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It didn’t matter whose mind that was coming from. They were one animal, one mind.
He climaxed in a matter of seconds, her Master who always had such control, but she thought it was deliberate. She didn’t need a climax right now, just that marking and affirmation. She held onto him as he shuddered in her arms, and she trembled in his.
When he finally eased back, he rolled over, taking her with him. In the strength of his hold, she sensed his desire to stop the world on its axis, so they could lie like this until the fear of nearly losing one another receded.
She thought it did maybe stop for a few minutes, as they breathed together, bodies pressed so close. When awareness of anything other than each other started to return, as well as sanity and civilized behavior, it wasn’t easy to let it in.
“Guess neither one of us has a working phone,” Brick said at last. “In a few minutes, we’ll get up and make our way to the road to flag down some help.”
“How far is it?”
“Not far. Maybe half a mile.”
“Better late than never, but we really do need to bandage your side. It’s not life-threatening unless it gets infected, and we’ll get it tended long before then. But when the adrenaline goes away, you’re going to be hurting. I can go to the road and bring back help.”
“I can walk. I’m not letting you out of my sight. Don’t give yourself shit for it, doc. It’s not your fault your patient insisted on fucking you before you could treat him.”
A weary chuckle. “That’s a problem I’ve never encountered before.”
“Damn glad to hear it.”
She paused. “He killed them, then.”
“Yeah.” He sobered. “Goddamn him.”
Les pushed herself up and looked down at him. “You solved it,” she said. “You didn’t let him get away with it.”
“Yeah. Just doesn’t feel like enough.”
“It never does.” She went to her knees to pull up her jeans and refasten them as he did the same. She tore off a cleaner looking strip from his already damaged T-shirt and used it to fashion the bandage high on his waist. She put her hand on the spot. He’d been shot. She couldn’t think too much about that. “I’m surprised you have no tattoos.”
“Mom feels the same way about tattoos as she does piercings. Put graffiti on her baby? Her finest work?”
“Her giant baby.”
“Giant manly baby,” he corrected. “Let’s get to the road.”
She put herself under his arm. No matter that she couldn’t take his full weight, she would offer support. His willingness to let her do that, plus the stiffness of his movements, told her he was starting to feel his injuries, like she was. Or he just wanted to be as close as possible to her.
She felt the same about him.
“I’m sorry for putting you in the middle of that,” he said.
“I assume suspects popping in to check the status of the investigation isn’t a usual occurrence.”
“Yeah, but keeping you safe is so important to me, I feel like I should anticipate anything that could mess with that.” Though a rueful smile touched his lips, he meant it. It made her heart turn over.
“You did great, doc. Kept calm, ran like a fast-as-hell rabbit. I’m in love with you, you know,” he added. “Fully, solidly, head over heels.”
As her world tilted on its axis for entirely different, far better reasons, he touched her cheek again, gentle around the wound on her cheek. Belatedly, she recalled it had come from a bullet ricochet before they jumped. No wonder he kept looking at it with such hard eyes.
She blinked. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that, here and now.”
“Yeah. Just realized I hadn’t made it clear.”
Her hand rested over the wound in his side. “I think you have.”
Chapter Eighteen
