Page 57 of Dreamboat

“No.” I shake my head. “I trust that you didn’t ruin it for me, so I’ll read you a few chapters while we lounge in bed the next time I see you.”

“I’d like that.”

“Me too.” I kiss her one last time. “I’ll order you a rideshare.”

“I’m going to walk for a bit.” She looks toward the door. “The city is still a little quiet and I do love the park.”

“Be safe, Delia.”

“Always,” she whispers. “You too, Donovan. Don’t get bit today by any animals or their humans.”

I laugh. “I’m looking at the only human who is allowed to bite me. Not my cock mind you, but my shoulder is fair game. You already know that.”

She taps the middle of my chest in a tame slap. “You were drilling your big cock into me so hard I had to bear down. It’s not my fault your shoulder was in biting distance.”

“I’m not complaining.” I hold her hand in place so she can feel the beat of my heart. “I consider the marks you left a reminder of what I have to look forward to the next time I see you.”

The sound of my phone ringing sends her gaze to my suit jacket. “You’re needed, Dr. Hunt.”

I slide it out to see the clinic’s overnight answering service is calling. That can only mean one thing. I’m going to need to tend to a patient before we officially open.

“I’ll leave you to it.” She opens the door to my home and the pinkish-orange glow of the morning sunrise floods in. “Have a great day.”

I kiss her again in response before she skips down the concrete steps and sets off on foot.

Four hours later I walk into the break room of the clinic and I’m instantly assaulted with words I do not want to hear.

“Delia is thinking about heading back to Portugal,” Matt tells Matilda.

“She was there late last year, right?” she asks, tilting her head. “For a few weeks.”

“Months,” he corrects her. “She went to see a friend. I have a feeling she’s going back soon.”

I was following her online when she took that trip. She didn’t post much while she was there, but there were enough photos of her with a woman named Zelle for me to know that a man wasn’t the person that drew her there.

Delia is obviously free to do as she chooses. I have no standing in her life to request that she stay on this side of the ocean, but if she’s headed in that direction, I may need to clear my schedule for a week or two so I can plan a trip to Europe, too.

“Why do you feel that?” I try to enter the conversation without seeming obvious about it but as soon as the question leaves me, and I hear it out loud, I regret it.

“Instinct.” Matt taps the center of his forehead. “That and the fact that her friend reached out to her a couple of hours ago. She was a mess. I happened to call Delia right after she talked to that friend and I could hear the concern in her voice.”

Concern and a trip to another continent are two very different things.

I’m going to hold off on pushing my future surgeries on Matthew and Carolyn until Delia tells me if she’s getting on a flight bound for Portugal.

Jesus. I already have it bad for her. I need to pace myself.

“I thought instinct like that was only an identical twin thing.” Matilda laughs. “I know all about that because I am one.”

“Me too.” Matt raises a hand in the air.

Me three, but no one in this room knows that and I don’t plan on sharing that with either of them ever.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Delia

“Matty is spreading a rumor that you’re going to Portugal,” Callum says as he stands when I enter the café I agreed to meet him at.

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