" The pause that followed was one she couldn’t interpret. Maybe he was pissed she was interfering?
“I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Do you do this with patients a lot?”
“Yes,” she lied.
“Havers know you’re checking his work?”
“Did he even look at your veins?”
Rehvenge’s laugh was low. “I would rather you had called for a different reason.”
“I don’t understand,” she said tightly.
“What? That someone might want to have something to do with you outside of work? You’re not blind. You’ve seen yourself in mirrors. And surely you know you’re smart, so it’s not all just pretty window dressing.”
As far as she was concerned, he was speaking in a foreign language. “I don’t understand why you’re not taking care of yourself.”
“Hmmm.” He laughed softly, and she felt the purr as well as heard it in her ear. “Oh…so maybe this is a pretense just so I can see you again.”
“Look, the only reason I called was—”
“Because you needed an excuse. You shut me down in the exam room, but really wanted to talk to me. So you called about my arm to get me on the phone. And now you have me.” That voice dropped even lower. “Do I get to pick what you do with me?”
She stayed quiet. Until he said, “Hello?”
“Are you finished? Or do you want to run around in circles a little longer, reading into what I’m doing here?”
There was a beat of silence, and then he broke out in a rich baritone belly laugh. “I knew there was more than one reason I liked you.”

-Ehlena & Rehv "

― J.R. Ward , Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #7)