“Is there something wrong?”
“Yes, there’s something wrong. Right before I left, Sicily dumped me. Because of you.”
She was a lawyer, so she knew it was a smart time to shut her goddamn mouth.
“How dare you say that shit to my woman? How dare you try to manipulate her—”
“I wasn’t trying to manipulate her—”
“You’re a goddamn lawyer. It’s literally your job to manipulate an entire jury, so don’t play fucking innocent with me. I fixed your goddamn mess and cleared her head of the bullshit you infected her brain with, but don’t try that shit again. Even if Sicily actually left me, I would never, ever take you back. Not even for Ryan. Why would I want to set that kind of example? Why would I want him to believe it’s a good idea to settle for someone who treated you like shit rather than find real happiness? Fuck. Off.” I hung up.
I spent the day catching up on sleep and paperwork. It was nice to be in my own apartment again, to have hot, running water with great pressure, and to order a pizza whenever I felt like it.
When I went to Sicily’s apartment last night, I didn’t have a plan.
I was just mad.
I said my piece, knocked some sense into her, fucked her, and then just left.
I guess I was still a little mad about the whole thing…
I expected her to be working for me when I started back up in a couple days. I expected everything to be exactly the same and her new position at the Trinity Building to be terminated. That new assistant she hired, she better assign her to other work because she wasn’t my assistant.
Sicily was my assistant.
I didn’t reach out to Sicily because I expected her to come to me—and fucking apologize.
Like I’d ever want to be with Catherine instead of her.
Was she fucking crazy?
My dad stopped by after work, and being the doctor that he was, he looked me over like I was a patient, checking the color of my eyes, the appearance of my skin, making sure there were no bruises or weird bites, even giving me a gentle shove to check my balance and reflexes.
“Dad, I’m fine.” I pushed his hand down and walked into the kitchen to grab a couple beers. “Did I pass the test?”
“I think so.” He sat down and took the beer I handed over.
I sat beside him and felt him wrap his arm around my shoulders and give me a squeeze. “I missed you too.”
He patted me on the back before he dropped his hold. “So, have you spoken to Sicily?”
“Oh, I spoke to her. We’re fine.”
“Good. You just…don’t sound like it’s fine.”
“I’m still angry with her. I called Catherine and told her to fuck off. That felt nice.”
“She deserved it, but be careful with that. You’ve got to be diplomatic for Ryan.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, whatever. I’ll be diplomatic when she stops interfering in my relationship. Then I’ll be a fucking UN ambassador.” I took a drink of my beer.
“I’m glad you two worked it out.”
“We haven’t really talked about it, but…we’ll be fine.”
“If you didn’t talk, how was the situation was resolved?”
I shrugged. “I just told her we were together, and that’s the end of the story. She nodded—I left.”
“Well, let me know if my conversation with her made a difference.”
“I will.”
His arm moved around me again. “I’m glad you’re home. Want to come over for dinner tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Good. Your mom misses you.”
I couldn’t see my son for at least a week, so I was pretty bummed about that.
Catherine and I hadn’t talked, so maybe when a week came and went, I still wouldn’t be able to see him.
God, I hoped not.
My first day back at work, I was in the office seeing patients. I’d taken two weeks off, so I needed to make up for that by working more. The elevator doors opened, and I stepped inside, and just as I expected, Sicily was there.
Damn right, she better be.
I stopped and stared her down before I proceeded to my office. My schedule was on the desk as usual, so I looked through it to see what my day would look like. We were in the process of restructuring my schedule for Ryan, so my research had to be handed off to someone else.
The door opened, and Sicily brought my coffee and breakfast.
I leaned back in my chair and stared at her exactly the way I did before, expecting her to do some recon to fix all this shit she caused. My elbow was propped on the armrest, and my knuckles were folded against my mouth.
She was tense at my stare, standing in front of my desk timidly, afraid to do anything. “How was your trip?”
My eyes narrowed like they were bullets and her face was the target. “No.”
“Your trip was…no?”
“That’s the first thing you want to say to me?” I lowered my hand from my face and brought my hands together in my lap. “Try again.”
“We’re at work right now—”
“Now you want to be professional? We were supposed to leave on a trip, and you decided to tell me the evening before that, not only were you not accompanying me, but you were submitting your two-week notice. All because you listened to my ex, someone who’s not in this relationship, and just dump me.”
Her temper flared. “Doesn’t feel good, does it?”
“What the fuck did you just say to me?” I pushed the chair out as I rose to my feet.
She turned timid again.
“The past doesn’t matter anymore. We’re together, alright? It’s you, me, and Ryan. No more second-guessing, no more doubts, no more talking about Catherine. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. She may have been my wife, but you’re my fucking soul mate, so if you ever doubt me ever again, I will lose my fucking shit, alright?”
Those words made her hard eyes turn into soft lights, gentle glows.
“Is this shitshow over? For good?”
She eventually gave a nod.
“Now, apologize to me.”
“I did what I thought was right, okay? I was trying to do the right thing for both you and your son—”
“You are the right thing for us. Now, apologize to me. Apologize to me so we can move on.”
“I’m not sorry about what I did—”
“But you better be sorry for breaking my heart, because you fucking crushed it. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to be on the other side of the damn world and be unable to do anything about us? To correct your idiotic assumptions and make things right? To look at the phone and not see your name?”
She dropped her gaze, like the image did hurt her.
“I love you more than anything in this world, second to Ryan, and you’re the love of my life, my soul mate, my Cleo, my Emerson. I’m sorry that it wasn’t some fairy tale from the beginning. I’m sorry I was fucked up for nearly half of it—”
“It wasn’t the right time, but I was the right person.”
“What?”
“I just…I understand now. When it’s the right person, it doesn’t matter if it’s the wrong time. You work through it, and…I see that now. Something your dad said to me.”
I knew my dad would know the perfect thing to say to her.
“And I am sorry…for hurting you.”
When I finally got what I wanted, my anger evaporated, turning into steam that slowly cooled to room temperature. I wasn’t unhappy about the way things happened, but it was time to let them go and move on. “Pack your bag. I want you to come over tonight.”
“Okay.”
“And pack a lot of shit because you aren’t leaving for a long time.”
A slow smile started to emerge. “Okay…”
“And what are we doing with the new girl?”
“I’m going to have her take care of the front desk while I’m in here with you. We could use the extra help anyway.
”
I returned to my seat and grabbed my coffee. “Like someone could ever replace you, baby.” I pulled up the information for the first patient, got the scans loaded on to the screen, and started my deep dive into the chart.
She stayed in front of my desk.
I turned back to her.
“I know you said let’s stop talking about her…but what about Catherine?”
“I already told her to fuck off. It’s been taken care of.”
She closed her eyes. “That’s what I was worried about.”
“Look, she’s my problem, not yours. I don’t care if she’s my baby mama—if you think she’s gonna come after my happiness and be spared, you’re wrong. I don’t care about the repercussions, because if she wants to escalate the issue and try to take Ryan away from me, I’ll send her ass to court. I will hire the best team in the world that my family’s billions can buy, and I will fucking destroy her—and she knows it.” I never used my parents’ money or considered it my own resource, but if it came down to Ryan, I’d take their money without a second thought. “Don’t spend another moment thinking about her.”
I’d already showered and had dinner going by the time Sicily showed up.
She did as I asked—and brought a big bag.
I took it from her hand because it was heavy and welcomed her inside my apartment with an arm around the waist and tug into my lips. My hand squeezed her ass as I kissed her, as I was enveloped in her perfume once more. I felt her melt against me, dripping like butter, all the muscles softening into cushions.
I pulled away from her and set the bag on the floor before I moved to the couch, sitting in the center, my feet planted far apart. I lifted my hips and pulled down my bottoms until my dick popped out, hard and against my stomach. “You’ve got two weeks of sex to make up for.” I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it aside.
She gave me an endearing smile as she walked over and started to peel her layers away, pulling her dress over her head, slipping off her heels, getting rid of her bra and her panties next. Buck naked, she climbed on top, circled her arms around my neck, and slid down my shaft, bringing it inside her, stretching her wide apart, making her wince in pain and pant in desire.
My hands held on to her hips, and I kept her flush against me, making sure every inch of my dick was inside that perfect wetness. My fingers slid to her cheeks, and I gripped her ass as I guided her up and down slowly, watching her get used to my dick because two weeks was enough absence to make her tight all over again.
Her cream built up at the base of my dick and around the grooves of my crown, the skin glistening with her arousal. My dick was already tinting red the way my forehead did, but for a different reason.
“Show my dick how sorry you are.”
She started to move faster, grinding her clit against my body on the way down, bouncing up and down and rocking her hips at the perfect time, squeezing my dick with her tightness and smearing her cream all over me. She breathed in my face, getting more and more into it, just fucking me while I got to sit back, watch, and enjoy it.
Oh yeah, she was definitely sorry.
She pressed her forehead against mine and locked her arms around my neck, holding on as she came all over me, tears starting in the corners of her eyes and dripping down her cheeks, smearing her makeup. Her hips slowly came to a stop as she breathed against my cheek, her nails digging into the back of my neck.
I gave her ass a smack. “Baby, why’d you stop? Come on, you’ve got work to do.”
We lay in bed together at the end of the night, the TV off as we snuggled together. She was partially on top of me, her legs tucked between mine, her hair all over me, our bodies naked and warm since we were skin-to-skin.
We hadn’t really talked, not even through dinner, and we spent our time getting physically reacquainted because two weeks was a long time for me to be celibate when my woman was super hot.
“You never told me how your trip was.” Her fingers drew circles on my chest.
“Busy.”
“Yeah?”
“There were several hundred people who walked from their villages to come see me.”
“Wow.”
“I ended up doing twenty-five surgeries.”
“How’d that go?”
“Well.” Everyone left in better condition than when they showed up. “There were a lot of kids.”
“I can imagine…”
“I was so busy that all I did was work and sleep, pretty much. I’m not sure we would have had time to do anything else, honestly. A lot more people showed up than I anticipated.”
“Then we need to figure out a way for those people to get care regularly.”
“Yeah, we do.” It was a problem that didn’t seem to have a solution, but with our heads pressed together, we’d figure out a way.
“So, when do we get to see Ryan?”
“Not sure. Catherine and I haven’t talked since I screamed at her, but I have to wait at least a few more days anyway. Make sure I don’t give him anything.”
“True.”
“But that means it’s just the two of us for a while, so that’s nice.” My fingers ran through her hair as I looked down at her, seeing her all over me, exactly where she belonged. When we were apart, my heart had an irregular beat, and I was constantly flustered until we were reunited. But once we were together again, it beat nice and slow, at peace.
“Yeah. What should we do?”
“This,” I blurted.
She chuckled. “That sounds good to me.”
It was getting late, so it was time to go to sleep, but we both stayed awake, more absorbed in each other than anything else.
“Next week, your new schedule will start,” she said. “You’ll have two days free.”
“That’s weird, free time. I’ve been working full time since…forever.” Even in college, I had part-time gigs, like research or something of that nature. “But that’s just how it has to be, and I’m fine with it.” I’d have to give up something I loved for my son, but that was what parents did.
“I have someone to take over your position. Her name is Dr. Young.”
“She’s good, so I’m sure she’ll run with it.” I’d spend a couple days a week having Ryan burp and fart all over me while someone else took over my groundbreaking research. But the name on the study didn’t matter compared to the study itself. It could help lots of people, and that was all that mattered.
“You sure you’re okay?” She looked up at me, watching my face, seeing something I tried to hide.
“It’s just ironic. You told me I’d have to cut something at some point when I had a family someday. At the time, I just didn’t think that would ever happen. But here I am. It’s just been a crazy year. A lot of changes in a short amount of time.”
“Yeah.”
“But I don’t mind making the sacrifice. You’re replaceable at work, but you aren’t replaceable at home.”
“That’s true for the most part. Doesn’t really apply to you, though. Because you aren’t replaceable at work either.”
She thought for a moment before speaking again. “Instead of having free days, could we have half days? When you’re in the office seeing patients? We can get all the supplies we need for Ryan and he can hang out there, and we can hire a nanny to take him out of the room when he’s crying, needs to be fed or changed…just an idea. Because when you brought him to work, people seemed to think that was cute. I think it made them feel more relaxed too, seeing this cute baby sitting across from them.”
“I guess we could do that. I can’t really bring Ryan to my research lab.”
“And while your research is important, it is something someone else can do. But seeing patients and operating, that’s all you. We originally set up your schedule that way because you were uncertain about getting your hands dirty…no pun intended, so maybe this is how you should be spending your time anyway.”
“Good point, baby.”
“We c
an make it work. People bring their dogs to the office. Why can’t we bring a baby?”
“Ooh, I should get a dog.”
“What?” she asked with a laugh. “You just got a son, and now you want another responsibility?”
“But that would be fun to have a dog at the office. He can sit on the couches in the lobby with patients, come into the room when I’m seeing them, just be an office assistant. You know, when people watch animal videos or spend time with their pets, their blood pressure actually goes down. Plus, Ryan should have a furry friend. It’ll teach him to respect animals, to be gentle, to have empathy.”
“And what about all the potty training stuff we have to do?”
I shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. We can get a trainer if we need to. We can find him at the shelter. Ryan will love it.”
Sicily was hesitant at first because she was the responsible one between us, but she wore down quickly. “I’ve always wanted a dog…”
“See? You’re a big softy too. Now I’ve got my woman, my baby, and my pooch. Perfect.”
Twenty-Seven
Sicily
We got back into our normal lives like he hadn’t left, like I hadn’t broken things off so the three of them could be a family.
Instead, the four of us would be.
The fourth was the dog we hadn’t picked up yet.
Kendra had been hired prematurely, but she was actually quite an asset. Having her at the front desk stopped the need for me to run back and forth, to finish up with the last patient and then run into the lobby to check in the next one. It was quite exhausting, especially in heels, so I was glad that was over.
Dex and I had lunch together in his office every day—and a quickie on the couch.
It really was the best job ever.
When Dex got his tests back after his blood draw, he knew he was cleared to see Ryan, and to say he was excited would be an understatement. He talked about Ryan all the time, asked me to put pictures up in his office, and we had the space redesigned so Ryan could have a play area and be able to play on the floor while Dex saw his patients.
The Doctor Who Has No Chance (Soulless Book 11) Page 21