Page 34 of Irresistibly Risky

My hands hit my knees, my head spinning. “This is all happening so fast.”

“Hey,” he says, his voice softening. “Here.” He hands me my water and then immediately retreats, giving me space. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a lot. Take time to think it through. Tomorrow you’re back on the field with me for my pre-op.”

His pre-op. Hell. I right myself, already frowning. “I can’t be your surgeon anymore.”

That pulls him up short. “Why not?”

“Because you’re the father of my son.” I wave a hand toward Mason’s sleeping form. “It’s a conflict of interest. It’s unethical.”

He shakes his head. “No. That’s what makes you perfect for it. More so than you were before. You have more of a vested interest in the outcome.”

“Asher, I can’t.”

“You can,” he assures me. “We’re not a couple, and you’re not even living with me. Yet,” he tacks on. “I want you as my surgeon, Dr. Hathaway. And if you move in here with me or even downstairs, I’ll have your help with my recovery. It’s perfect.”

“Nothing about this is perfect.”

“You might be to me.”

I roll my eyes. “Sweet-talking me won’t get me to say yes. To any of this.”

“Then what will?”

I laugh, shaking my head. “I seriously hate football players.”

“Does that mean I should worry about you bringing home hockey players?”

My eyebrows bounce. “Now you’re talking.”

“Shit,” he snarls, snatching my glass from me and marching over to put it in the sink. “I won’t survive that.”

“Making you rethink this living arrangement, huh?” I quip.

He emits a shaky laugh and turns, his back against the white farm sink. “I’m an excellent cockblocker.”

“Nothing scares pussy away like living with your kid and baby mama.”

He grins at how I say that and gives me a lazy shrug. “I don’t bring pussy back here, Doctor. Occasionally I bring a woman home, but not all that often, and usually not during the season.”

I bark out a slightly bitter laugh. “Good for you. I haven’t had sex since that bathroom.”

His eyes burst wide, and in a flash, he’s before me once more. His hand grabs my shoulder, giving me a small shake. “Tell me you’re kidding.”

“What?” I ask, startled by his reaction. “No. I got pregnant. I had a kid and finished up my residency. When on earth was I supposed to find a man, let alone time for sex?”

He blinks sixty thousand times at me. “For real? That night was the last time, and I didn’t even make you…” He grunts. “Please, please, please let me make you come right now. Please.”

I gasp. “Asher—”

He gets right up in my face, his other hand hitting my waist where he grips me. Before I can make sense of what’s happening, he’s pulling me out of the kitchen and into the neighboring dining room, where he thrusts me up against the wall.

“What are you doing?”

He’s all over me once more, eliminating the space between us. “I’ll make you come, and that will be it. I swear. It’ll just be now. This moment. Then you’ll leave with Mason and think about my offer, and tomorrow we’ll fall back into our regular roles—player and doctor. But please, Wynter, I have to make you come. The knowledge that I was the last man to touch you and it was awful is killing me. I can’t take it.”

I don’t know what to say. How to react. He’s beyond worked up over this. Red splotches stain his cheeks, and his eyes are wild—a little manic—filled with lust and determination.

At my silence, his face plants in my neck, and his lips begin trickling kisses. “Please,” he whispers against my skin, making me shudder and my eyes roll back in my head. I need to say no, but now the hand on my shoulder is sliding across my body until it’s captured my ribcage. His thumb brushes the side of my breast, and tingles of heat shoot straight to my core. “Please.”

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