Page 35 of Blood & Bone

Luca stopped drinking.

He didn’t release her. His hand remained closed around her forearm, his mouth resting over her pulse. She could feel the control in him. The absolute stillness of a man who had recognized a boundary and refused to cross it without permission.

“June.”

Her name vibrated against her skin.

“I’m fine.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

He lifted his head. Her blood stained his lower lip, shockingly red against his pale skin. His eyes had gone nearly black.

The sight sent another hot contraction through her pussy.

His gaze dropped to her mouth, then lower, to the movement of her breasts beneath her shirt, to how her thighs had pressed together. When he looked at her face again, none of what he wanted was hidden.

The clinic door closed with a quiet click.

Marcus.

Leaving.

June should have been embarrassed that he understood what was happening before she did. She should have pulled her wrist free, packed her instruments, and left Luca to finish healing without her.

Instead, she stepped between his knees.

“Ask me plainly,” she said.

His thumb moved over the inside of her forearm, smearing a thin line of blood across her skin. “Do you want me to stop?”

“No.”

The answer changed him.

His free hand caught the back of her neck, and his mouth crashed into hers. She tasted her own blood on his tongue:copper, salt and something darker that belonged entirely to him. His kiss had none of the patience of the first one. None of the restraint he had shown on the porch. He kissed her hungrily, his fingers tightening against her nape as she shoved closer and opened for him.

June gripped his jaw. The stubble scraped her palm. She kissed him harder, taking back every bit of pressure he gave her until the metal tray rattled beneath her hip.

Luca’s hand slid down her back and closed over her ass.

He pulled her against him.

His cock was hard beneath his pants, thick and unmistakable where it pressed against her stomach. June rocked into it once, testing. His mouth broke from hers on a harsh breath.

“Shoulder,” she said.

“Functional.”

“That wasn’t my assessment.”

“Then climb on top.”

The bluntness of it went through her like a current.

June reached between them and opened his pants. Button. Zipper. The mechanical sequence gave her hands something precise to do while the rest of her stopped pretending this was anything but what it was.

She pushed his pants and underwear down far enough to free him.