“Last patient, and then you’re gone until Monday, correct?” Sandy, the receptionist, asked at the end of my long-ass Friday.
“Correct,” I said. “See you then. Enjoy the weekend.”
“You too, Jake,” she said with a beaming smile.
I walked through the empty waiting room floor, smiling at her boyfriend. “Are you two sure you’re old enough to drink?” I teased the two.
Sandy laughed, pulling her purse up on her shoulder and shutting the receptionist’s alcove lights off. “Asks the man-child chief surgeon,” she joked back, coming through the door.
“How are you doing, Doc?” her boyfriend, Gabe, asked as he reached out to shake my hand.
“Oh, I’m sure Sandy can fill you in on the nonsense of the week.” I smirked. “You two enjoy the beach this weekend,” I said, knowing he was a great surfer, having surfed with him after Sandy begged me to hang out with him and give her my take on the kid.
These two practically lived at the beach and loved it when I offered up the beach house to them for weekend trips to Malibu when I saw her at wit’s end with the others in my office staff. She was like a younger sister to me, and that was the only reason I trusted her with the house.
Surprisingly, I approved of Gabe. He wasn’t an idiot or a player. She snagged herself an old soul who made me look like the immature guy no one should dare to enter a relationship with, lest they end up neglected or cheated on.
That was until Ash waltzed into my life, and all that playing, crazy-ass nightlife shit came to a screeching halt for me. I couldn’t nail down the effects she had on my sorry ass, but until her dad was rushed to the ER that night, I could’ve sworn she was sent into my life that weekend in San Francisco as prayers answered for revenge from all the women I had screwed over with my fuck ‘em and leave ‘em lifestyle.
Speaking of taming my nightlife, I had rounds at the hospital tonight before I was free to catch up with the guys at Darcy’s.
“Mr. Taylor,” I said, smiling at Ash’s dad, who looked a thousand times better since post-op checkups. “You about ready to get out of this place?” I asked, seeing his vibrant expression while flipping through his charts. “I see you’re following all the rules.” I smiled down at how well this patient was doing. “Except for one.” I folded my arms, the curtain opening behind me, me catching a glance of two female interns kindly announcing their entrance to the room.
“Listen, Dr. Mitchell,” he said, giving me an authoritative stare. “I’ve been walking, do the breathing…” He held his arm out for vitals to be checked.
“He’s doing great!” Ash’s voice was like a wave of energy that soothed me to my core.
Fuck. I smiled at her, sitting next to her father’s bed. I had to hold my shit together. The last thing I needed was to find out she didn’t remember who I was—don’t think that thought hadn’t entered my mind more than once since the night her dad was brought in. Now, I needed to keep my bedside manner the same. My God, if her dad wasn’t here—fucking stop this shit and focus.
“He’s our best patient,” Nurse Rose said.
“Charming the ladies, eh?” I smiled at Rose, then Mr. Taylor.
Wrong fucking choice of words if Ash has put two and two together and realized the man she’d fucked all night was not Mitch but an alias I’d used. She’d screamed that name more than once, and my dick was going to start to betray me if I didn’t knock this shit off. How the fuck can I think with this beauty in my presence? Her low-cut shirt and tight pants weren’t helping my sorry ass at the moment, either.
“What can I say?” Mr. Taylor played along with all the young and beautiful women in the room.
Exercising the supreme skill of focus, my ability to think in chaotic environments, and having a meticulous physician’s mindset while I was in the hospital—I switched over to that side of my brain so I could stay on track.
“Well, I keep getting reports, stating you will be missed greatly by all of my staff when you’re discharged tomorrow morning,” I said, eying his charts again. “Have you worked with a nurse to set up your cardiologist appointment?”
“I mentioned that I preferred seeing you, Dr. Mitchell, but you aren’t accepting new patients.” He sighed. “We’ll find another if you can refer—”
Jackie, your old hag ass is mine! I thought, knowing that bitch would pull this shit behind my back. “Nonsense,” I said, not looking over at Ash, who sat perfectly still in the corner of my eye. “I will have the discharge orders state that I will be taking you as a new patient,” I said, writing that down in my charts. “You live close to St. John’s?”
“We just moved here,” Ash spoke up. “This part of LA County is a bit crazier than Santa Clarita.”
With my feet planted firmly, I steadied myself and looked at her as my patient’s daughter, and not the woman I desperately could not get out of my thoughts. “That it is,” I managed, sounding like a jackass. “Listen,” I said, bringing the seriousness that I knew was at hand to the surface of my mind. “I’m sure you were informed of what I found while bypassing the artery that failed.”
“Yes,” he said, eyes guiltily looking over to his daughter in shame and then looking back at me. “I just never gave a second thought to the fact that my heart defect would come back and bite me in the ass.” He chuckled.
“Dad!” Ash rolled her eyes, and then she looked at me. “Can we lower his dosage on the pain meds?”
I smirked at Mr. Taylor. “I assume this is your daughter?” I asked, seeing Ash’s face fall the second I said the words. What the fuck did I say?
“Yep.” He shrugged. “Always keeping me in line.”
“Well, she’s about to keep you awake in pain all night if you don’t stop swearing, it seems.”
She leaned into him, all humor gone. “I lost Mom to something she couldn’t prevent, and I’m sure as hell not losing you too.”
He ran his hand over her cheek as a tear slipped out of the corner of his eye. “I know, sweetheart. That’s why we’re pretty lucky to have Dr. Mitchell take my sorry butt as a patient.”
“The discharge nurse will go over the rest with both of you. I just left my office, and it looks like you’re in luck, Mr. Taylor,” I smiled at him. “I was informed my Monday afternoon appointment canceled. Hopefully, you’ll be able to make that slot?”
“We’ll take the first available,” he said, his eyes apologizing to his daughter for reasons I could not tell.
I scribbled on the chart and flipped it over. “I’ll have the information sent with your discharge papers to my office,” I said. “Any other questions you have for me before meeting on Monday?”
“We’re good, thanks,” Ash said.
“All right. I’ll see you on Monday, Mr. Taylor.”
“Hey, Doc?” he called out.
I turned back.
“Thanks for saving my life.”
I nodded. “Thank your daughter.” I smiled at her. “She was extremely proactive, and after reading your charts and the events that led you to my OR, I can safely say she played the most critical role in keeping you alive, sir.”
“That she did.” He patted her hand on his cheek.
I couldn’t stand here and gawk at this endearing moment. He was the father of the woman I couldn’t get out of my head. A woman who, if she did remember me, I had no idea what the fuck she thought of me after our night together a year ago. God knows I wasn’t acting like a goddamn chief surgeon in my room with her all night.
I turned to leave, keeping in my head that I was at least grateful she was in my life—if only by her dad becoming my patient.
“Dr. Mitchell?” Ash’s voice called out softly from behind where I was walking toward the nurses’ station.
I stopped and turned back to her. “Yes,” I answered, entirely at the mercy of her long black lashes, highlighting her brown eyes as they peered up at me with uncertainty.
Her face scrunched up into some adorable yet confused expression. “I think we’ve met before, under different circumstances, of course.”
“Of course,” I was smiling inside only as I searched for the right words.
“Anyway,” she seemed to shake off the words like a disease. “Thanks for everything you did to save my dad’s life. I’ve been told more than once that he shouldn’t have survived, but that Dr. Mitchell being on call is the reason he’s still going to be with me.”
Her voice cracked, and she brushed a tear from her cheek before I know I would’ve naturally wiped it away for her. “He’s recovering well,” I said, “but he must have an open mind when we meet on Monday.”
“My dad finally admitted he’s had that heart defect since birth.” She exhaled in anger, “He makes me so angry sometimes. How could he never tell me about this?”
“Did he ever have a cardiologist before?” I asked. “Perhaps his medical doctor would have known this too?”
“I don’t know,” she said, slipping her hands into her pockets, my eyes following the gesture, yet getting stuck in her tan skin tone and those perfect breasts I’d worshipped along with the rest of her body that night.
One night, Jake! One night and now you’re back with the one woman who brought you to your fucking knees.
“These are details we’ll work out when I meet with him,” I said, focusing on something other than wanting to take Ash back to my office, or in my car, or right here in front of everyone just to hear those moans coming from her again.
I had to get out of here before I did do something to screw my life up because of this woman.
“Then I guess we’ll see you on Monday.”
“It’ll be difficult for him to travel. How far are you two from the hospital?”
“About an hour,” she answered.
“I’ll arrange for a more comfortable medical transport,” I said. “I also have comfortable furniture in one of my office rooms. We’ll meet there for his comfort.”
She pinched her lips together. Did she even know what she was doing to me? Half of my brain was trying to restrict my dick from jumping out of this suit so I could fuck her tight pussy again. To feel—
“See you then.”
While my mind was focused on keeping my shit together, she spun around, her perfect auburn hair swinging around in her ponytail. She looked exhausted and only wore leggings and a long-sleeved shirt, but she looked more beautiful than the supermodel look she’d sported at the wedding.
I walked into Darcy’s and saw Collin, Jim, and Alex at our usual corner booth. This was the place where we tended to hide out when none of us were in the mood for the gold-digging chicks at regular clubs. It was also the place where my best friend, Collin—a neurosurgeon from St. John’s—had fucked over a rich and extremely psychotic bitch. Ever since then, we’d been known inside and outside of our circle as the Billionaires’ Club. The assholes who only fucked chicks with money so we could save our own.
“What the hell happened to you?” my older brother, Jim, asked as he sipped his bourbon. “I heard about your favorite RN this week.” He smirked, and Collin and Alex laughed at whatever they knew outside of my company about what happened with the old bat.
“Oh?” I took the scotch that was waiting for me. “Did she come clean and admit that she’s fucking that dumbass ER doctor?”
“No.” Jim chuckled.
“Looks like you have an HR complaint slapped on your ass, brother,” Alex, who was Jim’s best friend and president of our family’s empire, said.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I rolled my eyes and took another drink. “I don’t need this shit.”
“The hospital buzz is this: don’t work the cardiac recovery unit because Dr. Mitchell is a dick who thinks the nurses work for him.” Collin laughed into his gin and tonic.
I eyed his disgusting drink of choice. I hated gin, but I hated this fucking nurse even more. “How do you drink that shit?” I snapped.
“Easily,” Collin said and knocked back the entire contents of his glass. “Just like that, bitch!” he taunted me.
I ran my hands through my hair, regretting showing up here tonight. I couldn’t get Ash off my mind since seeing her today. I couldn’t stop reliving that night again. I was so fucked.
“Take it easy, Jake.” My brother laughed. “Can he get another scotch?” he asked a passing waitress before she nodded and turned to the bar. “I handled it, Jake. I’m having Jackie transferred to another hospital.” He sighed. “Was she that bad?”
“It’s not her.” I found myself biting my bottom lip, wishing I’d taken another drink before I responded to Jim.
“What the fuck is wrong, then?” Jim used his big-brother, asshole voice on me.
“Don’t use your CEO-bullshit tone on me,” I said. “You could have run all of this past me before making that decision, you know?”
“You weren’t at the board meeting, prick,” Jim said sternly, not backing down.
“On-call, fucker.”
“Okay,” Alex said, stopping Jim and me from turning this into a pissing match. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m fine. Long day.” I wasn’t telling them about Ash. No way in hell.
“Really?” Collin asked, concern in his voice. “You only act like this if you lose a patient. What the hell is going on? You’re not acting right.”
I went to speak, but Jim interrupted. “Don’t you dare say you’re tired. We’ve watched you go for days without sleep and still entertain us with your bullshit after coming off long weeks.”
“It’s a patient,” I said, looking at Collin. “I didn’t lose him, but he has more serious issues than what brought him into my OR. He’s going to need a transplant, and it will kill me if I have to watch his daughter’s response to him turning that idea down. She can’t lose this man.”
The table grew silent, and I knew exactly why.
“And the doctor has more concern over this young woman than his patient?” Jim pressed.
“I never said that,” I said flatly.
“You didn’t have to,” Jim said. “Who is she? And how in the hell is my brother sitting there, lost in thought over her.”
I held my hands up. “I can’t fucking do this with you three.”
“Why so defensive?” Collin smirked at Alex and Jim.
“Fine,” I said, tipping back the last of my scotch. “Remember the woman from Frisco?”
“The one you hooked up with, and for the first time, you were being walked out on and not the other way around?” Alex asked.
“Yes.” I took my new scotch and pointed to him. “That one.”
“Oh shit, man.” Collin shook his head while Jim looked at me deadpan.
“You know if you go down this road—” Jim’s CEO voice started in.
“I’ve got this handled,” I answered.
“Two scotches in, and it’s handled?” Jim asked. “You’re going to fuck yourself over bad if you take the man as a patient. I know you treat all of your patients like they’re family, but this is playing too close—especially knowing the patient’s daughter that you lived in hell over for a solid month after you got home.”
Try a whole year. “It’s different. She doesn’t remember me. She knew me as Mitch, not Jacob Mitchell, her dad’s cardiothoracic surgeon.”
“Are you that fucking dumb?” Collin laughed, while the others sat back and eyed me in humor.
“Last I checked, no and yes.” I rubbed my forehead. “I can’t think.”
“You can’t think because you believe she forgot who you are?” Alex laughed. “And yet I can count a few women who took years to get over your just one night of fucking rule. No attachments—nothing.”
“And now the tables are turned on him, and he can’t handle it,” Jim added.
“You three are ones to talk,” I grumbled. “Even if she remembered who I was, can you imagine what the hell she could be thinking after I flirted like a reckless idiot and fucked her all over that goddamn hotel room?”
Jim choked on his bourbon. “Well, this is all news to us, Mr. I’m not telling you assholes shit. Care to give us her real name now?”
“Annie,” I tried to confirm only to receive laughs from the three. “Fuck, I don’t know. I told her my name was Mitch, and she gave me Ash. That’s all I have, aside from the fact that her dad is Mark Taylor.
“Well, you decided to take on the patient’s daughter you screwed a year ago…” Collin smirked, then arched an eyebrow at me. “So, I guess you’ll be learning a lot more about the girl who made you feel like shit for sleeping with her,” Collin finished with a laugh.
“This should be good,” Alex said as he shook his head at me.
“This is going to be fantastic. You think you’ll invite her up to the party?” Jim questioned.
“Party?”
“Um, the one we’re having after your interview with the news stations about your flawless record of survival rate in transplants?” Jim answered. “It’s being catered at your beach house. How did you forget that?”
“Fuck me,” I answered. “I’m not up for it.”
“Too bad,” Jim answered. “It’s excellent PR for the hospital, so do the interview, and if you like this woman, invite her to the house after all is done. We’d like to meet her.”
“Yeah, not happening,” I answered. “You assholes are going to have every single chick you want to take your pick of there.”
“Afraid your eyes might wander while she’s with you?” Collin asked. “Perhaps you might use this as your challenge if she’s the one to tame the wild Jacob Mitchell.”
It had to have been the third scotch because I took these douches up on their stupid challenge. I agreed to bring Ash up to the place, hang around snobs and celebrities—no doubt adding to the most uncomfortable night she and I would ever have together—and that’s if she took me up on my offer.
Why the hell couldn’t I think like a regular person right now? I needed to get laid. That was a definite fact. I hadn’t been with anyone since Ash, and thank God my job kept me busy because it was certainly not like me to go an entire year without having sex. Maybe another scotch, and I’d cure myself of this woman—who most likely didn’t return my sappy feelings—by getting laid tonight. My cock twitched at the thought, and now I was eying the women in the place, looking for a woman I knew I could fuck and not have to deal with the fallout after leaving in the morning.
“Vickie’s here,” I said, smiling at the guys.
“So, she’s your ex, and you hate the woman,” Jim answered.
“She’s his friends with benefits partner,” Collin said. “Whenever Jake needs to get a piece and doesn’t want the hassle, it’s Vick.”
“Precisely,” I said, the scotch fueling me into the decision further. “Besides, she owes me for throwing that stupid wedding on my shoulders last minute, all while I was trying to do the bullshit keynote speaker stuff that Jim mandated out of that trip.”
“Why the hell are you going to fuck Vickie again?” Jim asked.
“To get the other girl out of my system. I can’t take any risk in relationships,” I honestly stated. “I would just end up screwed in the end. The hours I work are too much for any woman in my life to handle. I need to get a grip.”
“No shit,” Collin cheered to that truth. Being a doctor himself, he knew what I was up against.
“Well, reconsider that because we are having another board meeting, and we’re changing hours on overworked doctors at St. John’s. I’m not doing this without your input,” Jim told me.
“Now, I need to get laid,” I answered, getting up from the table. “I’m not in the mood to talk shop about hours and cutbacks tonight. I need to get myself under control before I see the woman who’s fucked my mind over again.”
“Dumb mistake, man,” Alex said. “Fuck the one you like.”
“That’s the dumb mistake, my friend,” I answered as I left the three staring at me as if I’d completely gone over the edge.
Seeing my gorgeous fuck-pal was enough to have me questioning what kind of reckless adventure I was on. Would I regret this or be glad I got this out of my system? Using Vick and—dare I even think the thought?—imagining Ash’s face while I…
What the hell did this girl do to me? Voodoo shit? Was I under a spell or something with her? Hell if I knew.
