Chapter 41
“I hopeit’s a good dream you’re having ’cause you sure look like it.”
Emma started, her eyes snapping to Brenda, who stood inside the door to her temporary office and smirked knowingly.
“Oh jeez, you scared me.”
“Mm-hm. I spoke to you three times, Doctor.”
Emma’s skin was on fire. She’d been thinking about the last couple of nights with Blaze, how hot and dirty they’d been. With Simon still loose, Blaze had insisted on sticking to his protection plan, which meant walking her downstairs in the morning and waiting for her in the afternoon so he could escort her back up.
She didn’t mind, considering they usually ended up naked the second they walked through the door. Sometimes they made it to the bedroom. Sometimes they only got as far as the couch.
The man was magical with his tongue and cock.
“Doctor?”
“Sorry, sorry. What can I do for you?”
Brenda smirked knowingly. “Nothing, hon. It’s quitting time, and I was telling you I was going unless you needed something else.”
Emma glanced at her watch. Sure enough, it was four p.m. on Friday afternoon and work was over. Her daddy had started taking Fridays off to golf or do things with her mother, and Emma and Brenda handled the clinic. They closed at three and spent an hour or so doing paperwork and other tasks before locking the doors and heading home.
“I don’t think there’s anything. I’ve got to finish these last couple of charts and then I’m done, too.”
Brenda nodded. “I’ll lock the door behind me then. You tell that man of yours hello for me. And if any of his friends are single, my sister would like me to say she’s back on the market since she kicked the last one out two weeks ago.”
Emma grinned. “I’ll tell him. Though if she’s interested, she needs to show up at the Dawg. They’re there on the regular.”
“I’ll tell her. Night, Emma.”
“Night. Thank you, Brenda.”
Thirty minutes later, Blaze texted to say he’d arrived. Emma turned off the lights and went to meet him. He smelled like gunpowder and pine, same as always, when she stood on tiptoe to kiss him.
“How was work?” he asked as they started up the stairs. He looped an arm around her waist then let it fall to her ass, where he caressed one cheek as she climbed. Such a simple action, and it made her shiver with longing.
“It was pretty good. That patient I told you about before, the one who called me Emma Grace and insisted she wanted to see my daddy only? Well, she came back in today to tell me how well the cream worked on her rash. And she managed to call me doctor not once, but twice.”
“That’s great, babe.”
Emma laughed. “Sorta. Because then she called me Emma Grace again and said something about the time I peeled my dress off in church and my mama had to chase me down and put it on again. I would have been horrified, but this apparently happened when I was two. How was your day?”
He chuckled. “Fine. Went to train a corporate group at their workplace today about how to respond to an active shooter situation.”
“I hate to think about that. We had casualties in the ER from a workplace shooter once. It was horrifying.”
His hand wrapped into her ponytail and slid through the strands. “I’m sorry, Sunshine. Hopefully, it won’t happen here.”
“Me too. I hate that guns are so easy to get.” She thought of Simon putting a pistol to her head and shivered.
“I don’t have a solution for that, but I do know how to help people be prepared if it happens to them, so that’s what I’m gonna do.”
She hadn’t been able to practice shooting or most of her self-defense moves since she’d strained her arm, but she couldn’t say he hadn’t taught her things that would save her life if she needed them.
They reached his door and he let go of her hair to get his keys.
“I’m sorry I said that about guns. It’s not your fault, and you don’t make the laws.”
He bent to give her a peck on the lips. “It’s okay. I want to know what you’re thinking. Always.”
Her heart throbbed. She was pretty sure there were things he didn’t want to know. Like the fact she was almost certain she was falling for him. This was supposed to be temporary, but her heart was having a hard time remembering it.
His brows drew down as he studied her. “What are you thinking about now?”
“Who said I was thinking of anything?”
He touched the tip of his finger to the spot between her eyes. “You get a crinkle right here. You also nibble your lip. It’s distracting as hell by the way.”
“Which part?”
“All of it, because I know there’s something you don’t want to say. But mostly the nibble because it makes me want to suck your lip and give you something to moan about. So what is it, Sunshine?”
“I’ll tell you inside.”
They went into the apartment, and he disappeared into the hall that led to the bedrooms. A moment later Sassy bounded out, and Emma scooped her up to kiss her.
“You’re getting so big, little kitty.”
Blaze strolled in, peeling off his jacket to reveal muscled arms in his One Shot Tactical polo shirt. God she loved that shirt and the way it stretched across his chest, molding to all the parts she hadn’t yet gotten tired of exploring.
“All right, baby. Spill.”
She wasn’t going to tell him she’d been thinking about him and love, so she blurted the next thing on her list. “Mama wants me to bring you to dinner. Tomorrow night.”
“Okay.”
“That’s it? Just okay? You’ll go?”
He came over and looped his arms around her and Sassy. “Yes. Your mother wants me to come to dinner so she can grill me about my intentions, or maybe she wants to start planning that wedding you say she wants so badly. I can handle it.”
Emma studied him. “I would have thought being around a woman who actively wants her daughter married and producing a grandchild would give you the hives. You said you didn’t want either of those things. So are you sure about this?”
“It’s not going to give me hives, Sunshine. What someone else wants from me doesn’t obligate me to provide it, right?”
She nodded.
“Problem solved, then. Unless you’d rather I didn’t go?”
“I might rather you didn’t, but not because of you. I’m more worried about what they might say.”
“Up to you, then.”
She put her forehead against his chest and groaned. “She won’t stop if I don’t get you over there, so I think we have to. It’s been a few days since the break-in, and she probably thinks she’s shown a lot of restraint.”
He chuckled softly. “See. Not so hard after all.”
“You are really going above and beyond, Mr. Connolly. First you save my life during an armed robbery, then you save me again when I tell you about my stalker ex, protect me, let me move in, teach me self-defense, get me a kitten, and give me orgasms. On top of allll that, you’re willing to endure dinner with my matchmaking mother. Either I give the best blow jobs ever or you’re not all that bright. I’m not sure which.”
He snorted. “Your blow jobs are amazing, and I’m not stupid. I also didn’t know how good you were gonna be at sucking my dick when I did most of those things, did I?”
Arousal flared in her core. Just hearing him say the word dick did things to her that could only be solved by getting naked with him.
“This is true.”
He shifted against her, his growing arousal evident. “Damn, when you talk about blowjobs, I can’t help getting excited. Think we’ve got time before we need to meet everybody at the Dawg?”
Emma set Sassy down on the floor so she could play and put her arms around Blaze’s neck, arching into him and his erection. “Does it matter?”
Blaze’s eyes sparked. “Not in the least.”