8
Anna
I wanted to kiss him. I needed it in a way that terrified and fascinated me in equal measure. He was otherworldly and beautiful. Seemingly innocent yet full of delicious innuendo. But more than that, I felt like I was the only one who could help him. He needed me. “You shouldn’t sleep tonight. I mean if you have a concussion, then sleep is not advised.” I blurted.
“I will do as you wish,” was his immediate reply. I gulped as I reclaimed my seat next to him.
“There are many hours until morning. How do you propose we spend the time?” He asked me innocently enough and yet my mind dove straight into the gutter. Maybe it was the way the fire accented his masculine features. He was so good looking it was almost a sin to look directly at him. I sort of wished I had changed into something nice rather than these damp-in-more-ways-than-one PJs. But no! Sex was not on the table with him . . .oh, table sex. . .NO!Bad, Anna.The pull toward him was so real and I didn’t even know his name.
“Uh, we . . .” I swallowed as his gaze flicked from my eyes to my mouth, and I could swear the blanket in his lap twitched in my periphery. His gaze grew soft and he leaned ever so slightly closer to me.
“You need a name!” I sat up straight, putting a throw pillow between us and pretending to smooth the fabric. It was a gift from my friend and fellow nurse at the hospital, Elizabeth, and embroidered with a red faced, jovial Santa and the wordsThere’s some Ho Ho Ho’s in this house.
He frowned, pushing out a full bottom lip. Not that I was thinking of sucking on it.Wait, what? Focus.“I’m sure that I have a name. But I would like to know what you think I should be named.” His smile was teasing, his ice blue eyes bright with mirth.
I tilted my head and allowed the first name that came to me.
“Sam,” I said with a quick nod of the head. Yes, that felt right.
“Sam?” He watched me closely. I smiled and he blinked. “Sam,” he mumbled under his breath, seeming to test the way it felt in his mouth.“I like it.”
“It suits you,” I said.
His gaze moved to my mouth and I became aware of how close we had drifted again. It’s like our faces were trying to smash without our minds’ consent.
I stood up quickly. “Want some hot chocolate?” I asked.
“I would like whatever you offer me, Anna.”
My insides clenched. I wished he wouldn’t say things like that. It confused my simple lady parts.
“Okay, but don’t get too excited. It’s just from a package,” I said.
A few minutes later, I came back into the room and almost dropped the tray of hot chocolate and cookies I managed to scrounge together. “Woah,” I said.
The Christmas tree that had sat for weeks, dehydrated and losing needles with nary an ornament placed upon a single bough, was now lit up like, well, a Christmas tree. The strands I had started to put on were mostly busted and it caused me to give up on my task before I even got halfway done. That cheating SOB, Dr. Buttface Von Liar, had offered to help but it turned out he was too busy sticking his hands down other people’s pants to actually come over.
“How did you—”
“Do you like it?” Sam stood in profile in front of the bright colored lights that filled every branch of the tree.
I couldn’t help myself. I set the tray down and walked up to him. I grabbed his hands and squeezed. “It’s beautiful and I missed Christmas . . . I volunteered to work at the hospital so I wouldn’t have to be alone.”
I couldn’t remember the last time somebody did something kind for me. Emotion suddenly tightened my throat. Sam smiled so big it tingled the backs of my knees.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“So beautiful,” he said, his voice next to my ear.
But when I looked up at him, he wasn’t looking at the tree; his gaze was focused fully on me.
Sam
When she looked at me like that the pressure in my chest ceased. There were reasons I couldn’t stay, and the reality of that shook me. But in this moment the only thing that mattered was making her feel cherished. The unadulterated awe that shone from her face made everything I’d done in my past worth it just to be here now. Had nobody ever done something so simple before for her? I would light up entire cities to elicit this same reaction.
I glanced at the record player in the corner. The needle scratched before a low crooning voice sang about a blue Christmas.
Anna startled, glancing from the record player to me. “How—”
