I looked at my watch – I had to wait for three more hours before I would see her again. Remembering mom’s question about flowers, I thought it was a great moment to buy a bouquet.

  I didn’t know what flowers Nikki liked, so I ask the lady at the flower shop to take one of each of those she had and make a bouquet of them.

  Since Nikki forgot to give me her address, and I had plenty of time before our not-a-date-it-is-a-date started, I thought I would go to the hospital and get the address from her CV that was safely hidden in my desk. For some stupid reason, I kept it close to myself.

  When passing by the ward where Caleb had been recovering after the operation, I saw that the lights were on. I took a white coat hanging next to the ward entrance, put it on, opened the door and looked inside.

  The boy was in the bed, with a huge book in his hands. He was alone in the ward.

  “Hey, little man? How are you feeling?”

  “Doctor Bright! I didn’t expect a doctor’s visit again today. I’m fine, all thanks to you.”

  I checked on the records made by the nurse in his medical history and nodded, saying, “I knew you would feel better. I hope for your fast recovery. The summer is getting closer, and I want you to show me how well you can play football.”

  “Really? Will you play football with me?”

  “Well, I’m not a great player, but if you teach me, I’m all for it.”

  “Cool! I can’t wait to get out of this bed. It feels like forever since I stood on my feet without anyone’s help.”

  “Yeah, I know. But according to the records, you are getting better with every new day. Which is good news. I’m sure soon you will be allowed to go back home. Where are your parents, by the way?”

  “They went out for dinner. After the operation, mom has been staying with me day and night. She deserves a break. So I called Dad and told him to come and take her out.”

  I smiled. “I think that was a brilliant idea.”

  “What are you doing in the hospital on Sunday afternoon? Are you working on Sundays?”

  “No. But I needed to get some documents from my office.”

  “Couldn’t you ask your assistant to bring them?”

  “She’s the reason for my being here actually. See…” I sat on the edge of his bed. “I’ve asked her out. But I don’t have her address. So I came here, hoping to find it in the documents she brought with her the day she started working here.”

  “You asked Nikki out?”

  “Hmm… You call her Nikki?”

  “Yes. She said I could call her that.”

  “Interesting… She never let me call her that. Not that I listened, of course.”

  He giggled. “She’s cool. I like her.”

  “Yeah. Me too.”

  “Then why are you still here? Aren’t you going to be late for your date?”

  “Right. I should go.” I rose to my feet. “I’ll stop by in the morning to check on you.”

  “Okay. Have fun on the date.”

  I smirked to myself. “I sure will.”

  At 7:00 PM exactly I rang the doorbell of Nikki’s apartment.

  When she opened the door, I could barely stop myself from laughing out loud.

  “What?” She said, with her hands on her hips. “Like I said – it’s not a date. So I can wear whatever I want. Right?”

  “I like what you are wearing.”

  I truly did. No matter how unexpected, and well funny, a pair of torn jeans with an oversized hoodie and bright pink socks looked together. Messy ponytail and glasses bigger than those I saw my grandma wearing completed the picture.

  “This is for you.” I gave her the bouquet of flowers of all the different shades and kinds.

  “Looks like someone couldn’t decide what flowers to pick.”

  I laughed. “No. I simply wanted to be inventive.”

  “Right.” She gave me a doubtful look. “Where did you get the address?”

  “Did you really believe that the absence of your address would stop me from finding you?”

  “No, I didn’t believe that.”

  “But you didn’t give me the address. And you did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Judging by those little devils dancing in her eyes, I was right. She knew I would be able to get the damn address, no matter what.

  The corner of her lips went up. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Then she turned around and went to the kitchen.

  I followed her. “Of course.”

  I waited for her to take a vase and fill it with the water. Then she put the flowers into the water and put the bouquet on a glass table in the middle of her pale blue and cream living room.

  “It’s a nice place you have,” I said, looking around.

  “Thanks. It’s not as big as yours, but I love every corner of it.”

  “Did you decorate it?”

  She looked a little surprised. “How did you know?”

  “It feels so…homelike.” There were many pillows on her couch, candles on a coffee table and fireplace, and a collection of small crystal figures of different shapes standing on one of the windowsills.

  “I bring them from the places I visit,” she said, following my gaze.

  “My mom collects porcelain plates with the pictures of places she and dad have visited.”

  “Are you the only child in the family?”

  A lump formed in my throat. “Yes. And you have a sister, right?”

  “Her name is Stella. We are very close.”

  I stayed quiet. She was lucky to have a sister she was close with. Melody and I used to be very close too. I wish I could tell Nikki more about her. Maybe not tonight, but one day.

  “You look a little overdressed, Doctor.”

  I looked down at my suit – the one I had been wearing for lunch with my mom and shrugged.

  “It can be easily fixed.” I took off my jacket and put it on the couch, and then I rolled the sleeves of my shirt up to my elbows and undid a few upper bottoms. “Better now?”

  She nodded approvingly. “Much.”

  “Good. So where would you like to go?”

  “Why don’t we stay here? I have lasagna, salad and strawberry ice-cream for dessert. What do you say?”

  I didn’t mind staying, for a small talk with food and wine, or for the night...

  Not that I was going to say it aloud.

  “Sounds like a very delicious plan.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  NICOLA

  “So tell me, Doctor, what do you like doing when you are not working?”

  His eyes shot me a dirty look.

  “Apart from breaking women’s hearts I mean.”

  We were sitting on the floor, with the food and drinks served on a coffee table in my living room. The sound of the fireplace crackling made the atmosphere very cozy. Candles and the smell of flowers brought by Doctor Bright completed the scene. Though I was still sure we were not on a date, no matter how date-like it felt.

  “What makes you think I’m a heartbreaker?”

  We were on our second bottle of wine, so no word-filter was on the table. “Heartbreaker, drop-your-pants sexy troublemaker, badass surgeon, dirty-minded come-ride-my-cock boss… Shall I continue?

  He threw his head back and laughed. “I didn’t know you were so hopelessly in love with me, Nikki.”

  I punched his chest. “Shut up. I’m just telling the truth. I mean, you know you are a great surgeon, and you have mirrors in your apartment, so you are well aware of your look, and you definitely know a lot about women, their psychology and body language. Getting one of them in your bed doesn’t look like a problem.”

  “Not true. I still haven’t figured out how to get you into my bed. Any strategy recommendations?”

  “I told you – you and I, in one bed – not gonna happen.”

  “I don’t want to give up hoping.”

  “That’s what I thought. You always get what you want, don’t you?”

  “Well, let’s say I don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

  “Neither do I.”

  He studied me for an entire minute, no less. “Remember I told you that you and I have a lot in common? Now I have one more reason to believe that I was right about you, Nikki.”

  “Don’t ‘Nikki’ me. I agreed for this…”

  “Date.”

  “It is not a date.”

  “Whatever you tell yourself.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I agreed to see you because I hoped you would stop calling me Nikki. We had a deal, remember?”

  “I never play fair, remember, Nikki?”

  “God, I should have known better than to trust you with this stupid…”

  “Date.”

  “For God’s sake, will you stop calling it a date?”

  “If it’s not a date, then what is it?”

  “A friendly meeting?”

  “I don’t befriend women.”

  “You sleep with them, I get it. But since you and I haven’t slept…”

  “Yet.”

  “Oh, would you stop interrupting me?”

  “I’m just trying to add more logic to what you are saying.”

  “Well, thank you very much. But I’m not as drunk as to sound illogical.”

  “Then why does it feel like you are lacking the right words to tell me what you really have in that smart mind of yours?”

  I stood up and glared down at him. “You could be a little less impossible, considering you are in my apartment and I am the boss here.”

  He grinned. “Hmm… I never thought I would be enjoying a woman being bossy with me.”

  “Like I said – you are hopeless, Doctor.”

  His longing gaze made my heart miss a beat. Quietly, he said, “When I’m with you, I’m drunk without wine, Nikki…”

  How on earth did he always find the words that made me feel like I was losing control over the situation?

  “Trust me; it’s the wine that makes you feel drunk.”

  “Wanna bet?” He stood up too, put his glass on the table and came over to me. “Close your eyes,” he said.

  “No way.”

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “Drunk or sober, I don’t. The only time when I do, however, trust you is when you are holding a scalpel in your hand.”

  “Sounds kind of creepy.”

  “At least in a surgery, you don’t think about stripping me.”

  “How can you be so sure about that?” He raised a brow in a teasing manner. “Anyway, you can trust me. I won’t do anything that you might not like.”

  And somehow, I knew he would keep his word.

  With my heart racing and my breathing quickening, I closed my eyes, well aware of how close to each other he and I were standing.

  For a long minute, or maybe two, he didn’t do anything, probably simply watching me. I didn’t say a word. But the air around me vibrated from the wild signals his body was sending mine. Like even without touching it, he knew just the exact buttons to push to make me feel insecure.

  When I felt his hand on my side, I panicked, like really panicked. He never touched me like that. Was he going to embrace me? Was I strong enough to play it cool and push him away?

  His breathing was the only sound, apart from the burning fireplace, to break the silence of the room. I felt like I forgot how to breathe a long time ago.

  “Come closer,” he said. He didn’t pull me, obviously waiting for me to make the move.

  I took one tiny step forward, until our bodies touched and I could feel his breathing on my lips.

  My panic hit the roof. He could feel it, that’s for sure.

  “Relax,” he whispered against the side of my neck. His words feathered my skin, making goosebumps run up and down my spine. My body tensed.

  What the hell was he doing? But the more important question was - why the hell was I allowing him to do whatever he was doing?

  My blood started to pulse with excitement. God, the man was a devil. He didn’t even kiss me, but I was ready to drop my panties for him. I swallowed.

  His palm reached for my cheek, and with his thumb, he traced a line down my cheek, neck and all the way down to where the top of my hoodie started. Even dressed like a housewife in her worst day, I still felt sexy. He made me feel sexy. Without words, undressing or kissing, he knew how to make me feel desired. I had never felt anything like this for any man. Not even Jared with his amazingly seductive foreplay knew how to turn me on so fast. I felt the familiar need building in my lower body. Oh, no, this is not good…

  “Wine is not even close to what I need to feel like I’m in heaven.” His voice vibrated against my earlobe.

  I drew a sharp breath, trying to persuade myself that this little game of his was nothing but a joke, a way to prove me something that I was not going to believe anyway.

  Against my lips, he whispered, “This is what makes me drunk: a touch…” His fingers slipped to the back of my neck. “A smell…” The tip of his nose tickled the curve of my neck and he inhaled deeply. “A sound…” His hand went around my waist, and he pressed me hard against his chest; I gasped. “A taste...” He drew my lower lip in between his and bit it gently.

  OH. MY. FREAKING. GOODNESS...

  “Open your eyes, Nikki.”

  I did what he said and found his burning stare drinking me in.

  “What I feel radiating from you is more than enough to feel high, drunk and powerless. When with you, I don’t mind losing my sanity or my sense of reality.” He leaned closer until our noses were touching and added in a barely audible voice, “I want you to be the last thing I touch before I fall asleep and the first thing I taste when I open my eyes in the morning, with my tongue buried deep inside your wetness.”

  Holy shit…

  “I want to feel you…from the inside.”

  I cleared my throat. That was just too much for one night. “Doctor Bright, I think I got your point. No need to use all the weapons you have to kill my self-preservation.”

  “What I’m trying to kill is your resistance, Miss Holt. And for the record – I haven’t used even ten percent of my ‘weapons’. One, in particular, would sure make you give in.”

  I pulled away from him. “In your dreams.”

  I felt like I had been running a fucking marathon that was finally over, but I was still gasping for air, trying to come back to my senses. The man sure knew what he was doing. Bad news – he was well aware of the effect he had on me. I could see it in his smiling, green pools.

  And of course, he was not going to give me a break.

  With a devilish spark in his gaze, he said, “Next time I see you in my dreams, I won’t stop at teasing you, Nikki. After all, chemistry is what starts in your mind and then sets your body on fire. Remember this next time a man touches you. If you are not burning for him, you are wasting your time with him.”

  “Well, thank you for the lecture, Doctor. I will remember it.”

  He nodded, looked at the glass of wine he left on the coffee table and said, “I think it’s time to call it a night. Unless you want to become my dream coming true tonight...”

  I smirked. “Teasing can a bitch. Thank you for the visit, see you tomorrow at work and sweet dreams, Doctor Bright.”

  Needless to say, falling asleep that night was a lost cause, like trying to ski in sleepers. But somehow, I felt deliriously happy, high even. Doctor Bright had a point, damn it. Why did he have to be right again? Words could be a powerful weapon, and he sure knew how to use them against me.

  Was I too weak to stand against him? Or was he too smart to let me go just like that?

  Whatever it was, I felt like I needed to take a shower, which would be the third in a row. Just great… The only thing that made me feel better was the realization that I was probably not the only person having trouble with sleep tonight.

  The next morning I woke up, feeling as pumped as ever. The anticipation about the upcoming day was about to throw me over the edge. It was like I was walking on the needles, too scared to make the next step and get hurt, but then too excited to try my limits to not give it a try.

  Somewhere at the back of my mind, I knew I was a terrible person. I wasn’t going to cheat on Jared, but what I felt in Doctor Bright’s presence made me feel like I traitor. I was not supposed to react like that to another man’s words; I was being in a relationship, well, in a very complicated and unclear relationship, but still.

  I needed to stop thinking about what happened last night.

  Focus, Nikki, you can do this!

  Only all my self-lecturing went down the drain the moment I opened the door of Doctor Bright’s waiting room and saw him sitting at my desk, with a very serious expression on his face.

  “Is everything all right?” I asked, a little worried. I started to think of anything I could have done wrong to piss him off, but nothing came to my mind.

  “I have a problem,” he practically barked at me. “A major problem.” He stood up and pointed to his pants.

  I covered my mouth with one hand and giggled.

  His MAJOR problem was too damn obvious to not see it.

  “I don’t think I can help you with that.” I put down my hand, trying to keep my face straight.

  He ran one hand through his hair. His eye blazed dangerously. “It’s all your fault, Nikki.”

  “My fault? What did I do?”

  His nostrils flared, his mouth snapped shut.

  Wordlessly, he turned around and walked to his office. Only after he was inside and closed the door behind him, I heard him cursing aloud.

  I giggled some more and went to the coffee-room to get changed.

  The day didn’t promise any trouble. There were no operations planned, only a few appointments with the patients and the regular ward round that turned out to be the first part of my one hell of an afternoon.

  After Doctor Bright got a grip on himself and his major problem was not as obvious anymore, he and I went to check on Caleb. Neither of us dared to say a word, though I could feel there was something my boss wanted to tell me, or to be exact – do with me.

  Not a chance, Doc. NOT. A. CHANCE.