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Jackson shook his hand. “Thank you for seeing us so quickly.”
Max gave a half smile. “You won’t thank me so much when you get your bill. But you’re welcome, anyway. We’ll call you some time after nine and give you an update. And hopefully you can take him home soon after that.”
“You’re shaking,” Lydia murmured, as Jackson steered his car into the driveway. His hands were tightly gripping the wheel, yet she could still see them trembling.
“Yeah.” Jackson let out a sigh. “I really thought it was bad. That we might lose him.”
“I was scared, too,” Lydia whispered. “I’ve never seen a dog throw up that much before.”
“Hopefully we’ll never see it again.” Turning off the ignition, Jackson faced her. “You doing okay?”
She nodded.
“I’m glad you were here with me,” he told her, taking her hand between his. “I wouldn’t have wanted to go through that alone.”
“If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t be going through it at all,” Lydia reminded him. He turned her hand over and traced circles in her palms. It made her shiver in the best kind of way. “I’m the one who found Eddie.”
Jackson lifted his gaze. “And I’m glad you did. I don’t like to think about what could have happened if we hadn’t found him. He could have run into the road and gotten hit by a car. Or starved.” He cleared his throat. “Or worse.”
He lifted Lydia’s hand to his mouth and kissed her wrist. She squirmed in her seat. “Maybe you were always meant to find him. You need each other.”
His lips curled against her skin. “Yeah, I think we probably do. Now let’s go inside. I need to show you how much I need you right now.”
Oh! She’d been wondering if it was wrong to feel this sudden need for him when Eddie was still at the vet. But from the way he was kissing her neck, he felt exactly the same. She’d once read that scary circumstances could increase desire. As though people needed the distraction from reality, and the reminder they were still alive.
“Oh yeah?” she said, the corner of her lip curling. “How are you going to show me that?”
Tugging at her hand, he pulled her until she was leaning across the console. There was a neediness in his gaze that sent desire through her body.
“First I’m going to kiss you,” he murmured, brushing his lips against hers. “And then I’m going to strip every item of clothing off you, throw you on the bed, and give you exactly what you need.”
“More sleep?” she said, arching an eyebrow.
He grinned. “Yeah, more sleep. Just as soon as I’ve made you scream my name.”
Somebody needed to stop that screeching noise. Jackson blinked open one eyelid and reached out for his phone, his hand patting the bedside table in a futile attempt to find it.
Then he remembered about Eddie, and sat up ramrod straight. Was it the vet calling? He finally located his phone in his jeans pocket, where he’d hastily shoved it before they’d headed to the emergency vet. Pulling it out, he frowned when he saw the dark screen.
Another screech. It was coming from Lydia’s side of the bed. Shaking his head wryly at himself, because it wasn’t Lydia’s side, both of them were his, he reached across her still sleeping body to shut the noise off.
He could feel the heat of her skin against him as he leaned across. “What’s that?” she asked, her eyes still closed.
“It’s okay. Keep sleeping, it’s your phone buzzing.”
Grabbing it, he tried to turn it off, but instead the screen lit up.
‘Your flight is ready for check in' the banner on the screen announced. He stared at it for a moment, then turned down the volume and replaced her phone on the table next to the bed.
Flopping back on the mattress, he could feel a frown pull at his lips. It was stupid, because he knew she was leaving soon. He’d known it from the start. And yet seeing those words had put him in the worst kind of mood.
The kind that left a bad taste in his mouth.
Grabbing his own phone, he checked on the time. It was seven a.m. Usually, he’d have been up for at least an hour. Even on the weekends he rarely slept in late. Not because he liked getting up, but because there was always something to do. But right now all he wanted to do was look at Lydia as she half-slept, her blonde hair spread across the pillow in a crazy mess, her cheek red from where she’d been sleeping on it. And her lips pink and so damn kissable, something he knew from a lot of experience.
Less than a week, and he wouldn’t wake up next to her again.
The thought of it made his stomach feel tight. It was crazy, because they’d only been sleeping with each other for a few days, but it felt like so much longer. Since she’d arrived, he’d fostered a dog, become a godparent, and had the best damn sex he could ever remember, and all of those things had changed him.
