Chapter 19 #3
From my standpoint, I had no problem welcoming him as far as he wanted to go. I’d never been drawn to anyone like this before, so the thought of second-guessing myself seemed stupid and counterproductive when all I’d been wanting to do lately was drown in him.
Why let something like that go when we were both interested in exploring it?
Getting into my own head would only leave me getting ahead of myself and regretting fucking things up.
He searched my face. “Are you trying to get me to say yes in some convoluted effort to ask me to come around again?”
I grinned. “Maybe in a roundabout way.”
He rolled his eyes, tossing the pack of cards into the toy bin before sinking down onto his knees and sitting back.
He tucked an arm behind me to grab onto my shirt, tugging me around until he could get a better hold of me.
His grip was firm while he drew me onto his lap, one hand curling around my thigh and the other settling at the curve of my waist.
His two favorite spots, I was beginning to realize.
He kept me pressed tight to his body. “Just tell me you want me to come over. No reason to get so complicated.”
I pressed my tongue against the back of my teeth.
I had half a mind to let the subject drop and change it to something way less emotionally charged in order to save myself from the potential embarrassment of overstepping.
Here we were, only days after sleeping together and hours after he’d scolded me for endangering myself, both situations still fresh.
Letting things settle and marinade was the smart way to go about this, considering Silas wasn’t exactly upfront with his emotions.
Then again, I always did have a healthy masochistic streak to me. Usually, it was tailored more toward the bedroom, though.
“I guess that would depend on you wanting to.”
He fixed me with a look, flexing his hand on my waist. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”
True. Completely voluntarily, too. I didn’t even have to beg. He’d offered himself right up without me ever mentioning that as a possibility.
Did instincts count as being emotionally aware?
At a baser level, sure, but how far did that extend to him actually knowing whether or not he wanted to shift this into something way more serious?
“Besides…” He dipped me back, turning us both just enough to avoid the toy bin while he laid me down onto the carpet. “It isn’t like I wouldn’t find you regardless of whether or not I mean to in the first place. You love to pop up when I least expect it.”
“Call it the string of fate.”
“I’d rather call it what it is. Your inability to behave when given direct orders.”
I huffed out a soft noise at that, trying like hell not to part my legs and grind up against him when his mouth lowered to graze against my pulse. “Don’t even start. You’re the one making this difficult.”
“How so? I’m the one always chasing you down.”
A soft grunt left me the second his lips pressed along my jaw. “That’s... not what I meant.”
“Then?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“You’re being so unfair right now.” I arched my back the second he sealed his mouth over my pulse point, teeth holding me still while he lapped at the spot with his tongue.
I’d walk away from this with a nice, dark bruise.
Something that would no doubt satisfy him.
Not that I’d complain about the reminder of our playtime when I gazed upon it in the mirror later.
His calloused fingers snuck under my shirt, tracing their way up to one of my nipples.
A shiver raced up my spine. “I thought we were behaving until my sister came home.”
“I contemplated gagging you,” he mused once he released his mouth from my neck.
“Such a relative term. Behaving.” He trailed his tongue across my cheek and over to the junction right below my ear where he latched onto the soft skin of my neck with his teeth, a sharp pinch stealing my breath until he finally let up.
“Don’t you think? You seem to think so, at least.”
“Silas, I swear to—”
The unmistakable squeal of the back door swinging open had me shoving him off as hard as I could, given how solid his body weight was. He grunted at the sudden force, practically falling back onto the floor as I rolled away and climbed to my feet.
Holy fuck, that was close.
My sister actually would’ve killed me if she walked in on me getting dicked down in the middle of our living room with Ainsley a mere twenty feet away.
My hand was shaky as I ran it over my face and stepped over a plastic stool to meet my sister at the door.
Leave it to Silas to literally get us both kicked out of the house because he was far too good at kicking up the lust vibrating between us.
He barely had to touch me to make me melt into an actual mess.
Behave until my sister gets home, my ass.
“Hey!” I lifted a hand to wave at Amelia, a blast of cold air hitting me when she swung the door closed behind her.
She thumbed back over her shoulder. “That car in the driveway. Is it—”
The words were tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Yeah, Silas came over.”
She gave me a slow once over. “The guy from the other day? Your... doctor?”
“Surgeon... Technically.”
Why the fuck was I playing semantics?
Like any of that mattered while trying to play it cool with my sister, who would have no problem scolding me in front of the man who had been ten seconds away from getting me to kick my sweats off.
“Didn’t know doctors did house calls around here.” Her tone was flat.
Lie?
Tell the truth?
Two sides warring inside of my head with no clear solution to getting out of the looming onslaught of questions Amelia was absolutely readying herself to throw at me.
What the fuck was I supposed to say with my brain still half-swimming in lust hormones?
“Uh.”
Great.
Real smart answer.
Definitely would be throwing Amelia off my trail with that one.
“Sometimes we do.”
My heart skipped a beat as I turned around to see Silas. He kept a good two feet between us, not at all looking half as flustered as I felt, given what we’d just been up to. Calm, cool and collected, as always.
I wondered what that felt like.
Must be freeing.
He lifted a shoulder when he addressed my sister again. “It depends on the situation.”
She eyed him carefully. “And what situation is this one?”
There was a single beat of silence; one that I swore went on for eons. Silas’s mouth pursed just enough for me to catch, a barely-there expression that, if not actually watching him closely, would be totally missed.
“One that happened because your brother was too much of a bleeding heart to say no to his partner talking him into going on a call earlier.”
My mouth dropped to the floor. He wasn’t throwing me under the bus twice in a single evening.
No fucking way.
Subtly reprimanding my partner was bad enough, especially, when he would no doubt be guilted into looping my captain in on what happened. If my leave got extended any longer because of that one single call, I was going to lose my mind.
Desk duty was going to be bad enough when I came back. Adding another two weeks on top of that where I was banned from coming in beforehand would drive me insane. I hated being cooped up in this damn house.
Her brows knitted together. “Call? What call?”
“Mmm.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder, leaving it there for only a second. “Guess it turned into some kind of on-foot chase. Found him stumbling around the ER earlier.”
This bastard—
“Terran!” Amelia nailed me in the shoulder with her bag. “Are you kidding!”
I clutched the area, intense pain radiating from my biceps and up to my shoulder. “Ow!”
This had to be some sick joke from the universe.
I refused to believe this had somehow become my reality.
No fucking way was he getting me into trouble with my own goddamn sister in some kind of fucked up solution to try and divert her attention elsewhere rather than on the obvious charged energy sparking between us.
Wait, was this his way to get back at me for being careless in the first place?
I stumbled back and whirled around to glare at him, only to stop dead in my tracks when Silas hit me with a smirk that was absolutely diabolical.
Oh my god, he was punishing me for earlier.
What happened to tying me up?
That was way more fun than whatever the hell this was!
“You asshole,” I growled, cut off quickly by my sister catching me in the side with her bag. “What is in there, bricks?”
“Textbooks, you idiot!” She swung it around for a third time; thankfully, completely missing me. “I can’t believe you! The doctor told you eight weeks!”
“I did,” Silas replied.
“Fuck you.” I jabbed a finger at him before turning back to my sister. Ratting me out to two people in one night. Who did that! “Amelia, come on—”
“No!”
Thankfully, Silas grabbed me just in time to yank me to safety as her bag went flying in the air, landing a few feet from us and sliding halfway down the hallway.
All three of us held our breath, waiting for the inevitable call from Ainsley’s room after being woken up from not just our yelling, but my sister’s heavy ass bag putting a dent in our hardwood.
When nothing but the sound of our breathing filled the space, my shoulders relaxed.
“Anyway. I wanted to make sure he didn’t damage anything internally. Hence, why I came over to check on him.” He gave my back a solid two pats, both of which seemed mocking in nature.
“Thank you.” She sighed. “I’m so sorry. He was doing good for a while but he tends to get cabin fever.”
Silas nodded. “I see that.”
Predicting them bonding over being upset with me was the last thing on my bingo card for the year. In fact, it wasn’t even on it to begin with.
“Why are we talking like I’m not here...”
He traced his hand up to grip my shoulder again, a nice, firm hold. “I’ve got it handled.”
Her eyes softened. “Thank you, doctor. I really appreciate you going out of your way to make sure he’s okay. Do we bill our insurance for this, or...”
“No need.” He used his grip on me to guide me through the breezeway and around my sister. “This one was on the house. I’m going to do a thorough check up on him, though.”
“But my—”
Bag?
Outfits?
Change of clothes?
He wasn’t actually going to take me back to the hospital, right?
That would be a waste of both of our time.
There was no way Silas was that petty.
“Come on.” His body was a solid wall behind me, herding me to the door. “Let’s go before you give your sister a heart attack.”
I sputtered. “But—”
“Should I send him with a bag?” Amelia asked.
“We’ve got things for him there. He can call you tomorrow morning, that’s when I should be done with him.”
There was a dark undertone to that last part, promising something that wasn’t at all close to wires and needles being poked into me.
“Okay,” she said. “Terran, call me.”
“Sure,” I croaked out, before getting shoved out into the cold.