Page 7 of Daddy's Double Surprise

“We’re glad to have you.” My stiff smile was the most I could offer professionally. Meanwhile, my body felt the pull of her gravity. Her crisp green scrubs complimented her warm complexion and dark hair, hugging her thick curves like a glove. I had a hard time getting control of my physical reaction to her.

“Well, I’ll show you around,” I said when she didn’t respond, and she nodded curtly. Rick had told me she was struggling with something, but not any of the details. Her slumped posture and lack of smile communicated just that. It made me wonder what she was thinking or what it was she was struggling with, and it made me want to help. Of course, it was my natural inclination to always want to help, which was the reason I became a doctor in the first place, but this felt more personal, maybe because she was Rick’s daughter.

Jackson stayed planted in his seat, waiting for the clock to come around to the top of the hour when our first patients would begin arriving, and I ushered Sunny into the hallway. She followed me as I gave her a tour of the office and exam rooms.

“Of course you’ve seen reception. We have a retired schoolteacher who comes in to help with that four days a week.” I gestured at the door to reception and kept going. Sunny tipped her eyebrows up in acknowledgment but said nothing. “Here is my office. Kinda cramped, but I never use it anyway.” I pressed my palm to my office door and nodded at the open doorway. Sunny glanced in and sighed hard. It felt to me like she’d rather be anywhere else but here, but I tried not to let it get me discouraged.

Rick told me she needed this, and I was doing him a favor by hiring her. She was welcome as long as she did her job well and ethically, even if she was a bit sullen. Maybe all the alcohol inher system on Saturday had made her the happy, bubbly woman I met.

“These are the exam rooms, three of them, but we can open up the storage closet at the end of the hallway and clean it out to make a fourth if we need to.” I smiled and pressed the door open into an exam room. Sunny ducked into it and I flicked a glance at the camera before following her in. Inside an exam room was the only place the cameras couldn’t reach, and with as tense and awkward as things were between us right now, I felt we could use a moment of privacy.

After that quickie on what I later learned was her bed, we barely spoke. Rick introduced us properly and I was a bumbling idiot, which I blamed on the drinking. Sunny covered for me beautifully by refilling my glass a few times and allowing me to drown my nerves in sweet tangy alcohol, and when Rick brought the real woman he invited to set me up with, Sunny vanished. I spotted her a few times watching, looking a bit miffed. Maybe that was what this was about?

That woman and I had nothing in common, and even she told me Rick was meddling. We laughed it off though, and I tried as hard as I could to get his daughter out of my head.

“This is nice…Kinda simple, but it looks like it’ll do the trick. So, do I get one exam room as my own? Are there nurses to help?” Sunny spun around to face me as I stepped farther into the room away from the door, closer to her. She had the whole professional act down; meanwhile I was throbbing, unable to keep my eyes from ogling her curves.

“No nurses—Look, Sunny, we should talk.” I gulped in a breath and scratched my chin, then shoved the cuffs of my button-down shirt up. Then realizing I was going to wrinkle my shirt if I kept doing that, I tugged them back into place.

“About?” she said, and her hand rose to find her ponytail. Just like the other day, she twirled her finger in her dark strands of hair and leaned her head to the side.

“You know what about…” A grin tugged at the corner of my mouth and I let it blossom into a full smile. “God you’re beautiful.”

Sunny chuckled and batted her eyelashes at me and her hand dropped. Then she crossed her arms under her breasts and pushed them up a little as she said, “Is that what you want to talk about?”

“Uh, God, no.” I crammed a hand through my hair and huffed a breath out my nostrils. “Are we going to have a problem? I mean…Is it going to cause a problem that we…”

“You want to know if we can work together? If I can be professional after the way you drank from my core like you were a dying man in a desert and I was the oasis?” Her tone shifted to sultry and playful and made my dick throb even harder. I’d have to hide in this room until it went down.

“I mean…Well, yes.” Blinking hard, I had to look away from her. She was intoxicating, and it was dangerous for me to feel this attracted to her. Not only was she fifteen years younger than me, but she was Rick’s daughter, and from what he said, she was vulnerable right now. If throwing herself at me while being drunk didn’t prove that to my moral compass, nothing would.

Sunny walked over to me and splayed her hand on my chest, standing a little too close for comfort, but not touching me anywhere else. “I can be very professional at work, Dr. Price. But what happens after hours—well, that stays between us, right?” She winked at me and walked toward the door, letting her manicured fingers trail across my white shirt until they dropped off.

The door out front chimed again, announcing our first patient of the day, and I stood there like a buffoon willing mycock to deflate. She swore she could do this professionally, but if she had that effect on me in such a short interchange without any flirting at all, how could I do this professionally?

The last thing I wanted to do was to tell Rick it wouldn’t work. That would bring up too many questions.

5

SUNNY

Luna added another stack of cute shirts to the pile in my arms, weighing me down, making me snicker. We were out on an impromptu shopping trip after I finally caved in and decided I was definitely staying in LA with Mom and Dad for a while. I’d left almost all of my things in Tampa, and I wasn’t going to fly back to pack them up and bring them here. I couldn’t very well survive with the few outfits I brought along with me.

“I can’t believe Dad gave you his credit card and told you to buy what you want.” Luna’s eyes were bigger than my arms. She hefted a few more shirts onto the pile for me to try on and I stepped away.

“Hold on. I’m not buying the whole store,” I snickered. Then I tossed my hair over my shoulder and hugged the shirts to my chest. “I think Dad’s just trying to get on my good side again. He knows I’m only here because of Mom and after things with Kira.” I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth at the mention of my late best friend. I still wasn’t used to her being gone. But having my little sister back in my life was pleasant.

“Say what you will, but as much money as we both know Mom and Dad have, he’s never spoiled me like this.” She pluckedanother shirt off the rack and held it up, shaking it. “Just one for me. He’ll never know.” She winked and I snickered again, turning toward the dressing rooms.

Luna followed on my heels like a puppy dog, carrying her one shirt to the at least twenty in my arms. The hangers clanked together as I moved.

“So what’s it like working for Dr. Price? My God, isn’t he dreamy?” Luna’s singsong tone made me smile. She wasn’t at my party last Saturday, too busy with finals at UCLA to pry herself away from things and show up for me, but I didn’t blame her. I knew her class load was intense, and she was working hard toward her degree.

If she’d have been around, she’d know what happened. Luna and I gabbed like best friends most of the time, but I hadn’t spoken with her about Carter or what happened that day. My cheeks burned as I thought about it, his hands on me, the way his tongue worked my core to a frenzy and had my toes curling.

“What?” she asked, pushing me.

I grinned and shrugged one shoulder, stopping just inside the dressing room and leaning on the wall. “Nothing,” I said giddily, trying hard to suppress the blush warming my cheeks. I knew I was going to tell her everything, and she knew it too.

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