“Kathryn?”
Despite the tenderness of the man’s voice, her name snapped through the air like an electrical charge. Kathryn and Carter both startled and turned around.
“Jake.” Kathryn breathed out his name, not ready to see him.
Not ready to see his dark eyes look down at her as he asked what was wrong. Not ready to admit to either him or herself that she wasn’t ready for this part of his life. She couldn’t deal with sharing him, not having all of him to herself. She needed the most authentic part of Jake Russo to be hers and hers alone, and she needed to be his.
“How did you—”
But he only glanced at her for a second. Eye to eye with Carter, he asked, “What can we do?”
Julian raced up beside him. “You’ve got a lot incoming, Doc. I’m guessing we can be of service.”
Carter glanced between the two of them and quickly sized them up. “Are you medically trained and vetted with this hospital?”
Julian nodded. “I am. I’m an RN.”
“EMT,” Jake said. “I won’t be able to assist you in surgery, but I can triage out here.”
Carter’s skilled hands landed on both Jake and Julian’s shoulders. “Consider yourselves deputized. Kathryn, grab them some badges so everyone knows they’re legit.”
“Right away.” Hurrying, she raced to the manager, explaining the situation and requesting lanyards with visiting medical team credentials.
In a sharp turn back, she’d landed herself front and center before a wall of Jake, his solid body blocking hers. Between the hard lines of his face and the heat of his towering body, she couldn’t move.
“Kathryn—”
His single determined step erased the distance between them, but still, she held her walls high. As high as she could. But her armor was so flimsy and paper thin, if he touched her, she’d crumple.
“We need to talk.” Deliberate, his tone deepened to a point that halted her defiant steps, holding her in place with nothing more than the heat of his body and the strength of his will against her weak resolve. Because this was the man she was bound to . . . a man who had all her heart. Even if part of it was shredded and barely functioning right now.
“This isn’t the time.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. It wasn’t a command, but her body stilled as if it were. “But we’re about to take on a wave of who knows what. A few broken bones or an onslaught of battered bodies. People who might be doing all they can just to hang on. To survive. And all I can think of is you.”
His grip slipped around her arm. Not tightly, but it was there. Jake owned her. This man had a claim on her heart and always managed to capture it, no matter how many shattered pieces he ended up holding.
I’ve said it before and I can say it again. It would be so easy. Red. Just push it from my lips, step back, and walk away.
Without warning, his lips crashed onto hers.
Kathryn let the smoldering heat of his mouth warm hers because she wanted it. Wanted to forget everything but his hand sliding around to the small of her back. Move her palms up the broad shoulders she could never wrap her arms around without tiptoeing, and steal this moment. Forget whatever tension was between them and savor every long stroke of his tongue, every nibble along her mouth, and every breath of one good long kiss.
It was as if nothing had happened. This was Jake, and he always had a way of making her feel so damn good. The world was about to collapse around them, and this was the only truth.
And it was true. Jake loved her. And she only loved him.
Pushing away would be easy. This was hard, knowing they only had seconds before life happened in all the worst ways. But she could hang on to this. To him. For a few more precious seconds of saying everything and nothing at all.
When his lips moved away, he took her hand and slid something on her finger. “You’re the only woman in my life, kitten.”
He found it. My engagement ring. “But how—”
Sirens blared, starting in the distance but rushing in closer, approaching fast.
Julian cut in between them, looping lanyards over each of their heads and letting them slip around their necks. “I hope you two sorted out what you needed to, ’cause we’ve got incoming.”
Jake’s long fingers drifted along the back of her hand. She latched on, weaving her slender fingers through his and squeezing hard. The steadfast look in his eyes was one she returned.
This was what they’d both been trained for. Patients first.
His hand curled around the back of her neck as he pulled her close to exchange one last heartfelt kiss.