Ellison

After a quick shower, I sniffed Jack’s shirt, drawing the scent of his laundry detergent deep into my lungs, before pulling it over my head. Stepping into his boxers, I couldn’t help but think I needed to detour to his laundry room to see what brand he used, so I could be surrounded by the smell every day. Then again, I wouldn’t be able to do my job because I’d be distracted by memories of the night we’d spent together. I guessed that plan was out the window. If only my job literally wasn’t life or death, the tradeoff might be worth it. Jack smelled that good.

I stopped in the foyer to grab my cell phone, unaccustomed to going more than a couple hours without checking it. Even when I wasn’t on call, it wasn’t rare for me to get calls with questions about my patients. A quick glance confirmed I’d only missed one call from the hospital, but they hadn’t left a message so it must not have been urgent. As I heaved a sigh of relief, my phone rang with an incoming call—not from the hospital, but from my date. The one I’d completely forgotten about and had apparently stood up this morning, since I was supposed to have met him five minutes ago.

“Ellison Reed,” I answered out of habit.

“I’m running a little late. Traffic was backed up because of an accident,” Richard grumbled.

Some of my guilt evaporated at the irritation evident in his tone. I’d seen the results of too many accidents first-hand to ever feel anything but relieved my car wasn’t involved and hopeful nobody was injured whenever I drove past one. Plus, as hypocritical as it was of me, I was a little bothered that he had waited until he was already late before calling me. I knew it was ridiculous, considering I was standing in the middle of Jack’s house, dressed in his clothes after spending the night in his bed, but I was annoyed nonetheless.

“I’m sorry, Richard, but something’s come up and I won’t be able to make it today.”

“Or any day,” Jack growled in my ear, sneaking up on me and grinding his hips against my ass to demonstrate exactly what had come up. Again.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, turning in his arms to press my palm against his mouth so he couldn’t interrupt my call. Cancelling a date after it was supposed to have already begun was bad enough, I refused to do it with Jack whispering in my ear. Or even worse, not bothering to keep his voice down and making it clear to Richard exactly why I wasn’t going to keep our date.

“I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re dating a successful surgeon. Do you think you’ll be able to drive up later today or even tomorrow morning?”

Dating? How had my accepting one date with this guy turned into us dating? I should have realized he was going to turn into a Grade-A Clinger based on how many times he’d asked me out. Persistence wasn’t always a good thing in a man, sometimes it was a sign of what’s to come if you said yes.

“No, I won’t be able to make it today or tomorrow.”

Jack’s eyes flared, and I felt his lips move against my skin. If the way his body tensed was any indication, he wasn’t happy with the direction of my conversation with Richard, who was still jabbering off dates in my ear.

“Next weekend isn’t good for me, either.”

Jack’s arms crossed over his chest while he leveled me with a glare. His eyebrow was quirked up in a challenging manner. We’d been friends long enough for me to know I didn’t want him to decide he needed to take control of this discussion, not unless I wanted to switch gyms. And I liked my gym, dammit.

“As much as I appreciate your offer to reschedule, I probably shouldn’t have taken you up on your offer in the first place, Richard.”

“C’mon, Ellison. Don’t back out now. It took me forever to get you to say yes in the first place. I’d hate to have to ask you another dozen times to hear you say it again.”

Maybe Jack was right, and Richard really was a loser who wanted to get into my pants. A very persistent loser who might force me to switch gyms anyway. Why had I agreed to this date in the first place?

Oh, yeah. I returned Jack’s glare with one of my own. I’d been caught in a weak moment while trying to convince myself I should date someone else because Jack was just my friend. Really, an argument could easily be made that this whole situation was his fault for not making a move sooner.

I dropped my hand away from his mouth and muttered into the phone, “Asking me another dozen times isn’t going to change anything. I’m not going to meet you today and I won’t be saying yes to you in the future.”

“That’s what you told me the fifth time I asked you out.”

He’d kept track of my responses? I made a mental note to check out other gyms in the very near future. Avoiding the creepy guy I’d almost spent the day with was now a top priority for me. And night, gag!

“It’s not going to happen, Richard. Not the next time you ask, or a dozen times after that. So do us both a favor and stop asking me.”

I disconnected the call while he was in the middle of arguing with me. I’d clearly had a close call with him and he wasn’t worth any more of my time, not when I had the object of my own obsession standing right in front of me—grinning, the smug bastard.

“It’s a good thing you made it clear you weren’t interested. There’s only room for one dick in this relationship and it sure as hell isn’t him.”

“I’ll have you know, Richard doesn’t like to be called Dick,” I countered, while doing a little dance in my head over the fact that Jack had just called whatever was happening between us a relationship.

He tugged on my arm, leading me into the living room and pulling me down so I was straddling his lap on the couch. “How about you worry about this dick instead,” he murmured in my ear, grinding his hips upwards.

His hot length bumped against my clit, making me shudder. I twined my arms around his neck and pushed my knees into the cushions on either side of his hips as I moved over him. His hands slid under my shirt, skimming up my back. I circled my hips and his fingers dug into my skin. Then his lips were on mine, his tongue pushing into my mouth and exploring. One of his hands slid upwards, fisting in my hair and angling my head as he deepened his kiss.

My pussy had been sore earlier, but now it was aching for a different reason. I rubbed against him with purpose, dry humping his cock until I felt my body tightening. Groaning, he pulled me closer, my tits pressed hard against his chest and his hardened length as close to my body as it could get with clothes between us. Pleasure started to pump through my body, only to be interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing. A-fucking-gain.

“No,” I whimpered.

Jack released his hold on my hair, reaching out an arm to snag my phone from where I’d dropped it on the cushion next to us.

“She might have been nice about it, but I’m not going to bother because we both know there’s only one way you’re gonna back off from her and that’s when you realize she’s already taken. Stay away from what’s mine.”

I sucked in a breath at the possessiveness evident in his tone, my eyes dropping down to the screen when he swiped his thumb across it to disconnect the call. Only there was one problem. The number on the display wasn’t Richard’s. The area code wasn’t even local. The call had come from Minneapolis. Minneapolis!

“No!” I cried out, grabbing the phone from his hand and jumping off his lap.

I paced away from him, pressing the number in my call history to call back.

“Dr. Reed?”

The male voice on the other end of the line sounded confused, understandably so, considering what Jack had told him.

“Yes, this is she. I’m sorry I missed your call just now.”

“How odd,” he muttered. “There must have been a switch up with the lines or something.”

I wasn’t about to admit to the true origins of the “or something” in this situation. “To whom am I speaking?”

“Oh, yes. I’m Declan McGowan, head of Pediatrics at Children’s Minneapolis. I’m sorry to call you out of the blue like this, but we have an unexpected opening for our Chief of Pediatric Surgery and were hoping you’d consider taking the position. I know it’s unorthodox, but considering our current Chief barely beat you out for the position, the board thought we could bypass some of the steps in the hiring process if you were still interested.”

My heart pounded wildly in my chest. I’d been crushed when I’d lost the spot as their Chief of Surgery to another candidate last year. It wasn’t that I was unhappy with my current job, but this was a big promotion at a well-respected hospital. I swiveled around, my eyes landing on Jack. Dream job, dream man. Different cities. Damn my luck.