by Julie Rowe
“Oh?”
“When it comes to you, even the difficult stuff feels good. Knowing you give a—” He caught himself, smiled, and finished with: “Knowing you love me. No conditions. No exceptions. No hesitations.” He leaned down and kissed her, long and slow and deep. “It’s a kind of freedom I never knew existed.” He rubbed his hand over his chest. “All week, I’ve awoken in the middle of the night in a panic, thinking you might have a fever again. The relief when I realize it was just a nightmare… I’m so fucking grateful for you.”
She stared into his liquid gaze, seeing herself reflected there, knowing she wouldn’t have to wonder or question his feelings or intentions or anything else ever again. “I love you.”
He kissed her, then whispered in her ear, “If I’m really careful and take my time, can I fuck you up against the wall?”
She laughed. “Yes.”
His answering laugh was a rumble against her skin, sending a shiver through her.
“On second thought.” His voice—slow, deep—was so hot it lit her blood on fire. “A bed is better for what I have in mind.”
“Haven’t I heard this line before?” she asked as he guided her out of the shower.
He wrapped her in a towel and began drying her off with careful concentration. “Possibly. I owe you a lifetime of orgasms, remember? It’s time I started paying up.”
“Hard to argue with that logic,” she said as she stroked his damp chest with one shaking hand.
He cupped that hand in his and brought her palm up, kissing the sensitive center. “You okay?”
She was pretty sure her smile was just as shaky as the rest of her. “Just excited.” Her breathing had gotten erratic, too. “And impatient.” Pressing into him, she hummed in pleasure at the heat of his body. “And maybe a little scared.”
His eyebrows lowered. “Scared?”
“I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to…do.”
His grin came back and then some. “Not a damn thing.” He leaned down to rub his nose against hers. “I’m going to do all the doing.” He kissed her, a long, slow promise of pleasure. “Let me take care of you today.”
“Yes.” It came out breathy, and she didn’t care.
He kissed her again. “And tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
Another kiss. “And forever.”
Tears wet her face, and she gave him the only answer she had inside her. “Yes.”
He opened his mouth to speak again, but she slapped her hand over his lips.
“Stop talking and make love to me.”
He kissed her, walking her backward out of the bathroom and toward the bed. When they reached it, he scooped her up and laid her down.
Uncertainty crept into his expression as he stared at her torso. “Maybe we should wait.”
She glanced down. A small amount of watery blood was smeared around her wound. “Bandage me up, and it’ll be fine.” When he didn’t move, she added, “John, this is normal.”
Instead of leaving to get bandages, he leaned down and kissed the tender skin next to the wound. Then another and another until he’d kissed his way all around it.
His gaze met hers. “I’ll be right back.”
It was only after he left the bed she realized she’d been holding her breath and let it out all at once. She’d wasted so much time on her hurt and anger; she wasn’t going to waste another second.
He returned with a fresh dressing, removed the tape covering the adhesive all around the borders of the bandage, and gently positioned it over her wound. He placed his palm over the wound. “It guts me every time I see this.”
She stroked one finger over the mostly healed bullet wound on the side of his chest. “I have never felt as powerless as when you were hurt. Then you got hurt again. And again.” Her throat closed up.
He captured her free hand and kissed the ring on her finger.
Her gaze caught on it. “I want to get married.”
“Good.” He sounded so satisfied.
“Today.”
He blinked. “I’m not going to run away.”
“I know. I just don’t want to wait.” She swallowed. “For anything.”
A grin kicked up one corner of his mouth. “Well, there’s no way I can say no to that, because my lady gets whatever she wants. Which do you want first?” he asked, laughter in his tone. “Orgasms or a marriage license?”
She bit her lip. “It’s hard to choose, but…I think orgasms.”
“Yes, ma’am.” This time, his kiss was a sensual promise, one she intended to collect.
He kissed her, long and slow, until she was breathing hard and halfway to senseless. Then his lips made their way down her body. Her breasts were licked, sucked, and teased until she begged for him to take her. Only when she demanded a damned orgasm right now did he slide down between her legs to lick and suck at her clit. Her first orgasm rolled over her like a massive wave, and she floated on its currents and eddies for a long while.
John let her down from the high gradually, then built it back up using his fingers to tease and torment her. Only when she was incoherent with need did he enter her. It felt so fucking good she climaxed on the second stroke.
He fucked her through the orgasm until she opened her eyes and met his white-hot gaze. He sped up and brought her to climax again. He came then, and they lay in each other’s arms for a long time before either of them moved.
John rolled out of bed and snatched his pants off the floor near the bathroom door. He pulled his cell phone out of a pocket and punched in a call.
“Hello, this is John Dozer. Can you tell me the fastest way I can get a marriage license?”
Wednesday, April 23, 11:00 a.m.
It ended up taking three days to obtain the license. The outbreak had disrupted the smooth running of the government, but now that everyone was getting vaccinated again, more and more departments were back to their regularly scheduled work.
DS and Rawley stood as witnesses, DS wearing a smug expression, as if their union was all his doing.
Rawley seemed slightly confused, like he couldn’t figure out why he was there. He looked even more confused when Dozer handed him his written resignation.
“You’re quitting?” Rawley’s face was pale. The man had been working nonstop since the outbreak started and probably hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in weeks.
“Yup. Looks like your job as liaison is permanent now.”
Rawley stared at the sealed envelope in his hand. “But…”
“Don’t worry,” Dozer said. “I’m going to be working with Carmen and her people on the Outbreak Task Force, so you’ll see me a lot.”
“That’s not what I worry about.”
“Oh?” DS said, joining the conversation. “You scared of something, Homeland?”
“Everything about this job,” he said with no hesitation. “I had no idea of the scope of the work the CDC does. No idea how important it is. I thought you were just a bunch of lab techs and nurses who never see the outside of a lab or clinic.”
“And now?” Dozer asked.
“Now, I think I’m horribly underqualified to be liaison.”
“You were underqualified,” DS said, slapping him on the back. “Now, you just convinced me you’ll do.”
Carmen was watching him from a few feet away, a smile on her face. When he met her gaze, she raised an eyebrow.
“Gentlemen,” Dozer said, barely glancing at the two men. “I’ll see you in a week.”
“Honeymoon?” DS asked.
“Something like that.” He took her hand and led her out of the courthouse and into a car.
“Whose vehicle is this?” she asked.
“A friend of Henry’s loaned it to me.” He drove them to a small boutique hotel.
There still wasn’t enough traffic for it to feel like normal, but there were people out and about and a few cars on the road.
“It feels like we’ve been through a war,” she said softly.
“We have. One kind of war. It’s going to take a while for things to return to normal.”
“But we haven’t won the war. In fact, we still don’t know who’s attacking us.”
“But we’re getting closer to them all the time.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Don’t lose hope. We’re going to get them.”
Carmen let out a breath, rested her head on the seat behind her, and nodded. “Yes, we will.”
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Acknowledgments
The whole team at Entangled Amara. You’re awesome!
About the Author
Julie Rowe’s first career as a medical lab technologist in Canada took her to the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta, where she still resides. She loves to include medical details in her romance novels, but admits she’ll never be able to write about all her medical experiences because “Fiction has to be believable.”
Julie writes romantic suspense and romantic military thrillers. Her most recent titles include Viable Threat, the first book in the Outbreak Task Force series, and Viral Justice, book three of the Biological Response Team series. You can find her at www.julieroweauthor.com, on Twitter @julieroweauthor, or on her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/JulieRoweAuthor.
Don’t miss the Outbreak Task Force series…
Viable Threat
Smoke and Mirrors
Sleight of Hand
Also by Julie Rowe…
Molly Gets Her Man
Hollywood Scandal
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