Page 9

“Fuck!”

The words tumbled out against her lips. Sweet, fleshy, swollen lips. I pulled myself away, pushing my forehead against hers, stilling for a moment with my fist wrapped in her hair and my fingers wedged into her stomach.

“Cade?” she asked again, her little voice unsure, gentle, innocent.

Fuck, she was going to kill me. I hadn’t expected her to react to me so hard. I hadn’t expected my cock to be pushing against my bike leathers so tightly that any little movement against her, or from her, was going to make me come in my fucking boxers. Every tissue and fibre in my body was on fire, every nerve ending was tingling, and my heart was racing like I’d just popped a handful of pills.

“Yes?” I answered, more gasp than words.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re what’s wrong, Al. These lips,” I ran the pad of my thumb over the delicate skin now flushed with deep pink. “This hair.” I pushed the strands of rich brown laced with gold that fell across her face. “These freckles.” I felt across the gold-red flecks that dusted her cheeks. “These dimples.” Lightly, I grabbed at her cheeks, holding her so she couldn’t look away from me, those angelic, light-blue eyes darker with a rush of blood to her face. “You,” I breathed, tasting her scent on my tongue. “Everything about you is what’s wrong.”

Alice frowned. Those dark, perfectly shaped eyebrows, knitting together, a storm brewing in the tranquil blue of her eyes, like we were out at sea, alone.

“You’re Demon’s dog’s vet. And I should be here asking how Kinobi is. Instead, I’m doing my best to keep my hands off you.”

“This is trying to keep your hands off me?” She smiled.

Sort of. A half-smile. Pulling at the side of her face, one of her dimples deepening. My cock bounced off the thick leather of my pants, reminding me how much I wanted to rip her clothes off and fuck her against the reception desk. I would. Just not yet. No, not yet. I needed to wait. To savour every little thing about her. To commit everything to memory so that I could trace every last little freckle over her face without even opening my eyes.

“I don’t want you thinking I’m trying to take advantage.”

“And what if I did?” The nervous lick of her lips betraying the words she tried to hide behind.

Fuck, I loved that even more. Her uncertainty. Her nervousness. Everything she did, every action, every word, was all raw her. And maybe that was what was drawing me to her. She was just Alice. Not a woman trying to be something else. And tonight, I saw her at her most vulnerable. A few nights ago, I saw her in a crisis. Strong, commanding, confident. She intrigued me at every turn.

I didn’t move away. I stayed on my knees, watching her, watching her reaction. And she didn’t keep me waiting. The little burst of artificial confidence disappeared from her eyes.

Alice smiled weakly, but it was the tiredness in her eyes I noticed the most, still stunning no matter how exhausted she looked. I reached out for her again. Slowly this time, giving her the opportunity to move away from me if she wanted to. But she didn’t flinch. The lightest blue eyes watching me, never once retreating. Tipping her chin up with my finger, I kept my gaze on her face, studying the freckles, and the way her long, dark eyelashes seemed to brush over the top of her cheeks.

“You work too hard, Alice.” I didn’t know why that mattered to me. “You need to take a break.”

She said nothing. Not right then. Just a fleeting smile, which said far more than words ever could.

“I need to feed the kittens.” The sadness had returned, the distraction of us no longer pulling her away from the life she had just lost.

And I could feel it all, like it radiated off her and tangled me up within it.

“Let me help. We’ll be able to get it done quicker if the two of us do it?”

Alice nodded, a funny mix of emotion on her face. Pain, tiredness, relief.

I pushed to my feet, holding out my hand as she sat on the edge of the waiting room seat. For a moment she just looked at it and I wondered whether she was going to leave me hanging. But then she slid her hand into mine, her skin warm and gentle, slender fingers resting against me, not gripping, showing me she really didn’t need me, but she was too polite to say so. My good girl. My stomach stirred, deep and resonant and I resisted the urge to squeeze my eyes shut, just for a moment, just to regain control.

Alice led the way through the back of the office, passing the consulting rooms, to the last room before the operating theatre. The lights were already on, turned low, gently illuminating the room of cages. Kinobi raised her head straight away, her spongy black nose pushing against the wire cage, leaving indents on the soggy flesh.

“Hi baby girl,” I hummed, stepping around Alice and approaching the black and tan dog in one of the biggest cages in the ward. “Hi, Kinobi.”

“She’s really improving now,” Alice muttered from behind me as I crouched on the floor to get closer to Demon’s dog. “Few more days and I think we can think about getting her home.”

“Demon will be made up to hear that. Maybe they’ll get out together.”

“He still in hospital?”

“Yeah. Not for much longer. The stronger he gets, the more difficult he becomes. As soon as he’s strong enough to take a piss by himself, he’ll leg-it.”

“He really shouldn’t. He needs to do as the doctors tell him.”

“Demon doesn’t do anything someone tells him. Not even Ciara.”

“Ciara?”

“His ol’ lady. The love of his life. More than even Kinobi, here. I know, I know. I didn’t really say that, girl,” I added quickly when the dog pulled her nose from the bars of the cage.

“And what about you?” Alice’s voice was almost a whisper, a slight waver in the tone, a new nervousness. “Do you have an old lady?”

I stood, leaving that question hanging in the air just a second, before I turned towards her.

“I don’t have an ol’ lady, Alice. Because if I did, I’d spend every spare moment I had worshipping her body in every way I could.” Alice stared up at me, her eyes widening just a little. “And I certainly wouldn’t have my lips or my hands on anyone else.”

I didn’t move. Only watched. Watching her mouth drop open a fraction like she might say something, then close again only for her to pull at her lip with her teeth, her eyes dropping to her feet before raising back to my face. And now her cheeks flushed, a sudden eruption of pink that tried to drown the freckles. Fucking beautiful. Fucking fuckable. It was my cock that stirred this time, not my stomach.

“Shall we get these kittens fed?” she whispered.

“Yeah. Reckon we should.”

We really fucking should, before I fucked her against these cages in front of all her patients.

*****

Alice’s head bobbed, tipping backwards suddenly, her eyes snapping open. Desperately she searched for the kitten, her body rigid with panic, the arm that had rested against me for the last ten minutes suddenly tense.

“It’s alright, Al. It’s alright. I put the kittens away. They’re safe.”

She still looked confused, gazing up at me with bleary eyes.

“I fell asleep?”

I nodded. “You did, babe. Out cold.”

“How long for?”

“Couple of hours.”

“Couple of hours? The kittens….”

“I fed them all. Like you showed me. They’re all fed and snuggled back up in there.” I pointed to the cardboard box filled with blankets at my feet.

Alice relaxed again, her body sinking back against the sagging sofa in the vets’ staff room.

“They’re all fed?” She asked again, her voice heavy with sleep.

“Every little furry one of them.”

For a moment, she snuggled back against me, back to the spot between my arm and the side of my ribcage. My leg tingled, but even with her meagre weight propped against me, that tingle became an aching throb of squashed nerve endings. The last hour had ticked by uncomfortably. I wanted to shift my weight, shuffle into another position, but I hadn’t dared move in case I woke her.

My mobile had vibrated angrily. Message after persistent message from Caleb. And I’d ignored every one of them. Instead, I’d listened to Alice, to the breaths that had deepened and slowed, till her chest barely rose and fell and the only reason I could detect any sign of life was from the tiny little whimpers she’d let out as she’d slept.

At my feet a couple of kittens stirred in their box, a soft squeak and a stretch, and Alice pushed upright again, wiping a hand over her face and casting a look at me sideways.

“You could have just stayed there,” I spoke to the back of her head as she shuffled forward to the edge of the sofa.

“I’m sorry, Cade. Didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

“You were shattered. And it’s fine. Don’t you think it’s time to go home?”

“The kittens will need feeding in a couple of hours.”

“Take them with you. Then at least you’re not …”

The door of the staff room creaked, opening suddenly, and I was on the edge next to her before I’d thought it through. The man who stood in the doorway looked as startled as I did. His eyes glancing from Alice to me and then back again, waiting for some sort of explanation.

“Stu…”

“Who’s that?” he asked suspiciously.

My chest tightened quicker than my fist, a dull thudding punch of heaviness catching me by surprise, and all I could do was stare at him silently.

“This is Cade,” she started.

“And who the fuck is Cade?” he grunted.

Now I was on my feet, my fists in tight balls.

“He brought the Doberman in the other night.”

“And he’s here now because….”

“Because I’ve come to visit our girl Kinobi, mate.”

I hadn’t realised I’d stepped closer, cutting off his view of Alice with my body. My eyes solely focused on the man at the door, in jeans and a padded jacket.

“This is my boss, Stuart,” Alice’s voice trailed from behind me.

“Uh, huh.”

I stared at him and eventually he stepped sideways, edging his way into the room.

“Just need something from the cabinet,” he muttered.

“You still doing the emergency shift tonight, Stu?” Alice asked, her voice tentative.

“Well, if you’re already here…”

“Alice is going home,” I answered for her, ignoring the little tug against the leather at my arm. “Alice needs some downtime.”

The man in the jacket pushed his arms into the air in surrender.

“Just asking, mate. Just asking.”

*****

“You didn’t need to walk me home.” Little plumes of white swirled in the air above her head as she masked the shiver of her body.

“It’s late, dark and cold, babe.”

“I would have made it home safely, you know. I do it every night.”

“Not carrying a box of kittens, though.” I lifted the box out in front of me.

“Thanks, Cade,” she turned to me as we stopped at two red doors standing side by side against the pavement.

“You the top or the bottom?” I glanced up at the pair of flats we stood in front of, crumbling brick and gaps in the pointing.

“Top one.”

“You need a hand up?” I gestured with the box.

“No, I’ll make it. Thanks Cade.” She mumbled, her focus on her toes, avoiding my eyes.

Probably a good thing she left me on the doorstep tonight. My phone vibrated again in the inside pocket of my leather jacket.

“Make sure you get some sleep.” I passed the box of kittens to her before reaching into my jacket to pull out my phone.

Caleb.

“I’d better get this,” I pointed at where the screen shone neon green light against the black leather of my jacket.

Alice nodded. “Good night.” Her voice trailed off, soft and gentle, into the night, and then she pushed through the door, clutching her box of kittens.

“What?” I grunted as the red door closed.

“Where the fuck have you been?”

“Busy, Caleb. Been busy.”

“Busy doing who? And why wasn’t I involved?”

I sighed, and he heard it down the phone.

“Need you, brother. We got that date with some hot nurses tonight.”

“Nah, mate. Not for me.”

“You sick or something?” Caleb asked, surprised.

“I just can’t be bothered.”

“Shame. Cos this isn’t about you. We need those CCTV images, remember? You’re doing it for the club.”

I exhaled, my breath pooling in front of me in a big, white, pissed off cloud.

“For the club,” I muttered.

“Good. Get your arse home cos I need some pussy to sink into.”

I pushed my thumb against the red button, ending the call. Above me, a light shone in the big bay window. I watched for a few seconds, my mind full of disorganised thoughts. And then I moved away, back to where I’d left my bike so I could attend to club business.