Emma didn't stay long, insisting that Portland wasn't very far, and she'd be back for a longer visit when I was feeling better. When she and her incredibly shady companion had left, Knoxput Pumpkin in her enclosure so we didn't end up with lamb droppings on the furniture, and Mini refused to move from my side, licking my hand around the bandages over my IV site.
Knox pulled me into his lap, and I curled up against him, sighing in contentment. He kissed my unbruised temple and asked, "Are you hungry?"
"Not really," I murmured drowsily.
He made a discontent sound low in his chest. "Let me rephrase that. What do you want to eat, and do you want juice or water?"
I snorted. "Doctors are so bossy."
"I'm assertive. There's a difference."
"What difference?" I murmured, already sinking into contended sleepiness.
"Ten years of medical school, that's what," he rumbled back. "And speaking of that, do you have any pain? The drugs should be out of your system by now, so if you need pain medication, I can give you some."
"Mm," I replied, closing my eyes and going liquid in his arms. "My feelings will be hurt if you move and make me eat something."
"That was dirty," he muttered, but kissed the top of my head and then rested his cheek on the section he knew wasn't injured.
Truth be told, I ached all over. My whole body felt sore, and my head was pounding from where he'd tied my cut closed. But not even that could tear me away from the sublime fact that Knox Rook wastouching me. Not only that, but he liked it. He loved it. It was completely surreal.
"What did you mean 'a weekend away?'" I asked with a yawn. "Where do you want to go?"
"Now that you'remine, I honestly can't stop thinking about all the possibilities," Knox said, his voice scratchy and falling into a complacent timbre. "Places I want to travel. Restaurants I wantto try with you. Once my mind started to think of all the things I want to do with you, I couldn't stop."
"Hm, with me or to me?" I drawled suggestively.
Knox gave me a comforting squeeze. "Mostly to you."
"That's what I thought," I grinned. My eyes were closing of their own accord, and although I didn't want to sleep again, it seemed I wasn't fully in control of my body after my ordeal. "Let me take a nap, and then you can tell me all the things you're going to do to me."
"Hm," he hummed. He shifted me, gently maneuvering my body until I lay on the couch, and he supported his weight over me. He didn't touch me the way he might have before the attack last night. He didn't grab my wrists or hike my pelvis up to meet his. But he hovered his mouth along the sensitive side of my neck and kissed me softly. "I'll do it now. You ready?"
I couldn't help but smile. "Oh, yes. Give it to me, Zaddy."
"First, I'm going to tie you up," he whispered against my throat. I shivered happily. Letting his voice drop, he continued, "And then I'm going to make you eat a sandwich."
A laugh popped out of my mouth, unbidden. "A sandwich?"
"Mm," he rumbled, like he was spewing the dirtiest sex talk. He scraped his lips up to the underside of my chin. "And then I'm going to give you a nice," he kissed my chin, "big," he kissed higher, closer to my lips, "cup of water." He kissed my lips, and I laughed against it.
"This is not sexy," I garbled out, my mouth muffled by his.
"What do you mean? It's what I want to do to you," he grinned. Lifting away from me, he dropped a kiss on my nose before gazing down at me tenderly. "I will give you anything and everything you could ever want, Gemma Daise. You call the shots. I'm but a puppet on your strings."
I cinched one eyelid into a slit. "Anything?"
"Anything," he replied seriously.
I bracketed his face with my hands, stroking his cheeks with my thumbs. "Then, I have a very serious request you are not allowed to refuse." He waited patiently, his brows rising a fraction. I gave him a puckish half-smile. "Touch me,everywhere, Doc."
Chapter thirty-four
Epilogue
Gemma
My butt was going numb, and my cheeks felt pink, but I resisted going inside from the blustery November day. Pumpkin, much bigger than she had any right to be, nudged my arm for loves, and I obliged, scrubbing her neck with my nails to dig down into her fluffy wool coat. The woven wire fence around her paddock had stayed secure so far, and despite a few wily attempts from Pumpkin to escape, it was doing a fine job of containing the sheep, her best friend Mini when she came to visit, and… Alice.
