Read Online And Call Me in the Morning by Willa Okati - Free Book Online Page A

use it. I don't even mind being the little spoon.”
     
    Eli snorted. “Now why doesn't that surprise me?” he asked, already doing as he'd been told. “Topping from the bottom. I can see how this is going to go already.”
     
    “It's like you know me or something.” Zane took Eli by the hand and began to lead him from the room. Stopped, squeezing Eli's fingers startlingly tight. “Glad it was you,” he said. He pressed his forehead to Eli's. “Don't think it could have been anyone else.”
     
    “Zane—”
     
    “Shh.” Zane bit Eli's lip, a tiny, tantalizing nibble. “For once in your life, just take the compliment, would you?”

Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    “So what did you get up to last night?” Diana slapped a stack of charts on the counter by Eli's elbow to get his attention. The gambit worked and then some, startling Eli into nearly—nearly—knocking his morning coffee over the edge and into the bank of computers at the nurse's station.
     
    “Nice, Diana.” Eli made sure his java was safe. “Give a guy some warning, would you?”
     
    “Not my style.”
     
    “Granted. Did you want something?” Eli couldn't quite remember what she'd asked. He was in a fog this morning, head crammed with thoughts and memories and phantom touches.
     
    Diana leaned over the counter, elbows on her charts. “I asked where you were last night.”
     
    Eli's pulse sped up. “Excuse me?”
     
    “Holly and I went for tapas, and we decided to play some pool afterwards. We must have called you half a dozen times to see if you wanted to come along. We could have used your unique talents.”
     
    “You mean you wanted me to help you fleece the locals.”
     
    “And?” Diana shrugged, unperturbed. “A girl's got to get her kicks somehow.”
     
    An awful thought occurred to Eli. “Please don't tell me you went to some side-street dive without me.”
     
    “Hey! Have some Chicago pride.”
     
    “Bullshit. I grew up here. You didn't. If you two princesses headed off the beaten track, they'd have wiped the floor with your perky asses.”
     
    “If you'd come, we might have gone somewhere a little more exciting, but no, we played it safe. Wound up in a café eating half our body weight in cheesecake. Then Happy Holly got to go home and jump her husband with the sugar buzz.”
     
    “If that's code for something, I really don't want to know about it.”
     
    Diana relented. “I was worried about you. Sue me.”
     
    “Must have switched my phone off. My mistake; won't happen again.”
     
    Diana's lips thinned out. “Eli, you know better. What if you'd been on call?”
     
    “I wasn't, and I said it won't happen again, Diana.” Eli scooped up his coffee. “Christ. I'm not here even five minutes, and I'm getting harassed. Lay off, would you?”
     
    “Eli?” Diana asked, exuding great, white-knuckled patience. “You really need to get laid.” And with that she was gone in an offended rustling of starched lab coat and White Linen perfume. At least Eli thought it was White Linen. What the hell did he know about perfume, anyway?
     
    Odds were, just about as much as he knew regarding schtupping his closest friend. Which was to say, he didn't have a fucking clue, pardon the expression.
     
    “I'm officially in over my head,” Eli muttered, sipping his coffee. “Fuck me!” He jumped.
     
    “Maybe later.” Zane slipped around Eli and leaned on the counter. Thank God, no nurses or orderlies or candy stripers around to see. He cocked his head. “You look like a thunderhead.”
     
    “You think? You just goosed my ass.”
     
    “You didn't seem to mind last night.” Zane clicked his tongue at Eli and winked at him before reaching for the charts. He flipped the top one open and, reading it, asked, “You're staring at me as if I've committed some unspeakable sin. What?”
     
    Eli rubbed the back of his neck. He couldn't help noticing Zane had worn a turtleneck today, and he could see all too clearly in