Page 83 of All I Need (Hearts of the South)
Savannah settled on the rolling stool and stripped off her gloves to don a fresh pair. “Haley, why don’t you see if Mackey or Layla need you? I’m going to make sure he doesn’t need stitches.”
“No problem.” Haley exited, leaving the door partially open.
Emmett tucked his phone in its pouch on his belt. “You are not putting stitches in my mouth.”
“Shut up and let me look.” She pushed his thighs apart and scooted the stool between his knees. Her own knee bumped his inner thigh. He jittered his right leg, his breathing seeming to come harder and faster. She rested gentle fingers on his lip, eyeing the laceration that bisected the corner of his mouth. She checked along his chin and jaw, seeking any signs of a fracture and finding none. “You’re vibrating.”
“Hyped up on adrenaline and testosterone.” His voice lowered to a rough whisper. “You’re touching me, all I can smell is you, and I’m trying to remind myself fucking you right here would be a bad idea.”
She pulled back to look into stormy blue eyes. “Oh.”
The images his words evoked tumbled through her mind—scrubs discarded, his uniform left on, his hard body filling hers over and over. She cast a rueful glance at the exam table behind them, and he hissed in a breath that had nothing to do with pain.
“Dear Lord, Savannah, I can’t know you’re thinking about it too.” He glanced away, one hand flexing on his thigh. “It’s not worth the grief if we get caught.”
She touched his lip with a gentle finger. “Later.”
“Oh, yeah.”
She pulled it together. This was so not the place, even if he was so the guy. “A couple of stitches would help that heal better and probably keep it from getting infected. I can put in small, tight ones, using soluble thread, and you’ll hardly know it’s there.”
Walker wandered back in, resting his shoulders against the wall to watch her work. She cleaned the area with saline, injected a local and waited. With Emmett’s words echoing in her ears, all she could smell—well, beyond the familiar disinfectant and sharp scent of saline—was him, a layer of sweat and male over a hint of soap.
Stitching him up shouldn’t be intimate, but it was, with his knees bracketing her thighs and his breaths playing across her wrists above the gloves. His gaze lingered on her face like a touch.
She tied off and clipped the third stitch. Eyeing her work, she touched his lip with her thumb. “The stitches dissolve in five to seven days. Nothing to eat or drink until the local wears off.”
He remained silent, and she lifted her gaze to find his eyes on her. They burned with hunger, but obviously eating and drinking were not his concern.
For what he wanted, she doubted she’d be able to make him wait until the local wore off.
And if she was completely honest, she didn’t want to make him wait.
She swallowed hard. “I’ve got to disposition at least one patient before I go. What do you have left?”
It was weird, with Walker standing there, and Emmett looking at her like he could eat her alive.
“Booking paperwork. Shift report.” His voice was a husky rasp. “I’ll meet you at home.”
Anticipation crowded out any weariness. She worked through her remaining tasks and, finally free, pulled in a deep breath of cool, damp night air as she descended the ER steps.
He waited, leaning against his truck parked a few spots away from her car. She feathered a hand through her hair, fatigue dragging at her but not extinguishing the lingering ripples of desire. “I thought you were meeting me at home.”
“Let’s ride out to the lime mine.” He didn’t smile, prodding the corner of his mouth with the tip of his tongue as though trying to grow accustomed to the unfamiliar feel of stitches.
Her pulse picked up. “Let’s.”
He pushed away from the vehicle and opened the driver’s door to usher her inside. She slid to the passenger seat. The drive only took minutes, her anticipation building with each mile.
Clouds obscured the stars and moon, but even with the sky dark, the pit yawned darker than the surrounding night. Somehow, the unknown had lost its unsettling unease and the dark was heavy with promise.
Once he killed the engine, he exited the vehicle, leather gear belt creaking. He extended a hand, and she let him tug her from the cab. She stepped close, the smell of him filling her awareness. “Still hyped up?”
“Yep.” He tangled a hand in her hair and pulled her nearer. “Okay with hard and fast?”
In answer, she grasped his lapels and leaned up to kiss him. A groan rumbled in his throat, and he cupped her ass, grinding her into him before he winced. She pulled back, stroking just below his stitches. “I’m sorry.”
“Uh-uh. I like a little hurt sometimes.” He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of her scrubs and eased them down. “Lets me know I’m alive.”
