“Fuck. That,” he gritted, prowling closer—and doubling the breaths in my lungs. “Everything about you is my concern, Taylor Mathews. Every. Thing.”
He crowded farther into my personal space, forcing me to inhale his clean scent, to hear every nuance of his breaths, to feel every speck of his energy. He was finally so close, I had to tilt my head back to answer.
“Not anymore, Clown. You threw that all away—or are you conveniently forgetting that part too?”
His brows turned into umber slashes over his feral glare. “Forgetting what?”
“That—That stunt in Thermal,” I spat. “We clear now? The seven hundred texts I haven’t responded to weren’t enough?” It was actually seven hundred and one as of this morning, but who was counting? “Not that smart for a brain surgeon. But I think we’ve been down that road before too.”
His lips twisted. “I wouldn’t have to be so persistent if you would just fucking answer me!”
I dropped my jaw. I had no other choice. “Are you really yelling at me about this? I mean, really?”
“I’m not yelling!”
“You need to check yourself. Now.”
I turned on my heel and made a renewed beeline toward Missy, but Mac grabbed me by the crook of my arm. Yanked me back against his heaving chest. Secured me tight against him, my back to his front, using the position to dip in and growl directly in my ear.
“I’m not through with you, sassy girl.” His deep voice vibrated down my spine, flooding my panties with freshly aroused cream. “I will never get you out of my system, Taylor.”
When I went to pull away again, he locked his other forearm across my chest, holding me even tighter. I could feel his cock swelling and pressing into my ass, even before he ground that beautiful length against my trembling crack. The move was bold and lewd and—
“Not fair.” I issued the last of it as the condemnation that it was. “So…so not fair.” My voice was a low moan by now, thick with my abject need, my instantly insane arousal.
He didn’t help a damn thing with his growly breath at my neck and those continued rolls of his hips. Oh dear God, his hips. “So much in life isn’t fair, Sassy—but I refuse to watch you walk away a second time without fighting back.”
“You…you had a second chance. I drove out to the damn desert to give it to you, and—”
“I can explain.”
“Oh, bite me, Clown!”
The second it burst out, I identified the mistake it was. Or maybe the blessing.
At once, I was following the rebellion with a dark, low moan—as he sank his teeth into the flesh of my earlobe. He sent his tongue out, warm and generous, to soothe away the pain…
And to send a hundred shocks of awakening straight to my pussy.
“Mac. Stop,” I finally—unbelievably—managed. “You have to stop. We’re in the middle of a fucking parking lot!”
“And your point is…”
“Uh, parking lot?” I retorted. “And I’m not defiling Sally that way.”
“I thought her name was Missy.”
“Wh-Whatever.”
I tried squirming away, but it was useless. And he was impossible.
“Come with me.” Mac started tugging me away from the parking lot, toward the hospital’s main building.
“No,” I declared—but kept stumbling behind him, following like a desperate rat behind the Pied Piper. “Stop. Where are we going?”
He stopped long enough to swing back toward me—to impale my whole system with the hungry heat of his brilliant tiger eyes. “We’re going to go settle this bullshit once and for all. If I have to cancel every appointment I have for the rest of the afternoon, so be it.”
I let my jaw drop, spluttering at him. “You—You can’t just—”
“Watch me, baby,” he snarled. “Just. Fucking. Watch. Me.” His stare flashed brighter. His hold clenched me harder. “I’ll do it, and I won’t think twice. Because I’m going to remind you why you can’t be without me. And more than that, why I can’t bear to be without you. Not for one more goddamned second.”
Chapter Four
Mac
Rage.
Anger didn’t quite cover the intensity of the emotion I was feeling. Rage summed it up fucking nicely, though. When I left the hospital to get some files in my car, I saw that damn blood bank truck across the campus and was drawn to it like a magnet. I had no idea if she would be there or if she would stay away just to ensure she didn’t have to face me, but I started off in that direction without giving it much more thought.
Or maybe I’d been spurred by seven hundred unanswered texts.
Seven. Hundred.
Shitty thing was, it probably wasn’t an exaggeration. Since my idiot-fest in Thermal, Taylor hadn’t answered a single one of my text messages or phone calls. The next step was likely going to be showing up at her apartment, but I’d played that hand before. This woman deserved better than a fucking do-over. She deserved unique. She deserved extraordinary. She deserved everything outside my usual arsenal.
Then fate brought me the fresh approach, right in my lap. And I’d had nothing but pure intentions when I started toward the RV—okay, not true; it was rare that I had pure intentions about anything where she was concerned—but it had been a good start. But like I said, “pure” and I rarely got along when it came to this woman, and I was done apologizing for it. She craved me because of it. Now she just needed a reminder of what all that meant for her.
A fucking huge reminder, if I had my way about this.
And I fully intended to have my way.
My cock was steel between my legs. I was grateful I hadn’t left my white coat in my office when I came outside. Storming across the hospital’s lobby, all but dragging my woman by her hair with my hard-on leading the way, probably wouldn’t sit well with the mostly senior crowd waiting for their appointments.
Flash of brilliance. Even with my swelling dick making me half-crazy, I remembered there was an outdoor entrance to the stairwell that led directly to the hallway to access my office. I just needed to guess which unmarked door took me there.
Tried the first one. Locked. I’d just come down that way a few minutes before and noticed a sign saying the door had to remain unlocked during business hours. Fuck.
“Mac!” Her exasperated burst made me realize I’d snarled the word out loud. By this point, her little puffs of exhaled air were washing over me every time she tried to break free—which was about every ten seconds. “Let go, damn it. I can walk myself.”
“I don’t trust you won’t run off. And we really need to set some things straight.”
I turned to emphasize that before trying the next door handle—and was nearly knocked off my fucking feet. There was an aroused glow, almost flame-like, in her deep-blue eyes. Her cheeks had delectable swatches of pink coloring them. Her lips were a slightly darker hue, freshly wetted and slightly parted. Christ all-fucking-mighty. I longed to yank her jeans to the ground and claim her right here. Yeah, right here.
And damn it, I almost did.