Page 6 of Daddy's Double Surprise

“Yeah, fine,” I snipped, leaving the condom to clean up later. I stood up and flushed, washed my hands, then took my time dressing in my bikini. The strings tangled and confused me, but I fumbled my way out into the bedroom where Carter was fully dressed with my cover-up in hand.

“You ready?” he asked. He was such a gentleman, offering me his arm. He could’ve just ditched me and went back to the party, but he waited. It made me smile.

“Yesss,” I slurred with a grin, and he walked me out the door and down the hallway. We had to smell like sex, but no one paid much attention. “I need another drink.”

“I think you’ve had way too much, and maybe you should sober up a bit first,” he commented, just as we bottomed out on the steps near the kitchen.

I was about to offer a reply when I saw Dad with a beer in hand and a brooding expression. His eyes rose when he saw me with Carter and then he smiled.

“I see you’ve met,” he said, and Carter grinned impishly.

“You could say that,” Carter hummed. I pulled away from him and walked toward the fridge.

“Met?” I asked absently, pulling the fridge door open. I knew there were a few seltzer drinks in here somewhere.

“Yes, and I’m glad. You two should take some time to get to know each other if you’ll be working together.” Dad’s words flew by me in a swirl of energy that went straight over my head as I reached for the seltzer and opened it. I let the fridge shut and slurped the first drink as I looked at Carter, who was now white as a sheet.

“Rick, I…” Carter looked peckish. He shook his head and Dad looked at me.

“Wait…Work together?” I asked, Dad’s words finally catching up to my drunken brain.

“Yes, Soleil. This is Dr. Carter Price, your new boss.”

I dropped the can, and it sloshed its contents all over my legs and Dad’s shoes. What had I done? I just slept with my dad’s best friend—and my new boss?

4

CARTER

Isat in the clinic break room nursing my cup of morning caffeine, letting the sunlight that snuck in through the blinds on the window warm me. I should’ve been paying closer attention to Jackson as he spoke about the rise in concerning patient behavior, but I couldn’t get my mind off of what happened at Rick’s party only two days ago.

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be feeling right now. Part of me wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened, to bury it all under layers of professionalism. But the other part of me—the part that had a pulse—couldn’t stop thinking about it. She had an effect on me, like a spark just waiting to light up everything around her, and set it on fire, and I had been in the blast zone when she detonated. Just thinking of it brought a grin to my lips that I hid behind the plain white ceramic mug.

“I just had another patient on Saturday ask me about joining a trial again.” Jackson shook his head and ran a hand through his floppy brown hair. We’d been working at this low-cost clinic together for the past few years after I hired him to help lead. Not only was he a great doctor but he was a good friend, and a veryethical man. I was proud to have him by my side, especially with strange things like this happening.

“It’s so strange that suddenly we have people who sometimes barely speak English walk in here and ask for that. It’s like someone somewhere is telling them it’s a good idea.” My mouth moves on autopilot as I talk; my mind is elsewhere, replaying the conversation with Sunny over in my head. When Rick caught us together, she covered like a pro, telling him I was lost and she showed me to the bathroom. I saw suspicion in his eyes, but he didn’t question her.

“I wonder if a different clinic is pulling a fast one, and these people heard about it and came to us?” Jackson shook his head again and leaned back in his chair so that only two legs were on the ground. “It’s sort of a crappy thing to do to people, if you ask me. They’re already poor and sick, and then people prey on them.”

“Yeah,” I muttered absentmindedly. I heard the chime of the front door opening and sucked in a deep breath, holding it inside my lungs to expand them and relieve some tension.

Soleil Douglas, whom I quickly found out was actually Sunny—the woman I slept with impulsively—walked through the door. I could see her on the security feed, the monitor mounted on the break room wall. She looked around our empty reception area, and then her eyes locked on the camera mounted conspicuously above the front desk in the corner of the room. Those same illustrious hazel eyes that seduced me so easily made my body warm to a balmy temperature even through closed-circuit TV.

“In here!” Jackson shouted, letting his chair slam to the ground hard. The noise was startling, forcing my tension to creep back up. Sleeping with my best friend’s daughter had been a huge blunder, but even now, with a clear mind and in a professional setting, I found her just as attractive as I had at the party. She was stunning.

We both stared up at the monitor as Soleil made her way around reception and through the door. I heard the door latch down the hall and braced myself for seeing her in person again. Jackson was ignorant of the whole thing. To him, Sunny was just another person coming to help out around the clinic—a CNP with a bit of experience even, another fact I had no knowledge of before my romp with her.

“New girl is hot,” he said under his breath and fanned himself while letting his mouth hang open like a dog panting.

“Behave,” I grumbled as I stood, already feeling a pinch of jealousy in my chest. Jackson was allowed to find her attractive; she was a free woman. I had no claim or right to stake it. So why did I feel possessive, as if he was moving in on my personal property?

She breezed into the room and set her satchel down on the table in front of us. Her long dark hair was tied up in a loose ponytail, makeup neatly applied to her face, and she smelled like raspberries in summer, lips shimmering with freshly applied gloss I instantly wanted to taste.

“Welcome, Soleil, this is Jackson,” I said, gesturing. She glanced at him, but the bubbly, happy girl I expected was more stoic, bordering on melancholy as she reached out her hand. He didn’t even have the decency to stand in the lady’s presence, and I shot him a glower as he reached for her hand in return.

“Welcome to the team, Sunshine,” Jackson said, gripping her hand hard. “Doc tells me you’re ready for action.” He wagged his eyebrows, playfully jesting at her, and I swore the color drained from her face.

“Thank you. I’m here to work, yes.” Sunny’s eyes shifted to meet my gaze, and chemistry sizzled between us before she turned away to glance around the room. There was nothing fancy about it—plain white walls, Formica-topped table, metal chairs, a small kitchenette with a fridge and a sink, microwaveto the side, and a bookshelf where magazines sat haphazardly, some of them dangling off the edge of the shelves.

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