Page 7 of Rules of the Heart

Valerie resisted the urge to go about her day as usual. She was too angry and unsettled to be performing surgeries right now. So, she skulked in her office and did paperwork.

The fact that Dr. Ella Ashton was already messing with her routine made Valerie so mad she wanted to scream. She tried to reason with herself. Dr. Ashton hadn’t done anything wrong—yet—and she couldn’t help it that she was the most stunning woman Valerie had ever seen.

Valerie knew that she couldn’t allow this to throw her forever. Sooner or later, she would need to get back to her normal work routine.

For now, though, she couldn’t, so she was left in her office, cursing Ella’s presence here.

3

Ella

So far, her dream job was turning out to be everything Ella had hoped for. The meeting with Dr. Valerie Bush had been a bit awkward. Valerie was clearly not pleased to have her here, but she had at least remained civil. Ella was sure that she could win her over.

Of course, things would be complicated by Valerie’s appearance. Ella had spent plenty of time brainstorming how to win over her new boss. She hadn’t counted on the possibility of being so attracted to her that just being in her presence left her painfully aroused.

Valerie was exactly Ella’s type. Her dark blonde hair was just graying at the edges and matched her deep brown eyes perfectly. Her figure was lean and looked ready for anything; Ella was sure Valerie worked out when she wasn’t doing surgeries. She must be late 50s and Ella had always had a thing for confident older women.

Ella forced herself to think of anything other than Valerie, willing her libido to go down. She couldn’t go through her entire first day of work fantasizing about fucking her boss. That wouldn’t do at all.

Dr. Roth seemed very different from Ella’s first impression of Valerie. While Valerie had a clear no-nonsense attitude, Dr. Roth appeared to be more flexible, which was important, as far as Ella was concerned.

“You’ll assist me on a tumor removal this morning, and assuming all goes well, I’ll start assigning you your own surgeries.”

Ella didn’t need babysitting, but she understood that no one knew her or her skills here, so she didn’t protest. “That sounds great. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

She’d done her research. Dr. Roth was known his creativity when it came to surgeries. He had saved a number of patients who may never have made it off the table if not for his quick thinking.

“Have you looked at the clinic hours yet?”

“The clinic hours?”

“Did Valerie not tell you about the clinic?”

“No. She didn’t really tell me anything; she just handed me over to you.”

“That’s odd. She usually gives new employees the basic rundown. I guess she was just busy. I can do it easily enough. We run a free clinic on weekends, for patients without insurance. We’re always looking for volunteers to help out, if that’s something you’d be interested in.”

“Yeah, absolutely! I was constantly on James to set up something like that for us, but he insisted that we couldn’t afford it.”

“It is rather expensive to set up, but once the setup is done, we rely on volunteers and donations from medical suppliers, so it doesn’t cost the hospital too much to maintain.”

“That sounds awesome. I’d love to volunteer.”

Ella wondered if Valerie volunteered and if they would bump into each other. She couldn’t seem to get Valerie off her mind, no matter how firmly she told herself to focus on the here and now.

“Right, then if you’re ready, we can go into surgery.”

“Yes, I’m ready.”

The tumor removal went smoothly, and Dr. Roth seemed happy with Ella’s work. He handed her over to the nurse who helped manage the surgical board. Within an hour, Ella’s schedule was fully booked for the day. It was going to be a busy day, but she loved that she got to dive right in.

The day flew by, and before she knew it, she was in the locker room getting changed out of her scrubs.

She was just pulling her scrub shirt over her head when Valerie walked in. Ella was sure that Valerie saw her, but Valerie didn’t acknowledge her. She marched straight to her locker and grabbed her bag.

Ella couldn’t help watching out of the corner of her eye.

She knew she shouldn’t be watching, but this was a public locker room, after all. People got dressed here and saw each other half-naked all the time. Surely, it wouldn’t be so bad if she caught a glimpse of Valerie’s body with slightly less clothes, right?

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