Page 22 of Irresistibly Risky

“When do you see her next?”

“Monday,” I tell Callan. “Oh, and she works at your hospital.” I wiggle my finger back and forth between him and Fallon.

“She does?!” Fallon exalts, doing an excited little jump. “That’s fantastic. I’m going to text her now. Maybe I’ll see if she’s free for lunch this week.”

I groan. “Fall, if you become besties with her—”

“That helps you,” Layla announces, walking over and shaking my arm as if she’s just had an epiphany. Thankfully it wasn’t my bad arm, since that’s the hand holding my slider.

“How?” I challenge.

“We throw a party,” she declares. “Tomorrow. Totally last minute, but who cares. I’ll get all my Fritz people to attend, and you’ll all come, and we can even invite some other doctors from the hospital if you want. That way she’ll meet people, and she’ll see the people you’re friends with and might think you’re not so awful after all. After that, you can tell her who you are, so it’s not done in a professional setting.”

“That’s actually… brilliant,” I admit, thinking deeper on that. The idea is like a massive storm cloud, kicking up lightning in my head. Because Layla is a Fritz—her sister, who was her guardian, married Oliver Fritz, and so Layla took his name when she was a kid and he adopted her—and the Fritzes are a family of famous billionaires, but they all work in the medical field. Some even work at MGH where Fallon and Callan work.

Where Wynter now works.

So she’ll meet people she works with in the hospital, which is great because she’s new in town, and then I can show her I’m not a total douche and tell her the truth. Before she cuts me open. Gulp.

“Okay. Text her,” I tell Fallon while Layla and Aurelia start to dig in with gusto and plan an impromptu party. I even volunteer my place because it’s big, and well, it’s the least I can do since I started this circus.

A few minutes later, as we settle in to finally play some poker, Fallon’s phone chimes with a text. She reads it and then hits me with a huge, dazzling smile. “She’s in.”

My heart jumps in my chest. I’m going to see Wynter tomorrow. And I have no clue how this will go.

* * *

Doctors are boring. Or at least they’re very different to party with than football players or rock stars. Or maybe I’m just antsy while I wait for Wynter to get here. I need a crazy distraction, like someone throwing up in the pool or having drunken sex in the guest bedroom. Everyone here is tame, speaking in polite tones, using coasters, and being careful not to make a mess or drink too much.

As I said, boring.

“Why do you look like you’re about to throw up?” Callan asks, handing me a glass of something that looks and smells like my private stash of expensive as fuck bourbon.

“Now we’re talking. Did you snatch this for us, or is this out on display somewhere requiring me to go and crack some skulls?” At five hundred a bottle, who could blame me?

He sighs. “This won’t turn into the frat party you need it to.”

I hate how well my best friends know me. And love it.

“So, this is just for us?”

“Yep. Just for you and me and possibly Aurelia, who saw me take out the bottle. But she’s earned it, living with Zax so I topped her off.”

“Good man. I always liked Reils, but she’s got nothing on my ice queen. I might be in trouble here, brother.”

He walks me over to the floor-to-ceiling windows with the view of the public gardens and Boston Common beyond, giving us a bit of privacy from everyone else. I actually bought this place from Layla’s uncle, Luca Fritz, who is here making disparaging remarks about how much better it was when he lived here. The circle of famous, wealthy Bostonians is small, and we all know each other.

“I like her.” Then I laugh because, first, I have no idea where the words came from. And second, I sound like I’m fifteen. “It’s weird that I do, right? I mean, I met her in a bathroom over a year and a half ago, and Thursday and Friday she was nothing but antagonistic to me. Hot and sexy—the smartest woman on the planet, but antagonistic. Part of me wondered if I had been thinking about her so much because of how bad things went that night in the bathroom. Like maybe it was more pride and ego than actual desire, but after seeing her again, I’m pretty damn sure it’s her.” I turn to look at him, my face scrunched up. “Am I crazy?”

Callan laughs lightly and smacks my back as he takes a sip of his drink. “If she’s your doctor, you can’t fuck her. You know that, right?”

I smirk tauntingly. “You mean the way you weren’t supposed to fuck and fall for your med student?”

He grins in return. “Yeah, exactly like that.”

“Maybe I just need to fuck her again. And do it right this time. Get her out of my system, because a woman like that… she’s—”

The door to the condo opens, and in she walks.

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