Page 3 of Holiday Love
Music from Gwen and Caleb’s wedding spills out onto the balcony, but it’s faint since we’re on the far end, away from the door. Teddy kisses me deeper, and I take in the slightly metallic taste of his tongue piercing. I explore it, running my tongue along the rounded ball that tips each end of the metal rod. Teddy presses closer, his body lined up to mine with no space between us. Each brush of his lips and tongue matches his hands, which encircle my waist, then drop to my behind, which he lightly squeezes. The motion pushes his pelvis against my stomach, and I can feel his hardness.
He wants this. Just as much as I do.
I rub up against him, and he groans softly, the sound sensual and raw.
“You’re stunning,” he whispers, licking and sucking at the skin of my throat.
I whimper, extending my neck to give him better access, breathless from his touch. There’s an ache in my core, an all-consuming need for him. My nipples pucker when he runs his thumb over the thin fabric covering them.
“So gorgeous,” he says again, his voice thick with something that sounds dangerously close to reverence. He swirls his tongue over the shell of my ear, and a full-body shiver overtakes me. His hands tighten on my hips like he’s barely holding himself back.
I pull away to stare into his eyes, which are dark, heated, hungry.
“Take me to your room,” I say in a clear voice as I rub my hand along his length, so he knows exactly what I mean.
I’ve never had a one-night stand before. I have a rule against it, but there’s a recklessness in Teddy that calls to me. It awakens a long-suppressed urge to leave my normal self behind.
Just for tonight.
Just this one time.
I hold my breath and wait for his response.
For one long second, he stares at me.
His chest rises and falls rapidly. His heart thrums under my palm. His fingers flex on my hips, and his lips part—
Then he exhales.
And says, “No.”
Chapter four
Helen
The patient is Teddy.The adrenaline that was missing before appears with a vengeance. Blood rushes in my ears, pounding. I swallow against a dry throat.
Unable to look away, my gaze wanders over his face, tracing every detail I once memorized in the dark. Straight jaw, now slackened by unconsciousness. Full lips that once dragged along my skin, currently tinged an alarming shade of cyanotic blue. Brown hair, the color of wheat, still damp from the ocean. It clings to his forehead, slick strands clustered together. His eyes are closed, but I know what they look like.Blue. Pale as the sky on a hot summer day when the sun bleaches away the most vibrant hues. I’ve felt the weight of those eyes on me. I’d watched them drink in the contours of my naked body.
The shock on my face must be evident because for the first time in weeks, Larry takes a step toward me, not away.
“You okay, doc?”
I force a swallow and lie, “I’m fine.”
Stunning. So gorgeous.Whispers a phantom voice in my mind, unbidden.
Stop!I need to get hold of myself. This isn’t the time or place to relive that long-ago night. I shake my hands out in front of me, the way you do when they’ve fallen asleep.
Lindsey’s back in the room. Together we pull off the sheet from the ambulance and place the thicker hospital blankets over Teddy.No! The patient. Think of him only as the patient.Ikeep my eyes on the floor as we work, deliberately not looking at his naked body until he’s covered.
Once that’s done, Lindsey attaches a cardiac monitor to the man’s chest. She reaches up to turn on the monitor attached high on the wall in the corner of the room. Instantly, a steady beep-beep-beep emits from the screen. A thin green line scrolls across with the expected dips and bumps of normal sinus rhythm.
At least his heart’s working.
“We need a blood glucose STAT, draw labs including lactic acid and coags. Start a drip with warmed saline. Order an EKG and a chest X-ray,” I tell Lindsey. Then I ask Larry, “How were his O2 stats on the way here?’
“Fine.” Larry looks up from where he’s making notes in the medical chart.
