That tiny flame of hope is back, threatening to climb higher. “I am?”
“Obviously,” she snorts. “You’re going to be groveling for a very long time, Dr. Taylor.”
I can’t help it. My lips twitch. “A very long time?”
“Years, maybe,” she says in that same grumbling tone. “I’m talking about soup on demand. Chain orgasms. More of that terrible poetry. I haven’t decided.”
“I can manage that,” I say, feeling a blinding, happy feeling swelling inside. “I can grovel for the rest of my life.”
This makes her suck in a breath, her expression softening a fraction as she bites her lip. “I’m going to be a pain,” she tells me.
“It’s fine,” I assure her, taking a small, careful step to close the distance between us. “I’m an expert at being insufferable.”
“And I’m going to get scared sometimes,” she barrels on.
“I can be there to make sure it doesn’t last,” I promise, closing the gap another inch.
Her fists slide from her hips to let her arms hang at her sides, her eyes fixed on mine. “And you can’t ever leave.”
“I never wanted to in the first place,” I say, my fingers reaching to curl gently around her arms. “I never want to leave you ever again.”
“And if you ever—”
I can’t wait another second, my mouth crashing against hers as I pull her into me. She melts into it like she’s been waiting for it as desperately as I have, her fingers gripping my shirt as she tries to pull me closer. My lips move against hers roughly as my tongue dips inside her mouth, my hands sliding over her arms and her shoulders and up her neck until my fingers tangle in her hair.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe between kisses. “I’m so sorry.”
“Groveling,” she gasps. “Lots of groveling.”
I smile against her mouth as my hands slide down her spine. “I don’t have any soup, but . . . I can probably start on that list.”
“Well, if you think you have t—ah.”
I pull her up into my arms as my mouth covers hers again, practically sprinting down the opposite hall toward my bedroom, afraid that if I waste another second she might disappear. That I’ll wake up and this will all be a dream. Her hands are under my shirt, tearing at the fabric so hard in her attempt to get it off me that she almost rips it.
I drop her on the bed and finish the task for her, tossing my shirt somewhere on the floor before pushing up hers to press kisses to her ribs. She smells so good, so fucking sweet—all of it so much more intoxicating at this moment after thinking that I would never experience it again. I shove at her bra roughly so I can mouth at the soft underside of her breast, nipping gently with my teeth as she squirms in my hands.
I’m pulling her scrub top off her arms, tossing it over my shoulder as I bring my attention back to the swell of her breasts spilling from the top of her bra. The taste of her skin is as honeyed as her scent, and I think if given the chance I could spend hours tasting every inch of her, if she let me. I only pull away when she reaches between us to flick at a little plastic piece between her breasts, grinning at what is surely an awestruck expression on my face when the cups fall aside to bare everything to me.
“Front clasp,” she chuckles.
I duck my head to twirl her nipple with my tongue, murmuring into her skin, “Fucking genius.”
“Noah,” she gasps when I suck her into my mouth.
Her fingers curl over my shoulders, her nails biting into my skin, and I relish the slight sting, a reminder that she’s here. That she’s really here.
I start to move down her body, mouthing at her skin the entire way, until my teeth scrape at the swell of her stomach while my fingers hook into the elastic of her scrub bottoms. I roll them down her thighs with her underwear not far behind, immediately curling my hand around her so I can kiss at the softness of her thighs, which are smooth and warm against my tongue.
“Noah,” Mackenzie says impatiently. “It’s been almost two weeks, don’t you want to just—”
She yelps when I nip at her thigh. “It has been almost two weeks. And you did say that chain orgasms were part of the groveling process.”
She shivers when I drag my tongue over her skin, bringing it closer to the heated core of her, which is already wet for me. I’m rewarded with an airy sound of pleasure when I lick a hot stripe between her legs.
“Oh.”