Vixen blinked. "Of course I'd ask you. Everyone knows you fell in love at first sight with Dr. Manolis."
"Everyone?"
"You truly didn't think we'd notice?" Vixen asked dubiously.
"But I never told anyone—-"
"You didn't have to." Eve walking into walls like she had flashes of blindness had been such a common occurrence that Vixen and everyone else eventually started putting one and one together and realized who was always around each and every time it happened.
"Gosh." Eve sounded mortified. "I didn't realize I was so obvious."
"You were."
"Vix!"
"But it's alright," Vixen assured the other girl. "I wouldn't be calling you if it wasn't."
"Is that supposed to comfort me?" Eve asked laughingly.
"It doesn't?" Vixen rather thought that Eve would understand how highly Vixen thought of her wisdom and judgment, for her to be disclosing her feelings over a phone call.
Eve could only shake her head. "Never mind." Although the other girl had this incredible gift of making her patients heal and recover from physical injuries, when it came to anything that wasn't visible or tangible, Vixen was clueless as a newborn babe.
And as for what Vixen had earlier admitted to...
Eve cleared her throat. "About Christopher Masterton..."
Vixen sat up.
"I guess it's not impossible," Eve said carefully, "but it is statistically improbable—-"
"That's exactly what I was thinking, too," Vixen exclaimed.
"Then there's your answer, isn't it? And just between the two of us..." Eve couldn't help lowering her voice into a whisper even though it was just her in Konstantin's clinic. "I think love at first sight is more of a process, or a transition even, rather than this major life-changing incident."
"You make a good point."
"I believe love almost always starts with physical attraction," Eve murmured, "and given enough time and opportunity to do so, you'll eventually realize if the attraction is strong enough to deepen into love. That's why," she concluded, "I think it's always best to give feelings like this a chance."
"A chance..." Vixen's tone turned musing. "Did you have such a chance with Dr. Manolis, and that's how you ended up together?"
"I...think so?"
"What kind of chance was it?"
"It's um, well..." Eve coughed. "Uh..."
Vixen absently cocked her head to the side. There was something rather curious about Eve's tone now. It sounded as if she was embarrassed, and...oh. That could be it, couldn't it?
Eve was still trying to figure out how best to answer Vixen when the other girl suddenly spoke.
"It's alright, Eve," Vixen told her. "I get it."
"You do?"
"In order to give my feelings a chance, what you were trying but couldn't say was that I need to determine if my feelings are more than physical attraction. And for that to happen, I must have sex—-" Another thudding sound interrupted Vixen, and she winced anew. "Eve?"
"Sorry." Eve, sounding flustered this time, came back to the phone a moment later.
"There's no need to be," Vixen assured her friend sincerely. "You've helped me tremendously, and..."
"But—-"
Vixen checked her watch and was surprised that she only had minutes to spare. "I'm afraid I have to go."
"Wait—-"
"Thank you very much again, Eve. Goodbye."
Eve felt panicky. "Hello? Vixen?" Eve struggled against the temptation to start biting her nails when she realized that her friend had already ended the call. Vixen was a smart girl, Eve reminded herself. Given time, Vixen would realize how foolish it was to use sex to determine one's feelings...right?
WHEN VIXEN'S KNOCK on Christopher's room went on unanswered, a quick browse of social media with the footballer's name as hashtag immediately produced results, and the most recent of which were photos of the athlete working out in the cruise ship's gym.
While he looked his usual sexy self in the photos, she was rather surprised at how waspishly jealous she felt when reading the captions. All of these girls obviously desired Christopher just as well, but...he was hers. He said he loved her, after all. That meant he was hers. Right?
Christopher barely had enough time to hit the emergency stop button and avoid falling flat on his face when Vixen suddenly popped up in front of his treadmill.
"I'm back."
His lips twitched at the way Vixen had delivered the words like they were the beginning of an eulogy. "Dare I hope for good news?"
"I've made up my mind, yes."
"And?"
"Um..." Vixen rarely had a hard time concentrating, but rational thought apparently ceased to exist when in the presence of someone as incredibly sexy as Christopher Masterton. With him looking all sleek and sweaty, and his perfectly sculpted muscles making the PTA in her sing like a Disney princess...
What was she supposed to tell him again?
Christopher was amused at first, seeing how Vixen was gazing at him rather dreamily, but when he realized the rest of her body had started to react rather tellingly as well...
Fuck!
Vixen was abruptly awakened from her all too earthly reverie when Christopher suddenly threw a towel at her. "What—-"
But Christopher had already leapt off the treadmill and was now making sure that the towel completely covered her front.
Seeing her blink up at him in confusion, Christopher muttered under his breath, "Your nipples can only say hi to me...got that?"
Her nipples could do what?
Vixen peeked under the towel. Oh. Wow. Her mammary glands were rarely this, er, active. Maybe this was another sign that Christopher Masterton was truly the one for her?
Christopher was torn between grudging admiration and chagrin at Vixen's expression of amazement. Admittedly, she was really killing it with this whole cute virgin thing, and while he did enjoy playing along with her, he would rather the game remained between the two of them. Even if she were to dress herself in a sack, she'd still be sexy enough to turn heads, and so for any man in this damn ship to see her nipples pebbling against her shirt—-
Just the thought of it had his blood boiling. Vixen was his, and Christopher was more than willing to knock the living fucking daylights out of anyone—-
"Christopher?"
Vixen, with hands cupped over her mouth like she was a child about to share a secret, had raised herself on her toes to whisper his name. He could see that all she wanted was his attention, and well...
She definitely got his attention, in more ways than one.
Vixen, seeing Christopher's lips form a rather crooked smile, couldn't help but follow his gaze as he looked down...
Oh!
When her gaze flew back up, she saw that the glint in Christopher's hazel gaze had become rather blatantly...suggestive.
"You really are a vixen, m'dear."
While the words startled her (Vixen had always thought her personality too dreadfully reticent to ever live up to her name), it was hearing Christopher address her as 'my dear' (or as he put it, m'dear) that had Vixen's face feeling rather warm.