Page 11 of Diavolo

His gaze turned dark as he regarded her with unmasked interest. "There is no need. I should be the one apologizing."

Elyse's breath caught. "For what?"

"Almost breaking down your door."

Green eyes grew round. It appeared that he knewexactlywhat she'd been doing during her shower. Heat pulsed between her legs. Desire thrummed stronger and steadier than ever. Fuck.

Politely, he drawled, "My offer still stands,angelo."

Which offer? The one when he proposed to remove Stefano and Mikey from her life, or the one when he volunteered to repay her kindness by fucking her senseless? Instantly, Elyse's overheated mind conjured up wicked imaginings of his mouth on her cunt, of his cock hitting the back of her throat, of her legs wrapped around his waist as he pounded her to oblivion—

Coughing, she decided it was time to change the subject. "Are you hungry?"

His jaw clenched."Starving."

"I can make some breakfast."

"I doubt that will satisfy me."

"It won't?"

He smiled like a wolf. "I want something else."

The bastard looked like he wanted to eather. Feeling flushed and flustered, Elyse purposely played dumb. "I'll go fry some eggs andchorizoon the pan. It's delicious. I think you'll like it."

Before he could convince her otherwise, she dashed into the kitchen. Her self-restraint was shaky at best. She didn't trust herself to stand so close to him. As Elyse brushed past the man, she saw his face flash with disappointment. Regret pulsed in her as well. But neither of them pressed the matter any further over breakfast.

On day four, her patient started acting even less like a patient. He was able to move around the apartment with a surprising amount of ease. His recovery was nothing short of miraculous. She'd never seen anything like it in her career. He was a true freak of nature. Such a robust recovery, however, proved to be a double-edged sword. Alongside his improving health, the man grew bolder. Shamelessly so. This troublesome behavior,coupled with the fact that his condition no longer required round-the-clock monitoring, prompted Elyse to move back to her bedroom. She kept her door locked at night and let him sleep on her couch. Elyse didn't trust him. The man was too tempting. Too willing. A dangerous combination.

After the shit he pulled with the sponge bath, Elyse declined to help him with any subsequent bathing activities, and, after her naughty fantasies in the shower, she no longer trusted herself around him, either.

Moreso than the other delinquents Stefano had delivered to Elyse's apartment, the brown-and-blue-gray-eyed man was leaving a lasting impression on her. This growing attachment alarmed Elyse, prompting her to give Stefano the green light to collect the bastard. The sooner he left, the better. Elyse couldn't afford to lose her head over a man with questionable intentions and even more questionable ties toCosa Nostra. Her life was already in shambles because of Stefano and Mikey.

At times, Elyse wondered how she hadn't buckled from the stress of it all. For years,Papàhad struggled to settle his gambling debts. Her mother was no help. The woman disappeared when Elyse was a baby. Once she became a teenager, Elyse contributed whenever possible through part-time jobs and scholarships. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried to get ahead, father and daughter started falling behind on payments, and the compounding interest began to snowball out of control.

A year ago, they hit rock bottom.Papàcrashed into a drunk driver while coming home from work.The collision didn't kill her father, but it left him paralyzed and unresponsive. Within the same month, Stefano and Mikey tracked down Elyse and strong-armed her into taking over her father's monthly payments. They knew, after years of toiling in med school, she'd finally landed a high-paying job as a surgeon. Fromthere, Elyse inherited a string of catastrophes overnight. The sequence of these ill-fated events felt beyond suspicious even though Stefano and Mikey insisted that they had nothing to do withPapà'saccident.

Money had since become the root of all the evils in her existence. Money—and the lack of it—was the reason why she couldn't afford to lose her job at the hospital. Elyse was pulling in six figures a year at Sawyer Memorial, but, each month, the payments to Stefano and Mikey left her strapped for cash. There was barely enough leftover to cover her bills and student loan balance. A few strands of her dark brown hair turned white.

Now that her patient was unlikely to die without supervision, Elyse needed to get her ass back in the ER before her Chief of Surgery, Dr. Frank Schwartz, chewed her out for missing so many days in a row. As though the universe could read minds, Elyse's phone began to ring. She checked the caller ID.Speak of the devil.

Anxiously, she picked up the call. "Hello, Dr. Schwartz. What can I do for you today?"

With the phone pressed to her ear, Elyse started pacing around the kitchen. The brown-and-blue-gray-eyed man was sitting in the living room. His eyes were focused on his phone, staring and scrolling intently at the small rectangular screen, but she could feel his attention edge toward her. He was probably eavesdropping. Elyse didn't want to let him know anything about her private or professional life. To be safe, she retreated to her bedroom to finish her phone conversation.

By the time Elyse re-emerged from her bedroom, her face appeared pale and apprehensive. He glanced over. "Everything alright?"

"Everything's fine," she replied in a small voice.

Everything had gone to shit.

He looked unconvinced. "Who were you talking to on the phone?"

"My supervisor."

Dr. Schwartz had just asked for her resignation. The impromptu sick days and family emergencies caught up to her at last, and, it seemed, the last four days of work she missed were the final straw.

"From the hospital?"

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