Chapter 11
DOC
I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. We talked about her favorite video games, and I filed them away.
Maybe I could talk Ranger into letting me get my hands on them, especially since they weren’t multiplayer online games.
We talked about all of the teasing Anna does with Brutus.
We talked about Marla, and how she finally got to the downslope of her condition.
More healed than not. I watched her eyes light up as she told me of all the antics the two of them got into as young girls.
I enjoyed seeing her smile.
Yet all too soon, the soup was gone. The bread was picked apart.
The drinks were sipped on until there was nothing but ice licking the bottom of the glass.
The nighttime sky hung high overhead, pregnant with twinkling stars and a half-moon that pumped out that blue hue light as if it were its full-time job.
Miss Elizabeth’s sleek black hair looked beautiful in it.
She was beautiful. I felt comfortable enough admitting that to myself, now that we were outside and in our own little spaces.
Everyone had retired for the evening, and the lightning bugs twinkled around us while we sat with our dirtied, emptied bowls and plates.
I watched her while she giggled at the lightning bugs, holding out her hands just to see if one would land in her palm.
She had such a softness about her.
I decided to silently gather the dishes. While she sat there, enjoying the lightning beetles that flickered around us, I figured we could prolong the evening by not attracting every ant in the vicinity.
It also gave me a chance to get away from her long enough to breathe.
I couldn’t breathe around her sometimes. Like my lungs forgot how to inflate. I placed the dirty dishes in the sink, rinsing them off and loading them into the dishwasher so Brutus didn’t hop down my throat again about it. He was a stickler for how his kitchens were.
Even though this was technically my kitchen.
Just as quickly as I placed the dishes into the dishwasher, Miss Elizabeth went from sitting in her chair to lumbering around the pool.
My gaze shot out the window, and I quickened my movements so that I could get back out to her.
I didn’t want her falling in and someone not being out there to fish her out.
She still limped pretty deeply, after all.
But as I made my way back outside, I noticed she stopped at the edge of the hot tub. She peered down into it, and when a gust of wind kicked up a cloud of steam, I watched her close her eyes as it rushed over her like a misty waterfall.
The words were out of my mouth as I made my way back to her. “You can get in if you’d like.”
She gasped softly, and I held my hands up beside me in a sort of mocking surrender.
“Didn’t mean to startle you, Miss Elizabeth.”
She drew in a deep breath when she saw it was me and went back to staring down at the unmoving hot tub water. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t.”
I clasped my hands behind me and went to stand beside her. “Would you like a hand getting in?”
“No, I couldn’t.”
I peeked over at her. “Why not?”
She just shrugged.
“Really,” I said as I nudged her softly with my body. “If you want to get in, you’re more than welcome. The grounds are open to everyone, including you.”
That got her chewing on the inside of her cheek.
I grinned down at the top of her head. It was like I saw her thoughts swirling through the black locks of her hair. She looked back at the house. Up at the sky. Out and around the property. Like she was searching for some sort of sign that she made the right decision.
She reached for the arms of the outfit she was wearing.
I quickly turned my back. I puffed out my cheeks with a silent sigh as I heard her clothing bunching up against the concrete surrounding the inground hot tub. Just her shadow alone teased my body in ways that had me shaking my head.
No, I couldn’t turn around.
No, I couldn’t look.
No, I couldn’t get in with her.
“Ooooooh yeeeeeah,” I heard her groan.
Thank fuck my back was turned to her.
Because my cock kicked.
I’d love to make her sound like that.
“This is the life,” she moaned as I heard the water sloshing around her.
I shoved the voice in my head back down into the pit of my gut. “Would you like the jets, Miss Elizabeth?”
My voice came out wrong and I couldn’t do a thing about it.
“Where’s the button for them?” she asked.
I just reached my foot out and pressed a concealed button on the edge of the hot tub itself.
I heard the jets roar to life.
I heard her sigh heavily as the water continued sloshing around, bubbling and churning and kicking up a steam that hissed over my skin from behind. I kept my back to her. I didn’t trust my eyes not to be courteous.
I wondered if anyone was watching from the house.
I’d kill anyone watching from the house.
Mine.
I closed my eyes and forced myself to take a few deep breaths.
There was no way in hell I could feel this way about a patient.
It was wrong. It was uncouth. It simply wasn’t right.
I took an oath. It didn’t matter that I didn’t work as a medic any longer.
It didn’t matter that I didn’t work in a hospital.
It didn’t matter that I was only at my clinic in town three days a week to help out with the clinics around us that were always overflowing with people.
What mattered was the promise I made when I became a doctor.
Do no wrong.
And it was wrong to take advantage of a patient and their vulnerability.
I wouldn’t do that to Miss Elizabeth.
Bet it’s not doctor’s orders, getting your brains fucked out.
I scrubbed my hands down my face. Jesus fucking Christ, my brain had never done this to me before.
It was like it was actively sabotaging me.
I always prided myself in having control over my mind.
Over its capabilities. Over its ability to register things at a blinding speed while cobbling accuracies together about my surroundings on nothing but smells and sights.
I’d always been able to do it. My brain was always hardwired this way.
Never once had it betrayed me like this.
“Hey, Doc?”
Her gorgeous voice pierced my thoughts. “Yes, Miss Elizabeth.”
I heard her shift a bit, the water sloshing behind me. “This hot tub feels a bit warmer than other ones I’ve been in. Do you do that intentionally? Or is that just me being sensitive?”
I cleared my throat. “I keep it a little warmer. I prefer it that way.”
“Me, too.”
Something creaked behind us, and she gasped.
Before I could even catch myself, I whipped around, ready and willing to slaughter whoever came up on Miss Elizabeth while she was in such a vulnerable position.
My eyes tuned into the back stretch of trees that lined the part of my backyard my parents had cleared out on the property.
I searched for any sign of an intruder. Or someone who was snooping around who shouldn’t be.
However, the wind kicked up, rustling the trees, and the moonlight poured through its branches, separating the hunk of light into strands that illuminated the edge of my backyard.
Only to reveal nothing.
“Man, your backyard is huge,” she muttered.
I didn’t even think before looking down at her in the hot tub.
I prepared myself to rebuttal, but when I saw her sitting there, her naked body submerged beneath the roiling waters, I swallowed hard.
I clasped my hands tighter behind my back, as if to keep them from having a mind of their own.
And as my gaze fell to her pile of clothing that wasn’t too far from my foot, I noticed that her bra and underwear were also in the pile.
My head spun.
I wanted to get in.
You can’t get in. You can’t go in with her. You shouldn’t. It’s wrong.
“Want to get in with me, Doc?” she asked.
And despite the protest of the voice in my head, I found myself reaching for the buckle of my pants.