Page 80 of Hearts on the Table
I squeezed his neck with my free hand, kneading the flesh, feverish in my need to pull him closer. I wanted all of him on me. In me. “I love it. So much, Sam, you have n-no ide-e-a…” My voice caught, the inferno roaring in my ears. My fingers worked inside, reaching for that one spot I needed.
“So possessive, and you fucking love it. You love that you’remine.”I slowed, feeling his gaze burn across my body. It was possessive, and Ididlove it. It lit the fuse that I hadn’t quite been able to start myself. I bit back a cry when he placed his hand over mine, moving my fingers in and out in a rhythm only he could master. “Look at you, baby, dripping for me.”
“Sam,” I groaned, waves of heat licked up my breasts, my neck. Something about the way he moved me to suit him, my hand obeying him, made me realize I wasn’t in control anymore. I hadn’t been for a long, long time.
“I love the way my name sounds in your mouth, Honey. Say it again while you play with yourself. Come all over me just so I can push up inside you and make you fall apart all over again.”
“Fuck.” I lunged, glimpsing the shock on his face an instant before I slammed my mouth onto his, clawing and grasping my way further onto his lap. I was going to die if he wasn’t inside me right now. I fumbled beneath me, hearing his muttered curses when I gripped him, lined him up where I needed him.
He’d been right. I was dripping. I sank onto him fully in just two strokes, settling on his lap and taking him to the hilt, rising on my knees to envelop him again and again and again. Fingers dug into flesh. Our cries mingled together. His hard length hitthat perfect spot inside me, sending me over the edge in seconds, stoking that fire even brighter.
“You ride me like a dream. So good.”
Our mouths clashed, even while I struggled to breathe with the swirl of sensation tumbling around me. I was coming again. He gripped my body, hugging me tighter, anchoring me through the storm while he continued those steady, upward thrusts. His litany of dirty talk took everything to a new place. Higher and hotter, until his words started slurring, running together. He pounded into me, sloppy and irregular.
“Fuck, baby. Fuck me just like that. God damn, Lainey. You’re so perfect. So fucking perfect, baby. I love it, I love…”
He bit my lip, hard, the sting distracting me for just a moment from what he’d been about to confess. And then it was over. Another wave of pleasure crested alongside the sting of my lip, and Sam pulsed inside me, hot and strong.
I collapsed on top of him, breathing hard, like him. Warm palms swept up and down my back, stroking while he came down from his own climax.
“You called me baby,” I mumbled into his neck. He gripped my butt, squeezing.
“You said fuck. I think I win.”
I swallowed, still panting, replaying his last words in my head.“I love it, I love…” you. I knew it. I knew it to the depth of my soul. That’s what he’d been about to say. And he meant it. I knew that, too.
But I wasn’t sure he remembered it, whether it was just one more muttered, mindless prayer to leave his lips mid-penetration. I wasn’t sure if he was ready to say it yet. Most importantly, I wasn’t sure ifIwas ready for him to say it yet. Asking him felt like I’d be poking the hornet’s nest.
I stayed curled up against him long after our breath settled and he’d gently guided my feet out of the heels I’d completelyforgotten about. I fell asleep curled up against him, the unspoken words swirling around us in the darkness.
Chapter 30
Lainey
Monday morning couldn’t come fast enough.
I wasn’t just antsy to get back to my normal clinical schedule. I also hoped getting back into my regular routine would help me decide how I felt about Sam’s near-confession. For the last few days, he’d been acting like nothing was wrong. I tried my best to match his energy, but I was rattled.
It was one thing to feel myself sliding towards the big “L.” Another entirely to hear it from him. As much as strapping myself into a serious, committed relationship with my coworker made me want to grab my heels and sprint in the opposite direction, the thought of doing it with Sam made me want to squeal and melt into a happy puddle. A conundrum. One that would have to wait till later.
I’d scheduled one final debrief with the PR teams and Caplan, and then I was back on the cardiac floor. If they tried to stop me, I’d bulldoze them all. I’d pushed for the earliest possible meeting time, impatient to start my normal rounds again. The hospital had that quiet, early-morning hush to it. I felt like I was breathing fresh air for the first time as I walked down the empty halls.
Caplan and Sturmond were already sitting at the conference table, huddled together and talking quietly. The presence of the latter made me do a double-take. The infuriating man had played a starring role in this media circus, nearly racking up asmany interviews as me, riding the wave of interest my mother’s team had generated.
The last time I’d talked with him was when he’d taken the lead on insisting, strong-arming, and bullying me into doling my patient load out to other doctors, including Jones. I'd thought that would be the last of him, for now. I hadn’t invited him to this meeting, and his presence here set off alarm bells in my prefrontal cortex.
“Director Caplan. Doctor Sturmond.” I was tempted to call him mister, instead of Doctor. He was one of those obnoxious people who demanded that everyone use his title, even strangers. I wondered if he made his wife call him Doctor.Probably.
Yet, I refrained. If my fate was hanging in the balance, he was more than likely holding at least one of the strings. I had to play nice if I wanted to scrub in, and I did. Badly. All week, it had felt like part of me was missing. I wasn’t myself if I wasn’t in the OR.
“Doctor Carmichael! I thought our meeting didn’t start for another ten minutes?” The gold chain of Caplan’s Rolex clinked when he checked it. Sturmond shifted in his chair, looking at me like I was a child who had wandered out of my room past bedtime. I had the distinct impression I wasn’t welcome here, despite having a meeting scheduled in just a few minutes.
“I figured I’d pop in a little early.” Ten minutes wasn’t that early, was it? Caplan smiled stiffly.
“Well, I suppose we can dial in the comms team in a few. I doubt they’re ready for us yet.”
The whir of the air conditioning was the only sound as I set my laptop and tablet down. I straightened my blouse—my new uniform these days. I couldn’t wait to get into some scrubs. Caplan scrolled through his phone while Sturmond sat back and studied me like I was an insect pinned to a board. I cleared my throat.
