“What? Jack, seriously, what is wrong with you tonight?” Ellison stood and left the room. I followed at a slow pace, confused by my own behavior and having lost my appetite. I found her in the kitchen, loading all of our dishes into the dishwasher.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “Bad day, I guess.”
She sighed. “Yeah. I’m going to head out.”
I felt something akin to panic creeping into my chest. I couldn’t let her walk out the door, because it would mean she’d be going on a date tomorrow morning. I couldn’t let it happen, I just couldn’t. I was stunned at my reaction and didn’t know what to make of it. Before I was able to form a response, Ellison had left the room. I trotted to the entryway to find her grabbing her keys and cell phone from the glass bowl on the little marble table by the coat closet.
I stood there, watching, my arms hanging at my sides, not knowing what to do or say. She glanced at me with a half-smile as she slipped on her flip-flops and headed to the door.
I joined her and put my hand on it to keep it closed. “I’ll see you Sunday for breakfast?” I asked tentatively.
“Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you, he’s taking me to a cabin by a lake for the night. That’s why we want to get on the trail before the heat is unbearable.”
“Your—um,” I croaked as something began to choke me. “Your date is overnight? As in spending the night with him, in the cabin, alone?”
Ellison looked at me curiously. “Yes.”
No. No fucking way in hell was that happening.
The tightness in my chest and throat snapped and a rush of adrenaline, lust, and uncontrollable need rushed through my body as though a dam had broken. My hand cupped the back of her neck, the other grasping her waist, and pulled her flush against my body, my mouth slamming down over hers.
Chapter 2
Ellison
I gasped in surprise as Jack’s tongue slid inside my mouth. It tangled with mine as he devoured me, kissing me the way I’d always assumed he would on the rare occasions I allowed my thoughts to wander in that direction. Jack Halston was a sexy devil. I’d known it from the first moment I’d laid eyes on him, just as every woman did. At six foot two, with a toned body that showed he worked out during his off hours, dark hair that looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, and chocolate brown eyes that always seemed to be smiling, he was impossible to miss. At first, I was happy for him to be my work flirt when our paths crossed on a shared case. We didn’t see each other often enough for it to be awkward, and I enjoyed the little thrill I got from the way we bantered back and forth.
Flirting with Jack offered me a naughty distraction, but I knew nothing would ever come of it. Jack had a rule about not sleeping with anyone from the hospital, a fact long bemoaned by the vast majority of the female staff who would have given just about anything to make him break it. There was no way I’d be the one to make him throw his rulebook out the window. When our friendship deepened a few months ago, the slim chance I ever had of seeing Jack naked became even less likely because we went from being work peers to friends. If a guy like Jack didn’t sleep with his co-workers, then he most definitely didn’t screw any of his female friends. A fact I’d reminded myself of each time I’d woken up from dreams about all the things I’d do to him if I ever had the chance.
I wasn’t about to waste an opportunity like this. Shoving away all thoughts of what might happen to our friendship if this went sideways, I dropped my keys and phone back down and reveled in the feel of his lips over mine.
“Fuck it,” he groaned into my mouth. “I’m done playing the nice guy, trying to ignore how hard you make me because you’re my friend and co-worker. How you’ve made it fucking impossible for me to even look at another woman without comparing her to you.”
Wait? Had his recent dry spell been because of me? Because I could definitely lay the blame for mine at his feet. It was hard to find a guy who measured up to my dreams of Jack. I’d finally talked myself into accepting this date with a guy who’d asked me about a dozen times whenever I bumped into him at the gym. The only reason I’d said yes was because I figured that at some point, I’d have to hear about Jack’s dates with another woman.
“I’m not letting you walk out this door, knowing you’ll be with some douchebag this weekend. He doesn’t get to touch what’s mine,” he growled, making my pussy quiver at the possessiveness in his tone.
“And what exactly do you consider to be yours?” Yeah, that was my raspy voice, taunting him with my question when we both knew what he meant. I couldn’t help myself. He’d started this, and I wanted to make sure he damn well finished it.