A Rose by Any Another Name

The first time I met Mike was, incidentally, my first day working as a nurse. It was a big day for me in many ways. A couple of weeks before graduating, I had been offered the job of my dreams at a pediatric ward at one of the biggest hospitals in New York. After years of studying I was finally done, and it felt great. The two weeks I spent taking it easy after graduation had somehow removed all my fears and worries and all that was left was a feeling of confidence and power, like I had the ability to deal with anything life threw at me. And of course, life took me up on that offer.

Morning rounds started at nine o'clock sharp. I'd had two hours to get acquainted with my new work place before that and so far, I wasn't disappointed. The nurses I had talked to seemed very nice and had done a good job making me feel like part of the team. After being showed around the ward, one of the nurses asked me to take a blood sample from five-year-old Aidan who had recently been diagnosed with diabetes. When I entered the room, Aidan, who was watching TV with his mother, quickly turned his head and looked at me.

"Hi Aidan," I said and sat down on a chair next to his bed. "My name is Rose, and I'm one of the nurses who will be taking care of you today."

"Rose?" he said and smiled. "That's my sister's name, too!"

"Oh yeah?" I smiled back. "Hey, what's that on your arm?"

Aidan proudly pulled his sleeve up and showed me a rub-on tattoo of a black panther.

"It's a panther!" he said, beaming with joy. "Like Bagheera in the Jungle Book movie. Dr. Mike gave it to me yesterday. He always gives me tattoos every time I see him."

"Really?" I laughed. "How nice of him. Dr. Mike seems like a nice guy."

"He is," Aidan assured me. "He's the best doctor ever. Are you going to give me a tattoo, too?"

Aidan's mom looked a bit embarrassed, but I was quick to answer. "Actually, I didn't bring any tattoos. But I did bring something else."

Aidan looked at me with wide eyes.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I'll show you," I said with a coy smile. "But first, I need to take a tiny little blood sample. What do you say?"

Aidan was quiet for a moment, seemingly thinking about it.

"Okay," he finally said. "Is it going to hurt?"

"You're just going to feel a tiny little sting," I reassured him. "It might hurt a little bit, but I'll do it so fast you won't have time to think about it. And before you know it, I'll show you what I brought for you."

I stung him while I was talking to him and he didn't notice anything.

"There, all done," I said and held my hands out.

"But when is it going to hurt?" he asked.

I laughed. "See? I told you you wouldn't have time to think about it. And look what I've got for you."

I showed him a small blue bouncy ball and a big grin appeared on his face.

"Wow! You're a really cool nurse," he said while inspecting the bouncy ball from different angles. "Just like Dr. Mike. He's a really cool doctor."

"Well, it seems like I have to meet this Dr. Mike, then," I giggled.

The first time I met Mike was during morning rounds. He was sitting in his office with Maya, one of the nurses, when I walked in. They were facing the computer and discussing one of our patients so they didn't notice me.

From behind, Mike looked almost like any other doctor in his white scrubs with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. It was only his short, brown hair that revealed that he was younger than most of his colleagues. As I grabbed a chair so I could sit down, he heard someone was in his office and turned around. I'm not sure if I believe in

love

at first sight, but it was definitely

attraction

at first sight. Somehow, everything about him was so manly. He had a straight jawline and perfectly tousled hair that looked as if it had been ruffled by the wind on his way to work. His brown eyes stared at me intensely and a slight smile appeared as he uttered a sentence I will never forget.

"I don't think I've seen you before."

I blushed and cleared my throat, the feeling of power and self-confidence suddenly substituted by insecurity and self-consciousness.

"I'm Rose," I said and held out my hand to greet him. "Today's my first day."

The words that were supposed to come out sounding assertive, but in retrospect I doubt that I was ever able to convey that. Mike's smile grew larger as he took my hand.

"I see," he said, and his voice almost made me melt. He glanced down at what I first thought were my breasts, but later realized must have been my name tag.

"You're a nurse?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. "I just graduated two weeks ago."

I immediately regretted telling him that. I wanted to come off as experienced and self-assured, not as a 23-year-old who didn't know what the hell she was doing.

Mike kept smiling. It felt as though his beautiful eyes were piercing right through me, exposing me and unveiling each and every one of my secrets.

"Then I believe congratulations are in order," he said. "I hope you'll like it here. It's great to have you on board."

As Mike and Maya changed the subject and started discussing our patients, his voice echoed in my head.

It's great to have you on board.

It had only taken me a few seconds to go from a confident nurse to a fourteen-year-old girl with a crush on her teacher, and in all honesty, no man had ever made me feel that way before. Granted, I could count all the guys I'd ever been with on one hand, but I had never been shy and insecure around men. It was quite the opposite, actually. I knew most men found me attractive. Not that I looked like a model, of course. I wasn't nearly as tall and would probably be told to lose a few pounds if I got the crazy idea to try to become one. But I had always been happy with the way I looked. I had dark hair that reached down to my waist, full lips and large, green eyes that people often complimented me on. I was used to being in charge and having the upper hand, but this time I was in the same room as a guy I was immensely attracted to and all I could think of was that there was no way those feelings were reciprocated. I wanted him to find me attractive too, but every time he looked at me I blushed or looked away because, somehow, I felt so vulnerable and exposed.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a nurse knocked on the door and asked Maya if she could help her with one of her patients. Maya excused herself and left me and Mike alone in his office. We can't have been quiet for more than a minute, but right then and there, it felt like an eternity. I tried to avoid looking directly at Mike even though all I wanted to do was to discover each and every inch of his body. Besides, he was looking me straight in the eyes, making me slightly uncomfortable. Finally, he broke the silence.

"So, Rose," he said. "You have a beautiful name."

I had never really liked my name, thinking it suited grandmothers better, but of course, coming out of his perfectly shaped mouth it didn't sound quite as bad.

"Thanks," I smiled. "What's yours?"

He pointed to his name tag.

"Michael," he said, and I realized who Aiden had been talking so fondly about.

I considered whether or not I should tell him about my little encounter with Aiden, but before I had made up my mind Mike told me his little sister was thinking about studying nursing but wasn't sure which colleges to apply to. He wanted to know if I was happy with the college I went to, and that made me realize I could try to find out if he was at least a little bit attracted to me too, without seeming too desperate.

"I got lucky," I started. "I loved my college, but the truth is I only applied because my ex-boyfriend went there. I didn't even know anything about it, but it turned out to be a good decision."

And just like that, Mike smiled and I knew my plan had worked.

"Your ex-boyfriend?" he asked, slightly amused at my directness. "Is he a nurse, too?"

"I wouldn't know," I said with a coy smile. "I haven't talked to him since we broke up. But I assume he is."

Mike was silent for a while, maybe thinking about what to say. I looked down, cursing myself and wondering if I had scared him off.

"I'll let my sister know what you said about your college," he said, and I thought that was it, it was his way of letting me know he wasn't interested. But then a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

"It's good you don't talk to your ex-boyfriend anymore," he said matter-of-factly. "That means he won't be upset that you're having lunch with me today."

Seeing as our lunch break was only half an hour long we barely had time to eat, let alone get to know each other. After having bought two chicken bagels we sat down on a bench outside the hospital.

"So, tell me again about your ex-boyfriend," Mike said and laughed. "You really caught my interest with that."

"Is it

that

surprising that I had a boyfriend?" I joked back.

The way he gazed into my eyes made it hard to look away.

"What's surprising is that he was stupid enough to let you go," he said, almost poetically, and I resisted the urge to throw myself at him.

"I'm sorry," he continued. "I shouldn't have said that."

"I bet you say that to all the nurses at work," I teased.

Mike raised his eyebrows in response.

"The other nurses at work think I'm gay," he said with a grin and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Why is that?" I asked.

He hesitated about what to say.

"Because you're not the first one to pull that trick about your ex-boyfriend on me," he smirked, and I thought to myself I really should have chosen a less obvious way to see if he was interested. "And I've turned them down every time."

I didn't understand why he was telling me this. The more I thought about it, the more he was starting to come off as a narcissist.

"So why did you want to have lunch with me?" I asked, trying to prepare myself for an answer I didn't want to hear.

Suddenly his grin disappeared.

"Because you're the first one to make me feel so crazy with desire that I can't control myself."

And just like that I leaned over and kissed him.

By the time my shift was over, I found myself standing at the door to Mike's office.

"I thought you'd gone home already," he said without looking away from the computer.

"I just got off," I answered, trying to build courage for what I was about to ask him. "And I wanted to ask you if you're busy tonight?"

This time, he turned around and looked at me.

"What do you have in mind?"

I couldn't decipher his facial expression but decided to play it bold and hope for the best.

"You kind of left me hungry for more after our lunch," I said with a trace of a smile, attempting to sound flirty but not quite knowing if I'd pulled it off.

For a moment I thought I could see the desire in his eyes as he looked at me, perhaps stripping me of all of my clothes with his imagination. But in the blink of an eye, he changed. He looked down, embarrassed.

"Rose," he whispered. "I can't. I'm sorry."

Quietness fell like a rock hitting the ground. I felt more stupid and humiliated than I ever had in my entire life. I must have misread the signs. After all, he told me straight out that he had turned down all the other nurses. To him, I was probably just a young and naïve 23-year-old that wasn't worth the time or effort. He could get someone so much better than me, and he was painfully aware of it.

Somehow Mike must have read my mind.

"It's not like that," he assured me. "I wish I could say yes, I really do. It's just..."

"It's just what?" I snapped.

He took a deep breath.

"I want nothing more than to say yes," he admitted. "But before you make up your mind, there's something you need to know."

Before I had the chance to answer, he turned off his computer, took me by the wrist and led me out of his office and out of the ward. I almost had to jog to keep up with him, hoping no one would see us. When we got to the men's locker room, he cast a quick glance inside, then opened the door and made a sign for me to get in.

"I'm not going in there," I protested, even though my heart was pounding with excitement and I was dying to know what he was up to.

"

Now

is the time to be shy?" he teased. "Just get in. I won't do anything without your consent."

Without my consent? What was that supposed to mean?

He closed the door behind us and turned on the lights. Then he grabbed my arms and turned me around so that I stood with my back against the door with him right in front of me. He was breathing faster by now and gazed intensely into my eyes, and I realized I had never been this attracted to anyone before. All I wanted to do was to rip his scrubs off, but for some reason I felt paralyzed, waiting for him to make the next move.

"Rose," he whispered, and my heart started beating even faster as I felt him exhale. "I'm not your regular kind of guy."

"What does that mean?" I asked, almost inaudibly.

"Do you really want to know?" he countered, and I knew what answer he was hoping for. There was no way I was backing out now, so I nodded and a faint smile crossed his face.

"Just remember," he said. "You can tell me to stop anytime and I will, no questions asked."

I didn't have time to reflect on what he had just said because from one second to the other he had grabbed both my wrists with his right hand and pinned them on the door, high above my head.

"What are you...?" I started, but he shut me up by pressing his lips against mine, tracing their outline with his tongue, then sinking his teeth into my lower lip. I closed my eyes and let out an involuntary moan, completely baffled by this unexpected turn of events. Mike looked pleased.

"You like it?" he asked, even though he didn't need an answer to see how turned on I was. But I nodded.

"This was your secret?" I asked, teasing him. "And here I thought you were going to tell me you're a convicted felon or something."

"Don't get smart with me," he warned, his eyes sparkling. Then he grabbed my hair with his left hand and gave it a hard tug so that my head was quickly pulled backward. I tried to lift it back up so that I could look at him, but he pulled it back again and made me look at the ceiling while he slowly kissed my neck and traced my jawline with his tongue.

"This is nothing," he continued in a menacing voice. "I don't do normal sex. I fuck, and I do it my way."

My breathing was getting heavier and heavier and I was finding it hard to control myself, the excitement growing inside me. I wanted to touch him so I tried to remove one of my arms from his grip, but he clenched his teeth and clutched his hand harder around my wrists.

"Did I tell you to move your arms?" he asked, sounding almost like a ferocious animal. I shook my head, surprised that I was feeling so aroused yet slightly afraid of what was coming.

"I told you I won't do anything without your consent," he murmured. "Do you want me to stop? I can stop, and we'll pretend like this never happened."

A rational voice inside my head was telling me that stopping would probably be the wisest choice. I didn't know this man and I had no idea what he was going to do to me. If things didn't end well, I'd still have to see him every day at work. On the other hand, I didn't want him to think of me as a wuss. Besides, I had never felt this way before. We were still fully clothed but somehow I was more excited than ever and I was dying to know where he would take me if we continued.

"Don't stop," I begged, and those words seemed to have set him off. He let go of my arms long enough to pull off my shirt, then pinned them back against the door – behind my back, this time – and got down on his knees. He pulled my bra down with his teeth so that my breasts popped out and started licking and sucking on them, slowly getting closer to my nipples. I let out a cry as he suddenly sunk his teeth into one of my nipples and started circling it with his tongue. Without stopping, he spanked my ass and I startled.

"Not that I have anything against public sex, Rose," he said, smiling, "because I'm actually a bit of an exhibitionist, too. But I don't think the men's locker room at work is the best place to be caught doing this."

"Sorry," I said, biting my lip, not feeling sorry at all.

"Maybe a gag would be useful next time," he teased and, for some reason, I wasn't even shocked, I just beamed thinking that there might actually be a next time. Whatever this man wanted to do to me, I knew I'd go along with it only to satiate my hunger for him.

Mike continued alternating between kissing and nibbling on my breasts, then slowly descended toward my belly. The lower he got, the harder it was to stand still because of the excitement. I was so wet and ready for him that at the pace he was going, I was sure he was going to drive me crazy. I unintentionally pressed my hips against him, which only made him slow down even more.

"So impatient," he laughed, and before I had the chance to answer, he pulled down my pants and his hand was on my thigh, slowly finding its way up. He pressed his fingers against my slit, teasing me, but I knew better than to say anything. He hadn't removed my panties and the fabric pushed against my pussy making me crazy with desire.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked while continuing to torment me. "Just say the word."

"No, please," I begged. "Don't stop! Don't stop, please!"

Mike slowly pushed my panties to the side and moaned loudly as I felt his fingers inside me. He pushed them in and out rhythmically and I moved my hips following the same pattern.

"God, you're so wet," he said. "So ready for me."

He started playing with his thumb on my clit, massaging it increasingly faster until I felt like I couldn't handle the intense pleasure anymore. As a reflex, I removed my arm from behind my back and tried to push his hand away. He quickly grabbed my wrist and tightened his grip.

"You don't get to decide how this ends," he warned me while unhooking my bra. "If I want to make you come, that's what I'll do. And I'll do it

how

I want and

when

I want. If you don't do as I say, I'll tease you until your legs are too weak to carry you and I won't make you come at all. Is that clear?"

I knew right then and there that he had me wrapped around his finger. I'd never thought I would let anyone speak to me that way, but Mike wasn't just anyone. God, that man drove me crazy. Without even thinking about it, I nodded.

"When I ask a question, I expect an answer," he said calmly.

"Yes," I said quickly. "It's clear."

His face softened and he stood up and started nibbling on my ear.

"I know it takes some time getting used to," he continued, "so I'm going to make it easier for you."

Using my bra, he tied my wrists together behind my back.

"Now we don't have to worry about your arms anymore," he said. "And you can stop worrying about what we're going to do next and just let me deal with that."

Who knew surrendering to someone else like this could be so sexy?

"Turn around," he ordered and tugged on my bra. "And spread your legs."

I did as I was told. He grabbed my bra with one hand and pulled it down so I couldn't move my arms at all. Then I felt his mouth on my inner thigh, alternating between nibbling and planting gentle kisses, moving toward my pussy at a slow pace. I held my breath as he came closer and started licking my labia, sending shivers down my spine. He pulled my hips toward him while pressing my chest against the door, a position that made me feel both vulnerable and wildly aroused.

"Don't move," he said with a stern voice, then he pushed two fingers inside me as he started licking and sucking on my clit.

"Oh God, Michael," I moaned, and immediately felt my butt sting from his spanking. I held my breath thinking he would stop because I was too loud, but he continued sucking on my clit more and more intensely and there was no way I could keep quiet. The lust and desire were so overwhelming that I wouldn't even have cared if someone had tried to walk in. My legs started trembling and I shouted his name over and over as waves of pure pleasure passed through my entire body. After what seemed like the longest and most intense orgasm I had ever had, I sank down onto the floor, no longer able to stand on my two feet.