"Click, click, click, click."
"Stop that or you're going to flood the scanning machine." I stared over at Dr. Dan through the glass of the nurse's station.
I swear, everywhere I go in this hospital, there he is.
Today it was the break room.
I ate lunch there before I needed to get back to the nurse's station, and there he popped up.
Like always, he just stared at me, and it confused the ever-loving heck out of me.
He's never spoken to me before, even with all the staring, but then again, I give him a wide berth when I see him.
He makes me feel things, things I've never felt before, and it would just be better for everyone if those feelings stayed buried.
"Just can't seem to get the darn thing to start." His deep voice rolled over my skin, making goosebumps break out, even though it was a good ninety degrees right now.
"Hmm. Pop the hood." I stumbled over my words, and he shot me a smirk.
Jerk.
Probably used to women falling all over him.
Not that I can blame them. I'd probably fall all over him, too, if I thought I was his type.
Which I'm definitely not.
He was clean-cut in a hard, conventionally attractive way.
Blond hair, blue eyes, and a thousand-watt smile that came out easily.
He couldn't be more of a good ol' boy if he tried. Unfolding himself from his spot next to the scanning machine, he reached down and popped the hood.
I didn't wait for an invitation as I stepped off the tiled floor and lifted the hood.
It's an easy fix if it's what I think it is.
Retrieving my wrench out of my back pocket, I grabbed the battery cable, giving it a wiggle.
It's loose, just like I thought, so I screwed it back on to the battery terminal tightly.
"Give that a try." I straightened and turned around, knocking straight into a wall of chest.
The badge clipped to his chest shone bright in my face. "Whoa there, Dr. Dan. I don't need you so close."
I snapped the words, trying to take a step back as his masculine smell invaded my senses.
God, he smelled good.
I didn't know a man could smell that good. Probably because he doesn't work in a hospital full of sweaty men all day.
Jesus, his smell had me feeling those goosebumps again.
"I don't bite, Joey."
The use of my name had me glaring at him.
No one called me 'Josephine.'
Only my mother ever did, and that name died when she did.
It's too intimate for him to be using that name, and I hated how I felt when he said it.
It made me feel all feminine and stuff.
Nope.
Not touching that.
"The name is Joey," I corrected him, trying to put a firmness behind my tone.
I wanted him to know I wasn't messing around.
But he just shot me that stupid perfect smile, making my heart flutter.
I should take a step back, but I didn't want to seem like I'm intimidated by him.
That, and I'm still rather enjoying the smell of him.
I grew up with three older brothers who are all in the Air Force now.
Surely I can handle one sexy, muscle-bound doctor. I think.
"I prefer 'Joey.' It suits you better." His hand went to my shoulder, picking up the end of my ponytail as he twirled the black strands around his finger.
What. The. Hell.
I don't think I've ever twirled my hair, and the fact that I liked him touching me bothered me. I batted his hand away, pretending to be annoyed. "How do you even know that name? Everyone calls me 'Joey.'" I gave him my best stink-eye, which seemed to have no effect on him, either. Normally, men scurried off when I gave it, but I don't think Doctor Dan had scurried from anything in his entire life.
"I am aware of many things about you." His tone made it sound like we'd been intimate, like he knew every part of my body. It was completely untrue, unless he could see through my clothes with all that staring he'd been doing.
"Are you watching me?" I pushed my shoulders back, trying to make myself bigger, but my stature was dwarfed by his broad frame.
I took a step into him, thinking he'd retreat at my aggression, but he didn't. In fact he leaned in a little more, making me feel the heat of his body.
"If observing you involves contemplating you every night while I pleasure myself and reaching climax with the delightful name 'Joey' on my lips, then yes, I have been observing you intently since I returned here."
All the blood rushed to my face, and I could feel it turning bright red.
I've been around men my whole life who say the nastiest stuff, and never once have I blushed.
I'm used to it, and sometimes I even add a few jokes of my own.
Being around my older brothers and working in an nurse station, there probably isn't a thing I haven't heard.
What I've never heard is that filthy talk directed at me.
No, not me. Joey the tomboy who fits in better with the boys. Joey the chick who doesn't know anything about being a chick.
"I cannot believe you uttered that." The words left my mouth breathlessly.
I should shove my knee right in his testicles, but I found myself wanting to touch him there, just not with my knee.
"That is nothing compared to the things I've imagined doing to you, my dear Joey."
"I am not sweet," I bit out. "Or yours, for that matter."
He leaned down, like he was inhaling my scent. "Oh yes, you are sweet indeed. You smell like sugary cotton candy on a warm summer day. You probably taste like it, too."
"That's medicine you smell, you idiot." I wanted the words to come out mean, but they sounded more like a tease.
What was he doing to me?
"Go out with me," he said, ignoring my statement. I just wasn't buying it.
Why now? We've both been in this hospital together for over 3 years, and this was the first time we'd ever so much as talked.
"Why are you asking me out now? Have you exhausted your local options and are now scraping the bottom of the barrel? No, thank you."
I turned to leave, making the retreat that I didn't want to make.
I wanted him to back down, to get out of my space, but that clearly wasn't happening.
I was way over my head, and a little ticked off, too.
It burned that I've wanted him since he showed up in this hospital, but never once has he made a move.
Now out of nowhere he's all up my face wanting to go out.
Something smelled fishy, and I didn't want any part of it, no matter what my body was begging to do.
It's not like I wanted him to actually do all those things he said he wanted to do to me.
Nope, I lied to myself.
He grabbed me by the waist, pulling me back to him, and my body embarrassingly melted into his. I couldn't help loving the feeling of having him pressed up against me.
My body was enjoying the physical contact so much, it almost made me want to cry.
The loneliness I've felt came rushing forward, crashing against my chest, and reminding me how long it's been since someone held me.
"The only woman I have considered is you."
He dismissed the word 'woman' from his tongue like he was annoyed he had to use it.
Which was crazy because not minutes ago he said cruder things to me. "In fact, I thought about it so incessantly I cannot complete my duties.
I am done waiting, so I might as well take you now.
Perhaps after I get you beneath me, I can regain some composure and actually finish what I came here to do."
"No." The word had absolutely no power behind it. Something's wrong with me.
I'm broken.
I'm letting him manhandle me, and I'm not even fighting it.
Damn.
I don't want to fight it.
Why should I?
I'm a twenty-two-year-old virgin whose body is screaming for some physical attention.
Maybe it's time to take the plunge.
Maybe he's looking for a good time, a casual encounter, and needs to get me out of his system.
Why I'm in his system to begin with, I have no idea, but maybe this could work.
I see how other women in the hospital look at him.
They flirt with him all the time, but I've always just seen him be professional.
Until now. I like the idea that maybe I've made him crack, even if it isn't true.
"I will detain you and take you to my office until you consent."
He leaned in to whisper into my ear. "Or simply await everyone's departure from the nurse station and satisfy your desires until you agree."
He took my earlobe into his mouth, sucking it, then giving it a little bite.
A moan escaped my lips, loving the sensation.
"Damn. Do not make that sound when we are in public."
He let go of me, and then I remembered we're standing in the middle of the hospital, beside the reception .
I looked around, but no one seemed to be
looking our way or paying attention.
Not much was going on.