Hot air rolls across the nape of my neck as I fill out a chart at the table in the resident’s lounge. “I’ve got a few free minutes. You?”
I don’t have to look up to see that it’s Gina. I recognize her whisper, the touch of her hand on my shoulder. Her scent. I close my eyes and sigh. This is the right call, Kyle.
I nod before turning around. “Let me drop off my chart. Meet you there in a second.”
She smiles before she heads out the door. It’s a nice smile. Gina has perfect white teeth. Almost too perfect. Everything about Gina is perfect for me. She’s a doctor. A second-year. She understands my schedule and the demands of my time. She’s driven by her job like I am. She doesn’t have time for things like watching baseball games and reading romance novels. Let alone time for kids. As far as I know, she doesn’t even want kids. I don’t want kids. Not yet anyway.
We’re perfect for each other.
Yes, this is the right call.
I drop my chart off at the nurses’ station and head to the on-call room. When I arrive, Gina is already undressed and under the covers. I lock the door and strip myself naked on the way to her. I rip off the sheet and gaze down at her body—her large breasts that don’t even fit in my hands. Her trim waist. Her toned thighs. Her triangle of brown curls.
It’s there where I focus my attention. I catch myself wondering if Elizabeth has brown curls as well. Maybe not as well manicured as Gina, but brown none the less. I quickly look up at Gina’s face—if for no other reason but to remind myself exactly who I’m here with.
I climb on the bed with her and palm her breasts. She pulls my head down until our lips meet. She kisses me hard and with more feeling than she’s ever kissed me. And I let her. I let her because this is the right call.
“You feel so good,” she says, squirming underneath me. “God, I needed this. I’ve missed you this week.”
“Mmm,” I mumble, working my mouth down to her chest so I can suck on her nipples. She grinds her hips into me from below as I take one into my mouth while I pinch the other. My free hand traces a line down her flat stomach, down past her patch of curls to find her wet and ready. I slip in one finger, then another as she moans under my manipulation.
I work my thumb around her clit and she bucks her hips into me. She’s close already. It won’t take much to get her there. I increase the pressure I’ve got on her nipple, pinching and twisting as I continue to work the fingers of my other hand inside her.
“Yes. Oh, Kyle. Oh, God!”
I watch her face as she comes. I’ve always watched her. It gets me hot. But as her head whips around on the pillow and she bites down on her lip to suppress her screams, I realize I’m barely more than lukewarm.
She reaches down to grab me, surprised I’m not rock hard. “Everything okay, Kyle?”
“Yeah, just tired and overworked, I guess.”
“Well, I’ll just have to wake you up,” she says with a sultry smile.
She sits up and pushes me down on the bed. She takes my near-flaccid dick into her hands and works it up and down. When that doesn’t produce results, she climbs her way down my body and takes me into her mouth.
Nothing.
I stare down at her. There’s nothing more erotic than watching a woman suck you off. I watch her long brunette ponytail bob back and forth as she tries everything she can think of to ‘wake me up.’
Nothing.
For the life of me, all I can see when I look down at her is blonde hair with dark roots. Blonde hair that is almost too short to be held back in a ponytail. Blonde hair that would curtain the sides of her face and tickle my thighs if she did this to me.
If it were Elizabeth and not Gina.
And damn it if I don’t want that with everything inside me. With everything that I am.
Fuck.
Gina stops her futile efforts and looks up at me in question.
“Sorry,” I say.
“Don’t be sorry. It happens,” she says. “Like you said, you’re tired and overworked.” She reaches over to grab her scrubs. “Although with your one patient, it seems like you’d have time to catch up on your sleep.”
Her curt words annoy me, but I hide it with a careless shrug. “Red has been letting me help out on other cases.”
“Right. I heard you got an assist the other day.”
“It’s more than just that, Gina,” I tell her. “And I’ve been spending my spare time down in the ER.”
“Oh, well that explains it.” She finishes dressing and heads for the door. “Page me after you’ve had a rest. We’ll finish what we started.”
I nod, watching her walk through the door.
Then I send a text to Cameron.
Me: Meet me at Happy’s after shift.
~ ~ ~
“So, let me get this straight,” Cameron says, slamming his second shot glass down on the table. “You have a hot chick desperate to screw you anytime, anywhere, and you’re telling me you don’t want to anymore?”
He looks at me like I’m ten cards shy of a full deck.
I toss back my own second shot. “I do and I don’t, man. I mean, it’s always been great with her. No strings. No commitments. I know it’s crazy. It’s every guy’s dream. But today, I couldn’t . . . when I was with her I couldn’t—”
“Dude, you couldn’t seal the deal?”
I shake my head in shame.
He motions for the waitress to bring us more shots. “That really blows.” He laughs. “Or I guess maybe it didn’t. Next round’s on me,” he says, grabbing my shoulder supportively.
The alcohol from my third shot burns my throat on the way down. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
He studies me. “Maybe it’s not a what. Maybe it’s a who.”
“A who?”
“Come on, Kyle.” He raises his brows at me. “Your patient. The one you talk about incessantly.”
“Well, she is my only patient,” I say. “Who the hell else am I supposed to talk about?”
“It’s not that you talk about her, it’s how you talk about her. It’s been obvious to me from the beginning that you have a thing for this girl. First you arrange to pay her hospital bill, then you have your sisters-in-law and your friends come and keep her company. Hell, you get a stupid shit-eating grin on your face every time you talk about her, bro.”
“I do?”
He nods.
I run my hands through my hair in frustration. “Shit, Cameron. What the hell is wrong with me? She’s my patient. And she’s pregnant. And I don’t know the first thing about her. But I can’t get her out of my goddamn head.”
“Does this infatuation go both ways?” he asks.
“No. I don’t know. It’s obvious she wants me there with her, but for all I know she might want Jack the Ripper there, too, if it meant he’d keep her company.”
He tosses a few peanuts in his mouth. “I checked in on her the other day,” he says, to my complete surprise.
“You did? But you’re not on Red’s service.”
“I know. I made up a lame excuse about looking for an ultrasound machine.”
“Why would you do that?”
He stares me down. “Why do you think, Kyle? Because my friend is seriously close to fucking up his life and maybe even his career. What if she’s a con artist and she’s after your money? Did you ever think of that?”
“What the hell, Cameron? That’s ridiculous. As if she planned her pregnancy and then willed herself into placenta previa so that she could scam me. What’s your problem?”
“Okay, you have a point,” he says. “But I’m just looking out for you, bro. Anyway, I’m pretty sure she’s not a con artist. In fact, she’s just about one of the nicest people I’ve met.”
I nod, absently tracing the rim of my shot glass.
“Hot, too,” he says, laughing. “If you take away the hugely pregnant belly. And I’m no Jack the Ripper, but she didn’t try to get me to stay and keep her company. I’m also fairly sure she mentioned ‘Dr. Stone’ no less than five times in the two minutes I was in her room.”
“What do I do, Cam?”
“She’s your patient, Kyle. You take care of her and make sure that baby is healthy. She’ll only be here for a few more weeks, right? After that, it’s no one’s business but yours if you want to see her, fuck her, or raise a child with her.”
“Do you have to be so damn crude?” I ask, giving him a look of disdain.
“Oh, what, you can fuck Gina to kingdom come, but when I mention fucking Elizabeth, you look like you want to pin me to the damn ground.”
“I don’t think of her that way,” I say.
“You don’t think about fucking her?” He winces when he sees my angry stare. “Sorry, you don’t think about being with her?”
I blow out a long breath and run my hands through my hair once again. “Therein lies my problem, Cameron. That’s all I think about.”