Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
AMELIE
Kai walked alongside me, his frame dwarfing mine.
I wore sneakers to work, which made our height difference seem significant.
I was acutely conscious of the space he took up beside me, the width of his shoulders at the edge of my vision, the way people in the hallway instinctively moved aside.
I wish he weren’t so much bigger. Every time I glanced up at him, my heart involuntarily lurched. I sped up slightly.
This morning, he was furious with me. He barely spoke to me when we dropped the kids off at school. So why come to my place of work under the false pretense of having lunch? Why twist my arm into leaving with him?
My chest constricted as a thought crossed my mind. Stefan and I wanted to be around each other, even when we were fighting. We couldn’t bear to be apart because we were so in love. But things had changed. The distance between us was growing, and there was only one person to blame.
I craned my neck to glare at Kai’s profile. The hospital light cut across the hard lines of his face. The sharp jaw, the straight line of his nose, the shadows beneath his cheekbones. The geometric features, precise and deliberate, made it seem like someone had drawn him with a ruler.
“Like what you see?”
His words were so unexpected that I jerked, quickly looking away. “Don’t we think highly of ourselves?” I muttered.
“It’s other people who think highly of me. Why else would the Chief of Medicine strong-arm you into having lunch with me?”
I glowered at Kai. “If you’re such a hotshot, why’re you paying nine thousand dollars just to go on a date with me?”
“I never called it a date,” he replied coolly. “Now who thinks too highly of themselves?”
I trudged along, seething with unspoken anger.
I couldn’t blame Andrea, the nurse who had eagerly snatched my shift.
Her monthly student loan payments made it hard to live on a nurse’s salary.
Despite our previous financial burden, I counted my blessings that I didn’t have student loans.
An anonymous Samaritan sponsored disadvantaged students at my university, and I secured a scholarship after my family went bankrupt.
While I wasn’t angry at Andrea, I hated how Kai used money to dangle hope in front of desperate people. I was perfectly content to ignore him while I marched to the staff locker room.
He followed me languidly, and I noticed he was attracting quite a bit of attention from the female demographic. It was the same when he arrived at the hospital. I found myself examining what prompted women to react so strongly to Kai. I cataloged him how everyone else must have.
He wore black trousers with loafers. His white shirt was left open at the throat, and he’d rolled the sleeves to reveal his forearms. There was something almost unfair about forearms like that on a man.
Jo had practically drooled at the sight during their short exchange.
The rest of the staff did a double take as we passed.
I understood it in the abstract, clinical way one understood anything that was objectively appealing.
He was tall, well-dressed, and had the kind of face that didn’t require effort.
This was a fact, not an opinion. Every woman in our vicinity was enthralled by Kai.
I could sic one of them on him. My prenuptial agreement stated that I could dissolve this marriage without penalty if Kai cheated on me.
So far, he hadn’t expressed interest in anyone else, including Ruby fucking Sarafina.
He’ll eventually get bored with me, I knew that.
But I wanted to move the process along so I could return to my ordinary, loud life sooner rather than later.
When a doctor old enough to be my grandmother shamelessly eye fucked Kai, I found myself at a loss for words.
This man could literally have any woman in the world.
If his money didn’t guarantee a well-bred wife, his looks and body sealed the deal.
Why had he gone through so much hassle for a woman who was already married?
I didn’t care to ask the same question for the hundredth time. Tired of our roundabout arguments, I left Kai outside the locker room and strode inside to grab my stuff.
I came face-to-face with Ricky just as I gathered my things. “Amelie! I was looking for you. Do you want to get some disgusting hospital coffee together?”
Ricky was a fellow male nurse who made a habit of flirting with me.
I would have taken offense if it were anyone else, but he was an innocent nineteen-year-old.
Totally harmless. Like many of the nurses at this hospital, he had it rough growing up.
His cheesy lines brought a smile to both our faces.
“Ricky! How many times do I have to remind you that I’m a married woman?”
He dramatically put his hands over his heart. “I’m heartbroken.”
“There are plenty of single women in Darster.”
“None as pretty as you. You sure I can’t convince you to get a cup of terrible coffee with me? I’ve got hospital dollars.”
I laughed. Our cafeteria food was truly terrible. To make matters worse, whenever we picked up extra shifts, Kwon showed his appreciation by giving us hospital bucks that we could only spend in the cafeteria. “Sorry, Ricky. I’m more of an almond-chai-latte girl.”
Ricky leaned against the wall flirtatiously. “Then how about I take you out for chai somewhere decent?”
“How about I put you in the fucking hospital for hitting on my wife? At least you won’t have to travel far.”
I tensed, turning to find the bane of my existence right behind me. When did Kai sneak up on us?
Kai towered over Ricky in such an unsettling way that he looked visibly shaken. There was a charge to him in that moment, one that bypassed my brain and went straight to my nervous system before I could stop it. Adrenaline. I redirected it immediately into fury over his appalling behavior.
“Uh—” Ricky started uncomfortably.
“You have ten seconds to step away from my wife.” The look Kai gave him was the kind that, if he had chosen violence, Ricky would truly be stitching up his own wounds. “And from now on, never look at her.”
“Kai—”
Ricky fled the scene, not sticking around to listen to our marital discord. I didn’t even have the chance to explain that this lunatic had latched onto me for the day against my will.
I hated that I understood, in some wordless part of me, exactly why Ricky had run. Kai hadn’t raised his voice or moved aggressively. The quiet menace in his stillness had done all the work for him.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I whisper-screamed in his face.
“You were letting your coworker eye fuck you,” he growled.
Ironic since half the women at the hospital had just finished eye fucking Kai. “Ricky’s a harmless teenager. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He became a nurse to support his bedridden mom and sometimes needs a reason to smile.”
“And that reason needs to be my wife?” The sardonic voice grated on me.
“He’s just a kid. What the hell’s the matter with you?” Turning away from Kai, I made a beeline for the parking lot. I pulled up my phone to call an Uber. I didn’t care what Kwon wanted; I was going home.
“If you leave, I’ll tell Kwon about it.” He knew my flight pattern too well already.
Seriously? “What are you, five? You’re going to tell on me?”
“I will if you don’t spend the rest of your shift with me. Everyone will agree that I paid fairly for your time. Maybe Kwon will even fire you for insubordination.”
I spun around and tried to torch him with my eyes.
Not only did I love being a nurse, but this job was the only thing Kai hadn’t tainted with his indecent proposal.
My fancy new house and life were constant reminders that I let Kai do unspeakable things to me in exchange.
Even the money from Stefan’s job felt icky because it was Kai’s doing.
This job was the only source of income that didn’t make me feel like a prostitute, and I wanted to hold on to that bit of dignity and financial independence. I wouldn’t let him ruin this for me.
“What if I don’t want to hang out with you?” I asked sourly.
“Then, I don’t want to pay Nurse Andrea to cover your shift.”
I gritted my teeth with frustration. I didn’t want to take away something so precious from another person. “What do you want?”
“For you to complete your assigned task. Show me a good time and tell me why the hospital deserves another donation. I hear the children’s ward is in dire need of a facelift.”
My eyes burned when I glanced at my phone. Nine hours with this eccentric asshole. “This is ridiculous. We don’t need to go out to talk about donations. We live together.”
“Yet I remain unconvinced whether the children need new bedding. I think you’d better find a way to convince me otherwise.
” His eyes moved over me slowly, and I had the strange sensation of being made visible in a way I hadn’t consented to.
His lewd eyes landed on my chest, where my blue scrubs were slightly more fitted, his insinuation crystal clear.
Tears threatened to spill from my eyes. I pressed my lips together, forcing them back. It was humiliating that everyone in my life sold me out to Kai for a couple of dollars—Dr. Kwon, my coworkers, and even the supposed love of my life.
When his gaze remained steadfast, I felt it in my bones.
The urge to throw my hands up and cover my chest was suffocating, but I refused to wilt under his gaze.
When his eyes dropped to linger at every curve of my body, my skin prickled with awareness.
I schooled my face into a neutral expression, then fixed my eyes on the concrete pavement and held them there.
“Fine, let’s go. I’m putting a timer on my phone.”
He flashed me a set of perfectly straight, white teeth and held out his arm. “After you.”
I followed him to his car, mumbling, “I’m not even dressed for Virtue & Vine,” under my breath. “I’m in scrubs.”