Dr. Hottie: Bad Boy Doctors Book 2 Page 3

  He cocked a brow and gestured to the display of buttons that flashed as the elevator climbed. “You are for the next thirty seconds, if you want to be.”

  I swallowed hard and thought about it. Thirty seconds was good. Nothing bad could happen in thirty seconds, right?

  “I’d like that,” I whispered.

  My heart dropped as he stepped forward and straddled my legs. He braced his arms up above me, on either side of my head, and lowered his face to mine. My heart thudded, and time seemed to slow as the beeping of the elevator kept time with my heartbeats.

  His lips felt like silk as they brushed against mine, and my eyes fluttered closed. His tongue slipped past my lips and I moaned into his mouth, jumping slightly when he slapped one of his hands against the wall above my head. The sensation of his body over mine, his tongue flicking against my lips, his scent mixing with my own in the tight quarters of the elevator made me forget about everything. Everything I told myself I couldn’t have.

  With a flick of his wrist, he loosened my sarong, then he lifted me up and pushed me against the wall of the elevator. He kissed down my neck and bit the skin over each of my collarbones. I dug my fingers into his shirt as I watched him stare hungrily at my cleavage. His hot breath ghosted against the swell of my breasts. I moaned when he pulled away without dragging that scalding tongue across my chest.

  The elevator dinged, and the doors opened to my floor. We stared at each other and I could see him hesitate, unsure whether he should offer more. He licked his lips and eyed me from head to toe, like he was examining a sculpture in the Louvre. It made my knees weak. I hesitated too, allowing temptation to get the better of me for several long seconds.

  Then I stepped out of the elevator. “Goodbye, Noah.”

  “Good night, Ali.”

  “I’m not Ali.” I winked at him as the doors began to close.

  Noah grinned back at me in amusement before hurriedly asking, “Who are you, then?”

  “Good night, Noah.”

  As soon as those doors closed, I bent over, hands on my knees like I’d just run a marathon.

  It was a fair question after all. Who was I?

  I was the girl who never expected to feel such a rush from his protective gaze, his strong hands, his body pressing me against the wall.

  The girl who desperately wanted to call the elevator back and rush into Noah’s arms.

  But I couldn’t do that.

  This vacation was my time to relax and frolic and be free before I returned to reality and faced all that I feared. This was a vacation that wouldn’t have a place in my real life.

  And that included Noah.

  Chapter 3

  Noah

  * * *

  I’ve never woken up on vacation as early I did that next morning.

  My alarm flashed six, and I rolled out of bed with a groan. I showered, threw on trunks, and grabbed a towel before trudging to the elevator located at the opposite end of the bank of elevators from where I’d dropped Samantha slash Ali off at the sixteenth floor. Five minutes later, I was seated in the restaurant in the hotel’s lobby, where there were only two other people present, both pushing eighty.

  Sipping coffee, I half-listened to the elderly couple’s conversation about the nutritional value of macadamia nuts and grumbled under my breath that I wouldn’t be up so early if I knew that infuriatingly stubborn woman’s name.

  Yesterday, it had taken me practically the entire day to find her among the sprawling resort’s dozen pools, several spas, miles of beach, and numerous restaurants. Last night, as the elevator doors closed between us yet again, I’d wondered—what if I didn’t manage to find her again? I had no way of contacting her, not unless I wanted to knock on every door on the sixteenth floor, which I was assuming was where her actual room was located. And it wasn’t like I could just call the front desk and be transferred to her room’s phone.

  “Um, hi, I’m looking for a woman not named Samantha and not named Ali. Any clue who that might be?”

  “You don’t know her name”

  “I know it’s not Samantha and it’s not Ali and I think she’s on the sixteenth floor.”

  “Okay…”

  Yeah, that call wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I figured the best way to find her was to beat the clock. I just hoped she hadn’t gotten up at 5:45 to hit the first waves. Then I’d be sitting in the restaurant, bleary-eyed and haggard for nothing.

  Even after all my efforts, I almost missed her walking by when another woman asked to sit at my table. If I hadn’t only had eyes for my mysterious nameless beauty, I could have had fun with this woman. She had curly red hair and a tiny red bikini to match. I was trying not to be distracted by her perky tits as I watched the elevators.

  When I finally spotted not-Samantha not-Ali, heading toward the front entrance of the hotel, the redhead was telling me about her pet Pomeranian.

  “Um, look, I’d love to keep hearing about Fluffy—”

  “Fuzzy.”

  “Right, Fuzzy. I’d love to keep hearing about Fuzzy, but I have to run.”

  She winced. “Oh, you had the oysters, too?”

  “No,” I said quickly, then shook my head. “I mean, yeah. Oysters.”

  I threw money down on the table for the tab and she shouted a ‘good luck’ after me as I jogged toward the hotel’s sliding glass doors. I found not-Samantha standing alone out front and slowed to catch my breath. She wore a wide-brimmed hat and a white sundress. Her long blonde hair was in a messy braid down her back, tied at the end with a yellow ribbon.

  I approached her, rubbing my clammy palms on my trunks. That wasn’t me. I didn’t get clammy palms talking to a woman. Of course, she wasn’t just any woman.

  “Carmen?” I said.

  She looked up in surprise.

  “Carmen?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

  I nodded to her hat. “Like Carmen Sandiego.”

  “Ah.” She smiled. Then she again faced the hotel’s curved pull-in drive. “I think hers was red and an entirely different style.”

  “You know, mistakes like this could be avoided if you told me your name.”

  She was silent for a moment. Wind played at the loose strands of her hair, framing her face. I thought for sure I’d won, and she was finally going to tell me her name, especially after the obvious connection we’d had on the dance floor and in the elevator last night.

  But then she said, “Carmen will do.”

  I laughed. “Well then, Carmen, what exactly are you doing standing here? Not that the asphalt isn’t nice, but there’s a whole ocean just behind you.”

  “I’m waiting for the bus. I want to go to the market in the local village.”

  “If you need a ride, I still have the Jeep.”

  “Thank you, but I don’t need a ride. The bus is coming.”

  She thought I didn’t notice her eyes sneak a look at my bare chest when I first approached her. She thought I didn’t notice her imperceptibly bite her lip. She thought I didn’t notice her pulse quicken.

  “Okay,” I said. I leaned over and glanced as far as I could in either direction. No sign of a bus approaching. “What time are you expecting the bus?”

  She shifted her weight from foot to foot. “Now. Soon. Well, soon enough.”

  “I see.” I didn’t understand why she was fighting so hard to keep me at a distance. There was chemistry between us—and not just physical chemistry, either. So what was holding her back from seeing where a vacation flirtation could go?

  I shifted my weight, easing just inside her personal space. A small smile toyed at the corner of her mouth, then disappeared, as if she’d reeled herself back in from being aroused by me.

  Fighting back a grin, I said nonchalantly, “Well, then, Carmen-Not-Carmen, if you’re insisting on taking public transportation, I can’t stop you. Me, though, I’m taking my Jeep into town.”

  A flash of something—disappointment, maybe—crossed her face, before she murmured, “Enj
oy the drive.”

  “I will,” I said, then turned around and left.

  After taking the stairwell down to the small parking lot below the hotel, I quickly found the topless red Jeep I’d rented, hopped in, and in seconds, was curving around the drive to the front of the hotel, to where Carmen still stood, waiting for the bus. I pulled up next to her, shifted the Jeep into neutral, and leaned back, resting an arm on the passenger side headrest.

  “Ah, we meet again.”

  She snorted. “Hardly a coincidence. You knew I’d be here.” She crossed her arms. I couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t wearing a bra under the thin, gauzy material of her blouse.

  Easy, Noah. You’re offering the woman a ride. Best not to ogle her tits.

  “Yep, my subtlety needs work. Still though...here I am, and here you are, and we’re both heading to town.” I patted the passenger’s seat. “C’mon. Hop in.”

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You don’t give up easily, do you?”

  “I think we’re pretty-well matched when it comes to being stubborn.”

  “Yes, but why are you being stubborn?”

  Because I liked her. Because she intrigued me. Because I had to have her, and that need was growing with each passing second. And because I didn’t want to go back home, vacation done, feeling unfinished, a hollow sensation inside me at all times. Not that I was going to say all that. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, then I stepped out of the Jeep and walked around it toward Not Carmen.

  Her eyes narrowed as I approached. A grin flashed across her lips before she quickly forced them back into a tight, narrow line. “What are you doing?”

  I remained silent and bowed from the waist.

  “Um, Noah?”

  I stood and stuck my elbow out. “Being gallant. Worked for me last time.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

  I shrugged, still holding my elbow out for her. “I could go the he-man route, where I swing you up in my arms and carry you to my Jeep, but I carried you down that mountain and then we danced and I’m tired.” I grinned at her and added, “Besides, hefting women over my shoulder is a little too caveman, even for me.” I waggled my proffered elbow. “How can you say no?”

  “You won’t let up, will you?”

  “Tell me to drive off, and I will. But I’d far rather drive off with you. Come on, Carmen-Ali-Samantha, let’s go have fun.”

  This time she couldn’t fight the smile taking over her face. Rolling her eyes—at me or herself, I wasn’t sure—she reached out and grabbed my arm. “The bus was coming,” she huffed.

  “You know in your heart of hearts I’m way more fun.” I led her to the Jeep, and when she sat in the passenger’s seat, I reached over her and buckled her seat belt. Then I hopped into the still running Jeep and shifted into first. “So...which way is the town?”

  She sighed. “Right. Turn right.”

  I grinned so wide my cheeks hurt, and tore down the road, wind whipping in our hair.

  The ride into town was made in silence, her because of annoyance and me because I was soaking in the pleasure of just being with her. The narrow road ran parallel to the ocean, glistening in the sunshine. The cool ocean breeze felt good on my skin. It smelled like salt water and coconuts, and I imagined that’s what Carmen smelled like. Her skin like salt water, her hair like coconuts.

  I already knew her lips tasted like rum and strawberries.

  “You’re not going to break me down, you know,” she finally said.

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “You’re not.”

  I nodded.

  “Noah.”

  “Mmm hmm.”

  “You’re not.”

  I studied her over the top of my sunglasses. She wasn’t wearing an ounce of makeup and yet her cheeks were pink and her lips even pinker. Her hat rippled in the wind, which tugged more and more hairs loose from her braid. I imagined pulling at that braid. I imagined laying her down on my bed and staring at it haloed around her head. I imagined how gorgeous it would look messy and undone after an afternoon of fucking.

  “Is that why you won’t tell me your name?” I asked. “Are you afraid I’d break you down if you did?”

  She opened her mouth to answer, but I continued.

  “Do you think you wouldn’t be able to resist it if I whispered your real name in your ear?”

  She closed her mouth and watched me.

  “Are you worried that if I knew your real name you’d want me to say it again and again in my bed?”

  She fumed next to me. I casually glanced back at the road, which turned to gravel as we continued on.

  “Are you afraid that if I knew your real name, Carmen,” I went on, “I may get to know your heart?”

  At first, there was only the sound of the wind, of the Jeep, of the ocean. But then there was an unexpected laugh.

  “My heart?” she sputtered. “You just met me. We’ve barely talked. I’m not worried in the least that you may ‘know my heart.’ The market should be about ten miles or so.”

  I eased down on the Jeep’s speed as the road grew rockier and we bounced along with it. “If you weren’t worried in the least, then why did you change the subject?”

  “I didn’t change the subject.”

  I laughed. “Face it. I know you, Carmen.”

  “You don’t know me.” She crossed her arms. “I know who you are, but you most definitely don’t know who I am.”

  Shocked, I shifted down to the lowest gear and abruptly brought the Jeep to a stop on the uneven road.

  “What are you doing now?” she asked.

  “You think you know me?”

  She looked me up and down and nodded. “I do.”

  “Well, then. Let’s hear it.”

  Frustrated, her hand flew into the air. “We’re in the middle of the road.”

  To prove my point, I looked all around us in every direction. To our right was half a mile of white sand, and beyond it a mile of crystal clear aqua waters and thousands of miles of deep blue ocean. To our left was a line of palm trees, then a second line of palm trees which morphed into a literal jungle. Ahead of us was an empty gravel road. Behind us, the same. Oh, and there wasn’t a car in sight.

  Carmen rolled her eyes and shrugged. “All right, if you want it.”

  “I want it.”

  She shifted in her seat to face me full on. I told myself I wouldn’t interrupt. I wanted to hear what she had to say.

  “You’ve had everything in life come easily,” she said. “You’re gorgeous and you know it. You’re used to people jumping when you say jump and you don’t accept when people say ‘no’ because you rarely hear it.”

  She stopped and looked at me.

  “Continue,” I said.

  “Am I on the right track?”

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t work that way.”

  “Well,” she grumbled, “I think you’re in some profession where you perform for people. You know how to make people love you, adore you, fall at your feet. To have that power, you must be intelligent. But you abuse it.”

  She paused and searched my face.

  “Are you done?” I asked.

  “No,” she answered slowly.

  “Let me have it.”

  She tapped her finger against her leg and studied me.

  “You’re lost,” she finally said, looking me straight in the eye. She didn’t flinch. I’m not sure I could say the same about myself. “You’re looking for someone and wondering why you can’t find them. But there’s just not enough room for someone else. Your life is about you and you alone. Your happiness, your comfort, your satisfaction.”

  I thought she was finished, but then she added, “But underneath all of that, I don’t know who you are. I don’t think anyone does.”

  Those last words surprised me. Before that, it was everything I’d heard before, usually from my long list of bitter ex-lovers. I knew all of that. I knew how I came off. How c
ould I not?

  But I’d never had anyone believe there was something else, something more, something hidden beneath the surface. Most people saw the man I let them see—confident, cocky, self-assured, and a player just as much as he was a medical professional. No one knew there was more to me than that, that deep inside, I was still the man who, when first starting out as a doctor, had almost been paralyzed by fear that he would make a mistake that might cause someone his life. I’d worked past that, but it didn’t mean that man wasn’t still there, always reminding me that I wasn’t infallible. That perhaps my good luck could change at any moment.

  Carmen stared at me, and I suddenly realized I’d just been sitting there awkwardly pondering her words without saying anything.

  “You asked me to give it to you straight,” she said.

  “I did. I was just staring at your chest. Your breasts are beautiful without a bra. Few women can pull that off, you know.”

  It was a deflection, but it worked. She growled and pushed me away.

  “Can we please get going?” she asked, pulling her tote bag up over her chest.

  “What? You can give it, but you can’t take it? Cause I have quite a few theories about who you are too.”

  “Is that right? So tell me, Noah.”

  Given how she’d described me, I’m sure she expected me to say something biting. Instead, I wanted to set aside the bullshit of pretend names and tell her she was the most mysterious and intriguing woman I had ever met in my entire life. She was stunning, but it wasn’t important to her that she was stunning. It was important to her that she was smart and independent and most of all, in control. I wanted to say I thought she was hiding from something, running from something, escaping from something. Something that I knew she wouldn’t share. But something I wished she would share.

  Instead, I said, “I think you’re intriguing. And I think we better get going before another car comes along.” I shifted the Jeep back into gear and continued on the gravel road without another word.