Page 123 of Undeniably Enemies

“Yes. He married a wealthy woman with a good social standing, but what Vander learned was that during his intern year of residency, there were two complaints against him. One from a patient and one from a nurse, both alleging sexual assault. His wife paid it off and essentially used her family connections to bury these two people. After that, he switched programs up to Boston, and Mrs. Marshall keeps him on a tight leash as best she can. Vander thinks she has something else on him that she holds over his head to keep him in line, but he didn’t have enough time to find it.”

He tilts his head and studies me, his eyes dancing about my face. “And you presented this information to the board.”

“I went in this morning and told them what happened with you, but I also told them that prior to this and while I was a student, Dr. Marshall had touched my ass on two occasions—which is true—and that it made me uncomfortable. Often as a student, we don’t feel comfortable speaking up about our superiors, but I’d heard rumors about him, and after what happened to me with my ex, it troubled me. I told them I started digging into him back then and showed them what I found, but they don’t have to know the timeline of it.”

“Let me guess, they had no knowledge of any of this?”

I shake my head. “None. Marshall and his wife did a good job of burying his past. His arrest didn’t show up on the background check the hospital did, and the other situation was bought and paid for. Both of their families have big money, and big money knows how to cover its tracks.”

“And because you’re Wren Fritz, no one questioned how you were able to dig this up,” he surmises, and I shrug.

“Would you? Even if you didn’t know about Vander?”

“No. I wouldn’t.” He blows out a breath, a plume of white vapor shooting out into the cold November morning as he stares out at the choppy water.

“I told them I wasn’t there to speak to their decision on chief, but that I wanted them to know all the facts. And I told them my account of our relationship so they heard it from the student’s mouth.”

He turns back to me. “Wren, you took a huge risk in there.”

I step forward and tuck myself against him because I’m cold despite his coat on my shoulders, and he has to be even colder without it. “You were worth the risk, and I’m sorry I didn’t see that from the start. I should have. I shouldn’t have been so afraid to tell everyone that you’re mine. After what happened to me, my family likes to interject themselves into everything I do and how I do it, and I didn’t want that to touch what we hadgoing. But I’m not a little girl anymore, and I need to start acting like it.”

He smiles down at me. “You’re a lot younger than me.”

“That’s because you’re old.”

He chuckles and bends to kiss me, his cold lips and hot mouth devouring, and I melt into him. “You need to get back.”

“Actually, Katy and Bennett gave me the day off. It’s nice to have friends who are also your temporary bosses and teachers.”

“Does that mean I can take you home?”

“You better. I’m freezing.”

Another searing kiss, and then he has my hand and is leading me back toward the garage where our cars are parked.

“What do you think will happen?” I ask as we reach my car.

He shrugs. “I have no clue. I honestly don’t. I don’t think anything will happen to my job, especially now that we’ve both explained that we didn’t get together until after you were finished as my student. More than that, I couldn’t say.”

“Katy knows about us.”

He gives me a lazy grin. “I know. I told her.”

“But you realize that means Owen will know.”

“No.” He shakes his head and opens my door for me so I can climb in. “She told me she wouldn’t say anything so that I could be the one to tell him.”

I sigh. “Our moms are going to love this. We won’t be able to casually date or be together. They’ll practically thrust us down the aisle and map out our babies’ names.”

He laughs. “Now you know why Owen and Estlin kept quiet for as long as they did.” He leans in and kisses me. “I hate to break it to you, Cinderella, but we haven’t been casually dating or together. It’s only been a few weeks, so I’m certainly not thinking of marriage and babiesyet, but you’re high if you think what we have is casual and easy to get out of.”

“So clingy,” I tease.

“I already told you I was.” Another kiss. “I’ll follow you home.”

“I don’t like stalkers.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “You’re such a fucking brat.”

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