Chapter 26
SULLIVAN
Afew days had gone by, and while I was technically at work, my thoughts were absolutely not. They were firmly stuck on Bree.
On the way her mouth twitched when she was trying not to smile. On the heat of her skin under my hands. On the fact that she was somewhere in this building with me at all times and I wasn’t allowed to touch her. I couldn’t look too long and I couldn’t even acknowledge her in public.
There was no dignified way to put it. It had me horny as a three-peckered billy goat.
Having her so near and so off-limits had my body staging a full-scale rebellion. My brain would be reviewing budgets or fielding an email from legal, and suddenly, I’d be imagining dragging her into an empty patient room and showing her exactly how much I missed her.
My dick was practically salivating at the thought, which was how I’d ended up in the cafeteria.
I never ate down here. Ever. It was too loud and filled with too many people who had too many opinions, but I’d caught sight of her through the glass when I was walking past, wearing her scrubs with her hair pulled back, laughing with another nurse.
Suddenly, I’d needed a coffee and a pastry like my life depended on it.
So I sat there with a mug I didn’t need and a croissant I barely touched, watching her from across the room like I had zero self-respect. Frankly, right now, I didn’t have any. I wanted her so damn badly, it was all I could focus on.
She was sitting at one of the long tables, her posture relaxed as she talked to the other nurses. Every so often, she’d push her tray away and lean forward with her elbows on the table, her eyes bright as they locked on whoever she was talking to.
I knew that look now. It meant she was fully engaged in the conversation and I was desperate to have it aimed at me instead. Actually, I was just desperate. Period.
I didn’t know what it was about all this that had me feeling this way, but it was like the forced distance had turned me into a stalker.
A really horny one. Bree Bennett had become something of an obsession to me, and when I got my hands on her again, I was going to make her feel every ounce of the frustration coursing through me right now.
Just the thought had me hard as hell, imagining the sweat beading on her forehead as she writhed under my mouth, dangling right on the edge but not tipping over.
I imagined sliding into the seat beside her right now, running my hand up and down her thigh under the table.
She’d probably pretend not to notice, while in reality every nerve ending would be lighting up.
Bree was damn good at hiding how affected she was by me at times, but as soon as I touched her, she was always already soaked, her clit so swollen and needy.
I bit back a groan at the memories of what it felt like to tease her, to slide my fingers between those silky, drenched folds until she was whimpering my name.
Shit, this is hell.
If my brain kept leading me down this path, bad things were going to happen.
Things that would lead to me dragging her to someplace with a door that locked.
Somewhere I could take my time reminding her what we were doing this for, why sneaking around felt dangerous and delicious instead of inconvenient.
“Sullivan?” a familiar voice said. “What are you doing in the cafeteria?”
I blinked and looked up to find my sister sliding into the chair across from me, both of her eyebrows arched.
“Hey, Liana,” I said. “It’s good to see you too.”
She glanced at my untouched croissant. “You never eat with the common folks.”
“Wow,” I said dryly. “We’re going straight into class warfare, huh?”
“You hate it down here,” she said. “So why, exactly, did you come?”
I haven’t come. That’s the fucking problem.
Instead of taking my frustration out on my sister, however, I took a sip of coffee to buy myself a second, but my gaze drifted back to Bree. “I wanted caffeine.”
Liana followed my line of sight without missing a beat, her mouth curving into a sly smile. “Ah. I see.”
“We don’t have to talk about it,” I said. “Not after what you just went through.”
She waved me off. “Actually, I’m mostly fine, so let’s talk about it.”
I looked at her a little more closely then, realizing that she did, in fact, look better. Lighter. She still seemed tired, but not brittle the way she’d looked before the wedding. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she said without even taking a second to think about it. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m still mad, but I’m mostly just relieved.”
Surprise flared through me. “Relieved?”
“I dodged a bullet,” she said plainly. “A big one. Despite all my doubts, I just didn’t have the courage to pull the trigger myself. So thank you.”
My jaw tightened. “I didn’t call it off. He did.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t lie for him, or try to cover it up or to soften the blow. You pulled back the curtain and showed me exactly who he was.”
I exhaled slowly. “I should’ve said something sooner.”
She shook her head. “No. You trusted me to make my own choice. I just wish I’d trusted myself. I should’ve listened to my gut, but at some point, we were just so far in that I didn’t know how to get out.”
She leaned back in her chair, studying me as another smile spread on her lips. “You look distracted.”
“We’re at work,” I said. “It’s an occupational hazard to be distracted by one’s actual occupation.”
She smirked. “Sure, that’s what it is.”
Across the room, Bree stood up with her tray in hand. Our eyes met for half a second, nothing more, and she gave me exactly one glance, just the tiniest of curves appearing on her mouth before she turned away, but my body reacted like she’d tased me.
Once again, I felt like a puppy, willing to sit up and beg for any scraps she sent my way. It had just been a glance and not even half a smile, yet my heart was thudding, my chest—and my pants—suddenly too tight.
Liana followed my gaze again. “I’m glad I stuck around instead of going on my trip straight away. This is pretty damn entertaining.”
I watched Bree disappear through the doors, the ache in my body sharpening instead of easing. Having her close was torture. Having her at all was going to ruin me, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
“Anyway,” Liana said, narrowing her eyes at me. “Don’t change the subject. We weren’t actually talking about me. We were talking about you and whatever that was.”
I sighed and glanced around the cafeteria, suddenly very aware of how many ears were attached to too many nurses. “Come on.”
Abandoning my coffee and croissant, I steered her down the hall and into a small, family consultation room that was blessedly empty. When she was inside with me, I shut the door behind us and crossed my arms like that might keep anything from spilling out.
She waited until I scrubbed a hand over my face and finally just came out with it. “I’m into Bree.”
Her eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t look surprised. If anything, she looked smug. “You don’t say.”
“You knew?”
“Of course, I knew.” She scoffed, her head shaking lightly as she wheeled a chair back from the table and sat down. “You practically start drooling every time you see her and you get, like, these heart-eyes. It’s so cute. I swear—”
“Okay, that’s enough. I think I get the picture.” I blew out a breath through my nostrils, pushing my hand through my hair as I tried to get my thoughts into some kind of order that wasn’t just about sex and sinking into her wet—
“Sullivan?” Liana’s voice snapped me out of my rapidly spiraling thoughts and she laughed when I refocused on her. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so far gone for a woman before. Actually, scratch that. I know I haven’t.”
“Yeah, well, she doesn’t want anyone to know we’re seeing each other.”
Liana tilted her head. “You’re seeing each other?”
“Whatever,” I muttered. “We’re sleeping together. Talking. Something.”
“Right.” She studied me for another long beat. “Okay, well, have you considered that maybe you should just be the kind of man she won’t be embarrassed to date in public?”
The question hit hard, but not because it was cruel. Simply because it really was that simple to her.
I let out a sharp laugh. “Gee, thanks.”
“I’m serious,” she said. “You’re brilliant, you’re successful, and you’re also kind of a nightmare at work. If I didn’t know you, I’d hate you.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“I’m not trying to reassure you,” she said. “I’m just being honest. If you were less of a dick around here, maybe she wouldn’t mind being seen with you so much.”
“I’ve never cared about being likable,” I said, but even as the words were coming out, I knew how lame they sounded. “But I’ve also never met a woman like her before. That’s the point you were trying to get to, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Bree isn’t the kind of woman who’s going to throw herself at your feet just because you’ve got some money.”
“I have a lot of money.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t care,” Liana said firmly. “In her case, you’re actually going to have to work to be the kind of man she can respect. The kind of man she can be proud of.”
I frowned. “What exactly are you suggesting?”
“It wouldn’t kill you to be nicer to people around here.” She shrugged. “To listen to what they say and to be more approachable. Bree would appreciate that. She would see it for the effort it would be. An effort she’d know you’re making for her.”
“Yeah, I can’t do that.” I straightened to my full height. “I can’t change my plans just for her, Liana. My personal feelings can’t factor into my business dealings. They never have and they never will.”
She grimaced. “Well, then you’d better invest in some disguises because you’ll be sneaking around a lot.”
I stared at her, unsettled in a way I didn’t like. Rattled, even. “You think I’m the problem?”
“I think that if you want something real, you might have to be real too.” She said it gently, but then she stood up and gave me quick, small smile. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to treat these people and their hospital a little better, Sullivan. Just think about it, okay?”
She left me there with that, the door clicking shut behind her. An orderly opened it a moment later, physically jumping with shock when he saw me inside. He pulled it shut again so fast that I hadn’t even seen his face.
I let out a heavy groan, planting my hands on my hips as I tried to pull myself together. None of this was like me at all, and it was going to drive me nuts.
By the time I finally managed to clear my head a little bit, it was late afternoon and I was on my way to the fifth floor to check in with the construction crew when I spotted Bree.
She was in an empty hallway near radiology and my pulse jumped stupidly at the sight of her, my feet carrying me toward me before I could stop myself.
“Hey,” I said when I reached her, but she didn’t even slow down.
She didn’t look at me either. She just turned on her heels and walked in the opposite direction, leaving me standing there like an idiot in an expensive suit.
A minute later, my phone buzzed.
Bree: Not at work, remember?
I stared at the screen, then typed back.
Me: Fine. Let me take you to dinner.
Bree: Absolutely not.
Me: What if I cook for you at my place? No witnesses.
There was a pause long enough to make me sweat.
Bree: You can cook?
Me: I can make passable pasta.
Another pause.
Bree: Okay.
Relief hit me so hard, I had to sit down.
Me: You know, you’re really good at pretending you don’t like me.
Bree: Who says I’m pretending?
I stared at that last text for a long time, but for some reason, all of this just made me want her more. God, I really think there might be something seriously wrong with me.