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The elevator finally comes to a stop, and the doors mercifully open, granting me freedom. I take a deep breath, peeling my hand away from his arm. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. You have my nail marks on your skin. And yes, I get there’s a joke in there.”
“I wasn’t going to go there even if my mind did. I may flirt and distract, but I do have boundaries.”
“Sort of,” I tease and step off the elevator. “Thank you for distracting me. Again. It looks like I survived without getting stuck.”
“Maybe you’re cured then.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Doctor. I’ll see you in the OR. I’m going to check on the status of my patient and the CT results first.”
Without waiting for a response, I start off at a good pace when he calls out, “I remembered you, Katy. Just as you were impossible to ignore, you were impossible to forget. But don’t worry, that was the last time I’ll ever bring it up, and I promise not to try to distract you like that again.”
I turn back to him, the sudden change in his tone and demeanor surprising me a bit. “You were fine.”
His face dips toward his feet. “As long as I didn’t make you uncomfortable. I’d never want that.”
“You didn’t,” I promise. “But I agree about us not bringing it up again. I work for you, and that was a long time ago.”
He nods his head and slowly lifts his chin. “I’ll see you in surgery, Dr. Barrows.”
He stalks off in the other direction, and I stand here for a half-beat, our strange interactions leaving me perplexed. At least we’re on the same page. No more flirting. No more discussing our past.
I remember the important things. I remembered you, Katy. Just as you were impossible to ignore, you were impossible to forget.
Ugh. No. Just no. I roll that off my shoulders and let it die on the hospital floor behind me. Nothing good comes from crushing on your boss. But more importantly, I don’t want more from him.
I have too much at stake.
Too much to earn and prove.
So Bennett Lawson might be painfully gorgeous with a smile that makes angels weep and nuns want to sin and say the most perfect things at the perfect moment, but from now on, where he’s concerned, I’ll be taking the stairs.
Chapter Five
There is something about Katy Barrows that immediately makes me lose my head. And considering one of the reasons I’m here and not still at Mayo, I need to get a grip on myself. It wasn’t like this before. Seeing her makes me forget. She distracts me from my hard-earned rancor and teleports me back to a happier time in my life. She reminds me of the guy I once was—the guy before my life crumbled around me—and I react accordingly, desperate for any sliver of that I can get.
Even if it’s wrong.
In the past, I never said inappropriate things to her. I never touched her unnecessarily. The only time I allowed myself to lose control wasn’t even a loss of control. It was planned. There was no way I was moving across the country without knowing what it felt like to kiss her at least once.
But prior to that?
No. I never lost control with her—because I never lose control with anything, or at least that used to be the case—despite the massive temptation she presented. I saw her and we were alone again, and I didn’t know how to stop myself. She was scared, and I wanted to make that better. My mouth just ran. My body moved in.
And it can never happen again.
I could lose myself in Katy Barrows. In the filthy, perverse thoughts I only allow to consume me at night. But I’d start to make mistakes if she became the star of my show, and mistakes are not something I can afford again. I’m not going to cross the line with her—there will be no more stolen kisses with Katy Barrows—so what good did all that flirting and touching do?
Other than tempt me to want something I can’t and won’t have.
“Dr. Lawson, there’s a woman on the phone who says she’s your wife,” one of the nurses calls out to me as I walk by the station.
Christ, she is fucking relentless. How much of my blood is this woman determined to spill?
“I’m not married,” I tell the nurse without any further explanation and continue down the hall toward the ORs, though my jaw is clenched tight. I went from smiling like a high school kid with a crush to practically cracking a tooth all in a matter of seconds. What a fucking day this is, and it’s nowhere close to done for me.
“Hey,” Wes says, coming in beside me. “How’s your first official day, Chief?”
It was going well. Until I got in an elevator when I knew better and then heard my ex has now taken to stalking me at work.
