Page 16 of The Doctor's No-Strings Deal

“A bone?”

“That’s what I said,a bone. Your attitude is the worst. We’re supposed to be working together, all of us, and you… you just act like you’re the only one here. And maybe you’re right that we’rein competition, so you’re uncomfortable talking to us casually in the hospital, but you can’t even come over on our off hours andsay hello, good game, whatever?” She glared hard at him, but Charlie didn’t seem bothered by her anger. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it more than anything. She was sure she saw him pinch his lips to hide a smile a second ago.

“Hello,” he said, still fighting a smile. “Good game. Whatever.”

Megan felt her cheeks heat up and knew she was blushing up a storm. She hid it as best she could by increasing her already overexaggerated rage. “Whatever you think, Dr. Sullivan, this is not a joke. I am not a joke! Okay? I’m dead serious here. You have a bad, bad attitude, and it’s going to affect your performance one day, since that’s all you seem to care about. Funny how you chose to be a doctor despite hating people so much. Have you ever thought of going into stocks and bonds?”

She’d been poking him in his chest to make her point, and he caught her hand with a deep sigh. “Why don’t we take this conversation outside, so we can both say what we really mean without bothering the other patrons.”

She protested. “Iamsaying what I really mean.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes,” she snapped, yanking her hand away, “I am. You think you know me so well.”

“Come on.” He took her by the wrist again and began pulling her toward the door.

Megan got up halfheartedly. “But my drink…”

“Trust me,” he said, still tugging her toward the door, “you don’t need it.”

He pulled her outside while she stumbled after him. “If I don’t get to drink it, you’re paying for it.”

“I’m already paying for it,” he said. “I was telling the bartender to put your table on my tab. That’s why I hadn’t come over to say hello yet.”

“More lies,” Megan grumbled, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure. The one thing she could say for certain about Charlie Sullivan was that he never ceased to surprise her. “Why?” she finally asked when he stopped walking under a streetlamp. “Why would you pay for all of us? You don’t even like us.”

He smirked at her. “Because you’re all so poor it depresses me, and I didn’t feel like being depressed tonight.”

“More lies,” she said, poking him in the chest again. “It’s like all you ever do is?—”

He yanked her closer under the streetlamp, and before she could get another word out, his mouth was on hers. The kiss shocked her so much that she didn’t react at first. Then she tensed. Then she went limp in his arms. He kept kissing her, and for some reason, it made her feel like she’d just had three more drinks. Megan couldn’t decide whether to pull away and demand to know why he was doing this or just let herself enjoy the probably once-in-a-lifetime high of being kissed by a man who supposedly hated her. And she hated him, too, didn’t she?

He was a jerk, a grouch, a loner. He was everything she thought she disliked. Then again, she’d never been kissed like this in her life, and she was quickly losing her resolve to make him stop. How could such a cold fish be so damned passionate. Just when she’d decided to let him go on kissing her forever, he pulled back.

“Why?” she murmured, still hanging from his neck.

His eyes were on fire, but he answered, “I had to shut you up before you made a fool of yourself.”

“No.” She stood on her toes and pulled him back down. “Why’d you stop?”

“Because the kiss did its job. I wouldn’t want to kiss you any more than I had to.”

Megan scowled and dropped back onto her heels. “Fine. I didn’t want to kiss you either.”

“You seemed to enjoy it all right.”

“That was just the alcohol,” she said.

He bent a bit closer. “You only had one drink.”

His lips were inches from hers again, and she wanted so badly to kiss him even harder than he had kissed her. Instead, she managed to say, “Studies show there are no safe levels of alcohol, you know.”

“Better not have a second, then.”

She shook her head. “No. Better not.”

CHAPTER 8

---