13. Megan
CHAPTER 13
MEGAN
M egan and Charlie put their agreement to the test almost immediately. They had just spent most of their morning putting their heads together to diagnose Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in a forty-year-old woman who’d had symptoms for years. They considered this diagnosis a win for both of them. By the afternoon, they were both tired but also feeling proud and celebratory.
They’d decided on a sign they could each use to summon the other. It was nothing fancy, just a brief squeeze of the wrist in passing, but it was enough to get Megan’s heart pounding. When Charlie gave her the signal, she watched where he went and followed at a distance. Once he was alone, she watched him slip into a janitor’s closet. Megan groaned and shook her head. He couldn’t have found a more comfortable location? Well, at least it was a little exciting.
She slipped in after him and closed the door behind her. “Really?” she said when they were alone. He didn’t respond. He lifted her onto a narrow table and kissed her mouth. She pulled back to say, “You trying to shut me up again?”
“Mm-hm.” He kissed her again, and this time slipped his hand into her shirt in a way that made her immediately less concerned about whether their surroundings were appropriate. “Here, it’s important that we’re quiet,” he murmured as he untied her scrubs.
“Oh, that’s why you chose it,” she whispered. “So I’d shut the hell up.”
“Absolutely.”
She couldn’t help laughing under her breath. Then he pressed into her, and she couldn’t find the words to argue anymore. If he wanted to shut her up, he didn’t need to drag her into a janitor’s closet to do it. He could take her breath away anywhere in the hospital or out of it. All he had to do was exactly what he was doing right now. She buried every sound she felt the urge to make while he tortured her. There were people walking by outside. She could hear their conversations through the vent in the door, but she didn’t care. In fact, the danger made it all the more exciting.
When they were finished, Megan needed a moment to gather her wits, un-wobble her legs, and learn to walk again, so Charlie left the store room first. Megan waited ten minutes before leaving after him.
No matter how careful she was, though, her timing was always the worst. Kayla passed by just as Megan exited the closet. She laughed when she saw Megan. “Needed cleaning supplies, did you?”
Megan answered without thinking. “Yes. What’s so weird about that?”
“What’s weird is that you don’t have any cleaning products right now. What were you in there to get?” By the look on her face, her suspicions were likely close to the truth.
Megan had to think fast. “Maybe I was in there to put something back.”
“Maybe?” Kayla smirked. “Maybe you were in there to put something somewhere.”
“Oh my God, Kayla. Stop being weird.” Megan nudged her and acted like her friend had just teased her for the sake of teasing. Maybe then Kayla would give it a rest.
But Kayla clearly wasn’t buying any of it. “Oh, fine,” she said. “You can tell me why you’ve been acting so weird the last few days when you’re ready. I won’t ask any more questions or tell you that the rest of us already know it has everything to do with Charlie Sullivan.”
Kayla’s knowing look was almost more than Megan could bear. She nearly considered ending her agreement with Charlie over the humiliating idea that everyone already knew everything.
But the next day, when Megan was taking a breather in the on-call room, he walked in, and all bets were off. The on-call room was a small room with about two bunkbeds set up to give on-call doctors somewhere comfortable to sleep — not that Megan and Charlie required beds at all. But it was nice to have a more comfortable place to engage in their arrangement from time to time. Once again, the excitement of potentially getting caught only added to the experience.
Afterwards, Megan had to talk herself out of staying in his arms and allowing herself to drift off. It was just an impulse, she told herself. She would have that instinct with anyone she was sleeping with. It had nothing to with any feelings she may have for Dr. Sourpuss. Because she didn’t have any feelings for him. She didn’t.
This time she dressed and left first, but it didn’t matter. Kayla was just turning out of the hall, and the second she heard a door open behind her, she whirled around and pointed at Megan. “There you are! I’ve been looking for you. Where have you been?”
“Just catching my breath,” Megan said with a shrug. “It’s been kind of a crazy day, right?”
Kayla cocked her head. “I mean, not really. It’s been basically the same as all the other days.”
Megan sighed and finally gave up. “Oh, come on, Kayla. You’ve got to give me something here. I’m drowning. You can see that I’m drowning, can’t you?”
Kayla turned back again right before she and Megan turned a corner, just in time to see Charlie emerge from the same room Megan had come from. “You’re drowning in men, you mean. Or… man. Just the one man, but plenty of man to drown in, I’m sure.” She elbowed Megan several times. “Eh? Eh? How in the world did you manage to land Charlie freaking Sullivan?”
“I didn’t land him,” Megan said, looking away from her accuser. “It’s just a way to blow off steam. Residency is stressful. We figured out we could handle the stress more if we participated in certain… aerobic activities that also happen to release some very helpful brain chemicals.”
“Suuuuuurrrrreeeee,” Kayla sang. “Whatever you have to tell yourself to make it make sense.”
“It makes sense. Trust me.”
“’Kay. Well, you want to help me with my new patient?”
Anything to get the topic of conversation on a new track. “Sure.”
The next morning, Megan pulled Charlie aside. “We need to talk.”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “Already? You’ve got to pace yourself, Bright.”
She rolled her eyes and started walking, forcing him to follow if he wanted to hear what she had to say. “People are starting to notice. I think we should let things cool down a bit before they all confirm their suspicions.”
Charlie raised both eyebrows, questioning. “What’s the matter? Are you ashamed to be seen with me or something?”
“How’d you guess?” She gave him a nasty look and he smiled warmly at her. Lately, every time they came together, their roles seemed to reverse. Megan decided her own harsher attitude was worth a little warmth from Charlie. He probably felt the same, in reverse, of course.
“You win, Bright,” he said, laughing. “We’ll be more discreet from now on, but in case you weren’t aware…” He leaned in too close and murmured low into her ear. “I am far from ashamed to be seen with you.”
Before she could slap him with the file folder in her hand, he’d kissed her ear and veered away from her, sauntering down another hall into another exam room.
They went the rest of the week without interacting at all. Megan was proud to have managed it, but she still wasn’t sure if it was worth it. Kayla already knew, that was for sure, and she certainly wasn’t hiding it. Half of her jokes seemed to revolve around Megan’s relationship with Charlie, if it could even be called that.
The trouble was, after all that time avoiding him, Megan wanted him more than ever. Each time he stood behind her, close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body, that familiar heat started pooling in her belly. He was all she could think about, which was not like her at all. No matter how her hormones had tormented her in school, she’d been able to ignore them and focus on her studies. Nothing mattered more than getting the right residency. But now, it all seemed to be catching up to her. Either that or Charlie was bringing out a level of desire she’d never felt before, which was a reality she wasn’t going to accept until hell froze over, thawed back out again, and then became an expensive luxury spa.
And before she could stop herself, she’d begun fantasizing about spending several hours in a luxury spa alone with Charlie. Far from easing her frustration, spending more time with him seemed to be increasing her libido, and now staying away from him was making it even worse.
It was close to the end of their shift, so she passed by and squeezed his arm.
He turned to her and muttered, “Meet me in the garage.”
Megan finished her shift with the kind of urgency she usually reserved for finals week, except all she wanted to do was get to the end of her day. When she was done, she made a beeline for her locker, changed her clothes, and headed straight for the garage. Charlie waited for her there, leaning casually against the concrete wall by his car.
“I sent George to lunch,” he explained. He opened the back door and gestured for her to get in. Megan slid into the back and he climbed in after her, closing the car door behind him.
“Isn’t this kind of…”
“Public?” he said. “The windows are extremely tinted.”
“I was going to say cliché.” She leaned back along the seats as he crawled over her. “But sure, public.”
“Getting tired of the quickies?” he asked, kissing her throat. “We could go to my place one night. Take our time again.”
“That sounds—” She caught her breath as he brought his hand between her legs and pressed down in just the right spot. How he could do that with such ease was a mystery Megan never wanted to solve. She found her words again and finished. “That sounds wonderful.”
“Wonderful,” he echoed, and kissed her lips while he carefully removed her clothes. “In the meantime, let’s make the most of this spacious interior.”
As soon as she was naked, he moved over her and penetrated with a level of aggression she hadn’t seen since that first night. She was more than ready for him, and he for her it seemed. The sex was hot and fast and powerful. There was no chance the car wasn’t noticeably rocking, but Megan was in a place where she couldn’t care if she wanted to. It seemed they’d both let too much desire built up by taking a few days off.
They both finished early and easily. Within minutes of putting her clothes back on, Megan was ready for more. Clearly, keeping a healthy distance from each other wasn’t really working. She regretted suggesting it, but what was done was done.
“This isn’t ideal,” she admitted. “We need to see each other outside of work to avoid affecting our residency.”
Charlie nodded. “Agreed. Let me take you to dinner tonight.”
Megan shook her head. “I meant in bed, not at dinner.”
“Oh, come on.” He finished buttoning his shirt and pulled his jacket over his shoulders. “If we’re going to extend our agreement to outside the hospital, we’ll need to amend our rules and regulations. Best done on neutral turf…” He shrugged. “Over dinner.”
As much as she wanted to, Megan couldn’t find any reasonable way to disagree with that. “Fine. Let’s go out and discuss a new plan. But that’s the only reason we’re going out. This is not a date, understand? I repeat — not a date.”
Charlie nodded. “Well understood. It’s all business. I have no desire to wine and dine the enemy.”
Megan snorted and laughed. The enemy . He was so dramatic. Charlie stepped out of the car when he saw George approaching, and Megan watched as he gave instructions to his driver. Just seeing him out there, knowing he was hers in some way, made Megan proud. She almost didn’t want it to end. Months ago, she wouldn’t have thought she’d be craving the company of someone she supposedly hated so much, but here she was, missing Charlie Sullivan when he wasn’t around, excited to have dinner with him and hash out more rules. As much as she insisted it wasn’t a date, she had to admit there was a teeny-tiny part of her that kind of, sort of wished it was.