Page 17 of One Night Only

I pout and pull back. Our harsh breaths mingle and dance.

Those hands on my hips dig into my flesh for a moment before he’s lifting me off him and depositing me back in my armchair. The soft nap of its fabric scrapes against my skin, which is too tight to hold all the sensations.

I look around the room in a daze; all the contrasting colors, fabrics, and textures suddenly too much for my whipped-up senses.

Before I can protest, Dr. Cross holds out his hand, the tips of two fingers stained red.

“You’re bleeding. I didn’t even see it,” he says, with a glower that makes me swallow.

Chapter Eleven

Annika

“I fellwhen I ran out of Zach’s apartment,” I say as Dr. Cross returns from the en suite with a first-aid box. “It was raining buckets, and the concrete was wet.”

The plastic box looks delicate in his large hands. He empties it on top of the coffee table.

My heart is thudding away somewhere below my belly. Or is that my core beating with its own pulse?

That kiss dances like a living flame inside me.

Is it supposed to feel dizzy and frenzied like that?

Have I been kissing people wrong? Is there a secret kissing guide out there no one told me about?

My breath is a bubble in my throat as Dr. Cross sinks to his knees. The sight of his hair-thickened forearms against my smooth legs makes me core flutter. There’s so much to explore between us that a lifetime wouldn’t be enough. “It doesn’t hurt much…” The rest of my words slink off my lips as he cups my knee below the scrape gently.

“We should have bandaged it up immediately,” he says in a steady voice. Is he so unaffected by the kiss? Can he just turn it off like that?

“I cleaned it in the shower.”

I wince as he cleans the area and then dabs antiseptic gel on top. “Who’s Zach?”

“The friend I stay with when I don’t have anywhere else to go,” I blurt out, my attention fixed on how his long fingers look against my flesh. My legs are smooth, every hair on my body plucked out, thanks to the grand date I was supposed to have with Rahul.

His head jerks up. “Are you homeless?”

I flush to the roots of my hair. “Of course not. Just… financially cautious.”

“Your family won’t help?”

His voice is casual, working hard not to sound probing.

I almost fall into the trap of admitting that I’m sitting on a pack of lies with them. That I couldn’t bear to dip into the monthly allowance my parents give me when our relationship is distant and fractious. That when things get tight, I sell the super expensive gifts Asha keeps sending me without fail.

God, the man’s cunning. “Prefer to be independent.”

“Hmm.” His fingers dance on my ankle before he picks up a Band-Aid. “So you stay with this… Zach?”

“When I’m in-between jobs. I pay minimal rent since I sleep on his couch. Like before I moved in with Martha. If I wasn’t at my boyfriend’s, that is. I used to volunteer at the senior clinic for the evening or night shifts and clean houses during the day.” The words tumble out of me. My filter is seriously slipping after that mind-blowing kiss.

“Why volunteer?”

“It’s the only way I could get clinical training hours. Not everyone’s as generous an employer as you are,” I add, feeling defensive.

He peels open the Band-Aid and presses it onto the scrape with utmost care. “Why did you run out of Zach’s apartment tonight?”

I’m so glad he’s not focusing on the colorful details of my varied job experiences. I say, “He and Rahul were going at it. On the rug in the living room. I waited at this bar for an hour, looking ridiculous in that dress. Guess he was too busy to call and cancel.”

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