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I roll my eyes. “Hardly. When was the last timeyoushifted?”
Her nose wrinkles, drawing my eye. “Mm. Not since my last heat cycle. I went to one of those heat spas outside of town. They have a lot of woods around the place.”
It hadn’t occurred to me, the implications of my question—because of course she shifted during her heat. The hormone spikes make it incredibly uncomfortable not to. I wish this had come to mindbeforeI opened my mouth. Now I’m unwittingly thinking about Mackenzie’s heat cycle. Which is not atallappropriate.
“Did you stop taking your suppressants, by the way?”
“I did.” It’s not something I’m particularly happy about either. “For the last couple of days now.”
“How long do you think it will take for them to fully get out of your system?”
I don’t tell her that they’re already making a good go of it, if the potency of her scent is any indication. “I don’t know exactly, to be honest. I haven’t been off of them since my teen years. Why?”
Her expression is unreadable, but her nostrils flare ever so slightly in an inhale. “Just curious.”
“Cat will be out of the bag then,” I grouse. “Everyone at the hospital will know.”
Mackenzie’s mouth splits into a grin. “They’re going to be even more afraid of you than they were before.”
“I’m glad you find the idea so amusing.”
“I’m trying to decide what rumors I can start about you. Would you prefer people thinking you once played bass in an all-shifter heavy metal band or that you belong to a secret alpha biker gang?”
“Is there a third option that involves me being an interventional cardiologist and nothing else?”
She blows a raspberry. “You’re no fun.”
“Are we actually going to be able to pull this off?”
She must notice my uncertainty then, her amusement dissipating as she gives me a more serious expression. “I won’t screw things up, I promise.”
I think back to our conversation after we spoke to the board; she had promised something similar then, despite how remarkably easy the board had accepted our ruse. Almost as if they had just been desperate to not have to be put in the position to deal with the alternative. Her promises are unnecessary, I think, given that she could have told me to fuck off instead of agreeing to help me in the first place, but I can’t lie and say her dedication doesn’t put me at ease.
“Okay,” I say, taking her at her word. “When will I be expected to perform for your grandmother?”
“She wants me to bring you to dinner soon,” Mackenzie says with a grimace. “She’s wasting absolutely no time. I think I can hold her off for another week or so, at least. Hopefully that will give us a bit more time to prepare.”
I don’t tell her that I’m fairly certain that all the time in theworld would not be enough to prepare us for this ridiculous situation, assuming it would be unhelpful.
“Do you work tomorrow?”
She nods. “Day shift. You?”
“I have two consultations in the morning and then a bypass at three.”
She bites her lip. “How long do you think it will take for the rest of the staff to hear about us?”
She doesn’t necessarily look worried when she asks, but I can tell that underneath her jokes and her quips, Mackenzie is at least considering what our lie will mean for our lives at the hospital. I can already imagine the rumor mill, an ER physician barely out of her residency being the secret mate of the biggest ass of Denver General (yes, I’m aware of my reputation), the hottest gossip ever to circulate. It’s going to make for an interesting workday, that’s for sure. I can already feel my quiet existence slipping right through my fingers.
I chuff out a laugh, albeit a dry one, shaking my head. “Trust me,” I tell her. “They already know.”
5
Mackenzie
I have toadmit, there had been a part of me that had actually believed that it wouldn’t be a big deal, this thing between Noah and me. My last few shifts have been so busy that I hadn’t taken the proper time to lift my head up and notice my coworkers being dodgy. Sure, I assumed the news would get out, but I don’t think I’d actually prepared myself for how interesting literallyeveryonewould find it. I guess I underestimated how rarely this place gets fed good gossip. Our story might as well be blood in the water.
I can see it now in the furtive glances when I walk down the hall, hear it in the whispers that seem to stop as soon as I enter a room; hell, an RN I’ve never met before approached me in the break room only an hour after my shift had started to ask me if I wasactuallyseeing Noah Taylor. I couldn’t exactly tell if she was envious of me or worried I was in a hostage situation. To be fair, either scenario is entirely within the realm of possibility. I mean, Noah might be surly, but he is arguably also very hot.
