Sanctuary(66)

"I want to know what's wrong with my sister."

"she's suffering from acute brotheritis at the moment. While extremely irritating, it's rarely fatal."

"I want a tucking straight answer," he said between his teeth, and she nodded approvingly.

"I like you even better when you're human." she turned to the coffeepot, pleased to see he'd made himself useful and had brewed fresh. "All right, straight answers. Would you like to sit down?"

His stomach jittered painfully. "How bad is it?"

"Not nearly as bad as you apparently think. You take it black, don't you? Like a real man." Her breath caught when he closed a hand hard over her arm.

"I'm not in the mood for this."

"Okay, so my witty repartee isn't going to relax you. It'll take a couple of weeks to get full test results back, but I can give you my educated opinion from the exam. Jo's a little run-down. she's edgy and she's stressed and she's annoyed with herself for being edgy and stressed. What she needs is exactly what you've shown me you can give her. Support-even when she kicks against it."

The first trickle of relief loosened the pressure in his chest. "That's it? That's all?"

she turned away to finish pouring the coffee. "There's doctorpanent confidentiality. Jo's entitled to her privacy and to my discretion.

"Jo's my sister."

"Yes, and on a personal level I'm happy to see you take that relationship to heart. I wasn't sure that you did. Here." she pressed the cup into his hand. "she came home because she needed to be home. she needed her family. So be there. That's all I can tell you. Anything else has to come from her."

He paced away, sipping coffee without realizing it. All right, he thought, she wasn't suffering from any of the mysterious and deadly diseases he'd conjured up while he'd been waiting. she'd just run her self out of energy. It wasn't cancer or a brain tumor.

"All right." This time he said it aloud. "I can probably browbeat her into eating regularly and threaten Lexy away from picking fights with her."

"You're very sweet," Kirby murmured.

"No, I'm not." He set the cup down abruptly and stepped back. His worry had faded enough to allow him to see Kirby clearly. The way those mermaid eyes were smiling at him. The way she stood there, all cool and composed, all pink and gold. "I'm just looking out for myself I want my routine back, and I won't get it until she's steadied out."

Eyes warm, Kirby walked toward him. "Liar. Fraud. Softie."

"back off

"Not yet." she reached up to catch his face in her hands. He'd stirred more than her lust this time, and she couldn't resist it. "You booked the physical for her, and you haven't paid the bill." she rose to her toes. "My services don't come cheap." And brushed her lips to his.

His hands were at her waist as the taste of her flooded into him. "I keep telling you to back off." He tilted his head, deepened the kiss. "Why don't you listen?"

Her breath was already starting to back up, clog her lungs. A glonous sensation. "I'm stubborn. Persistent. Right."

"You're aggressive." His teeth nipped into her bottom lip, tugged. "I don't like aggressive women."

"Mmm. Yes, you do."

"No, I don't." He pushed her back against the counter until his body was pressed hard and hot to hers, until his mouth could fix firmly and devour. "But I want you. Happy now?"

she tipped her head back, moaning when his mouth raced down her throat. "Give me five minutes to cancel my afternoon appointments and we'll both be ecstatic. Brian, put your hands on me, for God's sake."

"It's not going to be easy." He nipped at her ear where a little emerald stud winked at the lobe, worked his way restlessly back to her mouth to plunder until her nails dug into his shoulders. He saw himself taking her there, where they stood, just dragging down his fly, dragging down her neat trousers and plunging in until this desperate need, this vicious frustration, was behind him.

But he didn't touch her, didn't take her. Instead, he used the ache churning inside him to control tlicm both. He wrapped his hand around her throat, drew lier head back until their eyes met. Hers were the green of restless seas, urging him to dive in.

"It's going to be my way. You're going to have to accept that."

Nerves shuddered through desire. "Listen-"

"No, we're done with that. done with the games too. You could've backed off, but you didn't. Now it's going to be my way. When I come back, we're going to finish this."

Her breath was coming fast, her blood pumping hot. For a moment she hated him for being able to study her with eyes so cool and controlled. "Do you think that scares me?"