Page 20 of Dr. Off Limits

Sutton

Wanda dismissed us for the day. Despite the fact it had been hours since Jacob was introduced as one of the five leads of the foundation program, my heart was still beating like I was two miles into a marathon. How could this be happening? How on earth could Jacob Cove be the man I kicked out of bed on Sunday morning? That he was a consultant at the Free was bad enough, but he was a Cove. That family had real power. One word from him and I was sure that my participation on the foundation program would be over.

“I can’t believe we get to work with a real live Cove,” Veronica said as we shoved our notebooks into our bags.

“You know he’s practically off-the-charts clever. I heard he had an IQ of one hundred and seventy,” Gilly said from where she was sitting behind us.

One hundred seventy? That was insane. “No way.” I’d spent the evening with him. He was funny and confident and normal. He wasn’t so clever I couldn’t comprehend our conversation.

“Apparently his mother is even brighter,” Gilly said. “Such an incredible family.”

The guy sitting next to Gilly grinned like he was imagining Jacob naked. My stomach churned at the memories of Saturday night. He was just as good as everyone was imagining. “And he’s totally hot.” He obviously knew instantly who we were talking about.

We all filed out and a group of us gathered just outside the lecture room. A couple of other women joined us. “Did I hear you all talking about Jacob Cove? He’s definitely the McDreamy of the hospital.”

“Except Patrick Dempsey has nothing on our McDreamy,” Veronica added, practically salivating.

I bristled with irritation at the way they were talking. Jacob wasn’t a piece of meat. He was a normal person who used to lay in rowboats for hours to de-stress. He was a man who knew his way around my body like he’d made me. And if I heard another word about him from any of these women, I might blow a fuse.

“He’s not Dr. McDreamy,” I said and five pairs of eyes turned and focused on me.

“You have a better nickname?” Gilly asked. “McSteamy?”

“What about Off Limits?” I suggested. “In real life, Meredith Grey would have probably been slut-shamed. In real life, a foundation doctor doesn’t end up with the hot, rockstar consultant. In real life, doing the boss is a good way to lose your job.”

“Wow, Sutton. Way to kill our buzz,” Veronica said.

“I’m just trying to be practical. We need to think of him as unavailable. Doesn’t do any good to be mentally undressing our boss. As women, we want to be judged on our capabilities and merits, don’t we? And like it or not, it’s the woman who always gets judged if they have an affair with their boss.”

“He’s not my boss,” Veronica said. “And it’s not like he’s married.”

“But he’s more senior to us,” I said. “With a lot of sway and influence.” What did I care if these women wanted to lust after Jacob? They were only human. And if they were talking about him and someone else, it meant they weren’t talking about him and me—and why would they? Jacob and I were strictly a one-time deal. No one was going to find out. Even if he hadn’t gone to Africa, I was going to pretend he had.

“Doctor Scott?” A familiar voice asked from behind me. My cheeks burned hotter than the sun and my breath halted abruptly in my throat as I realized who the voice belonged to.

I pushed back my shoulders and spun around to come face-to-face with Dr. Off Limits himself. I bit down on my inner cheek—Christ on a bike, he was tall. “Yes?” I tried to sound relaxed and confident. Except he knew that was exactly the opposite to how I was feeling.

“Follow me, please.”

I could feel the stares from my colleagues gathered in the lobby of the lecture theatre. I wanted the linoleum to open up and swallow me down. What the hell was he doing, singling me out like this?

I caught up with him and said, “Stop right now and show me something on your phone.”

He stopped. “What?”

“Get your tablet out and show it to me but be careful that the screen is pointed to the wall.” My eyes were about to bulge out of my head. We couldn’t be seen casually chatting.

He hesitated.

“Please just do this,” I said. “Trust me.”

Lucky for me, he got out his iPad and began to point at the blank screen.

“Don’t single me out like that,” I said. “Don’t speak to me. Don’t even look at me. I don’t want anyone to know anything about what happened on Saturday night.”

“And a lot of Sunday morning,” he added. I glared at him.

“Sign up for some kind of operation that will make you forget,” I said. “And don’t ever speak to me about anything other than work. For the record, you just called me over because the hospital had misplaced some of my personal information. Are we clear?”

He nodded.

“Good. I’m going to leave now. I hope I don’t see you soon.”

I was practically shaking as I walked back to the group. I was going to have to hold it together a little longer so I could explain why Jacob had called me over to him. Then I was heading back to the library. I was due for a lie-down between towering stacks of books. It had been that kind of a day.

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