Page 67 of A Matter of Time

“You.”

“How come?”

The furrowed brows, the way his eyes looked… I felt my stomach twist into a knot.

“I don’t know, because mostly I just wanna throttle you.”

I smiled up at him. “What’d my boss say?”

“He said you need to call him by ten.”

“Okay.”

“What’s the deal with him? He doesn’t treat you like a boss would.”

“No,” I agreed. “I get treated like we’re family.”

He stared at me, his gaze never wavering. It made me uneasy.

“Do I look that bad?”

He shook his head.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. You look like somebody roughed you up.”

I smiled lazily, my eyes narrowing as I looked up at him. “You wanna rough me up?”

The muscle in his jaw jerked tight and he swallowed hard, his eyes on my mouth. “Yeah.”

My heart was in my throat. His eyes were so dark, so intense, just locked on mine. “Come kiss me, then.”

Slowly, gently, like he was concentrating very hard, he put the mug down. He moved over to the bed and took a seat beside me, his hands on my face as he leaned in for the kiss. I lifted my chin to meet him and felt the tips of his fingers slide over my jaw.

“Jory,” he breathed against my mouth, his lips hovering over mine.

I tried so hard not to make a sound, but the whimper came up out of me, and I instantly felt the change as a surge of desire rolled through him. Tenderness was replaced with the thrust of his tongue between my parted lips. He ground his mouth down over mine, kissing me hard and deep. I arched up against him, and his hands were hot on my skin.

But he broke the kiss and got up, walking backward away from me like he was Superman and I was a giant hunk of kryptonite.

“No, come back,” I pleaded.

“You have a concussion,” he reminded me, taking a deep breath then exhaling slowly, adjusting himself with a grimace. I clearly had a very carnal effect on the detective, which I absolutely loved. “You need to eat and take some ibuprofen and call your boss and sleep some more. That’s all you’re doing.”

“No.”

“Yes,” he insisted, glaring at me. “Don’t argue. Go pee, and I’m gonna make you a bagel.”

“I’d rather have you all over me.”

He pointed toward his bathroom. “I went to your place and got you some clothes and all the crap for your hair and face and whatever else. You’ve got a lot of lube and more boxes of condoms than anyone I know.”

I cackled evilly.

He rolled his eyes and left the room.

“You don’t want to fuck me?” I yelled after him, collapsed back down onto the bed as my head nearly split in two. The pain was no joke.