One Dirty Night - Page 92

“Oh wow.” Her eyebrows shot up. “How did I not know that?”

I shrugged. “It’s not like it comes up in conversation. He barely talks to me at home, let alone at work. He keeps everything strictly professional…apart from…things.” I sighed. “Or at least, he used to do things.”

“Things? What things?”

A headache suddenly pounded in my temples.

Guess I wasn’t going to shut up, after all.

“He…ummm, he used to make me a smoothie each morning. He likes the same snacks as me. He makes sure the heater is on for when I get home. He follows me when I go for a run. He—”

“Oh my God.” She grabbed my hands. “Do you think he likes you, too?”

Likes?

What an uninspiring word.

No one ever wrote a love story about someone who liked another.

You liked potatoes.

You liked going to the gym.

You didn’t like the one person who completed you.

Obsessed.

He used the word obsessed.

That was the opposite of like.

Like was something you could forget.

Obsession was something you would kill for.

“Dr. Fitzgerald?” Nick’s harsh voice cut through my thoughts.

Kate stiffened where we hid in the supply room.

“Are you coming?” he barked, not able to see us but not entering our lab. “I don’t have all day to wait out here, you know.” The door slammed shut again, making me flinch.

Kate snickered. “Is he that bossy in bed?”

It was my turn to fake-swoon. “God, you have no idea.”

“Ooooo.” She fluttered her eyelashes. “Please don’t tell me he’s one of those unassuming types who turn out to be a complete maniac when it comes to sex? If you tell me he’s prickly on the outside and absolutely depraved on the inside, I might lock you in here and go climb him like a tree.”

I merely held her stare. Pointedly. Firmly.

She got my message in an instant. “Oh, sweet baby Jesus.” She fanned herself. “What the hell are you doing hiding in here then?” Grabbing my elbow, she dragged me out of the supply room and across the lab to the door. “Go talk to him. Perhaps he wants to do inappropriate things to you in the broom closet.”

Before I could tell her he probably wanted to put me over his knee and spank me for making him come in my mouth last week, she shoved me out the door, and I fell directly into Nick’s chest.

“Whoa.” His strong hands cupped my shoulders, holding me upright. “You alright?”

I shivered beneath his touch, but then he let me go and moved away, putting professional distance between us. “Yes, sorry. I tripped.”

He looked back at the closed door as if not believing me but then tensed and ran a hand over his mouth. “Eh…are you having a productive day?”