Page 72 of Doc

“You know my background. I’m a trust fund baby. I bought this house with money from said trust. The money Cristian pays me…half goes into an account to simply accumulate interest and sit there until I figure out what to do with it, the rest goes to the clinic. Cristian is very generous, and helped me build the place from the ground up, but it’s my baby, which means I take care of it, and the people who work there, as best I can.

“Anyway, I decided to become a doctor mostly because it was my parents’ wish. They wanted something distinguished for me, and so they set it all up and I went through the motions.”

He sighs and I hold him, letting him gather his thoughts, or his courage, content to sit with him as long as he needs. When he speaks again, his voice is soft in a way I’ve never heard before. “I started college at sixteen, did I tell you that?”

I shake my head. “No, never. I’m not surprised though. Under the bratty exterior is intelligence. I can’t imagine Cristian would have hired you if there wasn’t.”

“Yeah… So, I was young and experiencing the world for the first time without my parents hanging over my shoulder…and I started rebelling a bit. Mostly just sleeping around, learning about kink and what I liked, but it was freedom for the first time in my life.” I hold him a little tighter at that, imagining a young Doc going after everything he was forced to deny himself for so long.

“The summer before I started medical school though, I got caught. My boyfriend and I had just finished a scene, and I was dozing in my apartment when my parents showed up. He didn’t know any better, and I don’t blame him for anything, but he answered the door, thinking it was the food he ordered, and well…I’m sure you can imagine the shitstorm that went down.”

I wince, because it’s all too easy to picture. Emotions would have already been high at getting caught by people who wouldn’t tolerate your relationship, never mind the interrupted aftercare… It’s a miracle Doc wasn’t damaged, and is still willing to be so vulnerable when we play together. That just goes to show the trust he has for me.

Especially since our first official scene was in the middle of his family room. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that was the ultimate test and show of trust… Had anyone walked into theroom that day, how I reacted and took care of him would have been a make it or break it moment.

He sighs. “So, my parents tried to dictate who I could and could not date. They tried to tell me who I shouldbe, as if it was that easy to simply change something so fundamental about myself. I got reckless after that.”

“What do you mean?” Though I’m honestly not surprised by his words. Doc is a brat through and through, I can imagine it was a trait of his from the very beginning.

“I’d already had all my fun with sex and discovering kink in undergrad. The last thing I needed was to be cut off financially so close to entering medical school—which is what they threatened me with. I had money, but certainly not enough to afford the entire program, not yet at least, and they knew that.

“Despite them pushing me into it, I found I enjoyed what I was learning, and didn’t want it taken away from me. Spoiled rich kid, remember? I couldn’t fathom not having that type of financial backing… So I cooled it with the sex. Besides, I was getting older, and I wanted to find a Dom who wasmine. I wanted a relationship, so I was more choosy.” There’s pain in his voice now, and I turn my head to press a kiss to his temple.

I can hear what he’s not saying. The child, who was used as nothing more than a pawn in his parents’ ambition, wanted someone to love him unconditionally. I can sympathize with that.

“So, not quite quitting sex cold turkey, but I reined in my sluttiness.” I snort at that and he laughs a little. “What else could a rich kid do as a form of rebellion?” He lets out a long, deep sigh, as if it comes from his very soul. “I started pushing drugs. I knew where to go to get the in I needed. After all, I might have been a trust fund baby, but not everyone I went to school with was. They had to pay their bills by other means…and they were always looking for other unsuspecting people to recruit.”

“Jesus, Doc.”

He groans and presses his face into my neck. “Iknow, okay? I know it wasn’t the smartest move, but I was twenty, so ‘young and dumb’ applied greatly to me. I was so mad at my parents for trying to control every single aspect of my life. I had to do something, that was the only thing I could think of. Well, that or becoming a pornstar.”

I laugh and he shakes with his own laughter. “You’re crazy, you know that, right?”

“Yeah… I own up to my faults. But, it turns out, I was good at getting people to buy my shit. It brought me to the attention of the head guy in the area. At the time, I didn’t know how any of that shit worked. All I knew was I picked up the product at a certain time and place, handed over the money I made, and got a percentage of it. I didn’t know anything about the Families in the area, didn’t know that by selling what I was, I was essentially working for the Amatos.”

I can see where this is going and my stomach churns, knowing I won’t like the rest of this story.

“I don’t know how, but the people I was working for somehow found out who I was. They thought I was a joke, that I was some bored rich kid looking to make a quick buck because I simply wasn’t getting enough from Mommy and Daddy—their words. I mean, they were close but so wrong at the same time.

“Anyway, they ended up beating the shit out of me…and if it wasn’t for Cristian and Tennant doing an unexpected inspection—they were having issues with this particular dealer and wanted to surprise him, see if they could catch him doing something…unscrupulous. Don’t ask what that means because I have no idea what they really expected or were looking for.

“But they walked in and put an end to it all. Killed everyone there, and instead of leaving me for dead, they took me home with them.”

Silence permeates the room as we sit with his words. I kiss his head again, unsure how else to show my support, because anything I could say seems so…cheap and not enough.

“I was an idiot who kept my real ID on me, so they knew who I was. The hacker they had on their payroll at that time—not Hollis—found out a lot of stuff about my family, and so they knew everything.

“Don’t ask me why they kept me. I know Tennant was all for killing me. I was weak and half dead anyway, so it made sense in that psychopath’s head, but Cristian didn’t let him. Where Tennant only saw what the others did—a spoiled rich kid playing with things he didn’t fully understand—Cristian…he had other ideas and plans for me. To this day, I couldn’t tell you what he saw in me, but when I was strong and coherent enough to understand what was happening…he made a deal with me. The rest is history.”

I let his words tumble around in my head for a while before asking, “Really, that’s it? They saved your life and offered you a job?”

Doc sits up and we turn to face one another. He shrugs. “Pretty much. Trust me, it’s been twenty-two years and it still baffles me. I’m convinced it was one of Cristian’s last rebellions against his uncle before the fucker died; because shortly after the doc they had gave me the all clear, he died of a ‘heart attack’.”

I snort. “Yeah, sure, I believe that.”

“Right?” He rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t actually in medical school yet, so they had to deal with the medical assistant they had at the time, but when Cristian felt I had enough schooling under my belt, that assistant ‘moved to another state’. Mind you, I’d barely had a year of schooling when that went down.

“I won’t pretend to understand how Cristian’s mind works, even if I consider him one of my closest friends. I just know that without him, I don’t know where I’d be now.”

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