Chapter 18 #3
When Violet noticed me, she gestured with her chin. “Oh, there he is.”
Relief overwhelmed my system the minute he turned around and locked eyes with me, visibly perking up with a small smile.
I had to be strategic in the way I exhaled what I’d been holding captive in my lungs.
Long and slow so as to not accidentally trigger a fainting episode.
Finding myself suddenly on the floor, bright lights blazing overhead and the nursing staff fussing over me while trying to sit me back up, was the absolute last thing I wanted.
“Long time no see,” Terran greeted me with a step in my direction, his boots a heavy sound against the tiled floor.
There were no words I could possibly force out that wouldn’t progress into shaking him stupid, demanding to know why the hell he was out with his partner on what was becoming clear was some sort of call.
Still recovering.
Still injured.
Still internally healing.
Where the fuck was his captain?
So, instead, I gripped the front of his jacket in a tight hold and yanked him away from the desk, much like how I’d dragged Marlow out of my house, and led him out to the ambulance bay. Absolutely under no circumstances were we about to have this conversation within earshot of anyone.
“Wha—hey!” He stumbled, quickly catching himself the second I shoved him out the automatic doors. “What the hell?”
Ambulance gone. Cruiser still pulled up with no one inside.
Good.
He let out a choked sound when I wrapped my hand around his throat, quickly cutting off the second his back was pressed into the brick wall and held there. No fear reflected in his eyes when he stared up at me. Just a raw sense of curiosity and the slight dilation of his pupils.
“Silas.”
His pulse fluttered under my fingers, two of them were latched tight over it.
Strong. Steady. Healthy.
As was the rest of him.
Breathe. He’s fine.
“Tell me you weren’t out on a call just now.”
His mouth dropped open slightly, just enough to move through the motions of coming up with something to say but failing at the last second. Caught red-handed when a recognizable look of guilt pinched his features.
“So... about that.”
I flexed my hand around his neck, drawing a soft moan out of him that shot straight down to my cock. “You’re supposed to be on leave for another four weeks. At least.”
Genuine confusion reflected back at me, slowly replaced by the dawning realization that he wasn’t the only one doing their due diligence in looking the other up.
Had I known I was going to be chasing this man around all of fucking Ellington Heights, making sure he was actually following his recovery regimen, I never would’ve allowed him to be discharged in the first place.
Fuck the exorbitant costs of taking up a bed. I’d fight with his health insurance every fucking shift if that was what it took to keep him where he needed to be.
Off the goddamn streets.
“Sorry,” was all he managed to finally say.
“You’re sorry,” I repeated.
His throat bobbed under my hold. “Yeah. Look... it was just supposed to be a stakeout. But it kind of turned into a flee and chase situation?”
I slowly closed my eyes while I reeled back my anger.
I was confident that if anyone were to slap a blood pressure cuff around my arm, it would explode from the sheer amount of stress this man was giving me.
Someone formally from the city should know first hand that no situation was what it seemed at first glance; especially, if it meant coming face to face with a criminal.
His partner, as I was beginning to suspect, talking him into coming on a call with him in the direct middle of his recovery period, spoke more on how little he, and perhaps the rest of Terran’s precinct, cared about his health.
Perhaps I’d misjudged them all. The rotation door of visitors was nothing more than a circus, paraded to show the hospital staff and whoever else in the high-ups department that were watching, that the 199 community was far more close-knit than they actually were.
People who cared to see someone recover and get better wouldn’t be stupid enough to risk that.
“You’re mad,” he mumbled.
Peeling my eyes open again, I said, “I’m disappointed in your coworkers.”
His brows knitted together. “My co... my partner had nothing to do with this.”
“Did he, or did he not, ask you to come out on the call with him.”
I already knew the answer. Nothing was more obvious than the fact lying out in front of me, highlighted in bold red marker. No other explanation made sense, not in this context.
What other reason would he have for being impulsive enough to go out on a call if he wasn’t invited onto it in the first place?
Terran was smart. Resourceful. Too emotionally invested in things for his own good to turn down something like his partner asking for a favor.
He hesitated, gaze darting away for a long enough seconds that confirmed my theory in an instant. “Well... look, it was my choice.”
I moved my hand up to cup his jaw, squeezing it in a punishing hold while I shoved his head back against the brick wall behind him. Holding him there, I leaned close to his ear.
“Perhaps that choice needs to be taken away from you. Seeing as how you can’t control yourself.”
“Fuck,” he mumbled, squirming just enough to grab onto my scrubs and haul me closer. “That a job you’re going to give yourself?”
“I should.” I traced my thumb in a small circle on his cheek.
How dare he scare me like this?
Emotional investment was for doormats.
“Seeing as how I’m apparently the only one that gives a fuck about you healing correctly.”
“Hey. My sister cares, too.”
“I doubt she’d be willing to handcuff you to a bed, Terran.”
He groaned, loud enough to echo against the archway of the ambulance bay. “Stop it. You’re teasing me.”
“I’m not teasing anything. I’m quite serious. I should take you back to my house right now and tie you up before you do anything else stupid.”
He darted his tongue out to wet his lips, almost tempting me into leaning forward and catching it between my teeth. “What happened to Wednesday?”
“I could ask you the same thing. I dropped you off with the intention of picking you up from there. Not finding you wandering around my ER after getting off a call that could’ve ended very differently.”
He mumbled something that was hard to catch.
I squeezed my hand briefly around his jaw. “What?”
“I was distracting myself.”
I breathed in slowly. “Distracting yourself?”
“Yes,” he hissed.
He was hard against my hip when I pressed into him fully, a soft gasp leaving him the second our bodies made contact.
His lashes fluttered in a pretty way, jaw growing slack while another ragged breath was pulled in.
Those emerald gems that so closely resembled the ones I bought for him were fraught with want, burning with it while he watched me.
Tempting.
Oh, so tempting to turn him around and shove him back up against the side of this building until I was balls deep in him again.
He’d squirm and moan with his cheek pressed to the brick, my hand tangled in those soft locks of his, his nails scratching at the rough surface while I pumped into him slowly.
I wouldn’t even care about getting caught. Or about having a condom on me.
“You’re to come over tonight. I get off at nine.”
He swallowed again. “Can’t. Amelia has a night class she’s starting. I have to be home with the baby.”
“Then I’ll come to you.”
What the fuck was I saying?
His eyes went wide, voice growing hushed. “We are not fucking with my niece in the next room.”
“Her room is down the hall. She’ll be fine.” While distracted, I’d vaguely noticed the layout of his house when leaving. There was plenty of space between the living room and the actual bedrooms. Closed doors also did wonders for blocking out obscene noises, anyway.
And I could always gag him.
“Silas,” he bit out.
He wasn’t saying no. Just presenting minor problems. Easily fixed and worked around. “I’ll behave until your sister comes back home.”
I was wound too tight from the agonizing worry that had nearly just killed me. Letting him go and be out of my sight for another two days wasn’t going to be possible. Not when I’d nearly passed out from relief at seeing him alive and still breathing.
My internal system was all sorts of fucked up. Nothing was stable; none of my usual methods of detachment were working. Too much had been tangled up in the five and a half minutes of pure and unadulterated horror that had gripped me tight after hearing his name rolling off his partner’s lips.
I wasn’t a bleeding heart. I didn’t attach myself like this to people. I shouldn’t be caring about any of this. He was a grown adult with a life that was his own to live. Not to be dictated by another party having barely been in his life for more than a month.
And yet, the thought of him sliding back into that cruiser and rolling off with his partner made me absolutely sick.
“Oh my god,” he muttered. “Seriously, what happened to Wednesday?”
I couldn’t stop from pressing my lips to his cheek, delighting in the small sound of need emanating from his throat as I worked my way over to the shell of his ear. I glided my tongue over his pulse point, encouraged with him grinding his hips into mine.
When I spoke again, it was to whisper in his ear. “You’ll still be coming over to my place.”
He let out a soft huff of a laugh, arching his neck back. “We might as well just go over there once Amelia gets home.”
Fine with me. “Okay.
“Silas...”
“What is the issue here? I’m failing to see the dilemma.
” If anything, that saved me from tracking him down again.
Keeping him locked up in my house was a far better solution than trusting him to stay at his own and keep busy until Wednesday night when I finally had more than a few hours of free time.
“You have to work in the morning?” he answered.
“Afternoon,” I corrected. “But I can call off.”