Sizzling Nights with Dr. Off-Limits

She’d once been so bubbly. Within minutes of meeting her during his residency program, he’d become enamored with the perky nurse who knew her stuff and had the most enchanting smile and big green eyes he’d ever encountered. He’d been intrigued, asked her to go for coffee, and, although he could tell she was similarly intrigued, she’d refused.

He’d asked again the next day. And the next. And the day after that, too, even when he hadn’t been working.

That day she’d said yes for the following day, if he was available. Although he’d had to do some major shuffling, he’d made himself available.

Over coffee they’d talked, laughed, ended up going for a walk in Central Park, and coffee had turned into dinner. She’d told him she’d said no not because she wasn’t attracted to him, but because she’d just started at the hospital a few months before and really wasn’t interested in becoming involved with someone who also worked at the hospital. When it had come time to tell her good-night, their kiss had been intense. He hadn’t wanted to go, but she wouldn’t let him stay.

Over the next few weeks, he’d spent every spare moment with her and quite a few he hadn’t had to spare. The demands of his residency program, his family obligations and wanting to be with Emily nonstop started taking their toll. He pretty much gave up sleep, felt exhausted more often than not and knew he couldn’t keep burning his candle at both ends. He’d thought if they married, it would ease the strain on several counts.

He’d been wrong.

She’d been trying to be the wife she’d thought she should be, but s

he hadn’t connected with his family or his lifestyle, had insisted she live within her means instead. With each day that had passed, her smiles had become less and less frequent until they’d completely been replaced by tears.

He’d kept telling himself it would get better once he finished his residency, that he just had to bide his time.

Then she’d started talking about wanting a baby.

They’d been married less than a year. She would burst into tears within minutes of seeing him. He was in a medical school residency program. All they’d done was fight and have makeup sex. He’d talked with his parents and they’d accused Emily of being a gold digger, of trying to tie herself to his inheritance forever by having a baby. He hadn’t believed them, not really. If Emily had been after money, why would she have insisted they live in her tiny apartment? To live within her income rather than the lavish lifestyle his trust could have provided? If his money was what she’d wanted, why was she so sad all the time? Because he’d have given her anything. He’d tried, had wanted to, but no matter what he’d done, it had been wrong. Being married to him had clinically depressed Emily. Not that she would admit it or agree to get help. How was that supposed to make a man feel? That being his wife made her ill?

He’d found himself backing away from their relationship. He’d barely been able to find time for the things he’d had to do, she’d cried all the time, and she’d been thinking about throwing an innocent baby into the mix?

If he’d been with Emily, he’d wanted her and had feared that she might end up pregnant on purpose. He’d started spending more time at the hospital, doing research, spending time with his parents, especially his mother, who’d been reeling from losing her mother a few months into his marriage to Emily, spending time with his friends, anything and anywhere to where he and Emily hadn’t been alone, to where they couldn’t have been intimate.

At first she’d gone with him to the things she could, had tried to keep up with his crazy, fast-paced schedule. Eventually, she’d quit, opting to go home. And do what? He really didn’t know. Just that the emotional rift between them had kept dividing until it had reached mammoth proportions over just a few months.

And yet, for all the past, he wanted her even now. Just without the golden rings to choke out everything good between them, without that stress they’d put upon their once fantastic relationship, without the tears and the fights. He wanted what they’d had those first few months they’d been together and she’d been his best friend, his confidant, the person who had brightened his life in so many ways.

So long as they didn’t put the expectations upon each other their wedding vows had burdened them with, they should be just fine.

In his mind, it all made perfect, logical sense, but when his gaze met Emily’s across the table, he knew his logic and her logic weren’t anywhere near on the same page.

CHAPTER FIVE

EMILY WANTED TO SCREAM. Why did Lucas keep staring at her that way?

A way that had her questioning his motives.

A way that made her think he wanted to have her for dessert.

As if.

He paid for their food by tossing down a couple of large bills that no doubt made their waitress’s night.

“No change? Really?” The young woman smiled hugely. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for dinner, too,” Emily added, standing. “I need to be going. I have to work tomorrow.”

She needed to get away from Lucas. Seeing his kindness, his generosity, to the waitress bothered her. Not that she didn’t want him to be generous. He could certainly afford to and generosity was a good thing. She just didn’t want to witness any more “good guy” behavior. Nor did she want to make any more comparisons between Richard and Lucas. Richard was a “to the exact recommended percentage only” tipper and would have been appalled at what Lucas had given to the young woman. Just as he was appalled at how much Lucas had bid for tonight’s “date.”

“I’ll walk you home.”

“No.”

“Emily,” he began, but she shook her head.

“Lucas, you aren’t going home with me.”