She glanced away, tucking her lips between her teeth. Her total lack of protest was giving her away. But, anything she might say would come out all wrong. If only he would let her get out of the room, then she could regroup, take a few deep breaths, and make a plan for what to say to him. This was embarrassing.
“Judging by your reaction, I think I’m right. Now, tell me. How long?”
“Jesus, Graham. Let it go. So what if I was attracted to you? Who wouldn’t be? You’re off-the-charts intelligent, cute, talented, and dedicated. The list is long.”
He flinched, his entire body jerking back. “Wow. How did I not know this?”
She shrugged, still not meeting his gaze. Please, God, let me get out of here. This is so humiliating. No woman wants to have her crush brought to her attention and voiced out loud like this. Her mouth started running anyway to answer his question with the same words she’d just tossed out a moment ago. “Probably because you’re off-the-charts intelligent, cute, talented, and dedicated to your job. I was just some girl who happened to work in the same lab.”
He gasped. “Some girl who worked in the lab?” His voice rose. “Kate, you are not some girl at all. Not even close. First of all, you’re a woman, not a girl. Second of all, you act like you were the janitor. You’re a doctor. You graduated from Stanford, for God’s sake. And thirdly, before you let your mind wander one more second in these ridiculous fake murky waters you’ve stirred up, let me point out that the reason I never permitted myself to glance your way is because you are way the hell out of my league.”
That got her attention. She jerked her face back to meet his gaze. “Out of your league? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
He shrugged. “Kate, have you looked in a mirror?”
She blushed on top of the heated flush. He must have hit his head on the corner of the little rolling table before she got to him last night.
He smirked. “Apparently not. You should do so. Three years ago, this amazing, sexy, smart, funny, well-rounded woman with big blue eyes and gorgeous long thick hair joined the DEEP team and knocked me on my ass. I could barely speak to you for fear I’d choke. So, yes, way the hell out of my league,” he added.
She flinched. “That’s pure shit.” She’d known him to be shy, but had she misinterpreted his total lack of interest in her when really it had all been a result of timidness on his part?
He shrugged again. “Maybe, but it’s true.”
“How the hell could I be out of your league? I’m just a person like anyone else. Your intelligence leaves me in the dust. As do your looks and your body.” She jerked back a few inches, finally breaking free of his grip and waved a hand through the air in the general direction of his torso.
She continued, rambling on, unable to stop herself. “You’re buff like you live in a gym even after ten years of preservation. Your hair is the most amazing color of strawberry-blond that most women would give their right arm for. And those clear green eyes are currently drilling a hole in me as if you can see inside my soul. If you’d ever looked directly at me before we were preserved, I might have fainted. You never gave me a single second of indication you thought I was anything more than a colleague. Hell, I’m pretty sure you went out of your way to ignore me.”
“Jesus,” he whispered, snagging her hand again and drawing it up his chest before pressing the back of her fingers to his lips. He kissed her knuckles gently, and her knees nearly buckled.
“Graham…”
His voice was softer when he spoke again. “I noticed you. Of course I noticed you. Every man with a pulse notices you. I kept my awareness to myself because you’re…well, you. And I have absolutely no game when it comes to talking to someone like you. But I’ve been astutely aware of your presence from the moment you first joined the team. Now, tell me how long you’ve been interested in me.”
“Ten seconds longer than that. I saw you first.” She had no idea how she managed to admit such a thing, but there it was.
He continued to hold her hand against his chin. “Apparently we had a misunderstanding. Let’s fix that, starting now.”
“Okay, but let’s get you fed and cleaned up and then work on physical therapy first,” she suggested. Anything to get out of this room before she fainted. This was not happening. It was like a dream. A good dream, but unnerving at the same time. And so totally unexpected. She needed to pinch herself.
It was one thing to lust after the man from afar. It was another thing entirely to admit it out loud, have it reciprocated, and then process that mutual attraction. She hadn’t planned for this. She wasn’t at all sure what to do next.
Except run. So she could think clearly.
He squeezed her hand, pressing it against his lips as if he were afraid to let her go. His eyes drifted closed. Finally, he leaned back against his pillow and released her. His mouth had that little tip at the corners when he spoke again, softly. “I swear to God if I wake up from my nap and don’t remember every single detail of this conversation, I’m going to be extremely pissed.”
She found herself speaking without thinking again. “I’ll be far less embarrassed.”
She started to back up, but he opened his eyes and grabbed for her hand yet again. “You have absolutely no reason to be embarrassed. It’s clear we both let our assumptions control us in our last life in equal measures. We won’t do it again.” His body relaxed after that final burst, and he slid back into sleep.
Thank God.
Could it really be that easy?
Chapter 5
Kate was still shaking as she made her way upstairs and into Marcie’s guest bathroom. She closed the door and leaned against it, replaying everything that had transpired.
Was it really possible they’d both carried a silent torch for three years and hidden it so well that neither of them was aware?
On the one hand, she was mortified to have been called out like that, but according to Graham, he had been interested in her too. Game changer. She had no idea how to process this new information. She had visualized flirting with him mercilessly until he noticed her. Instead, it would seem they were going to leap over the flirting part and jump right into…
Right into what?
Kate flipped on the water in the shower while she removed her scrubs. As the water heated, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She looked tired, even after a good night’s sleep. Her hair was a mess. She had on no makeup. And there were bags under her eyes.
He was insane to think she was out of his league. This was indeed an alternate universe. With almost no contact with anyone from the outside world, she was beginning to think if she opened the door and stepped outside, she would find them on another planet.
When she stepped under the spray, she closed her eyes, letting the water sluice over her body. Her heart was still racing from the weird conversation she’d had with Graham.
She shuddered as the water hit her nipples, her body coming alive in a way she hadn’t experienced before. Would he still think she was out of his league if he found out how ridiculously inexperienced she was with men?
It was downright embarrassing. She was twenty-seven years old—thirty-seven according to her birth certificate. The years when most girls would have been experimenting with sex had been awkward for her because she’d graduated high school a year early.
At seventeen she’d gone to West Point. She’d been young and never stepped out of line. At twenty-one, she’d gone to Stanford. It was during her first year of med school that she met an undergrad who was her age and they’d gone on a few dates. He was nice enough. Cute. Fun. Considerate. The full package.
But he didn’t make her heart beat faster.
On their first two dates, he’d kissed her chastely at her door. No tongue. Just a kiss. No sparks.
On their third date, she’d let him take things further, beginning to think maybe she needed to round a few bases in order to feel the sexual urge most girls spoke of. It didn’t work. They�
�d sat on her couch, fumbling awkwardly, while he put his tongue in her mouth. His hand slid down to her breast over her sweater. Nothing. Literally no sparks.
Needless to say, she’d wormed her way out of the tangle of arms and given him some lame excuse about needing to be up early the next day. He hadn’t asked her out again.
After that disaster, she’d decided to concentrate fully on medicine. Every once in a while she dated, but the guys she met in her early twenties had been too boring. Usually other med students would set her up with their friends, but no one ever captured her attention enough to hold it.
She could have slept with any number of men. It wasn’t as though they weren’t willing. Guys found her attractive. That was obvious. But somewhere along the line she’d made a vow to herself, deciding it wasn’t worth it to fuck for the sake of fucking. Until she met the one, she wasn’t interested.
If people knew this about her, they would probably laugh or think she held very traditional religious beliefs. But people didn’t know. No one did.
She shuddered under the spray of water and reached for the shampoo.
She had to wonder what Graham would think when and if he found out how incredibly inexperienced she was. She had never faced a situation like this. Until now, no man had made her nipples tingle and her sex tighten. It both scared her and titillated her at the same time.
She had no interest in telling him anytime soon, however, so she needed to slow this train down significantly.
The longer he thought she was out of his league, the better. At least it gave her an advantage. If she had to admit she’d had very few dates and no experience in bed… Yeah, no. She couldn’t do it. Not yet. Platonic was her best defense for now. Not only had he been awake just one day, but they would need to sort through their feelings for each other and lay all their cards on the table later, after he was back to his usual self.
There was no way to trust his crazy foreign feelings at the moment. The two of them were trapped together in near isolation for the time being. What if circumstances were causing him to feel things more intensely than he normally would? They needed time to get to know each other before they got into all the intimacy stuff. See if their feelings could last. Maybe many of the others had woken up feeling more amorous. Hell, evidence would suggest they had. Several of her team had immediately entered relationships.
But this was uncharted territory for her. She’d guarded her heart close for a reason. Perhaps a silly one. Maybe she was ridiculously sentimental or something. But she didn’t intend to break her vow to wait for the perfect man now. Nor did she have any way of knowing if Graham really could be that man so quickly, even if she had been lusting after him from afar for years. There was a difference between what-if daydreams and reality.
The reality was she knew she was intelligent, and that’s where all her energy had gone for many years. If she hadn’t been book smart, the government wouldn’t have handpicked her out of West Point, paid for her medical school, and hired her to join Project DEEP.
She technically owed the government more than the three years she’d worked at the bunker, but essentially dying from a lab accident had wiped her slate clean of any future obligations.
Kate didn’t have a single clue what she wanted to do next with her life, but whatever it was, it would involve medicine. She’d spent the first two months after her reanimation regaining her strength and getting a handle on technology.
The truth was for the past month, while she’d been on vigil in the back room of this clinic, she’d also spent countless hours studying the latest advances in medicine so she could get herself back up to par and return to practicing what she loved.
She was not, however, certain she wanted to stay with the Project DEEP group. Maybe. She wasn’t closing any doors. But so far, things had been nothing but disastrous. In the three months she’d been awake, she’d seen her parents only one time when they’d come from Atlanta to Falling Rock for a few days.
She hadn’t seen her sister at all except by FaceTime. She’d never met her sister’s husband. They had a six-year-old daughter she’d never seen. Instead of reacquainting herself with her family, she’d spent months sequestered in the middle of a fight she wasn’t sure she had the energy for.
Temple had offered her a new identity and a new life, but that would have meant severing ties with her family, so she’d turned it down, hoping things would calm soon and she’d be able to take a few weeks to go home.
The clock had ticked as the days went by. And then the explosion. And then four weeks in this clinic with the only man she’d ever felt something for. And now what?
She wasn’t sure. That uncertainty was an important factor in her life and her decisions. Part of her wanted to run from her problems and those of Project DEEP. It wouldn’t be safe or prudent, but it lingered in her mind.
It wasn’t that she didn’t still have a huge love for medicine. She did. But she wasn’t fond of continuing to work for an organization that had her scrambling around hiding from an unknown enemy day after day. Week after week.
What would Graham want to do with his life? It was too soon for him to make any kind of decision like that.
The good news was she knew him well enough to guess he would hound her for educational resources right out of the gate. She was no expert on the latest technology, but at least she’d played with the newest computer software and internet services and could fill him in on what she knew and where he could find more information.
Realizing she was still standing under the spray of water, she quickly finished washing and got out. After hurrying to dress in another pair of scrubs, she rushed back to the bathroom and glanced in the mirror. Would it be weird if she put some effort into her appearance today?
Graham had never looked at her long enough to know how much makeup she’d worn in the past. Nor would he probably have noticed her hair.
Except apparently he had.
She opted to grab the hair dryer and blow her thick locks straight. And then she applied mascara and lip gloss. Nothing overboard.
When she emerged from the guest bathroom, she found Marcie putting dishes in her dishwasher. She lifted her gaze. “Hey, I met your patient. I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t intend to interrupt, but he called out to me as I passed his room. He’s a gem. I can’t believe how alert he is. I expected him to be groggy or something. He’s charming.”
Kate realized how long she’d been gone.
“Oh, and I fed him. I hope that was okay?”
“Of course. I’m not surprised. He’s already been hounding me to get him on his feet,” Kate responded as she reached for a mug and poured herself a cup of coffee. “I’m surprised he hasn’t asked me for a Farmer’s Almanac or the latest stock market statistics. He always liked to keep his mind occupied.”
Marcie laughed. “You were close. I did give him a book.”
Kate smiled at that as she rolled her eyes. She wasn’t shocked. As long as Graham could lift his hands, he would find a way to bury himself in the comfort of a medical journal. He’d probably read a phone book if it were the only thing around.
“I also fed him scrambled eggs and toast. He wanted me to remove his IV, but I figured that was stepping way over the line, so I told him he had to wait for you to make that decision.”
Kate chuckled. “He’s a handful.” She leaned against the counter, procrastinating. Needing another minute before she faced him again.
Marcie lifted a brow. “A handsome handful.”
Kate flushed as she nodded. “Indeed. But he doesn’t know it, so don’t tell him. It will go to his head.”
Marcie tipped her head to one side, her eyes narrowing, a small smile on her face.
Kate groaned. “Okay, okay. He’s gorgeous. I get tongue-tied just looking at him.”
Marcie laughed as she shut the dishwasher. “Are the two of you an item? You never told me that.”
Kate shook her head. “No. I mean, we never were in the past.”
“Ah, but you wish you had been.”
“Something like that. What are you, psychic?” She smiled at her new friend, the woman who had harbored her and Graham for four weeks. Apparently she couldn’t hide her feelings from anyone. Not even the recently revived guy downstairs. How the hell had she managed to keep such a secret from people before she’d been preserved?
Of course, she hadn’t done a fantastic job of it. Emily had known. Not because Kate ever told her but because they were friends and Emily had been observant. They’d had more than one discussion since being reanimated.
Marcie tucked her dark wavy hair behind her ear as she laughed again. “I’m not sure how observant I needed to be, but you just fixed your hair, put on mascara, and stepped out here looking a little flushed.”
Kate cringed. “Yeah. I guess that made it a bit obvious.”
“Well, good luck. From my brief interaction with Graham, I’d say he’s a real catch.” She shoved off the counter and headed for the stairs. “I need to get back to the clinic before my staff sends up smoke signals. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks.” Kate followed Marcie down the stairs and then took a deep breath before walking back into Graham’s room.
He was still awake. In fact, he had his head buried in Marcie’s book already, though he lifted his gaze as soon as she entered. He held up the book. “Marcie gave me this. A little light reading,” he joked.
Kate looked at the cover. “Genetics and the Future. Riveting.” She was kidding. It would be riveting to him, especially since genetics was his specialty and he was ten years behind.
He closed the book and set it on the table at his side. “She also fed me.”
“I heard.” Kate closed the distance between them. She busied herself removing his IV first, and then she picked up his wrist to check his pulse, out of habit. Or perhaps as an excuse to stand that close and touch him.
Reviving Graham Page 5
