“Hey,” I said cheerily, following him into the garage. “You’re Chad Brent, right?”
“Yeah,” he said brightly, handing me a bottle of beer. “You’re Dr. Saunders. I’m not sure if we ever formally met.”
I stuck my hand in his outstretched hand. His warm hand engulfed mine and my stomach felt jittery, like I was a kid again.
“How are you finding the hospital?” I asked.
“I really like it. I mean, I’ve been around before, with my dad and all.”
“Oh, right,” I said, feeling silly. “I guess I’m not the only one who’s working with a parent now.”
“I bet it’s different for you. At least you and your mom are colleagues in a way. I’m basically working for my dad, not with him.”
We stood in silence as he opened my bottle with the opener, then his. I had forgotten everything that I was going to say. I took a sip, feeling the drink’s effects almost immediately.
“I like your dress,” he said as I watched his eyes move from my eyes down to my shoes.
“Thanks,” I said, smoothing my suddenly damp hands on my snugly fitted dress. “I never dress up like this.”
“You should more often,” he said. “You look great.”
I blushed and hoped that the dim light in the garage obscured it. “You look pretty nice yourself. Although, you look good in your scrubs, too,” I blurted.
I immediately regretted everything. Not just what I’d said, but letting Maria convince me to talk to him, coming to the after party, and going to the Christmas party in general. If I had stayed home in my pajamas with a book, none of that would have happened.
“Are you flirting with me, Dr. Saunders?” he asked cheekily.
My face was burning. “You can call me Whitney,” I squeaked.
He took a step closer, flashing his wide smile at me. I think he knew exactly what he was doing to me.
“Do I make you nervous, Dr. Saunders?”
“N-not at all,” I stuttered. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” he said, taking another step forward. “It just seemed like you wanted to kiss me earlier.”
“What?”
“When I complimented your dress. Your eyes looked at my lips. Then you licked yours.”
I laughed. “Did you train in psychiatric nursing?”
“So you don’t want to kiss me?”
“Oh, no,” I said, feeling strangely giddy. “I definitely want to kiss you.”
He swooped forward, pressing his lips against mine. I wrapped an arm around his neck to steady myself. His lips were surprisingly soft, and I felt like I was lost in time for a moment. It didn’t matter that he was a nurse and I was a doctor and we would have to work together. I could worry about it tomorrow. This moment was too sweet to fuss over right now.
We sprang apart when we heard the doorknob turn. At least we still had enough sense to be discreet.
We walked inside the house like we hadn’t been out there for more than a minute, tops. From my quick recon, it didn’t look like anyone even noticed.
“Come with me,” Chad said softly.
“Where?”
“You’ll find out.”
Chapter Two
Chad
“Whose room is this?” she asked as I took her into a vacant bedroom, as far away from the kitchen as we could get.
“I’m pretty sure this one’s Bethany’s,” I said, not completely sure because I’d only been to this house once before. “I’m almost positive she’s staying at her boyfriend’s place tonight, so she won’t mind if we hang out in here for a little while. It’s just so loud and crowded out there. It makes it hard to talk.”
“Okay,” she said, following behind. I grabbed her hand and pulled her in, shutting the door behind us.
We sat down on the bed and almost immediately started making out again. She was all over me, and it was really turning me on. I ran my hands through her thick, golden hair, never wanting her to pull away.
“Do you think anyone will find out about this?” She giggled.
“Does it matter?”
“Usually, but I don’t really give a shit right now.”
We went back to kissing, and I slid a hand underneath her skirt just to see if she was into it. She was. I slid my hand further and further up her thigh, just trying to see how far I could get before she protested. Finally, I could feel her silky underwear, and she had yet to say anything.
“You want to take those off?” I asked bluntly, to which she giggled.
“You first,” she said.
Usually, I enjoyed a striptease. I loved how I could be mildly interested in a decent looking girl when she’s fully dressed, but after twenty minutes of slowly removing each item of clothing, I wanted to plunge right inside her.
Tonight was different. I didn’t need to be teased to be interested in Whitney. She was a babe, and I’d been eyeing her ever since I started working at the hospital. She was my white whale, and I imagined spending years of work trying to conquer her.
In all honestly, I was surprised at just how easy the whole thing was. The first time we were alone in a room, we kissed. I was expecting to spend countless weeks of the will-they-won’t-they nonsense.
Trying to send the message I was looking to send, I took off all of my clothes with little fanfare. My suit jacket lay in a crumpled heap on the floor next to my pants, shirt, and shoes. I saved my socks and underwear for last, pulling them off with a flourish.
&n
bsp; Then Whitney did the last thing I ever wanted anyone to do after seeing me get completely naked. She started to laugh.
“Oh, come on,” I said exasperatedly. “Don’t tell me that all of your past lovers have been packing ten-inch sausages in their pants.”
“No, no.” She giggled. “It’s not that. In fact, I’m pretty impressed with what you’ve got. I’ve just never seen anyone that eager to get undressed. Usually, it’s a back and forth process of taking off clothes.”
I let out a soft sigh. “There’s no time for that, Dr. Saunders.” I purposely called her by her professional name. “There’s a party going on outside, and if we’re gone for too long, people will start to notice. Is that what you want?”
Instead of answering verbally, she unzipped her dress and tossed it next to my pile of clothes.
“You like to be in control, don’t you?” she teased.
I cringed. Control was a bit of an issue in my life. At work, physicians and patients basically ordered me around all day. I had little control over my work, and my dad gave me a lot of shit for it. When I’d told him I wanted to be a nurse, he scoffed at me and told me that it wouldn’t take too much work just to become a physician instead.
That wasn’t the point. I knew that I would have more money and power working as a doctor, but I just didn’t want to. I had grown up visiting hospitals when my dad was working, and I always felt more connected to the nursing staff than I did the doctors. They were always so kind and patient. They were able to make special connections with patients and could really take the time to get to know them. With doctors, they were just stretched too thin to be able to do that.
But it really pissed me off that people, my father included, thought that somehow, I was less of a medical professional because I chose to go into nursing. And it really, really pissed me off when people mocked me for being a man in nursing. It’s just a job—there’s no reason for there to be a gender attached to it!