Maya Banks - Forged in Steele

“Then don’t go,” she whispered.

He pressed a kiss to her neck and then rolled to the side, slipping free from her body. When he got up to discard the condom, she reached down, testing for any sign of wetness or evidence that the condom had broken. But she felt nothing more than her own moisture.

Maybe the other was a fluke. Maybe it didn’t break at all and maybe she wasn’t pregnant. She wouldn’t know for sure until those results came back. And if he planned on staying a while, it was likely he’d still be here when she got the results. Then, if she was indeed pregnant, she’d tell him face to face. It certainly wasn’t news she wanted to deliver over the phone or by having a message passed along to him by Sam, Garrett or Donovan.

Satisfied that if he was hanging around he’d be there when she got the results back, she shoved the matter from her mind and focused instead on the gorgeous male specimen crawling back into her bed with a fresh condom in his hand.

Yeah, she liked a man who came prepared, and she was going to enjoy using every damn one of those condoms.

MAREN woke from a dreamy fog that surrounded her. She was utterly sated, her body deliciously sore. Parts of her still throbbed and she stretched experimentally only to collide with a hard male form.

She turned her head, instantly seeing a muscled chest. She was lying flat on her back and Steele was on his side facing her, his leg and arm thrown possessively over her body. She let out a sigh and his eyes opened. He regarded her lazily, making no effort to loosen his hold on her.

“Good morning,” he murmured.

“What time is it?” she whispered.

“Oh six hundred.”

She groaned.

His eyebrow went up. “Everything okay?”

She grimaced. “No. I have to get up and get showered. My patients start showing up at the clinic at around seven. Sometimes earlier. It’s first come, first served, and so they line up early and wait for me to open.”

“Want some help?”

She blinked, not knowing what to say. She wasn’t entirely certain what he’d planned to do while she was working or if he’d even planned to stay. They hadn’t discussed it other than his saying he was taking some downtime. That could mean anything. Maybe she was just a stop on his way to somewhere else.

“Uh sure, if you want to come hang out at the clinic, I’d love the company.”

“You jump in the shower first. I’ll wash up after you’re done. Do we have time for breakfast? I’ll see what I can rustle up while you shower.”

Okay, this was not Steele. Aliens had descended and taken over his body. Or maybe he’d been cloned. But this was not the Steele she knew at all. He sounded positively domestic.

“What’s that look for?” he asked.

“You have to give me some time to process this, Steele. I mean, the first night was unexpected enough, and you made no bones about the fact that it was a onetime deal, you wouldn’t be calling and you were working me out of your system. Next thing I know, you’re back, we have hot monkey sex all night long and then you want to come hang out with me at the clinic after cooking me breakfast. Are you seeing why I’m a little befuddled here?”

The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Hot monkey sex? Is that what you call it?”

She rolled her eyes. “Trust you to ignore everything in my statement except the sex part.”

“It’s the most important point,” he said smugly.

She stared balefully at him, waiting for him to expound.

He gave an exaggerated sigh. “If you want an explanation, I can’t give you one because I have no idea what the hell is going on either. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. It was bad enough before we actually had sex, but after? I haven’t thought of anything else but you, and it’s fucking with my focus. So now I’m here, and I’m liking being here a hell of a lot, and I’d like to hang out with you at the clinic because I came to see you, and if you’re there and I’m here, I won’t see you. And if I help out, maybe you’ll get done quicker and we can go back to having that hot monkey sex you’re talking about.”

“Well, all righty then. I guess that about covers it all. You go make breakfast. I’ll hit the shower and then we’ll go to work.”

He leaned over and kissed her thoroughly. “It’s a plan then.”

HAVING Steele at the clinic made for an interesting day. Not to mention he was terrific with her patients. She’d spent much of the morning gawking at just how good he was with the children. And the women as well. At first, they were intimidated by him, but in no time at all, they warmed up to his gruff personality and the children all clamored for his attention.

It was hard not to picture him with his own child. A child she could very well be pregnant with. She caught herself drifting off several times and then jerking herself back to the patient she was treating.

Seeing Steele in a nonprofessional capacity when he wasn’t Steele the team leader, but rather Steele the ordinary, not-so-superhuman badass was . . . eye-opening. Not that he was lacking in any way, but she was accustomed to his stern exterior and seeing him locked behind his warrior armor. The Steele she’d seen not once but twice now was challenging every preconceived notion she’d ever formed about him.

He was approachable. Suddenly very human and not the machine other members of KGI only half-jokingly called him.

She was drawn to the badass Steele, but the Steele she had been treated to the last two times they’d been together? Utterly irresistible.

She was in deep, deep trouble. Apart from any pregnancy concerns, she was fast falling under his spell, and that was the dumbest thing she could do. He wasn’t relationship material. Hell, he’d been brutally honest about not liking the fact that she was under his skin. He didn’t want her there and he didn’t want to be sexually attracted to her. After he was satisfied, he’d be gone again, and she’d likely never see him again unless his team needed her services.

Which made her an even bigger idiot for agreeing to do this with him. Spend time, have sex, have a cozy, almost romantic breakfast for two. Him in her kitchen, shirtless, wearing only a pair of jeans she’d never seen him in, and day-um he looked mouthwateringly delicious in those jeans. They beat the hell out of the fatigues he always wore, although he made camo look pretty damn good.

If she had any self-preservation, she’d stay the hell away from him and not let him come and go on a whim when he got the urge to exorcise her from his system. So she was an idiot. Because she had no intention of denying him anything, even knowing this road was going to lead to heartbreak.

Steele poked his head into the exam room where she was finishing up bandaging an animal bite on a child’s leg.

“I just put the last patient in the second exam room. The waiting area is clear. Want me to close down while you work the last one?”

She uttered a wistful sigh. How nice it was to work in tandem as they had today. Things had gone so much smoother with his help in organizing the patients, finding out histories and doing triage for her. His company had been a great comfort to her today. She liked it. Liked him being here in her space, her world. She was seeing a side of him she hadn’t known existed because she’d never seen him outside the realm of KGI and his missions.

“Yeah, check outside to make sure no one else is coming or has arrived. If it’s clear, lock up and we’ll let the last patient out when I’m done.”

He started to withdraw, but she called out to him. He paused and turned around, waiting for her to speak.

“Thanks,” she said softly. “Today was nice.”

He smiled warmly at her. She felt it all the way to her toes and it gave her a ridiculous, giddy thrill. She felt like a sixteen-year-old with a monster crush on the high school jock.

“You’ve done all the work. You’re a good doctor, Maren. They trust you. You’re great with them. I’ve always known you were good, but I’ve only seen you with my team. You work damn hard. I don’t know how you do this every day, at all hours of the day and night.”

She glowed under his praise, her cheeks burning with instant heat.

He gave her a two-finger salute and then left the room. She turned back to the child and sent his mother a look of apology. But the mom just smiled and winked.

“He is a good-looking man, yes?”

Maren smiled. “Yes, he certainly is that.”

She patted the child’s arm and then ruffled his dark hair. “Okay, you’re all set,” she said in Spanish. “Keep the bandages on and let your mother apply ointment and rewrap it. We don’t want it to get infected, and whatever you do, don’t pick at it.”

Then to the mother she said, “Keep watch for signs of infection. If he starts running a fever or the wound gets red or starts looking infected, come back and I can give him an injection of antibiotics. Keep it clean and dry.”

The mother nodded and then thanked Maren. She smiled at both and then led them from the exam room back to the waiting area, where Steele was just locking up.

When he saw them, he opened the door to let the mom and child out. He ruffled the child’s hair and spoke to him in Spanish. The child beamed back and then followed his mother outside.

Steele closed the door and turned back to Maren. “I’ll wait out here until you finish and then let the last patient out. How long do you normally stay after your last patient? Do you have to do paperwork or catch up on other stuff? You’ve been working nonstop today seeing patients.”