fondly at those six boxes of tissues. “One of the best investments for a place like this? Getting tons of boxes of tissues in house.” She smiled tenderly, giving him a look of pure love.
Leaning over, he caressed her lips lightly, wishing they were alone so he could kiss her until they shared one another’s breath, not coming up for air at all. Easing away, he rasped thickly, “You’re the best guardian angel these women, children, and babies could have. What would you think of coming over here all day tomorrow, too? Alani and I are going to do some serious security checking around the property and get this place protected so there are no more breakins.”
“I’d love to do that,” she said, her voice quavering. “But are you sure, Matt? I mean … this is your vacation, too.”
He slid his fingers through her hair, moving heavy, glinting strands of it across one of her shoulders. “I’m positive. How late do you want to go tonight?”
“Six? There’s so many women and babies who need to be examined, Matt. Some have some serious issues that need addressing by a specialist.”
“Yeah, no problem. I’ll meet you at the reception desk at six, then?”
“I’ll be there,” she promised, her voice low with emotion.
Matt felt her joy, felt her gratefulness for his understanding. If this wasn’t love, what was? He gave her a quick kiss, rose, and said, “See you later, angel of mercy …”
*
As they ate Chinese takeout that Matt had picked up on the way to their rental house, he was amazed by the energy around Dara. He thought she’d be worn out from seeing twenty patients in one day, but she wasn’t. Coming home, she’d taken a quick shower and changed into a pair of sexy white shorts and a bright-red tube top that outlined her breasts to perfection. Her hair gathered up behind her head with two huge red plastic clips, Dara looked like a young college-aged woman, not the pediatrician who wore her heart on her sleeve.
“Mmm,” Dara said. “This is so good, Matt. Brilliant idea to grab takeout on the way home.”
“I know you love Chinese.”
“I love you more. Does that count, big guy?”
He grinned over at her, absorbing that wicked glint in her eyes. “You’re feeling pretty frisky tonight, Dr. McKinley.”
“It was all those babies,” she sighed, sitting back in the chair, taking a moment for her gobbled food to digest. “They are all so cute! Every last one of them. I just love picking them up, smelling that sweet baby smell they all have, hearing them gurgle, seeing them smile.”
“That’s why you’re high.”
Nodding, she scooped more of the brown rice from the cardboard box and onto her plate. “I can’t explain it, Matt. When I get around a baby or child, my heart just turns into a puddle of love for them. They are all innocent. Little blank slates to be written upon. And they trust without being wary.” She shared a warm smile with him. “I got my baby love today. That’s why I’m feeling so frisky.”
“Yes, and you get another ten hours of it tomorrow,” he reminded her drily, watching her lips draw into a happy smile, eyes glinting with excitement. Nothing made Dara more happy, he thought, than being with her babies and children. She was bred to the bone for motherhood, for caring for and loving these little tykes. He didn’t feel jealous. Instead, he felt so damned proud of Dara for having the raw courage to live her life through her heart’s passion. He was sure, after seeing how tight-knit and loving the McKinley family was, that Dara had been given full support by her parents and grandparents to simply be who she had become. There weren’t too many parents who did that with their children. In his own family, his mother and father had followed that same philosophy. They allowed their three children to grow, bud, and then blossom into whatever they were destined to become. Dara was lucky enough to come from just such a family herself.
“Well,” she murmured, giving him a quick look to see how he felt about her hours, “Alani said their budget allowed for a physician to come for only so many hours a month, and they always need more than that time. That means that the survivors and their children have no medical attention for usually two weeks out of every month.”
“What would they do if there was a baby or mother who was seriously ill?”
“They’d call an ambulance and take her or the toddler to the hospital. Then”—Dara shrugged—“it becomes a medical paper chase for Alani.”
“What if they had a doctor on call more often?”
“Some of the cases I saw today? They’re totally preventable. For example, a child with a sore throat? If care isn’t taken to find out if it’s strep throat or not with just one swab, that child might have strep, and it’s missed. And then that cascades into some life-threatening condition later on down the line. I always carry strep swabs in my physician’s case. And I’m sure two little ones, a tiny girl of four and a young boy of seven, both have strep. I’ll find out tomorrow when the hospital lab calls over the results.”
“So, that’s why you want to go back?” Matt smiled to himself. It wasn’t that Dara was trying to hide her real reasons for wanting to spend a second day of her vacation doctoring those who needed it. It was really about getting lab results and going from there. Being responsible and following through, taking care of her patients.
He saw her eyes sparkle as she glanced up at him, mouth full of rice.
“That’s okay, I get it.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I’ll bet you give your attending doctors special hell with all your tricks.”
Swallowing, she took a sip of her white wine, wrinkling her nose. “Oh, come on, Matt! There are just different work-arounds with some of the attendings, is all. I got in trouble with some of them because I showed my emotions. I figured out ways to hide them but still share them with my patients later, just out of earshot. Heck, you’re black ops. You more than anyone else in this world are an ace at that kind of thing.” Giving him an evil look, she muttered defiantly, “I’ll bet you’d make my choices look like kindergarten compared to what you Delta Force boys pull off routinely.”
“Guilty,” he admitted, holding up his hands, looking into her laughter-filled eyes. “What I love about you—one of the many things—is that you never apologize for what you have to do to help a sick person. I saw you doing it at the Hope Charity in Kabul. I’m seeing it here.”
“Well,” she murmured, her lips tugging into an unwilling smile, “just don’t ever let on to my attending physicians about what I’m doing. When they see me coming, they turn on their heel and find the nearest door and run into the office, locking it behind them so they don’t have to talk to me. They don’t even want to deal with me.”
“Your fame precedes you.”
“Or something like that, yeah.” And then Dara frowned, scooping more rice onto her plate. “I’ll tell you, I will never let anyone—not an agency, not law enforcement or anyone else—put one of my patients in medical jeopardy. I just won’t listen. I’ll figure out a way to get what I want for that child.”
“Do they call you Superwoman in the hospital?”
Nearly choking, she admitted, “Well, I wouldn’t go that far. The attendings have pet names for me I can’t reveal or repeat. They’re not exactly glowing adjectives I’d want anyone to hear.”
“But your patients,” he said, sliding his hand down her arm, “love you. They worship the ground you walk on.”
“I want nothing more in life, Matt, than to be able to ease someone’s suffering. That’s my endgame. And I can guarantee you that I’ll move heaven and hell to get whatever I need for that little baby or suffering child, in order to ease his or her pain.”
“I be
lieve you.” He almost wanted to say that she was truly a copy of Artemis. The ancient goddess who was the fierce mother bear, caring for children, babies, and families and protecting them. Matt’s heart warmed at that parallel. He’d met a modern-day Artemis. And she was his. And she was going to be his wife. There was nothing else he wanted in his life but her. And the children she would carry would be formed out of their love for one another. Matt had never felt more blessed or more grateful for his life, for having met Dara.
CHAPTER 7
“I want more of what we did last night,” Dara whispered against Matt’s damp hair. They’d just shared a shower, messed around a lot, and her lower body was burning with hunger and need of him. She lay on her stomach in the center of the bed, the sheet cool against her warm, moist flesh. Dara tucked a pillow beneath her head. She had put her hair up into a topknot; the ends were still damp, but she didn’t care.
“Good,” Matt growled near her ear, nibbling on the lobe and then moving behind it, where her skin was so sensitive. “So do I.” He licked that area.
A low sound of pleasure whispered from her. “You sure? Aren’t you tired?” Fire began sparking down behind her ear as he licked her flesh, as if he were appreciating a special dessert he was going to eat. Dara swore she could feel him turning into that lion, even his tongue feeling furred and rougher against her delicate skin, but oh, so pleasurable! She knew it was her imagination, but it added to the wonderful sensations he was beginning to build within her body.
“Not me. I’m not the one who saw twenty patients today,” Matt said, amused as he smoothed damp strands of hair away from her exposed nape, one of the choicest of morsels on her supple body. Licking her nape, he heard her gasp once more, seeing through the semidarkness her arms gripping the pillow a little tighter in response to his exploration of that special erotic region. He could feel her enjoying his stalking her. And that’s exactly what he liked to do: hunt her, capture her, and then make her his. It was a very predatory need, and his mind was dissolving as he felt that spirit awakening with hungry intensity within him, sending his everyday mind into unknown ether, no longer functional. All that was left was primal emotions, feelings of powerful potency within himself. There was an inner knowing that Dara was his mate for life, an eruption of fierce love tunneling through his heart, making his chest expand so much he thought he might burst open with that sharp, intensifying feeling he held for her alone. And along with it was wanting to always protect this beautiful, vulnerable woman who fearlessly followed her heart without apology.
Dara laughed huskily, feeling him straddle her thighs and then lean forward, kissing her back here and there. Just having her thighs pressed together told how badly she wanted Matt inside her once more. “That,” she whispered in a sigh, “feels so good, too … don’t stop what you’re doing …”
He scraped his teeth lightly across her nape, drawing her soft, velvet skin between them, holding her in position as he smoothed his long, roughened fingers along the curves of her breasts, feeling her quiver in response. Then he gently released her nape, licking the area tenderly several times, to soothe any possible discomfort he might have caused her by claiming her in such a primal way.
“Why do you do that, Matt?” Dara lifted her head, turning, barely meeting his eyes, which shone like shadowed gold in the dim light given off by the two candles on the dresser.
“What?”
“Nip my neck. You’ve done that from the first time you loved me at Bagram. No one else has ever done that to me.”
He shrugged, kissing her, then drawing wet patterns back and forth across the area with his tongue. “I don’t know. I’ve always done it. Does it bother you?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No … just the opposite, I love it. When you hold me like that, something wild and wonderful bursts open in my lower body. I can’t explain it … it’s so … primal, I guess is the word I want.”
“I’m primal,” Matt assured her darkly, sliding his hands around the curves of her breasts once again, watching her lashes lower, hearing that soft gasp of pleasure slip past her lips.
“What does it mean?”
He leaned forward, placing his teeth gently where her neck connected with her shoulders, holding her flesh and muscle firmly but not hurting her. And then he released her, laving the area with his tongue and lips, soothing it. “Why,” he rasped thickly as he licked behind her delicate ear, “do I want to bite you right there when I mount you from the rear? I don’t know. It just feels right to me. It’s ancient. In the end, all humans are.”
“I love when you bite hold of me there,” she admitted huskily, relaxing beneath those tiny nips that caused momentary pain followed by intense sensations of fire flowing even more hotly from that region, through her firm, swollen breasts and straight down to her clenching channel. Her nipples ached for his skilled touch, his tongue, his teeth rasping and then worshipping them until she screamed with pleasure. Oh, her man definitely knew every little nook and cranny on her body and took foreplay to the level of art with her. Dara knew she was lucky to be on the receiving end of his slow, hot buildup that brought her to such an intense peak and so many orgasms that she lost her mind—but in a good way. Matt made her forget about everything except the scalding gratification he was giving her.
“I like it, too. Biting you very gently makes me feel … well … powerful. Like I’m mating with you.”
“Mmm, I like it when you take me from the rear and then, when we’re crazed and mindless, you bite and hold my neck or shoulder. I can’t tell you the incredible sensations it causes in my lower body. I have the best orgasms when you do that.”
“Hmm,” he murmured, kissing the thin, soft flesh along her neck. “Is that what you’d like me to share with you tonight? It’s your favorite position and mine, too. I like mounting you, taking you …”
His voice had dropped to that low, vibrating growl that feathered through her, made her clit swell and ache, her juices drenching her channel in a flood of anticipation. “I love everything … anything … that you share with me.”
“Well,” Matt murmured, lifting his head, slowly licking her spine, nipping her skin and then laving it with his tongue, “there’s one place I haven’t really shown you that is a stunning erogenous zone.”
“Really?”
He chuckled as her head came up and she twisted a look over her shoulder at him. He could feel his animal spirit on the loose within him once more as it paced, wanting her. “You’re like a kid,” he laughed quietly, continuing to worship each vertebra of her spine, feeling her getting hotter, needy, and that sex scent of hers surrounding him, teasing him until he could barely constrain himself.
“What? I thought you’d shown me all of them.”
Matt hungered for that incredibly strong, nurturing side of Dara as her emotions swept through him, linking with his male hunger to love her. The sharpened emotions lifted him, spurring on his soul hunger to claim her, make her his own. Only his own. As he thrust into her, holding her hips, holding her in place, the animal within him was loose and joyous. Sex had never felt this good, this fulfilling, this satisfying as he stroked into Dara’s receptive body, which urged him to take her, as if some long-lost song were coming back to them from a time when humans were animals. It was to be sung between them once more. Time, places, ages unfurled beneath his tightly shut eyes, his teeth clenched as she pushed back upon him, wanting all of him, challenging him to take her fully without thought, the overwhelming instincts gripping both of them as he felt them melting together as one. The sensations were starkly vivid, raw, overwhelming his blown senses, allowing all of himself into her. Because he couldn’t stop his thrusting as he slid effortlessly in and out of her tight confines, those gripping sensations building swiftly in her, knowing she was riding the wave of a gratifying orgasm to come, so wild and free, that she was fused with him.
It was impossible to remain coherent. The animal was loose within him, roaring, the reverberation rolli
ng through him as he plunged deeply. That knowledge, that mating sense, so hungry and vibrant within him, made him lean over her, as he felt the first slamming heat rip out of him and into her. Dara called his name as her body contracted around him, bathing Matt in wave after wave of scalding fluids that slid and enfolded the entire length of him, a rumble tearing out of him, pure satisfaction. He gripped her nape with his teeth, holding her firmly, forcing her head and neck backward toward him, exposing her throat as he repeatedly thrust and took her in the most elemental of ways. The mating hormones, that scent of them combined, blossomed in his flaring nostrils, his breath tearing out of him, sweat running in rivulets down his taut, shaking body as he felt his life seed bathing her chamber, where all life began. The moment was seminal, paralyzing, exultant, the climax seemingly never-ending. Finally, he buckled upon her. Dara moaned, utterly weakened by her own powerful, ongoing orgasm, which stole all her physical strength. Matt released her nape, gently licking the area. Dara collapsed with a moan upon the bed, his body fully covering and cradling hers.
Enfolding her tenderly afterward, Matt was fused deeply inside of her, feeling Dara quiver with the strength of that imploding orgasm still rocking through her. He kissed her hair, whispered words of love, of need of her. All Dara could do was whimper and tremble violently in the wake of their loving one another. She weakly gripped the pillow, her body damp-smelling, but it was an alluring perfume to him. Licking her shoulder, her nape, kissing her repeatedly, crooning thickly to her as he held her close, Matt supported Dara with his larger body. He wanted to hold her forever, the need driving and soul-deep. His fierce, undying love for her overwhelmed him. He felt it being absorbed by Dara as she continued to pant and breathe raggedly, her long, slender rib cage expanding and contracting quickly against his arms as he held her firmly, with all his love and need.
Never Enough: Delos Series, 3B1 Page 9
