A fire, once so intense, it burnt us both up. Now, embers lay between us. There’s no longer a flame, but what’s there is just as ready to scorch our flesh should we dare touch it. I can’t let that happen.
Bronson wraps his mouth around my pinkie finger, sucking on it, then around my ring finger. My heart twists as my body duels between singing or weeping. I revel in the feel of his tongue and then-
He suddenly bites down.
A bolt shoots through me, dragging me from my pleasured state to what he is doing. Grating my skin, he slides the ring from my finger with his teeth.
I blink.
No!
Ripping my hand away from him, I swing at his jaw or cheek and it is too dark to tell which, but pain flares through my palm when it meets something hard.
“Give it back!” I snap, anxiously searching his hands in the dim for my engagement ring. I force each one open to find them. . .empty.
Then I hear him swallow.
My eyes dart up to his shadowed face.
My mouth drops open. “No.You didn’t.”
“You’ll get it back,” he says, amusement in his voice. “It’s my last night in Darwin and I’m staying upstairs. You’ll need to join me up there, for say. . . twelve hours?”
“Oh. My. God. Did you concentrate in anatomy at all?”
I can almost see his smirk. “Youranatomy.”
“It can take five days sometimes, Bronson!”
“Bummer. Guess you’re gonna have to come back to the District with me.”
Bending down, I grab my underwear and slide them up, wriggling to get the lace over my backside. My cheeks heat, humiliation and anger both lighting the flame beneath my skin.
Stupid emotional woman!
What was I even thinking?
I ball my fists by my sides. When he chuckles at my huffs of annoyance, I bark, “This is not funny! You didn’t swallow it. Give it back.”
I hear his smile when he says, “I hope it doesn’t hurt later. I may need a doctor. That was rather sharp on the way down.”
My ears and neck burn. “You drive me crazy! I have a life, you know? That I love! This is just like you to swoop in and take whatever you want without thinking about the consequences. You always do this!”
His head tilts, his face, a dark perfectly masculine oval, looks down at me. The darkness only allows for the slightest of outlines, yet still displays the hints of a mischievous grin. “I always do what?”
“Whatever you want!” I bite out and then cover my face, breathing into my palms fiercely the way I do now. To calm myself down.
“Did you not want that?” he whispers, his tone hinting at a hiss. “Did you not feel that?”
Dropping my palms to my sides, I try not to cry. “I feel. . .lots. I feel so much - I need my ring back,” I say, shaking my head fast from side to side as the image of Perry asking me where it is beats into my mind. “Or Perry will have another reason to-”
“To what?”
“He looks after me. He knows me.”
“Fill in the gaps then, baby,” he says. “What does Dr Clean know that I don’t?”
I lose all sense. All control. I feel as though my orgasm and his words have somehow ripped my armour down. I hate Bronson for bringing this out of me. Hate him for making me feel this volatile. “He has been here for me for the past six years! Supporting me! He gets the world I am in now. Knows how hard I’m going to have to work to make it as a cardiothoracic surgeon. I can’t fucking take any chances. Can’t act crazy. I have responsibilities. I’m going to be the only fucking female cardiothoracic surgeon in the state, Bronson! And he knows what I need. What my weaknesses are. How broken I am-” Words just stop in my throat as the truth rises and holds them hostage. “I can’t take care of things alone,” I whisper to myself more than to him. “Nothing I do is good enough.”