6. Lilith
LILITH
The room turns hot in an instant. So hot that I nearly go up in flames.
The cafeteria’s heating system isn’t to blame. It works fine. Steady as ever.
I’m the problem.
Or, more accurately, Alaric is.
Him, and the way his attention locks onto me like I’m the only person in the hospital.
The intensity bleeding from him. His commanding grip. These eyes.
Fuck.
Need builds and echoes through my body, edged with a concern that keeps creeping in.
What if he’s being like that because he caught me stalking him? Is he going to ask why I linger outside the trauma bay a few times a day like some kind of creep?
Or…what if he remembers?
Lead lines the pit of my stomach at the thought.
I knew it was a possibility, but this soon? I’ve barely made an impression beyond a few words and stolen glances.
If he figures out who I am now, any chance of him seeing me as the woman I’ve become is gone.
“Lilith.” He pulls me to him by my wrist. “Did you hear me?”
Him, this whole situation, it’s all so intense. He can’t expect me to speak when I can barely breathe.
Wanting to obey, I try anyway. But when I open my mouth, no words come out.
Except it doesn’t seem to bother him. The moment his gaze drops to my lips, his breath slows, his eyes darkening.
Then he tugs on my wrist again.
He’s close enough to kiss me. If I leaned in, just a little, my mouth would brush his.
The possessive look he’s giving me tells me he’d like that. So I come to the only conclusion that makes sense: he hasn’t caught me stalking him, nor does he remember me.
But as relieved as I am, I can’t bring myself to close the distance between us and press my mouth to his.
Not because I don’t want to.
I’ve never been kissed. Ever.
What if I fuck it up? What if he grimaces if I use too much tongue?
I can’t do it. But I can enjoy this. That thing he’s doing with his thumb, the small circles he traces along the inside of my wrist.
They’re hypnotic, leaving me dizzy with need.
My thighs clench, and I shudder.
In the cafeteria.
When Delany could walk back in at any second after picking up her kids from school.
I can also hear Hope greeting a customer, asking, “Hi, what can I get you today?”
And Alaric’s colleagues, they’re right behind me.
All of it lands on me at once, sobering me right the fuck up.
Either I pull away and get back to work, which I don’t want to do at all, or I give Alaric what he’s asking for. My secret.
Except…there might be door number three.
“Could I get you a coffee?” I ask, steering the conversation into safer territory. “A cupcake? My treat?”
Instead of going along with it, he sticks to his silence.
Stubborn man.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you one thing about me, if…” My eyes dart to his backpack, then back to him.
“If?” His gaze, though dark and wanting, is harsh.
It’s obvious that if he doesn’t like my offer, he might reject it.
Hmm. Maybe instead of saying what I want, I can use seduction to tilt the odds in my favor.
Remembering how he zeroed in on my mouth before, I part my lips slightly, then look at him from beneath my lashes.
“If you tell me what you wrote on that napkin.”
Though he’s as quiet as before, there’s a crack in his control now. His eyes glide lower, latching onto my mouth again.
The force of his reaction moves through me like private praise meant just for me.
“Lilith.”
It’s a warning. The least threatening, and somehow the hottest I’ve ever heard.
Except then, instead of following through on it, he lets go of my wrist.
Confused, I watch as he turns, pulls his hoodie from his backpack, and shoves his stethoscope inside.
It’s like he’s done with me for the day.
Rejection hits harder than a whip against bare skin. My throat tightens too much to speak, to ask what I did wrong.
Maybe he doesn’t find me as interesting as I thought.
No enigma here. Just boring, ordinary Lilith.
Snap out of it.
The inner voice in my head helps. It’s a reminder that this isn’t the last time Alaric and I will ever speak.
As long as there’s air in my lungs, I’ll do everything in my power to make him mine.
Not today, though.
Time to return to work, I guess.
With my shoulders slumped, I gather my rag and the spray. Alaric’s already wearing his hoodie by the time I have them in my hands. He slings his backpack over his shoulder.
He’s about to leave.
It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.
My head is a mess. My pulse pounds in my ears as shame floods me. Without another word, I head toward the nearest empty table.
My finger grazes the spray nozzle when I feel it.
Alaric’s hand settles on my waist. His presence heats my back as he steps closer.
The press of his lips against my cheek jolts me, dragging me out of my self-pity and straight into the present.
Good thing we’re in the back row of tables, with no one sitting close enough to see my face burn bright red.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His breath drifts over my skin, lighting up each nerve ending.
It’s embarrassing how my knees wobble. “Um, I’m working?”
“You will work.” The quiet dominance in his voice sends heat racing up my spine. “When I say we’re done talking.”
Fireworks burst low in my belly.
He wasn’t rejecting me earlier. He just likes to play games, and he likes them dirty.
And while it’s new to me, I want to play along. Or at least pretend to know how.
“Nope.” I lift my hands, waving the spray and rag in front of me. “I’m working now.”
Alaric’s only reply is a low growl that vibrates against my cheek and reaches straight to my core.
My nipples harden, and I have to grip my things tighter, or my trembling hands will drop them.
“Tell your friend you’re taking a break.” He inches closer. His hand slides forward, almost—almost—to my hipbone. “I won’t repeat myself.”
I finally get why he’s into this game. It gives me a rush like nothing else.
“What if I already took a break today?”
“You…” As if he can’t hold back any longer, his other hand curls around my waist.
This is bad, letting him hold me like this in the middle of the cafeteria.
It’s also so, so good.
“Me, what?” I breathe.
“You listen. Carefully.” The last inch of distance between us is gone. With my back flush against Alaric’s front, I feel his cock throbbing against me. And though I’ve never been with a man, it feels big. Terrifyingly so. “Either you take a break and follow me out of here…”
“Or?” I squeak when his fingers press deeper into my flesh.
“Or I’ll bend you over this table.” A subtle roll of his hips tells me he means the one right in front of me.
“Then I’ll pull your jeans down and make you come all over my fingers.
” He nips at my earlobe, and I could die from how hot it is.
“Then everyone in the cafeteria will hear you screaming my name.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“I’d dare, all right.”
“With your coworkers watching?” I whisper. “I don’t think so.”
“You can test me.” His voice and touch are possessive. “Or we can walk out of here together. Either way, in the next thirty minutes, I’ll get at least one of your secrets.”
“I told you, you’d have to go first.”
“Wrong.” His fingers slip under my apron, closer to my skin. His heat seeps through, and oh my God. “You’ll be the one who gives in first.”
“W-what are you talking about?”
“See…” He grazes his lips along the slope of my neck. “The way your cheeks are flushed, and your pulse is pounding, I know you’re wet. I’m guessing your panties are soaked through.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
He lets out a huff of a laugh, basically calling me a liar.
Which I am.
“What I don’t know is what you taste like. And I want to. More than anything at this point.”
My lungs seize. Heart pounding harder.
This can’t be real. I’ve been struggling my entire life. Good things don’t just fall into my lap.
The universe has to be playing a prank on me. A cruel one.
Any second now, Alaric is going to tell me I’m a gullible fool.
Right?
Right?
As if sensing the panic rising in me, Alaric’s lips move an inch lower. He doesn’t kiss, suck, or lick the sensitive spot at the base of my neck. My toes curl anyway. From his proximity. His attentiveness. His warmth.
He’s not going anywhere.
“And you, you’re going to be a good girl and let me have it. That secret.” His hands reach forward, prying the spray first, then the rag from my death grip. “Look at you, shaking with how much you want it. Come with me.”
“Let’s say I do.” I bite the inside of my cheek to hold back the moan climbing up my throat. “Where are we going?”
“Where no one can see you falling apart for me.” Those long, elegant fingers are all I can look at when he sets my things on the table. The veins on his hands are just as addictive. As arousing. “Say. Yes.”
“Lil.” Hope’s voice means she’s nearby. Ten feet away, at most. “Everything okay?”
“Take that break,” he murmurs, then pulls back.
I turn around in time to see him tugging the hem of his oversized hoodie low. Covering his erection.
The one I put there.
The pressure between my legs is too much. Another second here and I’ll explode.
Hope quirks a blonde eyebrow, her gaze dancing between Alaric and me.
“I’m taking a break,” I pipe out.
From a nearby table, the nurses—whose name tags I’ve never gotten around to reading—stop their conversation and look at the three of us.
Alaric saves me from explaining or apologizing when he offers them one decisive shake of his head. That’s all it takes for them to return to their lunch.
“Do you want to take a break?”
I understand why Hope’s worried. It doesn’t matter that she knows I’m obsessed with Alaric.
Some people aren’t what they seem.
But he’s not some people.
He’s my angel.
“Yes.” My hands are still shaking as I undo the knots of my apron. “I’ll be back in thirty.”
As I give it to Hope, she leans in. “I’ll cut his balls off if he hurts you.”
My lips tug up. It’s the same threat I issued to her date on their prom night.
“Not if I cut them off first.” My sassy reply settles her, and she nods.
“Out.” Alaric’s hand is on my waist again as if it belongs there. “Now.”