Page 219 of The Doctors Will See You Now

As I pulled away from Harlow and looked up to meet his gaze, it was more than obvious he was enjoying it. A smug smile lined not only his mouth but his eyes, and he held on to the lapel of his suit jacket like he was the ruler of the land. Which, I guessed, in a sense, he was.

“Mr. Mayor,” I murmured back as Harlow’s eyes moved slowly from the floor, up the stairs, and finally landed on the man standing a full floor above us.

“Hey, LoLo.”

She sighed, obviously put out by the nickname, and I didn’t bother to hide my smile.

“Brent.”

A thrill ran up the length of my spine when she literally gave him no more attention than that one fraction of a moment.

Eyes back to mine, she held them tight as she whispered for my ears only, “Ready to get this over with?”

I shook my head, and her face wrinkled. “No?”

“No,” I confirmed. “I’m gonna enjoy a night out with the woman I couldn’t help but chase.”

“Scott,” she whispered.

“Come on.”

Hand in hand, we climbed the stairs, going a nice slow speed that she could handle in her spindle heels and long knockout of a dress, and by the time we got to the top, the mayor was gone. Back inside, I presumed, to his party and people, but the where didn’t really matter. Neither did the why. But the gasp Harlow made when she looked up to make the same discovery made my whole night. Apparently, it wasn’t like the overlord to give up so easily.

“I’ve heard of outrunning people,” I teased her. “But being too slow for them is a new one.”

“Shut up.”

Her lips tasted like sweet surprise when mine landed against them.

One nip turned into two, and by the time I was satisfied, our tongues had danced an entire song’s worth of notes. “You look beautiful tonight,” I whispered to her, admitting, “You look beautiful always, actually. But tonight, when I look at you, I swear to God, I don’t even know my own name.”

She smirked and lifted her thumb to rub some lingering lipstick off of my face. “Don’t worry, Dr. Erotic. I know it just fine.”

“Good Christ, this thing is boring,” Harlow whispered as another speaker, some other official for the city of New York, blathered on about whatever these people were pretending to care about at the moment.

“What did you expect? Fireworks?”

“No!” she snapped in a whisper, putting a finger to my lips to shut me up. “But some kind of drama or intrigue wouldn’t be amiss. This is politics, for fuck’s sake. Where’s Kerry Washington with a Scandal?”

“Probably working behind the scenes to cover it up.”

“You know what I mean. I thought there would be something to make fun of.”

“Sorry,” I told her, leaning forward to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll try to drum up a story when we leave here.”

She laughed, albeit quietly since someone was still up there giving a speech, but as her eyes fluttered away from mine and caught on something over my shoulder, it all but dried up.

“Why is the chick at Brent’s table looking at me like I’m the Antichrist?”

I took a quick peek over my shoulder to confirm my suspicions, but unfortunately, I already knew who it was.

Pam.

I sighed, and Harlow’s eyebrows pulled together.

“Scott?”

“Well, hell. I didn’t really want to get into this here, but you asked for drama.”