Page 82 of The Potter

Her free hand comes to rest on my cheek. “I’m not asking you to change me, I’m asking you to allow my body to serve as a reminder that I made it. I didn’t break. I didn’t quit. I endured, and I came out the other side more beautiful than I ever imagined.”

She gives me a smile that, if she hadn’t been successful in breaking me before, would have obliterated me with the mere sight. “I’m asking you to finish this for me. Close the last of my wounds with your hands.”

“What if I can’t?” My heart has picked back up with its racing pace.

“You can. I believe in you.”

I close my eyes, fighting the urge to be an asshole and push her away. I want to give her what she needs, but I’m not sure that I can.

“I can’t even go into the room, Peach.”

It’s something I’ve never admitted to anyone but Dr. Johnson.

“Have you tried to go in with a friend?”

My eyes fly open as she stands, tugging on my hand. “No.”

I don’t think I can stand seeing Halle in the operating room, her skin sliced open, tubes down her throat…

“Then, I say we start desensitizing you to the idea of me naked in the OR.”

“What?”

She drops my hand and looks past me down the hall before offering me a sly smile. “If you’re struggling with seeing my naked body on the table, it might be best to get you used to the idea.”

I didn’t realize I said the words aloud. I’m losing my fucking mind. Especially when Halle tosses her shirt at my feet, her baby pink bra a soft contrast to her milky skin.

“Come here, Dr. Potter.”

She beckons me with a crook of her finger, and everything south of my belt hardens despite where she’s headed. All I can think of is her naked body as she straddled me in that chair on the deck, rocking her hips back and forth on my cock in a sweet, laborious torture as she drew out my pleasure by controlling me with her body.

And here she is again, using my need for her to lure me to the depths of hell, where my demons await.

“The longer you take, the more naked I’ll get in the hallway,” she threatens as I take a hesitant step closer. Thankfully, this particular OR is mine. Potter’s Plastics has a total of three ORs that my brothers and I share. Sometimes, we use each other’s rooms if something is broken in one of the others, but it’s not often. So, I only feel a mild sense of panic that one of my brothers will come down this hall right now and see Halle’s naked body.

Still, I’m not going to risk it.

Eating up the last steps between us, I snag Halle by the waist, pulling her flush against my body. “You’re not playing fair, Ms. Belle. Let me remind you of my thinning patience.”

The smirk I remember seeing wrapped around my cock in Napa is my undoing, and I push Halle through the double doors, greeting my demons for the first time in a year.

Vance

The antiseptic smell stops me as soon as we get inside.

“Keep going,” Halle begs, sliding the coat off my shoulders and taking my hand. She places my palm on her chest, skimming it flat against her body until coming to a stop at her waist. “Unbutton my pants, Dr. Potter.”

The trembling in my hands and the urge to flee is strong. “Feel my heart, Dr. Potter.”

Halle moves my hand back up to her chest, the steady beat of her heart rhythmic and calm. “I love the operating room. Do you know that?”

I shake my head.

“After the accident, I struggled being around people. The scars. The questions. The pitiful looks… I couldn’t get past the fact that I would never be the same. I would always be the woman who was run over by her boyfriend. At one point, the rumors evolved, and I became the woman who was beaten by her boyfriend and tried to commit suicide after a bad breakup by jumping from an overpass.

“The point is, no matter what happened to me in the operating room, I was always the same. A patient. And the people in this room were the same. The doctors and nurses who cared for my injuries were my heroes. There was no judgment. No rumors. Just anonymity.”

Halle’s heart beats steady under my palm, and I find myself pulling in a deep breath and exhaling just as her hands come up and cup my cheeks. “In this room, Vance, you are the same person. You are one of the best surgeons in the country. The past doesn’t matter. Neither do the events that led to your scars. In here—“ She drags a hand down to my heart and presses down. “In the OR, you aretheDr. Potter.”

---