Chapter 23 23
Roman's POV
I caught her arm before she could walk more than three steps down the corridor.
"Don't touch me!" She snapped, pulling free and spinning around to face me. "And don't you dare try to stop me from leaving."
"Harmony, just listen to me."
"No, you listen." She pointed a menacing finger at my chest. "You cannot keep doing this, you cannot keep showing up in my space and inserting yourself into my business as if you have some kind of claim over me. You don't. First, you kiss me without permission, then you buy me a phone that I repeatedly told you I didn't want, now you're policing who I can or cannot dance with. We are not together. We are not anything. You were my patient at the clinic, and that is it."
"That's not it and you know it. You know why I am acting this way," I replied. "So stop pretending you don't."
She stared at me, anger written all over her face, and for a moment neither of us said anything. The music from the main room was muffled back here, just a distant thump through the walls.
"What is your problem?" she asked. "Seriously, what is it? What do you want from me?"
"You, Harmony." I yelled back. "That's my problem. You are my problem."
Harmony looked stupefied.
"I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since you walked out of that clinic," I told her. "The whole week I was stuck in that apartment, every single day, it was you. I wanted to call you, I wanted to talk about what happened between us, but I didn't know if you even wanted that conversation or if you were just going to shut me down the second I brought it up."
Harmony was quiet for several, unbearable seconds. When she spoke, her voice had lost some of its edge. "I don't want to talk about the kiss, Foster."
"Why not?"
"Because I shouldn't have kissed you back," she told me. "That's why. It was a mistake and I knew it the second it happened. Trust me, I have been trying very hard to keep my head straight ever since."
She looked up at me, and I saw an immense exhaustion in her eyes that transcended whatever the both of us had going on. "I made a promise to myself before I came to UIC. After everything that happened at Loyola, I told myself that I was done. I was done with getting tangled up in something that was only going to blow up in my face."
She exhaled. "And then you showed up; you are a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. You have been making it very difficult for me to keep that promise, and I need you to understand how much that terrifies me."
I looked at her standing there in the white dress with the Coke stain on the front and her ponytail slightly undone from dancing, and the fight went out of me completely.
"Harmony...."
"No, please!" She insisted. "I have a history you will never hear of. I have problems in my life that you can't even imagine, I just wanted one night of fun before I went back to worrying about those problems. Step aside, please. I want to go home. I'm done with this party."
I stepped aside and she moved past me. I watched her go, and I told myself to just let her be. I should give her the space she was asking for, but that thought lasted about four seconds before I reached out, caught her arm and pulled her back.
Harmony turned to look at me in shock with those large doe eyes, and my mouth went dry. My hand shook and my whole body strained to eliminate those last few inches that separated us. I wanted to kiss her, wanted to push her up against the wall and cover her mouth with mine, to taste her and take her.
It was madness. Harmony was practically a stranger to me; our relationship was strictly a medical one. We were both firmly opposed to any kind of sexual entanglements.
And yet. And yet…
One kiss, right? Just one simple taste. Who would it harm?
I reached for her, cupping her cheek and tugging her toward me. Harmony didn't resist—if anything, she made a moan of longing that sent blood rushing to my groin. I didn’t try to overpower her, letting her duck away if she chose to.
But she didn’t. Instead, she stepped into me, throwing her arms around my neck and rising on tiptoe to take the kiss I’d been about to offer her. Her soft lips melded against mine, and parted. I groaned, taking what she gave me, sliding my tongue against hers, exploring that sweet-tasting mouth.
I liked kissing, and I’d missed kissing. And kissing this particular woman could easily become an addiction.
Every inch of her womanly body was pressed against me, from the softness of her mouth, the lushness of her perfect breasts, the flat tummy,
the curvy flared out hips, the straight legs. This wasn’t some sweet, exploring first kiss; it was a hot and hungry stolen interlude. One both of us knew wasn’t going to last and shouldn’t be repeated, so we would have to make the most of it.
I angled my head one way and she angled hers the other so our tongues could plunge deeper. Her fingers twined in my hair, mine dropped to her hips and squeezed. We pressed into each other, making no effort to pretend we weren’t both incredibly turned on.
I was turned on, but not crazy. Certainly not crazy enough to have sex with a woman I'd met just recently, in the corridor of a fraternity house. Especially not one who was my nurse.
It almost killed me, but I let common sense invade, and slowly, I ended the kiss. I didn’t pull away completely, keeping my mouth near hers so we could share each deep, gasping breath. I didn’t release Harmony's hips, and she still had a death grip on my hair. I sensed she was fighting the same inner battle as me, knowing it was time to end this, but almost pained at having to do the smart thing.
"Take me home, Roman," was all she said, and all of my resolve shattered.