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He looks concerned. Is he thinking about how we almost overstepped just now? Is he regretting it?
Hell. AmI?
I try to laugh it off. “This whole scent thing is a real doozy, isn’t it?”
“Increasingly so,” he says matter-of-factly, still staring at me a little too intensely for comfort.
“At least I smell like you again,” I offer.
He surprises me when he steps closer, my body stiffening as he leans in to inhale against my throat. “Yes,” he murmurs. “You do now.”
“You’d better—” I swallow thickly, my throat feeling suddenly dry. “You’d better go out first,” I tell him. “Make sure the coast is clear.”
“Okay,” he answers softly. “I’ll see you later?”
I nod, my lips pressed together as I resist the urge to breathe him in again for fear of what it might do to me. “Yeah. I’ll see you.”
I don’t move as he carefully leaves me alone in the closet, never daring to take a breath until I hear the door quietly latch behind him. The thick aroma of his scent clings to the air, and even a full minute after he’s gone, it still makes my knees do the cursed wobbly thing.
It takes me at least three minutes to collect myself and leave the closet, and five more for me to remember that I didn’t even ask him about dinner with Gran. However, it only takes me one to decidethat I will absolutely not be going to find him again. That feels dangerous to my health right now.
I’ll settle for texting him later.
?Getting through therest of my shift proves difficult. Not only because I had to pop an elderly woman’s hip back in place after she tripped over her cat (I have never heard a woman curse a feline as much as I did this afternoon), but also because ever since Noah and I left that closet—I can’t seem to calm down. My skin is perpetually tingly, and my head feels almost cloudy, like it would rather be somewhere else. It’s made it incredibly hard to stay focused. By the last hour of my shift, while I’m carefully tying sutures for the sleeping man who apparently faints at the sight of blood, it is made painfully aware to me that my erratic behavior this afternoon hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Liam has been staring at me for the last fifteen minutes while he has assisted me; Liam Avery is something of a friend to me in the ER—having been a big help during my first few months here. I’d been a mess of nerves, having been right out of my residency and in a new place, and he’d always been there to help me get the swing of things. We’ve always sort of clicked since then. It helps that he’s one of the most competent RNs I work with.
“You seem weird,” he says finally as he hands me a bit of gauze.
I try to look aloof, but even the feel of the expression on my face feels pained. “I do?”
“Yeah.” He adjusts the overhead light so I can see better. “Ever since you came back from lunch.”
“Probably just ate something weird,” I mutter as I avert my eyes. “Felt a little off.”
“Oh.”
He’s quiet for a moment, and when I peek back up at him, I notice his dark brow is wrinkled in thought, like he’s wrestling with something.
I tie off the suture, sighing. “Just spit it out, Li. I can tell you want to say something.”
“It’s just...” He looks sheepish now, running a hand through his dark blond hair. “You came back smelling like Noah.”
This takes me by surprise. “What?”
“I mean, I assume that’s who it is. I don’t actually see Noah enough to know for sure—but it’s definitely strong enough to be an alpha.”
“Oh, I—” It hadn’t even occurred to me how others might be affected by my and Noah’s increasingly frequent nuzzlefests. Is it that strong for all the other shifters too? “Yeah, I saw him before I came back from lunch.”
“I just worried maybe you had a fight.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs aimlessly. “I mean, we’ve all heard the stories about Dr. Taylor. It was kind of a shock to find out you two were, you know... mated.”
I can’t pinpoint why, but the obvious incredulity on Liam’s face pricks something inside me. It’s not full-on annoyance, but it’s something incredibly close to it. “We didn’t fight,” I say tersely. “Pretty much the opposite of that, actually.”
I notice Liam’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh. Shit. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be a dick. I just...” He scratches at the back of his neck. “It’s still weird. Getting used to it.”
