Between The Sheets

by Parker, Weston

  Hopefully, he wasn’t just saying that to spare my feelings. “We don’t have to—”

  He cupped my cheek. “Hush.”

  Gently, he pulled me down to him to press his lips to mine. The kiss was soft, like a sweet hello, and then it deepened and became something else entirely. A fire came to life in my belly, and I slid in tight against him, loving the way the touch of his skin made the flames inside me burn brighter.

  He rolled himself on top of me. The pillow beneath my head gave in, and I sank deep into his mattress as he left a trail of kisses down my neck and the middle of my chest. He worked his way down my ribs to my navel, at which point he nudged my legs apart so he could settle between them. Aiden moved down lower, bracing himself on his elbows as I let my knees fall farther apart to rest on the bed.

  I sighed as he left sweet but teasing kisses on the insides of my thighs.

  “I was dreaming about you.” He gazed up at me, his handsome face framed by my legs.

  “Good things I hope.”

  “Always good things.” He smiled. “I dreamed of this.”

  I didn’t have time to answer. Aiden’s tongue flicked out to taste me, and I melted as he slid his hands under my hips. He swirled his tongue over my clit, daring me to make a fool of myself and come far too quickly. Every time I edged toward an orgasm, he would back off so he could start all over. He was merciless and wonderful all at the same time.

  I plunged my fingers into his hair. “Please.”

  He let out a soft moan and held on to me as I rolled my hips. My body thrummed with pleasure and desperation for the release that was just out of reach.

  He drew my clit between his lips and sucked as he slipped a finger inside me, and I lost it. The world shattered, euphoria washed over me, and I panted and writhed in his arms as he continued fucking me throughout my orgasm.

  Then he went to his knees, leaned across me, and plucked a condom from his nightstand.

  I was still a breathless mess beneath him while he rolled it on.

  I propped myself up on my elbows. “Let me—”

  He shook his head as he placed a hand on my chest and pushed me back down. “You relax. I want to take care of you.”

  Not one to disobey, I followed his orders. My lips curled into a smile as he inched closer and dropped his hips to mine. I reached for him, and he came down to me as he eased his cock inside me. I let out a soft whimper as I took all of him, and he held himself inside me as he crushed his lips to mine.

  Wanting nothing more than to feel closer to him, I wrapped my legs around his waist. He chuckled into our kiss, and I squeezed him with my thighs, as if in silent plea for him to fuck me harder.

  He did.

  His thrusts were deep and steady.

  “Fuck,” he growled, stroking my hair off my forehead before tightening his fingers in my roots, holding me in place as he turned my head to the side to kiss the side of my throat. He worked his way up to my ear and pinched it between his teeth.

  I let out a little yelp. His hot breath and soft moan in my ear nearly pushed me over the edge.

  “You’re so wet, baby,” he grated out, his voice pinched with lust.

  “I can’t help it.”

  “I fucking love it.”

  He fucked me even harder. I clung to him like I was terrified he would stop and leave. We both approached our climaxes together, and when I cried out in pleasure, he let himself go too. Our breathless sighs and moans rose up to the ceiling in unison until we were spent and lying on our backs with our eyes closed.

  Aiden rested a hand on my thigh and closed his eyes. “Stay the night.”

  I rolled over to face him and cupped my hands under my cheek. “You’re sure?”

  He nodded but didn’t open his eyes. “Positive. I want you here in the morning.”

  I inched closer to him and tucked myself into his side. He draped an arm around me as I rested my cheek on his chest. His heart beat slowly and steadily, and I found it impossible to keep my eyes open.

  Aiden traced slow circles with his thumb on my shoulder. I fell asleep before he stopped.

  24

  Aiden

  The minutes were passing too quickly as I watched Elizabeth sleep.

  She slept chaotically. Both times she’d been in my bed, I’d woken to find her tangled in my sheets like she’d gotten lost in them and had to fight her way out. Her hair was a wild mess all across my pillows, and she laid half on her side and half on her stomach with one arm dangling off the edge of the mattress. I envied how soundly she rested.

  I tossed and turned all night. Dreams of her and her body wrapped around mine were broken up by other more distressing dreams about patients dying on my table.

  It was a common stress dream for me that had started way back in med school in my early twenties. When the pressure of my studies started to pile up and the realization that people were going to entrust me with their lives struck home, the dreams started. They’d been with me ever since.

  The only person I’d ever talked to about them was Peter. He assured me, in all his wisdom, that it was perfectly normal and that he suffered from them too. He suggested I talk to someone. A professional.

  It seemed a terrible waste of time to me. And as someone with little time to spare, I wasn’t going to spend it sitting on a plush sofa in an immaculately decorated shrink’s office talking about my night terrors.

  Pass.

  Instead, I bore them as a burden of the job, just like losing patients was. It was my reality.

  But it hadn’t become Elizabeth’s yet. Not quite. She was clever enough to know that sooner or later, she was going to lose a patient. In the past weeks at St. Mark’s, she’d already stared death in the face and handled it like a champ, like with the bombing victims. But she hadn’t yet established a rapport with a person facing a potentially terminal illness. She hadn’t pored over their files day and night, looking for a solution. She hadn’t researched medicine in the early trial stages for a last resort.

  She hadn’t sat down with said patient and their family and given them the bad news that they weren’t going to see another Christmas.

  I’d done it a hundred times over and would continue to do so over the next twenty-five years.

  As she slept, I wished I could spare her the heartbreak she was doomed to face. Her innocence was still very much a part of her, a part of what had drawn me to her. But it wouldn’t last forever. Not in this career field. Hell, it probably wouldn’t even last another year.

  That sweet, somewhat naïve smile of hers would become something different. A strained smile to put on a good show for those who were suffering perhaps. Her bedside manner was already extraordinary, and I suspected it would only improve from here. She wasn’t the sort of woman who would become desensitized to the grief and the pain that surrounded her every day. If anything, I was sure she’d become even more aware of it. Even more desperate to fix it and to help.

  Like I was.

  But the weight of it all would begin to pull her down eventually.

  I sighed as she shifted gently in her sleep, drawing the arm dangling off the side of the bed into her chest and curling her legs up to sleep in a ball with one arm tucked under her pillow.

  Eventually, sleep like this would be impossible to come by.

  I decided to let her rest for as long as she was able and slipped out of the bedroom to make my way to my kitchen. I pulled out pans, flour, oats, eggs, and milk and went about preparing pancakes for breakfast. I found a quarter package of bacon in my freezer and preheated the oven while I threw all the pancake ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

  When everything was mixed and the bacon was in the oven, I went to my office and transferred another lump sum of cash into Elizabeth’s account. Once I got the confirmation, I leaned back in my chair and checked the time.

  It was already eight in the morning. Elizabeth’s shift at the hospital started in two hours. That wasn’t nearly enough time. I needed mor
e.

  And I got what I wanted.

  I called the hospital and had Elizabeth’s shift covered. It took some string pulling, but everyone everywhere owed me at least three favors, so after a couple calls to the right people and some no bullshit demands, I successfully got her the day off.

  I was smiling to myself when I went back into the kitchen.

  Elizabeth was sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for me. She spun in her stool to face me, and I loved how she looked in my gray T-shirt, which was oversized on her. It showed off her thighs, and I raked my eyes down her legs as she clicked her tongue at me.

  “What were you up to?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

  I checked the bacon in the oven. It only needed another five minutes, so I turned on the pan for the pancakes. “I called the hospital.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes. More than okay. You don’t have to go in today.”

  She was silent for a minute. “Really?”

  I looked over my shoulder at her as I stirred the pancake batter once more. “Really. It’s just you and me today. No patients. No other doctors encroaching on our space. Just you and me and all this space. What do you think?”

  She smiled deviously. “I think it’s a perfect way to spend my Sunday.”

  “What would you like to do? Sky’s the limit.” I poured the pancakes on the pan. They bubbled quickly, and I stood at the ready to flip them.

  “Sky’s the limit, huh?”

  I flipped the pancakes and turned to face her, leaning against the counter and crossing my arms over my chest. “So long as you don’t say ‘spend the afternoon with Parks’, we’re good.”

  Elizabeth laughed. The sound was glorious, and it danced around the high ceilings of my kitchen, and I stood in awe of her.

  How I had almost missed this opportunity because I didn’t want a resident, I had no idea. I would have been kicking myself if I saw her sexy ass walking down the hospital halls and learned I could have had her working under me.

  Literally and figuratively.

  “How about we get out of the house and explore the city? We could go to Central Park and grab lunch or dinner while we’re out. Someplace simple. Where we won’t risk anyone from the hospital seeing us.”

  “Sounds like a date,” Elizabeth mused.

  I loved how coy she was now that she was more comfortable around me. I didn’t acknowledge out loud that it was kinda sorta a date. Instead, I plopped the pancakes on a plate, set out the butter, maple syrup, and bacon, and told her to eat up.

  Elizabeth drowned her pancakes in syrup. She ate slowly, carefully, like she was afraid of biting her lip, and I liked the way her cheeks puffed up with food. She was intolerably adorable.

  “What are you staring at?” Elizabeth asked after washing her bite of pancakes down with a sip of water.

  “Nothing.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Finish your pancakes.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I arched an eyebrow. She stared back at me in challenge, her eyes narrowed, lips pressed in a firm line. Amusement danced in her brown eyes, and she fought valiantly to keep a straight face, but she broke after only a few moments, descending into laughter across from me that had me grinning like a fool.

  This wasn’t just a financial arrangement anymore to help her with her struggles.

  No. I was way more invested than that.

  When we finished eating, I cleared the table. Elizabeth got to her feet and stretched her arms over her head. My T-shirt inched up her thighs to hover just below her hips, teasing me with a near view of her.

  I met her at the table. “Let’s take a shower.”

  She pressed her hands flat to my chest and gazed up at me. “Together?”

  I nodded.

  Her coy smile returned in full force. “Yes, sir.”

  25

  Elizabeth

  My knees were a little wobbly when I got out of Aiden’s Mercedes at Central Park. Our shower had turned into an hour-long fuck session, and Aiden was insatiable as ever, taking what he wanted and leaving me trembling on his bed in his wake after several rollercoaster orgasms.

  And now we were on a date.

  It was odd.

  Even though my heart wanted this with him, my head told me I was walking a fine line, and we were courting the edges of heartbreak.

  Aiden was my boss. Not only that, but he was one of the most respected surgeons in the city. Hell, maybe in the whole state. And here he was, having a fling with one of his residents. If word got out about us, his reputation and his career would be destroyed. As would mine. And then there would be nobody to save my mother from financial despair.

  I chewed my bottom lip as he took my hand and led me across the parking lot. He gave my fingers a gentle squeeze, and I squeezed back before we both let our hands fall to our sides.

  We couldn’t risk seeing someone we knew out here.

  It kind of put a damper on a “date” to not even be able to hold hands.

  “So,” Aiden said, his warm, deep voice pulling me away from my thoughts.

  “So?”

  “What do you think so far?”

  I frowned. “About what?”

  “St. Mark’s. Your residency. How things are going. What do you think?”

  All of a sudden, this didn’t feel like a date at all. It sounded like a check-in meeting. “Um. Good. Right?”

  He chuckled. “I asked you. Don’t ask me.”

  I licked my lips. “I think things are going really well. I think I’ve crossed the bridge from university to hospital setting, and I think I’m ready to take on more responsibility when the time comes.”

  “Yeah?”

  I stopped walking. He turned toward me with a serious expression.

  “Yes,” I said as confidently as I could manage.

  He smiled. “Good. I feel the same way. You’ve impressed me, as well as every other doctor who’s had the pleasure to work with you. You’re an asset to the hospital, Elizabeth. Don’t doubt yourself.”

  “Thank you.”

  “And how about your peers? Everything going well there? Except for Parks and his incessant neediness, of course.”

  “Of course.” I smiled. “No, everyone has been lovely. Well. Almost everyone.”

  He looked down at me as we walked the path under looming trees fading from emerald greens to crisp copper and reds. The shade from the leaves left jagged shadows across his face that danced with every step he took. “Who is giving you a hard time? Tell me. I’ll fix it for you.”

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t need fixing. To be honest, I think your meddling would only make things worse.”

  He sighed and slid his hands into his jean pockets. “It’s Sarah, isn’t it?”

  “It is.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Why? It’s not your fault she’s a bitch. She just is. And I think my presence irritates her. Not only does she know I’m smart and capable, but she hates that I’m working so closely with you. The woman is obsessed with you, Aiden. Like, seriously obsessed.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  “How long has she been like that?” I asked.

  Aiden and I hooked a right, following a wider path dotted with people and their dogs, strollers, and coffee cups. It smelled like earth and rain, and I drew a deep breath, savoring the freshness in the air. It granted me a moment of clarity where I was able to appreciate that I was out with Aiden.

  “Sarah has been a thorn in my side for the last few years. Since she transferred to St. Mark’s, I suppose.”

  “Have you not tried to do something about her?” I asked quizzically. “If I had someone hanging off my every word and trying to insert themselves into my life like that, I would have lost it a long time ago.”

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Elizabeth, but I’m very good at ignoring people.”

  I smiled. “I have.”

  He ran his fingers through his hai
r and lifted his chin. “Sarah would become more of a problem if I tried to resolve it.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Experience.”

  I chewed the inside of my cheek and decided it was probably best to drop the subject. Aiden knew what he was talking about far better than me. He’d known her for years. I’d only known Sarah for a couple of months, and what I did know of her were just surface-level interactions. Not that they weren’t enough for me to make a fairly accurate estimation as to just what kind of woman she was.

  We walked for two hours. The air was fresh, a welcome contrast to the sterile smell and recycled air in the hospital, and the people watching was phenomenal.

  Couples were spread out on blankets on the grass. Fathers were tossing baseballs with their young children. Mothers were reading their books and watching their families play. Dogs ran to catch Frisbees, and the elderly paused at every bench along the path to catch their breath.

  We came back to the car just shy of four in the afternoon, and by that point, my stomach was growling up a storm. I tried to hide it from Aiden, but he must have heard me because he asked if I was hungry for some lunch.

  “I know a great little place just a couple of blocks from here,” he said as he opened his car door.

  I nodded at him over the hood. “Sounds good. I’m starving.”

  We got in the car, and he pulled out of the lot to take us down the street to a little hole in the wall restaurant with a sign above the front door that was so old, I couldn’t even read what it said. The windows were stained glass, and everything inside the restaurant was done in rich earthy tones, reds and browns. Aiden led me to a table near the window, where the sun streaming through the stained glass cast a rainbow of colors across our hands on the table.

  We ordered beers and burgers, and Aiden leaned back in his chair to watch me as I took my first sip of amber ale. Foam clung to my upper lip, and I licked it away.

  “I wasn’t going to accept you as a resident, you know.”

  I blinked at him. “Pardon?”

  He nodded. “I was approached and asked if I wanted a resident. I said no. But I was pressured into it.”