The heat of his kiss stayed with her as she exited the water and stepped up on the dock. But the moment the wind touched her wet skin, she shivered uncontrollably. Nick quickly joined her and grabbed the blanket, draping it over her shoulders.
“You need this,” she said, but she couldn’t push it off her. He turned off the fire and lanterns and left the rest of their picnic for them to get another day.
“How about you share it with me, since you did push me in?” he suggested. He didn’t just make her do it, though. He was letting the choice be hers. She should just give the blanket to him, but she didn’t want to let it go.
Not looking him in the eyes, she opened one arm, and he climbed in beside her before slipping his arm around her back and tugging on his end of the blanket with his other hand. They walked slowly back to the house without saying another word.
When he stayed next to her while she moved to her bedroom door, she thought of a million things she wanted to say to him. Had he been drinking the night he’d flown her brother out into a storm? Did he feel regrets? Did he have so much money he thought he could do whatever he wanted? She wanted to ask him flat out if he’d killed her brother.
But she asked nothing. Instead, she dropped the blanket, turned the knob on her bedroom door, and slipped inside. She regretted her decision the rest of the night as she lay in bed alone and aching. She finally did drift off to sleep, but then her dreams were filled with Nick, and the two of them were certainly not acting like children.
When her phone rang first thing in the morning and she saw it was her father calling, she let it go to voice mail. Yes, she knew she would face his wrath for that sin against him, but she didn’t care. Her emotions were too unsettled, and she couldn’t try to figure them out enough to take a call from her father.
If Chloe didn’t pull herself together fast, it might just be her being the one locked up instead of Hunter. As it was, he had a good case against her professional ethics for what she planned on doing. He had a right to his privacy just as he had a right to fair medical treatment.
Chloe wanted to give up on all of this. But she couldn’t exactly do that. So instead, she buried the problems again―just as she’d been doing for the past couple weeks. Maybe someday it would all be buried so deep, there would be no chance of someone coming along and digging it back up.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Nick was absolutely positive that he was going to die. He was sure of it. Even in the ocean with no way of knowing whether he would be rescued he hadn’t feared death like he did at this particular moment. His life was flashing before his eyes, and he only hoped the suffering would stop and it would happen quickly.
Leaning his head against the wall of the shower, he turned the water to cold and began counting. He reached a hundred, then five hundred, then a thousand. His body was turning blue, and only then did the swelling in his aching shaft begin to go down.
He would love to be able to say that Chloe was a tease, but he knew that wasn’t the case. She had made it more than clear she didn’t want a relationship―and he supposed that meant sex was off the table. His body just wasn’t getting that particular message. He wished with all his might that she would change her mind, but the woman was sticking to her guns, and he was living in a constant state of arousal.
The other night he’d even tried to please himself. That hadn’t worked out too well for him. He wanted her hands and mouth on him. He wanted to be slipping deep within her folds. He wanted her wrapped around him. And it seemed nothing else was going to do but exactly that.
Until she decided to give in to the desire surrounding them both, his life was in danger. He wondered if he could explain that to her in a way she would sympathize with. He somehow doubted it, though it seemed perfectly reasonable to him.
Climbing from the shower, he toweled off, his hardness only partially deflated. Putting on a pair of underwear was painful, and the sweats that went on next felt way too constricting. But Nick had been in aroused states before. He would get through it―or maybe not, he thought with a grimace as he stepped into the kitchen and found Chloe with her back to him, her perfume lingering in the air.
Maybe her entire goal was to off him? That seemed to make a lot of sense actually. No normal woman would resist her desires so completely. He was sure of it. Just the sight and smell of her had his body pulsing painfully. He had visions of walking up behind her, ripping off her sexy scrubs, and thrusting deep inside her until she was screaming his name.
Those thoughts weren’t helping his current predicament in the least. He groaned low in his throat, and she must have heard the sound because she spun around and searched his face.
“How are you feeling this evening?” she asked as she sipped on a glass of milk. She had her evening ritual, he had his, but often they shared a drink before they each headed off to bed so it gave them an excuse to talk over the therapy they’d accomplished earlier.
He scowled at her, which she seemed offended by. “Like shit,” he said. He took the cup she held out to him with a bit more force than necessary, but he didn’t feel like apologizing. She sure wasn’t sympathetic to his plight.
“Is it your knee?”
“Think higher,” he snapped.
“Your ribs?” She truly did sound concerned. He should give her a break. He was in too bad a mood to do that.
“Lower,” he grumbled.
Her eyes searched over his body, which made him pulse even harder. He heard her gasp, and he nearly smiled. He was sure nothing was hidden from her view, as hard as he was. He leaned against the counter and sipped his juice and let her take in his condition.