“Yes, I’m hiring support personnel,” he repeated. “Going forward, I’ll have someone who is specially trained on how to keep supplies stocked, and their primary job will be to make sure we have enough of everything on hand. I’ll also be looking for more doctors, although I’ll have to look outside of Zocrone for that. No one here except me has gone to medical school for a few decades.”
“No one?” Anya could hardly believe it. Surely someone had wanted to follow in Kromin’s footsteps.
“I’m afraid that’s my fault,” Daxar spoke up. “When I closed the planet off to outsiders, our people lost interest in going away from here for a few years to lean a skill.”
“But since those restrictions were lifted, there’s been a lot of renewed interest in travel, and in learning more about the outside world,” Kromin said. “My plan is to campaign among the younger people here and encourage many of them to head off to medical school. Then we’ll build a pipeline of young professionals to shore up the hospital. In the meantime, you and I will do the best we can. Of course, hiring receptionists will help.”
“And the low supplies?” Anya asked.
A shadow passed over Kromin’s face again. “We’ll do the best we can. We’ll only use what we absolutely have to, and hope that we have no major emergencies before we get more. The most urgent is the skinsealer. We tend to use a lot of that, and we just severely diminished our supply by treating the injured miner. That took quite a bit more skinsealer than usual.”
“Well, it was worth it, because he’s recovering nicely from what I hear,” Toryx piped in.
Kromin nodded. “Yeah. He’s gonna have a sludging ton of scars, but other than that he should be fine.”
Daxar drained what was left of his tea and started to stand. “Alright, you all know what’s going on, and you all know we need to be careful of what we’re using. I’ll be making a citywide announcement in a few hours about the rations. It won’t be easy, but we’ll make it work. We’ve been through hard times before, and we’ve proven that our water preservation and rationing works. We can do this.”
Jarmuk and Toryx stood as well. “We’re going with the Chief, Kromin,” Jarmuk said. “Let us know if there’s anything else you need from us.”
Kromin and Anya bid goodbye to the other three men as they left, and a minute later they found themselves sitting alone in the quiet break room. The silence between them hung heavy for a few moments. Kromin nursed his tea, and stared off into the distance. Finally, he turned to look at Anya with regret in his eyes. “I guess you must think I’m a pretty big sludge-up,” he said, his voice sounding more tired than she’d ever heard it.
“I don’t think that.” Anya reached across the table and grabbed his hand. She intertwined her fingers with his, enjoying his warmth and admiring the way that his big blue fingers looked tangled up with her pale human fingers.
He sighed and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I made some mistakes, but I’ve owned up to them now. I just hope I wasn’t too late.”
“You weren’t. We still have some supplies, and the storms can’t last forever.”
Kromin laughed. “I hope not.”
Anya wanted him to say something more about the way he felt about her, or to comment on their budding relationship. But he didn’t seem to be in much of a mood for talking, and she figured now might not be the best time to bring things up. They should get their work done and make sure everything at the hospital was as much in order as it could be. Tonight, when they were away from this building and away from the stress of it all, they could discuss their personal life. It wasn’t what she would have preferred. She was dying to know how he felt about her. But she would be sensitive to the fact that this morning hadn’t gone the way either of them would have preferred that it go.
“So,” she asked, sitting up straight and forcing a smile onto her face. “What’s on the patient agenda for today?”
“Not too much. We’ve got a few of the miners here still, but I think they just need clearance and they can be sent home. Daxar told me that they seem to be doing much better than when we first left to go help the man injured in the mines. The flu patient is gone, and the appendectomy patient should be good to go home after a quick check as well.”
“So finally, not a bad day at the office, huh?”
Kromin laughed. “Don’t jinx it. But yeah, I think things should be quiet today. Which is good because I need to go to our supply room and take stock of what is down there and what we’re running short on. If you can take care of the patients, I’ll go get started on the supply room.”
Anya swallowed hard. “You trust me to take care of them all by myself?” She hadn’t meant to sound bitter, but she must have come across that way because Kromin looked a little hurt.
“Anya, things are different now. I promise you that. I know we haven’t had time to sort through our feelings or through what, exactly, is going on with us. But I’m not going to treat you the way I did before. I know you’re a smart, capable doctor, and I’m going to treat you like that, okay?”
“Okay.” Anya bit back a smile. It felt good to have Kromin believe in her. Yes, she wanted to have a conversation about more than just patients, but at least for now she knew where she stood with him on professional terms. She turned to leave the break room, but before she reached the door, his voice stopped her again.
“Oh, and Anya?”
She turned to look at him. “Yeah?”
“It’s definitely not going to be a bad day. I’m pretty sure that any day that I get to look at your ass in those scrubs is a good day.”
Anya grinned and felt herself blushing. She put a hand on her hip and feigned indignation. “Hey, Mister. No harassing on the job.”
He gave her a sly grin. “Tell me to stop talking to you like that and I’ll stop.”
Anya chewed her lip but said nothing.
“Uh-huh,” Kromin said in a triumphant tone. “That’s what I thought. Now go get to work.”
Anya left the break room, her heart pounding in her chest and a warm, sweet heat spreading through her body. She knew she needed to get her emotions under control so that she could get her work done properly. The last thing she needed was to make another distracted mistake and give someone an extra steroid shot again or something like that. But for just a moment, she wanted to enjoy the pure pleasure of knowing that Kromin was attracted to her.
Outside of the first patient’s room, Anya closed her eyes for a minute and let herself daydream about the way Kromin had looked back in the break room. His fog gray eyes had been darkening with pleasure as he looked at her, and his thick, powerful tail had been swishing behind him. Anya knew both of these things signaled that a Zocronian was attracted to someone, and she felt a thrill at knowing that the someone he was attracted to was her.
She was hopelessly attracted to him. As if his height and strength wasn’t enough to make any woman swoon, his face alone was enough to make her fall for him. That prominent, ridged forehead. Those, sharp, high cheekbones. And that perfectly blue skin. Anya found herself wanting to run her fingers across that skin. She wanted to feel him, all of him. She wanted his lips pressed against hers again. She wanted to run her hands down his strong biceps and across his broad chest. She wanted…
Anya forced herself to take a deep breath and to derail that train of thought. She’d allowed herself a moment, but now she really needed to focus on work. Her patients needed her, and if she kept letting herself focus on Kromin’s body, she wasn’t going to get anything done today. She’d probably end up heading down to the supply room and attacking him with a kiss. And as much fun as that would be, it wasn’t why Anya was here today.
Anya took a few more deep breaths until she felt herself calming down, and then she began her rounds before she could once again begin thinking about Kromin’s sexy blue body.
The day went by surprisingly quickly. Once she got into a work groove, she lost herself in that work, forgetting even about Kromin, at least
for a little while. This was what she loved to do. Helping patients feel better, and putting her medical skills to constant use. As much as Anya had loved flying on the Starburst as a medic, there had been something missing from that life. The times that her crew needed medical attention had been few and far between, and Anya had felt like her skills were getting out of practice. But here in the Zocronian hospital, she could once again put her talents to good use.
By the time lunch rolled around, Anya was starving. She hadn’t had a chance to eat anything for breakfast, because she’d been so distracted by the impromptu meeting with Chief Daxar. Now, she went to the break room to get a food cube, trying not to think too hard about how devastating it could be for the hospital if there were several more weeks before supplies could come in. The Zocronians relied on this place.
Anya took her time eating, but to her disappointment, Kromin did not show up in the break room. She’d been hoping to have a chance to eat with him, and she ate as slowly as she possibly could in hopes that he might stop by. But either he had already eaten or wasn’t planning to eat at a normal lunch hour, because after she had slowly cleaned the last crumbs off her plate, he still hadn’t shown up. Anya decided to go to him and see if he needed any help in the supply room. Her work with the patients was done for the time being. She had released some of them to go home, and the others all just needed to rest. She would do another round of checks on them this evening, but for now they were all set. No new patients had arrived today, either. It was looking like the rest of Anya’s day was going to be quiet.
Time for her to make her own noise.
Chapter Nine
Anya cleaned up her plate and then headed down to the supply room. Her heart was pounding the moment that she stepped into the hallway where the room was located. She was about to be in a small room, alone with Kromin. Would he make a move on her? Jupiter, she hoped so. She was tired of holding back around him. She was tired of the two of them dancing around their feelings for each other. Sure, she knew it had been necessary back in the mines. There had been nowhere for them to be alone, and it’s not like they’d wanted to put on a show for the rest of the miners. But now, they were here. Alone in the Zocronian hospital with no pressing work needs. Maybe right now would finally be the moment where they gave in to the passion that had been building in them both.
The door to the supply room was slightly ajar, so Anya pushed it open wider and peeked in. The place was a mess. Papers and boxes were everywhere, and in the middle of those papers and boxes sat Kromin with his head in his hands.
“Kromin?” Anya asked. She had said his name so that he would know she was coming and so she wouldn’t startle him. But he had been lost so deeply in his own thoughts that he jumped anyway, sending the pile of papers nearest to him scattering across the floor.
“Oh, sludge!” he muttered as he tried and failed to catch the remainder of the stack before it fell off his lap and into the chaos as well. Then he turned to look at Anya with a somewhat dejected look on his face. “I’ve been trying all morning to get this place organized. It’s not going very well, as you can see.”
Anya took a few tentative steps into the room. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just thought maybe you could use some help, but it looks like I may have done more harm than good.” She glanced guiltily down at the pile of papers Kromin had just dropped. But he shook his head at her.
“They weren’t organized. They were just more papers I need to go through. I haven’t been through our supply records since I took over the hospital. I’ve always just gone with my gut when ordering supplies. I order more than I think we’ll need of all the most important things, and it’s always worked out. Until now.”
Anya came to sit beside him. She almost had to hold back a laugh as she looked around the room. “Organization really isn’t your thing, is it?”
He groaned. “No. I should have hired an assistant years ago. But the last group of doctors never had an assistant and they seemed to handle things just fine. I thought I could do the same.”
“Well, you can’t,” Anya said flatly as she looked around the room. “But even if you could, why would you want to? What have you been trying to prove? Your talent is being a good doctor. Other people don’t know the first thing about being a doctor, but are really sludging good at keeping things organized. I say you find a Zocronian looking for a job who knows how to get a place in order, and you hire them to go at this.”
Kromin sighed. “I guess you’re right. Even if we have a slow week as far as patients are concerned, the thought of sitting back here shuffling papers is nearly unbearable. I don’t care about most of these papers, anyway. I was only looking though them because I was trying to see if there are any records as to the actual amount of skinsealer we’ve ordered in the past. That’s the supply we’re the lowest on, but I’m confused about how it’s so low. I’ve never come even close to running out in the past. Yeah, we’ve missed a few shipments of it by now, but we still should have had a little bit left. The next minor wound that needs closing is going to wipe out our supply. I shudder to think of what will happen if someone needs surgery.”
“Hmm, well, you’ve had quite a few unexpected surgeries in just the last week. There was Maisie’s ABR surgery, then that little boy’s appendectomy. The open heart surgery. And the miner. You used a ton of skinsealer to patch up that miner.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. There’s been a lot lately. But maybe we need to keep a bigger stockpile of skinsealer in the future, just in case.”
Anya studied Kromin’s face for a moment. He looked exhausted, and frustration was written across his face. She gave him a friendly poke in the arm. “I think what you need to do right now is take a break. You’ve been at this all day, and staring at this mess isn’t going to magically improve it anyway.”
Kromin nodded somewhat absentmindedly. “I suppose you’re right.” Then he gave her a sidelong glance. “What I really need is a good distraction.”
Anya felt her body instantly heating up at the look in his eyes. This is what she had really come down here for: to see the desire that was written across his face now. The way he wore his passion so plainly on his face emboldened her, and she lowered her eyelashes coyly. “Oh? And what sort of a distraction?”
“I think the beautiful woman sitting in front of me would do just fine.” He leaned toward her, his head angled slightly like he was going to kiss her. Anya wanted nothing more than to be kissed by him, and yet for some reason she panicked.
“Wait, Kromin. What are you doing? We’re in the middle of the hospital. In the middle of the supply room. I’m not sure this is the most appropriate place to…to…”
“To what?” he asked with a smirk. “To be distracted?”
“Well, uh…yeah.”
He laughed, reaching up one of his big blue fingers to affectionately trace a line down her face. “Trust me, Anya. No one is coming down here anytime soon. And even if they did, I don’t care. I still make the rules around here, and I just made a new one.”
“Which is?”
“Which is, when the hottest girl in the Seven Galaxies shows up in my supply room, I take the chance to make love to her and don’t give a sludge whether anyone else thinks it’s appropriate or not.”
Anya felt like his words sent fire through her body. Kromin had never been so direct in telling her that he wanted her. Of course, they hadn’t had many chances to be alone since the mines, but still. She had been expecting him to work up to talking about the subject of making love. Instead he had jumped right in.
“Kromin, I, uh, well.” She forced herself to shut her mouth. She sounded like a blubbering idiot.
“What?” he asked, his finger still caressing her face. “Don’t you want this too?”
“I do! It’s just that…here? And shouldn’t we talk about things first? About where we stand with each other and that sort of thing?” Anya still felt like she was blabbing and not making much sense.
&
nbsp; “Is that what you want right now? To talk?”
Anya looked down, unable to meet his eyes. He looked so intense right now. “Well, no. I don’t really want to talk.”
“What do you want?”
“I…” Just say it, Anya. Just tell him. “I want you.”
He pulled her chin up so that she was looking into his eyes once again. “Say it again, only look me in the eyes this time.”
“I want you.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but she managed to keep eye contact with him. He smiled, the warmth of it spreading from his face all the way to the very core of her.
“Good,” he said, his voice low and husky. “Because I want you, too. And listen to me: when a Zocronian man wants something, he doesn’t wait. He takes it then and there. So I’m going to take you in this room, right here and now. No one is going to stop me. No one is going to come by here, and even if they did, I don’t care. This is my domain. And when my woman is in my domain, I claim her.”
Anya shivered with delight when he called her his woman. “Am I yours?” she asked, forcing herself to keep her eyes locked on his, even though it was difficult. The heat in his gaze right now was more intense than anything she’d ever seen before. Her whole body was responding to that heat. She could feel hot pressure building in her core, and between her legs she was growing wet with desire. How could he do this to her, with just a look and the touch of one finger to her face? She was completely lost under his spell.
“Mine,” he growled, his voice going even lower. “You’re all mine. I know we got started off on the wrong foot, and I’m sorry for that. But I promise I’m going to make everything up to you. Starting right now.”
With that, he leaned in and put his lips on hers. Anya moaned as his rough, strong lips covered her smaller, softer ones. He had kissed her several times before in the mines, when they weren’t in danger of having too much of an audience. But those kisses had been quick and stolen, and she could already tell that this kiss was going to be anything but quick. It was leading somewhere.
The Alphas of the Seven Galaxies Page 38
