That Thing Between Eli and Gwen (16 page)

“All of me is stiff, but my left leg is worse. I stretched my back when I got out of bed, but other than that, no.” No point trying to hide my embarrassment. I wanted to go back home and close my eyes. Maybe I could restart the day.

He took my left leg and massaged my calf. “Guinevere, when you're with me, I have one rule: don’t lie, especially if it leads to hurting yourself for no reason…or for any reason. I don't really care if you are a runner or not.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, trying not to focus on his hands. “You looked excited when I said I ran, too, and—”

“I was excited I could spend time with you.” He glanced up at me. “Even if we didn’t say anything, you were still going to be next to me. I spent the whole night wondering how I was going to approach you today. Running seemed like a good way to break the ice. I was excited about that.”

“I won’t lie, I’m sorry,” I said softly. “But I thought you said you could tell when I’m lying.”

He frowned. His hands had worked their way from my calf to my knee, and he froze right before reaching my thigh, his eyes looking up at me. “I was distracted and didn’t notice. Should I stop? Does it feel better?”

It did feel better. “Don’t stop.” It wasn’t a lie. I wanted him to keep touching me.

He smirked, his hands working up and down my thigh slowly.

Doing my best to keep my mouth closed, I kept my eyes on him and he kept his on me. I swallowed when his fingers worked farther, pressing down harder through my tights, and I could feel myself breathing hard.

He bit his lips, took a breath, and stopped, his hands not leaving my thigh. “You are really good at seducing me,” he whispered under his breath. “Last night, this morning. Guinevere, we
just
started, you can’t put me in positions like this. I want to be a gentleman before I’m the fiend.”

I placed my hand on his, leaning down to kiss him just as hard as he'd kissed me the night before, our mouths opening for each other, both his hands now gripping my thighs as if he was forcing them to stay where they were.

Breaking away, his eyes dropped to my lips and he swallowed, taking a deep breath.

“If you think I’m seducing you now, you’re in for one hell of a ride, Dr. Davenport.”

“I look forward to it, Ms. Poe.”

“Go for your run, you look like you need it.” I nodded down at his…problem.

“It will have to do…for now.” He got up, as did I. “Are you going to be at the hospital today?”

I nodded. “For this mural, I’m going to be there for a while.”

“If I distract you, will it take longer?” He grinned, already preparing to run again.

“Don’t distract me!”

“You say that now.” He winked, waving at me before taking off.

I noticed he was going much faster than he had when running alongside me.
He must have been holding back.

Falling back on the bench, I noticed Taigi had finally settled down, sitting next to it without a care in the word. He barked at me.

“Fine. Fine. It’s all thanks to you.”

He barked again and put his head down.

“You're still my favorite, I swear.” I laughed, petting through his fur. It really was all thanks to him that today was starting off well…even though my legs felt like jelly.

 Yep, definitely going to need ice.

Chapter Thirteen

Winners and Losers

Eli

Twice in less than twenty-four hours, I was forced to subject myself to a cold shower thanks to Guinevere Poe. Two days before, I wouldn’t have thought of her like that; I wouldn’t let myself. However, the second I admitted it, I felt like a barrier fell down and I could see her in ways that…left me feeling hot. My mind put all the pieces of her together like a puzzle. I hadn’t realized I had already felt so much of her. I knew she had dainty feet from the time I wrapped her ankle, smooth skin from the time I tried to take the wedding dress off her, which was also how I remembered what her back looked like, and how full her breasts were.

Not now.
I groaned to myself, grabbing my bag, though I smiled at the shoes she had given me. When I came out into my living room, I saw Logan sitting on my counter, eating my cereal. “Shouldn’t you be at class?”

“It’s Saturday. Why were you smiling when you came out?” he asked mid-bite.

“None of your business—” I stopped, wanting to ask him a question. “What do you think of Guinevere? As a woman?”

He grinned wide.

“Before you start with your foolishness, just answer my question.”

“Honestly?”

“No, lie to me. Yes. Honestly.”

“She's super hot,” he said seriously.

I kind of wished he had lied. “You’re just saying that to see if you will get under my skin.”

“No.” He shook his head. “When Sebastian first introduced us, I thought that too. She has a really nice smile. I thought she was actually one of the models for his magazines, and then realized her body was way too sinful for that. I mean, how full her bre—”

“Stop,” I snapped at him.
Before I beat you over the head with that bowl.

“What? You asked.”

“I asked you to tell me what you thought of her as a woman, not give me a rundown of her body.”

“Aren’t bodies pretty much a big part of what makes up a woman?”

Why am I talking to this kid?
“Just forget it, never mind.”

I moved to grab fruit from my fridge and a water bottle when he spoke again.

“Fine. Everything except body: she’s smart, and kind, a little odd but in a funny and cute way, successful on her own, and lastly, but most importantly, Mom's already in love with her. If you didn't like her so much, I’d probably ask her out.”

I stopped to look at him. “You like her?”

He shrugged. “Not as much as you do, and before you use me as an excuse not to date her, know that I said I would ask her on a date, not confess to being in love or anything like that. She’s a nice and pretty cool woman to be around. Of course, any straight male would want to go on a date with her. Just because you're blind doesn’t mean we all need to be.”

“We both just got out of pretty serious relationships. This could blow back up in our faces badly. Maybe we should wait longer before doing anything.”
Anything more.

“If you know she likes you back, what are you waiting for? The people you both were in relationships with didn’t.”

I didn’t even want to think about it anymore. “Don’t eat all my cereal,” I told him, walking to the door.

“Don’t let her see the stingy part of you for a while—if you actually go for it.” He snorted to himself.

“I already did.” I grinned when his head whipped back to me, and I closed the door.

“Wait, what?” he yelled.

I knew he would follow, so I quickly got on the elevator. Just as it was about to close I heard her voice.

“Please hold! Thank you.” She came in, not even bothering to look up, cell phone in one hand while digging through her purse with the other. “No, I’m going to need double that amount of paint. Yes. Thank you so much. Also, can you get me the same art students as before? You're an angel with six wings, Suzy. Bye.” She hung up, taking a deep breath. “Thanks for holding the—” She stopped, turning toward me.

“You're welcome,” I said just as the doors opened at the ground floor.

“I thought you would already be at the hospital by now,” she said when I let her out first.

“My shift starts in twenty minutes. I’m usually early, but I’ll make it right on time.”

“Is it because of me? I messed up your schedule this morning, didn’t I?”

The reason I was running later than usual
was
because of her and our morning, but not the way she was thinking. “It’s fine, I promise. Ride with me to the hospital?” I asked her when my driver pulled up.

She looked at the town car, then at me. “You have a driver take you to work every morning?”

“Not every morning. How were you going?”

“The bus.”

“What kind of millionaire uses the bus in this city?” I opened the door for her.

She hesitated. I wasn't sure why.

“Aren’t you sore?”

“True,” she said, getting in.

Nodding to the driver, I took a seat beside her.

“Do you have rules?” she asked, putting on her seatbelt.

“Rules?”

She nodded. “Like not to talk to you at work? Or pretend we aren’t close, or—”

“Who has rules like that?” I knew who already.

She didn’t answer, just glanced out the window.

I brought her face back to me. “I told you my one and only rule this morning: don’t lie. That’s it. If you want to talk to me when I’m not busy, then talk to me. I’m not going to broadcast that we are…a couple, but if people find out, I really don’t care. I’m not Sebastian, and I would hate it if I were being compared to him in your mind.”

“You don’t compare me to Hannah?”

“I don’t think about her. I think about you, just you. That’s why I’m here. Can’t you tell? I grow more attracted to you with each passing second. Catch up.”

“How are you doing it?” she whispered, her eyes dropping to my lips. “Why am I all of a sudden thinking about you like this? We should be going slow, getting to know each other…”

“Maybe it’s because we’ve already been doing that for weeks,” I told her.

“I should still make you work for me, right?”

She is too close.
“Fine. I get off at eight. Late dinner? I’ll cook.”

“It’s our first date, then,” she said, taking off her seatbelt as we arrived.

Opening the door for us, I took her hand to help her out and thanked the driver.

She glanced at our hands and smirked, but didn’t say anything.

Only when we were inside the blue and white building did we break apart.

“Let me know before you leave?” I asked.

She nodded, waving. “Looking forward to it, Dr. Davenport,” she replied, heading to the wall.

I watched as she grabbed her headphones from her backpack and placed them over her ears. She danced as she walked like she didn’t care who saw her, just kept bobbing her head.

“Is that the artist your mother brought in?” Dr. Seo asked, coming in on my right. As we watched, she took off her jacket and dropped it to the ground beside her, leaving her in just a tank top and jean shorts.

“Yes—”

“Interesting.” He tilted his head to the side, watching her. “Go ahead, mate. It looks like I need to go introduce myself.”

He stopped when I put my hand on his shoulder.

“What?”

“You can say hello to her, but if you try to go beyond that, you’ll regret it. Enjoy your day of facelifts and silicone breasts.” I turned, starting up the stairs.

Sadly, he followed me up two at a time. “She’s not even your type.”

“Female is my type, didn’t you know?” I replied, heading to the locker room.

He snickered, pulling his hair up into a ponytail. “I bet you I can get her to go on a date faster than your cruel, stiff self.”

“Really? How much are we talking about?” I lifted my shirt and pulled out my scrubs.

“The usual $5K, and this time the loser has to dye his hair.”

Idiot
. “Fine. Shake on it.” I offered my hand.

When he took it, I said, “I think pink would look nice. How about you?”

“Fine, as long as you are willing to bleach that dark hair of yours.” He still didn’t get it. Pulling out my phone, I video-chatted her.

“Eli?” She stared, confused.

“I was just wondering, what should I make for our first date tonight?” I smiled as Dr. Seo's mouth opened and closed before he flipped me off.

“Anything is fine, I’m only allergic to—”

“Coffee, I remember. Sorry for bothering you.”

“No problem. Bye.” She laughed, hanging up.

“Sometimes man, I can’t believe I’m your friend,” he muttered.

I tied my laces. “I warned you if you tried to go any further you would regret it, didn’t I? Listening is what makes you a good doctor.” I patted his arm, heading to the door.  

“One of these days I’m going to win against you. I’m donating the money to the children’s ward again?”

“At least someone will just think you are a remarkable guy,” I replied, walking out. When I did, I noticed Dr. Stretch, Dr. Four Eyes, and Dr. Bunhead were only then running up to me.

“You're late,” I said, glancing down at my watch.

“Only by two minutes!” Dr. Stretch raised his hand.

I glared at him.

“The pit?”

They sound so sad.
It was nice. I didn’t answer, just nodded, heading to my first patient. That day I felt amazing.

Guinevere

Taking a step back, I stared at the wall in front of me. I had been at it for the last four hours and had only traced out the left corner. Stretching my arm and fingers, I kept stepping back.

“What is it?”

Turning around I saw no one, but I felt her move toward the wall. Placing my hand on her shoulder, I stopped her from kneeling down. Her head was covered with a small hospital cap with a bow on it. Her white skin was so pale it was eerie. She didn’t even really look alive.

She hugged her teddy bear to her chest.

She shouldn’t be walking.
“Ms. Molly?”

“Hi Guinevere.”

“Molly, shouldn’t you be in your room or something—”

“No!” she yelled, pulling herself from me and running. She didn’t get very far before tripping…or maybe her legs just gave out.

“Molly.” I rushed over, picking her up. “Molly, can you hear me?”

She wrapped her arms around my neck, taking deep breaths. “I want to go outside.” She started to cry. “I hate it here. I want to play.”

I walked quickly to the nurses’ station. Three doctors came running toward me, their eyes glued to the little girl in my arms. However, it was…what was his name…that man from apartment 32C who called out to her.

“Molly!” he yelled, trying to take her into his arms. “Molly, come on. Stop this, let's go back.”

“No!” she screamed in my ear.

I winced. Her grip on me tightened. “I found her at my work station. She’s not letting go.”