Page 24 of Doc Showmance
When he did nothing other than glare right back with eyebrows raised, I realized I had to spell it out for his dense brain.
Fine.
“I have to continue to work with the staff long after you leave. I don’t want to change jobs once my residency ends. I was going to sit boards and then stay. I like it here. The staff is excellent. The caseload is good. I like Dr. Morris as my boss. I own a house here. But you’re here for what? Three months, maybe four? You get the show’s ratings up and then you’re outta here. Maybe you go back to your online stuff or find a new TV gig. I have to maintain a modicum of respect. If I get caught getting it on in the x-ray room with the sexiest veterinarian in a hospital with a policy in place that forbids interoffice romance…” I shook my head. “I can’t even.”
“You know that table in the x-ray room is the perfect height…”
“Stop.” I glanced up. His smirk said he was messing with me. I squinty eyed him. “The surgery table has adjustable height unlike radiology, you know.”
“You ever tried it?”
Hell, no. Eww.“Have you?”
We stared, a battle of wills over who would break first.
He blinked first. “The surgery table’s too cold being all metal, but then again, it wouldn’t be my ass sitting on it.”
“Both places are disgusting. Do you know how many anal sacs have squirted on that x-ray table? How many pets’ blood or urine or whatever leaked onto the surgery table?” I shuddered. “That’s another reason why this is impossible. I don’t look at my workplace as a place for me to access the romance part of my life. I make a point to shut down men hitting on me at work when it happens, but now I’m told I have to make it happen with a coworker. With you.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere. We agree no getting it on in either of those places. They’re disgusting.” He grinned. This time the smile lit up his face. This was a genuine smile. “What about against a wall?”
“Are you strong enough to pull off wall sex?”
He choke-coughed on his sip of water. Then lifted his short sleeve to show off his remarkable arm muscles, his eyebrows raised.
“I sure hope you know it’s about far more than arm strength. There’s an art to making it good. Besides…” I lifted my own glass of water to sip. “I think jumping straight from barely able to say two sentences to each other to wall sex might be a bit too fast for the show. This isn’tTemptation Island.”
“Maybe we have supercharged chemistry? Takes us straight from arguing to wall sex.”
“I’m not even sure I can kiss you without gagging.”
“We’ll have to work on that, I suppose.” His focus shifted to something behind me. “Here comes our food.”
The chocolate cake set in front of me looked like they quartered a five-layer cake and somehow crammed one-fourth of the cake that was the size of a top hat onto a dessert plate. Once the waitress left, I asked, “Can you actually see yourself kissing me? Like, going in for it and making contact?”
He ducked his head, but his cheeks flushed. What the hell did that mean? Was it a yes or a no? More importantly, why did it matter?
When he didn’t reply, I prompted, “Well?”
“Yes.”
That was it? No more than that? I had to prompt again. “And?”
“I’m afraid if I went for it on camera at the moment they wanted, you’d knee me in the nuts.” He punctuated that with his grin.
“You’d be right,” I muttered, although it didn’t come out with as much conviction as it should have. “I don’t get how you can be okay with the level of unreality on these kinds of shows. How they arrange things or re-film if they miss an angle. How they want to engineer us to have feelings or heat or whatever on camera.”
“Pays the bills,” he said offhand without passion. “We need to talk about the past to clear the air. The way it all went down in school… I never meant…” A strange, shocked expression transformed his face. He said something I’d never heard come out of him. “Fuck me. How’s this possible?”
The f-word? From Ian Todd?
“What is it?” I asked.
“Talk about sucky timing.” In a rush he said, “Amber, we’re on the same side. Partners in this insanity. I’m not out to screw you over. I want to get through this unscathed just like you, but…this is unexpected.”
“Who’s here?” I tried to twist around to see who’d walked in, but he caught my arm.
“Don’t turn around.” He wasn’t smiling. His gaze beseeched me.
