Page 18 of Dr. Off Limits

“Of course he works here. He’s in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology—spans across the two. He made consultant super quickly. Working under him will be a treat, in more ways than one.”

“What did you say his name was? Beau?”

Veronica laughed. “No, I see I’m not the only one who has been ogling the Cove brothers online. They’re a medical student’s equivalent of One Direction, aren’t they? Beau is younger than Jacob. Jacob is the oldest, but a complete trailblazer, just like his parents. All the brothers are doctors except one.”

She must be mistaken—I’d gone to dinner with Beau, not Jacob. I’d gotten drunk with Beau. I’d had sex—a lot of sex—with Beau. Had I asked him his last name?

I pulled out my phone and quickly scrolled through the messages we’d exchanged over the last twenty-four hours. Had he said anywhere what his name was?

In our messages, Parker very definitely had told me my date was with someone called Beau. She didn’t mention a Jacob.

“And he works here?” I asked.

“Yes. I told you, he’s a consultant in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology.”

“A consultant?” I asked, my tone bordering on hysterical and my cheeks heated as people turned to see who was losing it. Shit, had I inadvertently slept with my superior? Why was he pretending to be Beau?

“Shhh,” Veronica said. “Yes, he’s a consultant. And a gorgeous one at that. Look at him.”

I didn’t need to look at him to know he was gorgeous. I’d sat across a dinner table with him for an entire, deliciously easy evening. He’d made me laugh and think and then after dinner he’d cleared my mind of absolutely everything. He’d ensured I wasn’t thinking about anything other than him and the way his body moved over mine, the way his hands, his lips, his everything felt against me. He’d sent every one of my senses into hypersonic overdrive. None of Saturday night would have happened if I’d known he was a consultant at the place I was starting work.

I was trying to fly under the radar—pass through the foundation program without drawing attention to myself. Sleeping with a consultant wasn’t going to help my cause. Hospitals were cauldrons of gossip and speculation. I wanted to keep my head down and focus.

Shit, I hope he hadn’t told anyone. He didn’t seem to be a man who bragged, but who the hell pretended to be someone else for an entire evening? Shock started to give way to anger. Who the hell did he think he was, tricking someone into bed with him? Not that he actually tricked me. Or at all. It was just if I’d known who he was—why hadn’t he told me? I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand. He hadn’t had the chance to tell me anything about his job. I’d banned him from saying anything at all—not without the forfeit of a shot of tequila.

I quickly typed Parker a message asking her why I’d had dinner with a man called Jacob Cove when she’d told me my date was meant to be some guy called Beau. Presumably Beau had been the doctor going abroad next week. Rather than Jacob who was very much, and very inconveniently, right in front of me.

And then it dawned on me: The five doctors who had just filed into the lecture theatre were the consultants responsible for our rotations in their departments.

Jacob was going to be my boss.

My boss who’d seen me very drunk. Very naked. And very loudly screaming his brother’s name as he made me come.

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