WHAT AM I DOING? What am I doing?
The scent of chlorine stung her nose. She’d never really liked the smell of chlorine, probably because it reminded her of the many hours she’d spent poolside, watching her brother and sister swim competitively, something she’d never been able to do because she’d been sick for so long.
Thinking about her siblings swimming made her think about how she’d always wanted to learn how to dive. It was on her bucket list, but she’d never found the time.
And standing poolside at Nate King’s hotel, watching said hottie swim countless laps, was not the time to start. She was having a hard time not staring at him, the way he moved through the water.
She’d wanted to talk to him before he’d left the hospital. If they were going to participate in this facade then she was going to get her facts straight. She was nothing if not efficient.
That’s why she kept lists. She was organized, and when she did something, she did it right. If she was going to be Dr. Nate King’s pretend girlfriend, she was going to do it right.
Except cleaning. She was a bit scatterbrained when it came to cleaning her apartment.
At least her office and workspace were organized.
He finished swimming and pulled himself out of the water at the far end of the pool. Flo tried not to stare at his muscular thighs and tight butt only covered in wet spandex. When he’d wrapped a white cotton towel around his waist, partially obscuring his six pack, only then did she hold her head high and walk toward him.
“Nate,” she said.
He spun around in surprise, raking a hand through his dripping-wet beach-blond locks.
“Dr. Chiu.”
“It’s Flo, remember. We are dating after all.” She laughed nervously, but he didn’t smile. “I was hoping to talk to you before you left the clinic tonight but I just missed you. So that’s why I’m here.”
“About what?” he asked, picking up a second towel and drying off his face.
“About our ‘relationship’.” She used air quotes to emphasize it.
He groaned. “Now?”
“Are you busy? Do you have a prior engagement?” she asked, crossing her arms.
Nate dropped the towel he was wiping his face with and smiled, but that smile wasn’t the cheeky one he usually gave her. It was a bit predatory and made her nervous.
“Would you be jealous if I did?” He took a step closer. “If I did, what would you do?”
“No. I’m not jealous, but for the sake of the clinic and our patients it would be bad form to have plans.”
He chuckled and then snorted sardonically. “Would it? Don’t you think this whole charade is bad form?”
Yes. Only she didn’t say that out loud because she didn’t understand PR like Freya and Mila did. Both of them thought this charade would be a good idea.
“We’re just smoothing over a tricky situation,” Flo said.
He arched his eyebrows. “Is that a fact? And have you canceled all your private engagements? Dumped your boyfriends?”
She sighed impatiently. “What is your obsession with my boyfriends?”
“Well, I don’t think it would be good form for our charade if you had a couple of boyfriends lingering about.”
“As I told you before, I don’t have a boyfriend. As for private engagements, surgery is my life.”
He grunted again and pushed past her. “How did you know where to find me?”
“Freya told me.” She followed him out of the pool toward a bank of elevators.
“Of course she did.” He shook his head.
“Well, shouldn’t I know where my ‘boyfriend’ lives? Especially since we’ve been together for some time?”
“Good point. I never really thought about that. Deception really isn’t my forte.” The elevator doors opened and he stepped in. “Aren’t you coming up?”
“To your room?” She hoped her voice didn’t squeak too much because the idea of going up to his room was not on her agenda tonight. She couldn’t go up to his room.
That was not part of the plan.
He grinned at her. That predatory grin again. “Yes. Play along, right? Isn’t that what you told me?”
“How about I wait for you down here? We can have a drink in the hotel lobby.”
“Now, how would that look to the paparazzi milling about at the concierge’s desk?”
Flo glance over her shoulder and saw the press.
Hell.
She jumped into the elevator, the door closing just as a photographer caught sight of them. That would’ve been bad and their cover would’ve been blown.
Nate was laughing at her. “Smooth move, Dr. Chiu.”
“When did you notice him?”
“A while ago.”
“You could’ve warned me.”
“I did. That’s why you’re in the elevator now instead of waiting for me in the hotel’s bar.”
“I’d prefer to wait in the lobby bar,” she mumbled.
“Why?” he asked.
Because it’s safer.
“I don’t know you. I don’t think it’s appropriate to go up to your hotel room.”
Nate laughed. The elevator dinged and they stepped off. She followed him down the hall to the end. He swiped the key card and opened the door. Flo followed him inside, just on the off chance the paparazzi followed them up here. She shut the door and was surprised by the large suite. It was like a small apartment. There was a bedroom that Nate had disappeared into, a living room and small kitchenette.
She set her purse down on the counter and wandered to the huge windows, where the Los Angeles skyline lit up the night. It was a gorgeous night. Clear, but it wasn’t like you could see the sky, not with all the light pollution from LA. Nate’s suite had a large balcony and a hot tub tucked away in the corner.
“There are drinks in the fridge. I’m going to have a quick shower,” Nate said from around the door of his bedroom.
“Okay, thanks.”
Nate nodded and shut the door to his bedroom. It wasn’t too long before Flo heard the shower on through the closed door and she tried not to think about the fact that Nate was naked and in it.
This was a bad idea.
She could’ve just waited until he came to work the next day and talked to him there, but no. She’d got it in her head that this would be a better idea and now she couldn’t remember for the life of her why she’d thought that.
Probably because she hadn’t expected to find him half-naked, swimming in a pool, and then be forced to come up to his opulent suite and wait while he showered in the next room. This was an experience that was not on her bucket list.
Flo took a seat on the edge of the couch and just waited. She tried to keep her mind occupied on something else. Anything to take her mind off what was going on in the next room and how he’d looked just wrapped in a towel, fresh from a swim. The only men she’d seen built like that were either in the movies or magazines. She’d never seen one up close and personal.
She’d worked on Hollywood’s rich and famous at The Hollywood Hills Clinic, but what was on screen versus reality had opened to her eyes to the whole magical mystery of Hollywood’s elite. Photo editing was a beautiful thing indeed.
She often wished she could edit herself in real life. Maybe then she could erase the large scar on her abdomen and that way no one would ever need to know that she’d had a kidney transplant. That she’d been sick.
If Johnny hadn’t known, he wouldn’t have treated her differently.
Maybe they’d still be together. Then she wouldn’t have kissed Nate and be in this situation, faking a relationship and being in his hotel room with him naked in the shower. In the next room. Of course, that’s not how it had happened at all, because that’s not how real life worked. There had been no photo-editing solution and her disease had frightened Johnny away.
He’d made it clear he didn’t want to get involved with her, not when there was a possibility that at any time in the near future that donor organ could fail and she might die. No one wanted to get involved with a woman who didn’t have the greatest odds of staying alive.
Kidney survival rates were good, but they weren’t perfect.
Kidneys could fail.
Especially when you’d had a chronic kidney disease as a child and had suffered kidney failure at fourteen. Following dialysis for a year and a near-death experience, she’d received her new lease on life.
And since that time she’d tried to live her life to the fullest.
Getting married and having a family had always been on her bucket list, until she’d learned the true nature of most men. When Johnny had run scared and left her heartbroken, she’d scratched that secret hope off her list.
A husband, romance and love were not meant to be. She’d made her peace with that, but now, because of a foolish and irrational moment on top of The Hollywood Hills Clinic, she found herself thrust into a situation she’d long given up on.
It’s fake, though. It’s not real.
Still, the idea made her uncomfortable because she was going to have to be really careful to keep her feelings out of it. She could have fun, but she couldn’t let Nate get too close, because once Kyle Francis was on the mend, Dr. Nathaniel King would be returning to New York and she would be alone again.
“Did you want something to drink?”
Flo startled to see a freshly showered and dressed Nate standing in the doorway. He was dressed very much the same as he’d been when she’d first laid eyes on him. When he’d come out of that helicopter looking sexy as hell.
Don’t think about it.
“How about we go downstairs?” Flo asked, tearing her gaze away from Nate.
“Well, first I think we should go over some ground rules for this whole charade, and I don’t think that those ground rules should be discussed downstairs with paparazzi milling about. They were told we’ve been going out for some time. You can’t be all skittish and embarrassed around me.”
“I’m not skittish or embarrassed. I’m professional.”
Nate rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You can’t be professional with your boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend sounds like we’re in junior high or something.”
“Lover, then?”
Warmth flooded her cheeks and her whole body quivered with the quick burn of arousal as an image of Nate, naked and pressed against her, filled her mind.
Lover.
That was something she was not intimately familiar with, but she wished she was.
She cleared her throat. “Fine. I can be relaxed around you.”
Nate grinned, leaning over the polished marble counter in his kitchenette. “Can you?”
“Of course I can.”
“Prove it.”
“How?” she asked.
“Kiss me again.”
* * *
Nate had no idea what had come over him when he’d asked Flo to kiss him. It had just seemed the natural thing to do and he’d be an idiot if he said he didn’t want to kiss her again. Who wouldn’t want to kiss her again? And he knew by the flush creeping up her long slender neck to her cheeks that she was feeling it, too.
She wanted him, but was holding back.
Like you should be, too.
And that was when it struck him that he’d done something he really shouldn’t have, and that no woman since Serena had affected him this way.
He’d been attracted to other women, but he’d always managed to keep them at a distance. Then he’d met Flo. He tried to tell himself over and over again that the kiss on the rooftop had only been his relief at having been able to stabilize Kyle. They’d been able to extend Kyle’s life while he waited for his new heart and lungs. That relief had caused him to let his guard down, so what was this?
This wasn’t relief.
Even though he really didn’t want to play in this charade that Freya Rothsberg had cooked up, he really had no choice, that’s why he threw up his walls again. He was determined that even though on the outside, for all intents and purposes, he was Flo’s significant other, he wasn’t going to let her in.
He wasn’t going to let his guard down around her.
At least, that’s what he was going to do in theory. Twenty minutes with her and she was in his hotel suite, sitting on his couch only five feet away from him, looking as sinfully sexy as ever. Her long black hair, which she usually wore up, was loose over her shoulders. There was a bit of make-up on her, not much, but the red lipstick on her lips just accentuated the fullness of them. Add the blush to those high, round cheeks and he was a lost man.
He forgot that Flo was off-limits to him, just like every woman had been since Serena. Yet here he was, asking Flo to kiss him again. And he wanted to kiss her. So badly.
“Pardon?” she said, breaking the silence.
“I think you heard me.”
“I don’t think that’s a wise idea, Nate. Do you?”
It’s not.
“Why? You want to show the world that we’re together. We have to be at ease with each other so we can be believable.”
What are you doing?
“Believable, but also professional. So I don’t think kissing you is the wisest idea.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “You certainly like to goad me, don’t you?”
Nate’s eyes twinkled. “Perhaps, but it’s so easy.”
She glared at him and then smiled. “I’m highly competitive and I don’t like to have my buttons pushed.”
“I gathered that, or it wouldn’t be so easy to push them.”
Flo nodded. “Perhaps we can go downstairs and get that drink? Discuss Eva’s case and our plan of attack?”
“Okay, but still I think you should kiss me.”
She grinned in a willful way that spelled trouble for him. “I do like to hear you beg.”
He rolled his eyes as she walked past him toward the door. On one hand he was extremely relieved that she hadn’t kissed him, but he knew that if he kissed her again he would lose himself completely and carry her off to his bed, which wasn’t far away.
And taking her to bed would be good, so deliciously good, but only for a short time. He didn’t want to hurt her, not when they had possibly months of working together while they waited for Kyle’s heart and lung transplant.
That would be awkward and horrible for everyone.
It was better this way.
That’s what he had to keep telling himself to get over the smidgen of disappointment he had that she hadn’t taken him up on his offer and kissed him.
Instead, as they walked down the hall toward the elevator, he reached down and took her hand in his. That small delicate hand that he’d admired so much during Kyle’s LVAD surgery.
“What’re you doing?” she asked, surprised.
“The paparazzi could be still downstairs. This way, there won’t be any questions.”
“Oh...right. Good point.”
Nate could tell that she was nervous, and he liked that he had that effect on her. Serena had been the same when they’d first dated, but not for long. Maybe one date, because one date was all it had taken and they’d been in bed together and then heading off on a crazy adventure.
Don’t think about Serena.
If he thought about Serena he’d pull away from Flo again and then the press would pick up on the fact that this was all just a charade. He had to remember what it was like to just let things happen and not control every aspect of his life, which was a hard thing for him to do because control allowed him to focus on saving lives.
There was no room in his heart for love or romance. Not again.
“You okay?” Flo asked as they rode down to the lobby in the elevator.
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t know. You just tensed up.”
“I’m fine.” He tried to give her a reassuring smile. “I’m really fine, it’s just that I don’t like this. I don’t like deception.”
“I know. Neither do I, but it’s for the clinic.”
“Right. The clinic.” The doors dinged and opened and they stepped out into the lobby. He knew that press guy was lingering around somewhere. It felt like there were a million eyes on them as they walked hand in hand toward the hotel’s bar. Even when they found a private booth far in the corner of the bar, he still felt like they were under a microscope, and it made him uneasy.
It was only after the waiter had brought them their drinks that Flo said, “I feel like we’re being watched.”
“We are.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Is this your first time working on someone as famous as Kyle Francis?”
“No. I’ve worked on some others, it’s just The Hollywood Hills Clinic’s security has never been breached before.”
“Sorry about that.”
Flo shrugged and took a sip of her water. “It’s unfortunate but there’s nothing we can do.”
Nate chuckled. “Look at us, we’ve come to a bar and we don’t even order alcoholic drinks.”
“I don’t drink,” Flo said, and then she blushed, clearing her throat. “I mean, I have to get up early tomorrow and I don’t want to drink tonight.”
“Rounds?”
She nodded. “I want to check on Kyle and Eva, our two VIP patients.”
“I’m not on rounds. I have privileges, but no regular patients beyond Kyle and Eva.”
“You could always round with me.” She smiled at him. It was warm, inviting and friendly, and now he could clearly remember why he’d kissed her on the rooftop. He wanted a piece of that. He wanted to feel that warmth.
“Sure. Thanks.”
“No problem.” She set her water glass down and glanced at the watch on her arm. “Oh, my, is that the time? It’s almost ten.”
“Ten isn’t late.”
“It is when you’re rounding at five in the morning.” Flo sighed. “I have to go.”
“I’ll walk you out.” Nate signed the bill to his suite, the whole couple of bucks for the coffee, and walked her out of the bar to the hotel entrance. “Did you drive yourself?”
“I don’t drive. I live close to the clinic. I usually just ride my bike.”
“You don’t drive?”
“I never learned, but it’s on my bucket list.” Then she blushed again.
“Bucket list? Usually that’s for people who don’t have a lot of time left. Unless I’m mistaken, Dr. Chiu, you have many years left.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. It’s nothing really. Just stuff I want to do before I... Anyway, I’d better go. The doorman can flag down a taxi for me.”
“Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Nate walked her outside and they stood there while the doorman waved down a taxi. When the taxi pulled up Flo turned quickly and pressed a sweet, light kiss against his lips. It caught him off guard and his blood heated. He fought back the urge to take her in his arms and deepen the kiss, make it last.
Which was a dangerous thing indeed.
“See you tomorrow,” she said, not looking at him as she climbed into the cab.
As the cab drove away he stood there, his blood burning through his veins at just the simple butterfly kiss that had been brushed against his lips. So innocent, so sweet. It left him wanting more.
So much more.