The Heart (18 page)

The next morning, I woke up well rested and saw a new text from Jack.

Jack: Good morning, beautiful.

Rose: Morning, handsome. Rap & R&B 101 Biggie, Hypnotize.

Jack: See you later?

Rose: If you’re lucky.

Jack: Cocky this morning, are we?

Rose: I slept well.

Jack: Better dreams?

I paused before replying, deciding to go with honesty.

Rose: I had a good date last night.

Jack: Lucky bastard.

Rose: Go build something.

Jack: Go save a life.

I threw off my covers, scrolled through my music on my cell phone, and cranked the volume up. Biggie’s deep voice filled my bathroom as I moved my hips and scrubbed myself down with a ridiculously expensive body wash I’d bought on my shopping spree. I shaved my legs twice, with a
what if
mentality behind my grooming. I knew Jack wanted to take things slow, but if our last few private moments together were any indication, we would be doing some exploring soon enough. I looked at my naked body in the mirror and made a decision.

I pulled the silk panty set I’d purchased a week ago out of the tissue paper and slid it on. When and if Jack made a move, I’d be ready. I took the golf cart to the entrance, slightly deflated Jack’s bike wasn’t in sight. I’d hoped to just have a glimpse of him to start my day off right. Still, I made my way to work with a renewed sense of purpose. For the first time since Grant died, I was excited about the life I was living.

By the time I was done with rounds and prepping for surgery, I was fit to be tied as I waited for any word from Jack. Though I’d played coy, I wanted to push repeat on the night before and checked my phone in vain twice before I scrubbed in.

Once out of surgery, I rushed back to my locker and smiled when I saw the picture Jack had sent of Annabelle in a patch of bluebonnets on my land. I guessed he was keeping himself busy with the center and entertaining my family. A pang of jealousy struck me, but in a good way.

Rose: She’s so beautiful.

Jack: She is. I have a little crush on her. So can I see you tonight?

Rose: Sure. I’ll be earlier.

Jack: It’s a date, ladies choice.

Rose: ☺

I did a little dance where I stood and felt the thud of Jules going down on her ass behind me. I turned to see her on the floor with a shit-eating grin on her face. She’d been spying on my text exchange.

“You’re seeing him!”

“I’m...” I said, pulling her tiny ass off of the floor. “Shut up!”

“Rose, I won’t push, but can I just say—”

“Nope.”

“I hope he’s hung like a horse!” Two of the hospital staff, whom I didn’t know and suddenly never wanted to, burst out laughing as they left us to our conversation.

“Discretion, Jules, Jesus,” I said, pushing her to sit on the cheap plastic bench in the middle of the locker room.

“Tell me something, anything,” she said, exasperated, as I changed socks and tied my shoes.

“He seems to be a really good guy,” I said, knowing the shit I was about be given for being so vague.

“That is
not
what I want to hear,” she said, standing to pace in front of me.

“We haven’t even made it past first base, okay?”

Jules narrowed her eyes. “Is that why you’re wearing sexy underwear?”

“What?”

She pulled at the strap on my hip and let it snap back. I jumped in surprise as I pulled my pants up further to cover it.

“I have nothing to tell,” I said defensively. “We have surgery in twenty minutes. Stop bullshitting,” I snapped.

“Fine, jeez,” she said, pulling on a fresh set of scrubs over her ample ass. “See if I give you another play by play.”

“I never ask for them. You overshare, and anyways, we’re too old to have nothing to talk about except men.”

Jamie came in just as I was ridding myself of Jules’ inquisition and her eyes widened perceptively.

“Nothing happened,” I said as Jamie held up her hands in defense and looked over at Jules, who gave her a solid nod.

“But it’s going to?” Jules nodded and motioned over to me. “Silk panties and matching bra.”

“That’s it, I’m leaving. I’ll see you in surgery.” It wasn’t like me to clam up when they’d been so open. I’d decided, like everything else, including my pain, to keep my new relationship to myself for the moment. I was all too aware of just how easily things could change.

The awareness had me pause mid-step as I made my way toward OR 3.

Fear crept through my limbs, familiar and unwelcomed. I pushed my shoulders back and narrowed my focus. It was go time. The person on that table needed me to be the surgeon I’d trained to be and would get nothing less.

“You’ll have to take your shirt off,” I said to Jack, who stood at the foot of the machine. “If you don’t mind.”

He gave me a sexy, crooked smile, the scar above his lip highlighted by the lighting of the room. “I was kind of hoping you would be the one to do that.”

I took a confident step toward him and gripped the hem of his shirt. “You were, huh?”

“Except in my scenario, we weren’t in a cold, sterile room. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said ladies choice tonight. Dinner,” he said as I brushed my lips against his, “dancing,” he continued as I kissed him again. “A movie, maybe? You know, something standard.”

“It’s what I want,” I said, leaning in to place one last kiss on his scar. He stood, expectant, a challenge in his eyes as I lifted his shirt and studied the wall of solid muscle that stood before me. He was sculpted to perfection. Jack’s chest and torso were ripped with muscle, solid pecs, an eight pack, and even the pebbled muscle that stretched from under his ribcage and trailed around to his back. He’d worked hard for that body, and I had no intentions of not appreciating it. I didn’t even hesitate as I leaned in and kissed his chest where his heart lay. I heard him inhale as he wrapped his fists in my hair in an attempt to gently pull me away. I didn’t let him deter me as I soaked up his skin, moving with precision as my hands explored him. I trailed my mouth along his chest before I covered one of his nipples and flicked my tongue.

“Rose,” Jack whispered as both a prayer and a curse.

I moved my tongue along the middle of his chest, sucking and licking up to the hollow of his neck before I went in again, tasting him with greed, letting my hands roam where they wanted. His hands twisted firmly in my hair as he pulled me back to meet his eyes, which were filled with fire. Arousal soaking every inch of me, I turned my head and sank my teeth into his defined bicep as he cradled me.

“Fuck,” Jack whispered.

I took a step back and pulled my shirt over my head, revealing my heaving chest and tight nipples. Jack bit his lip and jerked me to him, our mouths met needier than ever. Tongues thrashing, his groan matched the need of my moan as we collided and teased with the same hunger.

He drew back as his hand moved up my stomach to cup my breast. I pushed into his hand in want.

“Yes,” I encouraged, needing him more than I’d needed anything in a very long time.

I closed my eyes, leaning into his touch as his calloused hands roamed over my skin. His mouth devoured my nipple through the silky material. In protest of wanting nothing between us, I pulled down the cup, greedy for contact, and cried out as he took my peaked nipple between his lips.

Ecstasy coursed through me from that simple contact, and I didn’t realize I was being lifted until I heard the door shut behind us and was laid onto the couch in the adjacent waiting room.

He hovered above me, his eyes filled with lust as his tongue roved over my chest and neck. I opened my legs, and he sank down on top of me. My mind did a mental ‘click’ at that moment at the way we fit. This time, there was grinding between the both of us. I gasped his name over and over. I needed him more than my next breath, and he had to be the one to free me.

“Jack, please,” I said as a single tear emerged and fell down my cheek. Jack lapped it up with his tongue as he hovered, patiently waiting for me to acknowledge him. I opened my eyes to see both heat and concern.

“I need you so much.”

“Okay,” he said as he leaned in and drew my lips in a slow, passion-filled kiss. He twisted his body to the side of me on the couch as he cradled my neck with one hand and slipped inside my panties with the other. I bucked as his fingers grazed my tender nerves and he pushed his finger inside, releasing a groan as he massaged me with his thumb.

“So wet and ready. I want you so much,” Jack said, adding more pressure. “Rose,” he beckoned. Gasping and panting, he looked down at me, and I saw behind the heat a flicker of desperation. He was at his breaking point. “Fuck, I can’t handle this.”

He sat up and then knelt on the floor before me, making quick work of pulling down my scrubs and panties. Once naked aside from my bra, he looked at me while I moved restlessly beneath him.

Jack’s chest heaved as he watched me, still hesitant, and I pulled at the back of his head and brought him down to meet my mouth with a kiss so raw, it surprised even me. It was filled with permission and longing, and it was returned with fire and possession.

Jack tore himself away and positioned himself at the V of my legs. His eyes still glued to mine, he slid his warm hands up my thighs and pushed them further apart right before he buried his head between them. I screamed out in surprise and pleasure as his velvet tongue teased me with expert skill. He tasted and sucked, making sure I saw his every move. His fingers and tongue orchestrated together perfectly as I abandoned all my senses, letting him take me where I needed to go. I watched him devour me, his hungry tongue darting in and out while he caressed me with his free hand. The look in his eyes, the movement of his tongue, sent me spiraling out as I burst into his waiting mouth. Fast breaths erupted from me as I called out to him, his fingers and tongue unrelenting as it pulled out the very last of my orgasm. My head shook back and forth in disbelief. The mere strength of it had me dissolving beneath him. Aftershocks ripped through me as I came down from the highest of highs and landed comfortably back into my body. Jack continued to soothe me with his mouth as he blazed a trail over my stomach and back to my chest.

“I think I’ve found something I love more than building,” Jack whispered as he hovered above me and drew my nipple into his hot mouth. Wrapping my arms around him, I clung to him for dear life, a new habit of mine, and one I wasn’t willing to let go of.

He looked down at me with reverence, and I couldn’t help the tears that overtook me in that moment.

“Oh God,” I said as they slid down my cheeks.

Jack frowned and covered my face with his hands, gently wiping them away.

“Do you always cry after sex or is it me?”

“It’s just you,” I said with a chuckle, and he joined me. “Why did you stop?”

“I thought you’d finished?” Jack said with another chuckle.

“No I mean—” I cupped his bulge and made a move to unbutton his pants, but he pulled my hand away and gave it a tongue-filled kiss.

“I know what you meant, and if I was in this for sex, we’d be having it.” He moved to sit up, adjusting himself and pulling my pants off the floor to sort them out. He replaced my panties and slid my scrubs back up.

“Jack, I don’t think that.”

“I don’t want you regretting anything.” He looked at me with sincerity. “I want to deserve you.”

I stayed silent because I didn’t want to push it and seem like the easy prey that I was. He’d just captured me with his mouth, his tongue, and his words. He pulled me to his chest as we lay for several minutes, my breathing evening out as his fingers stroked my skin.

A thousand questions I didn’t ask swirled around in my head. Was he this good to every woman he dated? And if so, who in their right mind would let him go? If I asked him those questions, it would give him the right to ask the same ones, and I wanted to wait a bit longer before I reluctantly gave them.

It wasn’t so much pity that scared me. It was the fact that Grant had been such a definitive force in my love life. He had declared himself my end-all-be-all and made sure I felt the same way. I didn’t have any clue how to get around that idea. Even lying in another man’s arms, I wasn’t sure that Jack wasn’t the first in a series of men I would feel unsure about. I still had no idea when, if ever, I could ever fully let myself believe otherwise.

“Let’s go screen you for everything,” a sated me suggested minutes later, eager to test out the equipment.

“Next time, I pick the place,” Jack said, pulling me off the couch and letting his eyes drift over my chest. “I’d hoped I would see this again,” he said as his fingers trailed over the top of the cup of my bra, making me perk up with renewed need. “What made you wear this today?”

“I’d hoped you’d see it again, too.”

“Lord, woman, in a twenty-four hour period, I saw you in this and you came on the back of my bike. How in the hell is a man supposed to walk away from that?”

“Both embarrassing situations for me, Jack, okay? Let’s not use these stories for reference down the line.”

“The hell I won’t, and don’t forget about your tongue,” he chided as we again entered the CT room. He took his place, a shirtless wonder on the body tray.