“Uh-huh.” KT brushed her fingers down Pia’s neck. “I’m not sure how it’s possible, but you’re turning me on again.”

Pia chuckled contentedly and sketched a line down the center of KT’s abdomen with a fingernail. “From this?”

“From everything. Anything.” KT’s legs twitched, “Jesus. Yes. Stop that.”

“I think that’s a mixed message.”

“Tell me something,” KT gasped, grabbing for Pia’s wrist just before Pia’s fingers closed around her clitoris. “How is it possible that you’re so good at this, and seem to like it so much, and you’ve never done it before?”

“That’s two questions.” Pia cupped her hand between KT’s thighs but just rested there without teasing her. “It’s not as if I’ve been living in a nunnery, you know.”

KT laughed.

“And there has been more than one woman who’s made me pretty hot, so I know what I like.”

“I don’t want to hear about them,” KT growled.

“My point is,” Pia said with exaggerated patience, “that it wasn’t from lack of interest or some archaic innocence that I didn’t sleep with someone before now.” She raised up on an elbow and kissed KT. “I just couldn’t see myself with anyone for longer than a few weeks, and it didn’t seem worth it. Too many complications.”

KT grew very still, and Pia felt it.

“KT, you don’t owe me anything.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means that we slept together and it was great and”

“Bullshit.”

Pia blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I said,” KT replied in clipped tones, “bullshit.” She placed her hand over the one between her thighs when she felt Pia start to withdraw, and her expression softened. “Don’t talk to me as if last night didn’t matter. It meant everything to me.”

“Oh.” Pia’s lips parted and her eyes grew large. “I…you…” She shrugged helplessly, her throat too tight for words.

“I told you last night that I love you. I mean it. I’m crazy about you. Totally, certifiably nuts.”

Pia smiled shakily. “Is that good?”

“It’s good for me,” KT replied seriously. “You’ll have to be the one to decide if it’s good for you.”

“I already know it’s good for me.”

“Well, we know one part of you it’s good for.” KT’s tone was light but her eyes were serious.

“If you so much as hint that you think I’m in it only for the sex,” Pia said threateningly, “I will be not only furious but insulted. And you, even you, couldn’t possibly be that arrogant.” KT lifted an eyebrow.

Despite herself, Pia laughed. “All right, Doctor O’Bannon, perhaps you could. And I admit there was a time when I was so attracted to you that I did intend to sleep with you just for the sex,” She leaned down and slowly bit KT’s lower lip, rugging at it gently until KT groaned. “But between the time I realized I couldn’t look at you without getting hot and last night, I fell in love with you.”

“I like to hear you say that,” KT murmured as she pressed down on Pia’s hand, guiding Pia’s fingers through the wetness that had gathered again while they were talking and inside. She sighed. “Say it again.”

Pia stroked her tongue over KT’s lips as she buried herself inside her. She waited until she knew that KT felt her everywhere body and soul before she spoke.

“I love you.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Looks like they’re having a party,” KT remarked as Pia pulled in behind a line of cars double-parked in Tory and Reese’s driveway.

“I’d say we arrived just in time for visiting hours.” Pia turned off the ignition and leaned across the seat to kiss KT briefly. “That’s to hold me until I get you alone again.”

KT edged closer and ran her right hand up and down Pia’s thigh. “When we’re done here, maybe we can have dinner out someplace and then go back to bed.”

“Maybe we can skip dinner.”

Laughing, KT opened the car door and stepped out. She looked across the top of the car at Pia, glad for the distance between them. It seemed that when they were anywhere within touching distance, she felt compelled to put her hand on her. It was a disconcerting and wholly enjoyable sensation. “There’s always takeout.”

“Now there’s an idea. Let’s go see Bri.” Pia walked around the side of the car and joined KT, taking her hand as they walked up the stone path to the rear deck. “I know this sounds silly, but I’ll miss you.”

“No,” KT said quietly, closing her fingers tightly around Pia’s. “It doesn’t sound silly at all. It sounds wonderful.”

Tory answered the knock, her expression registering no surprise at finding KT and Pia waiting on the deck together. So together they appeared not to notice that they were holding hands. KT holding hands? She tried not to stare. “Hi.”

“How is she?” KT asked.

“She’s doing great. Temp is normal. She’s tired, probably more from stress than blood loss.” Tory stepped aside so the two could enter. Across the living room in the kitchen alcove, Reese and Allie were cooking. Nelson sat at the breakfast bar, a cup of coffee cradled in his hands. Kate and Jean relaxed on the sofa with Reggie between them on a blanket.

“Full house,” KT remarked as she glanced around.

“Bri is everyone’s sweetheart.”

“Did you check the wound yet?” KT realized that she and Pia were still holding hands and, after giving Pia’s fingers one more squeeze, let go.

“No. I thought I’d wait for you to change the dressing the first time. I knew you’d be by eventually.”

Tory caught Pia’s grin out of the corner of her eye and smiled. “Come on, let’s go see the patient.”

“I’ll wait out here,” Pia said. “I’m sure Bri has seen enough people for one day.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” KT said as she and Tory turned away.

“Tell her I said hi,” Pia called after them, while nodding hello to Kate and Jean on her way to the kitchen. She took a seat next to Nelson and rested her hand on his arm. “How are you doing?”

“Not bad,” he said, his voice gravelly from lack of sleep but his expression relaxed. “She looks good. A little beat up, but good.”

“That’s terrific.”

“Want a cup of coffee?” Allie asked Pia as she refilled Nelson’s.

“That would be great. Thanks.” Pia waved at Reese, who nodded back as she dropped a pound of pasta into a huge pot of boiling water.

“Tory said that O’Bannon is some kind of hotshot surgeon over from Boston,” Allie commented as she passed a mug to Pia.

“I suppose you could say that,” Pia replied carefully.

Allie waited to speak again as Nelson took his coffee and left to join Kate and Jean in the living room. Then she leaned across the breakfast bar, her voice pitched low. “I heard about her hand. Is that going to ruin her career?”

“Hopefully not.” Pia regarded Allie thoughtfully, trying to figure out what about the young officer was ringing bells in her subconscious. She supposed the questions could just be idle curiosity, but there was a note of concern in Allie’s voice that belied simple inquisitiveness. As if her concern for KT was more personal.

Allie glanced down the hall toward Bri’s room. “Tory said it was really good that she was here last night. I’m glad she’s going to be okay, because an injury like that it can really mess you up. That would be a shame. She’s…cool.”

There it is again that undercurrent of concern and sympathy. And then Pia finally made the connection, remembering the woman she’d only seen shadowed in moonlight, but who, in retrospect, had looked very much like Allie. “Did you by any chance walk her home a few weeks ago? When she was a bit…under the weather?”

“As in…sick?” Uncertain, Allie hesitated.

“You probably thought she’d had a few too many, but she was actually ill, not drunk.” Pia’s voice held an edge. She knew that Allie hadn’t intentionally abandoned KT in such a dangerous condition, but she would never forget KT’s suffering.

“I didn’t know that,” Allie said in surprise. “Jeez. I never would have left her alone if I’d realized.”

“Well,” Pia relented, her tone softening, “she’s fine now. And you may have saved her life by helping her get home. So… thanks.”

Now Allie regarded Pia intently. “Ah.”

Pia laughed. “Ah?”

“You and the surgeon. Cool.”

“Me and the surgeon,” Pia repeated contemplatively. “Yes. Very cool.”

“Hi,” Bri said uncertainly as she watched KT approach with Tory just behind her.

“You won’t remember me,” KT said easily. “I’m the surgeon who helped Tory take care of your neck last night.” She held out her hand. “KT O’Bannon. Good to see you awake, Officer Parker.”

“Bri.” Bri’s eyes flicked to KT’s injured left hand as she took her right in a firm handshake. “Thanks a lot.”

KT followed her gaze. “Wrong end of a knife.”

Bri swallowed and met her eyes. “Tough one.”

“Yeah. But it’s mending. These things do.”

“Yeah,” Bri smiled weakly. “Look, thanks for not making me go to the hospital.”

KT smiled. “You can thank Tory for all of that. Like I said, I was just helping out.” She gestured to the square of white gauze taped over the laceration in Bri’s neck. “I’d like to check your incision.”

“Okay.” Bri glanced at Caroline, who still sat beside her on the bed. “You don’t have to stay for this, babe.”

Caroline carefully climbed off the bed and stood where she would have an unimpeded view of Bri’s neck while KT worked. She put her hand on Bri’s hair and stroked softly. “I’m staying.”

“This shouldn’t hurt much,” KT remarked as she carefully detached the tape. “Looks excellent.”

“Good,” Bri sighed. “So now what?”

“Usually at this point, we leave the incision uncovered. The bandage really isn’t doing any good and can sometimes be irritating. It’s up to you.”

Bri inched around until she could locate Caroline. “Carre?”