Authors: Melissa Foster
She’d been terrible company when she’d met Amanda for
lunch. She’d spent the entire time debating telling Heath where she lived. She wanted to tell him she lived in New York City. Maybe he lived close by and they could see each other. But that
also
made her nervous. She could see how a man like Heath could be addicting, and she didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.
Who was she kidding?
Become addicting?
She was already craving him like
a cocaine addict craves another hit.
She decided to play it cool and see what happened.
I think we’ve stretched the definition of “no ties,” which is a shame, because I kind of liked playing with your tie.
“Hey, Ally, do you have those results done yet?” She shoved her phone in the pocket of her lab coat as Marty Crolor came into the back room of the lab where she was working.
“Dr. Warton is on the warpath.” Marty was in his late twenties. He’d shown Ally the ropes over the last few weeks since she’d started working at the hospital. He was smart, helpful, and almost always in a good mood.
“Yes. I’ve already submitted them. Nothing out of the ordinary.” She went to one of the computers and pulled up the report she’d filed. They ran a tight ship in the medical lab.
Busy from the second they arrived until the moment the next shift took over; running tests, delivering results, and drawing blood from patients was all in a day’s work. Ally enjoyed every minute of her chaotic day. She’d come to work at the hospital from a private lab facility because she wanted more one-on-one interaction with patients. She knew how difficult giving blood was for some people, and
Ally had a knack for helping patients feel at ease.
A printer spit out a document, and Marty pulled the order and looked at Ally with a quick raise of his brows.
“Want to do a peds blood draw?”
“Heck yeah.” Ally’s heart went out to all the patients, but she was especially touched by the children. She changed from her blue lab coat to the white one she wore on the floor, then grabbed
the tray of supplies she’d need to draw blood as Marty read off the order, telling her which room, the patient’s name, and the doctor who’d ordered the procedure. Marty rated the doctor a four on the fear-inducing scale they used in the laboratory to assess the doctors’ attitudes toward the staff. A four meant that he was prone to nasty comments but did so calmly. In other words, he’d rip the staff
to shreds while smiling, as opposed to a five, who was more like a rabid dog. Ally didn’t like to deal with fives because it was difficult for her not to give them shit right back, and doing so would cost her her job. At least with a four she could tune out the words and focus on the smile.
On her way up to the seventh floor she debated telling Heath where she lived. At least that way they
would know if seeing each other was even an option. Otherwise, how long would this game go on? She loved every second of it, but she was already feeling a little addicted to their naughty texts and hoping for more sexy calls. How would she feel if they did this for another week or two and then suddenly the calls and texts stopped?
She pushed away those thoughts and made herself stop thinking
about texting Heath so she wasn’t delayed in taking blood from the little boy, who was probably a nervous wreck.
She found the seven-year-old boy, Johnny Waselchec, watching television.
“Hey there, buddy.” She smiled as she came around the bed and set her supplies down.
Johnny looked over with the widest blue eyes she’d ever seen and clutched his mother’s hand. His mother slid a nervous
smile to Ally.
Ally glanced at the television, determined to keep his mind off the needle.
“Cartoons? I wonder if my boss would mind if I watched with you for a while.” She patted the mattress beside his legs. “Move over. I’ll sit right here.”
Johnny laughed.
“What? You don’t think I should?” She wrinkled her brow.
“No,” he said with another sweet laugh. “You have to work,
not watch television.”
Ally huffed. “This grown-up stuff is highly overrated. I’d much rather watch cartoons. But I guess if I
have
to work, I will. You don’t have to work, though. Lucky for you, you can just watch that show while I work.” By the time he looked at his arm, she’d already cleaned the area over his vein and was ready to draw his blood. She glanced back up at the television.
“Why don’t you watch that show. Since I’m not allowed to watch, can you tell me what’s happening? I hate missing cartoons.”
Johnny blinked up at the television. “The dog is trying to catch the cat.”
She heard a thread of fear in his voice and tried to ease his worry, knowing the needle wouldn’t hurt too badly. It was usually the idea of the needle that hurt more than the stick itself.
She’d often thought that if blood draws were celebrated instead of feared, children wouldn’t be quite as afraid.
Hey, Johnny! You get to give blood today! Isn’t that great?
But she assumed that by the time a child needed to have his or her blood drawn, the parents were too worried to think of such things, and she didn’t blame them one bit.
“You’re going to feel a little pinch, but don’t worry—afterward
you get really cool stickers. I’ll give you two extra stickers if you keep telling me about the cartoon.”
He smiled and relayed the cartoon as she took his blood. When she was done, he gazed up at his mom and said, “You were right, Mom. Only a little pinchy.”
Johnny chose his stickers—four instead of two—and Ally thanked him for telling her about the cartoon before she headed back down
to the lab. She changed her lab coat and resumed her work.
The afternoon passed without another text from Heath. Ally tried to convince herself that was a good thing. Really, how far could a relationship based on a few nights of hot sex and one act of phone sex really go? The closer it got to the end of her shift, the more annoyed she became with herself for checking her phone. When had she
become so dependent? He probably had a handful of girls—or more—that he played these games with. She took out her phone and deleted the flirty texts.
No more sexy texts with a guy she hardly knew. God, what had she been thinking anyway? She’d have given Mandy hell if she were playing the same sexy games with a stranger.
Only he’s not really a stranger
.
She groaned at herself for rationalizing
the situation, chalked it up to a momentary lapse in judgment, and tried to focus on her work. Not that she regretted a second of their time together, or the phone call, or the texts. No, the momentary lapse in judgment was for her inability to stop checking her damned phone and wishing he’d text or call again.
I’m so glad I’m done with that craziness.
Only losers have phone sex.
Even if it was a total turn-on
.
Even if he is hotter than any man I’ve ever seen
.
She put her hand in the pocket of her lab coat and felt her phone, wishing it would vibrate, and she knew she was already in too deep to shut off her thoughts that easily.
She was looking through a microscope, working on the last order she needed to complete before the end of her shift, when a familiar
deep voice sent a shiver down her spine and a shock of heat between her legs. She raised her eyes just as Heath walked into the room. Wearing a white dress shirt and a tie, covered by a white lab coat, he was even more devastatingly handsome than she’d remembered. He looked taller, broader, but those intense blue eyes bored through her with the same animal magnetism that they had the first time they’d
seen each other at the resort—and the second. And the third.
Her mouth went dry.
She stole a glance at the name on his lab coat—Dr. Wild—then forced herself to lower her eyes back to the microscope before she made a complete ass out of herself.
Holy shit. Dr. Wild? Are you kidding me?
That sounded like a fake name. He
was
wild—there was no doubt about that.
Shit. Shit. Shit
.
“Ally is working on your results right now, Dr. Wild.” Marty touched Ally’s arm.
She couldn’t continue staring into the microscope and ignoring them. She braced herself for humiliation—sure Marty would read,
I’ve sucked his cock,
in her eyes, and sat up to face them.
“Ally, this is Dr. Wild. He needs his results.” Before walking away, Marty added, “Ally, I have only
one
more thing for you
before the end of your shift.”
Ally wrinkled her brow, and it wasn’t until Marty winked that she realized he was rating Heath.
One
. He’d rated Heath a one. Thank goodness.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she drew in a deep breath and finally met Heath’s gaze.
“Dr. Wild,” she said in the most professional voice she could muster.
Heath’s eyes never left hers as he moved in
close, his chest brushing her shoulder.
“Allyson. I guess New York City isn’t so big after all.” His hushed whisper slithered over her skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps.
He smelled like strength and warmth, and when he nodded toward the microscope and said, “May I?” she wished he were asking if he could kiss her, despite swearing him off only moments earlier.
There was no swearing
off Heath Wild. Just the sight of him did funny things to her entire body, not to mention the way it flustered her mind.
He leaned down and peered into the microscope. “Did Fifi get your tongue?”
That
shook her back to the present. He remembered her cat’s name?
“I…”
Get your act together
. She closed her eyes for a beat and forced herself back into her professional, work-appropriate
demeanor. “There’s nothing remarkable in the findings.”
He continued looking through the microscope as silence stretched between them.
“I was just thinking about how this case has me all tied up.” He rose to his full height and pinned her in place with a seductive stare.
Her insides churned, and all the good parts of her remembered all the good parts of him—and exactly how incredible
they were together.
“Yes, well…” She lowered her voice, unable to stop from playing their dirty, flirtatious game. “It is a
hard
case.”
His eyes slid around the busy laboratory. “I’d like you to
come
…” He put a hand on her lower back and guided her to the microscope as her knees turned to jelly. “Take a look at this.”
His grin told her that he knew exactly what effect he was having
on her. He had that damn lab coat on, so she couldn’t tell if she was having the same effect on him. He moved to her other side, where the table shielded him below the waist from the eyes of the other employees, and pressed his hard length against her hip. There was no mistaking the effect she had on him. She looked into the microscope so her coworkers wouldn’t be wise to the flames igniting between
them. She was surprised they hadn’t already lit the room on fire.
He leaned in close again and said, “Now I know.”
She gazed up at him in confusion. “Know?”
“What city you live in.”
She swallowed hard at the look of lust brimming in his eyes. “Yes, well. No strings, remember?”
He touched her back again, and she swore she’d have a third-degree burn from the searing heat of it.
“No strings. Only ties.” He straightened his tie as Marty entered the room again.
“Is everything in order here?” Marty’s eyes ran between the two of them.
Ally felt her cheeks heat up and stepped away from the microscope, straightening the reports on the table in hopes of breaking the sexual tension that tethered her and Heath together.
“Yes. I’ve completed Dr. Wild’s results.”
“Yes, she’s tied up all my loose ends.” Heath smiled, and when his eyes moved from Marty to Ally, she felt her insides melt.
“Perfect. Ally will type up the report and get it into the system. Is there anything else you wanted to see, Dr. Wild?” Marty asked.
Heath straightened his tie again. “I may need to dig a little deeper, but for now I think these results are clear. Thank you.”
Marty smiled. “Okay, well, I’ll leave you in Ally’s capable hands.”
Don’t I wish
. Her fingers itched with anticipation.
“Now, that’s someplace I’d like to return to,” he said quietly.
“No ties,” she reminded him.
“Right. Dinner, then?”
“Thought you weren’t looking for anything more than…what we had.” She didn’t need to be the booty call of a doctor in the hospital where she
worked. That had trouble written all over it.
“I wasn’t.” He held her gaze, and she read so many conflicting messages in his blue eyes that she could barely think straight.
“Then why?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Well, that’s not going to win you a date
.
He stepped in closer. “Maybe it’s your beautiful brown eyes, or the way you challenge my smart-ass comments. Maybe
it’s the incredible sex. I don’t honestly know, but I’ve thought about you every second since we met, and let me tell you, Allyson. It’s hard as hell to be a good doctor when all my blood is residing below my waist.”
She couldn’t help the laugh and smile that brought. “Okay.”
“Okay?” His eyes widened with surprise.
“Did I stutter?”
He shook his head and smiled, as if they were
discussing the weather. “If we weren’t in your workplace, I’d kiss that smirk right off your lips.”
Yes, please
.
HEATH RACED OVER to his mother’s house after work, stopping first to pick up a few groceries just in case she was running low. He hated rushing through a visit, but he wanted to get home and shower before meeting Ally. He pulled up in front of his childhood home and parked behind his brother Jackson’s motorcycle. He wondered why Jackson was there. Jackson and their youngest
brother, Cooper, owned a prestigious photography studio and rarely had free time in the early evenings. He knocked twice before walking into the living room of the cozy two-story home, where he found Jackson and his mother sitting on the couch. Jackson’s black leather jacket lay on the couch beside him, and their mother’s knitting needles were on the coffee table. Jackson rose as Heath came into
the room.