No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (8 page)

“No, we don’t. I already gave up yoga this morning to bang your brains out. I need coffee, and I need to get my ass over there pronto. I might be late as it is.”

“
We
,” he growled.
“We
need to get our asses over there pronto, woman. It’s you and me now, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Hey,” he said softly. “What is it?”

Heaving a sigh, I replied, “Nothing.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s just…this past week has been awesome, and I don’t want it to end, you know? I used to like going to work, seeing my patients and my coworkers. But after spending all this time with you, I’m annoyed that I have to return to reality when all I want to do is fuck you
constantly
, and it’s pissing me off.”

His eyes went wide as I told him this, and then he busted out laughing again.

“Hush.” I lightly slapped his chest.

His head dipped, and he captured my lips for another sweet kiss.

“I want to fuck you constantly, too.” His lips tickled against mine. “If I could, I’d spend every wakin’ hour buried deep inside you—”

“Not helping, babe.”

“Makin’ you come and scream out my name—”

“Phil!”

“Yeah, sorta like that, but all sexy with those hot fuckin’ moans you make. I’d be screamin’ your name, too. Don’t worry—”

“Stop it!” I hissed, smacking his chest again, a little bit harder this time.

Grinning wickedly, he informed me, “I got a chub.”

“I mean it! It’s not funny!”

His face morphed into his pissed off features
.

Great, now, I’m even more turned on
.

He said, “Do you want to quit your job and move in with me then?”

Yes!
“No!”

I unraveled myself from around him, but he didn’t let me go.

“You wanna pack a bag of your shit and have it over here?”

Sighing in defeat, I dropped my forehead to his chest. “Yeah, all right. Maybe Friday.”

“Tonight.”

“Friday.”

“Tonight.”

“Friday! I’m working all next week. I want to sleep in my own bed!”

He grunted. “Then, I’ll pack a bag tonight and have my shit over at your place.”

“Damn it, Phil!”

“What?”

“We’ve been together for only two weeks!”

“So?”

“So, isn’t there some sort of grace period where we
get to know each other
before we shack up and shit? I mean, really—”

“I ain’t sleepin’ without you, so get used to it. My place, your place—it don’t matter.”

“Don’t you think we’re moving a bit fast? You don’t get the feeling that maybe we should take a step back and just—”

“No,” he snapped, sounding
seriously
pissed. “Do
you
?”

“Sometimes,” I replied honestly. “But I’ve been known to enjoy alone time too much, so…”

He pulled back slightly and looked into my eyes. “Is that what you want?”

Now, he sounded hurt.

Aw, man!

“No. I want to spend every moment I have with you, which is weird for me, so maybe that’s why I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I’m just used to doing things on my own.”

Cradling my face in his hands, he kissed me once more. “Get used to not being alone. I ain’t ever leavin’ you to yourself again.”

“That’s kind of creepy, babe.”

“I’m
your
creep.”

Even with stopping for some huge coffees and a box of doughnuts I refused to touch, we pulled into the parking lot of The Center with ten minutes to spare. Phil parked the Black Beauty in my designated spot. There was a sign at the head of it that read,
Dr. Kenna MacGregor
. Phil got a kick out of that.

“Sheri and Jason are gonna bring us food around one o’clock,” Phil told me before shoving half a doughnut in his face.

“Jason’s leaving the house?”

“He’s goin’ a little cray-cray, bein’ holed up in there, yeah.”

Cray-cray?
That made me lose it.

Grinning at me, he winked. After a gulp of his coffee, he asked, “What are your coworkers like?”

“Oh, um…Lucy, our receptionist, is a really sweet girl. Well, I say girl, but she’s almost thirty. Very cute. I think she has a thing for Flipper. She nearly shit herself when he walked in that first day. And she went to the concert, which surprised me. She’s really good for the front of the house. The patients adore her. Gavin is fantastic—”

“
Fantastic
? Do I need to give this man a beatdown?”

“He’s not my type. And I’m not his—”

“Definitely needs a beatdown then. I don’t see how you could
not
be someone’s type.”

“That’s so Neanderthal-ly sweet. But, yeah, Gavin is
fantastic
and a really good friend of mine. We went to the same school and graduated together in therapy. When I went on to get my doctorate, he was working his ass off here so that when I was done, we could open the clinic together. He’s a brilliant therapist and certified in acupuncture and manual manipulation, too. He does pretty much everything I do, only without the doctorate.

“Charlotte’s new, and she’s visiting with her pregnant daughter in Seattle. She won’t be back before tonight, so you won’t meet her today. She’s older than the rest of us, in her fifties. She just graduated from the same school Gavin and I went to, and she does a great job. She’s taken a lot of pressure off of us, letting us focus more on specific treatments.”

“Cool,” he grunted around another mouthful of doughnut. “You sure you don’t want one?” He jiggled the box at me.

“Positive,” I replied before sipping on my sugar-free latte.

I spotted Lucy’s little red Toyota pulling into the parking lot.

“Awesome.” I opened the passenger door. “Lucy’s here,” I said over my shoulder and hopped out of the truck.

Phil shoved a whole doughnut in his face and got out on the driver’s side, sucking down more coffee to wash his pastry down.

“Hey, Lucy!” I called out, heading toward her as she exited the Toyota.

She smiled sweetly. “Hi, Dr. MacGre—” She froze, her jaw dropping.

I knew that it was because the enormous Phil fucking Deveraux was coming up behind me.

“Dr. MacGregor?” she squeaked, her eyes growing as large as saucers.

“That’s so cute. She calls you Dr. MacGregor.” Phil chuckled and draped a possessive arm around my shoulders. Extending his right arm out, he tried to shake hands with a near-hyperventilating Lucy.

“Lucy, this is Phil Deveraux—” I started to introduce them.

“Her
boyfriend.
”

“Yes, my
boyfriend.
Phil, this is our receptionist, Lucy Travers.”

Lucy weakly took Phil’s hand, her mouth hanging open in a shocked O. I thought I heard her knees knocking together when her hand made contact with his.

“Your
boyfriend.
Phil Deveraux
is your
boyfriend.
”

“He is,” confirmed Phil in his sexy hot-chocolate voice. “Took him nearly six years, but he wore her down in the end.”

“H-huh?” Poor Lucy looked ready to pass out.

“Just ignore him, Luce. I do. It’s how I can make it through a whole day—”

Phil snorted derisively. “You
wish
you could ignore me, Baby Girl.”

“
You’re
Baby Girl, Dr. MacGregor?” she asked weakly.

Phil gave her a full blast of the Lady Killer. “The one and only. Can I have my hand back now?”

“Give her a minute, babe. She’s a NOLA’s Junkie.”

“Huh. Didn’t have her pegged as one.”

“Yeah, that surprised me, too.”

Lucy was just swinging his hand from side to side, gaping at him. “You’re so…
big
,” she blurted out.

“It’s what I’ve been told,” said Phil.

That seemed to snap her out of her reverie. Blushing, she took her hand back. “I’m sorry. That was extremely rude of me.”

“That was the nicest rude thing anyone’s ever said to me,” he told her with a wink.

Gavin pulled his blue Ford station wagon into the lot just then. An extra bald head was in the passenger seat, which meant Frank had come to help us out. Phil’s arm pulled me in closer to his chest, showing these guys I was
his.

If I don’t watch out, he’s going to start peeing on me to mark his territory.

“Hi, Kenna! Hi, Lucy!” Gavin called as he got out of the car.

Frank grinned and waved at us.

Phil relaxed as the two short, squat bald brothers walked up to us. I guessed he felt much less threatened by their male presence now that he had seen them.

“Hi,” said Gavin to Phil, holding out his hand for a shake. “I’m Gavin, and this is my brother, Frank.”

Phil grasped his hand, and I noticed they were both trying to find out who could crush whose hand first.

“Phil. I’m Kenna’s man.”

Gavin’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Nice to meet you.”

Neither Gavin nor Frank listened to heavy metal, so they had no clue that they were shaking hands with one of metal’s most beloved front men. Phil realized this and relaxed even more.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” I asked, shrugging Phil off to go unlock the clinic.

We headed inside.

The first thing I noticed was the toxic smell of cleaning detergents, and I ordered everyone to open all the windows to air the place out. It smelled antiseptic and harsh.

Rita had had all the furniture returned to the designated rooms, but we needed to get everything back into place and the computer up and running, which was why Frank was here. He was a wizard with computers.

Professional packers had come in and boxed up all my books and knickknacks. I found the boxes waiting for me in front of the massive bookshelf. It was more for show, so I didn’t care what order the books went in or where the other items got placed. I just ripped open the boxes and started shoving them onto the shelves, spine facing out.

Phil zeroed in on my bubble-wrapped framed certifications and diplomas. His large hands delicately plucked off the plastic, and he read every one of them before hanging them up on a nail in the wall behind my desk.

“Wow,” he breathed as he read my doctorate. “You really
are
a doctor.”

Laughing, I said, “Yeah, I think I’ve mentioned that.”

“You’re fuckin’ amazin’, you know that?”

Shrugging, I continued stacking my books.

“You
are,
” he insisted.

I looked up to see his eyes blazing with pride.

“Not really,” I stated, not wanting him to think I was any different from anyone else who had gone through what I had.

“Why do you do that?” he asked softly. “Why do you downplay yourself like that? Don’t you realize just how special you are?”

“I’m not downplaying anything, Phil. Many people are doctors and have busted their asses to be one. I’m not anything special.”

“Yes, you are!”

“You’re only saying that because you’re biased, babe. I’ve worked hard for what I have.”

He hung up the doctorate and stalked his way over to me, crouching down so that we were eye-level.

“You’re a fuckin’ genius. You’re the most brilliant person I’ve ever known. You’re so smart that I can’t help but wonder why you’re even attracted to my dumb ass.”

Blushing furiously from his compliments, I replied hotly, “I’m not a
genius
—”

“You are,” he whispered before taking my face in his hands and kissing me. “You’re fuckin’ incredible.”

Why it bothered me to hear him say these things, I couldn’t guess. To me,
he
was the genius—mad, sure, but genius all the same. What he did captured my heart and mind and inspired me to want to do great things with my life. Like my brother, Phil’s ability to just pull the language of the soul straight out of his head was what I always wished
I
could do. I
adored
Phil for it. I worshiped him on a level that very few could possibly understand. Besides being physically perfect in my opinion, his voice and the way he used
his
brain were beyond sexy.

“Well, I’m glad that you think so,” I told him with a smile. “It’s how I feel about you.”

“You think
I’m
a genius?”

“Of course I do. You have the power to make my soul sing.”

He sucked in a sharp breath, and his pupils swallowed up the maple sugar irises in his eyes. Holding my face in his hands, his mouth hungrily took mine in a toe-curling hot kiss. When he broke it, my lips felt bereft and were left throbbing. Dropping his Third Eye to mine, he infused me with the strongest pulse of love and adoration.

“My other half,” he whispered.

“My whole life,” I whispered back.

Just then, his phone started ringing, and with an irritated noise scratching the back of his throat, he dropped to his knees and dug it out of his pocket.

“Yeah?” he answered. “Hey, Sher-Bear.”

“Psst!” Gavin was at my door, and he beckoned me to come over.

Getting up, I followed him to his office.

“I just need a little help with my bench,” he told me.

I wondered just how much of that exchange he’d witnessed. By the glowing smirk on his face, my guess was that he had seen the whole damn thing.

Gavin’s bench was an electric slab of steel and leather, and it was extremely heavy. Foot pedals controlled the height of the bed I was thinking it wouldn’t be a bad thing for me to have one myself, but they were expensive, and his was a gift from Rita when we’d opened the clinic. I supposed she hadn’t wanted him to feel he wasn’t appreciated since she had paid for my tuition.