Page 10 of Doctor Knows Best


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Jason watched her walk to his bedroom, giving him one smiling, backward glance before she slipped into the room and shut the door. Women were a little intimidating to him, a fact his close friends and family knew about and couldn’t comprehend.

“Dude, you’re hot!” his brother-in-law, Scott, had said when Jason admitted his fear. Scott was a short, chubby guy with male-pattern baldness. “You can have any woman you want just based on that. Your sister only gave me a second glance because I’m a doctor.”

“Scott, get over yourself,” Maria had said, laughing. “That’s not the only reason.”

It was part of Jason’s character: the honest, humble, shy guy. He’d describe himself as simple, too. Uncomplicated. The initial attraction to Lily might have been because she was like a shiny new toy—that white-blond hair and her gray eyes—but five minutes after that, her easygoing spirit was what hooked him. On the surface, there was nothing complicated about Lily Fairchild. But only on the surface.

Lily was thinking the exact opposite. When she took that last glimpse of him standing in the middle of the living room, watching her, it was a little breathtaking. He was standing with his legs apart, his tux shirt sleeves rolled up twice, suspenders in place, a red bow tie, and an unruly lock of black curls hanging down in the middle of his forehead, smiling at her. That smile.

How in the hell did I end up in Jason Karas’s apartment? she asked herself, removing the dress from the garment bag. Allowing those thoughts to swirl around her increased a case of nerves about going across the street with him, eating dinner and dancing with him, making small talk. Or if the music was too loud, something she loathed, not being able to talk at all.

She laughed, trying to pull away from futurizing, and moving back to the anticipation of telling her best friend, Annie, about the spur-of-the-moment date with hunk Jason Karas.

She slipped her jeans off and folded them neatly in a square. Pulling her sweater over her head, she placed that on top of the jeans, thinking that she’d be putting them back on for the return trip to the suburbs…or not.

Shuddering with a cross between concern and desire, she imagined taking her dress off and getting into bed next to him in her bra and panties. She looked down at her body; thinking of being naked with Jason would make it impossible for her to function if she didn’t pull it together right then.

“Make up your mind now not to sleep with him tonight,” she muttered, and then she answered herself, giggling, “Aw, that sucks.”

Praying the dress would fit, she picked it up and slipped it over her head. It was a little snug, but as long as the zipper didn’t break, she’d be okay. She couldn’t get the zipper all the way up, so she’d have to ask for his assistance, but first she’d touch up her makeup and hair. The hair was easy; arrow straight, it took nothing more than a comb.

The hair was an anomaly. No one in her family had white-blond hair and gray eyes. She secretly referred to it as colorless, but it was too self-deprecating to say out loud, colorless describing how she felt about every aspect of her personality, as well. An inconsiderate law professor once said in front of the entire class that women who looked like Lily were made for the courtroom—in favor of the opposing side. It provoked an uproar against him and, later, a public apology. But she was used to it, fading into the woodwork a skill that was only enhanced by her colorless persona. In the courtroom, however, a side of Lily no one but the court audience would see came out—ruthless, uncompromising, shrewd.

Having someone with the panache of Jason Karas interested in her tempted her to throw caution to the wind and just go with her gut feeling, no holds barred. Grimacing at the ridiculous cliché ricocheting in her brain, she redoubled her determination not to jump into anything with him. It had been so long since she’d had sex, a few more weeks, if they lasted, wouldn’t kill her.

Deciding to leave her purse behind, she’d be free to dance without a purse hanging on her arm. She opened the door to the living room, and he was still standing there. Giggling, she had to ask, “Have you moved?”

He looked around and then laughed when he realized what she was getting at. “I have. I cleaned the kitchen. I just this minute came back out. I wanted to see you make an entrance.”

“You cleaned the kitchen in the tux,” she said, frowning.

Looking down at himself, he laughed again. “I guess so. In a tux. That will never happen again.” Then he took a careful look at her and smiled. “You’re beautiful.”

Biting back the usual critical reply, she just thanked him. “I need help with my zipper.”

“Oh baby,” he teased. “Come on over.”

She turned her back to him and could feel him working back there, and it gave her gooseflesh.

“I’m sorry,” he said, noticing. “I’m not great at zippers. There you go.”

She turned around, smiling. “Is it time to go? I’m excited.”

“Sure, we can leave now.”

He reached for his jacket, slipping his arms in. It was a loose fit.

“You’re handsome,” she said, inspecting him. “And you look great in a tuxedo.”

“We can pretend we’re at the prom. Or that we’re getting married,” he said, holding her coat. “Where else is a tux worn?”

“At a costume ball at the casino in Greektown,” she answered, buttoning her coat. “I look like a jerk with a winter coat and boots on with a strapless bridesmaid’s dress.”

A sudden rush of anxiety nearing panic hit her, and she turned away, flinching at her silly words, hoping Jason didn’t think she was digging for a compliment. But when she turned back to him, he’d plastered his curls down with the knitted cap again and had his John’s Towing jacket on over the tux jacket.

“So what do you think?” he asked, serious. “Do you still think you look like a jerk?”

Howling with laughter, she leapt over to him and hugged him, astonished at how perfect his timing was, how he knew exactly what to do and say to make her confidence soar.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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