Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
MICHAEL
I got out of my last surgery of the day with only one goal in mind.
I fastened my watch on my wrist and checked for the time. I knew she had a scheduled surgery coming up, but I didn’t require much time for what I needed to do.
I headed for the nurse’s station, and when Azara wasn’t there, I looked in another few places where I knew she liked to be in between surgeries with no luck.
Fuck. Did she get pulled into another surgery or decide to head to the theater early?
I’d almost given up when the familiar sight of her dark brown curly hair pulled into a claw clip flashed farther down the corridor right as she turned the corner to most likely head for the stock closet.
I beelined in her direction.
She’d been avoiding me for the last two weeks and I was over it. After my lunch with my sister, I’d spent hours going back and forth on what to do. I’d initially opted to just let it go and focus my attention on what was important.
But as the days went by, I started to question what that was. I’d been laser focused my whole life and for the first time in… ever… what I wanted, what I really wanted didn’t seem so clear anymore.
Besides, would it be so bad to temporarily let go of some of the pressure I’d been carrying and let myself…
I don’t know? Feel?
There were only a few steps separating us and I quickly snuffed out the distance as she walked into the room. I followed right behind her and locked the door.
She immediately whipped around, a box of gauze in hand and aimed right at my head. “Who’s…” Her words died in her throat when she noticed who she was about to attack.
“Out of all of the things you could grab to hurt someone, you grabbed the least damage-inflicting thing?” I teased with a brow raised.
Instead of lowering the box down, she did the opposite of what I thought she would. She swung at me with it. “You scared the shit out of me, Michael. What is wrong with you?”
I brought my hands in front of me, protecting from her second hit. “Alright, alright,” I said with a laugh. “Didn’t know you were so skittish?”
Azara shook her head and groaned, turning away from me to grab a few supplies. “I won’t even entertain you.” Once she’d gathered everything she needed, she faced me again. When I made no indication of stepping out of her path, she said, “Move out of the way.”
Instead of doing so, I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned against the locked door.
She let out an annoyed sigh. “Michael, I have a patient to see before heading to surgery, move.”
I loved getting a rise out of her. She fell for it so easily every time.
I was on a mission and I wasn’t leaving this narrow closet until I got what I’d tracked her down for. “I’ll move if you answer a question first.”
“Oh bite me,” she groaned, moving to shoulder me out of her way with no success.
I took the opportunity of having her close to lean down, her intoxicating scent filling my senses. “I mean, only if you ask nicely,” I said suggestively, my voice dropping low.
“Please,” she scoffed, but she hadn’t moved.
“I remember you liking it.”
She lifted her head up and met my gaze, a blooming blaze taking over her irises. Time stood still until she snapped herself out of it, shaking her head and taking a few steps back.
“Fine. Ask away,” she said, waving her hand to hurry me up.
I instantly missed her proximity, but there was no time to dwell on it.
“Why have you been avoiding me?”
I knew the answer already, but wanted to hear her say it. Hear her confirm that I wasn’t alone in feeling whatever this was. Her body unquestionably told me that night, but I needed her to voice it.
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” she quickly replied. Too quickly.
I cocked my head to the side. “We both know that’s a lie.”
Azara pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand before meeting my gaze. She shot me a pointed look, but I’d studied her so much since I’d first met her that I knew what was really hiding beneath it.
“This is ridiculous. Let me out.”
“Not until you answer me.” I took a step toward her. She didn’t move.
She glared at me. “ Michael , don’t make me hit you.”
I took another step and she craned her neck back, not breaking her gaze from mine. “Oh yeah? What if I like it when you fight me?”
My answer caught her by surprise, because although she was still glaring at me, the tiniest tremor ran all over her body. Her mouth opened a few times to reply, but every time she came short.
My gaze trailed over her face and fell to her lips, the memory of them pressed against mine, of her tongue tangling with mine as she let out the sweetest of moans.
If I was a better man, I wouldn’t have rewatched the surveillance footage from the camera that recorded that night. But I wasn’t a better man and although finally getting to taste her was cemented in my brain, video evidence didn’t hurt.
When my eyes met hers again, long gone was the resistance and there she was.
The same woman that showed up at my doorstep in the middle of the night to take exactly what she wanted.
And I’d be an obliging participant. Every. Single. Time.
But good things came to those who waited.
So instead of kissing her right at that moment, just like I’d imagined on multiple occasions over the last two weeks, I reached for her back pocket.
The sweetest gasp fell from her lips and I couldn’t wait to drink it in later tonight. It pained me to do it, but I took a step back and she finally realized my intentions.
“That’s my phone,” she gasped, eyes wide in stupor.
“I’m well aware,” I countered, turning the device to scan her face so it would unlock. I already had her personal number memorized, but pretending I didn’t was less conspicuous. I pulled up her contacts and entered my information before sending myself a text message.
She shook her head as if she was still catching up to what I was doing.“Wh-what are you doing?”
“You needed my number,” I explained, a smile tugging at the corner of my lips at her dumbfounded expression. Before she could respond, I removed the distance between us again and leaned down, my lips brushing against the shell of her ear. “You still haven’t answered my question, but I’ll get my answer tonight. See you later, gumiho .”
I didn’t know if she would actually come and there was a chance she’d just ignore my offer and go home. But for once, I’d hold to hope. Even if it was just a sliver.
My lips trailed from her ear to her cheek where I pressed a feather-light kiss, before unlocking the door and heading home.
This should be interesting.
Azara
What the fuck just happened?
One minute I was grabbing what I needed to remove a chest drain from one of my recent partial lobectomy patients and the next I’d found myself ambushed and essentially locked in with Michael.
His heady scent still permeated the air and I still felt the remaining tingling sensation that erupted along where his lips had touched my skin. It reminded me of when those same lips were somewhere very different.
What did he mean by ‘see you later’? And what had he needed my phone for?
For a brief moment, I’d thought he’d left with it, but when I patted my hand to my back pocket, I realized it was back in its place. I didn’t know how he’d managed to slip it back there without me noticing. But truthfully, my awareness had only latched onto being face to face with him for the first time since I’d shown up at his doorstep.
I grabbed and unlocked it, the screen opening to a brand new thread with one single text message. He’d sent himself a text message from my phone, but it was directed at me.
Me: Come over after your shift.
Surprise filled me at his proposition and I didn’t know what to think of it. Before I could wrap my head around it, three dots at the bottom of the screen popped up. Sudden anxiety filled me at the sight until my phone whirred with a new message
It was the pin of a location with a text attached to it.
Michael: In case you forgot. Mamadou already knows to let you in.
It was the address to his penthouse.
Very presumptuous of him to think I’d already agreed, but it was up to par for his stupidly charming and charismatic personality. Something I’d unfortunately grown to find slightly endearing. But I’d never tell him that, his ego was inflated enough.
I didn’t need to add more to its size.
I rolled my eyes and pocketed my phone before heading out of the closet I’d been in for far too long and heading to my patient’s room.
Today had been my first day back after being off, and I’d managed to evade him all day by diving into work. I’d even looked at the surgery schedule board and made changes to theaters so I wouldn’t accidentally cross his path. I’d almost succeeded, with my shift being almost over, but of course my luck wouldn’t have it another way.
It had only been two weeks since I’d last seen him yet every one of my nerve endings instantly lit up in his presence. I’d thought a lot about my conversation with Nakia and Hazel and spent the rest of my weekend mulling over what I should do.
I agreed that there was nothing wrong with meaningless and casual sex, but I knew that with Michael, it could never be truly meaningless. No matter how much I hated to admit it.
So I’d settled on the smartest, easiest solution to the problem.
Avoidance.
I’d have to see him every day, but once I got the medical director role—which I would get—I wouldn’t have to work so closely with him and there you go.
Problem solved, right?
So I’d armored myself to face this head on and focus on work.
Like I’d spent my entire life doing.
Could I benefit from letting myself out of this box I’d confined myself in? Sure.
But stepping out of the comfort of the walls you’d erected to protect yourself from getting hurt was utterly terrifying. I might not have experienced heartbreak like most people had, but I’d witnessed and had been subjected to the repercussions so much that it had sobered me from ever wanting to be on the receiving end.
The potential for heartbreak was everywhere the safety of my confines wasn’t, and I’d rather stray away from falling for someone now than regret it later.
And that would have been a no brainer in the past. The thought of venturing past what I’d always known had always been met with resistance.
The answer was always that it wasn’t worth it.
Then why was it that with Michael the answer wasn’t as straightforward.
I could stop overanalyzing and overthinking every single aspect of everything for once, but what if what I feared would happen ended up happening?
What would I do then?
What if it didn't?
“Dr. Ziani?” I heard a familiar voice say, snapping me out of my thoughts. I glanced over at the source to find AJ, one of the junior surgeons who’d been under my supervision for this past year, staring at me from under his surgical loupes.
“Shall we proceed?” he asked quietly, almost uncomfortably.
I must have drifted off because he rarely chimed in anything. Not because I didn’t encourage it, but it was just in his nature to work quietly and wait for my directions, to which he’d perform beautifully for someone at his level.
My gaze moved around the room to find my entire team watching me, waiting for my command to begin the repair. I cleared my throat and unfolded my hands, extending one to receive what I needed to make the incision.
“Yes, let’s.” I replied before pushing everything out of my mind. My brain quieted—something that only happened in the confines of these four walls—and I let my hands fall into a routine I knew as well as breathing.
Three hours later, I stepped out of the theater and the thoughts I’d been able to quiet for the last few hours started creeping back in only for my steps to lead me to the only other place where my brain had been able to shut off.
To the same place they did two weeks ago.
As the lift ascended to the top floor, my mind battled with indecision but when the doors opened to reveal Michael already waiting on the other side, all of my reasons for why I’d settled on avoidance suddenly became murky.
“You came.”