Chapter 8
Robyn
I groan and rub my face.
It’s too early to be woken up. I crack my eyes open and regret it.
“Shut up!” I groan at my still-ringing phone.
My eyes won’t open properly. My mouth tastes like I sucked on something bad. The ringing keeps going and going.
“Arghhhh!”
No!
I get irritated because almost nobody has this number. It’s for my sister, my mother, and about three people at work who know only to use it in the case of an extreme emergency.
I fumble on the nightstand, knock over a half-empty glass of water, swear, and finally find the phone.
It’s not even eight yet.
What the hell!?
“Carla.” I do not try to hide the rasp. “What is going on?”
“I’m so sorry. I am soooooo very sorry to wake you.”
“It’s too early.”
“I know you planned to come in toward lunchtime. I wouldn’t call if I didn’t have to, Doc.”
I dropped into bed a little after two. No…
that’s what time I got home. It was later, once I changed and brushed my teeth.
Onyx’s pressure started to spiral around eleven without a clear cause.
We thought we had a slow rebleed somewhere near the repair.
Turned out to be a small secondary tear downstream.
It took a while to get him back on track.
I almost feel worse than before I climbed into bed.
“Is it Onyx?” I push up onto an elbow. “What are his stats like? Did he crash?”
“Onyx is fine. His stats are all stable. Dr. Jenkins has eyes on him. He’s in good hands. That’s not why I’m calling.”
I flop onto my back.
“What’s going on?”
“You have a visitor, Dr. Keller.”
“Tell them to go away and to reschedule an appointment.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” I ask.
There’s a pause, which is weird for Carla.
“Someone from Security Central is here. He’d like to see you as soon as you can get in and implied that it needed to be sooner rather than later.”
I sit up properly.
“Security Central?” I frown. “Why does he have to see me right away?”
“He’s…scary and…I don’t know…he’s… You need to come in and deal with it…please. He’s talking about security threats and upgrades, which scares the shit out of me. He’s insisting on seeing you. Please can you come in?”
Carla is the most unflappable human being I know.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“Carla.”
“He is already in your office, where he insisted on waiting for you. I didn’t have a great reason to say no.
He was sent by the Council. Apparently, you’re supposed to know about his being here.
He runs Security Central – I’m not sure if I mentioned that or not.
I can’t remember his name, and I don’t want to ask him. Do you know about any of this?”
“I’m a little behind on my emails,” I admit, sounding sheepish.
“Again?” She sighs.
“Yes, I’ve been busy, Carla. Bite me!”
“I’ll pass, thanks.”
I smile, but it soon fades.
“Do you want me to help you clear your inbox?”
“That might be a good idea.” I rub my eyes. “Fine. Give me twenty minutes. Offer him some coffee.”
“I already did, and he turned me down.”
“I don’t like him.”
She chuckles. “Don’t worry, I’ll have fresh coffee ready for when you get here.”
“You know me so well.”
“I do, indeed.”
I end the call and lie there, blinking at my ceiling. Then I groan as I force myself out of bed.
Even though I showered a handful of hours ago, I put my hair into a bun at the top of my head and brush my teeth in the shower, cranking the hot water a little higher.
I wash my face and get out, drying off. After applying some underarm, I dig through the drawers for whatever is on top and clean.
I settle on a pair of black jeans and a pale blue silk blouse.
I’ll swap into scrubs the second I get to work.
I very rarely wear suits. They’re uncomfortable for all the hours I spend at my desk or on my feet.
I pull my hair up into a ponytail and dab on as much mascara as will stick in under ten seconds, which isn’t much.
After pulling on a pair of soft ankle boots, I check myself out in the mirror and decide that I’m a hot mess.
“That’s what you get for waking me up,” I tell the guy in my office, even though he can’t hear me.
I yawn into my hand as I grab my keys off the kitchen counter on my way out.
The drive to the hospital takes ten minutes. I try to figure out what on earth the head honcho of Security Central wants with me at this time of the morning.
What security threats?
I thought the war was ending?
I keep running various ideas through my mind, but come up with nothing.
Carla is standing at the front desk as I come through the doors. She looks up, and her eyes do a quick, relieved sweep of me, like she wasn’t entirely sure I’d show.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” She points down the corridor. “He’s waiting for you.” She widens her eyes.
“Do you know what he wants?”
“No. He wouldn’t say.” She makes a face.
“What is it? You said on the phone that he was scary.” I stop dead. “Was he rude to you?”
“No. Not rude. He was fine. Polite, actually. Direct.” She nods a few times. “Very direct and to the point.”
“Then what’s the face for?”
“I feel like I’ve seen him before, but I’m sure I would have remembered someone like him.”
“He’s probably been here before.”
“Maybe. Be warned, he’s intense and…” She gives me this weird smile.
“Carla, I am too tired for riddles.”
She waves her hand and then glances at her computer. “Go already. Hopefully it’s nothing serious.”
I nod. “I hope not.”
I walk down to my office with a growing conviction that I am about to be told we’ve failed a drill or a safety audit. That we’re noncompliant in some way or another.
I push the door open.
And stop.
Oh, hell.
There is a male in my office. He’s a dragon shifter for sure. You can tell by his sheer size alone. He takes up the corner by my window in a way that makes my office, which I have always thought of as generous, look about the size of a shoebox.
He’s facing away, but it’s clear that his muscles have muscles. He’s tall too, like a linebacker.
He turns, and I freeze.
He frowns.
I frown harder.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hiss before quickly closing the door. “How did you find me? Are you stalking me? What is this?”
It’s him.
It’s Ridge, only he looks different in a full suit. No wonder Carla had a hard time recognizing him.
Carla might not quite remember Ridge, but I, on the other hand, would recognize him anywhere. I looked into those gray-green eyes while he was deep inside of me. I had the best orgasms of my whole life when he was in my bed.
Shit!
Why is he here?
What’s going on?
“There has been some mistake,” he says, keeping his voice neutral. “I’m looking for Dr. Keller. This is her office. What are you doing here?”
“I’m Dr. Keller.”
His eyes narrow and his jaw tightens. He has the most masculine jaw I have ever seen on a man.
My stomach is doing flip-flops. My clit, too. I’m sure my nipples have tightened. My body remembers him.
No. No. No.
“You’re Dr. R. Keller?” He sounds like he doesn’t believe me. “The Dr. Keller. Head of Shifter Medicine?”
I nod.
“So the R stands for Robyn. Shit!” he curses under his breath. “I’m not stalking you, and as to your first question, how did I find you?” He lifts his brows. “It would not have been hard to find you after our hook-up on account of knowing where you live.”
“Oh! Right.” My cheeks are hot. I’m sure they’re red.
He remembers my name.
I spend far too long staring at his mouth before my brain starts firing again.
He’s in a suit that was clearly made for him because it fits like a glove. It’s the kind of tailoring that doesn’t hide the body inside it so much as mold to it. His hair has grown out since I last saw him. It’s longer…right down his back. He’s clean-shaven instead of lightly stubbled.
But it’s him.
It’s him!
Ink travels out of his cuff and down the back of his hand. I licked the swirls on his chest. I know what he looks like naked, and it’s freaking spectacular.
Get it together, Robyn.
“Why are you here, exactly?” I finally manage to say.
He takes a step forward.
“I run Security Central.”
“Okay. I see. Aside from stalking, what brings you here today, Ridge?”
“I’m not stalking you. Can we move on from that, please?”
I clear my throat. “Fine. Why are you here? Because know that I don’t like it one bit. This is my place of business.”
He watches me closely. “Well, that’s good, because I’m here on business. Do you always come in to work this late?”
“Excuse me?”
“Do you run on your own schedule, Dr. Keller? Is it normal for you to come into work so late?”
I gape at him for a few seconds. Because…is he for real? Then I pull myself together.
“It’s hardly late. I’m sorry. If not for stalking purposes, why exactly are you asking about my schedule?”
He growls and scrubs a hand over his face. “I thought we agreed to drop the stalker bullshit.”
“I’ll drop it when you stop asking me personal questions and start telling me your reason for being here. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to make assumptions you may not like much.”
“I am the Commander of Draig Security. I’m here because your facility is the first of eleven locations the Council has flagged as under-protected. I’ve been tasked with bringing each of them up to standard, starting with this hospital.”
I’m working to catch up. “What do you mean by under-protected? Do you know something I don’t know?”
“No. It’s precautionary at this stage. We have no idea what is going to happen next.
Tensions with Mistveil have not lessened at all.
There is still unrest on our own island.
And after the incident at the vaccination center, let’s just say that the Council is concerned.
Particularly for locations such as this and individuals such as yourself.
I’m here to find the holes in your security and to plug them. ”
“You want to plug my holes?”
I didn’t just say that.
Why did I say that?
He swallows. I watch his Adam’s apple work.
“This isn’t a joke.”