“Someone had a good time?” I managed, trying to banish my emotions. Thalia had always been a free spirit, in the entire eight years I’d known her never really settling down with anyone for long, even if she did ‘date’ them.
“Oh yes.” Thalia said on a husky chuckle as she plopped into the green armchair that was pulled up beside the bed. “A very good time.”
“Thalia, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course, love,”
I picked at the fabric of the hospital blanket a moment. I didn’t want to speak again until I knew I had me facial expression under control.
“Why are you still dating Nate?”
Her eyebrows rose in surprise before she gave me a casual shrug.
“Honestly? I keep him around to keep my parents off my back.” She polished her ruby red nails on the fabric of the dress she’d obviously worn the night before. “They keep asking me when I’m going to settle down, get married, and pop out a few kids like my sister. You know I’m not like Juliet. I wasn’t made to be a bored socialite housewife. I like my life and my freedom too much”
Some of my frustration edged away at Thalia’s words. I knew first hand how awful her parents could be to her, especially when it came to living, or not, up to their vaunted expectations.
My mom had been a single parent who had encouraged me to life my dream and go after whatever I wanted, always supporting me. Even when I told her as a chubby eleven year old that I wanted to be a model. She had signed me up for any pageant or casting call that she could afford to and had even helped me save to get my first apartment in Los Angeles.
Thalia’s parents were the exact opposite. They were constantly pressuring her to fit into their perfect vision of what the world should look like, and more specifically what Thalia’s life should look like. She wasn’t kidding about them demanding a perfect marriage and kids, just like her older sister Juliet.
I understood, but couldn’t she have picked anyone else? Any one beside the man that I couldn’t seem to get out of my head, or heart. Any one in the whole world beside…
“Nate?”
My whole body jerked in response as Doctor Williamson himself walked into the room as if summoned by my thoughts. I watched in pained silence as Thalia leaped to her feet and flitted towards him as if she hadn’t just told me that she’d cheated on him last night.
He dodged her kiss so that it landed on his cheek before waving her towards the door.
“Poppy needs to rest.”
“But I just got here!” Thalia said on a pretty pout and I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at her dramatic antics. I loved the lady, but sometimes she was more than my poor frayed nerves could handle.
“It’s okay, Thalia. We’ll catch up as soon as I’m released.”
“It’s not prison, Poppy,” Nate huffed, fighting back a smile and even that small thing thrilled me so much more than it should have.
“I want to see my friend, Nate.”
“And I need to see to my patient.” Nate shooed Thalia from the room, following her out.
Just before the door to my hospital room closed I heard him speak again. “By the way, Thalia, are you free tonight? I wanted to meet with you later.”
“For you? Of course.” Thalia said on a giggle that made my heart sink in my chest. Why, oh why, did I keep torturing myself like this?
“I have to get a boyfriend,” I told myself, determined to get over Nate once and for all. He obviously wasn’t the man for me. And I wasn’t the woman he wanted. My best friend was.
3
Nate
“So, where did you want to go tonight, baby? The Ivy? Or the Castle?” Thalia asked with a small grin as she turned towards me once we were both out of the hospital room. She tried to wrap her arms around me, but I side-stepped her touch. This wasn’t about going out on a date. My stomach sank. I needed to talk to her, and I couldn’t do that at a crowded restaurant or social club.
“Why don’t we just meet up at Jasper’s? I get off my shift in five hours. We can meet there at say, seven?”
Thalia wrinkled her nose. “You want to take me out to that grungy little coffee shop? They don’t even serve booze there, Nate. What’s the point?”
I stared up at Thalia for a moment, clenching and unclenching my jaw. Jasper’s was an amazing little jazz club on Laurel Avenue but the music didn’t start until midnight or later. Until then, they only served coffee and some food basics, but that had never bothered me.
The one and only time I had taken Thalia there she had complained the whole time. What was I thinking, even suggesting it again? Oh right, because it was small, quiet, at least until the music started, and the biggest reason of all, no one we knew be there.
“Just be there at seven, okay?” I said softly, “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Ooh, mysterious.” Thalia said on a tinkling laugh. “Okay, mystery boy, I’ll meet you at seven at the dreary little black hole of a coffee shop you love so much.
I shook my head as I watched her walk away after dodging another kiss. It was obvious she was still wearing the same clothes she’d gone out in the night before, and I could only imagine who she had spent the night with. It certainly hadn’t been me.
No, I’d been here with Poppy all night.
I leaned against the wall of the hallway just outside of Poppy’s hospital room and let out a sharp sigh. Everything inside me was confused and conflicted, guilt-ridden and heavy and twisted all up so that I couldn’t tell up from down or right from wrong. No, that wasn’t true. I knew exactly what was wrong.
The fact that I was dating Thalia, and at the same time wanted Poppy so bad it made my entire body tighten and ache in painful need just at the thought of her.
There was plenty wrong with just that. Not to mention the fact that the last two days straight I had volunteered to work double shifts just to be near her.
I was exhausted, and it had more to do with fighting my own desire to step into that room and kiss Poppy again than the extra hours of work.
Wrong. It was so wrong. But that one moment, when Poppy had stared up at me, her blue eyes as wide and deep and fathomless as the ocean and pressed her lips against mine. That moment had felt more right to me than anything I’d experienced over the last year with Thalia. Hell, even the last five years.
I came from a wealthy family of doctors and lawyers, and I had always been expected to ‘do the family proud’ as my father used to say.
I had gone straight from a well known private high school into college with my whole life planned out ahead of me. Four years at Berkeley, and then four more to get my medical degree. I already knew a top tier job was waiting for me at one of the most prestigious hospitals in California, thanks to my family’s connections.
I would work for a few years, become a well-known doctor and surgeon. Meet a well-respected and equally connected woman. Get married, have a few kids. The perfect life, all planned out for me. And I’d always been fine with that plan, even if it fit a little bit tight now and then.
Only, Poppy Black sure as hell wasn’t a part of that plan.
Poppy was the opposite of everything I’d ever been told to want. She was an artist, a rebel, she worked harder than anyone I’d ever met before. She was dedicated to her job. A little too dedicated, I though ruefully, remembering how she ended up in the hospital in the first place.
Growing up, I had been surrounded by bored socialites just looking for the next thrill to fill their empty, meaningless existence. A lot more like Thalia, who came from a wealthy and well connected family that my own family had known for generations.
In fact it was my mother and Thalia’s that had gotten us both together at that yacht party a year ago. They had set us up on a date, deciding that it was time for both of us to start settling down.
Hell, I was going to be thirty five this year and I had rarely dated since graduating college, and nothing anything serious. Not that I would call what Thalia and I wer
e doing serious, or barely even dating for that matter.
We hardly ever saw each other and when we did, we had nothing to talk about.
I let out another deep sigh. I knew how wrong it was, to be dating Thalia and to lust after Poppy, but I was so damned tired of fighting what I really wanted. And I had wanted Poppy Black since the first moment I saw her, with her espresso dark hair framing a perfectly heart shaped face. Those lips, pouty and plump, the lower one slightly bigger than the top and just begging to be taken, to be tasted.
She had curves in all the right places, curves that I desperately wanted to feel under my hands, on top of me, any way and anywhere I could get them.
I had walked into that party, already bored out of my mind by the numbing small talk when I saw her, standing in one corner talking animatedly with Thalia’s aunt. She was like a beacon of light shining in a room full of pastels. Everyone else was colorless next to her.
And then she’d looked over me, those big, sapphire blue eyes of hers sparkling like gems, the same color as the ocean, and it had felt like a sucker punch straight to the solar plexus. It had knocked me back on my heels and I couldn’t draw a breath. All I could do was stare at her, completely transfixed.
Then Thalia had come out of nowhere, throwing her arms around me and proclaiming that I was her boyfriend. And that was that. I had wanted Poppy from that moment on, but I stayed with Thalia because that’s what my family expected of me, and her family expected it of her. I was sure that was the only reason she was still dating me at all. But that wasn’t enough anymore. It had been fun at first, but the charm had worn off after the first few months. I didn’t have any hard feelings towards Thalis. That was the problem. I didn’t have any feelings for her at all.
And it was getting harder and harder to deny the woman I did have feelings for. It made it more complicated that Poppy was Thalia’s best friend. But I knew Thalia didn’t care about me, not really. She like the idea of me, and she liked that she could use me as a shield to keep her overbearing parents at bay. That was it. That was all that was between us. And it wasn’t enough anymore.
With that thought running through my mind, I turned and walked back into Poppy’s hospital room, shutting the door firmly behind me.
“Hey there.” She said softly from the bed, her eyes looking enormous in her heart shaped face.
“Hey.” I repeated dumbly, then cleared my throat, trying to shake off the spell she always put me under. “I just wanted to check on a few more things before making my rotation.”
“Sure. You can check anything you want,” Poppy laughed, low and husky, and it had every atom in my body tightening with desire for her. For only her.
I grabbed her chart because I desperately needed something to do with my hands, anything but reach for her, grab her, pull her close, repeat the kiss that had happened in this very room, at this very spot, two days ago.
“Looks like your concussion is healing nicely. Swelling is going down. I’m still worried about your elevated pulse but at least your hydrated now and we’ve stabilized your other numbers.”
“Does that mean I can get out of here soon?”
“Give me one more day, Poppy.” The question came out gruffer than I had anticipated and she stared up at me, her eyes going even wider. I wanted to lose myself in those eyes. But then her eyelashes fluttered close, blocking the sight and I felt it like a physical loss.
“Well, can I at least get this damned needle out of my arm?” She shuddered, “I hate needles.”
“You do understand the irony of a fashion designer who hates needles? You work with needles all the time.”
“That’s different. They are tiny little needles that go in machines, they don’t go into my arm or any other part of my body. Unlike these monsters.” She huffed and I fought back a grin. She had a way of doing that. Of making me want to smile no matter what was going on, no matter what the situation was.
“I’ll have Barbara come and take out the I.V. And then, good new, you should be ready to be released tomorrow.” I felt a pang of loss at that and fought to keep it off of my face as Poppy grinned up at me.
“Free at last!”
Her smile made her eyes sparkle again, twin sapphires, and this time there was nothing I could do to stop it, nothing I could do to stop myself.
My fingers speared through her dark coffee colored hair, my lips fell against hers, and I kissed her.
I wasn’t too caught by surprised to react like last time, where I’d just stood there like an idiot as she kissed me. I was totally in control, moving my mouth against hers as I tasted her, licking that pouty lower lip that drove me crazy.
It was more than I had ever imagined it would be, and it wasn’t nearly enough. I felt like I was starving for her. A man drowning in an ocean and she was the only safe shore. I tilted my head, moving to deepen the kiss but the light pressure of her hand against my chest stopped me cold.
“What is it?” I asked, growling the words roughly through a lust induced haze.
“What is it?” She repeated my question, staring up at me and I just shook my head, my thoughts slow and muddled. All the blood in my brain had evacuated south at the first touch of our lips together. “It is the fact that you come in here and kiss me like I’ve never been kissed in my life just seconds after you asked my best friend out on a date, right in front of me!”
A slow smile drew across my face.
“Like you’ve never been kissed in you life? That good huh?”
Her hand hit my chest again, substantially harder this time.
“That wasn’t the point.” Poppy huffed, “The point is that you are dating Thalia, not me. Which means you should be kissing Thalia, and you sure as hell should not be kissing me.”
I shook my head, trying to explain but it was hard with all my thoughts still lingering on the kiss, “I didn’t ask Thalia out on a date. I asked her to meet up with me so we could talk. So I could tell her that I’m ending things between us. Things haven’t been great for a while, hell, they haven’t even been good. She’s been–.”
“Cheating,” Poppy said quietly, her eyes dark with concern. It stung my pride to hear it said out loud but I wasn’t surprised.
“It’s not the first time.” I finally answered with a shrug. And it wouldn’t be the last, not if we kept pretending like we have been for the past year.
“Are you really going to break up with Thalia?”
“Yes. It’s something I should have done a long time ago.”
“You mean it. You’re serious.”
They weren’t questions but I nodded anyway, hoping that she could see just how serious I was, how much I meant every single word. It was long past time I should have ended things with Thalia.
“I’m going to kiss you again.” I gave her fair warning this time, my eyes never leaving hers as I leaned close, looking for any sign of resistance, any hint of her wanting me to stop. All I could see was the same desire in her dark blue gaze that was flooding my system and making my body grow tight and hard.
I kissed her, our mouths moving together in a rhythmic dance that had both of us breathing ragged in ten seconds flat. I wanted to touch her, I wanted to sweep my hand down all of her luscious curves, I was desperate to feel her body, all of her. Outside, inside. I wanted every single beautiful inch.
My hands started moving, sweeping from her shoulder and down, drawn to the sweet curve of her breast. I loved the way she arched into my hand, moaning soft and low into my mouth. I loved the way I could feel her nipple, hard and peaked, poking against my palm and knowing that I did that to her.
It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. I needed more of her. All of her.
“Wait a minute, Nate.” Poppy whispered roughly against my lips and I stopped. The hardest thing I’d ever done. I drew in a deep breath to get myself under control and I was shaking with the effort.
“I can’t, Nate. Not until you and Thalia aren’t together any more. I can’t betray her like that.�
�
I nodded, unable to speak past the sharp desire stabbing through me. It took me a few more moments to be able to pull away and I had to force myself to take a step back because standing that closer to her and not touching her was pure torture.
I looked down at her, her cheeks flushed a rosy red and her eyes sparkling with need.
“Okay, not until I end things with Thalia. But then…” I stared at her, letting her see everything, letting her see just how much I needed her, showing her exactly what she did to me, “Then, you’re mine.”
4
Poppy
I looked down at the nonsensical drawing marring the page of my sketch book and nearly cursed. It was terrible. It was worse than that. It was all wrong, the angles, the curves. There was no flow to the piece at all. It looked like an amateur drawing of a Barbie dream house dress.
With another curse, I ripped the page out of its binding, crumpled it up violently and tossed it across the hospital room.
Three days. Three entire days I’d been trapped in this hospital and it was driving me insane. I couldn’t work, I couldn’t draw. All I could think about was getting out of there, getting away from Nurse Barbara. And Nate. I have to get away from Nate before I totally lose it.
It was true, I knew it. Every time I saw Nate, that knot in the pit of my stomach drew itself tighter and tighter and pretty soon it was going to get so tight it would just strangle all of my good sense and I would say something really stupid like ‘Oh, Nate, please take off all my clothes and make love to me right here and now. I don’t care that Nurse Barbara could walk in on us or that you’re dating my best friend. Just take me, I’m yours.’
The problem was, that was exactly what I wanted to say. And exactly what I wanted him to do.
Over the past twenty four hours I had replayed that moment over and over again in my mind, when Nate had stormed into this very room and kissed me like his life depended on. Or my life depended on it. And maybe it did.
Best Friend's Boyfriend (Be My Boyfriend Book 2) Page 3