Instant Gratification

He grabbed her wrist when she would have turned away. “Nice change of subject.”

She smiled. “I’m the master at it.” She pulled her hand free. “Your splinter’s out.”

“Thank you.”

“And no.” She squirmed. “By the way. I don’t think sex is dirty. Although, we had our moments, didn’t we.”

He grinned. “Yeah.” He looked at his palm, while his heart thudded heavily with the weight of pretending that her leaving wasn’t going to destroy him. “Nice bedside manner, Dr. Emma.”

“Working on it.”

He cocked his head and studied her. “Is that what that was? Flirting, to distract me from what you were doing?”

“I didn’t intend for it to be flirting necessarily. But yes, I was trying to distract you.”

“Nicely played. Sex is always distracting. But why the change of tactic?”

She sighed. “I watched Spencer deal with a patient who needed stitches, and he did it better than me.”

“Ah.” Now it all made perfect sense. “It’s a competition thing.”

She winced. “I liked the look on the patient’s face. She…she liked him. She connected with him, because he made her feel better. I wanted that too, wanted to make you feel better.”

Touched, he took her hand. “You know, I like this new you.”

Clearly uncomfortable with that, she looked away. “It’s the same old me.”

“Well whoever it is, I like her. So…back to that connecting thing.”

“Yeah, about that.” She closed up her bag, then looked at him. “Look, we all know that I didn’t want to be here in Wishful. But it takes a lot of energy to hold onto that much resentment. I had no idea.” She shook her head. “I must be burning calories left and right with it, because do you have any idea how many casseroles I’ve eaten in the past few months, and I haven’t gained an ounce. But I can’t do it anymore. No more resentment. Instead, I want to…”

“Connect.”

She smiled, looking relieved that he was following her. “Yeah.”

“Before you leave.”

“Yes.” She took a step into him and set her hand on his chest. “I want to go knowing I learned to fit in. That I learned to be…softer, kinder. More relaxed and laid-back, easygoing. Like you, Stone.”

She hadn’t taken her hand off his chest, which he considered fair game, so he put his hands on her as well, gently squeezing her hips, pulling her in, feeling the tension in her. “You’re not there yet.”

She looked down at their bodies now touching from chest to belly to thighs and everything in between, then back up at him, her eyes heating. “I know. That’s because when I’m with you like this, I don’t feel relaxed so much as…revved up.”

“Is that right?” He slid his hands up her back slowly, past her still slightly aching ribs, letting his fingers dig into her muscles just a little in a massaging pressure. “How about now?”

Her pulse kicked. Her ni**les hardened, pressing against her silk top.

“Feel nice?” he murmured.

“Nice makes me think of kittens and flowers.” Her pulse was fluttering like crazy, which he liked. A lot. “I’m not thinking kittens and flowers, Stone.” She pressed into him, and he knew the exact moment she felt how hard he was because her eyes locked on his.

“Yeah,” he said huskily. “My body thinks you’re hot.”

“And your brain?”

“Oh, my brain knows it.” He tilted her head up so that their mouths were only a whisper apart. “Let’s forget everything else, Emma, and connect.”

“And the rest.”

“Right. Let’s teach you to be laid-back. Easygoing. I’ve got just the thing.”

“Well…in the name of personal growth then,” she whispered, letting her fingers play with his hair at the nape of his neck.

“In the name of personal growth.” They kissed, long and deep and so hot he nearly melted.

Chapter 22

Eyes still closed, Emma pulled back, breathing hard. “Okay, it’s not working.” When she opened her eyes and met Stone’s dark, heated gaze, she felt…flummoxed. When he looked at her like that, she felt other reactions as well; in her throat, in her belly, in her upper chest, which she told herself was a purely physical response to a gorgeous man, but she knew the truth.

It was her heart, something she wasn’t quite ready to admit. “I’m the opposite of relaxed.”

“We’re getting to it.”

At the sexy confidence in his voice, a shiver of desire shot through her. “We should be over this by now.”

“I don’t feel over it.” Slipping his hand around the back of her neck, he let his fingers play on the delicate skin as he kissed her again, opening his mouth on hers, letting her know how much he wanted her, which was the most amazing thing to her.

He wanted her.

Slowly, he broke off the kiss, taking his damn sweet time about it too, leaving their lips still touching for a long beat before finally pulling away. “Do you?”

She looked into his eyes. Dammit. She’d had lovers. Maybe not a lot of them, but certainly enough. And not one, not a single one, had ever made her feel like Stone did, like if she didn’t have him, nothing was ever going to be right again. “You’re not taking my problem seriously.”