Playing Doctor

Aurelia nodded. "Yes, sir, doctor, sir." She saluted him and grinned.

He pulled a card from his pocket, along with a pen and wrote on it. "Here's my card with my office and cell number. If you start experiencing any kind of odd reactions, I want you to call me."

"Okay, thank you." Aurelia took the card and put it in her purse. "How long before I start feeling able to actually move at faster than a walk, do you think?" She looked up at him, hopeful that he'd tell her tomorrow, but she knew he wouldn't.

He put his hand on her waist and guided her out of the door. "I would think you would start noticing an increase in your strength in the next week or so."

Aurelia felt a wave of warmth spread through her from where his hand lay on her back and butterflies started to jump in her belly. She fought to keep the blush she knew was coming from her cheeks. "Sounds good. Um, okay then, I'll uh, see you on Friday. For my appointment, I mean. Um. Yeah. Bye!"

He chuckled. "Bye, Aurelia. I'll see you then."

She waved and hurried down the hall and back out to the waiting room feeling like the tiny little crush she'd tried to squash earlier had just sprung to life with full force.

Chapter 5

Daniel

Sinking down into his office chair, Daniel put his head in his hands. He had a problem. A tiny, little, dainty problem by the name of Aurelia Carson. The gorgeous accountant who'd recently become his new patient. When he'd seen her for the first time, lying in the hospital bed at probably her worst, he'd immediately been struck by how extremely beautiful she was. Delicately beautiful, with porcelain skin, curves for days, and a tiny stature. Despite how badly she'd been feeling, she'd remained upbeat and had smiled upon meeting him.

He'd met with her for a few minutes a couple of times at the hospital, but today… Today had been different. Normally appointments were pretty routine, run a few tests, patients are in and out in fifteen minutes. But Aurelia's appointment… he'd taken his time, hell, he'd procrastinated even! He hadn't wanted her to leave. He wanted to talk to her still, but his phone had vibrated about seven times in his pocket during the latter part of their conversation and he knew it was his receptionist. He could tell by the frequency of the vibrations. They had been exactly five minutes apart.

Finding out how much they had in common made him really want to keep talking to her. To find out more. See if she liked other things that he liked. To see what her favorite foods were; if she was happy here in New York, if she missed Oregon, if she liked her new job… But he knew he'd had to let her leave. He couldn't keep her indefinitely, no matter how much he wanted her to stay so he could talk to her some more.

"Damn." He closed his eyes and frowned. He knew he was nursing a serious crush on the woman. He also knew there was no way he could ask her out. She was a patient, which made her completely off limits. It was basically against the rules for him to date her. At least while she was his patient. And that would be for a few months at minimum.

"Doctor? Mr. Collier has been waiting for thirty minutes…"

Sighing, he got up and went back to work. Unfortunately, as the day wore on, he discovered that Aurelia was never far from his thoughts.

Later, after he sent Josie, his receptionist and Helen, his nurse home for the evening, he settled in at his desk going over patient files, making notes, and getting stuff entered into their online files. He didn't have to go into the hospital tonight, he didn't currently have any patients admitted and he wasn't on call for the night either. Feeling hungry, he placed an order for delivery from his favorite restaurant. He ate as he entered his notes, but he was still distracted by thoughts of Aurelia. He could swear that he could still smell the lingering fragrance of her lightly floral perfume. It was a pleasant tropical citrus and floral scent and it suited her perfectly.

His thoughts about her led him to do something he normally didn't. He pulled up Facebook and typed in her name. It was absolutely a bad idea, but he couldn't stop himself. He wanted to know more about her. To see what she did when she wasn't working. He knew he was stalking her, and it was completely unethical to do it, but … well … everybody had a Facebook and if they didn't want people to look them up, they wouldn't set it public, would they? For all he knew, her page would be private, and he wouldn't be able to see anything anyway.