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Josh knew he needed to get up, but lying here with Grace wrapped around hi it for hiht and pretty ht to the after This wasn’t supposed to keep happening, and yet it did And each tiot deeper

At least for him

He had no idea what that er to find out if things had changed between theht about nohen things tended to go to shit

"Hey," Graceback and forth fro to be my question to you"

She lifted her head and looked into his eyes "Nice deflection, Dr Scott"

He blew out a breath and lay back, staring up at the ceiling He felt unsure, and that was an extremely new and uncomfortable sensation

"Are you…feeling claustrophobic?" she asked "Maybe conte?"

He shook his head at her polite tone "Not all men are dicks like your exes, Grace"

"Touché And right back at you"

He tilted his head down and aze "I haven’t dated anyone with a dick"

"You knohat Iup on an elbow to lean over hiht have called this ‘just fun’ but that doesn’t orgeous when riled up "So that wasn’t some sort of pity fuck?"

She pulled back to stare at hi her head to his chest

"Just what a hed at in bed"

"I don’t do pity fucks," she said, still grinning, pissing him off a little "And I especially don’t do pity fks with doctors Doctors don’t need pity fucks"

Some of his annoyance drained away "What do doctors need?"

She cli care of the rest of his annoyance "I’ll show you," she said

It was 3:00 aain, and his blanket--a warm, sated, boneless Grace-- hand down her back

She let out a sexy little purr and fell back into a deep sleep He le hi

As heout the scrubs he’d carelessly discarded earlier, his gaze kept wandering back to the bed To the woman in it

Dead to the world

When he was dressed, he bent over her and brushed a kiss over her ht," he whispered

She let out a barely there snore thatthe door behind him He entered his house and moved down the hall Toby’s door was open but he wasn’t there; he was still at his friend Conner’s Anna’s door was also open, and he found his sister sitting in her chair at her bedrooht

"Hey," he said, startled to see her She did her best to avoid hi to have to fix in all his new spare tiht?" he asked carefully So Not that she’d tell him

"Hard to have an adventure on wheels"

His chest ached, and he drew a slow, painful breath "What adventure would you like to have?"

She sighed, then wheeled to face hi to make my life work for me?"

"No"

She stared at hi a pathetic burden"

"Anna, you are smart, attitude-ridden, and scary as hell You’re a lot of other things, too, but you are not, nor have you ever been, a pathetic burden"

She shrugged

"What if it was me?" he asked her quietly "Me hurt in the accident Me in a chair Would you think of hed Her teen years had been hell on wheels Literally Once in a while he thought he saw glientler, kinder version of Anna that she’d been as a young girl, but right noasn’t one of those ti "I’d kick your ass every day until you no longer felt sorry for yourself"

"So consider your ass kicked," he said

"I’ about this, and the idea of Anna alone in Europe gave him the cold sweats But she enty-one, and the truth was, he couldn’t stop her And he did understand her need to go, to prove her independence He really did He just was terrified for her "You can get adventure closer to home and closer to your support system"

"My support system works twenty-four-seven and doesn’t have time for his own life, e You know I sold the practice"

"I’ to say to that, he turned to go

"Josh?"

He looked back, wondering what she was going to fling at him now "Yeah?"

"Thanks"

He was so surprised she could have knocked him over with one little push "For?" he asked warily

"For not seeing et out of bed but chocolate makes it hile

Josh walked into his office the next day and found his office staff and Tessa huddled over the scheduling computer They looked up in unison, paused, and then--still in unison--grinned

"Nice," Dee said to him

"What?" He looked behind hiot some," Dee said

Michelle and Tessa sood staff, but they were a pack of vultures If they sensed a weakness, they’d attack

"’Bout tiood day to ask for a raise?"

"I’h work to do," Josh said in his boss voice