Mentally, I focused myself. I was going to be stern, firm, and give real guidelines for him. I was going to treat him just like any other patient, and I wasn’t going to get distracted by his smile, or his winking at me, or anything else. Focus was all I was going to do.
“Mr. Levy, it’s time for breakfast,” I said as I stood in his doorway. “Oh, shit, really?”
Erik was standing in front of his mirror in the bathroom totally naked. My eyes instantly focused on his astonishing muscular build and I couldn’t help but let them linger on his divine ass. It had been over two years since I had seen a naked man and none of them had been nearly as beautiful as this one.
His skin was tanned and every curve of muscle was visible. He certainly looked like he was in good shape for a guy who was an addict. Typically, addicts weren’t hanging out at the gym and working on their body; they were too busy drinking and drugging.
“Sorry,” he said as he turned around exposing his very ample-sized member to me.
“Seriously?” I said as he stood there naked.
“I can cover up, sorry.” He reached for the incredibly small towel and held it up over his beefy whistle as he walked toward me. “I don’t have a door, you know. Sorry for the exposure.”
“Um. It’s…well, it’s breakfast time.”
I was flustered. As much as I tried not to be, I was. I couldn’t help it. In front of me was a tanned, toned, perfect specimen of a man. Sure, he was a bit of an arrogant asshole, but I would bet my life that he was damn good with the ladies. Erik had probably never had a woman tell him no in his life.
My experience with men certainly didn’t include a guy like him. While I had been drinking, I dated other, similarly drunk losers, and before that, I had dated dorky guys from high school. The idea of a guy like Erik hadn’t even crossed my mind before his naked body crossed my eyes.
“I know, I was just getting ready to come eat,” he said as his eyes wandered down my body and focused on my hips and center.
He licked his lips and then let his eyes move back up toward my eyes. He had no shame at all. Erik Levy was in his first days of drug treatment, yet he was clearly more focused on embarrassing me than he was on his recovery.
As much as I enjoyed looking at his divine body, he wasn’t the type of guy I would give the time of day. I didn’t have energy for his games or the random flirting he seemed to do in hopes of getting me to flirt back with him. I had been single for two years because I was working on myself and wanted to be a better person; it would take a pretty damn good guy to break my dry streak.
“Well then, get out there and stop all this nonsense. I work here; I’m not going to sleep with you.”
“Who said I wanted to sleep with you?” he responded incredulously.
He pretended like all that flirting and talking he was doing didn’t mean he wanted to sleep with me. It was insane. The first day, he had asked me to lick whipped cream off his erect penis. He was driving me crazy with his games, and I didn’t want to play anymore.
“You did. I’m not going to have it. I’m a professional, and you’re here to get better. So, knock it off.”
He turned toward his bed and let the small towel drop as he started to get dressed. I turned around to leave. There was no reason for me to stand there and watch him as he put his clothes on.
“I wasn’t trying to sleep with you. Maybe you’re projecting your own desires onto me. Perhaps you should concentrate on your work more and less on peeping in on patients when they are naked.”
“Oh, I never,” I started to say.
“Hmm, you didn’t strike me as the prudish type. I thought of you more as—”
I stormed away before I had to be subjected to another word from him. How dare he turn that situation around on me. I hadn’t been peeping in on him. I was doing my job and getting him for breakfast. If he had been out at the breakfast tables like he was supposed to be, then I wouldn’t have had to come to his room. The nerve of that guy amazed me.
As I stormed back to the nurses’ station, Susan saw my anger and just laughed as I sat down and crossed my arms. Who did he think he was? I wasn’t some sort of pervert; he was! And I certainly wasn’t a prude. He didn’t know anything about me, how dare he make such insinuations.
“I see you’ve met Mr. Levy.” Susan laughed. “He has been quiet the handful the last couple of days.”
“He’s a jerk. Who does he think he is, anyways?”
“It doesn’t really matter. He’s paying in cash, and Mr. March wants us to keep him happy. So, that’s exactly what we need to do.”
“He’s not even trying at his treatment. It’s ridiculous.”
“He’s been going through some pretty horrible withdrawals. I think he’s been rather kind from what I’ve seen. Yesterday, I’m pretty sure he vomited up everything he ate, but he was nice to the tech that was on and had to clean it.”
I just rolled my eyes at Susan. The last thing I wanted to hear was that Erik the jerk was going through a hard time. I wasn’t in the mood at all. There was something about him that just got under my skin and I couldn’t deal with it. It was hard as hell to be nice to him when he flipped things around on me like he had.
“I’m not cleaning up that jerk’s vomit. No way.”