Page 60 of Scrubbing In
With a slight loosening in my chest, I loop my arm around Julian’s waist. The familiar press of his lips to the top of my head again helps ease some more of the remaining tension vibrating through my body.
A striking woman enters the room with Talia. Her probing gaze sweeps the room quickly. Once, then twice, before landing back on us.
She is so graceful that even rushing towards her brother, she appears to be gliding across the room on long, denim-clad legs.
“Sissy.” Julian’s arm drops from my waist just as Quinn reaches us. He grabs her and swings her around.
“JJ!”
Without Julian’s comforting embrace, I feel exposed and jittery. Not sure what to do with my hands, my fingers begin plucking and twisting the hem of my skirt. Until her familiar-colored gaze lands on me over her brother’s shoulder, wide and twinkling.
Setting her down, he stretches his hand to me. “Pretty girl, this is my sister, Quinn. Sissy, this is Leena, my girlfriend.”
I place my hand in Julian’s, and Quinn’s eyes become serious as she takes me in before they bounce to their mom and back. Her face completely softens, and her eyes turn misty before she squeals, “Pretty girl! JJ, stop, you are too cute!”
Instead of being embarrassed at being called cute by his younger sister, he laughs. A smug smile stretches across his face.
“Oh my gosh, who are you? Preening like a peacock!” She swats his arm. “How come I had to hear everything about your girlfriend from Mom the last couple of months?”
My cheeks once again heat. I’m kicking myself now for not pushing for more information when he told me he’d talked about me to his mom.
“If you hadn’t bailed the weekend you were supposed to visit, I would have told you all about my girl. You may have even run into her with me at the grocery store,” he taunts. Then turns wicked eyes my way as he says, “But maybe it was a good thing I ran into her alone.”
My hair and clothes will surely go up in flames with how hot my face burns. Both in embarrassment and a very inappropriate rush of desire at the memories of that day.
“Oh, well—ummm . . .” The graceful woman begins stammering. She also seems to look around us again as if searching for something before she straightens her shoulders. “I told you some last-minute school stuff came up,” she says, voice tight.
Julian gives her a quizzical look. He opens his mouth to speak but is interrupted by Jace popping his head into the room.
“Okay, okay. Can we eat? The food smells so good, I don’t think I can wait another minute,” Jace wails.
We all turn to take him in where he stands in the doorway to the kitchen, arms holding the door frame above his head.
“Still a bottomless pit, I see. I guess some things never change,” Quinn jokes with a roll of her eyes, voice still a little tight.
Jace’s eyes widen the slightest bit when he looks at Julian’s sister, almost as if startled by her presence. I look over justas Quinn’s lashes fall, hiding her stormy blue-gray eyes and pushing her long, dark hair behind her ear.
Interesting.If I were her, my cheeks would be flaming red from that piercing, uncertain stare.
Sitting down to dinner, my nerves have almost completely melted away. The evening ends up a success, more enjoyable than I could have hoped. I even exchange numbers with Quinn as she leaves with a promise to let her know when we have our next girls’ night out so she can join us.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Julian
With a swipe of my badge,I enter the restricted area of the OR through the back entrance. It’s been a long morning, and I've just updated my patient’s family on their status post-op. My stomach growls as I’m about to turn for the physicians’ locker room that leads to the lounge where I plan to grab a sandwich and chips for lunch before my next case. But a blur of color out of the corner of my eye has me turning my head. I spy Leena pushing through a set of doors at the far end of the hallway that lead to the overflow operating rooms and extra supply storage. Now I’m hungry for her attention instead of food, so I decide to follow.
Peeking into each supply room and autoclave nook I pass, I think she may have just used this part of the OR to cross through to get to her office or their staff lounge. But in the very last room at the farthest end of the hallway, I find her. With her back to me, I lean against the doorway and admire her. Her delicate neck on display with her hair tucked inside a scrub cap covered in a Red Howlers’ mascot print. She lifts onto her tippy toes, trying to reach a box on the top shelf. With a huff, she looks to both sides, then up again before testing the strength of the shelf by pulling on it. Alarmed, I decide to abandon my spot when shelifts a foot onto one of the bottom shelves. In spite of my panic, I have the presence of mind to release the latch holding the door ajar.
Clutching her hips and hauling her against me before she can leave the ground causes a high-pitched scream to escape from her. Covering her mouth, I whisper into her ear, “Tell me you do not regularly scale shelves instead of getting a step stool?”
Recognizing my voice, she sags into my embrace. Taking my hand away from her mouth, she looks at me over her shoulder, batting her lashes. “Doctor, Iwould neverdo something so reckless.”
Imagining her coming to harm in this room tucked into the back recesses of the department and no one being the wiser has my blood pressure skyrocketing. The hand I had covering her mouth involuntarily closes around her throat. “Don’t play coy with me, Aleena. That shit is fucking dangerous.”
“Julian, stop worrying. I’m fine.” Arching her neck further into my grasp, she continues, “I’ve only done it a few times, and I’ve never had an accident.”
Growling, “Promise me you won’t do it again. I’ll lose my mind imagining you doing something like this,” I say, tightening my grip infinitesimally, “It’ll prevent us from keeping our relationship secret when I refuse to let you out of my sight.”
