Page 29 of The Doctor's No-Strings Deal

It was close to the end of their shift, so she passed by and squeezed his arm.

He turned to her and muttered, “Meet me in the garage.”

Megan finished her shift with the kind of urgency she usually reserved for finals week, except all she wanted to do was get to the end of her day. When she was done, she made a beeline for her locker, changed her clothes, and headed straight for the garage. Charlie waited for her there, leaning casually against the concrete wall by his car.

“I sent George to lunch,” he explained. He opened the back door and gestured for her to get in. Megan slid into the back and he climbed in after her, closing the car door behind him.

“Isn’t this kind of…”

“Public?” he said. “The windows are extremely tinted.”

“I was going to say cliché.” She leaned back along the seats as he crawled over her. “But sure, public.”

“Getting tired of the quickies?” he asked, kissing her throat. “We could go to my place one night. Take our time again.”

“That sounds—” She caught her breath as he brought his hand between her legs and pressed down in just the right spot. How he could do that with such ease was a mystery Megan never wanted to solve. She found her words again and finished. “That sounds wonderful.”

“Wonderful,” he echoed, and kissed her lips while he carefully removed her clothes. “In the meantime, let’s make the most of this spacious interior.”

As soon as she was naked, he moved over her and penetrated with a level of aggression she hadn’t seen since that first night. She was more than ready for him, and he for her it seemed. The sex was hot and fast and powerful. There was no chance the car wasn’t noticeably rocking, but Megan was in a place where shecouldn’t care if she wanted to. It seemed they’d both let too much desire built up by taking a few days off.

They both finished early and easily. Within minutes of putting her clothes back on, Megan was ready for more. Clearly, keeping a healthy distance from each other wasn’t really working. She regretted suggesting it, but what was done was done.

“This isn’t ideal,” she admitted. “We need to see each other outside of work to avoid affecting our residency.”

Charlie nodded. “Agreed. Let me take you to dinner tonight.”

Megan shook her head. “I meant in bed, not at dinner.”

“Oh, come on.” He finished buttoning his shirt and pulled his jacket over his shoulders. “If we’re going to extend our agreement to outside the hospital, we’ll need to amend our rules and regulations. Best done on neutral turf…” He shrugged. “Over dinner.”

As much as she wanted to, Megan couldn’t find any reasonable way to disagree with that. “Fine. Let’s go out and discuss a new plan. But that’s the only reason we’re going out. This is not a date, understand? I repeat — not a date.”

Charlie nodded. “Well understood. It’s all business. I have no desire to wine and dine the enemy.”

Megan snorted and laughed.The enemy. He was so dramatic. Charlie stepped out of the car when he saw George approaching, and Megan watched as he gave instructions to his driver. Just seeing him out there, knowing he was hers in some way, made Megan proud. She almost didn’t want it to end. Months ago, she wouldn’t have thought she’d be craving the company of someone she supposedly hated so much, but here she was, missingCharlie Sullivan when he wasn’t around, excited to have dinner with him and hash out more rules. As much as she insisted it wasn’t a date, she had to admit there was a teeny-tiny part of her that kind of, sort of wished it was.

CHAPTER 14

CHARLIE

Having Megan Bright in his apartment was making Charlie happier than he thought reasonable, considering the circumstances. She sat at his breakfast bar and ate a deconstructed cake out of one wine glass while drinking rosé out of another. Tonight, he’d wanted to wine and dine her before spending hours in bed with her, taking it as slow as possible. He wanted to watch her savor what he had to give her, all of it.

As an excuse, he had used his own pride, telling her he needed to remind her how good he was, that he would always be better than every other partner she had after him. But really, he just liked to watch her when she felt amazing. It made him happy for some reason.

He was doing dishes from the dinner he’d made for both of them — enjoying her compliments about his cooking, and looking forward to enjoying her compliments about the rest of what he planned to do for her — when his doorbell rang. Who could it be at this hour, he wondered. He wasn’t expecting any guests,and he wasn’t the type to forget any guests he might have been expecting either.

“Hang on,” he said to Megan as he went to answer the door. Much to his immense disappointment, the person on the other side was his father.

“Charlie,” his father said when Charlie opened the door. “I’m glad you’re up. We need to talk.”

Oh, this never went well. Never, in his entire life, did his father sayingwe need to talkend in his favor, but he didn’t dare turn his own father away.

“All right,” Charlie said. “I was a little busy, but come on in.”

“This won’t take long.” And he pushed past Charlie into the apartment. The main thing Jon Sullivan seemed to never quite understand was personal boundaries — or at least, honoring his son’s personal boundaries. Charlie often wondered whether his older brother had the same problem, or was he given a level of respect Charlie hadn’t yet earned?

His father led the way into his dining room, and Charlie had a momentary panic attack about how he was going to explain Megan’s presence in his apartment. He knew his father didn’t want him dating, let alone dating the competition. But when he turned the corner, he saw that Megan wasn’t there anymore. She must have made her way back to his bedroom. He would have to remember to thank her later.

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