“You don’t have to be anything right now,” he said quietly. “Just breathe.”
I hated that it worked. I hated that one sentence from him and my shoulders dropped an inch. My next breath came out shaky but slower, and I pressed my face harder into his chest like I could disappear into it.
“You are not weak,” he said. Not soft. Certain. Like he was reading it off a chart. “I want that on record.”
“Bullshit,” I sobbed out.
“Never,” he muttered as he scooped me up against his body.
He urged me to wrap my legs around him.
I didn’t give him any fuss as my face fell to his shoulder. “My career is gonna be over, and that’s if I can even survive the court-martialing. What if they throw me in a holding cell? What if it’s months before?—”
“Sssshhhh,” he hushed softly as his hand rubbed up and down my back. “It’s okay. Nothing like that is going to happen to you. You have my word, Miss Elizabeth.”
His hands gripped my ass, holding me against him as if I weighed nothing. And for a while, he just allowed me to cry. My throat grew raw from the ragged breathing. My nose was stuffed because of all the puffiness from the tears. My body felt achier than it did in days, and that spun my mind down a million different tracks. Was I getting worse? Were there more injuries I didn’t know about? Was I not taking it easy enough? Did I do more damage?
Doc’s lips at my ear pulled me out of my anxious-ridden mind. “Both Cap and King were important figures in the Navy, Miss Elizabeth. I know they have connections. I’ve witnessed Cap’s firsthand. And when all of this is said and done, when I know without a shadow of a doubt that you are safe, I am going to have them reach out to their contacts. We’ll have all the proof we need by that point, and if we do this right, we’ll also have the DOJ on our side. No one will prosecute you for anything.”
My crying calmed down with his words, but my breathing still hiccupped. “P-p—promise?”
“Oh, Miss Elizabeth,” he said as hiked me a bit closer against his body, “I more than promise. When this is all done, we will all be at your back, defending you to whoever needs to hear it. We’llhave pictures of your injuries. We’ll have our contact at the DOJ filling out paperwork on your behalf. It’ll be as easy to get out of as it was to get into, I assure you.”
“But—but—what if?—”
“No harm will come to you, Elizabeth,” he said, his voice dangerously low. “You have my word as a man, and as a physician.”
I sniffled softly and picked up my head, gazing up into his beautiful eyes. “You sure?”
His forehead seated itself against mine, and it made me close my eyes. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life, Miss Elizabeth. You were taken. You went on a mission to find your best friend during your leave time after a deployment, on your own downtime, and you were taken. That is not the same as being AWOL, and you know it. Cap, King,andI will make sure that nothing happens to you. Or your career.”
His words were so relieving and so genuine and so protective that I couldn’t hold myself back. I girded my thighs against him as much as I could, pressing myself up from the palms of his hands, and I cupped the back of his head.
I crashed my lips to his.
A growl rattled my teeth before we moved like lightning. I gasped against his lips as his tongue licked into my mouth, invading me to the back of my throat as he pinned me to the shower wall. The tiles were cool against my water-heated skin, and I felt him unraveling my arms from his neck.
He pinned them over my head.
“Tell me no,” Doc snarled as his forehead pressed against mine once more. “Tell me to stop.”
“Why?” I whispered, unable to help myself.
His shoulders seemed to almost slump. “I can’t control myself around you. And you’re hurt. And you’re bruised. And I’m your doctor. And?—”
My eyebrows rose with every word. Seemed like I wasn’t the only one with a lot on my mind. “Doc.”
He lifted his gaze. “Yes, Miss Elizabeth.”
I smiled. “Shut up and kiss me.”
Another growl slipped from those lips of his before he crashed them back to mine. His hips undulated, grinding against my naked folds as he sucked on my lower lip. I whimpered as I bucked against him. I felt his cock already rising for the occasion, slipping between us and pulsing, like it wanted to let us know that it was ready to go whenever we wanted.
The low, rough moan that fell from his throat when I rubbed myself against it sent a bolt of lightning straight to the space in between my thighs.
“I won’t be able to hold back this time,” he snarled as his teeth grazed down my neck.
Goosebumps skittered across my skin. “I never told you to do it the first time.”
