Four
ZAC
ILOOK over to Alyssa sitting in the seat next to me.
It feels right to have her there. She’s only wearing scrubs, but I swear when she came down the stairs after rushing through a shower, I had to tell myself not to be the creeper and to stop visibly drooling.
She is gorgeous. Up close, I can see that her blue eyes sometimes flicker with shades of green.
Her blonde hair is all piled up on top of her head, with loose strands already breaking free around her face.
“I just have a quick stop to make—be one minute; stay here. I’m locking the doors to prevent people getting in, not you getting out,” I say as I pull into a carpark right out front of the café I called while she was in the shower.
She looks at me like I need a shrink but smiles and agrees to stay put.
I’m in and out of the café within two minutes and back in the car. “I’m not sure how you take your coffee yet. I went for the safe bet and ordered you a flat white.” I hand her the coffee cup, which she takes hesitantly.
“Thank you. You really didn’t need to do this, but I appreciate it. I love flat whites; also, vanilla lattes are a regular for me.”
I hand her the bag with the two muffins. “One’s blueberry; the other’s chocolate chip. Eat.”
She looks at me like I’ve lost my head now, her face scrunched up and brows furrowed. “What?” I ask.
“I can’t eat this in your car. I’ll make a mess.
You’ll end up with crumbs all over the place; you will need to get a detail.
I don’t know how much a car like this cost to get detailed, but I know I can’t afford that.
So, thank you for the muffin, but I can’t possibly eat in the Batmobile.
” She’s trying to hand the paper bag back to me, and all I can think is: wow, she is cute when she gets nervous and worked up.
“Sunshine, you are eating the muffin; you will eat in this car. I don’t care if you get crumbs everywhere—that’s nothing a vacuum can’t fix.
What I care about is the fact that you were planning on going to work for god knows how many hours without even eating breakfast. You know breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?
” She’s still holding the bag out to me.
I ignore her and pull back out onto the road.
It takes a moment, and she’s quiet when she speaks again. “Thank you.” She’s not looking at me
when she says it, head down while looking at the paper bag like she can will it away.
Eventually she opens the bag and takes a small chunk of the chocolate chip muffin, popping it into her mouth.
Almost as soon as it hits her tongue, she lets out a pleasurable moan.
I look over. Her eyes are closed and her head’s leaning back; it’s a good look on her, a damn good look.
I have to will myself to look back at the road and subtly adjust my jeans to allow for my growing cock.
Fuck me, I don’t know what it is about this girl, but she ticks every one of my ideal woman list items—a list I didn’t know I even had until I saw her.
I don’t even care that I can see crumbs dropping in my car.
I’ve never let anyone so much as have a coffee in this car before, let alone eat a savoury.
Bray would not let me hear the end of it if he found out I let a girl eat in this beast. But the thought of her not eating just pissed me off.
We’re almost at the hospital. I don’t want to drop her off and not know when I will see her again.
My brain is scrambling for ideas on how I’m going to make that happen.
I need to see her again. Attempting to not look like the arse I have probably been portraying, I try to make small talk, covertly trying to find out more about this woman who has consumed my mind from the moment she walked through the doors of my club last night.
“Do you work all weekend?” I try to sound casual, like it doesn’t matter to me either way, but it does. I don’t want her working tomorrow. If she works tomorrow, that’s another day I’ll have to wait to see her.
She turns and looks at me, inspecting my profile.
She must be happy with what she finds because there is a smile to her voice when she replies, “No. I work today and then have two days off. How about you? Do you work all weekend?” She smiles as she asks me the question, like she’s already predicted the answer.
“I work every day, sunshine.” I send her a wink. She smiles big now, and I swear I would do anything to keep seeing that smile. It makes me feel something good. I can’t put a label on the feeling, but I just know it’s good. It’s not a feeling I’ve ever had before.
“Okay, well, not all of us are… whatever it is you are.” She waves her hand up and down at me. “Some of us, namely me, have normal jobs, average jobs, stable jobs. Jobs that mean I know I will have enough money to eat every week. If I turn up to work on time and don’t get myself fired…”
The way she talks about knowing she will have enough money to eat every week bothers me.
Was there a time she didn’t have enough food, money, or stability?
The way she talks about her job is kind of sad.
She doesn’t sound like she likes her job, but turns up every week for the paycheck—which is fine.
It’s what most of the population does to survive.
“Well, I for one think you have an outstanding job. What other job could you have where you get to wear those scrubs, looking cute as hell all day anyway?”
She spins her head so quickly towards me, mouth hanging open. She hides her shock just as quickly as she showed it. “There is nothing cute about these scrubs. They’re blue… blue.” She repeats the colour like I don’t know what the colour blue is.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re blue, green, or orange; they are cute on you.” I add emphasis to the you because I’ve been in hospitals. I know that not everyone can pull off a pair of scrubs. But Alyssa? Damn, can she pull that shit off.
“Blue is not cute; blue is literally the colour for depression. Blue is the colour people use to represent being sad. Wearing blue scrubs is not cute.” She really doesn’t seem to like the colour blue.
“We can agree to disagree. Why did you choose nursing?” I surprise myself with the fact that I honestly want to know the answer.
“That’s a conversation for another time.
We’re here. You can just stop anywhere near that door and I’ll jump out.
Thank you so much for the ride. You don’t know how much I appreciate it, really, and the coffee and the muffin.
Sorry for the mess, but I told you so.” Alyssa rushes out her thanks like it will get her out of the car quicker.
It’s ten minutes to eleven—she’s not late, yet.
I park the car and I’m around at her door before she can figure out how the door opens from the inside.
I reach a hand in and pull her out, almost pulling her flush against me.
Every bone in my body wants to pull her in and kiss her like my life depends on it.
Shit, maybe my life does depend on it? No, I don’t want to scare her off, especially with what happened to her last night fresh in her head.
I show a lot of fucking restraint when I take a step back. “What time do you finish?”
She squints at me. I’m not sure if it’s the sun that’s shining in her eyes, or if she’s trying to figure out if she wants to tell me. “I finish at eleven tonight. I’m doing a twelve-hour shift today. Why?”
She’s smart; she seems to know I don’t ask questions for the fun of it. “I’ll pick you up from this same spot at eleven tonight.”
Before she has time to argue with me, I walk back around the car and jump in, leaving her standing there gaping at me as I pull away.
Walking into my penthouse, the first thing I notice is Bray, Dean and Ella sitting in the living room. All at once, they lift their heads, looking at me expectantly.
“What the fuck are you all doing here?” I ask, annoyed that they’re in my fucking house. All I want to do is strip off and get into bed and sleep. Well, there is one other thing I wouldn’t mind doing, and that’s jerking one out to the image of sweet, beautiful Alyssa.
Alyssa, who has had my cock straining within the confines of my jeans ever since she moaned around that first bite of the muffin this morning. Okay, if I’m being honest, it’s been fucking hard since she walked through the doors of my club.
Bray seems to be the only brave one out of the group. Well, it’s either bravery or stupidity. I haven’t decided which one yet. “Where the fuck have you been?” he shouts.
Raising my eyebrows at him, I don’t bother answering his question. I repeat mine first. “What the fuck are you all doing here?”
This time, it’s Ella who pipes up, “Last I checked, I live here, but I’ll leave you two with the grouch.”
I watch as she walks down the hall, not even a minute later hearing the tell-tale sound of the door being slammed, and I cringe at the damage she’s doing to the doors. Ella has never been able to shut a door quietly.
I turn back towards Bray and Dean, who are still lounging on my damn sofa and looking like they don’t have a care in the world.
“She’s right; she lives here. You two fuckers, however, do not.
” I reach into my pocket and pull out the keys for the McLaren, throwing them in Bray’s direction.
He catches them with ease. “Make yourself useful and take the McLaren to the detailers. I’m going to get a few hours’ sleep.
I’ll see the both of you at the club around seven tonight.
” I start towards my bedroom, thinking I can make a quick escape.
“Wait, you had it detailed two days ago. Why do you need it cleaned again so soon?” Bray and his nosey bastard questions… I turn back around to see him waiting for an explanation with raised eyebrows.