They stared at the sky in silence. After a few long moments, faint streaks of light appeared in the black night.
“Did you see that?” Isabella asked, full of wonder.
James laughed at her enthusiastic reaction. “I had a feeling you’d enjoy this.”
She enjoyed spending time with James because she didn’t need to fill every moment of silence with chatter. They could just be friends if they wanted to. Friends who didn’t let their emotions get in the way of their working relationship.
“Well, we should probably go back inside,” he said once the sky was black again.
Isabella got up and dusted the back of her scrubs. “Thanks for bringing me up here. That was really cool. I’m glad we can do stuff like this again.”
“Me too. I really missed you, Isabella. I hope that this time, things can be different.”
In that moment, she had an urge to grab him by the shoulders and kiss him. She wanted to be with him under the moonlight and feel his body on hers.
Isabella bit her lip. After all, she was the one who wanted to take things slowly. It would be hypocritical to jump him when she was the one who laid out some very specific rules.
She was just amazed that he could resist her too.
They walked together through the dark and quiet hospital, back toward the ER. When they got back, he left her to go check on a patient, and she swore she felt his hand brush against hers.
Focus, Isabella told herself. Now was not the time to go back on their agreement.
She wanted to move slowly with James, but her body was sending her signals that she could not ignore. Even if sex was out of the picture for the time being, she still craved human touch. She got a shiver down her spine every time he lightly traced a finger along her body. When he embraced her with his strong arms, she felt loved.
For as long as she could remember, Isabella was not the type to enjoy a physical relationship with anyone. She shrank away whenever her mother tried to hug her as a child. She wasn’t the type of girl to give nor accept hugs from friends, and she especially didn’t cuddle with her romantic pursuits. When the deed was done, she’d get dressed, grab her things, and go.
She couldn’t help but think that James had broken something inside her. When they slept, she curled up in his arms. No one else had ever made her feel the comfort she had when she was with him.
The rest of her overnight shift went without incident. A few patients came in, but nothing that she couldn’t handle by herself. She sutured drunk college kids and checked out infants with a slight cough and reassured their paranoid parents. At times, the work could be repetitive, but she loved the fact that everyone who left her care was in better shape than when they arrived.
With a little less than an hour before rounds, Isabella went back to the doctor’s lounge to shower and get ready for the new day of work. Over the rush of the shower, she heard a familiar voice speaking to her.
“Do you have a few extra minutes to spare for a quick nap?” James asked.
“With you?” she asked back.
“I hope you aren’t napping with anyone else around here.”
She wanted to say yes so badly. Isabella loved crawling on top of him in that tiny bed. Plus, she was pretty tired and wouldn’t mind actually sleeping in there.
“Don’t tempt me,” Isabella said, shutting off the water and tightly wrapping her towel around her body.
James took a good look at her when she stepped out of the shower. “I should ask the same of you.”
She stared at him, not knowing what to say. Part of her wanted him to leave the room, and the other part wanted to drop her towel and get on top of him.
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Doing what?” he said innocently.
“You’re trying so hard to seduce me, to make me break first. I won’t. We agreed to take things slow, and that means no touching.”
“What difference does it make? Does it really matter who makes the first move as long as we both end up getting what we want?”
“Of course it matters,” Isabella said. “It matters because this was all my
idea in the first place. What does that say about me if I can’t stay off you for more than a few days?”
“I don’t know what it says about you, but I like what it says about me,” he joked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
She giggled. “Is this the first time someone has ever said no to you?”
“That’s not true at all,” he said. “It’s the first time someone has said no to me after a few nights in my bed, though.”
“So that’s why you’re not handling this well.”
“You don’t think I’m handling this well? You’re in a towel, and I’m standing over here, on my best behavior.”
“If you say so.”
He took a couple of steps toward her, approaching her slowly. Their faces slowly gravitated toward each other. At the last minute, he turned his head so his mouth was inches away from her ear.
“But if we’re going to play games,” he whispered, “I will be the one to break you, not the other way around.”
He turned on his heel and left without another word. She stood in the locker room, covered in goosebumps.
If he wanted to play this game, Isabella was more than happy to participate. She loved a good challenge and lived for competition. She would make him crack first.
James, too, liked to play games, and the next few weeks were filled with shameless flirting and seduction. They saw more of each other now than they ever did, because they kept trying to appear when the other was least expecting it.
Nearly every day, there was some partial display of nudity happening in the locker room. James liked to strut his stuff in a towel slung low around his hips. He knew that Isabella lusted after the muscle definition where his hips met his pubis, and he used it to his advantage.
She ditched her usual cotton briefs and sports bras in exchange for more seductive thongs and lacy bras. She made sure to wait until she knew James was watching before changing clothes.
To say that things escalated would be an understatement. Subtle flirtations became full-on pornographic. Now armed with his cellphone number, she would take photos of herself in various stages of undress and send them along to him late at night. A few times, he even sent pictures back in response.
There were a few close calls when they found themselves alone. In the past, they would have used the opportunity to hook up when they were in the vicinity of an empty room. Now, they used the privacy to speak to each other, closer than work acquaintances should. They stood so close to one another that Isabella could smell his toothpaste and James could catch whiffs of her shampoo. They never kissed, but another few inches closer, and their lips would have touched.