Page 40 of Sinful in Scrubs

This time, when I paused and looked at her, I think she realized I was asking about us. What was happening between Emma and me, not that I was fully aware of what was happening. We had sex in the hospital, in a break room, while on duty. Technically, what we did had been professional misconduct. It was one of the reasons it absolutely had to stay a secret. Even if a proper relationship developed between us, that little indiscretion was never to be revealed.

She took a long, slow inhale through her nose and then let out a heavy sigh. “He can be jealous and bitter,” she said, “but I don’t think he would. He’s probably only interested in messing with my job.”

She paused and shook her head, clearly thinking about the situation. She looked up at me, making eye contact. “He’s out of my life for a reason,” she said. “I don’t want there to be any excuse for him to think he can come back.”

We continued walking in silence for a while. We had stopped walking at some point, but stood there, and the conversation picked back up. We continued talking about inconsequential things. I wanted nothing more than to pull her to me. She was so beautiful, and I wanted to spend the rest of the night dancing with her. But if she couldn’t be back at the gala because this Kevin jerk was there, then I would be where she was.

“Well, this is me,” she finally said, pointing to the building we had stopped in front of. I wanted her to invite me upstairs, but that was going to be something she needed to do on her own, not because I pushed it.

“You do live close to the hospital,” I said. “I guess I didn’t quite realize just how close you were when you said you lived close to the hospital.”

“It’s a good apartment. Nothing as fancy as your brownstone, but it has everything I need, and it’s not one of those super-sized closets that pass as an apartment in New York,” she said. “I have a real living room and a separate bedroom. And it’s convenient.”

“Has Kevin been causing you problems in other parts of your life?” I asked.

“Are you asking if he stalks me?” She chuckled.

I nodded. It wasn’t information that I exactly needed to know, and I certainly didn’t need to know it right then. But I admitted I wasn’t ready for my time with her to be over this evening, and I was asking simply for an excuse to stand next to her and gaze at her. She was stunning in her gown, and there was something that felt like she belonged to me seeing her wrapped in my tux jacket. What I would give to see her in one of my button-down shirts and nothing else. I pushed down the lustful thought. It wasn’t welcome in this particular conversation.

“No, no,” she said. “He hasn’t done anything like that yet. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t expect it of him at any point in time. For now, he leaves me alone.”

“Good, good.” I nodded. I was running out of excuses and reasons to be this close to her.

“Well, if he ever does anything, you let me know, okay?” I said.

“And what?” She chuckled. “You’ll have a little chat with him? Trust me, the power he holds over me at my job is going to be the same he has with you at the hospital.”

“I wouldn’t be talking,” I admitted. “And I know how to invoke an ethics committee and a review board. He won’t get away with playing those kinds of games with me.”

“Did you know, Dr. Walker, that you can be very intimidating when you want to be?”

She stepped in close, and I gulped, not expecting my overreaction to elicit this response from her.

“If I knew that you liked to be intimidated,” I said, licking my lips, “maybe I should have…”

I growled a little louder.

Her laugh cut straight to my balls. Whatever I had just attempted—whether that was being sexy or intimidating or what—I did not know, but it had clearly failed epically. That had not been the reaction I had wanted.

“I do like you, Marcus,” she said. “You’re fun.”

“I like you too, Emma,” I said. “And I don’t like the idea that this man is causing problems for you.”

“He’s not. He just likes to think he is. But I appreciate your concern. I really do.”

I closed the gap between us and wrapped my arms around her, placing my lips firmly against hers.

“Good night, Emma,” I said, realizing that tonight was not going to be the night she invited me upstairs.

19

EMMA

Us? Right, I didn’t think so. There was no us, and yet here I was constantly thinking about there being an “us”, me and Marcus. That was a very bad idea, and I needed to stop thinking like that immediately.

I didn’t know how to let Marcus know that while I did like him, there was nothing going to happen between us. It just wasn’t a good idea, at least not while we worked at the same hospital, in the same department.

But there had to be a professional “us”. We had to work together, maybe not every day, but close enough, in the department, in surgery. And we had to start working on that intake protocol if there were ever going to be one.

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