Author: Jill Shalvis

“More,” she demanded.

“Wait for it.”

“I’m growing very tired of those three words,” she said.

He drove her home, then walked her in, slowly stripping her out of her beautiful new dress and bra and panties, groaning at the sight of her in just her heels.

“So help me, if you tell me to wait for it one more time,” she warned, hands on her bare hips.

“Christ, you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he said. He gave her a little push, and she fell to her bed. “I know how tired you are, so feel free to just lay there and relax.”

“I’m not tired,” she said. “I took a very nice nap at the orchestra.”

With a soft laugh, he crawled up her body, taking little nips out of her as he went. “I’m offering to do all the work here.”

“I’m more of an equal opportunity type of woman.”

He smiled against her mouth. “Is that right? Well, however you want to be is fine with me. But you should know, I’m ready for the best part now.”

“Me too. What is it?” she asked eagerly.

He gently bit her lower lip and tugged, then let it go, soothing the ache with his tongue, making every single nerve ending on her body stand up and beg for the same treatment. “You. You’re the best part.”

Her heart caught. “Me?”

“Definitely you,” he breathed, and then set about proving it.

Chapter 19

I want it all. And I want it smothered in

whipped cream and chocolate!

The next afternoon, Mallory was in the ER doing her damnedest not to dwell on the fact that Ty was probably leaving town at any moment. She kept busy and was checking in a patient that Sheriff Thompson had dragged in after breaking up a fight when she took a call from Camilla.

“I’m at the HSC, just closing after the teen advocacy meeting,” the young LVN said. “And we have a problem.”

Mallory raced over there, and Camilla showed her the medicine lock-up. “I think there’s four boxes of Oxycontin missing.”

Mallory’s heart sank. “What?”

“A month’s supply.”

Mallory stared at the cabinet in complete and utter shock. “What?”

“Yeah. I called Jane,” Camilla said. “I didn’t want it to come out later and have anyone think it happened on my watch. I never got into the lock-up today at all.”

Mallory nodded. That meant it had happened yesterday, when she’d been in charge. She’d gone into the cabinet several times that she could remember off the top of her head. There’d been the birth control samples she’d given out to Deena and the smoker’s patches she’d given Ryan. The vitamins for Mrs. Burland. Mallory recalled that one because Ty had been there. And she flashed back to him admitting he’d gotten too attached to his pain meds.

Cold turkey, he’d said with a harsh laugh. More like hot hell.

A tight feeling spread through her chest. Whoever had taken those samples had known what they were taking. There were only two reasons to take Oxycontin. To sell, or to use.

To use, she decided, remembering Ty’s words. It was an act of desperation to steal them, and addicts were desperate.

Karen had been desperate, and Mallory had failed her. Badly.

Who else was she failing?

She went back to the ER heartsick. She was in the middle of teaching some brand new firefighter paramedics how to start IVs when she was summoned to Bill’s office. She headed that way, expecting to get her hair blown back.

She didn’t expect to face several board members, including Jane and her mother.

“Tell us how this could have happened,” Bill said, tone stern.

Mallory drew a deep breath. “We received samples early yesterday for the weekend health clinic. I stocked the cabinet myself and locked it.”

“Exactly how much is missing?”

He already knew this. He knew everything. He just wanted to hear her say it. “Four boxes,” she told him. “Each was a week’s supply.”

“So a month. You’ve lost a month’s supply of Oxycontin.”

Mallory nodded. She was pissed, afraid, frustrated. She’d gone over the inventory a hundred times in her head, hoping she’d just miscalculated.

But she hadn’t.

The meds were missing. Someone had stolen them from beneath her own nose. An anguished, distraught, frantic act, by someone she most likely knew by name.

“We’d like the list of everyone who came through the HSC yesterday,” Bill said.

This was what she’d been dreading. She didn’t know what she wished for the most, that Ty hadn’t shown up at all, or that someone else she knew and cared about had. “Bill, we’re supposed to be anonymous.”

“And you were supposed to make sure something like this never happened. The list, Mallory. I want it by tomorrow morning.”

“I can fix this,” she said. “Let me—”

“The only way you can fix this is by trusting me to do my job,” Bill told her. “And that job is the bottom line. I’m in charge of the bottom line. Do you understand?”

“Of course. But—”

“No buts, Mallory. Don’t make this come down to your job being on the line as well as the HSC.”

Mallory’s heart lurched, and she ground her back teeth so hard she was surprised they didn’t dissolve.

“And I’m sure this goes without saying,” Bill said, “but until we solve this, the HSC stays closed.”

A stab to the gut. “Understood.” Somehow she managed to get out of there and through the rest of her shift. All she wanted was to be alone, but her mother caught up with her in the parking lot. “What aren’t you telling us, Mallory?”

Mallory was good at hiding her devastation. She’d had lots of practice. “What do you mean?”

“Honey, it’s me. The woman who spent thirty-six hours in labor with you. I know when you’re hiding something.”

“Mom, I have to go.”

Ella looked deep into her eyes and shook her head. “Oh, no. Oh, Mallory.” She cupped Mallory’s jaw. “Who are you trying to save this time?”

“Mom, please. Just go back to work.”

“In a minute.” Ella cupped Mallory’s face and kissed each cheek and then her forehead. “You can’t save them all. You know that, right?”

“Yes.” Mallory closed her eyes. “I don’t know what happened yesterday, but whoever it was, it was my fault. Someone I know is in trouble. And it’s like Karen all over again.” The sob reached up and choked her, shutting off her words, and she slapped a hand over her mouth to keep it in.

Her mother’s eyes filled. “Oh, honey. Honey, no. What happened to Karen wasn’t your fault.”

Mallory closed her eyes. “She came to me that night.”

Ella gasped. “What?”

“Karen. She came into my bedroom. She said she needed me.” Mallory swallowed hard. “But I’d been…I’d been needing her and she hadn’t been there for me. Not once. So I lashed out at her. I said terrible things to her. And you know what she did? She gave me her necklace. She told me she loved me. She pretty much said good-bye, Mom, and I missed it.”

“Mallory, you listen to me,” her mother said fiercely, giving her a little shake. “You were sixteen.”

“She felt like she was alone, like she had no other options. But she wasn’t alone. There were lots of options.” Mallory let out a breath. “I failed her. I have to live with that. And now I’m just trying to make sure I don’t fail anyone else. I need to make sure no one else falls through the cracks.”

“But at what cost?” her mother asked softly. “You’re the one who said it, Mallory. There are just some things that people have to do for themselves. They have to find their own will, their own happy. Their own path.”

“Yes, and this is mine.”

Ella sighed and hugged her. “Oh, honey. Are you sure? Because this one’s going to cost you big. It’s going to cost you your job and your reputation.”

“It already has. And yes, I’m sure. I have to do this, Mom. I have to figure this out and fix it.”

Ella nodded her reluctant understanding, and Mallory got into her car and drove straight to Ty’s house. His house, not his home. Because this was just a stop on his life’s path, a destination, not the finish line.

She’d admired that about him.

Now it scared her.

Lots of things scared her. Not too long ago, she’d asked him what he was frightened of, and he’d said he was afraid of not living.

They weren’t so different after all, and God, she needed verification of that fact right now.

He didn’t answer her knock. The place was quiet. Empty. She put a hand to her chest, knowing damn well that last night had been a good-bye. For all she knew, he was already gone. For a minute, she panicked. After all, she had asked him not to tell her when he left. A very stupid, rash decision on her part. But when she peeked into the garage window and saw the Shelby, she sagged in relief.

Her relief was short-lived, though, because she had no idea where he might go on a night like this. None. And that didn’t sit so well.

She was falling in love with a guy that she was afraid she didn’t know at all.

Talk about taking a walk on the dark side…

Frustrated and annoyed, she went home. She didn’t bother with her usual routine. Screw the flowers. Screw everything, even the cat. She simply strode through her place, intending to get into bed and pull the covers over her head and pretend the day hadn’t happened.

Denial. She was thy Queen.

She’d dropped her purse in the living room. Kicked off her shoes in the hallway. She walked into her bedroom struggling with the buttons on her sweater. Giving up, she yanked the thing over her head and got her hair tangled in the buttons. “Dammit!” She was standing there arms up, face covered by the sweater, when two strong arms enveloped her.