Page 37 of Egotistical Jerk
"I hope it's okay?" she asked softly.
I grinned at her and held up the boxes. "Only if this is." Without waiting for an answer, I strode to where she was sitting, set the pizzas on the coffee table and flipped the lids. "I didn't know what you liked."
"I'll eat anything except pineapple and mushrooms."
Scooting to the edge of the couch, she offered me a beer then immediately snagged a slice of pepperoni pizza. I grabbed my own slice and settled in next to her. For a while, we ate in companionable silence. It was nice. There was a lot to be said when you could be comfortable with someone when no words were spoken.
After she swallowed down the last bit of her second slice, Mia set her half-empty bottle on the table and grabbed a napkin. Relaxing back into her seat, she dabbed the corners of her mouth.
Her green eyes bore into mine. "You didn't answer my question earlier."
I took a last bite of my pizza before tossing the dry edge of the crust back into the box. I wiped my hands and mouth then twisted so I was facing her. Folding one leg under me, I draped my arm over the top of the couch.
"My parents and I'd had words right before that picture was snapped."
Mia rested her cheek in her palm, the lines on her forehead appearing again. "Why?"
I licked my lips. There wasn't a soul alive that knew this and oddly enough the fact I was about to share it with her didn't bug me half as much as I thought it would.
"As you know, before they retired my parents were well-known surgeons. It was always kind of expected of me to follow in their footsteps. But I knew early on my heart didn't lie with heart- or neurosurgery. It's the science behind finding germs the size of a dust particle and then figuring out how to treat them that excites me."
Her eyes lit up, and I knew she felt it too. "When I decided I wanted to go into diagnostics, I kept it to myself for as long as I possibly could. Until my mom asked me whether I was going into cardiology or neurology. They didn't understand why I chose the field I had, so we ended up having words right after I walked off stage. And in the midst of it all, Christian wanted to take a picture."
I still remembered the incredulous look on my mom's face when she asked my brother, 'Really? This is the moment you want to capture?'
"But it worked out in the end. I mean, you're one of the best diagnostic surgeons in the country. And—" Mia's cheeks turned rosy as she tucked a few strands behind her ear. "—you're kind of the reason why I chose diagnostics."
"I am?" Her admission floored me.
She nodded and the color staining her cheeks grew even darker. "Professor Levenson came into class one day, he was so excited I thought he'd won the lottery or something. I can still see the smile on his face when he pulled the piece of paper from his satchel and started reading it to us."
Pausing, Mia retrieved her beer from the table.
After a generous sip, she set it down and turned her attention back to me. "It was the article you wrote about the H1N1 virus and how it could've been treated earlier had there been more diagnostic surgeons dedicated to it. I was fascinated. I went home and scoured the internet for anything related to you and your field of practice. Three hours into my research and I just knew it was what I wanted to do."
Wow. What the hell was I supposed to say to that?Thank you?No, that didn't seem right. I was having trouble accepting that I had, on some level, influenced such an important decision in her career life.
"Oh gosh, I freaked you out, didn't I?"
My brows knit together. "No." There was no hiding the raspy edge to my voice. "Quite the opposite, actually. I don't know what to say. I'm humbled and—"
"Sebastian?" Mia interrupted quietly. "Can we be done talking now?"
Chapter 17
MIA
We were supposed to be talking. Getting to know each other, he'd said. Right then, though, the only thing I wanted to know was how his skin would feel on mine and how the parts of him that the world didn't see would taste on my tongue.
Staring at him, I licked my lips. As much as I was a take-charge girl, I needed to know he wanted this as much as I did. Sebastian's eyes flicked to my mouth before steadily rising up to meet mine again. The heat burning in them was all I needed to see.
With my gaze never leaving his, I pushed to my feet and slowly moved to stand in front of him. Shifting, he pulled his leg out from under him before straightening his long muscular limbs.
I hiked my dress up a few inches and then moved to straddle his lap. Those big hands of his immediately came to rest on my legs, dragging his palms up my bare thighs. When I raked my fingers through his hair and pressed my short nails into his scalp, Sebastian's head fell back against the couch while an unbelievably sexy sound rumbled through his chest.
"Mia," his silky timbre reached an all-time low. "Kiss me."
His demand was gruff and did all sorts of delicious things to my body. I was pretty sure he could use that tone to demand my pleasure, and I'd happily give it.
