Larson

by Juliana Conners

  He really does remind me of me. Confident, self- assured, and naïve to think that he can actually get back to his unit soon.

  I sigh as I realize what a revelation I’ve just had about myself.

  And suddenly, all I want to do is see Whitney. I was going to ask Dr. Davis about the business deal, and appearance fee, but I have a feeling it’s useless.

  Maybe he was planning to tell me soon— maybe it’s some big surprise— or maybe that’s just part of my continual delusion. It’s not like I’ll find out the truth from Dr. Davis even if I do ask him. He’s obviously pretty good at hiding the big picture from me.

  “I agree,” I tell Alex. “You’ve got this all under control. Congratulations on your progress. And now, I have somewhere I need to be.”

  “Harlow, wait—”

  Dr. Davis calls after me, but it’s my turn to be in charge.

  I need to go find Whitney.

  I don’t believe that Whitney was lying about my physical therapy progress. I can’t believe I ever did.

  There has to be some other explanation. I can still hear her attempted warning— “I don’t think Dr. Davis is who he seems to be”— and I wish I would have listened harder.

  I hope she’ll still give me the chance.

  Chapter 47

  I’m in my office with the door locked, armed with evidence. Thanks to Lance, I have access to many of Dr. Davis’ files, and I’ve been reviewing them for two days now. I definitely see a pattern that makes Dr. Davis looks shady as fuck.

  But worse, it paints a pretty bleak picture for Harlow. It’s not that he knew Dr. Davis was doing anything wrong, but, quite the opposite, he got caught up as a victim in Dr. Davis’ scheme.

  I was all set to turn Dr. Davis in at Piñon, and maybe somehow to the military itself, and I still want to. I know I’ll lose my internship, but I don’t care.

  Too late (as far as he and I are concerned, anyway), I’ve realized that Harlow was right when he said I always play it safe and never take any risks. This time, I want to live on the edge and expose a selfish man to the world, and consequences to my professional life be damned, especially since I’ve decided to pursue what I really want to do anyway.

  But now I just worry about any consequences this could have on Harlow. I know he and I are over for good, and it’s not about wanting to save a hopeless relationship.

  Sure, I still wish we could be together but I also know that’s just not going to happen. The reason I hesitate to do anything now is that I don’t want to jeopardize Harlow’s career, or otherwise interfere in his life.

  I slump back into my office chair, feeling defeated. I can’t believe I have damaging information on Dr. Davis that I’m not sure I want to use.

  There’s suddenly a loud knocking— which sounds more like pounding— on my door.

  “Just a minute,” I say, logging off my password- protected computer.

  I’m hoping it’s Lance, instead of Dr. Davis or anyone else who has come to yell at me.

  “Yes?”

  I open the door, and I’m shocked to see Harlow behind it.

  “Whitney.”

  He comes into my office and closes and locks the door, so quickly that I think I might be dreaming everything.

  “Harlow?”

  I can’t think of a single other thing to say, except for his name.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He kisses me, and without even thinking twice I kiss him back.

  He pushes me up against my office door, his kisses urgent and strong.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “What happened?” I ask him, when I can finally catch my breath.

  “I just… woke up. I was so stupid. I understand if you’re disgusted with me. Done with me. But I needed to come tell you.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “That I love you.”

  He picks me up and kisses me while I wrap my legs around him. Okay, now I’m convinced this really is a dream. He carries me over to my desk and lays me on top of it.

  “Scared this will get you in trouble?” he laughs, as he takes down the pants of my uniform, and panties.

  With his free hand he rubs my clit, and I can feel that I’m already dripping wet, all over him.

  “No,” I say, although I don’t bother explaining why. I figure we’ll have plenty of time for that later.

  I want him so bad, and I’m so glad he’s here, that I might let him take me on my desk even if I weren’t leaving for green pastures anyway.

  He takes off his own pants and underwear and wastes no time as he begins to enter me.

  “You’re not wearing—” I start, but he says,

  “Shhhhh,” as he slides his naked cock into my willing pussy. “I want to feel you. All of you.”

  “It’s okay, I’m on the Pill,” I tell him, but he seems to be too focused to care.

  A wave of excitement rushes over me, at how forbidden everything is. We’re having sex in my office, unprotected, and apparently he doesn’t even care if he gets me pregnant. He seems to have dropped the bad boy demeanor completely, and now he’s like a ball of putty in my arms.

  “Oh my god,” I moan. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  I hadn’t forgotten how big his cock is and how good it feels inside me— it’s all I’ve been thinking about since the last time we made love. But I can’t believe he’s really here, in my office, making love to me. And he had even said he loves me.

  “I’ve missed you too,” he says, as he pushes himself in and out of me. “Your tight little pussy is so perfect and sweet. I want it to be mine.”

  “It is yours,” I say, as I feel it tighten even further around his large dick. “And you’re making me come.”

  “Come on my cock, Whitney,” he says, pumping harder and faster. “I want to feel your cum on my raw cock. I love how your naked pussy feels right now.”

  I come all over him, as I lie back on my desk with my legs spread wide while he has his way with me. He grips my hips and pulls me further into him, and then reaches underneath me as he pushes further and deeper.

  “Your cock feels so good in my pussy,” I tell him.

  “It belongs there. It’s your cock.”

  I feel myself reaching climax again as he reaches underneath me and squeezes my ass. Pulling me up and into him, his cock begins to pulse.

  “I want to come inside you,” he says.

  “Okay,” I say, breathing hard as I feel that I myself am close to coming again.

  “Come with me,” he says, as his cock throbs in my pussy.

  “I am. Harlow. I’m coming.”

  I do my best to keep my voice down as I come at the same time I feel him shoot his sticky, sweet load inside me. It feels so good to be filled up with his cum. He lifts me up and I hold onto his shoulders while he finishes blasting his cum inside me.

  He nibbles my neck and hugs me tight before lowering me back down, so that I’m sitting on the desk looking up at him.

  “I love you too,” I tell him, looking up into his eyes. “I really do.”

  “I’m glad,” he says. “I thought I might be too late.”

  “You’re not.” I grab a hold of his hands, taking them in mine. “I love you. And that’s why there’s something about Dr. Davis that you’re really not going to like, but that I really have to tell you.”

  Chapter 48

  “Well good,” I say, as I help Whitney off the desk. “I was hoping you had some dirt on him.”

  I pull up my pants as she does the same and then goes to sit at her computer chair.

  “Can you please hold off on the official business for a minute?” I ask her. “I just need a moment to sit here and bask in how hot that sex was just now.”

  “It was amazing,” she says, smiling.

  I had waited for what felt like a really long time, without really thinking I would ever get to be with her again. But as soon as I was with her, my body knew just what it had been needing. I finish getting dressed and
then I sit down at the chair across from her desk.

  “I think the signs were always there for me with Dr. Davis. I just didn’t want to see them,” I tell her. “But the more I thought about it, the weirder things seemed. What I’m the maddest at myself for, though, is not trusting you. I know you would only ever have my best interest at heart. I just couldn’t believe it because I’m not used to being in a relationship.”

  “So we’re in a relationship, are we?” she says, grinning.

  “You’d better believe it. And you’d better remember it if you keep wanting wild office sex.”

  “About that…”

  Her grin turns mischievous.

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve applied to medical school.”

  “That’s great! Whitney, really? All because of what I said?”

  She shrugs.

  “Well, it’s something I always wanted to do. You had a point. And I didn’t see a future here for me anyway.”

  “Smart move.” I wink at her.

  “So now can I tell you what I’ve found out?” Whitney begs, obviously anxious to spill the beans.

  “Sure. I’ve sufficiently recovered from our knock- down drag- out sex session.”

  “Okay, here’s a print- out of all the patients Dr. Davis has treated,” she says, reaching to retrieve a piece of paper from her printer, and handing it to me. “I’ve redacted their names and any other identifying information for patient privacy sake, but, the important thing to look at is the colors I’ve used to highlight them.”

  “Little Miss Type A,” I say, impressed.

  I look at the sheet of paper but it’s not very helpful since I have no idea what I’m looking at. It vaguely reminds me of a Christmas decoration.

  “The red color represents all the patients that Dr. Davis has treated initially but never went any further with. The green color represents patients that he’s continued to treat, and referred to physical therapy.”

  There are only three green names.

  “One of those is you,” Whitney says.

  “Is the other one named Alex Crenshaw?”

  Whitney looks surprised.

  “I can’t say. But the other two are recent post- surgery patients. They were in traumatic accidents but, like you, they recovered rather quickly.”

  “I guess the other one isn’t Jesse Morrow?” I ask, already knowing the answer since Dr. Davis had told me, but hoping that he somehow still made it through.

  “You know Jesse Morrow?” Whitney asks, her eyebrows raised.

  “You know Jesse Morrow?” I ask, throwing her own question back at her.

  “I did a little recon,” she says, her cute cheeks blushing a shade of rose.

  “Very nice,” I tell her.

  “Let’s just use him as an example,” she says. “Since both of us are familiar with his situation. He’s an average service member, wounded in the line of duty, with some pretty major injuries and a lot of work that needs to be done.”

  I nod.

  “He’ll probably never end up back in active duty— but still, very few do— and he could benefit from intense physical therapy and further treatment, probably with an integrated approach. Occupational therapy, counseling, and some sort of guidance or transition as to what he should do with this future.”

  “Sure,” I say, nodding my head. “Jesse Morrow deserves that. They all deserve that.”

  “You know…”

  She begins, and I can tell she almost thinks better of telling me whatever she was about to say.

  “What?”

  “It’s just, when I was talking to Jesse, he mentioned that he’d asked you to come to his surgery, and had never heard another word from you. I mean, he was really understanding and nice about it, but I was just surprised that…”

  “Fuck,” I say. “Fuck fuck fuck.”

  “What?”

  “Damn Dr. Davis. I went to see him, but his surgery had just finished and he was too doped up to recognize me. I left a card for him. Dr. Davis acted hella sketchy, which makes perfect sense now. He said he would make sure he received it, and would let him know I dropped by.”

  “Well, lo and behold, Dr. Davis didn’t live up to his word,” Whitney says, and I nod.

  “How can I get in touch with him? I need to explain what happened.”

  “I may be able to get you some contact information from his file,” she says, with a sly smile.

  “Awww. You’re the best. I knew there was a reason I was into you.”

  “Very funny,” she says. “But let’s get back on track. We are using this patient as an example, correct? He deserves further treatment, correct?”

  I nod.

  “But Dr. Davis doesn’t want to work with him,” she concludes, marking a big X next to his redacted name. “Or him, or him, or her, or any other average service member.”

  Soon her X’s line the page, and it’s obvious how angry she is. And it’s touching to see how much she cares.

  “So this is where I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it affects you.”

  “Okay. Shoot. I’m ready.”

  I’ve been on such a roller coaster ride since meeting Whitney— or since my helicopter crashed, actually— that I shouldn’t think it’s possible for me to be surprised by anything anymore. But I never expected her latest revelations, and I know I can’t be sure of what’s coming down the pipeline. I just want her to tell me, so that we can deal with it together.

  Chapter 49

  “Well, the three of you who were referred for more treatment are really cream of the crop type scenarios,” Whitney continues. “You’re all in some type of Special Forces, and although your accidents were certainly traumatic, they didn’t affect you to the extent that some of the others were affected by their accidents. You also had an advantage when it came to possessing natural strength and willpower after your accidents. Much of what Dr. Davis is taking credit for, you would have already done naturally on your own.”

  “But. I was helpless without Dr. Davis,” I protest. “I couldn’t even write my own name. Neither could Alex.”

  “And don’t you think that’s just a little coincidental?” Whitney asks.

  I pause. Just when I think I had figured out all the clues, she has to go and point out something obvious.

  “Look,” she continues. “I thought about all of this. I’ve had a lot of time to work on this, since I was jilted by my new lover for the heinous crime of trying to help him out.”

  “Very funny,” I sneer, but I do feel a twinge of guilt.

  “When I first saw Dr. Davis’ videos of you, and even the modern day version of you on the stage, I thought he was somehow exaggerating your current condition to make it seem better than it was. There was no way that someone could go from nearly brain dead— which is how Dr. Davis portrayed your original condition— to fully functioning and normal, in such a short amount of time.”

  I crinkle my eyebrows at her, not entirely convinced.

  “I mean, I’m no neurologist,” she continues, “but neither is Dr. Davis. And that got me thinking too. I’ve never seen or even heard of a patient making much such giant strides in my experience in physical therapy school, and Dr. Davis isn’t even a physical therapist. He’s a facial reconstructive surgeon. His latest technologies in that field are definitely very impressive, and he deserves credit where credit’s due. But I started to wonder why he’s trying to take credit in fields in which he has no experience.”

  “Yeah. That is pretty weird.”

  “So then it struck me that Dr. Davis is exaggerating, or flat out lying, in the opposite direction than in the one I originally assumed. You weren’t nearly as bad off as Dr. Davis claims.”

  I look at her, not sure if I want to believe her or not.

  “You did have a bad accident, and you required facial reconstruction surgery if you ever wanted to look like anything resembling normal again,” she continues, gently. “You also benefitted from physical therapy- type ex
ercises, but you would have been doing those on your own anyway. Basically, Dr. Davis had little to nothing to do with that part. And you didn’t have brain damage.”

  Whitney spins her monitor to face me and then she pushes “play” on a video. It’s the one where I can’t write my name, except that it’s a longer, uncut version, showing wider angels and obviously unedited.

  “See, there’s an IV. You’re hooked up to morphine. This was right after one of your surgeries. You were clearly drugged out of your mind.”

  “And who could write their name when they’re in that state?” I wonder.

  “Exactly. It’s the same with Alex, and the other guy. Once the medication wore off, you were perfectly fine to write your name or do any other task.”

  “Hrmph. This really is making so much sense now. Especially because I saw Jesse Morrow right after his surgery, and he was definitely on a lot of meds. Couldn’t tell up from down.”

  “Now you’ve got it,” Whitney says. “I imagine Dr. Davis soon had him try to write his name in that condition, just in case he needed to show it later, as ‘evidence’ that he was so bad off and had come so far.”

  “Oh my god. Dr. Davis is the worst.”

  My normally confident attitude is fading. I’m glad that most of my recovery has been something for which I alone can take credit, but I feel stupid for letting Dr. Davis dupe me. And I can’t even figure out why he would do it. But before I can wrap my head around it, Whitney drops even more devastating news.

  “Now here’s the part that I really wish didn’t exist,” she says, pushing my file over to me. “But I think you need to take a look at that.”

  I open it up to notes from the military about my progress. The board says I’m “cleared for service,” but Dr. Davis says I need more treatment first. According to the minutes from the sessions, the board took testimony from Dr. Davis and then decided I did need additional work, but wanted a third party to treat and evaluate me.

  “So everything Dr. Davis has told me has been a lie!”