Chapter 22 #2
I open the door and halt in my tracks. Luca is down the hall, talking to another doctor. Crap. I had been hoping to avoid him today. After what happened Wednesday, I’m not yet ready to see him.
Cindi sighs deeply beside me. “He’s so hot.”
I snicker. “You mean Dr. Fritz?”
“Yup. All the girls on the floor are obsessed. And that includes the nurses,” Tom mutters derisively. “And the moms.”
That I believe.
“You’re just jealous,” Gen snaps.
“Whatever,” he grumbles.
I try not to think about all the nurses and moms on the floor who ogle him. As if he knows we’re talking about him, his gaze cuts in our direction and his eyes lock with mine. A smirk hits his gorgeous face and like a Pavlovian response, my heart instantly reacts, racing around in my chest.
“Oh my God. He’s totally staring at you. I’m shipping this like so hard while being completely jealous.” Cindi nudges me in the back. “Do you know him?”
“A little,” I lie. “Who is Dr. Fritz talking to?”
“That’s Dr. Grosspooper,” Tom declares, and I nearly choke on my own saliva.
I break my stare and flip around to all the kids who are huddled in behind me since I’m blocking the doorway. “I’m sorry. What did you just say?”
“Dr. Grosspooper,” he repeats, his expression neutral. Not even a crack of a smile.
“No. That’s not his name.”
“Sure is,” Marcus promises.
“ Grosspooper ?”
“Don’t believe us? Here. Melissa?” he calls out to one of the nurses approaching us. “Who is talking to Dr. Fritz?”
Melissa’s head flips over her shoulder, smiles a little too brightly at Luca, and then flips back to us. “You mean Dr. Grosspooper?”
I can’t stop my incredulous laugh and now I feel like one of the kids. “You’re messing with me, right?” I ask her.
She shakes her head, but she’s biting into her lip as she suppresses her smile. “That’s his name. Ask any of the kids, residents, or nurses on the floor. Right, guys?”
“Yup. Totally. That’s his name,” they all reply.
Oh boy.
“All right, everyone, time to get back.” I step to the side, letting the kids pass. “Thank you! I can’t wait for next week.”
I get some waves and thank yous as everyone passes. Tom winks at me like a teenage flirt. Then I go back in and grab my cello, hoping that Luca will have moved on by the time I go to leave. No such luck. He’s still there, talking it up with… Dr. Grosspooper.
With no choice but to head in their direction, I can only pray Luca doesn’t stop me. First, I don’t want to talk to him. I’m not in the mood for our back and forth or fighting. Or hot and sexy stuff. Second, I won’t be able to hold my shit together if I have to say the other doctor’s name.
How does a man go into pediatrics with a name like that?
It defies reason and logic. Kids live for an easy pass at teasing.
My head held high, my eyes on the prize—the two giant twin exit doors—I manage to put one foot in front of the other.
Even though I feel Luca’s eyes all over me.
But he has no clue what today is. Other than my first day here, today is also selection day.
In a very Hunger Games sort of way. Who gets solos for the winter holiday performance and who doesn’t.
And while I’d love nothing more than to scream I volunteer as tribute, I’m just not that brave yet.
I’m working on it. I’m getting there. The mind is a tricky field of monstrous thoughts and I’m still tiptoeing along.
I make it ten steps down the hall before the pull becomes too much. The stare too intense. The sensation of the man too alluring.
In a moment of weakness, my gaze flashes in his direction and he’s right there. Talking to that Grosspooper guy while staring at me as if he’s picturing me naked. Grinning as if he knows what the inside of my pussy feels like around his dick.
“Raven,” he calls out. “Hold up a minute. There’s someone I’d love for you to meet.”
Oh no, he motherfucking didn’t. The amusement in his voice tells me he is a man with a master plan.
“Who’s this, Luca?”
The man sounds like a caricature of a British aristocrat from a Disney movie and now I have no choice but to slow my escape and join the two men who have taken up the majority of the hall, forcing all others to shift their current around their island.
Shame I can’t pull a Miss Congeniality on Luca… solar plexus, instep, nose, groin.
I think he can read my inner musing because his conceited grin only grows.
“Your balls are in danger, Doctor,” I rumble in his direction.
His hand somehow meets my ass under my cello, giving it a squeeze before it lands firmly on my back shoulder. “Alvin, this is Raven Fairchild. Cello savant and our new musical kid guru. Raven, Alvin is the chief of pediatric neurosurgery.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alvin.” I smile brightly at him, thinking it’s a bit strange that Luca didn’t call him doctor or introduce him using his last name, but then again, if my last name were Grosspooper, I wouldn’t want anyone using it either.
“Oh,” Alvin exclaims, giving me a long once-over. “Yes. Lovely. Brilliant. We’re so happy to have you here with us.”
I almost snort out a laugh. If this guy is English, my father was never MI6. “Thank you. I’m delighted to be here.”
“Raven studied at The Conservatory in London,” Luca continues. “Her father’s home country, she felt compelled to return there. I’m sure the two of you could exchange stories about London. That is where you said you were from, right?”
Alvin Grosspooper grows pale. “Just outside of it, yeah. Brilliant.”
I throw Luca a side-eye, only to feel his hand squeeze tighter against my shoulder.
“I’d love that, but some other time perhaps. If I don’t get going now, I’ll be late for rehearsal.”
“Oh yes. Of course. Wouldn’t want to hold you up and make you late.”
Judging by his expression, I think Mister Fake English is relieved by that.
“Well, I have to be going now. Patients to see and all that. Cheers.” And then he scurries off.
I turn on Luca, dropping my voice. “You know he’s not English, right? And if he is, he’s putting on one hell of an accent to cover another.”
“Yes, but we haven’t been able to prove that yet, so…” He shrugs simply, his eyes all over me, his impish smirk still curling up his lips.
“Is his name actually Grosspooper?”
Luca bursts out laughing, shaking his head.
“Anyone who isn’t NPO (nothing by mouth) gets an ice cream from the cafeteria on me,” he calls out.
“That includes all staff.” There’s a round of cheers and clapping, but before I can take in the scene around me, he’s grabbing my hip and pushing me back a few steps to make room for a passing gurney. “I see my kids and nurses got you.”
Ugh. I knew it. “They definitely did, and it seems they deserve those ice creams. What’s his real name?” I cover my hands with my face. “God, what if I had called him that to his face?”
Luca chuckles, pealing my hands away from my face. “Now you know why I didn’t introduce you to him using his last name. His real last name is Grosspotter. On this floor, and I suspect the entire hospital, he’s either secretly referred to as Dr. Harry Potter or Dr. Grosspooper.”
“I… I love that actually.”
“It keeps the kids smiling and laughing. How was your first day?”
“Brilliant. Top-notch,” I mock Dr. Grosspooper.
Luca cracks up, shifting me even closer to what looks dangerously like a supply closet. “You have no idea how hot it makes me when you mock my superiors and bond with my patients. Can I buy you lunch? Take you home with me after?”
“No and no. I have rehearsal. I didn’t lie even if your boss does.”
“He’s a great doctor. Just a bit of a douche with a secret, is my guess. Anyway, if you won’t let me get some nookie, you’ll at least let me drive you to rehearsal, right?”
“Nope again.” I shove Luca off me and head for the huge double doors that will lead to my freedom.
An arm wraps around my waist, yanking me into an empty patient room. He pushes my cello to the side as his mouth hits the back of my neck. The skin beneath my ear. I shudder, my eyes closing of their own volition. “Look out that window.”
“Uh-huh.” I can’t manage to open my eyes while I’m reminding myself how to breathe and push him away at the same time.
“It’s sleeting, Little Bird. I’m not letting you wait outside for the T in this. You’ll be soaked and frozen through in minutes. And think of the pretty cello on your back.”
Crap. I didn’t realize the weather had turned. The news said not until tonight, so I didn’t bring an umbrella with me. Welcome to November in Boston.
“I’m done for the day as luck would have it since I’ve been on since midnight. I’m driving you.”
“Luca—”
“No arguing. I’m driving you.”
“You’re—”
“Not only a god in the sack but a hero among mortals and I’m helplessly in love with you?” He finishes for me, though that was clearly not what I was about to say. He kisses my neck, just beneath my hairline, holding my ponytail up. “I know. And lucky for you, I love it when you praise me.”
I jab a backward elbow, hitting him straight in the flank. “If I let you drive me, you are not to speak.”
Another kiss that has my whole body shuddering, and my nipples hardening. “I believe I’ve already heard this same warning before, and I didn’t listen then. What makes you think I’ll listen now?”
Reaching behind me, my hand glides up his thigh until I grab his hard dick through his scrubs.
He moans, rocking into my touch. Then I squeeze.
Hard. He hisses out a breath, his movements now paralyzed as he grunts in pain.
“Fuck.” I squeeze harder. “Okay. I’ll behave.
Shit.” A wheeze. “Release. I’ll only drive you. Promise.”
“Good boy,” I purr, releasing my grip and patting his dick before stepping out of his touch.
He spins me to face him. “You think that’s turning me off, but it’s not. Strong women who know how to handle my dick are my Viagra.” Luca presses a kiss to my cheek. “Did I mention they’re also only named Raven?”