I went home and sank into my bed, covering my head with my blankets. I’d just made a ridiculous fool of myself. I’d never be able to look at Dante again.
What did I want with a fling anyway? I could do better. A young resident in the ER had shown interest in me. Logan Crown, MD. He was handsome in an understated way. Kind of a sexy geek with tortoiseshell glasses and a lean build. He had amazing green eyes, much darker than my own.
My interest had never been sparked. He’d pursued me for several weeks, but I couldn’t get behind the idea. Even if I could, I tried to never mix work with pleasure, though sometimes the handsome residents had made it difficult. Lucy and I argued about my stance all the time. She thought I was being overly rigid.
Finally, Dr. Crown had asked Lucy out, and she’d accepted. They only went out once—“What a bore!” she’d complained—and now it was just too weird to date a guy who’d been out with my best friend. Lucy had probably screwed him, no matter how boring he was. The woman had the sex drive of a teenage boy.
Even if I was willing to bend my rule, our chief resident was a woman. Our nurses were all women. Our orderlies were all women except for Steve, who, though he was gorgeous and I loved him, had no interest in me for obvious reasons. He and his boyfriend had been together for almost a year now. Two of our ER docs were men, but they were both married.
Even my former boyfriend, Cory, whom I’d followed to New Orleans, had never sparked the feelings in me that Dante Gabriel did. And I’d been in love with him. Or so I thought, anyway.
Dante Gabriel—a virtual stranger. And frankly…an asshole.
He’d rebuffed me, after pursuing me in the first place.
What had I done wrong? Was it too presumptuous that I’d gone to his place without asking?
It was so not like me. I’d never been so forward in my life, not even with Cory. He’d asked me to move here with him. If he hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have. Being forward was not exactly my style.
So what was different about Dante Gabriel?
Even thinking his name ignited sparks within me.
His rejection stung like a scorpion’s bite. I hardly knew the man, yet I felt like we’d been together a lifetime and he was ending it for no apparent reason.
I squeezed my eyes closed, willing sleep to come.
I went to him in the night, clad only in a translucent white robe. How I had gotten there I didn’t know. Perhaps I’d floated on a cloud. My nipples protruded through the material, dark pink buttons against the silky fabric.
He lay in a large bed covered in dark red silk. He was naked, his dark hair fanned out on the pillow.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, his voice raspy with desire.
“I heard you calling. Not in words. I heard something else.”
“My blood. My blood calls for your blood, and your blood has answered.”
His words made no sense to me, but something within me responded, and I walked forward.
“Remove the robe,” he commanded. “Present yourself to me.”
I dropped the white gauzy garment to the floor and stood before him naked, my nipples puckered and hard, the rest of me tingling.
Something would happen tonight. Something I would learn to understand.
His cock was erect and jutted out magnificently from his black curls.
“Come to me. Sit on my cock and ride me.”
I sank down onto his magnificence, and he filled me so completely.
“That’s it. Ride me. Make love to me. Show me how much you want me.”
“I do want you. I want nothing but you. You’re all I think about.”
“As it should be.”
I undulated over him, moaning, embracing the completeness of our joining, until the tickle between my legs magnified and my orgasm exploded through me.
He pulled me toward him.
“Come, my love, and I will bring you to true completion.”
My eyes shot open.
Dante.
I hadn’t called him by name, and he hadn’t called me by name. Our faces had been colorless blurs, but it had been him.
I’d dreamed of going to him, making love to him.
It had seemed so real!
It had been dark, a little twisted, but it had been amazing. Wonderful. He’d commanded me, and I’d obeyed. I hadn’t even thought about it. I was far from submissive, but disobeying him hadn’t entered my mind.
And when I’d climbed on top of him, sunk down on that beautiful cock…
It wouldn’t happen. I had to accept that.
Why couldn’t I get this man out of my mind? It was crazy. I barely knew him.
Time to go to work. At least I’d gotten some sleep, infested though it had been with dreams of Dante, but it was more than I’d had the previous day.
Driving in, I stared at the full moon in the clear night sky. I’d always loved the nighttime. I’d been a night owl all my life. When I became a nurse, I had been one of the few people who actually requested the night shift. Lucy, I found out later, also preferred the night shift, which surprised me, given how sexually active she was. She thought nothing of having a one-night stand and then never seeing the guy again. She was my best friend, and I certainly didn’t judge her, but that wasn’t the life I wanted.
Or was it? I hadn’t been able to get Dante Gabriel out of my mind. Maybe what I needed was an old-fashioned fuck. It had been a while. I also needed some girl talk with Lucy.
But she was nowhere to be found once I left the locker room and went up to the ER. I grabbed Steve. “Hey, where’s Lucy?”
“She called in sick earlier. Said she has food poisoning or something.”
“Crap. I want to talk to her.”
“Talk to me instead.” Steve smiled. “At least the hag isn’t working tonight. It’s Dr. Thomas and that resident who has the hots for you.”
“Dr. Crown?” I shook my head. “He’s over me.”
“I doubt that, Erin, since he just asked me a few minutes ago if you were working tonight.”
“Really? I just figured, after he went out with Lucy…”
“They didn’t click, according to both of them,” Steve said.
“How do you know that?”
“Girlfriend, do you think there’s anything that goes on in the hospital I don’t know? I’m the Perez Hilton of this place.”
“True.” I laughed. “But Lucy never even told me whether they slept together.”
“Did you ask?”
“Well…no. But Lucy usually volunteers information with me.”
“Yes, and she usually fucks every man she goes out with. But not Dr. Crown. Said she wasn’t feeling it and neither was he. So I’d say the door’s wide open if you want to go through. He’s still hot for you.”
“Are you sure?” Normally I wasn’t so insecure, but after being thrown out of Dante’s home this morning, I was feeling a little low on the self-esteem meter. I sure as heck wasn’t going to open myself up for more rejection.
“I’m sure, Erin. Haven’t you noticed that his eyes never leave you if you’re in the same room?”
“No.”
“Well, they don’t. Are you interested in him? I mean, he’s hot in a sexy nerd kind of way, but I never got that vibe from you.”
“That’s because there was never a vibe to get. And I don’t like to screw where I eat. But I think I might be changing my tune.” I had to do something to ease the ache between my legs.
“That will make young Dr. Crown very happy.” Steve winked at me. “And speaking of him, I have to run. He asked me to grab some stuff from the supply room.”
What the heck? If a fuck was what I needed, Logan Crown would suffice. Especially now that I knew Lucy hadn’t gone there.
Before I could find him, though, two ambulances screeched up to the ER. I was busy for the next four hours assisting on cases. It was a rough night. A young mother and her infant child came in dead on arrival from a car accident. The father and an older son were in critical condition. A teenage daughter had minor scrapes and had been released to social services. Her name was Ashley, and she had cried in my arms for a few minutes before I had to let her go so I could assist on yet more cases.
Sometimes I felt so useless in my profession. I often wondered why things happened the way they did. Nursing was so rewarding most of the time, but nights like these nearly sucked the life out of me.
So, after I had showered and changed back into my street clothes, ready to go home, when Dr. Crown came up to me and asked me to have breakfast with him—Steve must have filled him in on my possible interest—I said yes.
Maybe he wasn’t the man of my dreams. After such a lousy shift, I didn’t want to be alone, even if it was only an hour to share a meal.
“Tell me about yourself,” Dr. Crown said after we had ordered our breakfast.
“Not much to tell. I have a brother. He’s a detective with the NOPD. He works the night shift like I do.”
“That’s interesting. Both of you working the night shift and all.”
“We both prefer it. Our family has always been a little nocturnal.”
“These shifts kill me,” he said. “But as you know, the residents go where we’re told. I’m glad I got the shift, because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have met you.”
I smiled and took a bite of my egg and bacon sandwich. I had no idea what to say anyway.
“How come you finally agreed to go out with me?”
Nothing like being put right on the spot. I certainly couldn’t tell him the real answer—that I was hoping for a good quick fuck.
“I don’t know. I guess I’m just in a different place now.”
“Different than you were a few months ago?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to start anything up then.”
“Why?”
What was with all the questions? “Some family issues,” I lied. “But everything’s been resolved now.”
“I get it. You don’t want to talk about it.”
“No, not really.”
“Then what do you want to talk about?”
“Honestly? I don’t want to talk about anything, Dr. Crown. I want to go back to my place, take you up to my bedroom, and fuck the daylights out of you.”
I clamped my hand over my mouth. What had I been thinking? After yesterday morning’s rejection by Dante, I had just set myself up for another one.
But a broad grin split his face. “Then I think you’d better start calling me Logan.”