Page 117 of The Single Dads Club
“You’re welcome. I’ll be back to check your progress in a little while.”
It took twenty minutes. Twenty of the longest minutes of my life before my erection slackened. I’d never been so happy to go soft in my entire life. With asmile Ihopped down from the exam table and began dressing. Just as I was pulling on my jeans, Alexa came back to check on me.
The look of surprise on her face stopped me short.
“I think I’m good to go,” I explained, smiling big in her direction.
Her eyes travelled down the length of my body, stopping once they reached the no-longer-straining bulge in my jeans. “Oh, good.”
“Thanks for everything.” I grabbed my jacket from the chair, and started past her. I needed to get out of this hospital and this situation as quickly as possible. All I wanted was to forget about this fucked up night and get back home to check on Lily. Her hands darted out and pressed against my chest. “You can’t just leave. Dr. Chancellor wanted to um…talk with you, about your, um, lifestyle. And see if we could offer STD testing.”
I laughed. “Thanks anyway, but I’m good.” I barely had time to date, let alone have sex, but when I did I always used a condom. Not to mention that Rick insisted I get tested as an agreement to work for him. All I wanted to do now was get home, check on Lily, and forget this whole night ever happened.
“Okay. Well, be safe,” she said, and stepped out of the way as I fled past her, ready to put the whole experience behind me.
Chapter 2
Alexa
When I woke and fumbled for my cell phone to check the time, I was shocked to discover it was already four in the afternoon. I stretched and flung back my duvet, sighing because despite the late hour, my body wassonot ready to leave my heavenly soft pillowtop.
Working the midnight shift was wreaking havoc with my system. With each night that passed, I wokelater and later in the afternoon. Thankfully, I had tonight off because today was my twenty-first birthday and tonight I was going out with some friends to celebrate. I could only imagine whatMacKenzie had planned. That girl, though I considered her my best friend from our first meeting in nursing school, was trouble with a capital T.
My parents didn’t understand why I worked so hard. Money certainly wasn’t the motivator—my family had more than we’d ever spend in a lifetime—but I wanted something more for myself. Something I was good at and kept me busy. Their only goal for me was to meet a wealthy, well-bred man and become some sort of Stepford Wife, a desire we did not share. A life like that sounded incredibly boring to me. And if my mother’s afternoon combination of happy pills and wine-spritzers were any indication, it was a life spent unfulfilled. No thanks.
Reluctantly, I crawled out of bed and stumbled through my apartment desperate for a major caffeine hit. Once in the kitchen, I slid a coffee pod into the one-cup maker and impatiently waited. As I waited, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking back to the previous night, or more specifically, about Cade, and well a certain part of his anatomy .I’dseen a lot of strange things working the midnight shift in the emergency room, but his visit was one I would never forget.
He was undeniably attractive, and that was even before I saw the python he was packing in his pants. He was tall and ridiculously toned from head to toe, with a rugged face and strong jaw line. His nose had a slight ridge that indicated it had probably been broken at some point, and those rich chocolate eyes of his had been surrounded by thick, dark lashes I would pay good money to achieve.
He’d had the strangest effect on me. I’d never been attracted to a patient before. Ever. My job required that I remained professional at all times and I rarely noticed details about the actual person. That statement may sound harsh, but I saw the people who came in and out of the hospital as clinical objects. I only noticed the details I needed to perform my duties—like where there best vein line was to start an IV or draw blood, or calculating meds based on weight—standard things I’d been trained to notice. But with Cade, I couldn’t focus on what I needed to. Instead, I noticed how his dark eyes followed my every movement, the thickness of the vein running up the length of his shaft, and the tension in his body at his obvious discomfort every time I was close. I also noticed the tattoo peeking out from the collar of his T-shirt as if crawling up his neck. I wanted to see the rest of it, even if the mere thought of that made my tummy erupt in nerves. And I knew he could tell how frazzled I was with that annoying amused smirk tugging at his lips.
ClearlyI was overdue for a date if I was fantasizing about a patient.
* * *
When the doorbell chimed, I jogged to the intercom and buzzed in my best friend, MacKenzie and good friend, Tyson. I opened my apartment door and MacKenzie greeted me with a brown paper bag filled with liquor bottles in one hand and a plastic container in the other. Tyson, who was like a brother to me although I think he saw me as more, was carrying a bouquet of pink roses. When Kenzie had suggested celebrating my birthday, I’d made her promise that there would be no big party. It wouldjust bethe three of us going out and enjoying a few cocktails, loads of laughs, and some epic moves on the dance floor.
“Our baby girl’s growing up, Ty!” MacKenzie squealed and pulled me in for a hug that took the breath out of my lungs. I patted her back and pulled away for some personal space. I wasn’t the best hugger in the world. Maybe it had something to do with the fact my parents weren’t the affectionate type so hugs weren’t a normal or welcomed occurrence to me. Tyson laughed and navigated around us, entering my apartment. He knew better than to try and hug me after I went completely stiff in his arms the one and only time he’d attempted it.
“Thanks for the roses,” I called to his back as he made his way into my kitchen to fetch a vase. He’d spent enough time in my apartment to know where everything was. Heck, I think he knew my apartment better than I did. Once I called him to ask how to clean my hair out of the clogged shower drain and he informed me I had a bottle of drain cleaner under the sink in the kitchen. He was good to me, and so was MacKenzie. She often forced me out of my shell, which, however painful at times, was good for me.
After releasing me from her arms, MacKenzie took over the kitchen island, extracting various bottles of alcohol and mixers from the bag she’d been carrying. Ty lined up three glasses and filled them with ice, while I stood and watched.
“What’s in here?” I poked at the lid of the shallow plastic container, expecting it to hold a cake.
“Jell-O shots,” MacKenzie answered, smiling. “Try one.”
I pulled off the lid and set it aside. The container was filled with small plastic shot glasses that contained a rainbow of jellied concoctions. They certainly looked inviting. I selected a green one and tipped it up to my mouth, but the gelatinous mass remained firmly planted inside the cup.
MacKenzie laughed and glanced at Tyson. “Teach her how, Ty. I forgot we had a Jell-O-shot virgin on our hands.” She measured two shots of clear liquor and dumped them into one of the glasses, mixing the drink like it was second nature.
Ty smiled and rounded the island to stand next to me. “Stick out your tongue.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
He chuckled. “Just do it.”
I complied and he brought the cup to my mouth, showing me how to swirl my tongue around the edge of it to loosen the Jell-O until it slipped out of the cup and into my mouth.
