Chapter 12
SULLIVAN
Iwas at the bakery because my sister had insisted I come with her. She’d framed it as support, quality sibling time, and an off-handed I need you because my fiancé bailed.
Another last-minute cancellation for another work emergency apparently, which made this the third time he’d missed something wedding-related. For that reason and that reason only, I was glad I’d been able to come. Otherwise, she would have been alone and that wouldn’t have been fair to her.
It was, however, taking a lot more to keep my mouth shut than it had before, but I didn’t say what I was thinking because if I did, I’d have to tell her that I had my doubts about the guy she was marrying. Plenty of them, rampant and raging just below the surface.
But Liana swore he was a good man and that they loved each other. She insisted the constant work crises were just temporary, her excuse always the same, delivered with a shrug and an easy, “He’s just really busy. You get that, don’t you?”
I did get that. Busy was a language I spoke fluently and yet I always showed up.
Even when it meant sitting around a small round table in a bakery that smelled aggressively like sugar and vanilla.
I accepted a glass of wine I didn’t want and nodded while the baker explained buttercream versus mousse like it was a TED Talk.
I was bored out of my skull, but I was here. Unlike her fiancé, who would be the one actually feeding her this damn cake on their big day.
When the door opened, I was staring into space pretending to listen, but then I caught a glimpse of the person who had just walked in from the corner of my eye and my brain glitched.
That was the only way to describe it. My body was suddenly throwing up a system error, the screen frozen, and it felt like the mental equivalent of having to pull the plug and plugging it back in again.
For a split second, I was convinced I’d imagined her, stress and lack of sleep finally having scrambled something important. But when I refocused, there she was, stopped just inside the door with her eyes flicking around the bakery until they landed on me.
What the hell is Bree doing here?
Her face did something complicated as she held my gaze, horror and possibly regret ghosting across those pretty features. Absurd, irrational satisfaction surged through me, but Liana lit up when she noticed her. “Bree, you made it!”
My sister rushed over and pulled her into a hug that would make any bystander think they were longtime friends, like this wasn’t the woman who had declared war on my hospital with baked goods and, potentially, office phone numbers.
“You look great,” Liana said. “I’m so glad you came.”
Bree laughed, but the sound was a little tight. “I, uh. Yeah. Thanks again for inviting me.”
When her gaze drifted across my sister’s shoulder and landed back on mine, the fire I was used to seeing in her eyes wasn’t there. No challenge. No sharp retort waiting on her tongue. Just awkwardness and hesitation.
Interesting.
I took a sip of my wine and studied her over the rim of the glass, taking her in outside of work, when she wasn’t the embodiment of righteous anger wrapped in scrubs. Tonight, she wore jeans with a light blue sweater and her dark brown hair was down.
Literally and, it seemed, metaphorically.
She looked different outside the hospital. Still gorgeous to the point of distraction, but softer. Less like she was armed to the teeth and more like someone who would do something as kind as becoming my sister’s first friend in this new city.
It kind of made sense that Liana would go and pick the one person who’d been a thorn in my side since day one, but my sister didn’t have many female friends. She wasn’t even having bridesmaids because, in her words, there’s no one I like enough to deal with that much.
Yet somehow, in the span of a few weeks, she’d bonded with Bree Bennett. God, the universe really does have a sick sense of humor.
“Sullivan,” Liana said when she came back to the table. “You know Bree, right? She’ll be joining us tonight.”
I looked up into those bright blue eyes and gave her a curt nod. “Sure. Of course. How are you, Bree?”
She blinked a few times, like she was surprised I could be so civilized as to exchange pleasantries. She offered me a smile I strongly suspected was more for my sister’s benefit than mine.
“I’m well. Thank you,” she said politely as she sat down. “How are you?”
I shrugged. “Surviving.”
Wine was poured into her glass and plates were rapidly set down, the cake tasting beginning in earnest now that Liana had told them our party was complete. I tried to focus on what was being said about flavor profiles and textures, but Bree kept catching my attention.
Mentally, I caught myself cataloguing her reactions to flavors, noticing her quiet laughter when the baker said something funny, and seeing the ease with which she engaged my sister—all while avoiding looking directly at me.
But she also wasn’t glaring, scowling, or trying to summon a thundercloud over her head.
Unsettled by this change of pace—akin to a personality transplant—I shifted in my chair and took another sip of my wine. Between samples, the baker disappeared into the back to fetch the next round and the girls’ conversation drifted.
“So,” Bree said casually, her fork hovering over a half-eaten slice. “How long have you two been engaged?”
Liana burst out laughing and I made a face before I could stop myself. A very clear, very visceral absolutely not face.
Bree blinked hard, confusion furrowing her brow and her eyes narrowing as they darted between us. “Oh. I’m sorry—”
“Oh my God,” Liana said, wiping at her eyes. “I forgot you didn’t know.”
I felt Bree’s gaze snap to me as Liana gestured between us. “Sullivan is my brother. My older, much more serious brother.”
The silence that followed was deafening, Bree’s mouth opening and closing before she finally shook her head. “No. Really?”
“I’m afraid so,” I said, taking another drink.
Her eyes widened, color rising in her cheeks. “Wow, I’m so sorry. I just assumed since you asked if I’d come to do the tasting with you and your fiancé, and then he was here…”
Liana smiled. “My fiancé was supposed to be here too, but he had a last-minute meeting come up.”
Strangely, Bree’s expression shifted instantly from mortified to something a little harder. “He canceled? At the last minute? On your cake tasting?”
“Yeah,” Liana said lightly. “Work stuff. You know how it goes.”
“No.” Bree frowned. “I don’t. He should have canceled the meeting, not this.”
I stiffened, but Liana just shrugged it off, as always. “It’s fine. Really.”
When I looked at Bree again, something strange happened. I saw something I’d missed about her before, and usually, I was a pretty decent judge of character, but I realized then that I’d underestimated her.
Clearly, she wasn’t just a troublemaker. She was loyal. Fiercely so, it seemed, and even to my sister, who she couldn’t even know very well. So she’s one of those…
Once she cared about someone, she had their back. Fully and unconditionally. Those kinds of people were rare these days, rarer still in a city with a population the size of this one.
I liked that. More than I wanted to admit, if I was being honest.
The baker came back with another sample and Liana used the opportunity to turn the topic back to us. She leaned forward, glancing at Bree with another smile spreading on her lips. “I can’t believe you actually thought I was engaged to Sullivan.”
“Yeah, now that I know he’s your brother, I can’t believe it either.”
They were still laughing about the mix-up when the baker left us to taste. Bree took a bite, wiping her mouth with a napkin as she grinned at my sister. “Thank God, though. I was trying to be polite, but you could do so much better.”
I nearly choked on my wine. “Excuse me?”
Liana snorted. “Oh please. Clearly, you’re just not her type.”
“That’s not the point,” I said. “I am—”
“Grumpy,” she cut in, smiling sweetly. “You’re a grouch, big brother. This is a happy occasion, though. Do try to keep up.”
“Yeah,” Bree said. “Eat some more cake. Maybe that’ll make you feel better, Sully.”
As soon as she called me that, I thought about the flyer with my number on it, that ridiculous nickname printed in bold letters, and in that moment, I knew I’d been right. Fuck, I knew it was her.
“You put up those flyers,” I said as I turned to look at her, my blood turning to ice. “It’s been you all along, hasn’t it?”
She met my gaze without blinking or flinching. There was no guilt in her calm, blue eyes, no fear on her perfectly neutral expression.
“What flyers?” she asked innocently.
For half a second, I wondered if I was wrong. If I’d let paranoia and irritation rewrite reality after the cannoli incident, but I felt it in my bones. “I know it was you, Bree.”
She popped a bite of cake into her mouth, swallowed, and looked directly into my eyes as she shrugged. “Prove it.”
Liana glanced between us, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Wait, what’s happening?”
“Nothing,” Bree said lightly. “Your brother just seems to be feeling a touch conspiratorial. Maybe he needs even more cake.”
Conspiratorial?
No, but I was angry, annoyed, and absolutely certain she was the one undermining my authority at every turn. But I was also turned on, and the realization that my cock was swelling as I stared at her hit me like a punch to the ribs.
What is it about this little spitfire that gets my blood pumping like this?
I really didn’t fucking like it, and yet, my attention locked onto her mouth when she took another bite of her cake. The way she challenged me so easily, stood her ground, and smiled like she knew exactly what she was doing had become almost like an obsession.
She was trouble. A real problem. But damn, I wanted her. I wanted her more than air. Far more than was reasonable—or safe, so I pushed my chair back abruptly and looked at my sister.
“I liked the chocolate one,” I said, grabbing my coat and sliding it on before anyone could notice the obvious problem I’d developed. “Order that. I have to go.”
Liana blinked hard. “You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Wow,” Bree said. “I guess the cake didn’t work.”
I didn’t look at her again, because if I did, I knew I might not leave. Already halfway to the door, I finally turned back to my sister. “I’ll call you later. Have fun.”
“Try not to ban weddings on your way out,” she called after me, bursting into laughter right along with Bree.
I left the bakery with my jaw tight and my pulse pounding, racing home like my ass was on fire, but when I got there, it was too fucking quiet. The lights in my penthouse flicked on as I entered, illuminating bare walls and expensive furniture that hadn’t been softened by anything personal.
Beyond irritated and with my heart still galloping, my body still on edge, I poured a drink and moved over to the large, floor-to-ceiling windows as I took my first long sip.
For a long time, I just stood there, looking out over the twinkling city skyline like some ridiculous, tortured vigilante—Batman came to mind—brooding over a beautiful nurse who had no business occupying this much of my mind.
She was absolutely the one doing this. The flyers.
The calls. The chaos. She was making my life harder on purpose.
And yet, I couldn’t stop smiling when I thought about her.
I couldn’t stop how fast my heart had raced when she’d looked at me like that, unafraid and amused as she’d dared me to prove it.
Unfortunately, I also couldn’t stop the mad desire when I imagined dragging her up here to my lonely, ivory tower and making her mine. The mere thought made my grip tighten on the glass.
Bree Bennett had officially declared war not only on my hospital, but on my sanity. The only thing that remained to be decided was what I was going to do about it.