Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Houston watched Josie saunter off into his kitchen like she owned the place, her curvy backside twitching beneath that too-short skirt, reminding him of the view he’d had earlier.
What was this just friends crap all about?
One minute she was suggesting they have a no-holds-barred affair, and the next she was delivering a bad breakup line.
He didn’t want to be friends with her. He didn’t even want to work with her.
He wanted her for one thing, and one thing only, and he’d gotten that and it was enough.
And he was a lousy liar, even to himself.
He wanted something else, he just couldn’t figure out what to call it. But it sure as hell wasn’t a platonic, nurse-him-back-to-health friendship. Yet Josie wasn’t coddling him, fussing over his wounds, or making weird gasping noises of horror like his sister had done.
It was the doctor in her. She was matter-of-fact about the injury, thoughtful of his comfort, but not hovering.
No, she had just kept him company, just like his mother had suggested, talking about a staggering array of subjects with lightning speed and acting like she’d never once thought of him in any way other than a casual acquaintance and fellow doctor.
Despite her little bombshell statement about going down on him, she was now being about as sexually suggestive as a nun.
He could see her in the kitchen, talking to his mother and putting away coffee in his pantry.
No woman had ever entered his pantry before.
He felt violated, naked as she witnessed his cereal, canned corn, and fast food ketchup packs scattered around.
Left out and not liking it, he called, “Mom, can you get me a water or something?”
His petty plan to break up their female gabfest backfired when it was Josie who brought him an ice-filled glass, perspiration running down its side, a smile on her lips. Plump lips that so recently had been on his.
He took the water from her. “Thank you.”
“Sure.” She ran her hands through her hair and stood there, feet crossed at the ankles.
Not sure why she was still hanging around, he took a sip of water, catching a square ice cube between his front teeth as he ignored her.
Suddenly her fingers were in his hair and her breasts scraping across his face, a soft, warm cotton T-shirt pushing into his eye and nose. Houston jerked sideways, spilling some water in his lap and losing the ice cube down the front of his shirt. “What the hell are you doing?”
“There was a bug in your hair.” She showed him a beetle squeezed between her thumb and index finger.
Christ. He brushed at his shirt and boxer shorts, which were sporting a nice wet spot front and center. “You made me spill my water.”
“Oh! Sorry. Here, I’ll walk you to your bedroom and help you get changed.”
It was a suggestive comment, no question about it. His brain knew it and his dick knew it, but Josie blinked at him in innocence. She was either messing with his head or he was still feeling the aftereffects of drugs in his system. That was a come-on.
“I can change myself.”
“Are you sure? Down one hand and one leg it will be awkward.” She put her hand on his elbow to assist him up. “It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before. I can handle it.”
Still no sign that she was teasing him. Josie just looked clinical. Efficient, friendly, helpful, and completely unconcerned that just days before he had been inside her making her moan. That nonchalance over what they had shared, added to that bossy nurse attitude, was starting to piss him off.
“I bet you could handle it,” he murmured, hoping to rock her a little.
Instead, she just laughed and patted his shoulder. “Come on. Up you go.”
Like a senior citizen. The hell with that. Waving her off, he stood up, ignoring the burning in his leg as he started off down the hallway with a slow gait, a step-hop kind of walk that felt like it took forever since her eyes were on him.
Houston wanted Josie to go away. He wanted her to leave him alone to feel sorry for himself and to take her perky bedside manner with her.
Or go down on her knees and give him that non-platonic treatment she had mentioned.
Twice daily. For an indefinite amount of time.
Limping into his room, he decided that in the matter of one week, Josie and a hungry shark had managed to turn his life upside down and leave him feeling like he’d taken a conk on the head, not a bite to the leg.
Josie went into the kitchen feeling satisfied with her behavior, It was working. She was able to control her lusty panty-melting feelings for Houston by treating him like a patient—any other old and ornery patient.
“Do you need any help, Mrs. Hayes?” Josie reached for the empty plastic grocery bags and started balling them up.
“Oh, call me Fran. And thank you, but I’ve got it all put away now. Is Houston all right? I heard him go down the hall.”
“He spilled his water and went to change.” Which she would have gladly helped him with, in an efficient and asexual manner if he had let her, because she was in control of herself. Sort of.
The image of raising his shirt over that rippling broad chest had her questioning her powers of restraint. Given that kind of temptation she might not have been able to resist a little touch. Or two. Or sex.
“That had to go over big, spilling his water.” Fran shook her head, a smile sliding across her face.
Josie leaned against the counter, still gripping the plastic bags and smiled back, shoving all thoughts of naked Houston out of her pheromone-flooded mind. “No, it didn’t. He doesn’t like it when he can’t control things, does he?”
“You’ve hit the nail on the head, Josie.
He’s always been like that. I had a bad marriage, you know, and it wasn’t good for Houston.
He holds himself back, doesn’t show affection.
But he’s very loyal to those he loves.” Fran studied her in a way that made Josie uncomfortable. “Are you dating my son?”
It was so direct and sudden that Josie blushed. God, she hated that she blushed so easily.
She dropped the bags on the counter and ran her finger across her bottom lip. “Oh...me? And Houston? No, not at all. We work together, that’s it. I’m in my second year of my residency, and he’s sort of like a mentor to me.”
Oh, that sounded wrong somehow. Josie went beyond blush to a five-alarm face fire.
“I see,” Fran said, with a look that clearly said she saw a lot of things, none of which Josie wanted to discuss with Houston’s mother.
But the comment about her marriage brought to mind what Houston had said when Josie was stitching him up.
He’d mentioned his father when he had told her he couldn’t get close to people.
Clearly, there was more to the story there, a bad relationship with his father that had caused the boy to grow into a man who stayed distant from people.
At first, Josie had thought Houston was aloof, unconcerned with others, professional in the extreme, maybe even a little self-centered.
She was now starting to see that Houston held back on purpose, that he stayed distant from other hospital employees so things stayed neat and tidy and he never risked the chance of losing control of the situation.
“Houston, he doesn’t have a lot of friends,” Fran said.
Josie heard a noise and turned around, afraid Houston had caught her gossiping about him with his mother. The hall was empty, but Fran picked up on her discomfort and lowered her voice.
“He has a couple of boys he’s known forever. He has his sister. He has me. That’s it.” Fran was a hand talker, and she emphasized now by slicing her palms through the air.
While really nervous that Houston would appear any second like he’d been beamed into the room, Josie still found herself nodding. “I thought that was probably the case.”
Houston was a loner at the hospital as well, and she thought maybe they had more in common than he could ever realize. While Josie was friendly with everyone, she was close to very few people, and lately she had been feeling the same way Sara had. Lonely.
“These women, they want to date him because he is so handsome and he’s a doctor.
They flip their blond hair and expect fancy dinners and flowers, but no one ever tries to get to know my son, to understand him.
When the right woman takes the time to see him for what he is, they’ll find a good man worth keeping forever. ”
Josie made a noncommital sound.
Fran shook her finger. “But then he’s my son. I’m partial to him.”
Josie wasn’t sure why they were having this conversation except that maybe Houston’s mother was getting tired of waiting for more grandchildren. Or maybe she figured a wife or girlfriend would keep Houston’s refrigerator filled with edible food, saving her a trip to the grocery store.
Either way, she got the feeling Fran either approved of her or was politely warning her to stay the hell away. The jury was still out.
“I...admire him.” She did. As a doctor. As a man. As the reason behind her having three orgasms in rapid succession. “I want to be Houston’s friend.”
Horizontal, naked friend.
Fran Hayes nodded thoughtfully. “Good. Then maybe you can help me out by checking in on Houston once in a while. I work retail and my hours are crazy. I took a few days off, but I need to go back to work and my daughter is useless with sick people. Plus she has to bring her kids and Houston spends the whole time trying to look like he’s not in pain so he doesn’t scare them. ”
Josie had no problem picturing that. She remembered how he had spoken about his nieces.
“And when Kori came without the girls and tried to change the dressing on his leg, she ended up gagging and running outside for fresh air.”
Josie laughed. “That’s a common reaction. But trust me, I can handle it. I help Houston saw people’s bones down—a few sutures won’t bother me. Especially since I’m the one who stitched him up. I’d like to check out my handiwork.”