whispered.
Victor, who could rattle off the most complex medical passages from the Gray’s Anatomy textbook without batting an eye, suddenly found himself tongue-tied. “The storm … It was late … We, uh, fell asleep.”
Their panicked gazes swung toward the window, where they could see the first blush of dawn breaking across the sky.
“When did it stop raining?” Tamara wondered aloud.
“I don’t know.” Victor paused. “I was asleep, like you.”
“Oh, God,” she groaned.
As she scurried around the bed to retrieve her shoes and backpack, Victor couldn’t help thinking how exquisite she looked, with flushed cheeks and her dark, chestnut hair tousled about her face and shoulders.
She glanced up from tying her sneakers, eyeing him frantically. “Don’t just stand there! Get your stuff so we can get out of here!”
Scrubbing an unsteady hand over his face, Victor shoved his feet into his boots and grabbed his duffel bag and helmet, then followed Tamara from the room.
When they reached the elevators, she said decisively, “I’ll go down first. We don’t want anyone to see us leaving together at this hour.”
Victor nodded. “Good idea.”
They stood staring up at the electronic panel above the elevator doors, the air between them crackling with tension and bewilderment over this strange new territory they’d just wandered into.
“Tamara—”
“Victor—”
They spoke at the same time, then looked at each other.
At that moment, the elevator arrived.
Clearly relieved, Tamara boarded quickly and stabbed the down button as if she were fleeing the serial killer they’d joked about last night.
But as the metal doors slid closed, their gazes clung almost longingly.
That was the moment Victor realized that they could never go back to the way things used to be.
Thirty minutes later, he was still brooding over Tamara as he strode down a narrow hallway to reach his apartment. Just as he inserted his key in the lock, he heard the sound of another door opening just three doors away.
“Good morning, stranger,” a sultry voice greeted him.
Victor glanced over his shoulder, meeting the sensual gaze of an attractive young woman with straight blond hair, perky breasts and long legs bared by the short skirt she’d donned for work that morning.
He flashed a lazy smile at her. “Hey, Natalia.”
“Hey, yourself,” she purred, lounging in the doorway of her apartment. “Every time I think I’ve got your schedule figured out, you prove me wrong. Did you work a double or triple shift yesterday?”
Victor chuckled. “No such thing as a ‘triple shift.’ Not technically, anyway.”
She ran an eye over him, taking in his dark jeans and boots. “But you’re just getting home from the hospital, right?”
“Right.” He edged toward his door. “And I’m pretty beat, so if it’s all the same to you—”
“How’s your family doing?” Natalia interrupted.
He bit back an impatient sigh. “They’re good.”
“When was the last time you saw everyone?”
“Two weeks ago. But I’m hanging out with them this Sunday on my day off.”
“That’s great.” Natalia sighed wistfully. “I really wish I could go with you, Victor. I adore your family, and I haven’t seen them since … well, since we stopped dating.”
Victor suppressed a pained grimace. He saw no reason to remind her that their “dating” had consisted of one take-out dinner and a few sweaty romps in the sack.
Natalia was the first person he’d met when he moved into the apartment building last year. She’d given him a friendly tour of the Alexandria neighborhood, followed by an even friendlier tour of her body hours later. With her long blond hair, green eyes and tanned curves, she looked like one of many California beach bunnies he’d encountered—and bedded—while at Stanford. So he’d been somewhat surprised to learn that Natalia was from his hometown, though he knew, of course, that Colombians come in all different shades. Upon meeting Natalia, his parents had also been pleased to discover that she was from Bogotá. They’d never made any secret of the fact that they expected Victor and his brothers to settle down with nice, respectable Colombian girls once they’d finished sowing their wild oats.
Natalia had thoroughly charmed Luis and Marcela Aguilar. By the time they left Victor’s apartment that afternoon, they were practically planning his wedding. So they’d taken it especially hard when Victor informed them that he was no longer seeing his sexy neighbor. But he’d had no other choice but to level with them. He couldn’t allow his parents to continue believing that he and Natalia had a future together when he knew better. He didn’t have room in his life for a serious relationship. Completing his residency was priority number one, so he couldn’t afford any distractions whatsoever.
After spending just one night with Tamara St. John, he already knew that she would measure an off-the-chart twenty on the Richter scale of distractions.
“Victor?”
Pulled out of his reverie, he eyed Natalia blankly. “Sorry. Did you say something?”
“Yes,” she replied, looking slightly miffed at his inattention. “I was inviting you to dinner tomorrow night, if you’re available. And I know that’s a very big if given your crazy schedule. But if you have the night off, I’d like to have you over for dinner. I’ll cook. You bring the wine.”
Victor shook his head, smiling to soften his rejection. “Not that the offer doesn’t sound tempting, but I’m afraid I’ll have to pass.”
“Are you working tomorrow?”
“I am.” He paused. “But that’s not the only reason I can’t make it.”
She sighed. “Just because we’re not sleeping together anymore doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, Victor.”
He gave her a skeptical look. “Is that what you want, Natalia? To be friends?”
“Sure, why not? We come from the same town. We live on the same floor. Your parents love me. We enjoy each other’s company.” She grinned slyly. “And if those aren’t good enough reasons, we’re great in bed together. So we could be friends with benefits.”
Victor chuckled, rubbing his bristly jaw. “It’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is. Look, I’m making you an offer most guys would kill to receive. No-strings-attached sex and companionship. You want someone to vent to after a long, stressful day at the hospital?
