Page 17 of Healing Her (Pulse Medical #1)

T here were a few chips in the black enamel paint that covered the iron railing around the Claiburne’s rooftop garden. Ashley felt their rough edges biting into her fingers as she gripped it. She welcomed the sensation. It felt like it was keeping her tethered to the world.

Her thoughts whirled. Jen, looking like a Disney princess in a velvety blue gown. City, an absolute demon wreaking havoc in ways that Ashley hadn’t expected. And the two of them arm in arm! She couldn’t decide if it was a dream or a nightmare.

So she’d grabbed her wide pashmina shawl from the coat check and fled up here to the little garden on the roof.

A tactical error, actually, since it brought back memories of the several times she and City had sneaked up here during other galas and gotten up to no good while they looked out over Los Angeles.

Ashley pressed the heels of her hands to her forehead, where a dull throb had set up shop about thirty minutes ago.

Behind her, the heavy roof access door creaked noisily open, and she whirled around, heart pounding.

To her shock, Jen slipped through the doorway and onto the roof, glasses of champagne in each of her hands.

She kicked the door shut with her foot, wobbling slightly.

“Oof, I shouldn’t have tried that in heels.

” There was a bright smile on her face when she glanced around and found Ashley. “Hi.”

Ashley fumbled behind her to grip the railing again. “Doctor Colton.”

Jen’s blue eyes rolled skyward. “Jesus. Do you not think we are way beyond formal titles when we’re not at the hospital? You’ve had your hand in my panties.”

Jesus indeed. Ashley didn’t know where to look. And if she blushed any harder, she might pass out. “What a thing to say.”

“Well, it seems silly to keep tiptoeing around the subject.” Jen stepped forward and held out one of the champagne flutes. “Drink that. Good Lord.” She looked around the small garden area. “They don’t really keep up with appearances up here, do they? I hope you’ve had your tetanus booster.”

Reluctantly, Ashley released the railing and took the proffered glass. “What do you want, Doctor Col… Jennifer?”

A sigh, and another eyeroll. “Fine. Jennifer will work for now. Close enough. Ashley, we can’t go on without discussing…well, everything.”

“How much of everything?” Ashley asked, suspicious.

“All of it.” Jen crossed her arms over her chest. “Why you hate me so much, for starters.”

“Hate is a strong word for it.” Ashley gulped down half of her champagne, wincing as it burned a mildly acidic trail down her esophagus. It always astounded her how Oakridge and the Claiburne cheaped out on the alcohol for these events.

“Given the literal screaming matches we’ve had on multiple occasions…

are you sure?” Jen cocked her head, her eyes full of questions.

“But okay, I’ll dial it back. You definitely don’t like me, your little friend down there confirmed that much.

But then you also seem to struggle with keeping your hands off of me.

” She lifted her glass to her mouth, her gaze locked onto Ashley’s.

Ashley could only swallow hard, her nerves having formed a huge lump in her throat. And her mouth was dry. “I…”

“I don’t mind the hands thing,” Jen volunteered.

“I really, really do not. But the rollercoaster of rage-lust-rage-lust-snit fit, that’s taking its toll on me.

Apart from anything else between us, we are adults.

Adults who work together doing very important work that literally changes peoples’ lives.

We’ve got to get on the same page in every conceivable way. So, we talk.”

Inhaling sharply, Ashley set her glass down on a nearby planter and gazed up at the sky.

By all rights, she should be alight with fury right now, ready to shout and fight.

Instead, she wanted nothing more than to flee this trap.

Talk? That would presumably involve some kind of feelings? No, thank you.

Unfortunately, Ashley was fairly certain that City was lurking in the stairwell, so even if she felt comfortable bowling Jen over to get to the door, she’d then have to deal with someone who actually knew where she lived. It seemed there would be no getting out of this feelings fest.

“I’ll go first, so you can have a second to think about what you want to say.

” Jen drew herself up to stand taller, which Ashley found absolutely adorable, quite against her will.

“Since the day we met, I’ve found you incredibly attractive and also insanely hard to deal with.

I know you’re a world-class cardiac surgeon and you’re going to be a fantastic Chief of Cardio when the time comes, but only if you pull the stick out of your very shapely behind. ”

Ashley’s jaw dropped. She had no idea how to respond to this, let alone think of a way to discuss her own feelings without starting a fight.

Jen continued, relentlessly. “My late wife, Nina, God rest her soul, was absolutely nothing like you. She was a wonderful person with a beautifully open, generous soul. Maybe you, too, are a wonderful person. I have no idea because you’ve been so combative with me from day one.

But I still find you irresistible in a way my Nina would be laughing about if she were here.

” She paused, her blue eyes so frank and clear that Ashley knew she meant every word. “Your turn.”

Her heart clenched in her chest in a way that would give her cause for alarm if she weren’t a cardiothoracic surgeon.

This was not her area of expertise. Still, after the scolding they’d gotten from Sundstrom the other day, she knew Jen was right, and they had to come to some kind of mutual understanding.

“You drive me crazy,” she admitted. “You are daring. Unafraid. You have a lot of passion. It’s frightening, the way you let it lead you in your work.

I think you let it go too far sometimes.

You want to change too much, too fast, and you lack respect for tried-and-true methods. ”

“ Tried is the key word there,” Jen replied, her gaze steady. “Those methods you champion so much were just as new once as anything I push for today. Innovation is a necessity in the field of saving lives.”

“But slowly, carefully, minimizing the risk of harm—we took the same oaths, Jennifer.” It was a struggle to keep a lid on her temper, on the part of her that wanted to steamroll over Jen with facts and logic and her own deep-seated need to be right all the time.

“Also? You get too close to everyone, to patients, to the staff, to the damn kid that runs the coffee cart in the hospital lobby. I believe this clouds your judgment to an almost dangerous degree.”

“And I believe that your extreme level of detachment prevents you from providing the highest quality of care that I know you’ve got in you.

As I said, you are a superb surgeon. I have seen you work.

” Jen’s chin was up and her jaw set. “But you hold yourself so far back that people find it difficult to trust you. If I am too close, you are too far. Which leads me nicely into my next point.” She gestured between the two of them with her nearly-empty champagne glass.

“Us. This thing we have. You haven’t addressed that, and it’s as important as our work differences. ”

“It shouldn’t happen again,” Ashley reached behind herself and gripped the railing again, panic rising in her throat. “It never should have happened.”

“But it did.” Jen set down her glass and stepped forward, forcing Ashley against the railing. “And what would you say if I told you I wanted it to happen again?”

“I…”

“What if I told you I wanted to reach under your skirt right now and take off what you’re wearing?

That I want to taste you?” With her next step, Jen’s body was pressed against Ashley’s, and Ashley could feel that, like herself, Jen wasn’t wearing a bra under the soft blue velvet.

“It seems unfair. You made me come, but I wasn’t allowed to return the favor. ”

As Ashley gripped the railing, desire and fear swirling in her stomach, Jen’s deft surgeon’s fingers traced along the slit in her skirt. Ashley bit her bottom lip and mentally blessed and cursed City for pushing her to wear the Ralph Lauren gown.

Slowly, Jen slid down to her knees. Her fingers nudged the slit of Ashley’s dress wide open and crept under the waistband of Ashley’s black lace panties.

Her eyes remained fixed on Ashley’s and she waited, her hands curled around a handful of panty.

Anticipation crackled between them. Ashley closed her eyes.

“Please,” she breathed out, in her thinnest possible whisper.

Her soaked, hot, folds had been warm and full even before Jen went for her panties. As the black lace was peeled down her thighs and off her feet, the feel of the cool November air on it sent a shiver rocketing up her spine, and she shuddered out a sigh.

A sigh that quickly became a gasp when Jen’s lips closed around her clit and ever-so-gently sucked at it.

The very tip of her nimble tongue teased the sensitive bit of skin, almost toying with it.

It was pleasurably intense, making Ashley flex up and stand on her toes.

A groan wanted to spiral up from her stomach, but she only bit her lip harder.

The Los Angeles breeze flirted and toyed with the fringe on her pashmina, with her bangs and her ponytail. Ashley’s head fell back and her fingers tightened around the iron railing as Jen’s lips and tongue made her knees weak.

Hands, small but strong, slid under her dress and around to grip her ass and pull her closer, giving Jen’s mouth full access to every inch of Ashley’s pussy.

Ashley freed one hand from its death grip on the railing and reached down to bury it in the soft cloud of Jen’s curls.

Her fingers curved to cradle Jen’s head, and her hips rocked forward into the hot, wet eagerness of the mouth that licked, sucked, and softly nipped at the very core of herself.

She’d never been bold or daring enough to have sex outdoors, where anyone could see or hear her. A titillating urge came over her, to unclip the hook holding her halter top up and let it fall to expose her breasts to the evening air. She didn’t, but her nipples tightened at the thought.

Ashley hadn’t known she could learn so many surprising new things about herself in such a short time.

Pleasure, electric and insistent, was beginning to wash through her as Jen ate her out. All of her focus was narrowed down to the little button of flesh between her legs, the firm hands squeezing her ass, the buzzy little hums of satisfaction as Jen licked and tasted and nibbled.

She’d kept her groans pushed down in her belly for as long as she could.

Her fingers gripped at a handful of Jen’s hair as her climax all but exploded from her, forcing out a shuddering gasp that rang sharply out into the night air.

Her back pressed into the railing as her whole body tensed and then relaxed, and then she could only bend forward over Jen, letting her hand slide off the kneeling woman’s head and down to her shoulder.

She was gratified that Jen held her as she came down, arms wrapped around Ashley’s thighs and her head pressed against Ashley’s stomach.

They stayed this way, in a surprisingly comfortable silence, for a while. The sounds of the city honked and rushed up towards them from Sunset Boulevard. Slowly, Ashley felt her breathing return to normal. It was with extreme reluctance that she finally straightened up and sighed.

Jen seemed just as reluctant to let go of Ashley and get to her feet.

But she did, stepping back with a wary expression on her fact that actually caused a pang of guilt to pierce Ashley’s heart.

She knew she deserved that kind of kid-glove caution.

As confused about her feelings as she remained, however, she was determined at least to not get back on her personal emotional rollercoaster about it.

This time, she was not going to allow herself to bite Jen Colton’s head off, or to let her feelings affect their work.

She was going to try . With effort, Ashley pulled herself up to stand straight and even managed to offer a shy smile that seemed to make Jen drop a little of her distrusting expression. The pang of guilt was replaced with a tiny bit of a relief.

“We have more to talk about, you know,” Jen said at last, bending down and grabbing something Ashley couldn’t quite see from the ground.

Ashley nodded. “I know.”

Jen cocked her head. “It’s a Friday evening. I don’t have anything on my agenda tomorrow except to visit Maria. I think you’ve got something on the wall, a stent thing but not until tomorrow afternoon. Right?”

“Right,” Ashley echoed, puzzled about where this was going.

“Good. Good.” Jen nodded, a tiny little satisfied smile on her face.

The silence stretched out between them until Ashley couldn’t take it anymore. “Okay, so, what, then?”

“Oh. Right.” With a wide grin that Ashley could only call shit-eating , as City would put it, Jen held up Ashley’s black lace panties up in the air like a little Victoria’s Secret flag, “So if you want these back, you’re going to have to follow me home.”