Tobias slipped in behind her, crouching so that his body cradled her while he smoothed her hair back into a loose tail. Quinn’s plea for him to go, to leave her alone in that moment was lost under another strangled retch that had her rising to her knees with its force. Doubled over with the wrenching pain exploding through her midsection, Quinn had a fleeting moment of gratefulness that he held her steady. He remained the entire time her body purged itself, purring to soothe the pained sobs that slipped out between her desperate sounds.
When it was finished, Tobias picked her up. Cradling her with ease, he held her steady as she rinsed her mouth and splashed the cold water over her face. He murmured something wordless at her ear, solicitous hands pushing Quinn to bend over the sink so that he could rinse the strands of her hair that had not been caught in time.
“Fuck,” Quinn groaned, cheek pressed against the cool stone of the sink as his fingers worked the tacky mess free.
“I’m going to call the doctor.”
“You said—”
“This can’t continue, and I doubt that you want it to.”
“You said no more doctors.”
“All I’m asking for is to let him help you,” Tobias said through a growl that rumbled with the first hints of his rage. Not simple irritation at her defiance, but something more. Something that felt helpless and protective, that buffeted her senses with things she’d never known from anyone, let alone a man like him. “There has to be something he can do to stop this until the drugs leave your system.”
“You didn’task.”
Lush lips parted before his mouth snapped shut with a loud click of his teeth. Staring hard at her in the mirror, Tobias eased her upright until Quinn met his glower head on with narrowed grays challenging.
“Will you please let the doctor come and give you something?” It ground out of his throat, a menacing request that sounded more like a threat.
Quinn was shocked that it had worked at all.
“For that. Nothing else.” Quinn’s fingers flicked toward the toilet, unwilling to do anything more to acknowledge that particular agony. She startled, shoving at his bulk to get past and out the door as panic swept through on a bitter wind. “Gods, what did you do with the kids?”
Tobias caught her, spinning her in a lazy circle until Quinn came flush with his chest. Arms heavy as they banded around shoulders and hips, he kept her tucked against his heat so that he could set his chin atop her crown.
“Curtis—”
“You did not leave my children alone with him!”
“Fetched Meghan to watch overourchildren before I came to you,” Tobias said, arms tightening by degrees until Quinn’s weight left the floor, the strangled gasps of her breaths loud in the small bathroom. “Now you’re going to go rest while I call the doctor.”
There was nothing she could do or say as Tobias dragged her to the sitting room adjoining his office. He ignored her complaints and snarling, handling her attempts to squirm free as if they were nothing more than a minor nuisance. Tumbled into the couch, a heavy plaid blanket tucked tight over her lap, he growled a warning for her to remain right where he put her.
If Quinn thought he would leave her to escape, she was wrong.
Pacing to the bookshelf lining the opposite wall, he slipped the cellphone free of his pocket. A flash of index and thumb and the device was to his ear. Before Quinn could grasp that the damned doctor was on speed dial, Tobias was speaking in low tones to whoever was on the other end.
“You’ll need to do better than that,” he said with a curl of his lip, a sure sign of irritation.
Quinn shouldn’t have tried to stand then, but the crackling energy racing down her spine demanded movement. To work out the frenetic energy that seemed to be passing from his emotions through her every cell. Rising, she let the blanket tumble from her lap, three swift steps taking her to the windows that overlooked the garden.
Perhaps he thought she would try for the elegant French doors leading outside or that she had some other plan in mind. Whatever it was, Quinn found herself hauled back into his body with a trunk of an arm at her waist. Squirming for space to breathe brought his other hand to her throat. Fingers able to crush without a thought covered the delicate column, holding Quinn still as if he’d shoved a pin through her breastbone.
“Just get here,” Tobias bit out into the phone before tossing it away.
The momentary freedom brought frigid air tainted with aggression and a hint of fear into Quinn’s lungs. Stiff in his unforgiving embrace, the mental war to bank the tirade of thoughts and emotions pouring from him was a losing battle.
“You agreed to let him help you feel better.”
“I wasn’t going anywhere,” Quinn said in a hiss, dripping with venom at the way the protective gruffness of his voice made something inside her melt and run in gooey strands. “Maybe if you could control yourself…”
“Maybe if you weren’t still fighting me at every damn turn,” he said, the trembling menace a blustering front to the worry that twisted through him and into her heart. Jagged and cruel, it tore at her as he pressed a snarl against her throat.
They stood like that long after the flare of tempers subsided. Quinn pretended to stare out at the lawn, sightless in her aloof disdain of his attention. All the while something hot and messy twisted away inside of her that had nothing to do with the nausea that etched the back of her throat each time her attention spun away to somewhere soft and dreamy. Hands that had gripped and pinched now cradled and caressed, tiny movements that sought some reaction that Quinn couldn’t understand. He didn’t want her kneeling at his feet, didn’t want her spread open and riding his cock.
She was adrift, uncertain as to what the hell he wanted of her as his eyes closed and he nuzzled her throat like a child seeking comfort.
