Read Online Treacherous (The Wolf Pack Series) by Maureen Smith - Free Book Online Page B

her mouth to speak when he held up one finger, signaling that he’d be with her shortly.
    She nodded, remaining in the doorway.
    Lips twitching with humor, he crooked that same finger at her and gestured to the visitor’s chair across from his desk.
    Celeste hesitated, then moved forward on rubbery legs. Though Grant didn’t watch her approach, the smile playing at the corners of his lips gave her the impression that he was counting every step that brought her closer. The moment she sat down, he silently mouthed, Atta, girl.
    She blushed like an infatuated teenager.
    As she waited for Grant to finish his task, her eyes strayed behind him to the wall of framed degrees, plaques, and certificates that documented his path to becoming one of the country’s leading neurosurgeons. His precision with a scalpel often made Celeste wonder whether he’d been born with one in his hand. In addition to being a brilliant surgeon, he was also a researcher who served on numerous committees and was being groomed to head the hospital’s neurosurgical residency program.
    To say that the man was going places would be a colossal understatement, Celeste mused, staring at a framed photograph of his parents, an attractive, sixty-something biracial couple who lived in Vermont. Grant had told her all about them—educated, hardworking, pillars of the community. The kind of parents who’d demanded nothing but the best from their four children, all of whom became successful in their own right.
    As Celeste’s gaze returned to Grant, her stomach fluttered, as it frequently did when she looked at him. Though she’d always preferred dark-skinned men, she’d been attracted to Grant from the moment she saw him. He was incredibly handsome with golden-brown skin, piercing green eyes, and thick, curly hair. He wasn’t tall, but he had a great, athletic body honed from the rigorous workouts he squeezed into his demanding schedule. The nurses flirted shamelessly with him, cornering him in the hallways to ask inane questions about medical procedure just so they’d have an excuse to talk to him. Celeste had employed a more subtle approach, treating him with such polite cordiality he’d had no choice but to notice her, and wonder why she was so different from the other women who fawned over him.

    She watched now as he set down his pen and lifted those sexy eyes to hers.
    “Sorry about all the sign language,” he said, smiling ruefully. “I didn’t want to lose my train of thought.”
    “I understand.” She smiled, watching as he finished his chocolate bar and discarded the gold wrapper in the wastebasket beside his desk. “So the rumors are true. You really do eat a candy bar before or after every surgery.” He grinned lazily. “Of course. Didn’t you know that chocolate’s an excellent brain food?”
    “ Chocolate ?” Celeste repeated skeptically.
    “Sure. See, the cacao bean has certain nutrients and antioxidants that can be beneficial to everything from brain and cardiovascular health to skin elasticity.” His grin widened. “Mark my words, Celeste. In twenty years researchers will be touting cacao beans as having the key to longevity.” She laughed. “And all this time I thought chocolate was a guilty pleasure to be avoided as much as possible.”
    He shook his head. “Just goes to show.”
    “What?”
    “Not all guilty pleasures are bad for you,” he said softly.
    Celeste stared at him, shivers of awareness snaking through her body. It was obvious that he was no longer talking about candy bars.
    She smiled demurely. “Got any more of those guilty pleasures?”
    “Chocolate?” His voice deepened suggestively. “Or did you have something else in mind?”
    Her mouth went dry. “I, um, meant the chocolate.” Eyes glinting wickedly, he opened his desk drawer and removed a candy bar.
    Instead of passing it to her, he stood and walked around the desk. Celeste sat back as he knelt beside her chair and partially unwrapped the