by Terra Wolf
“Do you act like one?” He turned and looked at me, his dark eyes boring into me. Why did he have to do that? Why did he have to look at me in such a way that I couldn’t help but be turned on? I was trying to have a real conversation with him. A real conversation with my future husband and I couldn't focus on that. All that I could think about was getting back to his place and seeing what else Aiden had to offer. This was insane, I had agreed to marry someone that I hardly knew anything about. But somehow looking at him, it felt okay, nearly safe. Nearly.
But I knew that just beneath the surface a wild animal prowled. There was a reason his uncle was forcing him to do this. Something had to set him off. We walked down the stairs, him carrying my suitcases and I had a lamp and a small box in my hands when finally I asked the question. “So what did you do that pissed your uncle off enough that he's making you get married?”
He turned and looked at me. “I already told you. I stole a yacht from one of the investors, which was a bold move. And now one I'm paying for.”
“Yes. That's what you said. But I don't think that that would be it. I don't think that's what set him off. There had to be something else like maybe this wasn't your first indiscretion?”
I'd only known him for a day, and I could tell that his bad boy attitude had probably gotten him in a lot more trouble than he was telling me.
“Fine,” he said loading the last suitcase into the truck. “That's not my first issue. I had some issues I got back from the war. That's actually not my first rodeo with a boat either. I need to stay the hell out of the water. He pulled up his shirt to reveal his washboard abs and I practically felt my pussy warm even in the summer heat. He had that effect on me.
But then he pointed to something I hadn't noticed before. A scar. It was large, but I hadn't noticed it before because I've been so focused on the rest of his delicious body. But now that I saw it I realized that had to come from a pretty serious injury. “What happened?”
He let his shirt go loose. “Like I said, I have an issue with boats. When I got back from overseas I got a little too wasted one night and then fell off the yacht. Some metal went right through me, I was alone. So I had to handle it myself.
“You stitched it up yourself?”
“Yeah. Being a doctor has its benefits. Like knowing exactly how anatomy works.” He said as he took his finger along the skin beneath my chin. “I know exactly how to treat a body. How to give it everything it needs. Don’t you agree?”
My knees trembled beneath me and my pussy ached with desire. He leaned in and laid a kiss on my lips.
“Convincing my uncle I'm obsessed with you is going to be easy.”
He walked away leaving me breathless and I quickly followed him to get in the other side of the moving truck. Once he started up and I felt the rumble underneath my body. I realized that I was so hot and bothered I couldn't wait to get back to his apartment. I wanted to see just how well he knew a woman's body. Sure the sex last night had been hot, but now that I was getting to know Aiden, I thought just maybe I could fall for him.
“So my uncle will want to meet you, probably my dumb ass brothers too,” he said as he drove back to his penthouse apartment. “We’re going to have to make this believable, they’re smart. And Uncle Murray can smell a lie a mile away.”
“So how do we convince him?” I couldn't disappoint him. I realized I was desperate to make this ridiculous arrangement work, and not just because I needed the money. It was because I wanted to make Aiden happy.
“I'll set up with him. I'm sure he'll want to take you out to dinner or the both of us, see us in action together as a couple. Can you handle that?” He said as he slid his hands across the seat and placed it on my thigh. I was wearing shorts and with our bare skin touching, I would've said anything to me, trust me. To get back to the apartment back into his bed.
“Sure. I can play a part. You just have to tell me what his strengths and weaknesses are. So I know what to look for. If you say that he's good at catching a lie, I’ll make sure a lie is believable.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see him smiling at me. I knew he was right, it wouldn’t be hard to keep up our ruse. Not with how easily we were falling for one another. And it had only been a day. Where would we be when the four months was over?
I wasn't sure.
But I was dying to find out.
Ten
Aiden
“Morning, I’m Dr. Aiden Bradford, I believe I’m assigned to the first floor?” I winked at the receptionist for good measure. Maybe she could show me where the coffee was later.
“Hi there, you’re reporting to the attending, Dr. Mallory. He’s about my height, with dark hair, actually, why don’t I just take you down there?” She offered, her sparkling green eyes looking up at me from behind the desk.
“That would be great.”
As we passed rooms, she poked her head into one and gave greetings to parents and kids.
“First day?” she asked.
“Yeah, is it obvious?”
“Well you just looked at the kid in the wheelchair like something was wrong with him, so yeah, that’s obvious. You have to look at them like they’re normal, like nothing is wrong. Because for some of these kids, this is their whole life. So this is normal. Their normal. Especially the poor shifter kids, they need your sympathy the most. You understand them better than any of us.”
That hit me right in the gut. Even if I wasn’t really a kid person, I would definitely do my best.
No kid should have to live here. No kid should feel like being sick is normal.
She walked me down the hallway until finally, we hit another reception desk.
“Is Dr. Mallory with a patient, Ashley?” She asked the receptionist.
“No, he is sitting in the break room. Kind of quiet here this morning, you must be the new doc on staff, another Bradford guy right? I'm Ashley. I work the day shift.”
I waved at the petite blonde behind the desk but noticed that I wasn't even that interested. That didn't really make much sense except of course I could only think of Molly. I was really going soft.
The original receptionist pointed me in the direction of the break room. “Follow the smell of the coffee. And good luck.”
I nodded to her and walked down the hallway a few more doors before saw one that was open. A few doctors were sitting in on brightly colored couches drinking coffee and a couple were looking at magazines.
“Dr. Mallory?” I asked addressing a man with dark brown hair like the receptionist had said.
“Oh hey there, you must be Dr. Bradford number three. It's nice to meet you. Under interesting circumstances, no?” He stood up and walked out to the hallway as I followed him.
“I'm sorry, I don't think I understand.”
“Your uncle is on the board. Easy to get a job when you have connections.”
“Yeah I guess you could say that, but I'm on loan so…”
Dr. Mallory stopped in front of me and spun around facing me. “You and I both know you're not on loan from anywhere. But I'm the only one in this whole damn hospital that knows that so I'll keep my mouth shut, mostly because these kids deserve good doctors. Are you a good doctor?”
I shrugged. If he already knew the truth about me there was no point lying. “I've no idea to be totally honest. I did medic training while I was in Alpha Squad and then they paid for me to go to school but I have no hands-on experience, especially with kids. I mean besides my residency and that was in a veteran’s hospital. No kids there.”
He rolled his eyes. “I had a feeling that was going to be the case, but I was hoping I was wrong.” He pulled a tablet off the wall next to the reception desk and gave it to me quickly using his finger to drag across charts.
“See this turquoise color? That's all of your charts. It's a pretty quiet morning in here so I think you only have about three kids right now. Appointments for the day I mean. You'll get the occasional walk-in but really we mostly deal with kids that have already been patients here
in the past. The walk-ins come from other hospitals that can't set a bone or don’t have an MRI machine that small enough for little people, or maybe no doctors who understand shifter protocols. The work is steady and you won't deal with anything too serious on this floor.”
“Sounds good, where do I start?”
Dr. Mallory smiled at me. “Well good, the military gave you something besides your medical background.”
“What's that?”
“A can-do attitude. I appreciate that. It means you get the job done, and I don't have to follow you around. I really don't have time to babysit you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t need to be babysat, I'm a grown man. Point me in the direction of my first patient and I'll get to work.”
He pointed me toward a room labeled AB one and I walked in to see a young girl sitting on the table with what mostly look like a scraped knee. I scanned through her chart as I introduced myself to her mother and realized why she was there. Previously she had some blood clotting issues, so a scraped knee for her meant a hospital visit. That sucked.
“I'm Dr. Bradford, but you can just call me Aiden, what do we have here?”
Her mother introduced her as Olivia. “I know it's probably nothing, but she's had so many problems in the past, and I just felt like we needed to come in.”
I waved her concerns away. “Don't worry about it. Let's see that knee, Olivia. What were you doing anyway? Trying to partake in some type of rodeo?”
That elicited a small smile from the girl. “I'm not a cowgirl. I was just playing on the monkey bars and I fell. It's very simple doctor.”
She was sassy, and I appreciated it. “Monkey bars huh? How many did you get to?”
“Only three. Then I lost my grip, I fell in the mulch.”
I heard her mother sigh behind me. “I told you not to go on the monkey bars, they're dangerous.”
Olivia now sighed, matching her mother's tone almost perfectly. “And I told you I was careful. It was an accident Mom.”
I took a look at her chart again, someone had already come in and done some blood work on her and it seemed that her iron levels were normal. The blood had mostly dried on her knees and she looked pretty good overall.
“I like to do a full examination just to be safe, but I think she's fine. I'm going to send in a nurse to put a gown on her and we’ll get started.”
The mother nodded and she helped Olivia hop off the table. I walked out and closed the door behind me putting in my tablet that I needed a nurse's assistant. Someone arrived only a moment later and went in with a gown that had teddy bears on it. All the bright colors and sounds and kids were going to take some getting used to. My bear was overwhelmed, pawing at the surface. I had past so many parks on my way here. I would definitely need to stop one day and take a run. Unleash my beast a bit and relax.
As I continued to look over her chart my cell phone started buzzing in my pocket. I figured I had a couple minutes to answer quickly when I realized it was my uncle calling. And he wanted exactly what I was expecting.
“So when do I get to meet this girl? How is the first day of work going? Have you seen either of your brothers?”
“Can’t you even say hello? The girl is great. And you can set up some fancy dinner for whenever you want. And so far the hospital’s not that bad. I do appreciate however that I'm not cleaning bedpans. Instead, I'm just fixing up a scraped knee.”
“I didn't want it to be a full prison sentence. You already did something similar to that in the past few days.”
“You're so charming when you're angry, do you know that?”
“I'm going to ignore that last comment. How about dinner at Jordan’s, tomorrow?”
I nodded. “I'll make it work.” The nurse opened up the door again and I knew it was time to go.
“I've got to get back to work. See you tomorrow.”
I ended the call and walked back into tend to Olivia's knee. Tomorrow, the ruse would begin.
Eleven
Molly
I looked around the fancy restaurant I was sitting in, still surprised because I got to visit such a place. It was still a lot to take in. The whole restaurant screamed money, and the customers wore clothes that were costlier than the monthly rent for my apartment. I’d never thought I would be the one to visit this kind of place—furnished with the most expensive things and materials. The gold crystal chandeliers were really sparkling, making me gape at them in awe, and there was even a live band that played classical music.
I’d also never thought I would be dressed in a really nice, satin dress with my hair straight and full makeup. I had even put contacts in, and the damn things kept making my eyes water. I was in the middle of dinner with Aiden, his Uncle Murray, and his older brother Luke. His eldest brother Zion, couldn’t make it. It sounded like a trip into the city was too much for him. He was happier in the mountains, and I could understand that. I took a sip of my wine and brought my attention back to him. Uncle Murray was talking about something, and I tried to focus on him, but it was difficult since Aiden was sitting next to me, and his nearness was making me tense.
Aiden was wearing an expensive suit that made him even more attractive—if that was possible. His dark brown hair was slicked back and his expensive cologne was stirring everything inside me. From the moment I saw him I just wanted to jump on him and kiss the hell out of him.
I suddenly giggled, and both Aiden and his uncle looked at me like I was weird, which was probably true. Here I was—supposed to enjoy this dinner and give my best to leave a good impression on Aiden’s uncle—but I was acting like I was addicted to sex.
Molly, get a hold of yourself. Aiden put his arm right next to mine on the table, and I felt hot and unable to breathe evenly. He was too near and I just wanted this dinner to end so I could get to kiss him again. I clenched my thighs together and reminded myself again to be a good girl.
“So Molly, tell me what you do for work? Typically Aiden brings around models and call girls. But you’re different, I can see that,” his uncle asked.
“Yes, well, I worked in coding, but with Aiden and I getting more serious I thought it would be good to take some time off.”
“So you’ve asked her then?” Aiden’s uncle countered, his eyes boring into Aiden so hard I thought he might explode.
“Asked me what?”
“Not yet uncle, I’m waiting for the right moment.”
I pretended to be giddy but Aiden and I had already decided we’d go ring shopping tomorrow, and then choose a wedding planner. I was still terrified of telling my family, but we had to get through this dinner first.
Luke rolled his eyes, clearly in on our ruse. It was kind of nice to have another realist at the table. “What type of coding did you do?” He asked as he took another bite of his pasta.
“Security mostly, but I’m a stronger hacker than a coder. You know people say these days it’s better to have a good hacker on payroll than a paid assassin.” I laughed at my joke, but the men didn’t respond. Too dark Molly.
“And your work Aiden? Going well? I haven’t seen you much around the hospital.”
“That’s cause you work in a totally different wing Luke. I haven’t seen Zion either and he works in pediatrics.”
“Yeah but he works nights, nobody sees him.”
“Is there a reason for that?” I asked, still trying to understand the shifter side of these men.
“Zion is…different,” Uncle Murray added.
“Different as in dark and dangerous,” Aiden countered.
“Dangerous? Then why does he work with kids?”
“He works with shifter kids. And he’s not dangerous, just a bit of a recluse. See when shifters don’t mate by a certain age they go a little… mental.” Luke said avoiding my eyes.
“Mental? You mean if we don’t stay together you’ll go nuts?”
“Why wouldn’t we stay together?” Aiden joked with a smile. He squeezed my hand and I took the hint. We were suppos
ed to be head over heels in love. Getting married, focus Molly.
“I just didn’t realize that was an issue. So Murray, I can’t wait to meet your mate.”
Luke spit out his wine. “Murray doesn’t have a mate.”
“But he’s not, I mean you’re not…”
“Crazy? No. But I’m also half shifter. Not pure blooded like these boys. Their father and I had different mothers.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”
He quickly moved on from the subject. “So Aiden how is work going? That place where you can’t take a moment to see your brothers?”
“Things are fine, though a kid bit me today.”
I laughed. “You didn’t tell me that!”
“Yeah the little bugger had swallowed a penny, I thought it might still be in his mouth. It wasn’t. But my finger was. Lucky me.”
We all laughed. This dinner was going better than anticipated. But I think that had something to do with the heat between Aiden and me. It was undeniable.
Every time he looked at me or smiled, my heart accelerated, and all I could think about were those heated moments we’d shared together. Heated? No, it was more like the best sex of my life—the most amazing, explosive sex and I couldn’t get enough. Now that I knew how good Aiden was in bed, and that made me just more desperate to sleep with him again.
Our hands brushed in one moment, and I stilled, my mouth becoming dry as he slid his hand over mine slowly. He did it so his family wouldn’t notice anything, but this slight touch was enough to make me restless.
This was going to work.
Twelve
Aiden
She was so damn hot. She was provoking me during the whole dinner, and it was driving me nuts. She was so close I could smell her scent. The better the night went the more my bear wanted to claim her.
I couldn’t focus on anything else but her, painfully aware of her arm near mine or her delicate, smooth skin whenever we touched. Her beautiful green eyes were seductive, looking at me like she wanted to fuck me right there, and I could barely restrain myself.