No. No talking, because he knew damn well the wrong thing would come out.
The begging.
Because God, really? What the fuck did he know about keeping a woman in his life? Not nearly enough to keep Jade with him, that was for damn sure.
Which didn’t stop him from pushing her down to the cushions and covering her body with his to kiss her again.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what stupid thing I wanted to do?” she whispered.
“Please, God,” he breathed against her neck. “Say me.”
She bit her lower lip but burst out laughing, anyway. “Dell.” She dropped her head to his chest. “This is all your fault. I just keep thinking about our night. I know it was a one time thing, it
“What do you expect me to say,
“Tell me it was bad,” she said. “Like…
Letting out a breath, he opened his mouth.
She nodded, eager to hear what he might say.
“Jade.”
“It was bad. So bad we should repeat it to learn from it.”
She went still, then snorted. “Way to be strong.”
He knew every bit as much as she that this shouldn’t happen. It was risking too much. Someone was going to get hurt.
And in any case, he couldn’t let her go. In fact, his arms came around her and held on. “Jade, what the hell am I going to do with you?”
“Are you as scared as I am?”
“Terrified,” he said. “Hold me.”
She laughed but did just that. “You know,” she said, mouth against his ear. “Someone once told me that when I’m in an unsure situation, calm assertive dominance is best.”
He stroked a finger over her jaw, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “You want me to assert some calm dominance now? Over you?”
She shivered and her eyes darkened. “Maybe just this once…”
As he went from zero to sixty in less than a second, rising with her in his arms to head for his bed, he had to wonder just who was the one in control.
Sixteen
The next morning Jade slumped at her desk and eyed the clock as she yawned widely. It was only eight o’clock.
She’d gotten maybe three minutes of sleep the night before, and so had Dell. He had to be dragging every bit as much as her.
Bringing up the day’s to-do list, she added,
Dell came in wearing work boots, low-slung jeans, a hoodie, and an opened down jacket, looking far more like a Hollywood version of the mountain vet than the real thing.
Except the dirt on his boots and the straw on his shoulder and back were real, and so were the shadows beneath his eyes.
Yep, he was dragging as much as she. Only he looked much better while doing it.
He pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head and looked at her, his cheeks ruddy from the cold air, a day’s growth on his square jaw.
He’d been riding. She’d seen him out the window tearing across the meadow on Kiwi’s back, the man and the horse beautiful in the weak sun that was trying to burn through the fog.
She looked around her for a distraction, but everything was in place. Her pencils perfectly lined up. The files were pulled. Peanut was on top of Jade’s printer. Beans was curled up on Jade’s lap. Gertie lay at her feet, staring up at her with love and adoration.
None of them needing a damn thing from her, for once.
“You were gone when I got up,” he said.
“Had things to do,” she said. “The boss is real demanding. I left you a note.”
“Yes, thanking me for last night.” His gaze held hers. “You sneaked out.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said.
“You
Okay, she had. She’d held her breath and slipped out of his warm, strong arms, grabbing her clothes off his floor and dressing on her way to the front door. “Fine!” She stood up and tossed her hands high. “I sneaked out. Are you telling me no woman’s ever sneaked out on you before?”
The look on his face answered her question, and with a sigh of disgust, she started to turn away, but he took her by the arms and lifted her up so they were nose to nose.
She wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but by the sparks in his eyes she was going to guess maybe some more calm, assertive dominance…
Suddenly the door opened and in came Keith, with Mike right behind him. And then Adam. All three stopped short and stared at the two of them.
Dell set Jade back down and she backed away from him, attempting a smile. “Morning,” she said, and turned to her workstation. She felt Dell looking down at her but she didn’t meet his gaze.
“Is everything okay?” Mike asked.
“Yes,” Jade said, and felt Dell move off. She let out a low breath and watched him go, then turned and nearly ran smack into Adam.
He picked up the schedule she’d printed out for him, and studied it. “Going to be a long day,” he said.
He wasn’t kidding.
At lunch Jade locked the front door after Dell and Adam left for their usual cholesterol overload. She looked around at the empty place and tried to rub the matching ache between her breasts.
She couldn’t.
She and Dell had spoken several times since their… what had it been, a fight? Not exactly. There’d been no raised voices, no slammed doors, no pouting or brooding.
But things were off. He hadn’t laughed when Peanut had announced to a room full of waiting patients that she had a “crush on doc.”
He hadn’t teased her when she’d brought him the lab reports to go over. He hadn’t let his eyes warm when he looked at her. Actually, he hadn’t looked at her.
With a sigh, she put in her earphones, cranked her iPod and turned to the accounting.
Her version of relaxing.
Now that she finally had all the accounts entered, it was sheer joy to balance the numbers out every day, and she watched with great satisfaction as reports ran down her screen.
Pink came on, her voice a gorgeous low, husky rockand-roll rasp. Jade loved Pink. Pink was strong. Invincible. “You’re fucking perfect,” Jade sang along with the song, standing up to put more paper in her printer. Fucking perfect…
Dell. Dell was fucking perfect.
She couldn’t help it, then, the song demanded it. She was already standing so her body moved with the music.
