Page 43 of Breathe Me (Breathe Duet 1)

"I knew you would go somewhere like that," says Carter admiringly. "You always were the smartest girl in school."

She blushes from the praise in his voice. "Do you really have room to talk Mr. Princeton?" she teases with a smile. "And yes, before you ask, of course I knew you went to Princeton."

Carter snorts in an unamused way, and the smile on Valentina's face fades.

Logan gives Carter a nasty look and then takes Valentina's hand, stilling it from its nervous movement.

"What did you major in?" he asks.

"Biology and English," she answers shyly. "I knew I wanted to go to med school, so Biology seemed like the way to go. And then...well, you know I always loved to read. I started taking English classes as electives, and then I ended up taking so many that it just made sense to double major in it."

I'd only been to England once. The NFL liked to do international games a few times a year, and we'd played the Jaguars in London a few years back. We'd taken a tour of a few cities around London as a team, and I remembered going past Oxford's campus.

I can picture her strolling through campus, the boys wanting her, the girls wanting to be friends with her. She probably always was the smartest in class, even there. Valentina has that magnetism about her that makes everyone take notice of her. We'd just been lucky as teenagers that she hadn't realized it.

"What did you do after Oxford? Have you been in England all this time?" Logan asks. Carter isn't saying anything, but I know he's hanging on every word she's saying.

Her eyes look heartbroken at his question, and I tense, preparing myself for what she’s about to say. Had she gotten married and then divorced? Did she have a child? Just the idea of another man having her makes me want to scream. I had always dreamed it would be my name at the end of hers. It would my child in her belly.

My stomach burns.

I hate not knowing everything about Val when I had once known everything about her.

"I went to medical school," she finally replies after a long breath.

"That's amazing," I exclaim, thinking that she had fulfilled her dream. She had always wanted to be a doctor after being so sick as a child.

Is it wrong that it makes me hard just thinking about her strolling the halls of a hospital with a stethoscope and a white coat on?

If so, I don't want to be right.

I adjust myself under the table, ignoring the knowing smirk Logan shoots my way. He's full of those tonight. The asshole.

"I didn't finish," she whispers. "I got my MD, and then I had to drop out during residency when I got sick.” Her gaze drops to her lap, and her hands start frantically tearing at the cloth napkin.

Carter surprises me by reaching out and steadying her hand. "You could go back now. I'm sure your program would understand," he says gruffly.

A shadow that I don't understand passes over her gaze, and I wonder what other secrets Valentina Is hiding from us.

"Yeah, maybe," she comments confusingly. I open my mouth to ask her more questions, but a waiter appears. He's one of those hot French dudes like you see in the movies, and he only has eyes for Val. I feel a growl growing in my chest at the way he's looking at her, and I have to actively work to calm myself down.

The other two aren't much better though. Logan is playing with the knife on the table like he's tempted to stab the guy with it, and Carter is sending him a warning glare that would scare anyone.

I'm a little bit scared of it to be quite frank.

The waiter seems blissfully unaware of the tension at the table and leans towards her. "The Chef Special for the Mademoiselle," he simpers at her.

"Thank you," she murmurs, blushing under his attention.

I'm transported back in time to when she would blush like that every time one of us looked at her.

The waiter just stands there expectantly, a kind of dazed look on his face, and I roll my eyes.

Get in line buddy, I think.

"I think we're good," barks Carter, and the waiter stumbles when he sees the threatening look on his face.

"I'll check in with you later," he says stiffly, before practically running away.

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