Chapter 27
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By the time I got to his place, my nerves were shot. Every day without him in it had stretched too long, like time itself was being petty. Ignoring him at the hospital had taken real effort. Olympic-level restraint.
Every glimpse of him down a hallway made something feral light up in my chest. All I wanted was to run into his arms. Hold him. Lick him. Kiss him.
It was insane—and a real relief that I would finally get to do all those things tonight, because if I had to wait any longer, I would have lost my mind.
The elevator doors opened directly into his penthouse, which probably shouldn’t have been such a big surprise.
I kept forgetting how rich he was, though.
Honestly, it probably would’ve made things a lot easier if he was just another guy, but the scent of garlic, butter, and something sweeter wafted into the elevator, and immediately, I yanked myself out of my head.
After the doors had slid all the way open, I stepped out and looked around, taking in the soaring windows, the city glittering beyond them, and the echo of my footsteps on his expensive floors. And then I realized how empty the place was.
“You live like a monk with a trust fund,” I said as I walked further into the entryway, wondering if he’d recently been robbed.
He turned from the kitchen, looking unfairly good with a wooden spoon in his hand and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. “Hello to you too.”
“Hi. Uh, is everything okay?” I gestured vaguely at the vast nothingness, convinced something must’ve happened here. “Where’s all your stuff?”
“I have stuff.”
“You have a couch,” I said. “One. Singular, and a table that looks like it’s never been eaten at.”
“I eat,” he said defensively. “We’re going to eat at it tonight, in fact.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “Are you still—I don’t know—waiting for your things to be moved over from your place in Philly?”
He shook his head, smirking as he shrugged. “Nah. I have all I need.”
“Why even have a place this big if you don’t need the space?” I asked, frowning as I wondered what on earth had made him buy such a giant home if he wasn’t actually going to live in it. “It just seems wasteful, is all. Especially for someone who’s very concerned with cutting costs.”
His mouth twitched at the corners. “Did you agree to dinner just so you could come here and insult me?”
“I mostly came to eat, but yes,” I joked. “Also that.”
Sullivan gave one last stir of whatever was in the pot, then shut off the heat, turned, and crossed the distance between us in long, fast strides.
Without stopping or slowing, he pulled me into his arms like he’d been holding himself back all week, and he kissed the shit out of me before I could even say another word.
His tongue slid against mine in deep, urgent, unapologetic strokes and my heart skipped so hard it actually scared me. I melted into him, my fingers curling into his shirt. The scent him wrapped around me until I forgot where I was.
When he finally pulled back, his forehead rested against mine. Both us were breathing a little harder. “I promised you dinner, so let’s eat before I forget my manners entirely.”
I laughed, already feeling a bit dazed. “Too late.”
“Come. Sit.” He took my hand and led me to the dining table that stood on its own in the middle of the cavernous space.
He’d set it with bowls, spoons, and forks, and that was it. Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched across the expanse of every room, the front of the building made entirely of glass. It was so, so strange in comparison to the downright frugality of the inside that it was jarring.
When we reached the table, he pulled out a chair and motioned me into it. “Relax for a minute. I’ll be right back.”
I looked at him after I sat down. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Nope. Everything is already done. I just need to bring the food.” He dropped a kiss on top of my head and went back to the kitchen, serving the pasta straight from the pot when he got back.
It was simple, glossy with sauce, and he piled it generously into the bowl in front of me. Then he served himself too. Once that was done, he took the pot back to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses, pouring us each one before he sat down.
We sat together at the too big table, the silence between us companionable. Sullivan watched quietly as I took my first bite, almost like he was nervous I wouldn’t like it, but I was blown away by how tasty it was.
“This is really good,” I said. “I’m impressed.”
“I’m glad.” He smiled, twirling some pasta around his fork before looking up at me again. “I was afraid you might go running to HR if I disappointed you.”
I laughed. “Nah, I’m not really the type that likes to keep them busy. Screw up a good steak and I might think about it, though.”
“If I screw up a good steak, I’d save you the effort and fire myself.” He took a sip of his wine, swallowing it before sending me another smile from across the table. “You know, I realized this week that I don’t even know how you got into nursing.”
The question caught me off guard, but not because it was invasive. He just seemed incredibly genuine. Like he honestly cared about getting to know me better.
“My dad,” I said, shaking off the burst of surprise that had shot through me.
“He had a heart attack when I was young. Saint Raphael’s saved his life.
After that, I knew I wanted to be the person who did that for someone else, who was there when they were scared and feeling lost. They were so kind to us that night that it changed my entire perspective about life and what I wanted out of it. ”
“Is that also why you came to work at Saint Raphael’s, because that’s the hospital that saved your father?”
“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to get there eventually.
It just took me some time.” I reached for my glass and picked it up, but I didn’t bring it to my mouth just yet.
Part of me wasn’t sure about saying what I wanted to say next, but I knew that telling him might make him understand a little better why I’d been so hesitant to give this a chance.
“You should know that working there isn’t just a job to me, Sullivan.
It’s personal. It’s a dream come true, which is why it’s been so hard watching you make all the changes you have. ”
He exhaled, rubbing his thumb against the edge of his plate. “Yeah, as soon as you told me about your dad, I figured.”
“What about you?” I asked, needing to move on from that topic before I found myself making an impassioned speech begging not to merge those departments or whatever else he was planning. “Why medical tech?”
He leaned back slightly. “It’s personal for me too. My mother had cancer, but unlike your dad, they couldn’t save her. The testing equipment missed it. Multiple times, actually. By the time they finally caught it, it was too late.”
His voice stayed steady, but tight emotion lived underneath it. “I don’t ever want that to happen again. If better tech can save even one person from that, it’s worth it.”
“That’s why you’re cutting so many of our budgets?” I asked softly. “To free up money for technology?”
“To fund innovation,” he said, gently correctly me. “Innovation that will save people.”
I frowned, unable to stop myself from pushing back on this. Even if I now knew a little better where he was coming from. “People save people too, though. People who have been trained and are skilled at helping others.”
He groaned and held up a hand. “We probably shouldn’t talk about work.”
Such a big part of me wanted to keep pleading my case, but I nodded instead. While he and I seemed to get along well in general, this wasn’t something we would ever be on the same page about and I didn’t want to ruin our night together by arguing about it.
“Agreed.”
In the silence that followed, I glanced around his penthouse again, the clean lines, the emptiness, and the way it didn’t feel like a home.
As much as I understood that there was only so much money to go around in any business, I honestly didn’t understand how he could have a place like this and still be talking about saving money in one area to fund another.
“You know,” I said carefully. “You could get a less bonkers apartment. That way, you’d have more money for the hospital.”
His eyebrows lifted and he stared at me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. “I like you, but you are extremely bold.”
I smiled. “The weirdest thing is that I’m not usually. I’m not actually the kind of person you notice at all. I keep my head down, I do my job, I go home, and every so often, I meet my girlfriends for fries and cocktails. That’s my normal life. You just seem to bring out the rebel in me.”
He chuckled. “I can’t imagine a world in which I wouldn’t notice you, Bree Bennett.”
My cheeks flushed and I averted my gaze, eating a few more bites while he seemed to be chewing over what I’d said. We managed to finish the meal without talking about work again, drifting instead to Liana and how she was doing.
By the time the dishes were cleared, however, the conversation found its way back where neither of us wanted it. Sullivan stood next to me in front of the window, both of us looking out at the twinkling lights of the city as we sipped our wine.
“About what you said earlier,” he started slowly, his shoulders suddenly tight again. “I don’t want you to think that I’m a vain, selfish prick who bought this place with money that could’ve helped the hospital instead.”
“I—”
“Please,” he said quietly. “Just let me finish.”
I nodded, turning to face him. He swallowed visibly, inhaling a deep breath before he finally glanced back at me. “Things will even out once the fifth floor is ready. It’s chaos right now because we’re in the middle of it, but when the equipment is installed and the trials start rolling in…”