Dr. Tempt Me - A Possessive Doctor Romance

The guards walked behind me. They didn’t touch me, but it was very clear that they were going to escort me out.

I hesitated, and felt a strange, sudden pulse of shame. I hated myself for it, but I wondered what it would look like when I walked out of here, flanked by two goons. Everyone would know about it, everyone would hear, and the gossip would be horrible. The things they’d say—goddamn, I couldn’t picture how I’d recover.

And yet that didn’t matter. Truly, it didn’t. All these people could fuck themselves, since they didn’t know shit about why I was getting fired. The only person that mattered was Fiona.

I couldn’t see her, couldn’t speak to her, and I needed to worse than I could imagine. She was going to hear secondhand about this, and I didn’t want to picture what she was going to think.

But no, she had to know, she’d realize what happened. Maria was the enemy, and I couldn’t let myself forget it.

I stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the lobby. The guards joined me, but Maria lingered, and waved.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Coarse,” she said, practically bouncing on her toes with joy. “It’s been a pleasure working with you.”

Then the doors slid shut and left me alone.

The elevator dropped down in silence. I stood there, seething, boiling with pure animal rage. I wanted to hurt something, break someone, but instead, when the door opened to a lobby packed with former colleagues and patients, I kept my head held high as I marched toward the exit. The guards came with me, keeping a respectful distance, but I saw the looks: surprise, shock, outrage, confusion, wicked glee. The nurses and doctors down here knew what was happening, they all knew what was going on, and it would get back to Fiona.

Good. She needed to know, because she might be next.

And maybe it wasn’t too late to save her.21FionaI tapped on my phone’s screen for the fiftieth time that morning. I kept waiting for a message from Dean, kept thinking he’d reply to my text, or maybe come down to see me—but he didn’t do either.

I should’ve been relieved. Instead, I felt strangely hurt and angry.

I didn’t have any right to feel that way. I told him very clearly that I wanted to end things between us, that I didn’t want to continue whatever relationship was beginning to grow. I told him I wanted to end that aspect of whatever we were doing, and focus on finishing things with Maria and those bastards she was working for.

I couldn’t be shocked that he listened to what I said.

It was a busy morning and I lost myself in work. That helped, at least a little bit, and I didn’t have time to sit down and chat with Mary until mid-morning rolled around. I sighed as I relaxed into my chair, feet already beginning to ache, when Mary leaned forward, gave me a strange look that was somewhere between pity and confusion, and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Dr. Coarse got fired this morning,” she said, squeezing a little. “I’m sorry.”

I stared at her, blinking in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

She dropped her hand away. “I heard it through the grapevine, you know. People saw him escorted out of the lobby, and one of the nurses stopped him and asked him what was happening, and he said he got fired. I know, it’s crazy, right?”

I sat up straight, heart racing. “That can’t be true.”

“It’s true. I mean, there are a bunch of witnesses.” She hesitated. “You two know each other pretty well, right? I mean, I’ve seen you talking a lot. Do you know what happened? You don’t have to tell me, but—”

I pushed back from the desk and stood. “It has to be some mistake.”

“Sweetie, I don’t think—”

I shook my head and walked toward the hall. “Cover me, okay?”

“Fiona, please, hold on.”

“Sorry, Mary. I’ll owe you one. Hell, I’ll owe you two, but it’s a mistake, okay? Just cover me.” I walked away, head spinning, feeling like I might walk off the edge of the earth.

I couldn’t imagine Dean getting fired, not for something real at least. This was Maria’s doing, she pulled strings and made this happen somehow. I didn’t know what she did, who she bribed, but if Dean truly was fired, I could only guess how he felt.

This place was his life. Mercy had a way of hooking itself into you and making you believe there was no world outside of its tile halls and constantly beeping monitors. Mercy was an ecosystem in itself and most people couldn’t imagine going anywhere else.

I was sure Dean felt that way. He was a star in the hospital, had his own damn office, got to do more or less whatever he wanted—picked his own patients, skipped clinic duty more often than not, more or less had the run of the place. If he got fired, I could guess the sort of things he was feeling, and I couldn’t let him feel that way all alone.