He smiles as Bity and Shannon walk away with wry grins of their own, and they carry Trip in front of us as I clutch my side and follow Tag.
He hands my bag to Wren, and then he turns around to scoop me up, despite my attempts to swat him away.
“Sir, she has to be wheeled out. It’s protocol,” a nurse scolds.
“I’ve got her,” he says dismissively before boarding the elevator.
“Sir!” she barks while rushing toward us, but the door closes before she can argue with this stubborn ass.
“Let me go, Tag.”
He just laughs, and then his soft, perfect lips find my forehead as he pulls me closer.
“Not happening, Ash.”
The way he says it... it sounds like it means more than it does. I stop struggling, partially because it feels good to be held by him, getting kissed by him, and partially because it’s pointless to struggle. He’s so much stronger than me.
Instead, I nestle into him, and then I return his kiss to my forehead by kissing his neck, saying to hell with his rejection.
His breath hitches, and he swallows hard when he feels my lips. But I don’t stop. I kiss him again, dragging my tongue across his neck, and he shifts to suddenly press his lips against mine.
Oh damn.
He tastes so good right now, and I can’t let him go. My hands tangle in his hair as he holds me to him, and my lower half throbs with anticipation.
“You’re staying with me,” he murmurs against my lips.
“Okay,” I surrender, and his devouring kiss starts up again as he carries me off the elevator.
“Shit,” he gripes against my lips while pulling away. “I forgot you were on painkillers.”
Painkillers?
His eyes turn distant, refusing to look at me. I guess he wasn’t as ready for that kiss as I thought he was.
I fight back the tears as he carries me to the car where a guy is holding the door open to the back seat of a SUV for us. Trip gets strapped in the very back with Shannon and Bil
ly, while Tag places me in the second row.
He quickly takes the seat beside me, his arm slipping around my shoulders, and then he nods to the driver before we pull out into traffic.
“That was scary, by the way,” Billy mumbles from the backseat.
“What was? The elevator?” I ask in bemusement.
“Funny,” he grumbles under his breath.
“Seriously, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You damn near dying, that’s what I’m talking about,” he strains out in a near whisper, and Tag’s grip on my shoulder tightens.
“The doctor said there wasn’t any problem,” I say a little too casually.
“That’s not the point. If Tag hadn’t gotten there when he did-”
Billy can’t finish, and I look to see a tear hanging onto Tag’s eyelid as he looks away. Why is his arm around my shoulders when he pulled away from the kiss for no good reason?
His phone rings, and he drops his grip on me to answer it, his breath growing heavy as he pulls it to his ear.