Dr. Grump’s Surprise Baby (Bossy Bachelors #2)

15. Emily

CHAPTER 15

EMILY

“ D r. Berger is staring at you,” Sara hissed.

Emily was hard-pressed not to look over her shoulder and see what was going on. “He’s probably just making sure I don’t mix up these blood samples,” she said, reaching for the label that was coming off the printer.

“Oh, please. When was the last time you mixed up blood samples? He’s watching you for another reason. What’s going on?”

Emily shrugged. “I have no idea,” she said. “You can’t expect me to explain Dr. Berger.”

The truth was that she was a little annoyed with him. They had agreed that what had happened between the two of them needed to be kept in confidence, and now he was staring at her publicly, where other people could notice? It was so ill-advised. And the interns were gossipy, too. They were likely to come up with rumors about what was happening between their boss and their fellow intern, and if Dr. Berger was going to keep acting this way, he was going to make it her responsibility to quell those rumors.

But on the other hand… she did like it that he was staring at her. She stood a little taller, imagining his eyes on her, wondering what he was thinking. Was he picturing her as she had been in their shared hotel room?

It was strange to feel sensual while she labeled blood samples, but it did make the work day more interesting.

“Well, all I know is that he’s looking at you funny,” Sara said. “It’s like… I don’t know. It’s like he’s seeing you for the first time or something.”

It was almost impossible not to turn and look, but Emily managed it. “I don’t know what his problem is,” she said, forcing a shrug. “I’m sure I’ll get to hear all about it later, though. You know how he is.”

“Oh, yeah, I know how he is,” Sara said, apparently successfully distracted at last. “Did I tell you what he did this morning while I was trying to record a patient’s vitals? He was all over me. It was like I’d never held a stethoscope before! I swear, he’s been worse than ever lately.”

Emily hummed agreement and let Sara take over the conversation, relieved that — for now, at least — she had managed to avoid talking about this any further.

But she knew now that it was going to have to be addressed, one way or another.

She got her chance the following morning. As usual, she had arrived at the hospital early. As usual, Dr. Berger was already there. She found him pouring his morning coffee in the break room with his back to her.

For a moment, she just stood and admired him. Now that they had been intimate, she found herself noticing things about him that she never had before. His pants fit him well enough that she could see the line of his thigh muscles. That sight triggered all sorts of pleasant memories, and every one of those memories was more enjoyable than the conversation she was about to initiate.

Maybe I don’t have to say anything to him.

He turned around and caught sight of her. “Morning,” he said, his voice stiff.

“Hey.” She didn’t feel like herself, talking to him like that. It felt like she was talking to a stranger. She closed her eyes briefly, knowing that it was a mistake to allow things to move in that direction. It was better to try to maintain a calm relationship with each other.

She opened her eyes. “I need to speak to you,” she said.

“About what?”

“People are saying that you’ve been… looking at me.” She blushed. It was embarrassing even to say it out loud. “People have noticed it. I don’t know what’s going on, but people are noticing you noticing me, and that’s something we need to be careful about.”

“Shut the door.”

“What?” The break room door was never closed, not even at night.

“I said, shut the door. Lock it.”

Adrenaline and excitement shot through Emily. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew at once that she was going to do what he wanted her to do. She pushed the door closed behind her and turned the latch, feeling like she was falling down a hill.

He crossed the room in three steps. His hands were on her biceps, gripping her, backing her up into the door behind her. He was gentle enough — he wasn’t hurting her — but his grip was so firm that she couldn’t have escaped him if she had wanted to.

All the breath left her body, and it felt like his hands were the only thing holding her upright.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do,” he growled. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to be around you every day without looking at you. I don’t know how to go back to seeing you as just that irresponsible intern who showed up late on her first day.”

“You don’t have to see me as irresponsible?—”

“Stop talking.”

Emily didn’t know whether she would have stopped talking of her own accord or not. She never had the chance to find out. His mouth was on hers at once, silencing her, swallowing up whatever she would have said next.

She knew they shouldn’t be doing this. Not here. Not at work. But that fact only made it hotter. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer, a part of her wondering whether this had always been her intention when she had come to confront him. Had she always meant to provoke something like this? She couldn’t have known it would happen, but could she really deny that she had hoped for it?

As suddenly as he had initiated the kiss, he broke free and held her at arm’s length. “It’s a miracle all I’m doing is looking,” he said in a low voice. “It’s making me crazy trying not to pull you into supply closets every hour of every day. I’m losing my mind. And there you are, acting like everything is normal between us. Like it never happened.”

“It’s not like that,” Emily stammered. “It’s just that — I have to move on. We have to move on. We agreed to keep it professional. If you don’t watch out, people are going to start guessing that something happened between us. And if that rumor gets around, we may not be able to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Both of our careers are on the line here, Dominic. We have to be careful. We can’t afford to indulge ourselves.”

He closed his eyes briefly.

“Have lunch with me,” he said.

“What?” That threw her completely.

“Have lunch with me,” he repeated. “Nothing fancy. Just meet me for lunch in the cafeteria today.”

“Are you kidding? This was a conversation about how we can’t let people see us getting too close.”

“We can if we have professional reasons. I’m going to take you on as my personal mentee.”

“Can you do that?”

“Sure I can. Lots of the doctors here play mentor to a particular intern they think shows promise. I haven’t taken one before, but for me to choose you now would be a big boon to your career.”

“You’re not just doing this because you want to spend more time with me, are you?”

“Well, I do want to spend more time with you,” he admitted. “But no, that isn’t the reason.”

“Because that’s a terrible reason,” Emily said. “I don’t want to get ahead in my career because of what happened between us. If it’s ever like that, you should just cut me from the program right then and there.”

“Do you think I’m that unethical?” he asked her. “It would be easier on me if you were cut from the program, but I couldn’t do it to you, because you’re the best intern we’ve got. That’s why I want to mentor you. You’re going to be an amazing doctor, and I think I can help you get there — but it is convenient that making that relationship official will give us an excuse to be around each other without provoking gossip. Or at least, if there’s going to be gossip, it’ll be the right kind of gossip — it’ll be talk about what a good doctor you must be if you’re earning mentorship like this.”

Emily bit her lip. Everything he was saying sounded pretty perfect, but there was still the question of what was motivating him. She believed him when he said that he thought she was skilled and he wanted to help her become the best she could be, but he had also said he wanted an excuse to spend more time around her. What was that all about?

She didn’t know. But if she questioned it too much, he might change his mind, and she was beginning to realize that she didn’t want to stay away from him any more than he seemed to want to stay away from her. If they could come up with an excuse to spend time talking to each other, eating meals together, and generally indulging in some one-on-one time, she’d take it. She probably would have taken it even if it hadn’t enhanced her career prospects the way it was going to, and that was a terrifying thought. She didn’t know what to do with the fact that she was making such unwise decisions.

But he had asked her if she wanted to have lunch with him, and there was only one true answer to that question.

“I’d be happy to have you as a mentor,” she said. “And I’d be happy to have lunch with you. Thank you, Dr. Berger.”

He gave her a little nod, stepped by her, unlocked the door, and left, his kiss still tingling on her lips.

The moment Emily sat down opposite Dominic, she knew they were making a mistake. She wasn’t going to be capable of treating this like a professional lunch.

He met her eyes across the table, and she felt as if she was dissolving into a puddle in her seat. She could feel the heat in her face, and surely anyone who looked at her would be able to see how affected she was.

She shouldn’t be here — and yet, here she was.

He looked at her plate. “You got the egg salad?”

“I like it,” she said.

“Nobody likes the hospital’s egg salad. It’s notorious.”

“Is there anything actually wrong with it?” she asked. “I mean, this is a hospital. I have to assume we’re not serving bad food here.”

“No one’s ever gotten sick from it,” Dominic said. “But I don’t think anyone trusts it either.”

She looked at his plate. “I don’t think I’d feel any safer with the ham sandwich,” she told him. “Deli meat and mayonnaise? If there’s something the matter with the food here, it would be as likely to affect that sandwich. If we’re that worried about the food, we should be getting soup. At least that gets boiled before they give it to us.”

Dominic laughed. “Okay,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’ll have the soup of the day — no matter what it is. Deal?”

“You’re on.”

They dug into their lunches, eating in quiet companionship for a moment. Eventually, Emily spoke up. “Was there something you wanted to talk to me about today?”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought this was going to be a mentorship lunch.”

“Oh, well… technically,” he said. “I guess this is an opportunity for you to ask any questions you might have.”

So she’d been right — he was eating with her because he wanted to, not for professional reasons. That should have worried her, but instead it set off a flurry of butterflies in her stomach. She was glad , she realized. She was glad this wasn’t just a mentorship lunch, glad that he genuinely wanted to spend time with her.

“Okay,” she said. “I have a question.”

“Sure.”

“Tell me about your college days. About your first experiences of medicine.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Does this have to do with your professional development?”

She stirred her drink with her straw and crossed her legs. “Nope.”

He looked at her for a long moment. Emily had never felt more confident that someone was thinking the exact same thing she was.

“All right,” he said at last. “I’ll tell you about it.”

And he launched into the story — a story in which he was barely recognizable, a story in which he was younger, happier, and hadn’t yet been scarred by the trauma of his mother’s death.

Emily felt captivated. She wished she could have known that version of him — and at the same time, she was glad and grateful to know him as he was now, scars and all.

She wouldn’t have changed him if she could have, and maybe that was the most frightening part.