Chapter8
Sean escorted Lily to the elevators, silently swearing vengeance on whoever had ordered the largest and ugliest, most excessive display of roses he’d ever seen. No way Charlie had sent something so tasteless. It had to be the techno weenies who hadn’t kissed a girl yet, let alone had any idea what a woman like Lily needed.
These were probably the self-same guys at the other end of ‘Gene’s’ new phone number. They had a lot of ground to make up because if he had intended to see Lily again, he’d have spent the night and the following day making love to her and secured her number and the next date before he left.
Now they were mishandling his other persona’s game. All they had to do was convince her to text him so her phone number had been given on her own free will. He should have counted himself lucky they hadn’t used their database to track down her phone number and started sending unsolicited text messages. It was bad enough he’d have to make up for not leaving his digits—even if those digits hadn’t existed until this weekend.
They should have sent the flowers to her house. Not her workplace, but then again, it wouldn’t have been a topic of conversation for him to monitor if they hadn’t.
Henceforth, he would be sending his own stupid flowers, and not in such a public fashion.
Then he stumbled as they approached the elevators. The undercover department had taken it a bit far with this whole Quasimodo act’s hump on his back and padding on his front. Not only did the false teeth make his mouth water constantly, the lift in one shoe made it difficult to walk. Hopefully, he’d never be called upon to do much restraining because he’d probably trip over his own feet.
Lilian beckoned him into the elevator and held the door open for him. “After you.”
“Thank you, doctor,” he said, trying to appear subservient but not submissive. He stood on the opposite side of the empty elevator, watching her from the corner of his eye through the wide, thick lenses of his faux glasses and contacts.
She was not what he’d expected during the daylight.
Unlike the proud, passionate woman he’d watched blossom on Halloween, she was almost meek and passive.
He longed to intervene when the office manager talked down to her. Even now, there was no reason an attending and not a resident or medical student was giving him a tour. It’d be like Chief Reyes doing the same.
Even her clothes were muted. Whoever had told her to buy that yellow skirt combination needed to be arrested by the fashion police at a minimum. Yeah, she was curvy and didn’t have perfectly flat abs, but she shouldn’t have. Her body was beautiful without that many ruffles, especially since he could attest that her bare skin was a sight to behold.
She glanced back at him. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The elevator dinged since they had only gone up two levels to the fifth floor. According to his briefing packet, he’d find OB, NICU, and PICU.
When the doors beeped, he stuck his hand out to hold them open. “After you.”
She hesitated, like she wasn’t sure he could safely even hold the door open.
He limped his way toward the door to Labor and Delivery. It had an electronic lock, and Lily took off her badge to open the door. “Allow me,” he said.
She trustingly handed over her MetroGen ID. He flipped it over and noted it was formed by two separate badges. The hospital photo picture on one badge adhered to the actual electronic badge itself. A perfect place to slide a tracking chip in between the two halves.
The lock disengaged when he swiped it through the slider. He gave her the badge back. “Thank you, ma’am.”
She walked him through, and off he went to follow Lily Hernandez wherever she led...
PART TWO
A Lesson in Seduction
Cherries
November
Chapter9
At the end of the week, Lillian internally calmed herself on her last patient of the morning. She'd been displeased to find office manager Nicole had triple-booked three patients into a slot for twenty minutes.
Just because they were siblings did not mean that each child only got six and a half minutes of doctor attention.
She’d have a lot of charting to do during lunch, so she'd be skipping lecture, but she wasn't going to make this patient suffer for it.
“What do you think, Doctor?” the mother asked worriedly. Her daughter was six, and the exhausted mom was midway through her pregnancy.
