by Mary Eason
Grayson simply smiled and gave me a look as if to say, you must be out of your mind, before shouldering open the clinic door. He headed for the clerk at the front counter with me still in his arms.
“Put me down.” I squeaked over my pain. He did as I asked and dropped me into one of the empty chairs of the waiting room and then went back to the front counter to talk to the girl. I hoped no one I knew was there to witness my humiliation.
My covert gaze went back to the counter in time to see my rescuer pointing in my direction. He said something to the young brunette clerk, which I couldn’t quite make out. Whatever it was it obviously got the hoped for reaction because she smiled at him. What was he doing anyway? Picking up a date for tonight?
As they continued to flirt with each other, I decided I’d seen enough. I picked up a magazine from the table near me and began flipping through its pages. I hoped he’d read my annoyance as easily as he’d managed to gauge most of my other emotions.
I ignored Grayson completely when he sat next to me, while praying he’d finally get enough of the silent treatment and simply leave.
“I wasn’t trying to pick her up...” Grayson whispered so softly that I almost didn’t catch the words at first. But when they registered, I dropped my magazine into my lap and stared back at him.
“I mean, what do I need with her when I have such a sweet, accommodating woman sitting right here next to me?” I watched the smile—the one I’m almost certain I would come to hate, spread across his face. It didn’t quite kill the seriousness in those gray eyes. I forced my gaze back to the magazine I wasn’t actually reading.
“You know, it would be a lot more convincing if you actually held the magazine right side up.” Grayson took it from my unresisting hand and turned it to the proper angle.
I counted to ten—twice, before losing the battle with my anger.
In the past, my mother had warned me at least a thousand times if I didn’t take control of my temper, it would end up costing me dearly someday. Unfortunately, this was just one of many lessons she’d tried to get me to understand and failed.
“Who are you anyway?” I asked, barely managing to keep the words between the two of us. “Why won’t you just leave?”
I stopped my little tirade when he had the nerve to laugh. Gees, it sounded just as good as his voice. The man was one living breathing real life fantasy.
At that point, I decided while he might not be willing to leave, I wasn’t obligated to sit next to him any longer.
I tried to stand, hoping to hobble over to the far end of the waiting room. The pain in my ankle decided not to go along with my little plan.
“Sit down, Lila.” Grayson’s long fingers circled my wrist and forced me back into my seat. “Don’t be childish—you’re obviously in pain. You shouldn’t be standing on that ankle any more than necessary. So just sit down and relax, will you? I promise I don’t bite. At least not too hard and certainly never in public.”
The first reminder of the terrible day I’d experienced so far blindsided me as tears stung my eyes. I couldn’t look at Grayson. I didn’t want him to see how vulnerable I felt. Instead, I concentrated on my now right-side-up magazine.
The normal waiting time for the minor emergency center, even on a good day, was literally hours.
I tried concentrating on the boring article I was pretending to read, something about a movie star, while deliberately ignoring the man to my left, who seemed to be busy working on his little electronic gizmo-thingy again. Gees, I missed my Blackberry. And my life in New York.
After my curiosity finally got the better of me, I snuck a quick glance at what he was doing, trying to be as discreet as possible. Grayson was sending out emails like they were going out of style.
Brother, some people certainly have a high opinion of themselves if they can’t stay away from their technical lifeline even for a couple of hours.
“Do you want to see how it works?” he asked without looking at me but clearly spotting my interest.
“No thanks.” I rolled my eyes and continued with my boring article, which was now accompanied by the sound of his laughter.
Three long hours later and still waiting, my anxiety continued to escalate as I pictured poor Mr. Edward’s panic. Once I imagined our few remaining customers’ reaction to seeing the closed sign on the door, I freaked.
I was getting ready to hobble on my one good foot out of the clinic when a door opened and the nurse called Grayson’s name. He stood. I stood. Then I winced in pain, and stifled a tiny scream. My knight-in-shining armor’s arms went around me once more in what was quickly becoming a little too familiar for comfort. Definitely too disturbing, if my body’s reaction was any indication.
“No,” I managed before the very effort of being picked up knocked the breath out of me, and sent the dozen or more bored and impatient patrons waiting for their turn, sniggering at our little show.
Oh for crying out loud... I hoped I’d only just thought these things to myself instead of saying them aloud.
“I can manage to make it to the exam room by myself,” I told Grayson but he apparently wasn’t listening to me. He said something to the nurse, who smiled sympathetically.
“Right this way, Mr. Stone.” The nurse opened the door to one of the exam rooms then added, “It will only be a few more minutes if you would like to get undressed, Miss...” She consulted her little chart before adding, “Miss Taylor.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her why I needed to be undressed to have my ankle examined, but then I caught a glimpse of Grayson’s maddening grin and kept my mouth shut.
I waited until the nurse left us alone before deciding I’d endured more than enough of his company for one day.
“Can you put me down now, please?” I told him rather ungraciously. Surprisingly, he did as I asked for once. Not entirely gentle I might add. Apparently, he’d had enough of me as well.
“Look, I really do appreciate all you’ve done for me today, but there’s no need for you to stick around. I can take it from here.”
“You’re embarrassed by the nurse’s get undressed remark aren’t you? I don’t think she meant anything by it, Lila. I’m sure she probably thought we were together...or something.”
He left the last part to my imagination, which by this point and after being entirely too close to this gorgeous male by my side, had kicked into overdrive. The or something held so many delicious possibilities to my saving-myself-for-marriage deprived body. To cover my confusion, I remembered I was angry with him.
Grayson Stone looked me in the eye, saw the coming storm, and chose to leave me alone at last.
“I’ll just wait for you outside in the waiting room.” He didn’t give me a chance to answer before walking out the door, and closing it softly.
It was at this point, that I did something I’d really wanted to do since meeting him. I threw the first thing I could find at the closing door.
Even though I felt a small amount of relief at the loud clattering the instrument tray made hitting the wooden door, once I heard Grayson’s infuriatingly seductive laughter, I did the second most popular thing I’d wanted to do today. I started to cry.
About the author
Mary Eason grew up in a small Texas town famous for, well not much of anything really. Being the baby of the family and quite a bit younger than her brothers and sister, Mary had plenty of time to entertain herself. Making up stories seem to come natural to her.
As a pre-teen, Mary discovered romance novels and knew instinctively that was what she wanted to do with her over-active imagination.
She wrote her first novel as a teen, (it’s tucked away somewhere never to see the light of day), but never really pursued her writing career seriously until a few years later, when she wrote her first romantic comedy and was hooked.
Today, Mary still lives in Texas, and still writes about romance. In fact, she can’t think of anything else she’d rather do.
Table of
Contents
Copyright
A Note from the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Excerpt from The Book Of Love - Book One of Baby Its Cold Out Series
About the author