Page 16 of Bad Medicine
Taking a breath, I considered lying, but I knew I had a terrible poker face, so, after a fierce internal debate, I figured it was better to just tell him.
“It’s...it’s because you smell.”
Rock’s expression of total shock would have been funny if I wasn’t so flustered.
“Iwhat?”
“It’s the cigarettes. You smell like cigarettes. I don’t like it.”
For a moment, he looked offended, like I was the first person to have ever said anything about it, and maybe I was. God knew I had pretended to like something about a guy to avoid just such an altercation more than once in my life. But those days were over for me, and I refused to play the game like I had in college.
“What do you have against cigarettes?”
I scoffed. “Well, for starters, smoking causes one fifth of every death in the United States annually.” When he continued to stare, I went on. “That’s almost half a million people.”
“Doc,” he laughed. “Look at me. I’m as healthy as a horse.”
“Sure. You’re healthynow.” I was getting fired up. Old knowledge I had crammed into my brain years ago for some class or another was bubbling to the surface. “But smoking can take up to twenty-five years off your life expectancy.” It was possible I was rambling, his proximity and my frustration at the unwelcome things he made me feel causing my mouth to justnot stop moving. “Smoking results in increased risk of heart attack, stroke, tuberculosis, and oral”—his face lit up, and I rolled my eyes— “cancer.”
“Damn,” he muttered, shaking his head as he stepped close again. But I wasn’t done.
“And erectile dysfunction,” I blurted.
Sure.Thatgot a reaction out of him.
“Doc, I guarantee I have no issue in that department.”
“For now,” I said casually. “But, see if you can say the same thing when forty starts knocking at your door. There’s not much a man can do about a limp noodle, Rock.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing as his face scrunched up, looking like he was in pain.
When it appeared like Rock wasn’t going to respond, I continued. “Now, I’ll ask you again. What the hell were you doing with my patient?”
Snapping back into his regular charming self, Rock gave me his patented smirk again. “What did it look like I was doing, Doc? I was working on my bedside manner.” Stepping toward me, Rock dropped his voice into a low growl. “I’d be happy to give you a demonstration. This buildingisfull of beds.”
My mouth dropped open, any response I may have come up with dying in my throat when he reached down and grabbed his crotch, blatantly rearranging his junk.
And, though I hated myself for it, my thighs squeezed together in some sort of sick Pavlovian response. Before I could stop myself, I reached out for him, my hand gripping the lapel of his coat and giving a tug, the white fabric rough and stiff under my fingers. The coat was too small for him, his biceps straining the seams of the sleeves. Whoever he had borrowed it from might find it stretched beyond saving when they got it back, because there seemed to be no containing those muscles. Dropping my eyes to the white fabric, I finally noticed the name embroidered on the breast.
Dr. Elliott Edwards.
Yanking my hand back, I scrambled another few frantic steps away from Rock, shaking my head in disgust, mostly at myself.
Taking another breath, I tried to calm my racing heart before I asked again, “Where did you get that coat?”
Chapter six
Rocco
Shewasfrustrated.
I liked it.
The fact that she was frustrated meant that I was getting somewhere.
And with the way she had been panting at me a few minutes ago, I figured I was headed in the right direction.
That direction being into her pants.
