CHAPTER 6
Noelle
In the staff room, I ran to my locker and started changing out of my scrubs. I could have been imagining it, but everything smelled like Tank. A strong masculine musky scent that sent shivers down my spine. My clothes smelled of him, and even my hair did. I stripped down to my underwear and stood in front of my locker, breathing heavily.
I couldn’t believe what had happened…what I had come close to doing. In the three years, I had been working here as a nurse, I hadn’t even come close to doing this before. And today, all it had taken were a few words from Tank, and I had thrown myself at him!
I didn’t know whether to feel exhilarated or embarrassed, but I was surprised to find that I was smiling at the same time. I was on a high. There was adrenaline pumping in my veins. I could still feel my pussy throbbing where Tank had slipped his finger in and out of me. My clit was sensitive as it rubbed against the fabric of my lace panties now, and I had to do everything I could to resist the urge to rub myself. Just a little release…just one orgasm to get over the feeling of wanting him more.
I shook my head, to drive those thoughts away and I quickly changed into my normal clothes. My shift had just ended before I entered his room. I had to see him before I left.
I knew Tank was going to be released soon. His surgery had gone well, the bullet hadn’t damaged any vital organs. He was on a fast track to recovery, and with any luck, he would be out of the hospital in a few days. Which meant, that I needed to behave myself around him for a few days and after that, he’d be gone, and I wouldn’t have to think of him again.
I checked myself in the mirror before leaving. My eyes were still bright, the tops of my cheeks were pink. My face didn’t reflect the anxiety that my brain was going through. I looked like a woman who had been kissed by the man of her dreams. The truth was that Tank had done more than just kiss me, and I had no idea that I would ever even be attracted to a man like him. Who was the man of my dreams anyway?
I slammed my locker door shut and walked out of the staff room. In the corridor, I turned to look at Tank’s shut door and then with a sigh, I turned on my heels and began walking out. It was nearly eight, I didn’t have my usual late night shift today, and my parents had set up a dinner reservation for us at the country club.
Outside the hospital, the air was cold, and I realized that I was in desperate need for some fresh air. I breathed in deeply as I walked to my car. I could still feel Tank’s hands on me, in my hair, on my ass, sliding down my belly towards my throbbing wet core.
He was just as strong and rough as I’d predicted him to be. And the only guy I had slept with before this, a guy from my high school, had been nothing like Tank was. This was an entirely new sexual experience for me…the kind that I imagined only happened in books or movies. I couldn’t even imagine what my parents would think of me if they ever found out. And they would never find out. Because Tank is not a guy I would introduce to them.
I wasn’t exactly dressed for the country club, but I had no choice. My little tryst with Tank had made me too late to go home and change. I would have to go to the club directly.
I drove with the radio on loud, hoping that would distract my brain from the million thoughts rushing through my head.
I wished I felt worse. I wished I felt more guilty about what had happened. I wished I was embarrassed about the kind of man I had chosen to have a secret taboo sexual experience with in my workplace. But I didn’t. My only regret now was how I rushed out of there so quickly.
I felt exhilarated and like I was alive for the first time. I had been a good girl for so long, that being bad and breaking the rules felt good. It made me want more. But I knew I shouldn’t. I had already done enough. I had allowed a patient to touch me, kiss me, pleasure me…I bit down on my lip as I thought of him again. God, I wish I would have let him finish.
I stopped the car at the doors of the club and stepped out to let a valet drive it away to the parking lot. My sneakers squeaked against the marble floors as I rushed up the steps and into the lobby.
The floor manager smiled and nodded at me, indicating that he was expecting to see me. I looked at my watch and realized that I was a half an hour late, blasphemy in my parent’s books. I rushed into the dining room, a giddy smile still on my face and I saw my parents at their usual table, dressed to the nines and waiting for me.
I weaved around the table, exchanging greetings with some of the regulars who were friends of the family. My parents saw me coming over, and I could see the look of horror on their faces. My mom’s eyebrows had arched way up high on her forehead, and I was out of breath by the time I reached their table.
“Good God Noelle, what on earth are you wearing?” she hissed in a well-mannered whisper as a server drew out a chair for me to sit down.
“Jeans and a t-shirt, mom, why?” I said, stating the obvious. The look on my mother’s face told me that she did not approve, not one bit. How dare had, I turned up at their country club, in anything less than a cocktail dress and with no makeup on?
“Really, Noelle, your hospital is overworking you. You were supposed to be here an hour ago,” dad grumbled, while the server poured him more wine in his glass.
“Half an hour ago, dad. And I had an emergency situation to take care of,” I told him and shifted in my seat. The emergency situation was that Tank had his finger in my pussy, and was ravaging my body. But they didn’t need to know that. I felt a thrill run down my spine when I lied to my parents.
“And then you turn up here in these old tattered clothes. Noelle, we have an image to maintain,” mom continued with her same complaint and clucked her tongue menacingly as she took a sip of her wine.
I hated that they still treated me like a child. Even though I was twenty-six, my parents thought of me as though I was sixteen. I was about to retort a smart come back, but I knew it would only make the situation worse. I stared at the menu instead, hiding my face behind it as I read through the list of main-courses and desserts that I knew off by heart now. I was still excited, still thrilled. The fact that my parents had no idea what I had been doing half an hour ago made it even more exciting.
“These aren’t old clothes mom, they are brand new jeans,” I said and bit down on my lip. An image of Tank’s chiseled abs had floated up in my head, and I pressed my thighs close together.
“Whatever they are, Noelle, they aren’t appropriate attire for tonight. We were hoping to introduce you to Damien tonight,” she said, and I looked up over the menu at my parents. They were exchanging looks while I stared at them confusedly.
“Damien? Who is that?” I asked.
“Damien Robinson, you know, Louise and Stuart Robinson’s youngest. You’ve met them before,” dad explained, and I tried to think. I knew the Robinsons…Stuart Robinson had visited my dad’s home office a couple of times, and I had been introduced to him then. But I knew nothing about his children, and I definitely didn’t know of Damien.
“Why were you thinking of introducing me to this guy?” I asked them, and I could already feel my heart beginning to sink.
Mom and dad exchanged smiling looks again before they settled their gazes on me.
“Because we think it’s time. You’re twenty-six now darling, and it’s time that we started thinking about settling you down with a good man, from a good family,” mom’s voice had changed. She wasn’t angry about my clothes as much anymore, and instead, was trying to clue me in on their big plan.
I gulped. We had never discussed my marriage before. Let alone an arranged one by my parents. I thought they were aware of how happy I was in my situation. I hadn’t thought about my relationship status, and I was satisfied with work. And I had definitely not considered that it would be my parents who would be selecting a husband for me. I was foolish. What else could I have expected from them? They had selected and planned everything else in my life already.
I hadn’t even replied to them yet before dad started talking again.
“Once you settle down, Noelle, you wouldn’t have to work in that hospital anymore. You’ve had your experience as a working woman, you’ve done your bit for society,” dad said, and I wanted to bang my fists on the table. I wasn’t working as a nurse out of charity, it was my passion, it was the career I had chosen for myself. Instead, they saw it as some game.
“And Damien is a perfect boy. He is handsome, runs his own hedge fund like his father, and their family is very well connected,” dad continued, and I cleared my throat to speak. I didn’t know what I was going to say, but I knew I had to put a stop to this conversation so that I could have a chance to think.
My mind had been so occupied with Tank, that all this talk about Damien Robinson had caught me off guard.
“You’ll be perfect for each other, darling. When you meet him, you’ll know,” mom cut me off, and I gulped down my words. That thrill and happiness I had felt before had now dissipated. How could I ever explain to my parents that I did not want to be the perfect daughter that they wanted me to be? I wanted to find love, but that is something that I wanted to do on my own terms, not my parents. All I could think about now was how no man had seemed more attractive to me as Tank had. How was I ever going to explain that to my parents? My parents who had plans of setting me up with a country club hedge fund guy.
“Don’t look so nervous, darling. We won’t introduce you two tonight, not when you’re in these clothes. We’ll fix an appropriate date, when you’re better prepared to meet him,” mom added and she turned to dad and smiled.
The waiter came to us for our orders, and father ordered for all of us like he usually did. I didn’t even care or think about what he had ordered, because all I could think about was how cruel the universe was being to me today.
It was almost like it gave me a taste of the thrilling life of adventure I could have had…with a man like Tank…if I was a different girl. But then it was quick to remind me that I could never have that life because I wasn’t that girl. I had an image to maintain, I had parents to please…and I had a destiny to fulfill that my family had laid out for me. As much as I hated following their rules, I honestly didn’t know any other way. I had tried to fight them on their plan in the past, and they always managed to find a way to suck me back into their grip. I hated the thought of them being disappointed in me, and I would find myself giving in to them yet again.
“Noelle?” dad’s voice cut through my thoughts sharply, and I jerked my face around to look at him. I still felt like I was in a daze like I had no idea where I was or what I was doing. I felt like I was floating.
When I had been staring at him blankly for a few moments, he repeated himself.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” he said, and I looked down and found that the waiter had already placed a bowl of warm mackerel salad in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed.
“Yes, of course, sorry I was thinking of something else,” I said with flushing apology as I tried to eat what had been served to me. My parents would never understand why all I could think about was Tank and how he was capable of making me feel.