Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Josie felt like she had fallen into another woman’s body. A body that knew things she’d never claimed to. How to come in five seconds or less was the knowledge that astonished her the most.
Josie was one of those time-consuming women who needed lots of manual stimulation and full concentration on sex-slave fantasies to have an orgasm. There had been more than one occasion in the past when she had been waiting for her ex to check his watch or complain of a finger cramp.
She knew it was because she was always self-conscious, way too aware of her body and its various angles, to relax and just feel pleasure.
There was always too much in her head to let it all go and feel nothing, think of nothing but how she and her partner were trading satisfaction.
But with Houston, she wasn’t having a problem. Whipped cream was tenser than she was.
Houston’s willingness to tease and play games was a contributing factor. It surprised her, but she realized it shouldn’t. One of the things she’d always admired about him was his ability to focus, to concentrate solely on one thing, achieving perfection.
Usually she was witnessing that during a hip replacement. Today she was seeing his attention focused on making her insane with desire.
It was working.
“It’s bad, Doctor. I can’t go on like this.”
He had the nerve to laugh. To nudge against her with his cock, but not enter her. To flick his thumb across her nipple, her lip, her nose. To sink a mere inch inside her, then pull back.
“That’s not funny.”
“Who’s laughing?”
“You are.”
The grin fell off his face, his head moved slowly back and forth. “Jesus, the things you make me do.”
Any words she might have thought to say were cut off.
Josie rolled her eyes shut when he slid into her again, gentler still than the previous time, pausing only half embedded in her.
It was a delicious tease, to feel him throbbing inside her motionless, and she moaned, making the sounds of approval she knew he wanted.
“Houston, do you like it?” Fairly sure she knew the answer to that, she still wanted to hear him say it.
But he didn’t say it. He just nodded, then sank deeper until his hips were resting against her, and she was taking all of him.
There was no reservation, no thought, just mindless, enthralling pleasure seeping through every inch of her and out her pores.
“Damn it,” he said sharply, his teeth clenched.
“What?” Josie let her whole body go slack as he filled her over and over, hot friction, with a slow, deep rhythm that rocked her breasts up and down against his chest.
He shook his head.
She didn’t pursue it, feeling the climax creeping up on her, surrounding her, dragging her into satisfying sensual fulfillment, and like a lazy river it rolled over her, taking her under.
A whoosh of hot air blew across her chest, and she saw Houston had been holding his breath. And his own orgasm, which he finally let go as hers shattered. His head dropped over her shoulder and his hips moved faster, pushing her back into the carpet with hard thrusts.
Josie lifted her body to meet his, wanting to show him how good he felt to her, wanting him as sated and pleased as she was. For all he wanted her to yell out, he was quiet, controlled, but then she didn’t expect otherwise.
A shudder and a curse told her he was depleted, and he slowed his movements to nothing as Josie sighed in satisfaction.
The kiss on the shoulder was something she didn’t expect, and she felt a tiny sliver of hope hovering in her, that maybe she was different to him. More. Which was exactly what she shouldn’t be considering. It shouldn’t matter.
But it already did. Maybe it always had.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, enjoying his weight on her as he rested over her, not looking at all eager to pull away.
Chin buried in her hair, his voice was low. “I was supposed to show you my bedroom, wasn’t I?”
Josie kneaded the corded muscles in the back of his neck. “Is there something good in there to see?”
“Damn right.”
She laughed, then stopped short as the demanding buzz of his phone went off.
“I’m not on call. I’ll just ignore it.” Houston withdrew from her.
Josie maneuvered her knees together, wincing at the sore muscles in her thighs. That particular muscle group didn’t see a whole lot of action, she was sorry to say. Not for three sets of ten on a thigh machine, and not for regular sexual activity.
Houston’s cell phone started to ring again. He frowned as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Coincidence.”
With a sigh, Josie sat up and began to accept the fact that she probably wasn’t going to get to see Houston’s bedroom after all. The hospital was trying to reach him.
It was confirmed when another phone started ringing somewhere.
“Shit,” was his opinion, but he stood up and walked naked over to the end table and snatched his phone.
Josie waffled between intense post-orgasm satisfaction and regret that the night was prematurely over. She’d wanted to see his bedroom and anything else he might be inclined to show her. Like how to make her eyes roll back in her head for the fourth consecutive time.
“Yeah, okay,” Houston was saying. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Josie started looking around for her clothes, crawling across the floor on all fours towards her shorts, which were lying inside-out a few feet away.
Houston stopped her progress, startling her into squawking as he grabbed her hips and pulled her back against his erection.
“Hospital?” she whispered, even as he started to rock forward and back, his cock fitting right between her cheeks.
“Yes. One of my patients fell and broke her hip.”
“You should leave then.” She panted as he stroked against her, slipping into her slickness with the teasing tip of his rock solid body.
“Yup. In a second.”
But that second drew out to a long, pleasant minute, and Josie bit her lip, the soreness in her leg muscles forgotten. “Mmm.”
Then Houston pulled back, giving her backside a little pat. “Damn. I really do have to go.”
“I know.” Recalling herself, Josie scooted forward and sat up, still on her knees.
Houston was pulling on his underwear and reaching for his jeans. “I’ll get your clothes.”
Josie watched him retrieve first her shorts, then her shirt from the front stoop. She clutched her knees awkwardly, wishing there was a way to cover her naked self. She didn’t want to distract Houston any further.
Well, she did, but it wasn’t ethical. His patient was in pain and needed his surgeon, and Josie couldn’t justify making him wait so that she could take a shot in the ass.
Houston handed her the bundle of wrinkled clothes and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Giving up hope of modesty, she wiggled into the shorts, trying not to think about her panties still tucked in his pocket. She zipped gingerly. “It’s part of the job, as I well know.”
She smiled up at him. “And at least we both, well, got there. You know. Were finished, sort of. Twice, too.” She blushed as her thoughts shredded into incoherent babblings as she realized she couldn’t bring herself to say orgasm or come out loud. Which was ridiculous.
“In your case three times,” he said with smug satisfaction.
The faint blush tinting her face turned into a rushing river of red heat. He’d just had to point that out. “You were counting?”
“Yes,” he said. “I would be giving you a fourth right now if I wasn’t called in.”
The words were on her tongue, to ask if he was offering a rain check, but she didn’t say it. She just smiled at him as an acknowledgment of his stellar work and buttoned her shorts. Picking up her tank top, she stared mournfully at the large neck. “You stretched out my shirt.”
“And I’d do it again.”
She’d let him. Lifting her arms up to pull on her shirt, Josie had the pleasure of hearing Houston suck in his breath.
“You would?”
“Oh, yeah. Anytime.”
Josie quickly donned her tank top without her bra, not wanting to wiggle into it in front of Houston. Any movement like that and the bra would likely wind up back on the floor.
But his words made her pause. Anytime? Here it was. The awkwardness. When she second-guessed every word out of his mouth, probing for hints of a future, a relationship, or at least another orgasm between them.
This was what she had feared in the supply room, and it was just as uncomfortable as she’d imagined.
“We’ll have to walk back and get my Jeep from the restaurant, then I’ll drop you off on the way to the hospital.” Houston stepped into his jeans and zipped his fly.
“Great.” Not great. Rushed, and a little awkward, with a feigned casualness that fooled neither of them given they both still smelled of sex. Great? Not at all.
“Here are your shoes.”
“Great.” Their fingers touched as he handed over her flip-flops, and Josie pulled back quickly.
“I’m going to grab a bottled water on the way out. Do you want one?”
“Great,” she said for the third time, realizing there were four-year-olds with a better command of language than she was currently displaying.
Then his hands were on his hips and Josie saw that his cool mask of indifference had slipped back into place. Dr. Hayes was standing in front of her, not Houston.
“So, we have an understanding about tonight, correct? This won’t affect our working relationship.”
“Not at all.” Because she was never going to go to work again. God, what the hell had she been thinking? She couldn’t stand next to this man in the OR and pretend he hadn’t been inside her playing a naughty game of doctor and wet and willing patient.
She wanted to run outside and bury her head in the sand, except that would leave her ass sticking up in the air.
Standing there, rumpled and pantyless, shattered and sex- satisfied, Josie had to ask. Before they went back to being Dr. Hayes and Dr. Adkins, who avoided and never made eye contact and practiced polite nods in place of actually having to speak.
“Why won’t you let me do a case on my own? I have experience, you know, and you refusing to let me take the lead looks bad for me. I need to know your plans for the remainder of my residency.”
Houston paused while pulling his shirt on over his head.
He stared at her through the stretched neck hole. “God, Josie, don’t make me talk about work right now.”
His reticence annoyed her. He was allowed to be enigmatic while making decisions about her career, but she was supposed to confide in him, rely on him to guide her, while she just smiled like the novice everyone thought she was.
“It’s just a simple question, Houston, and if we’re going to go back to the hospital tomorrow and act like nothing has happened between us, at least I’ll have a better understanding of where my career is going and what I can expect from you in the future.”
So there, Dr. Hayes.