Alluring Infatuation (24 page)

“What? Why are you smiling like that?”

Winding her arms around my neck, she leans in and licks my ear. What is she doing? We’re in the middle of everyone. “Thank you for bringing me today. I’m having fun. I like your friends.”

Leaning back so I can look at her, I say, “You’re welcome. And they like you, too.” I lean up to kiss her softly. “So do I.”

She sighs and stares at me before leaning down and kissing me. Aggressively. Her mouth is demanding entrance and my lips are happy to oblige. We fence with our tongues as we forget all about the rest of the people in the room.

Only Bradi’s snort breaks through our fervor. “Hey sexy lady, get off of Mister Wonderful’s lap. I don’t want to see him fuck you. I’m into some kink, but not that.”

Micah covers her mouth with his hand. “Jesus, Bradi. Stick something in your mouth and shut up.”

She bites him and waggles her eyebrows. “Find me something.”

He chortles with his laughter before she attacks him while holding his face. His hands kneed her ass and she grinds against him before she pulls back. Looking at us, she winks. “Ok, never mind, Doc. Do carry on. I’ll carry on with my man over here.”

Lexi starts laughing and can’t stop and Blue and Clove soon join in. Within seconds, everyone is cracking up. Looking around, I realize everyone in our group is now paired off. It’s nice to see. Leaning down, I kiss Melonie again and take her by surprise. She moans into my mouth and sucks on my tongue before sliding off of my lap. Leaning down, she whispers in my ear, “Seriously, stop. I’m wound so tightly right now, I probably would actually fuck you in front of everyone, so I’m getting off of your lap.”

My eyes widen. “Where did that mouth come from?”

She winks. “Probably from hanging around rockers.”

Wait, we’re not those kinds of rockers. I mean yes, we’ve done our fair share of shit, but we don’t do the things some bands do and all of us are paired off, Jude is even married.

She frowns. “What’s wrong? What did I say?”

Shaking my head, I smile at her. “Nothing. Go ahead and eat. I’m sure the girls will go with you.”

She heads to the food and I head to the bar as Cruz walks in. Within minutes, the girls are laughing and eating and the guys are crowd watching through the windows as we drink.

The concert starts and I’m really impressed. The first few bands did great and with each one, more and more people poured into Death Valley until we were at a concert with about 80,000 of our closest country friends. Lee Brice sings and most of us are slow dancing to a song about how we don’t dance. It makes me smile.

Melonie

L
ast night was amazing! Dade was so attentive. I really love his friends. I feel like the girls have accepted me and they really seem to like me. I like them. Seeing them all together is a gift. They feed off of each other and work together. They are like a bunch of different branches, but from a single tree. Each is strong on their own, but put them together and you have a pretty amazing dynamic. I’ve gathered through conversations that most of them have no real families or had really messed up childhoods. Just look at Dade and Clove. To see them today after all they went through growing up, I’m so proud of both of them. I’m proud of this entire group and I’m so blessed to be able to consider them my friends as well.

The concert was probably one of the most memorable nights of my life. I’ll never forget it.

A sleepy “Morning, beautiful.” and a scratchy jaw nuzzling my neck makes me smile.

Turning, I lean on my side and smile at Dade. His dark eyes are slumberous, his hair is a mess, and his face is full of scruff. He takes the breath clean out of my chest.

I am so screwed.

I take in the total package and grin. He looks alarmed. “Why are you smiling like that?”

Leaning over, I press a kiss to his chest. “Because you are so fucking fine, Dade Rodrigue. I just want to sop you up like a biscuit.”

“What? You want to do what like a what?”

“Seriously?! You’ve never heard that phrase?” Is he being serious?!

He chuckles. “Yeah, I’ve heard it. Just not in relation to, well… me.”

He rolls and I’m underneath him with his hair around us both. I’ve never liked long hair on a man, but dear lord, I love Dade’s. I’ve never been attracted to muscles and tattoos either, but with him, you add all of his attributes together and you get a mighty delectable man. The perfect man. The man I… love?!

Whoa, Nelly? What the hell? Nope, not going there. You are NOT going there Melonie Bird. You. Do. Not. Love. Him.

You love looking at him. You love the way he makes you feel. You love what he does to your body, but nope, you do NOT love him.

I forbid it!

Yeah, how’s that working out for me?!

I’m crazy. That’s it. I’m officially certifiable. I’m talking to myself about the fact that I may be… NO. No. I’m not in love with a man that makes me a crazy person and talk to myself!

His eyes are dancing as he watches the play move across my face. A frown appears between his brows and he taps my forehead. “What’s in there? Right now. What’s in there?”

I mutter, “You do not want to know. Trust me.”

Scooting out from underneath him, I turn to the bathroom. He starts to sit up. “No, don’t. I have to, well, pee. I don’t want you following me in there for that.”

He nods, but I’m not sure he believes me. I just need to get out of there and into some “Dade free” space to have a minute to think…

Sitting on the closed toilet, I look at my feet with my arms wrapped around my waist. Grabbing a large towel, I wrap it around me since I’m suddenly cold.

Get it together girl. You’re having a meltdown and for what?!

Because I’m in love with the man in the next room and I don’t think he loves me back.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

What am I going to do!? Why am I freaking out?! Seriously!? Why the fuck am I hiding in the bathroom freaking out!?

Get over it, Mel. Stop acting like a damned crazy person.

He doesn’t even know you’re acting like a lunatic! You’re. Hiding. In. The. Bathroom!

There’s a knock at the door. “You ok in there? You’ve been in here for fifteen minutes, Melonie and I know you’re not peeing. I can hear through the door. What’s wrong?! I’m coming in.”

The door opens and he’s standing there. Sunlight streams through the plantation shutters and makes a spotlight onto his tanned, tattooed body. It almost looks like he’s sparkling in the sun.

I snort in ridiculous laughter.

Leaning against the doorframe, he asks, “What’s funny?”

“You look like you need to be in Twilight. Only you have tattoos and the wolves are the ones with tattoos.”

“O… K…”

I snort again as I realize he has no idea what I’m talking about. “Twilight… book series. Vampires sparkle and werewolves have tattoos. HUGE books/movies.” He frowns at me. “Not a fan, huh?!”

He’s looking at me like I’m completely nuts. “I know what Twilight is. I live in America. Isn’t he like married or some shit to Snow White?”

Now I’m looking at him incredulously. I laugh. “No. No, he’s not. They broke up.”

“I honestly don’t care. Why are you comparing me to that dude exactly?”

I take a step back. “I’m not. The light was bouncing off of you. It looked like you were sparkling, so I made the reference. Sorry, I read too much.”

He chuckles. “So, vampires, huh?”

Quirking my brow, I stare at him with pursed lips. “Not actually. I prefer hot blooded men.”

He chortles and says, “Well, in that case…”

I had to leave Dade and head to the hospital. I’m on call and one of Monica’s patients went into labor, nine weeks too early. We were able to stop the labor, but she’s on complete bed rest now and will be confined to the hospital for as long as we can delay the delivery. At this point, even two weeks is better than right now.

“But, Dr. Bird. I don’t want to be here. They disturb you at all hours of the day and night. No one can sleep. The food stinks. I can go home and stay in bed. Can’t you let me go home?” She’s crying.

I sigh and walk over to the bed. “I understand all of that. I do. And I feel for you. No one wants to stay in the hospital, especially for extended periods of time. Yet, you need to be here. If you want to have this baby safely, you need to be here.

I know it’s not ideal. The reality is that you are effaced and dilated. Your water has not broken, but the baby wants to come out. We were able to stop the labor, but we might not be able to next time. It’s still too early. If we have to deliver, we have to deliver, but our goal to keep this baby in there for a bit longer. The longer she’s in there, the stronger she is.

You are going to need to stop with what you want and think about what she needs. And what she needs is the hospital. Ok?”

Her eyes are wide in her pale face. I can see her terror. “She’s going to be ok, right? You promise she’s going to be ok?”

I smile at her. “I promise you I will do everything I can to have both of you out of here as quickly as possible. But, you have to trust us.”

“I’m scared. She’s all I have left…”

My eyes fill and I have to blink quickly to stop them from falling. Clutching the chart that says she’s twenty four years old and recently a widow, I smile again. “We will do everything within our power to keep you both healthy and safe.”

She smiles as tears roll down her cheeks and she cradles her stomach. “Thank you. You’re a good doctor.”

I nod. “Thank you. Now get some rest. I’ll check in on you before I leave tonight.”

Closing her eyes and turning onto her side, she sings softly as she falls asleep.

Sometimes this job is hard. My heart breaks for some of these patients and it’s so hard not to promise them that everything will be ok.

Dade texted me a couple of hours ago and asked if I was going to be leaving in time for dinner. Clove was cooking something new for her article for Rock With Me and wanted to share it with us. I told him that unfortunately, I didn’t think I’d be done in time.

While I’m already at the hospital, I decide to check on a few more of my patients. I get through all four of them pretty quickly. I love babies. The smell, the softness of their skin and the way that they look like tiny little dolls. Maybe one day, I’ll be a mother to my own…

I also love the metamorphosis of the human body when it’s nurturing a baby. I love watching my patients go through all the stages. It’s so wondrous and really a miracle that one body can hold and nurture two, sometimes more.

Shaking my head to wake up some, I decide to head down to the cafeteria for some awful coffee.

I’m filling my cup and the steam is wafting up with the scent tempting my nose as I feel someone at my back. Turning, I smile when I see who it is.

He takes in my coffee and chuckles. “Long day, huh?”

I smile. “Yeah. One of Monica’s patients had a misstep and I’m on call. While I was here, I decided to check in on all of my new mommies. Why are you here? You work today?”

Jake is a handsome man. He’s what people would classify as preppy. Today, he’s wearing a light blue oxford with pressed khaki chinos under his white lab coat and brown loafers grace his feet.

He nods. “Yes. I have a surgery tomorrow and came in to make sure all of the pre-op was covered. My patient is an elderly man and is worried about it, so I wanted to visit with him and answer any questions he had. We just finished and he’s taking his antibiotics now.”

Nodding, I trace the rim of my cup as I listen to him talk. His voice gets animated as he talks about his patients. It’s what makes him an amazing doctor and also why he was just hired to be the head of Urology at another hospital. He’ll be moving in a few weeks. I’ll miss him.

“Are you packed?”

His eyes sparkle as he looks at me. “Yes and no. I don’t have much and what I do have doesn’t need to be moved, so the important things are packed. I’ll probably leave my furniture with the house.”

“I’m going to miss you.”