Page 25 of Desired

He rests his head on his hand, leaning up on his elbow. “No offence, Moira, but are you the boss, or is she?”

“You don’t understand, Declan. Shana is like gold to me. I don’t know what I would do without her. She literally is my hero. I pay her well and she’s worth every penny. The simple, quick things that she asks me to do are nothing compared to the feats she pulls off for me.” I explain, grabbing my pajamas off the bedside table, tossing them over my head. “I worked thirty-six hours between yesterday and the day before. Shana kept the office impeccable, kept my patients happy, despite the fact that I was called to the hospital, and this one pile of mail is all that she’s asked of me. Just to go through it, because there are some things in there that say ‘confidential’, and she refuses to breach confidentiality, so she makes me skim through those envelopes first. She’s a woman of superior integrity and I don’t question it.”

I feel like I’m rambling, and I am, so I shut up, walk out to the living room to grab the mail, and I rejoin him in the bedroom. “Lass, you do realize that it’s six o’clock in the morning, right?”

“I need to get back to the hospital for my patient that went into labor early, Declan. If I don’t do this now there’s no telling when I’ll get to it.”

“It’s...mail, lass. It’s not urgent.” He pats the bed, and that’s when I notice the beautiful gold watch he’s wearing. “Come on, back to bed with you, then. You’re exhausted. And now I know for sure that you are, considering that you just told me you pulled thirty-six hours in the last two days.”

“Is that new?” I ask him, completely sidestepping his comment.

He follows my gaze. “Oh...aye. It belonged to my granddad.”

I get up and join him on the bed. “It’s bonnie, Declan. How come you’ve never worn it before? And why are you wearing it now?”

The look on his face is unreadable.

“I’m sorry. That’s probably a sore subject. I bet you miss him.”

“No, it’s not that, lass.” He says kindly, pulling me up so that I'm close to him. “I’ll be honest with you, Moira. I did something that I’m not too proud of.”

My face fills with concern. “Are you okay?”

He kisses my forehead. “Bless you for that. But I should warn you that when I tell you this, you might not be as kind to me.”

I wait, brows scrunching together slightly.

“My ex-girlfriend, Krystal, she reached out to me, telling me that she’s getting married, and that she has something that belongs to me. Fool for me for believing her and going to meet up with her. Turns out she was lying. My da had this watch the whole time. She just wanted to see me so that she could try to reconcile. As sick as that sounds.” He chuckles mirthlessly, looking at me with eyes so round it almost brings tears to my eyes.

I kiss his lips. “Why would you think that I’d be cross at you for that?”

He shrugs and frowns. “I’d be upset if you went to go see an old flame.”

I wrap my arms around him, pulling my body on top of his. “Well, I can’t say that I blame her, Declan. If I were an ex, I’d be fighting my way back to you, tooth and nail.”

Another chuckle, this time warmer, and his eyes are still soft. “Meeting up with her made me realize how much you mean to me.”

“Then I’m glad that you did.” I smile playfully. “I just wish that I was a fly on the wall to hear that conversation go down. You don’t strike me as a man that likes to be fucked with.”

“Aye.” He snuffles a laugh, agreeing with me. “She was told in not so many words to fuck all the way off, and never to bother me again.” I kiss him again, loving being this close to him. I could lay on top of him all day and never grow tired of it.

“And when I saw you here, waiting for me, it made me realize how much I missed you. I hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours, but I lost all sense of exhaustion just laying eyes on you, Declan.” I lay my head on his chest, and he rubs my back. “I guess I didn’t realize how much you mean to me, either.”

He kisses the top of my head. “What can I do to help you, lass. Can I help you go through your mail? I have no qualms about opening up confidential things, so long as they aren’t laced with arsenic or the anthrax virus.”

I can’t help but laugh as I lift my head. “Oh, so I should open those ones, should I?”

He frowns. “On second thought, you’re the one birthing bairns and saving lives. Maybe I should give them the sniff test first.”

After a playful slap, I get off him. “I’m sure they’re all just junk envelopes, anyway. I rarely get anything important through snail mail. It’s always an email or registered mail, and even then, the last time I received anything noteworthy was when I got my new medical license.”

I bring the mail over, tossing it on the bed. There are about ten envelopes of varying sizes, shapes and colors. “Okay, you take half.” I tell him, as I take the larger envelopes. “These are flyers and full letters from promotional companies, I'll bet.”

“And these are...oh, this one is a bill.” He says, handing me a bill for flowers I bought for Shana, for her birthday a couple of weeks ago.

“She’s shrewd.” I say, lifting a brow. “She ordered them herself, yet she wants me to think that I did.”

“Why didn’t she just pay for them by credit card?”

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