God, this woman’s spark of delightful energy radiated from her. “Where’d you learn to dance like this?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, pulling my face down to her neck. She smelled like paradise. It was coconut, and some floral scent mixed together, assaulting my senses in the best of ways. “All that matters is that I’m out here with you.”
She laughed again, and I never wanted this dance to end. Did someone slip me a love potion? What was going on with me? Who the hell was this woman?
After the dance was over, she thanked me, then tried to escape my grips. “I believe I owe you a drink?” I bit my bottom lip, watching her smooth her hair back into a ponytail.
“I believe you do.” Her forehead creased in humor. “So,” she said as I held her hand and guided her through the crowd as the music changed behind us to allow for more dancing, “are you a doctor or an intern?”
I grinned. “What do you think?”
“I don’t think doctors are as handsome as you.” She giggled and nudged my arm as if we were reunited friends from a past life. “And I also don’t think doctors dance as well as you.”
We arrived at the bar where Jake was in conversation with two older gentlemen and two younger women. He halted his conversation and eyed me and the woman I’d snatched up from the dance floor.
“You think I’m an intern then?” I asked. “What are you having?”
“Water for now,” she said, sitting on the stool next to where Jake sat. “Hey, Mario,” she smiled at the bartender.
“You looked great out there, Elena,” he said. “It’s going to suck around here after you leave tonight.”
“I believe I have question for you,” I said, taking the stool to her left, Jake now fully facing the bar, listening in on us.
“Well, then, ask away, dance partner,” she said, holding up her bottle of water. “Thanks,” she said with a wink to the gentleman behind the bar.
“Seems like Mario knows you well enough.” I kept my eyes locked on her. “Are you part of the medical group or the entertainment?”
Jake laughed. “Mario and I both think that she was doing well out there alone before your sneaky ass joined her.”
She turned and smiled at Jake. “Well, if it isn’t the famed Dr. Jacob Mitchell,” she said with a laugh that could probably cure a lot of diseases in our industry.
“In the flesh. I see you’ve met my best friend and intern, Collin.”
She turned back to me, and her expression was a dead giveaway that she read Jake’s face well enough to know he was bullshitting her.
“Wait.” She delivered the sexiest and most dynamic expression I’d seen from her yet. “You both are the two steamy and sexy docs from Saint John’s, correct?”
“Don’t tell me you know who I am from when the media followed my sorry ass around, documenting the lamest bullshit ever?” Jake said.
She giggled and tipped back her bottled water. My dick was joining in on the party now. Her full lips could’ve been viewed in so many better ways than wrapped around that water bottle.
“I didn’t see that part.” She laughed. “I felt for you when my dad told me what’d happened when your life was exploited.” She shook her head. “But no, I just watched you in that docuseries. You were fantastic in your presentation here too. It makes me wish I looked more into becoming a heart surgeon now.” She laughed then looked at me, “And you, Dr. Collin Brooks, the youngest neurosurgeon with a level of boldness and genius skill that is unmatched, yet you still find the time to be an arrogant asshole, or so your predecessor says.” Her eyebrows shot up in humor while she and Jake laughed together. “Are the rumors circling this conference about you accurate?”
I arched my eyebrow at the sexy way she teased me. “Perhaps. It looks like Dr. Alvarez’s parting words were sent in the invitations to everyone here at the conference. Not a very nice predecessor.”
“Is that so?” She hit me with a toying look. “What exactly were Dr. Alvarez’s parting words to you?”
“Well, as he gladly passed the torch to me in taking his place on our ward, his final words were mostly that I was the only arrogant asshole he trusted to stand in his place as neuro chief.”
A laugh erupted from her in the most delightful way. “Seems like you’ve already met my dad, then? He’s Dr. Alvarez.”
That’s