Double Grades

by Kristine Robinson

  She wore skin tight black and white patterned leggings. They hugged her mile long legs to perfection, showing off toned calves and thighs, and a butt that did the peach emoji proud. I forced my gaze down to her ankles, dainty beneath the clothing. I couldn’t see her skin to check for discoloration or swelling, but she was probably right. Sprains could feel like a break at first. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed.” I waited till my back was to her to grimace. I was on a roll with the awkward today and my leering was all kinds of inappropriate.

  As I started the car, she asked, “You plan on telling me your name?”

  “Uh.” It slipped my mind for a moment, lost underneath the confusion of the day. “Amber. I’m Amber Kinsey.” My cheeks felt warm, flushed with embarrassment. I pushed my hair back behind my ear and tried to focus on joining traffic.

  “Nice to meet you, Amber.” For someone who was probably in a decent amount of pain, she managed to sound chipper. Humor laced her words. “I’m Natalie Jenson. How do you do?” She said it with a quirky smile, the dimple making yet another appearance and her eyes sparkling with mirth. I’d heard the expression before, but I’d never thought someone’s eyes could actually do that.

  Yeah… I had been sounding formal. I couldn’t help but smile in response, and my shoulders went down a notch from their tense position. I swallowed my natural response—which was to apologize for my awkwardness—and laughed instead. “You have to be the easiest going person I’ve ever met.” I knew anyone else in her situation would be cussing me up one side and down the other.

  Natalie reached out, starting to fiddle with the radio stations. Her nails were a deep blue, long and from the looks of it professionally done. “I don’t see the point in wasting time on being negative.” She settled on a top 50 station, and the newest Lady Gaga hit filtered through my speakers. “And I know you didn’t intentionally do this. Plus, what’s the saying? It takes two to tango? I’m just as much at fault.” She shifted, and a quick flash of pain stole over her features. She breathed slowly.

  I wished the cars in front of me would pick up the pace. “We’re almost there.”

  “Where’s ‘there?’”

  “Remember how I said I’m a nurse?” I switched lanes. “I’m going to take you to the clinic I work at. You’ll get checked faster. We’ll be able to do an x-ray on your ankle on site, and there’s a pharmacy down the block if you need to fill a prescription.” I made the turn onto Hudson street when it hit me. “Do you have a car? Does someone need to get it? I can drive you home.”

  Natalie patted my leg, and my stomach started a slow burn. That was weird. “You’re a high strung chick, aren’t you? Let me guess, working as a nurse but you’re still in school looking to get a higher certification. Running on caffeine and little to no sleep.”

  When I glanced at her, she was grinning. She still hadn’t moved her hand from my thigh. It was warm through my yoga pants and I had a hard time thinking of anything other than how it would feel if my clothes weren’t in the way. Which, what the hell? Where were these thoughts coming from? “You nailed it,” I said. “What about you?” The question was born of genuine curiosity as much as a need to keep things from getting quiet.

  “I’m a wild child.”

  I raised my eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

  Natalie smirked, and oh God. That somehow made her even more attractive. It added an air of mischievousness to her angelic beauty. “I’m a model. I travel a lot. The marathon I’m running is for a cancer charity. Every participant is sponsored, and the money goes to the charity of our choice. We can choose to match the sponsored amount or donate even more.”

  A model. That explained a lot. My mind blanked. I’d mown down a model. And I was proceeding to wax poetic about her gorgeous looks. I’d lost it. “I…. Wow.”

  “I’m a normal person,” teased Natalie. When her nose crinkled, I noticed the freckles adorning the bridge. My gaze tracked them, and I wondered how I’d missed the spread of them over her cheekbones. I realized she wasn’t wearing makeup at the moment. She looked airbrush and she seriously didn’t have a speck of anything on. “Nothing’s changed from a minute ago.”

  I parked my car carefully in the clinic’s lot. I thought over what she’d said, ignoring how I’d been staring at her face and contradicting her by thinking of her as anything but normal. “So you were sponsored? How does that work?” I had a sinking feeling.

  “People donate. I’ve raised a little over $500,000 at the moment. The plan was to double that donation on my part.”

  Sinking feeling confirmed. That was a lot of money. I tried to tell myself everything would be okay as I helped her from the car. “When’s the marathon?”

  “Next Monday.” Her arm was firm around my shoulders, and she squeezed as she answered. “Don’t worry about it.”

  I made a noise of affirmation since words failed me. Don’t worry about it. As if. This was coming from the woman who could afford to donate a million dollars to a charity. I was pretty sure—knowing myself as I did—that I’d be worrying about this for a long time.

  My fellow nurse, Catherine, was behind the desk when we entered. Her eyebrows rose sharply and she came out from the filing area to assist with settling Natalie in a chair. Even in pain and in workout clothes, Natalie looked like a queen sitting there. Or maybe that was just my over active imagination. “What happened? You know this is supposed to be your day off, right?”

  “I knocked her over,” I said sheepishly. “There’s a good chance her ankle is sprained, possibly broke. She’s not been able to put any weight on it since the fall.”

  Catherine shook her head. “Only you. I’ll go get a wheelchair to make life easy.” As she disappeared into the back, I knew I’d never hear the end of this from the staff. And they’d all be aware of what had happened by lunch time today. The gossip mill at a doctor’s office was second only to one in high school.

  I wheeled Natalie back, and Catherine and she chatted the entire time. Catherine had apparently recognized her, and was questioning her about some magazine cover or shoot I’d never heard of. The feeling burgeoning in my chest definitely wasn’t irritation or jealousy. So what if Natalie had turned her charming, bright smile on Catherine and I no longer had the full focus of her attention.

  I’d live.

  Catherine pulled me aside as the x-ray ran. Natalie looked serene and not at all like this was an inconvenience. I forced my gaze away and onto Catherine instead. “You might have broken Natalie Jenson’s ankle.

  “Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” I said drily.

  “You know how insane this is? She used to be a bunny.”

  “She used to be a rabbit?”

  Catherine snorted. “Playboy bunny, Amber. I know somewhere in that head of yours is space for something other than textbooks.”

  I knocked my head into the glass. Beneath the sheer “what have I done,” I was now picturing Natalie in small lace thongs and cinching corsets. She’d look amazing in blue lingerie, something that would match her nails. Or green… something to bring out the color in her eyes. I knocked my head again for good measure. When had I become such a lascivious person. Now was not the time to be thinking of Natalie in five inch heels and see through panties…. I was doing it again. I sighed. “This day keeps getting better and better.”

  Catherine elbowed my side. “What’s she like? How’d it happen?”

  I closed my eyes. The whirring of the machine from the other side of the glass filled my ears. It beeped as it finished, and I was honestly terrified to see what the results would be. We went into the room together, and I helped Natalie upright while Catherine checked the x-rays. She rocked the hospital gown like I hadn’t even thought was possible. I bet she’d done shoots as a naughty nurse before, or maybe even as the patient in need of some special attention. My heart raced. I was turning into a bad porn.

  “Do we want the good news or the bad news?” asked Catherine.

  I turned to see she’d
pinned the images up.

  “Let’s start with the good news,” said Natalie.

  “Your ankle isn’t broken,” said Catherine, “but it is fractured. You’re going to be on crutches for a bit.”

  Natalie chattered as I drove her home from the clinic, seemingly not bothered at the unintended upheaval to her life. I couldn’t muster a response, though. I was bothered enough for the both of us. There had to be something I could do to fix this situation.

  My attention was diverted when I arrived at her home. She lived in a towering penthouse, with glass windows and a view that would look out over the city. When I pulled into the front, a Valet actually stepped out. My mouth was gaping, and I quickly shut it. I didn’t need to make it any more obvious that such luxury and I were unfamiliar.

  “Do you need me to help you?” I asked, politeness kicking in. I wasn’t sure if she’d want me to know which apartment was hers.

  I wasn’t expecting her to lean over and kiss my cheek. Her lips were cold but not chapped, and they were faintly sticky with gloss. My heart stopped beating for a long second. It was as if time had frozen. She’d kissed me. The lips I’d been daydreaming about had touched my skin. “I’m good. Thanks for getting me here.”

  I couldn’t even remember what I had said, and it took me a minute to get with the present. I could feel the kiss like a phantom touch, and I knew when she got out of the car, I wouldn’t be able to resist putting my fingers to the spot. I grabbed her wrist before she could open the door, the craziest of ideas springing to mind. I knew what I could do to make this right. And if it allowed me a little more time to maybe find a flaw in this perfect woman, well, that was just a bonus.

  “Let me run the marathon for you.”

  Chapter Two

  At Natalie’s request, I arrived on her doorstep bright and early the next morning. When I’d offered to run the marathon for her, I hadn’t thought about the training involved. I was good to run a mile but realistically not much more than that. Natalie was going to give me strength and endurance pointers, to make sure I didn’t keel over during the race. Natalie, the perfect model who turned my knees to jelly, was going to be watching clumsy me workout.

  I’d jumped in way over my head.

  Coffee in one hand, I knocked on her door with the other. I could hear the clacking of her crutches on tile, and a minute later the door swung open. Natalie had an unappealing looking green smoothie in one hand, her crutches under her arms, and she somehow managed to look like a goddess first thing in the morning. Her auburn hair was tousled in a fresh from bed, but not unattractively messy, do, and she wore nothing more than a sports bra and a tiny pair of shorts. I had a hard time not staring at the golden tan expanse of her legs. They were long.

  I’d been attracted to women before, but never anything like this. It had always been more of a fleeting thought in the back of my mind, forgotten soon after. I was aware, painfully so, that there was nothing about Natalie’s presence which was fleeting. The fluttering in my belly every time I saw her, and the way her bright smile made my chest constrict…. This was new, terrifying territory for me. From the moment I’d bowled her over, she’d returned the favor by turning my world on its axis. My fingers twitched with the desire to touch her, to see if her skin was as soft as it looked, if her legs were as tone as they appeared. How would her muscles flex under my touch?

  Leave it to me to develop a crush on a model. Talk about aiming out of my league. Everything about Natalie was put together and perfect, and I knew in comparison I simply didn’t match up. The vast difference in our incomes was one thing, my lack of fashion sense was another. I was positively plain next to Natalie. Short and with average brown hair and brown eyes, I felt dull in comparison. My teeth—even with the braces I’d had as a child—were nowhere near as perfect. My hair occupied a state of almost permanent fizziness once I stepped foot from my apartment. Bed head for me looked as if Medusa was making an appearance. Natalie looked as if she was about to go do a photoshoot with Victoria’s Secret. Never in a million years would I be caught wearing shorts that small.

  It was a lot to take in.

  But while I stood in stunned amazement, Natalie seemed to not be having second thoughts about allowing normal-ol-me into her home. She moved aside and gestured with the smoothie for me to come in. “Hey! Did you eat this morning?”

  I held up my coffee, searching for words that didn’t have to do with how overwhelmed she made me feel. “The breakfast of champions.”

  She snorted, quietly shutting the door behind me. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Come on into the kitchen. The first rule of fitness is to eat healthy.”

  By the time I’d toed my converse off—watching the sway of her butt as she went—she’d disappeared into the kitchen. For someone on crutches, she sure didn’t seem to have a problem with speed. This left me alone in her entryway, and I couldn’t help but pause to take in the penthouse. The place looked like an interior decorator had swept through. Which, I realized as I took in the paintings of snowy mountains and scenic beaches and the furniture that complimented them so fittingly, was probably the case. One entire wall was glass windows, their thick curtains drawn and held in place on opposite ends. The living room was the size of my whole apartment, and the sectional couch looked more comfortable than my bed.

  “Amber?” The sound of her voice hit me right in the gut, drawing a tugging feeling from me.

  I blinked. I’d lost myself to the gawking.

  The tile floor was cool beneath my feet as I padded into the kitchen. A part of me was worried I’d find Natalie preparing a smoothie for me. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fruit salad and scrambled eggs waiting for me. “You really didn’t have to,” I said, trying to recall the last time someone had made breakfast for me. And I was the healthy one here, the one in mint condition. If anything, I should have made Natalie breakfast.

  She took a seat beside me at the kitchen island while I ate. Periodically she sipped on her smoothie, not appearing the least put out by the odd green color. I got distracted for a long moment watching her lips close around the straw, the way they pursed, the movement of her neck as she swallowed. Aware I was staring, I nodded at the drink and summoned my politeness. “I can make you something else, if you want.”

  Natalie’s lips quirked around the straw. She pulled off with a slurp. My breath deserted me when she licked her lips, tongue flicking out to catch a stray drop of smoothie. Was I going into cardiac arrest? I didn’t think anyone heart should skip so many beats. “You know, not everything has to be tit for tat.” She reached out and plucked a strawberry from my salad. I watched her lips close around it.

  Heat twisted through my belly. I was definitely having an episode. This was a hallucinatory dream brought on by yesterdays events. There was no other possible explanation for me to be sitting in a kitchen with the woman of my dreams while she did everything in her power to arouse me. Natalie confused me. She turned me inside out with nothing more than a glance. “Um.”

  Natalie’s smile grew into a smirk. I felt like the canary must have before the cat pounced. And boy did that put a special image in my mind. I could feel my cheeks heating. Natalie nodded at my bowl. “Eat. Trust me, you’ll need the calories for what comes next.”

  Stretching came next. As someone who regularly did yoga, I thought I had this in the bag. I wasn’t expecting Natalie to hover around me, touching to encourage a deeper bend or stabilizing me when I wobbled. Not only did this serve to make me self conscious, it was highly distracting. “The goal is to get you properly limber before you really put your muscles to work,” she said, running a hand down my spine. I shivered in the wake of her fingers and tried to subtly cross my legs as if that would stop the rush of heat. “You’re too tense. Try taking deep breathes and centering yourself.” She dug her fingers into my shoulder and massaged. I had to bite my lip to keep back a moan. “Ease into the pose.”

  If she didn’t stop putting her hands all over me, I wasn’t going t
o be able to do a damn thing. I couldn’t concentrate past the coolness of her fingertips through the thin layer of my shirt, the steadiness of her palm as she rubbed it over me. I wanted to arch and purr like a cat at the contact, seeking more and forgetting everything else.

  It wasn’t conducive to concentration.

  It was, however, the first time in years I hadn’t thought of work or school.

  Who knew all I’d needed to distract myself had been an attraction so intense and impossible that it was nearly painful?

  Natalie grasped the back of my neck and rubbed. Internally I willed my muscles to not go limp with pleasure. It would look ridiculous if I collapsed to the mat beneath me and begged her to not stop. “You’re thinking too much.”

  Exasperated, I twisted to peer at her. She was the reason I couldn’t relax. As if her presence wasn’t enough to distract me, she had to keep putting her hands all over me. I dared anyone to be able to blank their mind under such circumstances. “You can’t know that.”

  She grinned. “You’ve got an expressive face. Let it all go for now.”

  I settled into the pose with the firm belief Natalie was insane.

  “No way.” I stared in abject horror at the bathing suit Natalie held out to me. I was not about to put that on in front of her. I doubted it would even fit, my butt was nearly nonexistent compared to the perfect peach shape of Natalie’s. Not that I’d been looking…. Oh, who was I kidding? I couldn’t stop looking. My gaze went to her bottom like a magnet whenever she turned. “Can’t I just, like, run in place?”

  “Swimming is great for building endurance and easy on your joints.” Natalie shook the two skimpy articles of clothing. “The pool won’t bite.” She winked.