Dr. Tempt Me - A Possessive Doctor Romance
Page 67
Dean let out a huff of air and glanced at me. MS was a serious disease—but it wasn’t necessarily a debilitating death sentence, especially when caught early. There were treatments, though they had varying degrees of success. MS remained a frustratingly individual disease.
“That’s something I have experience with,” Dean said, keeping his expression neutral.
“The deal is this: If you agree to take on Vincent as a patient, and to treat him as discreetly as humanly possible, then they’re willing to overlook everything here.”
“And if I don’t?”
Dr. Chen shook his head. “There’s no alternative here. I’m calling in my favor for this, and you’re helping Vincent.”
Dean was quiet for a moment, staring at Dr. Chen with an intense expression, before cocking his head. “And why do you care so much?”
“Because I’ve been helping Vincent for a long time, and now he’s dealing with something outside of my comfort zone. I want you to handle him from here on out.”
Dean nodded once. “Okay then. I’ll do it.”
“Dean,” I said.
He put a hand on my leg. “I’m sorry, Fiona. There’s no other way.”
“We can’t stay involved with these people. Once they’re in—”
“One patient,” Dean said, looking at Dr. Chen. “Vincent only. Nobody else.”
“That’s all we ask.”
“Then I’ll take him on. But I don’t have a hospital at the moment.”
Dr. Chen stood. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. I have a feeling Mercy will be hiring you back very shortly.” He turned and walked off without another word.
I watched him go, a stone in my gut. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t either.” He took my hand and kissed my fingers. “But this is over now. I’m serious, it’s over. I’d treat Vincent even if it didn’t get the mafia off our backs because he’s a person and it’s what I do. So don’t worry, we’re going to be okay.”
I wanted to be angry, to fight and push back—but that was the old me still raging inside. I needed to be better. It was time to change.
“I trust you,” I said.
He kissed me. “And I love you.”
“And I love you, too.”
He grinned and stood. I stood with him, leaning against his strong body. Even beat up and half-healed, he was one hell of a man.
“You’d better get back,” he said. “Mary can’t hold down the fort forever.”
“I’ll see you after my shift?”
“You better.”
He watched me walk off, and I loved the feeling of his eyes on my body.
Maybe it wasn’t perfect. Maybe it was a compromise to take Vincent on as a patient, but it was the right decision. And now it meant that he’d come back to the hospital, he’d work with me, and we’d live together. For a moment, that scared me, until I thought about what it meant.
Waking with him in the morning, his fingertips brushing down my spine. His lips against my neck. His hand in mine on the couch. His laughter in the kitchen.
Every day, all day, my Dean.
If that was a compromise, it was one I was willing to make again, and again, and again.28FionaTwo Years LaterMercy General’s lobby was filled with patients as I walked through it, a coffee in each hand. I nodded to the receptionists behind the desk, older volunteers that helped guide folks to wherever they needed to go. The hospital was the labyrinth of twisting passages and locked doors, and even though I’d been working there for years, I still got lost sometimes.
I rode the elevator up, humming to myself, and got off on the fourth floor. The carpet made my footsteps silent as I walked past rows of closed doors, small plates covered in names and credentials. I stopped outside of one, knocked softly, then pushed it open.
Dean turned from his desk and smiled at me. “Morning. I was beginning to think you got lost.”
I handed him one of the coffees. Our fingers brushed together as he took it, and his eyes fell onto the rings I wore. I smiled a little and held my hand out.
One big diamond glittered at him.
“What do you think?”
“It suits you.”
“I don’t know. It’s a little obnoxious. My new husband—”
“Oh, I like that word.” He grabbed me and pulled me into his lap.
I laughed and kissed him. “Do you?”
“Say it again, baby.”
“Husband,” I whispered.
He laughed and kissed me, but I stayed in his lap.
“Thanks for the coffee, although you didn’t have to wait at Starbucks, I’m not fancy.”
“You might not be, but I am.”
He grinned. “Fair enough. Who are you working with today, by the way?”
“Young girl named Jenny. She seems nice.”
“You say that like you’re old.”
“I’m an old pro at this point.”
He snorted and kissed me, and I finally got out of his lap. I leaned up against the door and watched him sip his drink and smile a little the way he always did after the first sip of the day.