Shock - Marie Johnston Page 0,49

what this talk was really about.”

His brows lift, confirming that he wasn’t just asking out of mild curiosity. “I guess I was wondering if you and I could actually date. Would we work out?”

My mouth opens but only a little squeak comes out. We haven’t been doing this “friends with benefits” thing for all that long. He’s slept at my place twice and I hung out with him and his kid once and he’s asking if we could…what? “Like date for real?”

“Yeah. Maybe. I mean, we don’t have to.” His gaze searches mine. “I just thought… I don’t know what I thought.” He snorts. “I’m not exactly experienced at this part of dating.”

“You’ll have to elaborate, because you know how sad my dating history is.”

His mouth hitches up. “If you’ll excuse my inner fifteen-year-old, I mean, asking a girl to go steady.”

“Go steady?” I giggle more out of nerves, but a spike of delight ignites my belly. “Like, we’re exclusive?”

“We’re already exclusive, we’re just not a couple.” He winces. “That sounds weird.”

“Backward,” I agree with a smile, but I sober quickly. “I’m not looking for the white picket fence, Ford, not yet. Is that what you’re wanting?” It’s what he had planned with Cass. Only unlike me with Samuel, he was all in.

“With the right person, yeah. As long as she’s happy with not-a-doctor Ford.”

I could be happy with just plain Ford. This last year, being his coworker transformed my life. I went home after my EMT classes wondering what the hell I was doing. When I got a job, I felt moderately better about my decision.

Then during my first month as Ford’s partner, we responded to a car accident. Getting a patient strapped to a backboard in the pouring rain while Sunnyville’s finest directed traffic around us on a busy highway confirmed my decision. I’d never felt so alive, so useful. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, my heart pounded, and my brain spewed out all the pertinent information I needed. Checking the ABCs—airway, breathing, circulation—how to stabilize the C-spine, even introducing myself. It was all there, and as we walked out of the ER, soaked to the bone and elated that we’d made it on time, Ford gave me a simple good job and I was hooked.

I was hooked on the work, but also on the independence. I’d earned that good job—no family connections, no one paving the way, it was all me.

“Not-a-doctor Ford is pretty amazing.”

“So are you, Lia,” he says softly.

He tilts his head down and I lift my face to his. His kiss is tender at first, then more demanding, turning to all-consuming. Heat licks through me that has nothing to do with the sun and everything to do with the man beside me.

We do work well together, but after our talk, I suspect we don’t want the same things at this point in life. Yet when his lips are on mine, I can’t bring myself to care.

Ford

She’s heaven in my arms. I don’t care that we’re in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the dirt with prickly plants surrounding us. I also don’t care about the giant red flag she threw up during our talk, one my mind is busy blocking behind a wall of rampant lust.

We had sex all night long and another quickie this morning. Yet the aching erection straining against my jeans makes me feel like I haven’t been with a woman in years.

I draw her across me until she’s straddling my lap, her knees spread wide until I’m snug against the part I want most, though it’s hidden behind two too many layers of clothing.

Delving my tongue into her mouth, I grip her hips and rock into her. My butt hits the edge of the fence post and I shift us so I can lean back while she rides me, fully clothed. She whimpers and wiggles her ass. If my eyes were open, they’d roll back in my head. I need to hear more.

The urge to drive her crazy hounds me. I don’t know why I need it so much. It’s not my out-of-control desire and need to have her now. It’s more. A confirmation that she’s here with me and that maybe I’m not being foolish wanting her to settle. She has the whole world in front of her and I want her to settle here, with me.

I didn’t get that confirmation.

But I can’t stop. She’s in my arms and for now, that’s enough. I rip my mouth off her