He let go of my hand and stepped closer. The heat from his body pulled at something deep in my chest. His hand worked its way under my hair so that his skin was touching my face. His thumb rubbed back and forth across my cheek. Those blue eyes practically midnight with desire.
“Please.” I could feel his breath on my face, and I had to force my eyes not to close.
“I’m not your therapist.” And thank god. If I were I’d have to report myself for the thoughts going through my mind right now. I glanced at his lips. They looked perfect. I wanted them on my skin, on my mouth. I let my tongue run over my lips to moisten them in anticipation, and Stewart groaned.
He leaned his face closer to me, and for a second I thought he was going to kiss me right here in public for everyone to see. Instead, he let his cheek rub against mine as he whispered in my ear.
“I don’t want or need to talk about therapy right now.”
“What do you want to talk about?” My throat bobbled up and down.
“I want to talk about us.”
“There is no us.” I put my hand on his chest. I was sure I meant to push him away, but I could feel his heart beating as fast as mine. Was he hard too? I thought about pressing my body completely against his so I could find out. It had been way too long since I felt a man inside me, and, lord help me, I wanted it to be Stewart. The desire inside me was on the verge of becoming a need.
“Are you sure about that?”
“About what?” My eyes started to close as I felt the brush of what could be his lips on my neck.
“Us.” There it was again. “One meal. What’s the harm in that?”
Just my entire life exploding around me.
“One meal and then we walk away?” I bargained.
“One meal and then we see.” He pulled back. The brush of those lips caused my body to shutter.
“We see what?”
“If there is an us.”
Chapter 9
Stewart
I walked with Rita to an Italian restaurant not too far from where I had found her. When I first saw her there I thought I was hallucinating. I’d been dreaming about her for days. It was the only thing that made sense.
There was every chance this could be a huge mistake, but at this point I didn’t care. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. That had to mean something. It just had to.
I held the door for her when we got there and pulled out her seat when we reached our table instead of letting the server do it. Was I being a possessive asshole? Absolutely. She wasn’t mine, but damn if it didn’t feel like she should be. Like there was something besides wounded pride and a touch of obsession that was pulling me toward her.
I sat across from her and just took her in. She was really beautiful. She had her bottom lip between her teeth, and I wanted to kick myself for not kissing her when I’d been so close to doing it when I had her in my arms and her face pressed to mine.
Her eyes darted around the room, looking everywhere but at me. Was she worried someone would see us? During one of the nights when I couldn’t sleep, I’d searched to see if there was a rule against therapist dating a former patient. I wanted to know if it was the same as every other doctor. There was some nuisance there, but like she said, I was barely her patient. I had a hard time seeing her getting in trouble.
“We’re safe.” I started to reach over and touch her hand again, but I didn’t. I still wanted to know who the guy was in the hospital. He might not be her husband or boyfriend, but that didn’t mean she was available.
Did I want her to be available?Her eyes came back to mine.Without a doubt.
“Excuse me?” She asked.
“No one is going to notice us here.” Fuck it. I placed my hand on hers. “Even if they did, it’s unlikely it would be someone from the base. Even less likely they would know our history.”
“You don’t know that.” She pulled her hand away and picked up the menu.
I followed her lead and grabbed mine. “What looks good?” It was way too easy to pretend we were on a date.
“I’ve never been here before.”
