by Jessica Gray
“Wow. What a kiss,” he said and smoothed a strand of hair from her forehead with his finger. A gesture so tender and sexy at the same time, Joanna seriously considered repeating it.
Rowan carefully set her back on her own feet and loosened his grip on her back. In his eyes that were now almost entirely brown, she could see an internal battle waging.
“I better get you a cab,” he finally said and led her through the lobby decorated in red and gold. A row of approved cabs waited at the hotel entrance and he helped her inside, letting her tell the driver where to go.
Before he closed the door, he pulled several yuan from his wallet and pressed it into her hands explaining, “For the taxi.”
She looked at the bills and then tried to give them back. “This is not necessary…”
“…yes, it is. I brought you out here and I really appreciated your help with the apartment. This is the least I can do.”
“Thank you, Rowan.” She should have put up more of a fight, but money was scarce and even the few yuan for the cab made a difference to her budget. She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes, reliving their kiss. She wanted more. Lots more. But her heart and her head still didn’t agree whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Rowan was the first man to ever kiss her with unbridled passion. It had stolen her breath away, along with the ability to think, speak and move.
When the taxi stopped in front of the female-only sector of the campus, where her dormitory was located, she paid the driver and got out. Thankfully, her roommates were already asleep and she slipped into the bathroom to ready herself for bed.
In front of the neon lit bathroom mirror her brain finally took up its function again. He’s a foreigner. Your parents would never approve of a foreigner. Conservative was an understatement to describe her parents. She loved them dearly, but they’d had enough difficulties understanding that their daughter wanted to move to the capital and become a doctor. They would never get around the idea of her dating a foreigner. She owed them so much, how could she even contemplate disappointing them in such a huge way?
She brushed her teeth, trying to hammer her mantra into her mind. I’m not falling for him. I’m not…It was just a kiss. A one-time thing. I’m strong and independent, I don’t need a man to provide for me. He’ll return to his country before I even know it.
Yes. She would just have to ride out the rest of his internship at TCM and then she might not even see him again at the University, save for the odd encounter in the canteen. And soon enough he’d be gone for good…Her heart wept at the thought.
Chapter 20
Rowan woke up shivering with cold. Winters back home are never this cold. The temperatures in Beijing had been dropping almost on a daily basis, not even in the afternoons did the temperature rise above single digits.
For some reason he hadn’t been able to start the aircon that was used for both cooling and heating in the bedroom. And to make things worse, the kitchen window had warped and showed a crack of two inches between the window and the frame, allowing wind and sub-freezing temperatures to sneak in. With only a swinging door separating the kitchen from the living room, his new apartment wasn’t exactly a cozy place.
He stepped into the bathroom and under the hot shower spray, looking forward to the warmth of the clinic. And to sweet Joanna. She’d given him the cold shoulder after their kiss a few days ago, but despite her demonstrated disinterest, he’d noticed how she blushed every time their eyes met. Rowan turned off the water and rubbed himself dry with a towel.
As soon as he opened the bathroom door – the only warm room in his apartment – the cold air attacked his naked body and he quickly slipped his feet into ugly but warm slippers and wrapped the towel around him.
The sun shone through the huge windows, casting the bedroom in an orange glow. A deceiving glow because the rising morning sun didn’t have the energy to heat the room. A quick glance at the weather forecast gave him the certainty that last night the temperature had dropped into the negative numbers. He shuddered. But then he grinned.
The warped window would give him the perfect excuse to ask Joanna for help. And once it was only the two of them, he was sure she wouldn’t resist another kiss. A kiss his body still remembered, and the lingering desire for more hadn’t left his body for a single minute.
He braved the icy gusts of wind and the snow that had fallen last night and walked across the compound to catch a cab on the street. Joanna had written the hospital’s address on the back of Hai Run’s business card and all he had to do was to show the driver the address where he wanted to go. It was a much safer and easier method than trying to pronounce his destiny.
Rowan leaned back and closed his eyes. He preferred not to witness the creative interpretation of traffic rules that all of Beijing’s drivers displayed. He was sure there must be some kind of selection for taxi drivers and only the truly suicidal people were allowed into the taxi-cab brotherhood. But walking to the hospital wasn’t an option because of the distance. Once he’d walked the few blocks to the Silk Market, but had regretted that decision almost immediately. At least in a cab you had some protection by the steel case around you, but as a pedestrian? Dodging vehicles that crossed over red lights was one of the easiest exercises while walking. Much harder, and more unexpected, had been to dive for cover at an angrily honking cab taking the shortcut along the sidewalk, because the street was blocked with traffic.
The taxi arrived; he paid the driver and stepped out into the freshly fallen snow. As he reached the locker room, he shook the snow from his boots and removed his gloves, blowing hot air onto his fingertips. He donned his scrubs and then headed out onto the floor, seeking Joanna.
He found her a few minutes later as she spoke with an elderly patient. Rowan smiled at her, awaiting the inevitable blush. She turned away, but he still saw how she touched her lips – as if remembering his kiss. Holy cow, she slays me. She’s gorgeous.
Rowan put his plan into action and approached her. “Good Morning, Joanna. I hope you slept well.” Her blush intensified.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“I was wondering if you could help me deal with some issues in my apartment after work? The kitchen window leaks.”
“Leaks?” She looked up, a puzzled expression on her face.
“Yeah, a bunch. The icy wind sweeps right into the apartment and it’s awfully cold inside.”
“I will speak to the janitor for you. That should not be.” Joanna looked very concerned.
Rowan hid his grin and nodded saying, “Thank you. I tried talking to him myself, but without much success. Would you be able to accompany me right after our shift ends this afternoon?”
“Of course. You shouldn’t have to live in a freezing cold apartment.”
“Good. Well, I’ll see you at five then.” He sent her another smile and sauntered off, whistling beneath his breath. Part A accomplished.
After work, Rowan found Joanna waiting for him outside the men’s locker room, already bundled up tightly into her coat. He called a taxi and they made the trip to his apartment complex in silence. Joanna immediately went in search of the janitor, finding him in a backroom of the lobby area. The man was at least sixty years old, with completely white hair, wrinkled parchment-like dark skin and wearing shabby blue fatigues. Judging by the animated discussion between her and the janitor, she insisted that it was a grave problem and he needed to fix it immediately.
Indeed, he retrieved a large tool box and accompanied them upstairs to Rowan’s apartment. Rowan unlocked the door, showed him the window and asked Joanna to please tell him about the aircon in the bedroom as well.
“Why don’t we go for a tea in the meanwhile?” Rowan asked.
“That would be nice. There’s a pretty popular tearoom around the corner,” Joanna suggested.
“Go ahead. I’ll follow you.” He debated whether to put his hand on the small of her back or let her lead the way and admire her elegant figure. In the end, he decided
to offer her his arm, which she gracefully took.
The tea room was only a few hundred yards away around the corner and they reached it just as more snow began to fall. The place was decorated in orange and brown colors and enticing scents wafted through the air. They found a tiny table with two chairs on the far end of the room packed with Chinese and foreign customers alike.
He helped Joanna out of her down coat and couldn’t help but stare at the tan skin of her neck, leading into the soft curve of her shoulders. She wore a royal-blue knitted jersey that clung to her body like a second skin. The bright blue color sent reflections dancing across her shiny black hair that ended right where the collar started, exposing just an inch of bare skin.
When she gracefully turned to take a seat, a breath hitched in his lungs. The skintight jersey molded her breasts into the most beautiful, adorable shape. His groin hardened with desire to touch her, to taste her, to…He sat down beside her, barely able to tear his eyes away from her gorgeous body.
Joanna took up one of the bilingual menus. Her tongue traced her upper lip from left to right while she decided between the choices of several dozen different types of tea. He wanted to do the same. Trace her lips with his tongue. Instead, he took up a menu and stopped staring at her.
Rowan hadn’t been a big tea drinker before arriving in China, but he quickly learned it was an integral part of the society. And the coffee was just too awful to actually drink it – instant coffee most of the time – and thus he had learned to enjoy drinking tea.
Joanna read about the various teas on offer with a thoughtful look upon her face. Rowan leaned back and watched her expressions, wishing he could be privy to the thoughts going through her head. It was as if she were having a private conversation in regard to each tea variety inside her brain. In the end, she chose ginger tea, and he opted for the standard jasmine tea.
Several minutes later the waitress brought them a tray containing two teapots and two tiny cups. He knew from experience that the water was boiling hot and they had dropped the dried jasmine leaves inside. It was a funny way to brew tea, because one had to be careful when pouring the liquid into the cup and the last cup tasted a lot stronger than the first one.
He poured them both tea into the cups, surprised when Joanna’s liquid was almost transparent with just a slight yellowish tint.
“It probably needs to brew longer,” he said and wanted to take the cup from her.
“No, no. It’s perfect,” she answered, sniffing the fumes coming from the hot liquid. Then she opened the teapot and looked inside with a satisfied expression on her face. “See that?” She pointed to a finger-thick piece of ginger laying at the bottom. “They used a complete piece of real ginger to make the infusion, and ginger doesn’t give color to the water.”
Rowan nodded. Drinking tea in China wasn’t merely something to quench the thirst, it was an art, a ceremony.
Joanna raised the delicate cup to her mouth and took the first sip. “Good. And hot. Ginger tea is one of my favorites for this time of year.”
“Why is that?”
“Ginger root has many medicinal properties, but above all it’s my go-to remedy to prevent and ward off flu and colds.”
“Is that so?” Rowan raised one eyebrow.
“It is.” Ignoring the disbelief in his face she launched into a more detailed explanation saying, “Ginger root is such a versatile herb; it’s unbelievable. Apart from preventing colds, it is used as a home remedy for indigestion, nausea, and sore throats. Drinking ginger tea even eases gut inflammation and boosts liver health.”
Rowan couldn’t stop the short laugh that escaped. What a bunch of bullshit! People in Europa had believed similar things back in the Middle Ages, but nowadays? Science had explained away most of the beliefs, like “mysterious curses” that caused sickness, when it was a simple means of hygiene. “Joanna, real medicine works much better. I don’t deny that there seems to be some merit to acupuncture, but…”
“Just because you don’t believe in herbal remedies, does not mean they are not real.” Joanna shook her head at him.
“Folk remedies may work in light cases, when people believe strongly in it. It’s called the placebo effect. But wouldn’t you rather study real medicine with real remedies like antibiotics? Treatments that are scientifically proven to work all the time and don’t rely on superstition?” Rowan talked himself into a rage. Fending off charlatanism and harmful traditions was a pet peeve of his. More than once a patient had died under his hands, because they’d tried to treat a sepsis with some herbal infusion or homeopathic globules. As far as he was concerned, that stuff was dangerous, prone to kill people instead of curing them.
Joanna slipped him a small smile. “Your drugs harm the body in the process of helping to heal it. Pharmaceuticals are toxic chemicals. How often has a person died from the side effects of an administered drug?”
Rowan shrugged. Those were unfortunate outliers. Not even medicine and doctors could save every single patient.
“Herbal medicines like ginger do work. So does acupuncture, and proper diet. Your antibiotics kill off one bug, but they also kill off the good bugs that keep the body healthy. Treat one thing and create another illness? No, I’ll stick to TCM.” She took a deep breath and scowled at him and he loved the way in which she defended her position. It endeared him even more to her.
But he couldn’t resist the temptation to stoke the fire. “There are things that TCM can’t heal. Things like cancer…”
“Ahh…and your Western medicine can?” She took another sip of her tea and observed him above the rim of her cup.
“Point taken.” Rowan laughed, enjoying their banter. “What about acute appendicitis? Blood poisoning? Pneumonia?”
She sat down her cup of tea, giving him a serious glance and doing that sexy thing with her tongue again. “I don’t deny that your Western school medicine has its place. Some things can only be fixed with a scalpel, or antibiotics, but others…a full-blown pneumonia would never develop if the person is properly treated with herbal medicines in the early stages…” She broke off, tears pooling in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Rowan touched her face with his thumb to swipe away a tear rolling down her cheek.
“It’s okay.” She emptied her teacup in one sip. “That was a long time ago. Should we leave and check if the janitor has finished working?”
Rowan nodded and motioned for the waitress. He and Joanna might not be on the same page regarding medicine, but he respected the passion she felt for her profession, a passion very similar to his own. And he loved the way her usually shy personality gave way to the strong empowered woman within, how her voice took on a slight edge when she defended her opinion. It was sexy. Damn sexy.
And right now, he wanted nothing more than to kick the janitor out, wrap her in his arms and kiss her senseless.
Chapter 21
Joanna stepped onto the sidewalk, barely able to see the hand in front of her eyes. A thick white wall of snow fluttered down and blocked out all sounds. Her feet sunk into the deep and soft white material, as if she were walking on cotton wool.
The street was less than two yards away, but she didn’t hear the usual traffic sounds, and she adumbrated the vehicles more than she saw them. The only signs of traffic were the red bumper lights and distant honking. Rowan stepped beside her and offered her his arm.
“Wow. That’s a lot of snow to fall in so little time,” he said, walking her back to his apartment complex.
Joanna nodded, worry etching into her heart. If this was one of those dreaded freak snowstorms her chances to get back to her dormitory in one piece diminished by the minute. “Do you think you could handle the janitor alone? I should return now before it gets worse.”
“I don’t think that is such a good idea.” Rowan pointed to the bumper-to-bumper vehicles. “You won’t find a cab and if you do, it’ll take you hours in this mess. Come with me and you can wait until the snowing subsides
in the warmth of my place.”
Joanna wanted to get home as soon as possible to study, but then two vehicles slid into one another and the drivers emerged with raised fists and voices. “Maybe you’re right…”
Rowan flashed her a wide grin that made her insides quiver and for a short moment she pondered whether he might have somehow orchestrated the snowstorm. She imagined him dancing around a pole, conjuring up snow and broke out in giggles. So not him!
“Glad you haven’t lost your humor,” he said and took her elbow to prevent her from slipping. It was such a tender gesture, protective but caring, she felt herself fall a little more for him. Contrary to most men she knew, he always put her needs first. He was adorable. And sexy as hell.
Back in his apartment, the janitor had already left. Joanna inspected the kitchen window, pleased to find it tight. Somehow unsure what to do, she wandered over to the huge window front, and looked down upon the street. Snowflakes drifted from the dark sky, burying everything under a thick white blanket. From up here she couldn’t see anything, except for motionless red and white lights from the cars.
“Nothing is moving down there,” she said as Rowan stepped beside her.
“Yes. And it’s still snowing. How about some more tea?” he asked.
“That would be nice.”
“Make yourself comfortable,” he said and disappeared into the kitchen. Moments later she heard the sounds of clonking metal ware, telling her he was putting the kettle on the stove.
Joanna settled on his couch and sometime later he joined her with two mugs of tea. “Sorry I don’t have any fancy selections, just plain old black tea.”
“No worries, black tea works just as well.” She took one of the mugs from him and warmed her hands. Despite the aircon at full power it still hadn’t managed to heat up the room to a cozy warmth.
