Page 44 of The Doctor's Twins

The voice inside my head was right. If I wanted to keep Ben safe, I’d have to keep my mouth shut. And that was exactly what I was going to do.

13

BEN

It was good to be back in New York. I’d had my fill of traveling around when I was in the military. Doing it for a work conference here and there was doable, but I had a feeling that was my limit.

I hadn’t seen Peyton since we had sex, but I thought about her constantly. How was I going to get closer to her? When we’d made love, it was clear that she was cautious with her soul even though she had been generous with her body. It was almost as if she’d been ashamed or embarrassed.

Whatever her last lover had done to her must have left emotional as well as physical scars. What happened to Peyton?

I found her, hard at work, at the hospital on Friday morning. I stood quietly in the corner, watching her as she spoke to a patient. I loved watching her when she wasn’t aware of me. She seemed more at ease when no one was looking.

“Oh! Ben,” she said when she turned around and saw me standing in the doorway. “Hi.”

“Hello, Dr. Taylor,” I smiled warmly.

“Dr. Forbes,” she smiled. “How was your trip?”

“Very informative. What have the mice been up to whilst the cat’s been away?”

“The usual.”

“How’s Mrs. Riley doing?”

“She passed on Tuesday.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. How is her son?”

“Heartbroken, but he didn’t try to resus, so that’s something.”

“Indeed. Well done, Peyton.”

“Thank you, Ben.”

“Would you like to have dinner with me?”

Peyton nibbled briefly on her lower lip. I stood, silently, while I waited for her to weigh up the pros and cons in her head. It felt like an eternity before she answered me.

“Sure. That will be nice.”

“Okay. I’ll call you later.”

Peyton smiled and mission-walked to perform whatever task was next on her to-do list.

* * *

“You look beautiful.”

“Thank you. I thought I’d wear a dress.”

“You look good in a dress,” I grinned. “Almost as good as you do naked.”

“Steady on, Doc,” she blushed.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t resist. What would you like to drink? Wine? Tequila?”

“Oh, what the hell. I haven’t been out for a while, so I think tequila is a good call. As long as you promise not to take advantage of me.”

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