Page 25 of Come Back to Me

“Just hanging out and catching up,” Teddy answers. “Remembering some good times from our past. How about you gals?”

“We’re just here to dance. No remembering for us. Just forgetting. We’re need to erase this past week, seeing as it’s been a shit one,” she answers. She takes the tray of drinks Benny has finished preparing, winks at us, and heads back to her table.

I watch her go, and it doesn’t escape me that Teddy does, too.

How he’s watching her pisses me off, both because he just married Emily and because something about it is sparking an emotion in me I don’t remember feeling in many years—an emotion that feels a lot like jealousy.

CHAPTER 13

ANNIE

I’m not going to try to lie to myself. This week at work went to hell in a handbasket. Most weeks the hard stuff gets balanced by the good and the “saves.” This was not one of those weeks, though. This week was shit and I just want to forget all the grief and sadness. So, we are having an impromptu girls’ night.

Our plan is simple: we will dance, and we will drink, and we will let it out so we can go back next week and take care of our patients without the memories from this week haunting us so much.

I wasn’t planning on seeing Jack here, though I’m pleasantly surprised. When he said he was going to dinner with Teddy tonight, I assumed he meant at a restaurant, not a bar.Men. I shake my head.

After I get back to the table with our drinks, we each do a shot of Fireball and head out to the dance floor.

Teddy tries to join us twice, but we shut him down, reminding him that this is a ladies only dance circle. He only counts as one of the gals when we’re in the ER.

Only Janie and Fitz know about Jack and my “friendship,” so I have to be sly in the way I steal glances at him. I love when I catch him watching me. I can see in his eyes that he wants me, and I intentionally move my body in ways that I think he will like. He might be hellbent on limiting how physical we can be but I’m sure not going to make it easy for him.

When the cover band takes a brief break, I decide I need a minute to cool down, both from dancing and from the heat I feel in my core after imagining what that searing look Jack is giving me means he’s thinking about. I tell Janie I’m going to step outside for a minute and make my way out.

JACK

I can’t take my eyes off of Annie tonight so, when she walks out the front door of the bar, I give it about thirty seconds and I follow her. At first, I don’t see her, but it’s like my body knows where to go and I find her just around the corner of the building in the narrow alleyway between O’Riley’s and the barbershop next-door. She’s leaned up against the brick building holding her hair up with her hands, trying to tame those wild curls into a messy bun on top of her head.

“Leave it down,” I command.

She smiles when she sees me and releases her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders in loose curls.

“I was hoping you’d come out here after me,” she whispers.

I place my hands on either side of her head and put my forehead against hers. “You’re killing me, Annie. I’m trying really hard to keep how much I want you in check but you’re making it almost impossible.”

“Don’t,” she whispers.

I pull away, thinking she doesn’t want me crowding her.

She immediately grabs the hem of my shirt and pulls me back toward her. She looks up at me with those piercing eyes and says softly, “I mean don’t keep it in check.”

ANNIE

It’s like I’ve opened a dam with my words and, before I know it, Jack is holding a fistful of my hair and pulling my mouth toward his. He kisses me so deep and so hard, yet I want more. I need to be closer to him.

I also need to see if what I’m feeling against me is what I think it is, and if it’s as impressive as it seems to be. I moan and lift my leg against the outside of his thigh. In response, he grips me just below my ass and wedges himself, and his now confirmedveryimpressive cock, as close to me as it can get—with clothes on, anyway. Just the feel of him pressed up against me has me moaning into his mouth.

I’m basically grinding myself all over him in a very undignified manner, but I can’t bring myself to care. Suddenly, I’m being spun around to face the wall.

“Hands up on the wall,sugar. I want full access to you. Rest your head on my arm,” he directs.

I’m totally turned on by his taking control but also his tender care that I don’t get scraped by the wall. I haven’t yet seen this side of Jack Donley, but it’s hot and I like it… a lot.

I do as he says, and I shiver as he moves my hair to the side and kisses my neck, his warm mouth so close to my ear. I can feel his hardness against my back as his body holds me in place and he slides his hand inside my jeans and cups my waiting pussy. With only the cloth of my underwear between us, I feel like I’m going to die if he doesn’t pull my panties aside.

He’s making me crazy, gently rolling his thumb over my clit. “God, Annie, I can feel how soaked you are through your panties.”

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