“You’re right.” He slumped, an odd sense of relief flooding his veins. He turned his hand underneath Cami’s and entwined his fingers with hers. He could see the stunned shock set in on his family’s faces in near concurrence. “I miss medicine. And I want to go back.”
Olivia wasn’t openly gaping, but it was a close thing. His mom was smiling gently, her eyes watery. But his dad’s lips had gone thin, pressed together, and he was staring at a shrimp tail on the edge of his plate. Des’s heart thudded in his chest as he waited, wondering if, inexplicably, Dad was upset with him.
Then Dad was on his feet, pulling Des out of his chair and into a fierce hug.
At first, Des was too stunned to react. But then he folded against his father, inhaling the aftershave-and-antiseptic scent of him, and when Dad breathed in, Des could swear he heard a sniffle.
“Desmond,” Dad said, clapping a hand against his shoulder blade, still not breaking their hug, “I’ve waited so long to hear you say that.” He drew back enough to pat Des reassuringly on the cheek. He hadn’t done that since before Madilyn, and a lump of emotion formed in Des’s throat. “We will make it happen, my boy. We will make it happen.”
Des walkedCami to her apartment door when he dropped her off. The scenic ride back to Santa Monica was far more relaxing than Cami had ever expected on a motorcycle. It was almost dreamlike to watch the late July stars twinkle over the Pacific Ocean as they sped past it, and though she reveled in being able to wrap her arms around Des’s waist for the duration of the ride, it was a relief to have the excuse of the engine noise and wind to keep them from chatting. It was easy to unravel her thoughts with a beautiful view and the warmth of Des’s back pressed against her.
When they reached the top of the staircase to her door, she turned to him, smiling contentedly. “Do you want to come in?”
He ducked in, his fingers curling against her neck so that he could press his thumb against the underside of her jaw and tilt her toward him. His mouth found hers, damp and heated and already nudging her lips open. She’d assumed it was intended to be a good night kiss, but it didn’t break. Instead, he angled her back into her door, one hand cupping her hip, and deepened the kiss, his tongue delving into her mouth to drag over the roof of her mouth. Her hands came up to his biceps, smoothed up and over the broad expanse of his shoulders, until her hands could link behind his neck. The feel of him against her set her blood thrumming through her body to pool between her legs. When the kiss broke, her head fell back against the door, and she took a moment to reinflate her lungs.
“Not tonight,” he whispered intimately. His lips skimmed down to her ear. The feel of his mouth on her was so distracting she almost didn’t notice his fingers working their way along her waistband to the clasp of her jeans. “But I would like to show you just how much I appreciate you.” His thumb smoothed along the metal button above her zipper, then popped it through its hole.
“You would, huh?” She smiled, her hips angling toward him of their own volition. “Are you planning on appreciating me on my front stoop?”
“That was the plan, yeah,” he admitted. He fiddled with the zipper holding her pants closed, but didn’t tug on it yet. “Any objections?”
“I’m trying to think of one, but my mind’s a little fuzzy at the moment.”
“How about the fact that we’re outside, and anyone could see?” He gave a little pull on her zipper, and it slid down a few notches.
“Um...” Yes, they were outside, where public indecency was a concern. “Well, it’s dark out. And we’re high up.”
His head tilted in consideration, and she took the opening to press a hot kiss to his jugular. “We’re above ground level,” he conceded. His voice had turned thick with need, and it made her throb between her legs. “I’m not sure that qualifies as high up, but I’ll allow it.”
His grip on her hip tightened, then he pulled her zipper down the rest of the way. Cool night air brushed across her belly, seeped through the satin fabric of her panties to tickle her overheated skin. He wasted no time delving his hand under the waistband, fingers tunneling through the curls of her pubic hair and lower to cup his palm over her clit. He didn’t push her pants down at all, the tight denim confines of her jeans offering little in the way of movement space. His shoulder flexed with controlled motion as he pressed the ball of his thumb against her clit, the pad of his middle finger sliding between her desire-wet lips to trace her opening.
She couldn’t tell if he was trying to be gentle and considerate, or deliberately teasing her, but either way it was unsatisfying. “Des, come on,” she breathed. Her hand slid down the length of his arm to grip his elbow, urging him on.
“You’re ready that fast, huh?” he prompted, sounding far too amused. “Was it the motorcycle ride? Did it get your engine revving?”
She wanted to roll her eyes, but his middle finger dipped into her—only up to his first knuckle, but enough to set her nerve endings alight with pleasure. She moaned instead. Her eyes fluttered shut. “Maybe it’s just you.”
Under her touch at his elbow, his muscles and ligaments shifted as he withdrew his finger then delved back in, this time as far as he could manage in the limited space available. With fireworks exploding on the backs of her eyelids, she couldn’t see his expression, but there was something thready and gratified inhis voice when he hummed a response. Then he set to work in earnest.
The space in her jeans was too limited, the angle was all wrong, but somehow it was still just right. Her hips rocked with his motions. His mouth skimmed up the length of her throat, and the hand that had been on her hip slid all the way around her back to hold her forward so he could coax her body into the reactions he sought. His fingers stroked along her inner walls as he ground his palm against her clit in rough, barely-recognizable circle. Before long her breath was coming in frantic pants that broke the air of the Santa Monica nighttime more rhythmically than the engines of the passing cars.
She came, and the world stuttered to a stop around her for the long, blissful moments it took for the waves of orgasm to recede. His motions calmed, but didn’t cease until she gently nudged his arm away, his hand withdrawing from her panties. With her eyes still closed as she waited for her breathing to even out, he rebuttoned and zipped her pants up. When she did open her eyes, she found him thoughtfully sucking her orgasm from his fingertips.
She cursed softly, one hand reaching out to brush over the bulging fly of his pants. “You sure you don’t want to come in?”
“I’m sure.” He leaned down to kiss her softly through his smile. “But I do want to thank you for tonight.” He kissed her again, just as gently, this time on the corner of her mouth. “You were great with my family.”
“They seem like nice people.”
“They are. Just...pushy. But—” He drew back enough to put some space between them so she could look up into his eyes, which the night made almost black. A serious expression came over his face, washing away the remnants of satisfaction and tamped-down arousal. Her stomach clenched, part anxiety andpart anticipation. “I guess what I’m saying,” he continued, “is that tonight meant something to me. And you do too.”
Whatever part of her had been holding back the tide of her feelings, and frantically clinging to the idea that she could get away with keeping this friendly, crumbled under the weight of the sincerity in his eyes. She inhaled a shaky breath, her mouth gone dry with emotion.
“Des—”
“I just wanted to put that out there.” He took a small step backward, adding some space and air between them and allowing their hands to fall away from each other. “There are some things we’d need to talk about first, but I’d be... Well, I’d be up for renegotiating the terms of our arrangement if that were something you were interested in.”
He’d put the space between them deliberately, but when his words sank in, she launched herself at him, bouncing up onto the tips of her toes to kiss him on the mouth. His hands found hers and gave her a warm squeeze as she settled to her regular height. One side of his mouth twitched into a half-smile, his eyes downcast, and she thought he might have been blushing.
