Heath (Wild Boys After Dark, #2)(20)

“No, sweetheart.” He smiled again.

Somehow his words, his smile, eased her worries. He looked trustworthy and sincere, and she knew it was genuine, but she’d been hurt before.

Hasn’t everyone?

She hated the conflicting feelings warring inside her.

“That’s why we’re on this date,” he explained. “I was feeling the same things, Ally. I’ve never checked my cell phone as many times as I have in the last two days. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I had to find out why, and when I saw you in the lab, all my rules about dating came crashing down.”

***

HEATH COULDN’T BELIEVE the words that were spewing from his mouth. They were all true, but he hadn’t realized how strongly he’d felt them. He could tell by the worry in Ally’s eyes that she was struggling with this as much as he was, and all he wanted was to make her worries go away.

That wasn’t exactly true.

He wanted much more.

“But why, Heath? Why are we feeling this way after the things we did?”

“What do you mean? If you have great sex, it can’t lead to something more?” Didn’t most women want something more? Now he was flat-out confused. “I have to be honest. I have been confused as hell over all of this, but then I thought, why fight it?”

She touched her forehead to his chest, and he held her close. There beneath the moon and the stars, outside the snow monkey enclosure in Central Park, Heath felt his world shift and his heart open.

He cupped her face between his hands and tilted it up toward his, searching her eyes for answers. He didn’t even know what the questions were, but somehow he knew that whatever the answers were, they lay within her.

“We’ll go slow, Ally.”

He was rewarded with another sweet smile. He couldn’t help but press his lips to hers.

“We can start by you telling me your last name.”

She laughed, and it was music to his ears. “Jenner. Allyson Jenner.”

“Related to Bruce?”

She shook her head, and he lowered his lips to hers again. “You really are the most intriguing woman I know, Allyson Jenner.”

They left the zoo a short while later, having seen few animals and discovering a whole new world within each other.

They walked back to Ally’s apartment, and by the time they reached her door, Heath didn’t want the night to end. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed spending time with a woman so much or hadn’t wished he was reading a medical journal or catching up on sports instead. When he was with Ally, the rest of the world fell away.

“Do you want to come in for a drink?” she offered.

It was nearly midnight, and Heath knew she had to get up early, as did he, but when she blinked up at him with her big doe eyes, he couldn’t resist accepting.

“Sure.”

She unlocked the door, and the first thing she did when she walked inside was bend down to pick up Fifi and give her a snuggle. He wondered if she was nervous, or if she was overly comfortable. He found that he was both. He was overly comfortable with Ally and he was nervous about where to take things from here.

Her efficiency apartment smelled like spring, fresh and floral. To the right was a small kitchen counter and a row of three cabinets, with a breakfast bar and two black stools tucked beneath it. Scarred hardwood floors and white walls gave the small space an airy feel. Heath’s eyes rolled over the simple sofa and television and moved to the king-sized bed just beyond.

“Wine okay?” she asked as she reached for two glasses.

“Yeah, sure.” He picked up Fifi and petted her while he discovered more about Ally. “I like your apartment.”

She looked around the room. “The efficiency makes it easier for Fifi to navigate. The fewer walls the better.”

That made sense. He thought about his mother and the way she trailed her fingers along the walls of the home she refused to give up. He was sure she knew every squeaky floorboard, every nook and cranny on each floor. He lifted Fifi and kissed her head as he eyed Ally. It took a special person to care for a blind pet, and as he watched Ally put fresh water into the cat’s bowl before pouring their wine, he knew she was the perfect person for Fifi. The question was, was she the perfect person for him, too?

On the coffee table he found her library books—all medical, which surprised him. He picked one up and waved it in Ally’s direction.

“So the lab is more than just a place to work for you?”

She shrugged as she joined him by the sofa and handed him a glass of wine. She sipped her wine, and Heath wondered how anyone could make skinny jeans and a turquoise blouse look sexy as hell.

He set Fifi in her bed as they sank down to the couch beside each other.

“There was a time when I thought I wanted to go to medical school, but I didn’t have the money, and I’m not sure I really wanted it enough to succeed. So, when something medical catches my eye, I read up on it. It’s really just hit or miss. A weird hobby, I guess.” She flipped through a book about human anatomy and physiology. “What I really like is the patient interaction and figuring out the puzzles. Fact finding, I guess. The ability to find definitive, or close to definitive, answers.”

“The lab work.” There were very distinct people in medicine, those who belonged behind the scenes and those who belonged with the patients. And Ally was definitely not a behind-the-scenes woman. She had a warm, charming personality, and he imagined she would have made a wonderful doctor.