Page 65 of Fighting For You

I gave her more. Her head fell back against the wall. One hand gripped my shoulder and the other pressed flat against the plaster behind her, bracing herself. I watched her face — her lips parting, her eyes closing, her brow drawn tight.

Her breathing came faster. She was close. Her whole body tensed against mine. I pressed my forehead to hers and stayed with her.

She came with her hand tight on my shoulder and my name caught somewhere in her throat. I held her through it, my hand still moving, slower now, until she exhaled and went soft against me.

She opened her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest was heaving, and she looked at me like she wanted to ruin me.

"Don't move," she said.

She unbuckled my belt. I pulled her shorts down the rest of the way and she kicked them off. Her hands pushed my jeans low enough, and then she lifted one leg and wrapped it around my hip.

I gripped the back of her thigh and held her there. My other hand stayed on the wall.

"You good?" I said.

She pulled me in by the back of my neck. "Yeah."

I pressed into her, slow, and felt her breath hitch against my jaw. She tightened her leg around me and I held her steady, pinned between me and the wall.

We found a rhythm. Her fingers dug into the back of my neck. My hand slid from the wall to her hip, pulling her closer with every movement. She made a sound low in her throat that I felt in my chest.

I dropped my mouth to her ear. "Nora."

She tightened around me and I pressed deeper. Her back arched off the wall. I held her there, right at the edge, until she broke, and when she did, I followed, my face buried in her neck and her fingers gripping my hair so hard it hurt.

We stayed against the wall, breathing hard, her leg still hooked around me. I kept my hand on her thigh because I didn't trust my legs yet.

She laughed, quiet, into my shoulder.

"What?" I said.

"We should play poker more often."

I lifted her chin and kissed her, slow, with her back still against the wall and her laugh still warm on my lips.

CHAPTER 16

The Sullivans

NORA

It took me a while to figure out that Knox was different around other people than he was with me.

Around the guys, he was more restrained. Stoic, quiet, a little closed off. He said what needed to be said and kept the rest to himself. With me, he was more open. He told me his birthday when I asked. He showed me a photograph of his brother that he kept inside his helmet liner and told me he'd never shown it to anyone else.

I wasn't sure yet whether that was a good thing or a terrifying one.

"Avery. Bay nine."

I looked up. Harlan was at the workstation with a chart in his hand. "Bay nine's imaging came back. No fracture. Splint the wrist, give her the discharge instructions, and send her home."

"Got it."

He moved on to the next bay. I pulled up the chart and started documenting.

When I looked up from the screen, Liz and Jen were at the nurses' station across the floor. Both of them were looking at me. Liz turned away first. Jen followed a second later.

I went back to my chart.