Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Fuck it. Fuck it all. There was no logic here, only the pressure of Noah’s thumb against the exposed curve of her neck.
A shimmer of sparks spread from Cassie’s core to her fingertips as the surprisingly juxtaposed softness of his lips and coarseness of his beard moved from her mouth to her collarbone.
She dug her nails helplessly into his back, searching for something solid to hold tight to as the world seemed to be slipping away.
He anchored her, cradling the back of her head in his hand as they backed into the wall.
She could barely process the sunlight filtering in through the privacy screen or the smell of freshly applied paint.
Every sensation was heightened. Her heart rate might actually be classified as a medical emergency, and her skin was the only thing keeping her from exploding into a cloud of static. Noah had short-circuited her entire body.
For someone who claimed to refuse to let anyone get close, he was hard but tender, firm but yielding.
He danced between the two extremes as his hands slid up her torso to cup her breasts.
She hadn’t bothered to put her bra back on before answering the door, so there was nothing between them but the scrape of linen over her nipples.
The roll of his thumb nearly brought her to her knees.
What did this mean?
The thought was as unwelcome as the phone currently vibrating in her pocket.
Nothing. It meant nothing. They had already talked about it. This was just a primal urge that demanded to be fulfilled. And didn’t she deserve to be fulfilled?
The long, slow pull deep in her core demanded satisfaction. She wanted him everywhere—on her, under her, in her. Every preposition in the book.
She glided her hand down the rugged contour of his abs, settling at the hem of his shirt. She yanked upward, desperate to uncover every delicious inch of him.
Her phone finally stopped ringing, and she whipped it out of her pocket and tossed it on the exam table. Her brain briefly registered the missed call as coming from Lyra. It wasn’t Sammy going into labor, so whatever it was could wait.
She yanked her hands back to claw at the buttons on her shirt. Why had she put on such a cumbersome shirt this morning? Probably because she hadn’t planned for anyone to take it off.
The last button gave, and finally, she was free.
They were flesh to flesh, pressure already building inside her. Noah groaned and picked her up, putting her on the countertop to take his mouth to her breasts.
Her phone vibrated angrily on the stainless steel table, and she shot a look at it. What the hell did Lyra need? She needed a fricken minute.
Noah buried his hand between her legs and stroked her through the denim. That was it. She was going to die. There had never been a time in her life when this many sensations were firing through her body.
Making love with Dave had never felt like this. It had been about domination and duty. Her job was to submit, to accept whatever he did with no lip. Foreplay was rare, and toward the end of their relationship, she dreaded intimacy. She was the receptacle, he was the selfish and all-powerful god.
She had to get herself off most of the time while he jumped into the shower immediately after finishing. But with Noah, she was an inch from the pinnacle while still half-clothed.
Was this what it was meant to be like?
A sudden knock at the front door jolted them apart.
“Cassie? Are you there? Please, I need your help.”
Noah turned his head. “Is that Lyra?”
“Shit shit shit,” Cassie said, scrambling back into her shirt. The shock of the intrusion had put a damper on her feelings, but she was still out of sorts.
“What should I do?” Noah asked.
She threw his shirt at him. “Just…stay here.”
Cassie ran a hand through her hair and stepped into the long hallway. Lyra was standing at the front door with a cat carrier in hand.
Oh no.
Cassie jogged to the front door and opened it. “What happened?” she asked.
Lyra rushed inside. Her cheeks were tear-stained, and her hands were shaking. “Mochi ran outside while I was bringing in groceries. He got into the neighbor’s lilies.”
Cassie’s gut hardened, and all the other distractions fell away as she honed in. Lilies were incredibly toxic to cats. If they didn’t act immediately, they were staring down the barrel of kidney failure and death.
She’d seen five or six cases of lily toxicity when she was moonlighting at the emergency clinic, and half of them had ended catastrophically.
Her mind fired a mile a minute. She had just started stocking the pharmacy the day before. IV bags and activated charcoal were shelved and ready.
“Did he throw up at all?” she asked.
“Just once in the carrier on the way,” Lyra said.
“How long ago did this happen?”
“About twenty minutes. I came straight here.”
Her heart rate slowed a smidge. Twenty minutes was good. They were still within the window for a higher probability of recovery.
“Okay. I’ll take him. Just have a seat for a few minutes, okay?” She took the cat carrier and hustled back down the hallway and into the exam room.
“Mochi?” Noah asked in a low voice.
She nodded and undid the latch on the carrier. A quick examination of the interior revealed a stamen from the flower. Good.
Mochi was huddled in the back, tail wrapped protectively around himself. A yellow pollen dot on his forehead betrayed his hijinks.
“It’ll be okay, sweetheart,” she cooed. He was not going to have a good day, but hopefully, she could save him.
She looked around frantically . Normally, she would have a technician hold the animal while she administered the injectable.
“What can I do?” Noah asked calmly.
“You don’t need to—”
“Just tell me.”
She didn’t have a choice. “Can you hold him?”
Noah gently scooped the cat out of the carrier. Cassie darted into the pharmacy and returned with an emetic and a syringe.
“Can you put him on the scale for a minute?” she asked Noah.
He obliged, and she clocked the weight and calculated the appropriate dose.
Noah held him close as she administered the shot.
“I’m sorry, Mochi,” she whispered.
To his credit, Mochi didn’t seem to mind at all. He purred contentedly in Noah’s arms, apparently unaware of the kerfuffle he’d caused.
“Now what?” Noah asked.
“We give it a few minutes to see if anything else comes out. I need to run some bloodwork. This drawer is a fucking menace.” She yanked on it, and it nearly fell out.
In minutes, she had run the samples to the lab and returned with a wet washcloth just in time for Mochi to eliminate what was hopefully the last of the plant. Noah helped clean up and held the cat as she scrubbed the pollen off his forehead.
In a perfect world, she’d have ample time to make sure all the equipment was calibrated and working properly. But time was of the essence, and the stakes were even higher because Mochi was family. There was no room for error.
She threw a towel at Noah, and he wrapped it around the cat while she prepped an IV tray—treatment was so much harder without techs—and shaved a spot on Mochi’s forearm. He wiggled a little at this but didn’t escape his towel burrito.
Finally, the catheter was placed, the labs and fluids were running, and Mochi had been the very reluctant recipient of some activated charcoal. She’d done all she could for the time being.
“Can you hold him while I go talk to Lyra?”
Noah, who had retired to a chair underneath the IV bag, nodded and scratched the mischievous cat under the chin.
Cassie straightened up and returned to the waiting area.
“Hey,” she said softly.
Lyra was bent over with her hands covering her face. She lifted her head. “Is he okay?”
Cassie hesitated. Honesty was always the best move, even when the future was unclear.
“We’ll know more for sure tomorrow, and it’s not an absolute certainty, but I’m pretty confident that Mochi is going to be okay.
He seems to have gotten all the parts of the plant he ate out.
You did the best thing possible by getting him here so quickly. ”
Lyra threw herself on Cassie and squeezed her tight. “Thank you,” she said tearfully.
Cassie squeezed back. “We’re family. I’d do anything for you. So, next steps. He’s going to need to stay with me for a couple days. He’s on IV fluids. I’m going to monitor his urine output and run labs daily to check his kidney function.”
Lyra pulled back and wiped a tear away. “Are you even equipped to do that? This is supposed to be a clinic, not a hospital, right? You don’t even have a staff. I can transfer him to an emergency vet.”
Cassie hesitated. Technically Lyra was right, and her office was a clinic, not a hospital.
In the future, she’d love to expand things and open up an inpatient ward, but her current financial situation did not allow for it yet.
But she would never be able to live with herself if she sent Mochi off to a different vet and something happened.
“I don’t mind. Poor Mochi is our first patient, and I promise you I’m going to give him the best care possible.”
Lyra looked at her and frowned. “Why is your shirt buttoned weird?”
Cassie glanced down. Shit, she’d made it all crooked in her haste to answer the door. “I—uh—”
“And who’s back there? I heard a man’s voice.” Lyra darted to the window that faced the parking lot.
“Is that Noah’s truck?” she whispered. Her mouth was agape.
“Yes,” Cassie said delicately. “He was taking some measurements because he’s building a new exam cabinet for me. I kind of conscripted him as a temporary technician until I get back there. He’s just holding Mochi.”
Lyra opened her mouth like she was going to say something but clamped it shut.
“You’re saving my cat’s life right now, so I wouldn’t dream of criticizing any of your choices, but please remember what I said.
You’re my sister, and I don’t ever want to see you get hurt.
And I’d hate to kill Noah. Good landlords are hard to come by. ”
Cassie bit her lip. “Why don’t we worry about that later? I’ll keep you updated on Mochi, okay? Go home and get some rest.”
Lyra looked back the long hallway with her eyebrows knit together, then nodded. “Thank you for everything. What do I owe you?”
Cassie waved a hand. “Nothing. Go home.”
Lyra walked tearfully out of the vet office, and Cassie locked the door behind her. Her heart was still pumping a little faster than usual from the adrenaline.
She fixed her shirt and smoothed her hair, then walked back to the exam room. She poked her head in to find Noah asleep in the chair, holding on tight to a purring little burrito. Mochi nuzzled into his beard while making air biscuits. Cassie’s chest tightened.
It was a scene that could have been on a calendar or a puzzle. Or at the very least, a super horny Tumblr.
If she wasn’t careful, she was going to catch feelings. It would be best to get him out of here and distract herself with work.
She gently shook his shoulder.
His eyes snapped open, and he sat bolt upright.
“Hey,” she said gently. “Rough night or narcolepsy?”
He frowned at her. “I was up until four because of the dumb interview you insisted we do.”
Ah, there was grumpy, prickly Noah, right on cue.
“Thank you for your help.” She reached for Mochi, and Noah handed the purr-ito bundle over. She cradled him and rubbed a thumb gently over his forehead. “You made a suspiciously good technician. Have you done this before?”
Noah stood and stretched, revealing an inch of bare torso that she’d just been pressed against. Life was cruel.
“My mom owns an animal sanctuary, remember? I’ve swaddled plenty of capuchins. What else can I do?” he asked.
“Nothing. Go home and take a nap before you cut your pinkie off with a bandsaw.”
He stared at her. “So you’re just going to stay here for two straight days with no break and no other staff?”
“It’ll give me time to finish unpacking and organizing in here,” she said. “And besides, Taco’s here. It’ll be fine.”
She’d received dog food samples that morning, and there was already a dog bed in her office. There was even a couch in the employee break room. She would manage.
“Are you people pleasing again?” he said sharply.
“No,” she said defensively. “I’m taking care of my family.”
“There’s a difference between taking care of your family and running yourself ragged,” he said.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’ll be fine. I’ll see you Wednesday.” She didn’t need his lip. She had a sick cat to care for and a clinic to organize.
“I’m going to call you on your shit when I see it,” he said on his way out.
She followed him, wheeling Mochi’s IV pole along with her.
“That’s fine. But I’m going to take care of my family however I see fit,” she retorted.
He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled.
Oh, it was so liberating to just say whatever she was feeling. For some reason, she wasn’t worried about how Noah would take what she said. He wasn’t passive-aggressive…he was just aggressive-aggressive. She didn’t have to be worried that the smile was a thinly veiled cover for contempt.
“I’ll see you Wednesday,” he said, then left.