an emotional roller coaster since the day she’d shown up on his doorstep, and it was only getting worse. And he definitely didn’t need a woman telling him what he thought and felt. He knew, dammit.
He jogged down the front steps and walked through the rain to his car. If she wanted to be alone, he’d just leave her alone. He’d been through enough hell because of her.
This morning was me being emotional and overreacting to the stress I’ve been under. It didn’t mean anything.
Her words ran through his mind as he pulled the car door open, and he remembered the look in her eyes when she’d said it. That haunted emotion brewing deep inside. His chest tightened. He’d been so focused on her words, he’d almost missed the most important sign.
Up until they’d seen Dr. Murphy, she’d been fine. She’d handled the news about the phone calls with a calmness he hadn’t expected. She’d even accepted Dr. Murphy’s explanation of her injury. It was only when Ryan had asked if she was going to get her memory back that she’d pulled up those damn invisible walls. Since then, she’d been withdrawn, reserved, hiding behind those barriers.
Dammit. She was pushing him away because she thought he was only interested in who she used to be. She couldn’t possibly know he was starting to question that himself. That he’d already noticed the differences in her, that the attraction he felt to her was stronger than it had ever been before.
And she was sugarcoating it by implying she didn’t need him to take care of her. Then he remembered the panic in her voice when Simone had mentioned going up to Canada.
She wasn’t just scared. She was protecting him too. Not wanting him to get too involved. Doing exactly what she’d told him not to do.
Son of a bitch.
Water ran in rivulets down his face as he slammed the car door, as he jogged back up the front steps. He didn’t knock, instead thrust the door open with his shoulder and took the stairs two by two until he got to the top. When he rounded the corner into her office, he found her slumped against the wall, her elbows crossed over her up-drawn knees, her face buried in her arms.
So much for not caring. She was lying through her teeth.
Her head darted up when she heard him. Tears streaked her cheeks. She swiped her hand across her nose. “What are you doing…?”
He grasped her by the shoulders, plucked her off the floor, and pressed her back against the wall. Then he closed his mouth over hers, hot, hungry, his kiss filled with all the anger and frustration and need swirling inside him.
Her hands bunched in his wet shirt, and she tried to wiggle free, but he held her tight, pressed his body into hers. He kissed her hard, demanding a response. She bucked beneath him, but he felt the moment she gave in. The moment she grabbed on and pulled him tighter instead of pushed him away. The moment she opened her mouth and drew his tongue into hers, drawing his heart right along with it.
A strangled moan resonated from her. Desire tightened in his stomach. Blood rushed straight to his groin. Grasping her T-shirt by the hem, he yanked it over her head and dropped it on the floor.
“Tell me I don’t mean anything to you.” He nipped her ear, sucked the lobe deep in his mouth, pressed his lips against that upside down, heart-shaped birthmark near her jaw. The one he’d licked and nibbled a thousand times before. The one that was familiar and new all at the same time.
She shivered. Her head fell back as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer. She arched into him, offered more of her neck to his mouth, ground her hips against his erection. “You don’t. It’s…it’s just sex.”
The hell it is.
With hands he knew were way too rough, he grasped her bra and yanked. The front hook gave with a pop. He shoved the lacy garment aside, closed his hands over her naked breasts, bruising, kneading. He lowered his head to her right nipple, flicked the tip with his tongue, drew it deep in his mouth. She cried out when his teeth scraped the sensitive tip, hardening into a little bud, but she didn’t push him away, and he wasn’t done yet. He repeated the process on the other side, groaning himself when she thrust her hips into