Page 91 of The Doctor's Truth

So I have to ask… “What happened?”

She sizes me up. “What has he told you?”

I shrug. “Not a lot.” I consider it. “I think…it probably hurts to talk about.”

“Coming together was quite simple,” she says. “My father runs Oxim, a multimillion-dollar pharmaceutical company. He worked closely with Mr. King. Our arrangement was good for business.” She tips her glass of wine to her lips. “Naturally, it helped that Jason is a fox. More than that, he’s a sweetheart. Not many of those left.”

I can’t help but grin at that. “Yeah. He is all of those things.”

“We were good for a time. But ultimately, he wanted something I can’t give him.”

“Mm.” I nod knowingly. “A penis.”

She arches a perfect eyebrow. “No. A heart.”

“Oh.”

Well—that one feels like a punch in the tits.

Nadine continues. “My career always comes first. And I would do anything to get what I wanted. I couldn’t date a man who prioritized me above all. The dynamic was…uneven.”

“Huh.”

The conversation has taken a turn. I feel a strange knot twisting in my throat, and I take a swallow of wine to push it back. The heat from the open flames feels too hot suddenly, and I can feel myself grow flushed. I want to jump into the enclosed pool. Let the icy water chill me until I don’t feel anything at all.

Nadine looks at me, and her perfect smile returns. “He seems happy with you, though. Perhaps I was the caustic bitch he needed to get over to find someone like you.”

Or maybe he traded one caustic bitch for another.

We’re interrupted by a hiss—the sound of the sliding glass doors opening and shutting.

“So this is where the party is.” Donovan’s voice breaks through the haze of my self-loathing, and immediately, I feel my spirits lift.

He and Jason come over to join us. Donovan takes one of the chairs across from us, but I’m feeling needy. I take Jason’s hand and give it a squeeze. Rather than pulling away, he leans into it, perching on the arm of my chair and moving his hand to my back. “You good?” he asks.

“Mmhm,” I hum, leaning my head on his thigh. I feel small and safe here.

Donovan has a bottle of red dangling from his fingers. He pours himself a glass, and when Nadine extends her own glass, he tops her off as well.

“What have you boys been up to?” Nadine asks.

Donovan’s dark eyes swoop over Jason intently. “We just had a heart-to-heart.”

With my cheek pressed to Jason’s thigh, I noticed his pants are black—weren’t they blue when we came to dinner? “Did you change pants, or am I going crazy?” I ask.

“We had a wine spill,” Donovan answers. “He had to rub it out.”

Even in the dying light of the sunset, I can see Jason go bright red, his ears positively pink.

Jason changes the topic. “What’ve you girls been talking about?”

“You, mainly,” Nadine says—which isn’t a lie. “Your Kenzi is a real charmer, here. I would hold on to her, if I were you.”

“Because you’re so good at that,” Donovan adds, a sharpness in his tone. “Holding on to things.”

She purses her lips. “Donovan, aren’t you and I ever going to be friends?”

“Don’t count on it.”

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