Page 43 of Patrick’s Seduction

“This doctor, Buffy, she works for Scanguards?”

He nodded.

“So, technically, she works for you, right?”

“Yes, why?” He had no idea where she was going with this.

“So, you could override her orders, can’t you?”

When he realized what she meant, he chuckled. “I could, but she’s the doctor.”

“Does that mean you won’t let me sleep here?”

He pressed his forehead to hers and noticed that the temperature of her skin was back to normal. “Do you really think I can say no to you?”

“Oh God, I hope not.”

Unable to resist the temptation, he captured her lips with his and kissed her tenderly, while he undid the belt of her bathrobe and tunneled underneath it to explore her luscious curves. When he touched the damp T-shirt, he released her slowly.

“Let me get you a clean T-shirt first, and then we both need to sleep.” He met her gaze. “Together, in my bed.” With a smirk, he added, “Doctor’s orders.”

21

Dressed in a large white T-shirt, and wearing only her bikini panties, Fallon snuggled against Patrick’s chest. Except for his boxer briefs, he was naked, his arm wrapped around her shoulder, the other hand on her hip. She could hear his heart beating rapidly, almost as if he’d done a sprint before coming to bed.

“I don’t know what Buffy gave me, but I’m feeling so much better,” Fallon said. “She’s a good doctor. I’m surprised, because she looks so young.”

“She has a lot of experience in Emergency Medicine. That’s really all that Scanguards’ medical center deals with.”

“I don’t understand why a security company needs a med center. Why not send people to the ER at San Francisco General?”

A soft breath blew against her temple before Patrick spoke again.

“With our kind of work, we get into tons of scrapes every day, and we don’t want to overwhelm the ERs in the city when we can treat our own people more efficiently ourselves. It’s actually cheaper for us to maintain our own medical center than to pay health insurance for our employees. And of course, any client who gets injured on our watch is treated there too.”

Surprised, she lifted her head to look at him. “About that. I mean… I’m your client, right, but I haven’t even signed a contract or paid you a retainer…”

He stroked his finger along her jawline. “Don’t worry about that.”

“But I have to pay Scanguards for all the work you’re doing for me. Or—” She hesitated.

He tipped her face up to look directly at her. “I hope you don’t think that you have to sleep with me so that I help you. You don’t.”

He dipped his face to hers. “You can change your mind any time you want. It won’t change anything about my commitment to keep you safe.”

She brushed her lips over his and kissed him gently. He responded to her in the same way but didn’t deepen the kiss. However, his hand on her hip slid lower and he cupped her ass, pressing her more tightly against his body.

He severed the kiss. “I suppose that means you won’t change your mind.”

“You probably think I’m easy, I mean because I’ve hopped into bed with you so quickly… Especially after what happened with Cameron. But I just feel safe with you. I don’t know why, because I don’t even know you…” And maybe she was making a mistake. She hoped not, but her judgment hadn’t exactly been stellar in the last few months.

“By the same token you must find me easy too,” he said, “because I made love to you within twenty-four hours of meeting you.”

She chuckled softly, appreciating his words. “If you put it that way.”

He hummed softly. “Tell me a little about yourself. What’s your research about?”

Surprised that he asked about her work, which Cameron had never shown any interest in, she said, “Aging. I’m trying to find the genes that make our cells age, to figure out how to switch them off to stall or slow aging.”