Page 41 of The Doctor

For the outline of his erection he didn’t bother to hide.

“Clara.” My name was just a hiss from his lips as he grabbed my hand, stilling any movement I might make.

But he didn’t tear my hand away.

He held me there as he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his head back into his seat.

A smile tore at my face.

“What is it?” I asked, sliding my free hand up his inner thigh.

“We can’t…”

I hummed out a little sound, devouring the torment playing across his face. I cupped my hand around his. “I think we can,” I whispered as he tightened his grip, which only served to tighten my own.

Before either of us could respond, Zee’s phone rang. He tore my hands away from his body, throwing himself against his door.

“I’m not doing this with you, Clara.” Zee dragged his phone from his pocket, and concern raced across his features before he tapped the screen and held it to his ear. “Mario?”

Zee’s gaze darted quickly to me before he seemed to recover. He became the man I’d always known. The man I’d fallen in love with years ago.

Kind. Caring. Willing to help anyone in their time of need.

“Sounds good. I’ll get a place ready for them. Let me know when you think you’ll be here and if they’ll need anything specific in the place.”

He listened again, though no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t understand what was being said on the other side of the line.

“Yeah. Yeah, no problem. Okay, we’ll talk soon.”

Zee hung up, then let out a long breath. He stared out the front window, but I was sure he saw nothing but the thoughts racing in his head.

Unwilling to interrupt, I watched him, letting my gaze sweep over his body. From his long, dark hair, to the short hairs on his handsome face. From the hard muscles under his white button-up, to the tattoos banded around his left forearm. As if he could hear the thoughts swirling in my head, Zee shifted focus as my attention dropped to his strong legs.

“You okay to drive?”

My anxiety swirled in my gut. “Where to?”

“Need to go to Jet’s.”

I swallowed hard. It was one thing, driving around to nowhere in particular, with no one knowing what I was doing but Zee. It was quite another to have a destination in mind, to drive to someone who scared me.

It wasn’t that Jet was a frightening man, exactly. But he seemed to see things others didn’t. The idea that he could read my every thought had crossed my mind too many times before.

I wasn’t ready for the world to know my failures.

I wasn’t ready to share my complete love and desperation for Zee with anyone.

Zee looked at me like he, too, could hear my thoughts.

He also looked like he believed I could do it.

“Okay.” Shoving the swirling in my gut aside, I reached for the stick shift and put it in reverse. And though Zee didn’t resume his relaxed state besides me, his presence still soothed the monster in my head.

Before I was ready for it, he was directing me to a new parking spot. We climbed from the car, and he ushered me into a building I’d never been to before.

It wasn’t Jet who greeted us at the door. Instead, it was his fiancée, Eliza. Though I’d met her a handful of times before, none of our interactions seemed deep enough for the tender hug she pulled me into after she released Zee.

“Clara!” Her smile was warmer than the sun outside, and I itched to get out of her grip. “It’s so good to see you again!”