Page 92 of The Night Shift
Hands behind his back, he steps forward. “What do I get in return?”
The air crackles between us. It's like we're the only two people in the whole cafeteria, and all I can feel is the heat of his body and the frantic thumping of my heart. It's ridiculous, and a bit scary too, but I can't deny the way my stomach flips when he gets this close. “My self-restraint.”
He makes a light clicking sound with his tongue. “But I kinda like it when you lose all control around me. Turns me on.”
This man was put on this planet with the sole purpose of getting on my nerves. I can already feel my anger bubbling up, hot and prickly. But I can't lose my shit in front of all the other doctors in the cafeteria. That would be unprofessional. I’m a lady. Murder and bloodshed behind closed doors only.
So, it’s probably for the best that I push past his shoulder and go somewhere where I can cool off, right?
Wrong.
Because the second I walk away, he pulls me back.
Not by my arm. Or even my wrist.
Theo Carter pulls me back by my fucking collar.
My eyes open with a start. Several other doctors begin to stare at us with gaping jaws and wide eyes. One of them even gets up to help.
“Sit back down,” Theo orders.
He sits back down.
“What thehelldo you think you’re doing?!”
Theo’s grip tightens and he pulls my collar down, further exposing my neck. “What the fuck is that?”
“What?” The second I lift my hand to touch the spot, he whacks it away. “Theo!”
“Don’t touch it,” he snaps.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I reach up and my fingers brush the sensitive skin of my neck, then linger on a small mark. A bite mark.Hisbite mark. The one he had left in his car the night I had stabbed him. God help me, this man is psychotic. “Youdid that!”
A second passes. His eyes meet mine and the fucker is smiling again. “Oh. Right.” He buttons up my collar and lifts it a little to hide my skin. “There. Much better.”
The sudden shift in his demeanor scares me. But not the way a jump scare in a horror movie scares my sister, or the way a sudden drop on a roller coaster scares her fiancé. This is a more primal, instinctual fear. The kind that makes my heart pound and my breath catch. It’s not an unpleasant fear. It’s exciting and thrilling, and I hate to admit it, but a little part of me, a dark, twisted part,likesbeing scared of him.
I slap his hand away. “Don’t ever fucking touch me like that again.”
“Does that mean there are other, more acceptable ways I can touch you?”
“Depends. Do you like keeping your fingers attached to the rest of your body?”
His grin widens. “Kinky. And I promise, we’ll make time for that later, but first —” He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. “Here. I found something.”
“Is it common sense?”
“Well, given how much I still want to kiss you after you just threatened to maim me, it’s safe to say that the search for that is still on.”
A butterfly takes flight in my stomach, and I stab it through the heart.
He hands me a crumpled paper, his fingers brushing mine, and for a split second, I wonder how they’d feel around my throat —what the fuck, Holly? Jesus.I shake my head, forcing the thought away. I unfold the paper, my eyes scanning the messy scrawl. It’s an address — barely legible, like it was jotted down in a rush. “What is this?”
“An address,” Theo states.
My gaze flickers over the uneven lines of numbers and letters. “I can see that, Theo. Who does it belong to?”
“Nate Lawson.”
