Sizzling Nights with Dr. Off-Limits

But she’d survived, was stronger for the life lessons learned from her marriage to Dr. Lucas Cain.

Why had he drawn attention to himself, to her, by bidding such an out-of-the-ballpark amount for her date?

Why, when she’d finally put the pieces of her life back together, did he show up to throw rocks at her glass house?

She had made a good life at Children’s, was dating and liked said boyfriend who’d not won her bid. Richard Givens, a pharmacist who worked near the hospital, was everything Lucas hadn’t been.

She glanced Richard’s way, saw him laughing at something someone at their table had said. Exasperation filled her. He’d just lost a date with his girlfriend to another man and he was laughing? Ugh. He wasn’t worried. Why should he be? He didn’t know Lucas was her ex-husband.

No one at Children’s did.

Not wanting any reminder, she’d changed back to her maiden name and they’d never heard Lucas’s name on her lips. Not until three weeks ago when he’d started in a medical director position at Children’s pediatric neurology department. The department she worked in and loved. Maybe she could ask for a transfer.

Not having to see him would be worth giving up her beloved nursing position at Children’s. Almost.

Anger flared.

How dared he show up where she worked and make her consider transferring positions when she’d already left one job to escape reminders of the biggest mistake she’d ever made? She’d left the hospital where they’d met during the end of his neurosurgery fellowship.

She should have known better than to marry Lucas.

She had known better.

Her parents had warned her. Her friends had warned her. His parents had warned her. His friends had warned her. No one had thought they should marry. She was too young, Lucas wasn’t ready to settle down, they were too different and from too-different lifestyles. She’d been an ordinary middle-class girl from Brooklyn. Lucas had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had never had to stress over anything.

But she’d paid no heed. She’d been in love and thought she’d found her happily-ever-after at twenty-one.

She’d just graduated from her nursing program and had been at the hospital for only a few weeks when the most handsome man she’d ever seen had stolen her breath with his quick smile, mischievous eyes and quick wit. They’d had a whirlwind romance, then married and settled into her little apartment close to the hospital, because she’d refused to move into his parents’ Park Avenue penthouse as he’d apparently thought they would. No, she had not wanted to start out her marriage living with her in-laws, whom she’d met only a couple of times. She’d planned to prove all the naysayers wrong over the next fifty-plus years.

She’d been the one proved wrong.

Wrong when Lucas had become less and less enamored with their marriage no matter what she’d done to try to keep things smooth. She’d not expected a lot of his attention. He’d been in the midst of his fellowship, after all. But she had expected him to occasionally make time for his young wife, who’d loved him so much. Near the end, she’d barely seen him, had wondered if he’d even noticed she’d moved out of the apartment as he’d asked her to.

He must have. He’d immediately filed for divorce. For irreconcilable differences and abandonment.

Who’d abandoned whom?

She’d given him her heart, had put all she’d had into making her marriage a success, and he’d discarded her like yesterday’s trash.

She’d sunk into a deeper and deeper depression, but nothing had ever hurt the way the demise of her marriage had, the way he had pierced her heart and bled it dry. Now that she’d carefully nurtured herself back into some semblance of a living, breathing person, had he come back to take shots at her a second time?

She wouldn’t let him.

Her insides seethed with bitterness.

He couldn’t steal her happiness or her peace of mind.

Only, from the moment she’d found out who had accepted the department position, her peace of mind had become a war zone. But it was a battle she would fight and win. She wouldn’t give him so much power over her. Not ever again.

She’d planned to avoid him, to not interact any more than absolutely necessary to effectively perform her job duties.

Apparently, Lucas had other ideas. Like a date he’d very publicly paid too much money to beat Richard to secure.

While the current bid came to a close, Emily glared at her ex-husband, wondering if you could hate someone you used to love more than life itself.

He was no doubt considered quite the catch. She knew better. She knew his flaws, knew that behind that handsome exterior beat the heart of a man incapable of loving another human being, of a man incapable of being there when his wife had needed him.

A man who hadn’t been there on the worst night of her life.