Regardless, Bart knew how to throw a hell of a shindig. When Penina told me she’d been stuck in the hospital, unable to have any real fun since her residency started, I figured that night, I would score some forever points with her by showing her the time of her life.
That was negligent of me. The same people ran in that circle. Year after year, they traveled the globe, partying, getting high and drunk, fucking each other, and doing it repeatedly. Of course someone would recognize me.
I’d gone through a period in my life in which all I wanted was diversion. It usually occurred after I found my ex Gina and my brother Spencer fucking again, or after being seduced by Julia, the woman who was supposed to marry my oldest brother, Jasper. Her father and our father had insisted on the marriage. Jasper was frank about the fact that he would never love her or touch her. And she was scared as hell of him, like everybody else who didn’t know him like we did. However, I had no idea how I kept getting pulled into Julia’s evil web back then. She was poisonous and got off on sucking the blood out of me—and vice versa, I guessed.
That was then, though. As I stood in front of the glass cabinets filled with exotic masks, I accepted the fact that I had become a different man. The rigorous training I’d undergone to become a top neurosurgeon and the connections I’d made with my patients and colleagues had made me Jake Sparrow, the man I could see in the mirror and be proud of.
I put the golden wolverine mask back on the stand. It had belonged to my father.
“Fuck,” I muttered as I closed the glass case and continued squeezing the knob. It had suddenly dawned on me that he’d probably used it during one of his salacious parties where pot-bellied, balding, and dick-shriveling old guys overdosing on Viagra were fucking underage girls. Shit, and I even let Penina wear one of them.
The idea of allowing his essence to encounter Penina made me sick. That was why I had to see her, watch her, wait until I knew for sure that the vexing ghost that haunted everything he’d touched hadn’t disturbed her sleep.
I had Kirk take me back to the penthouse, and I dropped off my suit at the front desk. Since then, I’d been sitting in the dark, listening to her snores, guarding her body and soul, envying her tranquility, and waiting for her to once again squeeze the pillow a little tighter.
She’d cling to me the same way whenever I slept with her until I carefully loosened her grip. I only freed myself because her touch always made me want more of her. I could’ve kissed and made love to Penina every second of the day and all through the night. I also wanted to laugh with her, talk with her, eat with her, and even be in the OR with her. I imagined her with me during visits with my siblings. Penina was strong and smart and could hold her own, especially against Bryn and Spencer.
Spencer …
Currently, he was in politics. Of all people, Spencer was looking to be a senator. I would’ve shaken my head if I hadn’t had to sit still so that Penina wouldn’t detect the shifting energy in the room. It was amazing what the human spirit and soul continued discerning when the body was unconscious. One superfluous move, and Penina could wake up and discover me watching her.
She snored again and flipped onto her right side, taking the pillow with her. I wondered why she needed to hold on so tightly to something. Shockingly, I didn’t want to run away from her because of it. I wanted Penina to need me and desire me. If she knew who I truly was, whose blood was coursing through my veins, would she want me just the same?
Probably not.
I fought the urge to kiss her forehead. I’d done it before while she was sleeping. She didn’t wake up. I rose slowly to my feet and took a step toward her. Penina stirred.
“Christmas brother,” she muttered and hugged her pillow tighter.
I froze. My head turned light as my ears rang. What the hell did she just say?
Two Hours Later
On the treadmill, I pumped my arms and legs, trying to run worry out of my system. I couldn’t take jumpiness and lack of focus with me into the OR that morning. I hadn’t kissed Penina as I’d intended. Instead, I’d gone straight to the hospital. Did she say what I thought I heard?
I pushed the acceleration button and ran faster while trying to talk myself into a different conclusion. Christmas was about four months away. She could’ve said, “distant brother,” or “distant mother,” which made sense, since we’d had a conversation about her mother a few days ago.
I chose to take that conclusion and run with it. I had to. It was important that my mind competed with no thoughts beyond Leonard Moreau’s brain. He was my first and only surgery of the day.
Damn, I wish I could sleep.
My eyes throbbed. Leonard’s surgery was less than two hours away. I turned up the speed again and ran faster. My body was tired but strong. As for my mind, as soon as the scalpel was in my hand and I was in the thick of a procedure with my team in tow, it became sharp and aware. I could generally go five days straight without sleep. On the sixth day, I would crash for four to five hours then wake up choking and gasping, unable to remember what made me do it.
The treadmill beeped and slowed. When it came to a stop, I had run six miles and was soaked in sweat. My body wanted to drag, but my brain felt invigorated. It was time to shower, dress, and take that damn tumor out of Leonard’s brain.
One and a Half Hours Later
My only surgery of the day was on the horizon, and I was tooled up and ready to go. I knew what approach to take to get the aggressive cancer. I had spent months studying the growth. According to the morning scans, Leonard Moreau had followed the regimen I’d given him to a tee. The prescribed daily lifestyle changes had kept the cancer from metastasizing. Since Leonard had done his job, it was time for me to do mine.
I walked down the corridor, chin up, looking people in the eye, and nodding sharply at those I passed. I answered their greetings with a strong “Good morning” as I ran Leonard’s story through my mind. The forty-two-year-old male had become my patient the day after I arrived in New Orleans. Three previous doctors from separate medical institutions around the country had advised him that the tumor was operable but that there was a one hundred percent chance that removing it would make him blind. He would also lose all sensory function and some motor function. His growth had a mean-ass streak, expanding to other regions of his brain. He was lucky to still be walking and talking and able to search to save his own life. Leonard had two daughters. He wanted to live to be with them for as long as he could.
The patient had been on the verge of going bankrupt by the time he reached me, but he was fighting too hard to stay alive to be depressed about it. It just so happened that on his flight from Maryland back to New Orleans, Leonard suffered two seizures. Since he’d been tagged as a disabled passenger with high-priority special needs, he’d been put in first class. Some people called it luck, but I’d been a surgeon long enough to know that it was the will of God that Leonard had been seated next to Justin Jones, an oncologist and colleague of mine from Australia. As soon as their flight landed, Justin called me and told me Leonard’s story, including the in-flight seizures, and Leonard came directly to the hospital so I could take a look at him.
“Don’t worry about cost,” I told him.
I owned the fucking hospital. When I’d bought it, the facility was new and going under fast due to mismanagement. Si had called and asked if I was interested in buying it. He had said the board wanted to save face, so the quieter they could keep the transaction, the better. I made myself think like my eldest brother Jasper would, considering the pros and cons. The next day, we started the purchasing process. The record showed that Pete Sykes was the new owner.
I’d reached the part of the surgery when I envisioned myself being the cancer, traveling through the brain, wrapping myself around tissue, nerves, and blood vessels. The more aggressive I was, the more harm I wanted to inflict. I dared any surgeon to try to stop me, puffing my chest, gritting my teeth. I was a fucking rabid wolf coming for Dr. Sparrow.
&
nbsp; “What are you going to do, Jake?” I muttered.
The brain was mightier than brawn. I was going to outthink the cancer. For the past six days, I’d been practicing an extraction technique, using digital technology. I’d been successful at removing the cancer from a 3-D graphic of Leonard’s brain sixteen times, after previously failing three hundred ninety-six times. I was more than ready to do it for real.
I stepped into the room, which housed the care station, and stopped in my tracks. There she was, standing with my team—Penina Ross. She was bright-eyed, beautiful, and seductive, and no way in hell was she going into that OR with me and the others.
I started walking again, stretching my neck from side to side, getting the prickling out of it. “Dr. Ross,” I said, losing control of my pitch. “What are you doing here?”
Penina smiled pleasantly. “I’m on your team today, Dr. Sparrow.” She sounded as if the previous night hadn’t occurred and not a stitch of her heart was broken.
I set my eyes on Deb, who stood beside her. The way she looked at me, she was daring me to kick Penina off my team.
All eyes were on me. I’d worked in enough hospitals to know that everyone knew I’d purposely avoided Penina Ross, and they were too intelligent not to know why. I might as well have announced that I’d been fucking her and we’d been practically living together.
It dawned on me that I’d been doing it wrong. I had to keep her close, be nice, and treat her like I did the rest. So I kept a cool head as I said, “Then let’s prepare to scrub in.”
After a short pause, my team started to disperse, including Penina. I fought the urge to call her, escort her to my office, and just fuck her so I could get it out of my system. I loved the way her skin glowed in the morning, and I could smell her from across the room. Her natural scent would fill the OR, making it harder for me to concentrate on Leonard. Fuck! I was fucked.
I closed my eyes and filled my lungs with sterile hospital air, the best kind of air. Penina Ross. Fuck, my dick was hard.
“Dr. Sparrow, are you all right?” Deb asked.
I opened my eyes and narrowed them at her. She had a way of looking at me as if she wanted to scratch my eyes out.
“Do I bother you, Dr. Glasgow?” I asked.
Her indifferent shrug was like another slap in the face. “You’re the surgeon of our dreams, but I don’t understand why you don’t like my residents.”
I avoided sniffing cynically. She meant one resident in particular.
Smiling warmly, I said, “I like your residents, Dr. Glasgow. You’ve done a fine job whipping them into shape.”
She slammed the flimsy file folder on the countertop closed. “Dr. Ross is our best. And I don’t understand how you don’t want to team up with the best.” A dare flashed in her eyes. “Unless you’re just that insecure.”
It was an insulting jab, but I’d come across Deb’s type before. She was an overworked employee who was emotionally tied to those in her charge as if they were an extension of herself. She had taken my decision to keep my distance from Penina personally, and I liked it and respected it. And also, she liked me, which was fine. She would get over me in a matter of months.
“Dr. Glasgow, I agree with you regarding Dr. Ross. I promise, I’ve heard you. I’ll do better.” I nodded sharply and headed for the battle with my team versus a Godzilla of a cancerous tumor.
I had to pretend Penina wasn’t in the OR, even though she’d been standing next to me for three hours, following my instructions precisely. I had to fool myself into thinking it wasn’t her smell that I had to fight the urge to bathe in. At one point, I had to stand behind her to see what she was viewing. My dick accidentally brushed against her, and she tensed up.
“Relax, Dr. Ross,” I said. “You’re doing fine.”
It appeared as if no one in the room could detect what was happening between us. In my entire career, I’d never been so fucking distracted during surgery. That was it—Penina could never be in the OR with me again. And she had to stop pushing the matter and have some fucking mercy on me.
“Good job, Dr. Ross,” I said after she carefully removed the part of the tumor I’d directed her to extract. “Get settled at position three and watch for any possible surrounding nerve and tissue damage on the monitor.”
I could relax a bit as she gave me some space. I had done my surgical-instructor duty for the day. I would’ve asked Penina to get the hell out of my OR, but I wanted her to stay near. I had changed my mind about what I’d said to her the previous night. After the procedure, we needed to fuck first then talk about how to make our relationship work.
Knowing what I intended to do regarding Dr. Ross, I was able to ignore her enough to concentrate solely on beating the tumor in Leonard’s brain.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Penina Ross
The surgery was nine hours and twenty-three minutes long. That was good timing. The procedure ended two hours ahead of expectations, and not only did the patient survive, but Jake was able to get all of the tumor. He made no mistakes and directed his team as if we were a fine-tuned machine.
He was so hot, and sexy as hell. Watching Jake work was such a turn-on. I could hardly believe we had broken up the previous night, because I wanted him so bad that my pussy twitched whenever I thought about him. He wanted me too. I was certain of it. I caught him looking at me from time to time, and all I saw in his eyes was pure lust. Maybe we could have a completely sexual relationship. I wouldn’t need to know his real name or where he came from or where he planned to go once his cover was blown. Some of our nosiest colleagues would eventually figure out his real story.
“Penina, to my office, please,” Jake said.
When I snapped my attention to the door of the call room, it was closing, and he was gone. I’d been freshening up after surgery, and I quickly ran deodorant under my other armpit, tossed the stick back into my locker, slammed it shut, and went to go see what Jake wanted.
As I walked down the hallway and crossed the bridge that led to the offices, I thought about where we would have all the sex to fulfill the sort of relationship I was going to propose to him. A hotel room would be neutral ground. He would pay for one night and I another. Even though he was obviously loaded, I would feel like a cheap call girl if he paid for all the nights.
I stopped in front of his office and balled my fist to knock but froze to think about how I should do it. I didn’t want him to think I was eager to see him, even though I was. And what’s wrong with eager anyway, Pen? I twisted my mouth thoughtfully. Still, I didn’t want to come off that way. So I took a deep breath to cool my anxiety and gave the door three strong knocks.
“Come in,” he said.
I paused, taking note of his tone. He was sharp and professional. Perhaps he wanted to speak to me about my performance in the OR that day. It had been stellar, as far as I was concerned. Whenever my gaze had connected with his, it sent my heart racing, but other than that, I was in rare form, and I was ready to defend my performance when I pushed the door open.
Jake stood at the window, looking out over the courtyard.
“Penina, have a seat on the sofa,” he said without turning to acknowledge me.
Choked by trepidation, I crossed my arms and sat. “Is everything okay?”
I waited for him to say something. Finally, he cleared his throat.
“My need for you won’t go away. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to stay in the penthouse until we figure out what to do next,” he said.
I smashed my lips together, increasing tension. Boy, did he sound entitled to get what he wanted when he wanted it. “To do next?” I asked, shaking my head. “Do you remember last night?”
“Of course, Penina,” he said in a strained voice.
It was the perfect moment to share with him my idea of how we should proceed. But watching his towering presence and hearing his voice made me know for certain that I wouldn’t be able to give him my body and soul through sensual sex and not fall
in love with him. What was happening between Jake and me was different from any relationship I’d been in or contemplated. Something in me was drawn to him as if I had magnets in my heart, brain, and pussy that could only connect to Jake Sparrow.
“Then what do you want from me, Jake?” I sighed as I rose wearily to my feet, ready to leave at a moment’s notice. I was exhausted. We’d had a long surgery, a long night, and frankly, I would’ve been okay continuing our discussion the next day.
He finally turned around. His pale eyes beaming at me were translucent yet so opaque. Then he moved toward me, and not only had I forgotten how tired I was, but I neglected to breathe. Jake stopped in front of me. His presence washed over me, and I felt as though I were floating in the atmosphere on a perfect, cloudless, and warm day.
What is this feeling?
Is it …
It is …
He was home.
Our eye contact remained strong. The wings of butterflies fluttered in my chest and stomach.
Jake’s hands shot up but stopped short of coming down on my shoulders. Instead, he let his arms fall along his sides. “Penina, what you’ve suspected of me is clearly the case. I’m hiding a lot about myself. But I’m not ready to disclose what that is. I can’t. My life would change if I did, and I like my life, but not if you’re not in it.”
I shook my head slightly. Shit. He’d just confessed he indeed had secrets, and more importantly, he didn’t want to reveal them.
I scratched the back of my neck, coming up with a list of the sorts of secrets he might have that I could absolutely never accept. “Are you married?”
He chuckled. “No, Penina. I’m not married.”
“Have you committed murder?”
Seduction (The Secret Billionaire Asher Christmas Duet Book 1) Page 14