Doctor's Delight(43)
Rick ate with gusto. Normally when out with friends, Cherry ate the same way, but in his presence she refrained from having more than three pieces.
“Not hungry?” Rick finally asked as he picked up his fifth slice.
“No.” Inwardly, she drooled at the thought of a fourth piece.
“The pieces are cut quite small.” He took a big bite.
Lucky bastard. “True.”
“So have another bite.”
“I’m fine.” She caught the waitress’s attention and held her glass up. The waitress nodded and headed over. After handing her the glass, Cherry turned back to find Rick regarding her while chewing slowly.
He swallowed before stating bluntly, “You’re fanging for more.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re dying for another slice.”
“Nonsense.”
“Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes, Cherry. You want another piece, have it. I’m going for piece number six in a minute, and then you can watch number seven go down my gullet right after. No modesty here, love. We’re having dinner, and I can’t abide women who are obviously still hungry pretending they’re not.” He frowned. “I never realized why until my sister told me. Whoever said eating tiny was ladylike is nuts. Cripes, what a load of shit.”
Her sentiments exactly, but still…
He pointed the piece of pizza at her. “You’re scared I’ll judge you for having another slice of pizza. Good God, woman, there are worse things in the world that happen. If you’d been a Christian in Roman times, they’d have fed you to the lions. What’s another piece of pizza in comparison?”
Her sense of humour was tickled. “Not much, really.”
“So have another slice. Have another two. Finish the lot. I don’t care.” He looked seriously at her. “I really don’t care, Cherry.”
And he really didn’t, she could see that. When she took a fourth slice, he caught the attention of the waitress who was coming and lifted his glass. The waitress admirably refrained from sighing, instead placing Cherry’s full glass before her and taking Rick’s empty glass.
“I don’t think you’re in her good books anymore,” she observed when the waitress left.
“Have to ensure my tip places me back at the top of the list, because I love this pizza and I’m going to be coming back here regularly. I’ll want continued good service.”
“Spoken like a true doctor.” Realizing what she’d said, she stopped eating and looked at him through wide eyes. “Oh, I didn’t…I mean…I…I…”
“Of course you meant it,” Rick said calmly. “My mother was a nurse. Trust me, I know what you meant.”
Feeling uncomfortable, Cherry bit her lip.
“Doesn’t stop me planning to boink your brains out, though” he added.
The pizza fell from her hand to her lap. “You what..?”
“I said—”
“No.” Flustered, she held up her hand while fishing on her lap with the other for the pizza. “Don’t repeat it.”
“And because you said what you did, I’m going to prove that as a doctor, I can also give good service.” His eyes gleamed, the green of them dark and deep and full of promise. “Better. The best.”
She was glad she was sitting, because her knees had turned to jelly. “Change the subject.”
“Why? Creaming in your panties?”
“Stop it.”
“You won’t be saying that when I have you under me.”
“Rick!”
“Yeah, you’ll be screaming that out all right.”
“You’re incorrigible.” Caught between laughter and embarrassment, Cherry glanced around frantically, only to find herself looking at a prim elderly woman in the next booth who was looking at them both with a disapproving expression. “Oh shit.”
That earned her an even frostier stare, and she slid a little lower in her seat, her leg rubbing against Rick’s, though she couldn’t care less at that minute. “I am so mortified.”
No help, he was laughing at her openly.
“This is all your fault.” Steadfastly keeping her face turned away from the elderly woman, she felt the warmth in her cheeks and scowled at him.
“Oh sweetheart, I take all the credit.” Chuckling, Rick took the drink from the waitress who had the good manners not to look curiously at Cherry. “And I meant every word.” He swallowed half his drink in several mouthfuls. “Man, that pizza is hot. Spicy. Just the way I like you.” His eyes gleamed as she groaned and then flinched under the elderly woman’s huff of disgust.