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I swallowed. “Yes, I do.”
Griffin’s eyes darkened, and he pushed his thumb into my mouth. Without giving it any thought, I swirled my tongue around it and then closed my eyes before sucking hard.
“Fuck, Luca.” The hoarse rumble of his groan sent shivers across my skin. Suddenly, I was lifted from my seat and was being hauled across Griffin’s lap. He wound his hands into my hair, his lips sealed over mine, and his tongue replaced his finger inside my mouth. I’d thought our first kiss was electric, but this one, it made my body feel like a live wire. His lips were so soft, but his touch was so firm. This was a man who knew how to kiss. I was pretty sure I’d spend hours analyzing that fact later, but in the moment I didn’t care how he’d gotten good at it, only that his expert tongue was inside my mouth, and it felt like damn heaven. He kissed me long and hard, with just the right amount of aggressiveness to make me let him take the lead and follow him anywhere.
I distantly registered a sound, but the roar of the blood rushing through my ears made everything else seem so far away and faded. Which was why, at first, I didn’t realize the noise I heard was a doorbell ringing. Until it rang a second time. “That’s the . . .” I tried to speak between our joined lips, but Griffin pressed his harder to mine.
“Ignore it . . . ,” he mumbled.
Since I wasn’t anxious to stop, I pretended I hadn’t heard it. But when the bell rang a third time, it was Griffin who pulled back.
He stumbled to his feet, panting. Dazed at the sudden change in what was happening, I lifted my hand to cover my bruised lips. “I thought . . .”
That was when I heard what had made Griffin stop. Unfortunately, it was the voice of the one person I couldn’t ignore.
Doc.CHAPTER 14
GRIFFIN“Where’s Luca?” The old man marched past me as if I didn’t exist.
I shut the door and cleared my throat. “She’s in the living—”
Luca staggered into the kitchen looking frazzled. Her lips were swollen and her hair was a disheveled mess. Yet I wasn’t sure if her being freaked out was from our kiss or her being worried about the old guy. She looked pretty panicked. “Doc? What’s the matter? Is everything okay?”
He made a beeline for her and placed both his hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay? You didn’t text like you were supposed to.”
Luca let out a relieved breath. “Shoot. I’m sorry, Doc. Griffin and I, we started to . . . We just got caught up, and it slipped my mind that I was supposed to let you know I was okay.”
Doc gave her a thorough once-over, then looked suspiciously at me and back to her. “You’re sure everything is okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Griffin . . . he knows who I am now.”
Doc’s forehead smoothed out. “Oh. Okay. Well, I’m glad to hear that. I was worried about you. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
I knew he was important to her, so I extended my hand. “Griffin Marchese. Sometimes known as Cole Archer, Dr. Maxwell. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
The good doctor warmed up. “Call me Chester, please.”
It dawned on me that security hadn’t called to let me know they were letting anyone come up to the house. “Did you come through the front gate, Chester?”
He shook his head. “I climbed the fence at the far end of the property.”
My eyes widened. My fence had to be eight feet tall. “You climbed . . . the fence?”
“Luca wasn’t answering her phone, and I was worried.”
I started to crack up at the visual of this seventy-year-old man scaling a giant fence to save his patient. These two were one hell of a team.
Luca smiled at him warmly. “I’m so sorry for making you worry, Doc.”
He held up a hand. “No need to apologize. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I’ll leave you two alone, then.”
There was absolutely nothing I wanted more than to be left alone with Luca, to pick up exactly where we’d just left off. But when I looked over at her and saw the sweet smile she wore melt to a frown, the stupidest thing came out of my mouth. “No. Stay. Why don’t you join us for dinner?”“So how long are you two planning on staying in California?”
Luca sighed, and I knew before she spoke that I didn’t want to hear the answer. “We have to get back on the road the day after tomorrow.”
Heaviness settled in my chest. “Why so soon?”
“It’s a three-thousand-mile drive. We took a little longer than we’d planned to get out here, and we need to leave six days for getting back. If I’m behind the wheel too many hours in a day, I start to daydream and forget I’m driving. I missed half of Colorado plotting my next book in my head. It’s not exactly safe.”
