“That I can definitely do.” His magnetic smirk elicited a rush of endorphins, awakening every cell in my body.
I appreciated how he followed my lead and didn’t stop to question if I was sure, since we were out in the open. But I had no reservations, not here, where I knew we were safe in our own little private bubble with no other homes or cottages for miles.
Jaxon slipped his hands under my crewneck sweater and, maddeningly slow, danced his fingers up the sides of my ribs, sending a tingle of anticipation down my spine. When he got as far as he could go, I lifted my arms and held my breath, waiting for his reaction after the fabric cleared my head and fell to the wooden planks beside us.
“Hmm, braless, I like it.” He wasted no time pressing his lips against my collarbone. It wasn’t until his hands slid over my breasts to cup them that he stopped and pulled back. “Did you cut yourself?”
I’d forgotten that the tan-colored bandage blended in against my skin, concealing my surprise.
“Why don’t you remove the bandage and tell me?”
The tip of his finger picked carefully at the corner until he had enough of it to grab. I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and waited with bated breath.
“Holy shit.” His stunned eyes lifted to mine in shock before dropping back down to take in the tattoo again. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any sexier, you went and tattooed my name under your breast.”
“Do you like it?” I wiggled my hips.
“Fuck, yes!” He pulled me flush to his chest and ground the hardness of his cock right where I wanted him. “Do you feel that, Lily-Bee? I’m so damn hard for you. Everything you do makes me want you more.”
“You don’t happen to have those handcuffs you used on me the first night lying around here, do you?”
“Regrettably, no, but point taken. It’s a mistake I ensure won’t happen again.”
“Maybe we can improvise?”
“Oh, baby, you have no idea what you’re about to unleash.”
“Bring it on, Fisher.”
Before I knew it, he picked me up, flung me over his shoulder, and marched across the lawn, into the house, and straight upstairs. Once we were there, he made me gasp and see more stars than I could count, all the while fulfilling fantasies I didn’t even know I had.
Suffice it to say, Jaxon, seeing his name tattooed on my body, brought out another side of him that brought us even closer.
In the end, the tattoo wasn’t just ink embedded in my skin; it was a declaration of love and a promise. My love for him would stay with me for eternity, and that was something no one could ever take from me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lily
“Good morning, Oliver. How did you sleep last night?”
He was one of the last patients I needed to see during my rounds that morning.
“I don’t know how they expect me to get any rest when it’s like Grand Central Station out there.”
“I hear you. Oddly enough, the most restful sleep often happens here during the day; at night, the alarms and machines are loud, but in the daytime, they have a way of fading into the background.” I moved the tray table closer to him and placed two white cups on it. One contained his blood pressure medication, and the other was water.
“I think you might be onto something beautiful. Now, if only you could do something about that dismal display of whatever the hell they call that mush under that cover, I’d call you a miracle worker.”
“Let me guess, cream of wheat with a side of plain toast again?”
“Yep. It’s like pairing two emotionally uninteresting people together; it’s stunting my brain and killing off what cells I have left.”
“Nah, you’re still as sharp-witted as you were when you woke up from surgery.”
“That’s just around you; the nighttime nurse is scary. I feel like I’m being scolded by my mother, and that’s saying something because, God rest her soul, she’s been gone nearly twenty years.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re on day three post-op, and your chart says things are trending in the right direction regarding your bowels. How’s your pain level out of ten today, ten being the highest?”
