by Mona Shroff
So involved was he that he didn’t notice Annika until her floral scent reached him and the warmth from her body radiated to him. She sat with her legs facing out and held a glass of watered-down bourbon in her good hand.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s a beautiful piece.” She looked at him, then at the keyboard. “You’ve been coming here for weeks, and you’ve never played before.”
Daniel shrugged. “You’ve never had a bourbon before.”
“Says you.” She grinned. “This was yours.” She sipped it, then met his eyes. “I drink yours every day.” She turned in the seat so she was now facing the keyboard.
“Do you, now?” The smile on his face showed exactly what he was feeling, but he was powerless to stop it. That was just what seemed to happen around Annika. He kept playing.
She nodded and finished the drink, reaching up to place the glass on the case of the piano. “I do. Haven’t you noticed that I started pouring you the good stuff?”
She had turned away from him to put down the glass, inadvertently tossing her loosened ponytail. Her soft locks threw off a light fruity scent he recalled from his time with her in the hospital. He had indeed noticed that she was pouring more expensive bourbon, but he hadn’t given it much thought.
He chuckled. “How’s the hand? Any pain?”
She placed her good hand on the keyboard and played a small melody by popular artist Ron Pope that spoke of longing and hope. “Feels fine.” Her voice became soft; she raised her injured hand. “Thank you, again, for not making me go to the ER.”
He shrugged. Stray curls escaped the loosened ponytail, making her even more beautiful. “I didn’t know you could play.”
“I’m better with both hands.” She darted her eyes away from him and cleared her throat. “What’s the tune you were playing? Seems familiar.”
“It’s a lullaby. I used to play it...” He opened his mouth to say for my daughter, but the words stuck to his tongue. “For my nephew. But he’s big now, and I don’t see him much.”
She furrowed her brow. “You talk to your sister every day—it seems like you’re close.”
He smirked at her. “I knew you were eavesdropping.”
A slight pink flush poked through her beautiful brown skin, and he momentarily forgot how to draw breath.
“Well, uh—yeah. Everyone knows that—you talk at the bar, and you don’t exactly whisper.” She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt but released it in one quick motion as she locked her gaze on his. “Her name is Emma, and it seems she worries about whether you eat or not.” She rolled her eyes. “Common knowledge.”
He laughed, but his heart thumped at the knowledge that she had paid such close attention to him, and he planted his gaze in hers. “We are close. I just—don’t see my nephew often.” He shrugged it off, better to close the topic. “It’s fine.” The scant space between them was charged with their not touching.
“I suspect it has something to do with this bourbon.” She tilted her head in the direction of the glass she had emptied. “We don’t have to talk about it, but it’s okay to not be fine.”
He couldn’t have looked away from her if his life depended on it. “We, um...well, we all have issues.” He happily drowned in her attention.
She grinned. “You do come here almost every day and pay for bourbon that you stare at.” Her voice dropped. “That is most certainly not normal.”
“Very true. I’m trouble, and you’re probably better off keeping your distance.” He said the words in a rough whisper with little to no conviction as he leaned ever so slightly closer to her.
“Is that so?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
Daniel decreased the distance between them, shifting his gaze to her mouth. Everything around them fell away, his only thought how her lips would feel on his. “I’m really sorry that chopper came when it did.”
“Me, too.” Her words were barely a whisper, almost as if she didn’t want to break this spell.
Daniel gently touched his lips to hers. When she didn’t pull back, he pressed his mouth to hers, his heart racing even faster when she pressed back. She opened her mouth to him, allowing him to deepen their kiss. He placed his hand on her jaw, his fingers on her neck, and pulled her closer to him. She tasted sweet and smoky like his bourbon, and she kissed him back, leaning her body into him.
His other hand found her waist, and she moaned softly as his thumb grazed the small gap between her shirt and her jeans. He couldn’t get enough of her; he didn’t think he ever would. She pressed into him, as if she couldn’t get enough of him, either. They needed to come up for air, but right now breathing was overrated.
“Annika!” A door slammed, and a woman’s voice shouted out. “There you are.”
Annika flew out of Daniel’s arms, leaving him stunned and disoriented.
“Naya, what are you doing here?” She croaked out the words, breathy and distracted.
Something inside Daniel lifted, learning he could affect her that way. Then that something plummeted into his belly as he noticed who had interrupted them. Gray eyes met his with a flicker of recognition. It was the cousin he had met in the ER that night. Annika’s night.
She shifted her gaze to her cousin. “Do you know what time it is? Nilay told me you got stitches today, and then you were late coming home and you’re not answering your cell, and I just had the most amazing date ever...and...well, it seems so did you.” She looked from Annika to Daniel and back to her cousin, a question forming on her face.
“No, we’re not on a date.” Annika spoke fast.
Daniel cut his eyes to her. She bit her bottom lip. The same lip he’d just had in his mouth.
“Oh.” The girl widened her eyes at her cousin, now completely ignoring Daniel. “Is that wise?”
Without even looking at Annika, he felt her stiffen at the judgment.
Gray Eyes bit her bottom lip. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Whatever,” Annika sighed. “What’s going on?”
The girl hesitated, then broke into a large grin. “I wanted to tell you about my date.” She glanced at Daniel again but paused this time. “Wait, don’t I know you?”
Damn. “Well...” Daniel glanced at Annika.
“How could you possibly know him?” Annika seemed puzzled.
Naya snapped her fingers. “In the ER. The night that—” She looked at Annika and back at Daniel, her eyes wide. “You were her ER nurse. You were just making out with your ER nurse?” She stopped short of doling out that judgment. But not short enough.
Annika threw her cousin a withering glance. “He wasn’t my ER nurse. I had a woman. Amy, Anna or something. I met Daniel here, at the bar. And anyway, he’s an NP.”
“Not ‘Chopper Guy’? Who stares at bourbon?”
Annika tightened her lips and nodded almost imperceptibly.
She’d talked about him to her family? A pleasant sensation floated through him. It had been so long since he’d felt it that he almost didn’t recognize it for what it was. Happiness.
“Well, whatever. This is the guy who was in your room when I got there that night.” The cousin was almost curt.
That lightness he felt a few moments ago dropped away in an instant, becoming something akin to cement in his stomach.
“That’s not even possible. Daniel’s an NP at the Hopkins ER...” Annika trailed off, as some realization kicked in. She turned to him. “Or maybe it is? It’s such a big place—it didn’t even occur to me that you might’ve been working the night I came in.” Her voice was small, disbelieving. Like she didn’t want to believe what she already knew was true. “Were you? Were you working that night?” Horror colored her whisper.
He opened his mouth, nothing came out.
“Daniel!” she said, her voice gaining strength as his silence put things together for her. “Were
you in my room that night?” Her eyes darted all over his face, searching for the truth but begging him to deny it.
He managed a nod.
She shook her head as if it couldn’t be true. “No, that can’t be.” She glanced at her cousin, who watched her with a grim expression. She took a few steps away from him, then walked back to him. “No, there’s a mistake. You would’ve told me.”
Daniel brought himself up to his full height, as if doing so would protect him from her wrath, however deserved it may be. He was stiff and unmoving, his insides roiling with dread, the taste of her still on his tongue. “It’s true.”
She shook her head, and the confusion in her eyes turned to anger, those beautiful brown eyes that he imagined diving into turned to coal.
“You knew—this whole time—about Steven’s and my—” She whispered the next word, baby. Her good hand fell to her belly, as if her baby were still with her, and Daniel’s heart broke for her. “You knew.” Her voice got stronger as anger settled in. “You knew, and you let me go on and on—I haven’t opened up to anyone about—” Her voice hitched. “And what the hell was that kiss? What do you do? Stalk the most vulnerable patients and see if you can get them into bed?” She was almost screaming now.
What had he been thinking? That he could find her, and she would have feelings for him? That he had any right to have feelings for her? What had he done, really, anyway? Holding her that night was as much for him as it had been for her. He had no business being in any kind of relationship anyway. Guilt and fear paralyzed him.
“You couldn’t just say, Hey, I was there that night. I’m sorry for what happened?”
“What difference would that have made?” He found his voice, but he barely recognized it, he sounded so weak. Though she seemed to have a point.
“None! You’re right. It’s creepy either way.” She advanced on him, eyes narrowed, her mouth twisted in a sick smirk. “What the fuck were you doing in my room if you weren’t assigned to me?”
How could he explain that?
Angry tears swam in her eyes. “Leave. Now.” This time, her voice cracked, and she gasped for control. She was trying not to cry in front of him. Well, he could at least do that for her.
He forced his legs to move just as he did that day in the ER. He stopped at the door, turning his head slightly so she could hear him. “Two weeks. Your stitches should be healed in two weeks.”
Without waiting for her to say more, he opened the door and stalked out into the biting chill. Somehow, he reached his bike, his vision blurred by his own angry tears. Interestingly, he and Annika were angry at the same person.
Screw the helmet. He needed to ride.
CHAPTER TEN
ANNIKA
ANNIKA WATCHED HIM walk out of the bar and flinched when she heard the rev of his bike. What the hell had just happened? Never mind, she knew the answer. She’d started having feelings for a guy who turned out to be a liar, and possibly a stalker. How was that any different from having feelings for a guy who was self-centered? Honestly, her judgment was way off. If Naya hadn’t walked in on them, she’d never have known he was in her room that night.
His kiss still had her head spinning, and she shivered in the coolness left behind from where his warm body had touched hers. Forget him. Move on.
She blinked back her tears and turned to see Naya staring at her with one eyebrow raised.
“What?”
“That looked like some kiss.”
“Well, looks can be deceiving. Obviously.” She recovered the shakiness from her voice and shrugged her shoulders as if that kind of kiss happened all the time.
“He never told you he was your nurse?” Naya looked behind her at the door Daniel had just left from.
“He wasn’t my nurse. He’s a practitioner.”
“But he was in your room.” She shook her head and turned back to Annika.
“He never told me, Naya.” She sighed, exasperated, her patience running thin.
“What did he tell you?” Her cousin wasn’t letting this go.
“Nothing.” He had just listened. He had just held her and told her that she’d done nothing wrong. That it was okay to grieve even though she’d never even seen her baby. That it was okay to cry. Not to mention he knew right off that Steven was an asshole. Though he probably knew that from that night in the ER.
“Well, I guess it’s good you know now, before things got too serious.” Naya’s tone settled it. Let it go. Move on.
“Good thing I have you to save me.”
Her cousin’s eyes softened, as did her tone. “That’s not what I meant. I just meant...”
Annika raised her hand in surrender. “It’s okay. I know what you meant. It’s okay to say it. My judgment sucks. Plain and simple.”
“Maybe you’re still getting over Steven.” Naya was backtracking, trying to spare her feelings.
Annika examined her injured hand. “I doubt that. This is what happens when Steven’s around.” She shook her head at her hand, trying not to recall Daniel’s gentle touch or how it had made her feel. Or how he had made her feel. Light. Happy. Naya was right. Let it go. He’d lied to her, and she had been fool enough to believe him.
Annika inhaled and focused on her cousin. “Did you say something about a date?”
Naya flushed. “I did.”
“With who?” Annika suspected she already knew.
“Ravi Shah.” Naya tried and failed to suppress her giddy smile.
“Another guy your mom set you up with?” Annika grinned. Naya was the “good” one. She was the one who was in law school and loved cooking and met the boys her parents suggested for her. Naya was well on her way to marriage, career, children—all the things that shouted “My parents did a fabulous job raising me!” Forget the fact that she hated law school (and the law, for that matter). What she really wanted to do was join the Peace Corps. She was attending law school to attain her law degree, fulfilling her parents’ requirements, and then she intended to join the Peace Corps. She had said as much to her parents.
They were ignoring her.
To say the setups were less than successful was an understatement. But Naya dutifully met them all.
Annika walked to the door, with Naya following her. This was perfect. She could concentrate on Naya’s latest disaster to take her mind off Daniel.
“Let me guess. He’s a doctor who still lets his mother dress him?”
Naya shook her head. “No, that was two months ago.”
Annika locked up and handed her car keys to Naya. “A lawyer who expects you to work and do all the housework.”
“Anish, three months ago.” Naya smiled. “But he is a lawyer.”
Annika mock groaned as Naya opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat. Annika got into the car and studied her cousin. There was something different about her. The smile. It was...real. Plus, she was biting her bottom lip. Annika narrowed her eyes. It was hard to say in the darkness, but she could have sworn that Naya was blushing.
“You like him!” It came out as more of an accusation than anything else, really.
“He’s...nice.” Even if Naya hadn’t giggled in that moment, her huge smile and definite flush would have given her away.
“You like him,” Annika repeated, smiling at her cousin. “He’s more than nice. You know he’s Urmila-auntie’s son?”
“Yes, I know.”
They didn’t know much about Urmila-auntie; she wasn’t in their parents’ closest circle of friends, but both of their mothers always talked about how kind she was, and they totally coveted her wardrobe.
“Are you seeing him again?”
Naya nodded, that grin still on her face. “He’s cooking for me.”
“He cooks, too?” Annika widened her eyes. “Does he know that you like to bake?”
“Well,
he’ll find out tomorrow when I show up with my famous rose truffles.”
“You mean our famous rose truffles.” Annika poked Naya with her bandaged hand as they pulled up to their apartment. Both girls loved baking. Annika couldn’t really cook to save her life, but baking cookies, and her specialty, chocolate truffles, was how she relaxed, an outlet for her creativity. She and Naya particularly liked mixing Indian flavors into the items they baked, and the rose-flavored chocolate truffles were by far their favorite.
“Not like you’re making them with that hand,” Naya teased.
“Well, I’ll supervise.” Annika grinned.
They walked into their apartment, each lost in their own thoughts. Naya headed for her room and turned back to Annika. “What’s the deal with you and the hot NP?”
Annika shrugged. Daniel clearly had no business being in her room that night, so why was he, if he wasn’t a crazy person? In any case, Daniel had lied to her, so the slight ache in her heart when she thought of him walking out of the bar had no bearing on anything.
“He might make a good rebound guy or something? You know, until you’re ready to settle down?”
Annika flinched. Which was unreasonable, because Daniel wasn’t going to be any kind of guy. But the implication was clear: he should not be the guy she settled down with.
“Although,” Naya continued, “he could be psycho.”
“Even if he’s not, he lied to me.” She didn’t get that creepy-psycho feeling from him, but lying was a deal breaker. If nothing else, she had considered him a friend—though the truth was, she hadn’t really wanted to simply be his friend. So she’d let her guard down and had maybe the most amazing kiss she’d ever had. She licked her lips, still longing to have a taste of him, but then berated herself for being so weak. No, there would not be a rebound guy for her, but it would be a while before she forgot that kiss. “Deal breaker.”