Just as he reached the doorway, his phone rang. Davis propped her up against the wall and he watched as she tried to regain her breath. Her bottom lip glistened and trembled. He captured her mouth once more, closing the space between them. She moved up the wall slightly as his hands slipped under her shirt. The bandages were gone. As his hand smoothed over one of the bruises she stiffened. She tried to get down and he moved closer, blocking her up against the wall. He put a series of shivery kisses along her jaw line before he brushed his nose against hers.
Davis ran his tongue over his lips as if to savor her as he supported her back and protected her ribs with one hand while he picked up the receiver from the landline perched on a table outside his bedroom door.
“Speak.”
“I put you on the case and all hell breaks loose,” Chudleigh said.
“What are you talking about?” Davis let his eyes drift over her before he rested his face against hers.
“Three fires. They’re calling in coroners from another state. Five engine companies one battalion Where is she?”
“Safe.” He turned his face into her neck, and he listened to her try to calm her breathing. Her pulse thrummed against his lips and he flicked his tongue against her fevered flesh, making her jump.
“Her people have been trying to get her. That agent Hilditch said something about heading down to your club. Something about ‘center mass.’”
“Okay.”
Davis hung up and looked at Willow. He slowly let her down so that she slid down the front of his body, being mindful of her ribs. His chest kept her pinned to the wall. Her bare midsection pressed against his. Her heart thumped wildly against his stomach. Every fiber of his being raged at the prospect of having her so close and losing her yet again.
Reality was setting in fast and he could feel the tension rising in her body as fearful images built in her mind. Willow would never let him that close again. She was already pushing him into a place where he was a colleague and, if he were lucky, a friend, but she’d never allow herself to be alone with him like that again. He could almost see her taking Hilditch up on her offer or, worse, she would put people between them. Anything other than the prospect of being in his arms—which was where she needed to be.
After he made slow sweet love to her, he planned to take the rest of the evening catering to her, jealously guarding her side as she slept against him with his sweat drying on her breasts and his seed blossoming inside her. It would be unprotected, but never unplanned. He wanted her pregnant—she was the only one he ever wanted to share himself with like that and, if she let him, if she forgave him, he would spend the rest of his life making her glad she did.
Instead, he felt the regret chilling her skin as she looked down and away from him. He reached in his front pocket and pulled out her sim card and the battery and folded them into her hand.
“Agent Hilditch is trying to contact you. There’s been another fire... three, actually.”
Willow bolted for her room and the loss of her made him grunt as he leaned into the wall.