Page 46 of The Love We Deny
He nods, clenching his jaw and, looking at the wall to his left, staring at the art Addie recommended I buy for the room.
I take that as my cue to start.
He’s silent for about two seconds before he sucks in a breath through his teeth. “Okay?” I ask, concentrating on threading the suture through his skin.
“That—” He stops with another pained sound. “That’s—shit!”
“Stay still.”
His free hand gripping the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white. “I thought you said you’d done this before!”
“I have. This is what it feels like.”
“You don’t have to be so smug about it,” he says through clenched teeth.
“I’m not being smug.”
“Sure you’re not,” he mutters, “some doctor you are.”
And despite the fact that I resent the feelings I have for him, a fondness blooms in my chest that I let sit there, smiling down at his hand as I finish the final stitch.
I go through the motions of wrapping his hand, ignoring the feeling of his skin beneath my hands, even though, now that the adrenaline of the previous moment is gone, all that’s left is him and his skin that I’ve been dying to touch.Stay professional,I repeat in my head, hoping it will sink in.
The stitches are neat and will heal well as long as he keeps the wound clean. I tell him that multiple times before I drop his hand and stand up to clean the mess I’ve left on the counter.
Behind me, I hear him stand up from the table, but I keep my back to him, gathering the trash and putting things away.
“Bet you enjoyed that, didn’t you?” he says into the silence, his voice gone deeper than usual.
I stop what I’m doing, staring a hole into the counter. “What?”
“Getting to hold my hand. That’s the sort of thing you think about, right?”
Against all instinct, I turn my head to look at him out of the corner of my eye, where he’s standing in the middle of the room, wearing that look on his face that always kickstarts my heart. “We’re finished, Will. Go home.”
He takes a step toward me instead. “Bet you’ve got little hearts drawn all over something. Dr. Nolan Davis.”
“Stop.”
Another step. Closer and closer, coupled with a mean laugh. “Wow. You’re not even gonna deny it, are you? You got it bad, man.”
“I’m absolutely denying it. That’s absurd,” I say, turning around to face him.
That’s a mistake.
Because he’s right there.
I have nowhere to go, the counter at my back and Will in front of me, his eyes moving over my face. Like he’s considering me, studying me, and I don’t know what he finds there, but suddenly he’s reaching for my glasses, plucking them from my face and setting them to the side.
“W-what are you doing?”
The only warning that he’s going to do anything is the brief moment before, when his eyes drop to my mouth.
And then he’s kissing me.
It’s nothing like the park, I think as his mouth connects to mine with a certainty that makes my brain go offline. It’s warm and wet and Will’s lips, so soft—
Somehow, I get my hands up against his chest and push until he moves back a step, taking his perfect lips with him. “Wait,” I say, breathing harder than I’d like. “I-I thought you said—”
