Daring the Doctor

He hesitates a split second before issuing a denial. “No.”

“You’re lying,” I whisper.

And he doesn’t bother denying it. “I thought once you realized you can trust me, we could open the discussion again.”

“Why? You planned to get your way no matter what.”

“Charlotte,” he says, reaching for me, visibly worried. Shaken by the hurt in my tone.

I dance out of his reach just before he can touch me, putting the desk in between us. It took so much trust to do the things we’ve done together in bed. The power I’ve given him over me, the control of my body, even the titles I refer to him by. All of it seems stolen now.

He never respected my feelings.

He was just humoring me.

If I let this continue, I’ll end up broken like my mother after her painful relationship.

“I don’t think I want to see you anymore,” I whisper, groping blindly for my purse. “I’ll have the cleaning agency refund your money. Don’t send me any more gifts. Please. It’s going to be hard enough—” I break off on a sob.

As I’ve been speaking, Dean has gone very still, but his eyes are another story. They’re like a structure fire, entire cities burning to ashes in their depths. “You don’t mean that, Charlotte. You aren’t really ending this.”

“Yes, I am,” I say shakily, swiping the moisture from my cheeks.

“No,” he says firmly, coming around the desk slowly. A god descending from the heavens to address his subjects. “The answer is no.”

I put some steel in my spine. “You aren’t the one deciding. I am. Just like I get to decide my own future. Not you.”

A beat passes. “I admit that I had plans to persuade you—”

“That’s what you’ve been doing this whole time. Being in charge of me. Being my Daddy.” His eyes flash wildly at that word. “You were positioning yourself as my decision maker so you could use our relationship against me.”

“Bullshit,” he grinds out. “Our unique relationship has nothing to do with my refusal to let your potential be wasted. It never has.”

I raise an eyebrow. “So if I wanted to practice at a different hospital once I graduate?”

Dean starts at that, grinding his jaw.

“That’s what I thought. This is about control. Just like my mother warned me about.”

“No,” he breathes, his chest rising and falling faster. “Charlotte, it’s about me being insanely in love with you and dying for the chance to make you happy. And yes, to keep you close. I would never use money against you. And if you think I would, you don’t know me.”

“Maybe I don’t,” I whisper, winded.

He loves me. He said he loves me.

More than anything, I want to get back on my knees and crawl to him. My body craves him even now, mere minutes after we were together. My heart is wailing pitifully in my chest, needing to be close to the man who makes it beat. But I can’t. I can’t. He broke my trust. If I give in this time, he’ll only do it again. It’s a pattern. Isn’t that what my mother always says?

Holding back a fresh sob, I break for the door, but he beats me there, wrapping his arms around me. Pulling me close and rocking me. “Stay. We’ll go home together. I’ll read you my medical files in the bath again,” he murmurs, seducing me with brushes of his mouth over mine, his beloved eyes imploring. Coaxing. “I’ll use my belt to secure you to the headboard of my bed and fuck you slowly for hours. Remember how much you loved that? Remember I had to wipe us down with a towel twice we were sweating so much?”

I moan, pitching forward, because my knees simply turn useless.

But I was born stubborn. I have that quality in spades, so I call on it now, summon it through the lust fog in which I’ve been caught for weeks. “No.” I push out of his embrace, keeping my eyes averted so I don’t look at him and cave. “It’s over.”

He takes a rasping breath and tips up my chin, giving me no choice but to meet his eyes—and they are destroyed. Ruins of their former selves. I’ve slayed him and it makes a new helping of tears well up in my eyes, guilt spearing me in the stomach. “I’m going to let you take some time to think, but understand me, little girl, it’s going to be a very short window of time. My sanity can’t stand much more than that—if at all. I’m only allowing you to walk out of here right now because my marks are all over your gorgeous body. You’re taken—by me—the bites and bruises are right there to prove it. You’re covered in me.” He backs me against the door, hard, making me whimper. “You go straight home and think about how much I fucking love you. How I live for you. And then you come back home to Daddy for good. Is that clear?”