Page 22 of The Doctor

“You want a coffee?” I tried, struggling to tame the storm she caused in my body. But even though she nodded, she didn’t let me go. “You want me to make it for you?”

Again, she nodded. And again, she didn’t move.

“Is something wrong?”

This time, my little hurricane lifted her gaze to mine, but not before she sniffed and shrugged her shoulder until she’d wiped it across her cheek. “Why would anything be wrong?”

Something was most definitely wrong with me. The minute I saw her wet lashes, the tiny streak of moisture across the skin on her bare shoulder, I wanted to grill her until she told me who the fuck hurt her so I could murder them in their sleep.

When I lifted my hand to her chin, she tried to look away. When I forced her chin up, her eyes darted to the side. There was my Clara. The flighty little thing that always had her mind in the clouds and couldn’t be bothered to focus on you when you tried to talk to her about something she didn’t like.

“Tell me what’s going on, Clara.”

She shrugged, dropping her arms and trying to step back. I held on to her, tightening my grip on her chin. Those pretty eyes widened, darting between me and every-fucking-thing around me without once settling. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just nervous about you teaching me to drive today.”

It felt like she slammed a fist to my gut.

I dropped my hand from her face, turning toward the counter to pick up my drink and get the hell away from her. “I didn’t say we’d do it today.”

“Oh.” She sounded so dejected, and when I peeked over my shoulder at her, I found her lost in her head once more, her fingernail digging into her skin under her collarbone. I grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from her chest so she didn’t make herself bleed. “When…” She lowered her attention to the empty kitchen counter, ignoring her hand in my grip. “When do you think…? Will it be soon?”

Was she shaking? Her voice sure was. And the sound of it made me want to take her into my arms, hold her against my chest until she was the strong, feisty little whirlwind I’d always known.

With my hand stretching in her direction, even though I was sure I’d regret everything that came next, the girl took the chance offered to her and rushed back into my arms.

A quiet sigh left her lips, and it almost sounded like a cry. That was enough to make me cave.

“We’ll go today.”

She tightened her grip around me. “You mean it?”

I wrapped her up tight and put my chin on the top of her head. “I mean it. But you have to promise you’ll listen to me and do what I say. No messing around. No goofing off.”

Her “I promise” came without a fight, and it made my stomach tie itself in a knot and my scalp prickle as something in the back of my head screamed too easy.

It was too easy. I didn’t believe her promise for one second.

“Why don’t I make you a coffee while you go get dressed? Then you can have some breakfast before we go.”

Clara lifted her head, a decadent smile on her face. She lifted on her toes, fitting her face under my chin until her lips touched the throbbing beat of my pulse in my throat. I froze, barely catching the moan that tried to tear free from my chest, unable to do a thing about my dick rising in my pants.

My God, this woman.

This girl.

This kid.

She was just a kid. That’s it. She was off limits. Unavailable to me. And my reaction to this twenty-year-old was so unreasonable it was almost enough to soften my hard-on.

Almost.

But not quite.

“Thank you, Zee,” she whispered, her lips brushing against my flesh and causing my erection to throb with the kind of need I’d never felt before.

“Don’t mention it,” I rasped out, taking her by the shoulders and pushing her away. “Now go get dressed. I’ll get your coffee, then I‘m going to hop in the shower.”

I turned toward the espresso machine, hiding what she’d done to me against the counter until she was out of sight. After rushing through making her coffee, I dashed up to my third-floor bedroom, jumping into the shower with the water as cold as it could get.