12. Charlie
CHAPTER 12
CHARLIE
M egan was all he thought about, no matter how much he pretended otherwise. He’d wanted her to obsess over him, but things seemed to have worked out the other way around. Every time he stood behind her, he could smell the light perfume she sometimes wore, and he flashed back to that night in his apartment. Even though he’d only spent one night with her, he missed her as though he’d been living with her his whole life. She just seemed right in his world.
At the same time, he loved to hate her. She was so sickeningly sweet, like cotton candy outside a county fair. So why did he suddenly seem to have a major sugar addiction?
As for his residency, Charlie was convinced this was among the worst things that could have happened to him. He couldn’t concentrate while Megan was around, and he was afraid to fall behind. Not just afraid — it was more like a phobia. Not being the best would make him question his place in his own family. It would make his family question whether he even belonged among them, and that would be devastating. The pressure he lived under on a day-to-day basis was nothing short of immense.
When his shift was over, he made his way to his locker, collected his books, and headed for the break room. He intended to get some studying done here, where he was in work mode, where he wouldn’t be faced with the sight of his tragically empty bed. Anyway, getting a little study time in when Megan wasn’t around to distract him was just what the doctor ordered.
But of course, when he entered the break room, Megan was already there. Charlie couldn’t believe his bad luck. He was tempted to immediately turn around and leave, but that would be showing weakness. One thing he knew he should never do while his fiercest competition was around was show any weakness. So he sat down right across from her and opened his books.
She glanced up, adjusted her glasses, and gave him a little smile. “Couldn’t stay away, could you?”
Charlie glared across the table at her. “I didn’t know you were here. I was planning to get some solo work done where I wouldn’t be… distracted.”
“Do I distract you?”
“Anybody would. I take my studies seriously. This isn’t social hour.”
Megan’s smile grew, and she seemed to be enjoying the conversation, awkward as it was. She stood and gathered her things. “All right, then.”
“You don’t have to leave,” Charlie said. “I can study just fine while you’re here.”
“I know.” She stepped around the table and took the seat next to his. “I just thought, you know, since I’m not any more distracting than anyone else, it wouldn’t make a difference where I sat.”
When she sat down next to him, he could feel the heat from her skin.
“Whatever this is,” he said, “I’m not participating.”
“This is called studying.” She nudged him with her elbow. “That’s all it is.”
He nodded. “Good. As long as we understand each other.”
She hummed quietly and began taking notes from her book. Charlie did what he could to ignore her proximity to him, but his body wouldn’t let him forget she was right there. His sugar addiction was only getting worse, apparently. He needed to kiss her, but he knew that if he let it show, he’d have lost whatever game it was she was playing with him. It felt like a game of chicken, like whoever cracked first would be the loser. And Charlie could never, ever be the loser of any situation. It just wasn’t allowed.
So he sat there and took the abuse while his own body rebelled against him, which became more and more difficult to ignore, as it made him more and more uncomfortable the harder he got. All she had to do was shift her leg against his, and he let out a half groan.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Fine,” he answered sharply. “I just read something unpleasant.”
“Care to share?”
“Nope.” He quickly turned several pages so she wouldn’t see how mundane the one he was on actually was. “You’re the competition. I’m not helping you to beat me.”
“Do you really think I have a chance?”
She sounded so hopeful that Charlie couldn’t help but look over at her. That was a huge mistake. She looked like a goddam angel in glasses. “If anyone has a chance…” he began, but she kissed him before he could finish. Her hands were clutching his jacket and his were in her hair. When she finally let him go, he finished what he’d started to say. “It’s you.”
He turned his chair toward her and she straddled his lap, which was exactly where he wanted her, but also exactly where he knew she shouldn’t be. He wasn’t going to be able to resist pushing her skirt up her thighs and enjoying her right then and there. “This is a mistake,” he said as she sucked gently on his throat. “This is a bad idea.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “It’s a terrible idea.”
“So why aren’t we stopping?”
She reached down, unzipped him, and caressed him. “Not a problem if it’s quick this time, right?”
“Then we can get back to work,” he said, arching his back and pushing his hands up her shirt. “Just get it out of the way.”
God, he wanted to be inside her. He needed it. He felt like he was going to explode without her. He kissed her breasts and gripped her thighs as she brought herself closer. She was wearing underwear, but she easily pushed it aside, and in seconds she was wrapped around him. He groaned and let her slip down, completely enveloping him.
“You sure we’re the only ones here?” Megan asked, panting.
“No one was in the halls,” he said. “We’re good.” But deep down, he knew, at this rate, it didn’t even matter. An entire audience could walk through that door, and he’d just keep going. She was everything that mattered right now, her body, her skin, her thighs against his thighs.
She rode him slowly at first, pressing her lips against his and pushing her tongue into his mouth. But eventually, even she couldn’t help herself, and she took to crashing into him, moaning deep in her chest as he swelled inside her. By the steadily rising pitch of her voice, he could tell she was getting close. He already knew her well enough to see it coming… to see her coming. When she peaked, he let himself go, releasing every ounce of tension he had into her. All of it melted away, buried deep in their union.
He let his head fall back as she rested there on his lap, still holding him in every possible way. Then she kissed him and stood, licking her lips like she’d just eaten something deliciously satisfying. Charlie had to agree. He felt good, relaxed, like he could accomplish anything.
“I’ll be right back.” She walked away, leaving Charlie alone with his thoughts and the most ridiculous smile on his face.
Why did he love fighting with her so much if he was really this attracted to her? If he hated her, why did the temperature in the room seem to drop several degrees the second she left? How lonely would his residency have been if he didn’t have her as is number-one rival? How boring would it have been if she weren’t there to keep him on his toes?
Megan returned to the room, clearing her throat and sitting across from him again. She took her books and began to read and take notes. Charlie watched her a while before doing the same. After an hour of study, he realized his concentration was the best it had ever been. He didn’t want to stop. “Shall we order a pizza?” he asked.
“On you?” she said without even looking up.
“Obviously.”
“Because I’m so poor,” she added.
“Disgustingly so.”
She smirked at him. “Not too disgusting for a quickie in the break room, though.”
Charlie stopped smiling instantly and leaned in, hoping she could hear the seriousness in his voice. “No, not disgusting at all. In fact, I think we should do it again. I think we should do it frequently and without reservation.”
“ Not disgusting .” Megan coughed out a laugh. “That’s got to be the worst compliment I’ve ever gotten from a date. But you are very good for stress — I’ll admit that. So if you’re proposing what I think you’re proposing…”
“A no-strings arrangement between us where we get each other through residency by relieving each other’s stress as often as either one of us needs it. We will not form an alliance beyond that. In every other way, we will continue to compete, and I will continue to despise you.”
She broke in, “And I you.”
“Good. We understand each other.” It was vitally important to keep up the act. The truth was, if she left the hospital, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself. He relied on her to keep him motivated, to give him something else to focus on other than his own impending failure. She was perfect in so many ways. Of course, she drove him crazy — that wasn’t in question.
She was still a lot of tooth rot waiting to happen, as sweet as she was. But she was also damned good at what she did. She was going to make a fantastic doctor one day, and at that point, he hoped they would no longer be in competition. Maybe they could look back on their residency and laugh about how much they affected one another, in good ways and in bad. But that was then and this was now.
“Pepperoni?” he asked, grabbing his wallet from his back pocket.
“Olive and mushroom, extra cheese.”
“We’ll go half and half.”
“Fine.” She put her head back down and kept writing.
He ordered the pizza and took a moment to watch her study. Every time he looked at her, he was amazed anew at just how gorgeous she was. She pushed her glasses up her nose, and he wanted to lay her across the table and make her come again.
“We should lay down some ground rules,” he said, partly because it was true, and partly because he wanted to keep talking to her. “We both have the right to veto at any point. This isn’t going to be coercive.”
She glanced up and nodded. “But neither of us can criticize the other for frequency of requests or timing.”
“Agreed.” He tapped the table while he considered what more they should add to the table. Just thinking about this agreement made him nervous and excited. “We will not use this arrangement to manipulate each other in any way. We won’t let our personal feelings get in the way of anything until we’re both out of residency.” He leaned across the table until he was close enough to murmur. “Above all, we will not fall in love with each other. That’s off the table.”
She bit her lip and giggled like he was the one who was being ridiculous. Then she leaned across the table the rest of the way and kissed him. Her kiss sent Charlie into an altered state of consciousness. How long he was going to be able to keep up this agreement, he had no idea, but he was determined to try.
She sat back down, and observed the damage she’d done with a twinkle in her eye. “This is going to be fun, Dr. Sullivan.”
He hummed at the sound of that name. “Say that again.”
“This is going to be fun.”
“No, the name.”
“Dr. Sullivan?” she arched an eyebrow at him.
“Yes. Music to my ears.” What he didn’t say was that it was only music because it came from her. “You and I are going to have a perfect residency. And at the end of it all, I’m going to beat you at your own game.”
“We’ll see, Dr. Sullivan,” she said, and she yelped as he leapt across the table to kiss her one more time.