The Mind (The Reluctant Romantics #1.5) (3 page)

Well...he
was my
future husband.

I could tell my presence was beginning to annoy her when she eyed me with disdain, grabbed Grant’s arm, and then walked away with him possessively. They were both lunatics and deserved each other.

“Okay, if that was him, I don’t care if he is batshit crazy. I would fornicate with him and have rabid babies.” I watched Jen’s reaction and felt justified for entertaining Grant on his looks alone.

“Told you,” I said, resuming with my fork.

“Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Not really.” I winced. “Jen, is that bad?”

“No, it’s bold and awesome,” Jen said before taking a sip of her drink, eyes still on Grant.

“I get it from my dad...well, and my mom. When it comes to what I want, dad, when it comes to speaking my mind, mom. I’m screwed, aren’t I?”

“Probably,” she answered, “but it’s awesome.”

“Lord, help me and my mouth through the rest of this year.”

“He’s not looking at you anymore. You must have scared him away.”

“It was too soon for marriage.” I felt a tiny tug in my chest but dismissed it.

Paging
Dr. Rose Whitaker, please.
I was instantly back where I started hours before.

A few days later, I was on my cell phone with my sister as I sat under a tree on campus, the hospital in my direct line of sight. Dallas had just started her second year of residency at Dallas Memorial, a teaching hospital situated directly across the street from my campus, and where I made clinical rounds. My first day of school, I’d sat under this same tree, studying the hospital for hours, dreaming of my future. Today I was attempting—in vain—to get a small amount of sun on my face and shoulders in my spaghetti strap, black sundress. The Texas sun bore down on me, the late August heat unforgiving. I spent so much time in sterile, cold rooms, and I reveled in it. I had a book in my lap and was trying to get the rest of my bases covered over the weekend. I would not fail. This was my dream. It amazed our parents that both their little girls had the same one. It was never a competition between us. We had decided long ago to lift each other up. We helped each other through school with rigorous hours of studying together. I helped her prepare for tests and labs and in turn, it helped me excel during my first few years. We were each other’s biggest cheerleaders. She and I were set on opening our own practice one day. We would offer a full-service practice with every specialty imaginable on site. She would govern general medicine, and I would manage surgery. It was a shared dream and we had worked for years to make it a reality. We were getting close—Dallas closer than I due to the additional training I’d need to become a surgeon. We both had a handful of years left, but it seemed like nothing compared to the long road we had traveled to get as far as we’d come.

“What’s it like?” I asked, gripping my cell tight to my ear so I could hear every word, even though I knew the question would annoy her.

“I’ve already told you this a million times. It’s exactly what you think. A lot like the rounds you make every day. It’s nothing like the movies or TV shows. It’s relatively boring until it’s not, then wham! intellectual orgasm.

“So are you getting any?”

“Dallas, I swear you talk like a man,” I huffed at her invasion.

“Good, sometimes I wish I was a man. Use this time wisely, next thing you know you will be held down by the same penis over and over.”

I quickly baited her. “Stop acting like you hate Josh. You love him.”

“Sure I do.” I could hear the sarcasm drip over the line. “I’m being paged. I love you, Rosie.”

“You know I hate that!” I snapped at her nickname for me. Suddenly the book disappeared from my lap and I gasped as Grant’s face took its place.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Dallas asked in a panic.

“Uh...nothing, Dallas. I just spilled...something in my lap.” His smile was mischievous, and I felt a strange urge to...kiss him. He placed my hand on the top of his head and I began stroking his hair without hesitation. It was pure dark silk. What in the
hell
was I doing playing along? I had to get this man away from me. Surely, the asylum missed him.

“Dallas, weren’t they paging you?” I asked, losing all train of thought as Grant’s blue eyes pierced me from below.

“Yeah,” she replied, clueless about the man-God staring up at me. “I fell asleep up against the wall.”

I let out another laugh at Dallas and at Grant, who was pantomiming a conversation with his hands.

“Love you, Big D,” I said with a smile, retaliating against her usage of my nickname by throwing hers back at her.

“Bitch.”

“Talk to you soon.” I hung up and pushed the intruder’s head off my lap. He chuckled as he took a seat in front of me, our knees touching.

“I’ve been looking all over for you. I wanted to see you before I left.”

“Still listening to the voices in your head, huh?” I said, placing my book so it rested on my stomach and chest as if it could protect me.

“I know I must seem a little crazy to you, but I’m running out of time.” He leaned in closer, and I felt goosebumps form. His massive arms and chest were ripped to perfection under his collared t-shirt. He was close, and even more devastating than I’d initially thought. “I know what needs to happen. I just can’t do anything about it now,” he offered, as if he was apologizing.

“And I suppose I have no say in this whatsoever? I’ve heard a story like this before.” I was referring to my parents’ rocky fifteen-year start. “I can tell you it’s a bad idea. Besides, you have a girlfriend.”

“No, I don’t.”

“From what I saw, you have a very possessive girlfriend. You know the brutal bitch brunette—”

“I live too far away,” he murmured as he inched closer, ignoring my protest.

My voice got louder as I got nervous. “Well, there you have it. The epic story of Rose and Grant, a tragic two-minute affair!”

He took my face in his hands and leaned in, his eyes burning a hole through me. I was shaking and couldn’t keep my lower lip still. He noticed and brushed his thumb over it, attempting to soothe me.

Holy shit!

“I knew you would come around.” He grinned as he closed the remaining distance between us. I couldn’t stop it. It was a simultaneous failure of limbs and brain cells. His lips touched mine softly, and I let out an unexpected moan. He pulled back and watched me, hands still on both sides of my face. “Did you feel that?”

I nodded my head in agreement as he slowly leaned in again. He touched my lips with his, and I felt everything I possessed start to tingle. His tongue gently delved into the corners of my mouth, and I opened it, inviting him in, letting him take the rest of me. I knew it was insane, as insane as the hot man sticking his tongue into my mouth, but I didn’t care. What could it hurt? My defenses crumbled, and I let Grant have his way with me. My hands instinctively wrapped around his massive biceps as he plunged his tongue in sweetly until there was nothing left to taste. When he pulled away, our foreheads touched briefly before his eyes again penetrated mine.

“Rose, God, it was better than I thought it would be. I knew it would be...like this.”

“Look, Grant—”

“Don’t,” he said. “You know you felt it, too.”

“And it felt good. Just don’t do it again, okay? Your
girlfriend
is walking over here and is about to kick my ass!”

He spun to see her rapidly approaching as she shrieked, “You break up with me, don’t leave campus, and two days later you are kissing someone!”

He turned to me, amusement on his face. “Well, I have to go. I
will
see you again. And you were right about her.” He smiled, pecked my lips, and then stood to shield me from her wrath. She was beyond hostile. I was not looking forward to that eventual confrontation.

After a hasty goodbye, I spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting under the tree with a book in my lap, but couldn’t read one word. Not one single word.

****

“Wake up, beautiful.”

A warm hand lay on my cheek, but I felt too soothed to find the energy to open my eyes. I leaned into the reassuring weight, enjoying the comfort of my dream.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty. We don’t have much time.”

I sat straight up in my bed, gasping in shock at the man who was hovering over me. I recognized him, but it did little to calm the panic racing through me.

“Grant? What in the hell are you doing in my bedroom?!”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He smelled incredible, like he was freshly showered. I ignored it in lieu of the terror of having a stranger in my bedroom.

“What about this isn’t creepy, Grant?”

“Your roommate let me in.”

“Jennifer!” I loved her dearly, and I would miss her.

Grant gave me a rueful smile that showcased his perfect dimple. “She left.”

“Oh, I
am
going to kill her!” I started to get out of bed as he stilled me before speaking gently to me as if I were a caged animal.

“Don’t be upset. I assured her you were in good hands.”

I blinked my eyes repeatedly to clear the lingering sleepiness then studied him carefully. His expression was amused but heated. His dark hair flowed around his face and his bulging arms were resting on my knees as I pulled my comforter closer to me. Grant pulled his full lips into his mouth, as if he wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing in my room either.

“Seriously, Grant, get out of my room and my apartment.”

He seemed to make up his mind on something before he spoke. “I came to see you. I know it’s late. I was hoping to spend a little time with you.”

I looked at the clock and saw it was 11P.M.

“I’m a fourth-year med student, Grant, and I need my sleep. I threw the comforter off me, saw him glance at my black negligee, and was suddenly thankful that I had chosen it to wear tonight of all nights. Usually, it was a stained t-shirt and boy shorts, or worse. His eyes immediately found mine and I sucked in a deep breath.

“I don’t know how they do things where you’re from, but this is not the norm here!” I was reacting the way I should, but I really wasn’t afraid. Although I had labeled him a lunatic, I really didn’t believe it to be true. Delusional maybe, but not completely crazy.

“Look, Rose, I know I’m being a creep, but if you don’t get some clothes on right now, I will kiss every inch of skin I see.”

“The hell you will,” I said, praying for just one second that he would make good on his threat.

He leaned in close before he whispered, “Where should I start?”

“I’m up, now turn around.”

Sighing heavily, I grabbed the jeans off the floor then slipped them on. I raced to my closet and grabbed a sweatshirt and bra before making my way to the bathroom.

What in the
hell
was he doing here? Was Jennifer out of her mind? Did she care so little for me that she trusted me in the hands of a stranger? And who in the hell comes to visit a woman this late? I quickly changed, brushed my teeth, and then met him in my living room. He was scanning the photos on our wall but then stopped, standing directly in front of one of me. When he noticed me in the room, he turned and gave me a smile that nearly knocked me on my ass. I couldn’t help but smile back and was sure my next statement held no weight because of my stupid grin.

“This is not okay. You have to go, and I’ve got two labs tomorrow.”

“Just give me an hour or two, okay? I really want this time with you.”

“Why? You don’t know me...like at all.”

“I know a few things. I know that you were a
total
nerd in college and that you dated the same guy all four years. I know that you eat like a man and you love rap music. I also know you haven’t been on a date in a year.”

“What?! How do you know all that?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, both embarrassed and defensive.

“I’ve been to The Bistro every day this week looking for you. I found Jennifer. She’s easy to bribe. Let’s go.”

“And my address?” I ask suspiciously.

“Same scenario,” he said dismissively, as if it weren’t important.

“Where could you possibly take me this late?”

He was a tree in my living room, a walking, talking, beautiful tree, solid and strong as he replied, “It’s a surprise.”