by Jenna Jacob
“Oh, shit,” Liz whispered in fear.
Metcalf’s eyes bulged from their sockets. His face grew an increasingly deeper shade of crimson, yet he somehow managed to nod.
“For heaven’s sake, Sam. Stop,” I cried, tugging at his rock-hard forearms. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Have you lost your damn mind? Let go of him this instant.”
Sam blinked at me as if coming back from the throes of insanity. With a shove, he released Metcalf, who nearly stumbled to the ground, coughing and wheezing.
Pinning Sam with a glare, Metcalf’s lips peeled back in a sneer. “I’ll see you brought up on assault charges, Brooks.”
“Go ahead, you pompous little prick. I’ll file a few charges of my own,” Sam countered. “Starting with the prejudiced, racial slurs you constantly make behind Cindy’s back. Either you start acting like a professional or I’ll rain down a shit storm so hard on you, you’ll hand your medical license back on a silver platter.”
Metcalf paled as he darted a guilty look my way.
“Now get the fuck out of here. I need to speak to Nurse Noland alone,” Sam snarled.
Turning his back on the man, he dismissed Metcalf altogether. Like a scolded dog, tucking its tail between its legs, the evil doctor coughed once, then skittered away.
Sam’s furious expression vanished, replaced by a look of apology. “I’m sorry, Cin. I don’t know what you heard of my conversation with Liz, but I need to explain some things to you.”
“I heard enough,” I bit out. “You don’t need to explain.” Turning, I settled a scathing glare on Liz. “In fact, I’d rather not hear anything from either of you again.”
Spinning on my heel, I stormed to the employee lounge. After snatching my purse out of my locker, I punched out at the time clock, then headed toward the door. Sam stood leaning against the frame. His thick arms, folded over his wide chest, made me want to whimper. Especially when I saw the sorrowful expression settled on his face.
“So you’re going to just walk out the door without even giving me a chance to explain?”
“What I do is none of your business. If you want to talk to someone give your little fuck-toy stripper Destiny a call.”
Sam’s nostrils flared. His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Cin.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not an idiot. She’s the reason you haven’t been spending time with me lately, and we both know it.”
He exhaled a heavy sigh as he dragged his gaze to the wall behind me. The guilty rat bastard couldn’t even look me in the eye. “I have been spending some time with her lately, but I had other obligations to take care of, as well.” The confession pouring from his lips tossed me into a bottomless pit of revulsion that I hadn’t visited in years. “But it’s not what you think. She’s not a strip—”
“Spare me. I don’t give a shit if she’s the goddamn queen of England. You lied to me. You went back on your promise. You told me you wanted an exclusive relationship and like a hopeful moron, I believed you.”
Struggling to push down the flood of tears rising inside me, I lowered my head and charged the exit like a bull. Without a word, Sam reached out and grabbed me. He pressed his lean, sinful body against mine, then pinned me to the wall. Like a brushfire, his formidable command blistered my skin. His potent dominant mien dragged my thoughts back to the spine-bending pleasure he always unleashed in bed.
“I’ve never lied to you, Cin. Never once did I stand you up or bow out of a single date,” he stated. “Regardless of what you think, I’m not sexually involved with anyone but you.”
“Correction, you were sexually involved with me. Not anymore. That ship has sailed, mister. And your big, fat cock is onboard the boat.”
The corners of his mouth twitched as if fighting back a smile. “My big fat cock is right where it belongs,” he murmured in a familiar deep, velvet voice that instantly made me wet.
Sam arched his hips, driving his ready erection deeper between my legs.
My pussy clutched in demand.
My brain screamed in protest.
“Get off me,” I spat. “Don’t you get it? We’re over…finished. We had some fun, shared a few laughs, and fucked like bunnies. And now we’re through.”
His brows arched in disbelief. “No, we’re not, sweetheart.”
“Oh, yes, we are. I’m done with everything. You. Liz. Dr. Dipshit. My job. I’m done with the whole damn mess. Because that’s all my life is right now, one big, fat, ugly mess. I’m not some desperate, needy woman you can play booty call with while you’re sticking your dick in some crack whore stripper.” My voice rose to the point of hysteria.
Sam tensed. Anger flared and danced in his eyes. While my heart shattered into a million pieces, the heat of his body and masculine scent wrapped around me like a blanket of perfection. Fury and lust fused with a powerful throbbing that coursed through my veins, the sensual zing so compelling I could practically taste it. And all the while, Sam’s rock-hard cock—nestled all nice and cozy against my pussy—made me wetter by the second. My caustic rage soared even higher.
“Get off me. I’m leaving,” I hissed.
“Not so fast. You’re telling me the time we spent together meant nothing to you?” The steely, cold edge of his tone made me shiver.
“Pretty much.” I shrugged, fibbing through my teeth.
Sam narrowed his eyes, dissecting deeply with his piercing stare. “Now who’s breaking promises? We promised we’d never lie to one another, yet you’re doing that now. What we share is far more than casual, and you damn well know it. You think I’ve been unfaithful, but I haven’t. I won’t let you pin a man-whore label on me, because I’m not one.”
As Sam spoke, I couldn’t tear my eyes off his mouth…couldn’t stop remembering how incredible the soft, firm texture of his lips felt.
“You’re wrong, sweetheart…oh so wrong,” he murmured before dipping his head to capture my mouth beneath a tender kiss.
The familiar lure of his command pulled me helplessly under as he disarmed and laid waste to my fury.
No, my head shrieked in rage.
Yes, my body moaned in delight.
“Um, I’m sorry to interrupt,” Liz mumbled from the doorway. Sam grudgingly eased back but kept his smoldering gaze locked on me. “Metcalf sent me to find you two. Cindy, the Life Wings chopper is en route. ETA: five minutes. Sam...err…I mean, Dr. Brooks, the EMTs are pulling in now with your patient.”
“We’ll be right there,” he replied, still holding me prisoner with his stare.
Liz darted out of the room while Sam caged me with his steely frame.
“Clock back in, Cin. This department doesn’t run the same without you. If Metcalf looks at you sideways, I want to know about it immediately.” Sam arched his brows, pausing until I gave a little nod. “Thank you. One more thing, meet me back here after your shift. I’m going to take you someplace quiet so we can talk this out.”
I wanted to refuse him. Tell him not to waste his breath, but he’d used that uncompromising tone that brooked no argument. The same one he used when we made love and he commanded me to hold back my orgasms until he granted mercy and growled for me to come. Did the man have any idea how his unyielding control turned me inside out?
Of course he does, you fool. That’s why he talks to you that way, my conscience taunted.
“We’ll see,” I hedged, not wanting to readily succumb to his edict.
“No. You’ll wait here for me, Cin. Seven o’clock.”
Like Kryptonite to Superman, Sam’s authoritative tenor melted every ounce of my resolve. “Fine.” I exhaled a heavy sigh. “I’ll meet you here at seven.”
“Good girl.” He smiled, then kissed me once more before pushing off the wall and striding out the door.
The loss of his blissful body heat only served to reinforce how difficult it was going to be to walk away from the glorious bliss Sam never failed to bestow.
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“Yeah, well, he shouldn’t have started bestowing it on that bitch, Destiny,” I spat as I shoved my purse back into my locker.
After clocking in again, I hurried back to the ER unit. Several hectic, stressful hours later, Liz plopped down next to me at the nurses’ station and began updating patient charts.
The air between us was with thick with tension.
After several awkwardly silent minutes, Liz turned toward me. “I’m sorry.”
I dismissed her apology with a cold stare.
“I haven’t been the kind of friend that you’ve been to me. I never meant for any of this to happen. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
Jerking my head in a nod, I started to glance away.
“There’s extenuating circumstances involving Sam that I’m not at liberty to divulge.” A pleading expression lined her face. “I want to. I want to tell you everything, but I can’t.”
“Oh, please,” I scoffed bitterly. “I didn’t want to tell you Ryan was a bastard, but I did. Because I cared enough to tell you the truth…risked our friendship to try and save you heartache in the end.”
Liz’s face wrinkled in regret. “I know, and I appreciate you trying to do that for me. Honestly, I do. But until Sam talks to you. I—I can’t go into details and it pisses me off.”
“You have nothing to be pissed about. Your actions clearly declare your allegiance is with Sam and not me. Let’s drop—”
“That’s not fair,” Liz interrupted, clearly distraught. “I’ve never sided with Sam or tossed you under the bus. It’s not like that. There are personal things about him that I know but can’t discuss with you or anyone.”
“So the fact that he’s sharing secrets with you and not me is supposed to, what…make it better?” I chortled humorlessly as the knife in my back twisted in deeper still. “Look, don’t sweat it. He and I are going to talk tonight. Whatever he wants me to know, he’ll tell me. I’m sure he’s thinking he can sweet-talk his way into my life and bed, but he’s in for a rude awakening. Fool me once, shame on me. I don’t plan to stick around for him to fool me twice. We’re through.”
“What? No. You can’t,” Liz gasped. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Cindy. Listen to him. He’ll explain every—”
“I don’t have to listen to you take his side anymore,” I snapped. “You don’t get to try and sew my fucked-up love life back together. I know how to handle players like him. I’ve done it before, remember?”
“Aw, Cin. Sam isn’t anything like Darnell,” Liz began, ignoring my words. “You can’t compare—”
With a raise of my hand, I cut her off. “Don’t say a word about my personal life…past, present, or future. Got it? I should never have confided about Darnell to you in the first place. I just hope Sam knows how lucky he is to have you in his corner. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have patients who—”
“Dammit, Cindy. I said I was sorry,” Liz barked.
“You think this is a boo-boo you can just kiss and make better?” I railed. “You betrayed me, Liz. Betrayed our friendship over some two-timing worthless fucking man. How could you do that to me?”
Tears swam in Liz’s grief-stricken eyes. With a strangled sob, she bolted from her chair and raced out of the unit.
“Shit,” I hissed. The sight of Liz’s tears was burned into my retinas long after she’d gone. Guilt sluiced through my veins as the puckered scars of my heart split open. A piercing ache thrummed through me as a wave of self-loathing consumed me in its fiery blaze.
I had no business talking to Liz about Sam. Not when my emotions were stampeding all over the damn place. I should have simply accepted her apology and waited until the gaping wounds inside me started to heal.
“Nurse Noland?” Metcalf’s abnormally soft tone pulled me from my thoughts. “I could use your help in room six if you have a minute, please?”
His timid request ricocheted through me like a bullet in a steel chamber. Obviously, Sam’s threat had made quite the impression. Still, I didn’t trust Metcalf’s new demeanor and remained guarded as I followed him into trauma room six.
The remainder of my shift seemed to drag on forever. No doubt worsened by the fact that Liz was deliberately steering clear of me. That, coupled with the kicked-puppy-dog expression lining her face, told me I’d been much too harsh on her. Still, her siding with Sam wasn’t a wound I could dismiss or erase in a few hours, or days. When I finally managed to pull the knives from my heart and super-glue the damn thing back together, I hoped Liz and I could mend our riff. We’d had spats before, though none this brutal. I truly hoped a permanent wedge hadn’t been driven between us. In the end, one of us would swallow our pride, and if it had to be me, fine. I simply couldn’t wrap my head around Liz being gone from my life. I loved her like a sister.
As I glanced at my watch for the hundredth time, anxiety climbed higher. The closer to seven p.m., the harder it became for me to tamp down the trepidation within. When Liz walked past me, I realized how badly I’d cut off my nose to spite my face. If there was a time I needed my bestie to talk me off the ledge and pry the icy hands of uncertainty from my neck, it was now.
In a matter of minutes, Sam would be here, expecting to work things out. Hopefully, the flames of jealousy burning inside me would make short work of ending our relationship. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about Destiny. I didn’t buy for a minute Sam’s claim that they weren’t having sex. Did he take me for a total fool? Obviously.
With a heavy sigh, I stalked off to the nurses’ lounge. Sam wasn’t there and a glimmer of hope ignited inside me. If I hurried, I could sprint to the garage, drive home, open a bottle of wine, and draw a hot bubble bath. Then I could finally purge and purge the tears I’d been shoving down over the past twelve hours.
“That sounds like heaven,” I sighed out loud, anxious to find my zen again.
“Something might sound like heaven, but I’m looking right at it,” Sam drawled.
His deep voice startled the beejeebers out of me, and I jerked my head up to find him standing in the doorway, wearing a sexy smile. My heart leapt to my throat. My body trembled. Though I wasn’t sure if that was from being startled or the instantaneous cravings zipping through my body.
In an effort to mask how easily he aroused me, I lifted my chin defiantly.
I knew he saw right through me when he shook his head and chuckled. “Are you ready to go?”
“Go? Go where?” Before he could answer, I marched into his personal space. “If you think I’m going home with you, you’re out of your mind.”
Because the minute you have me alone, you’ll try to seduce your way out of this, and I’ll end up naked beneath you. Which will make me feel more damn pathetic than I do right now.
Sam leaned in close to my ear. “Oh, I’d love to take you home and fuck the sass right out of you, baby,” he growled, then lifted his head and stared down at me. “Where I’m taking you is a surprise. But I promise I’m not going to take you home and cuff you to my bed.”
A strange little smile curled over his lips.
Two other nurses ambled in, then headed toward their lockers. I didn’t want to make a huge scene, so I bit my tongue and slung the strap of my purse over my shoulder.
“You’re damn right you won’t, because I won’t let you,” I hissed lowly. “Go ahead. Lead the way.”
“Oh, I fully intend to.” He softly chuckled.
In the parking garage, Sam held open the passenger-side door of his sleek red Audi R8 as I slid down onto the buttery-soft leather seat. Buckling up as he closed the door, I inhaled the scent of his musky cologne still lingering in the air. I could almost taste the heady flavor of his skin on my tongue. A melancholy sadness filled my heart.
God, I was going to miss the magical way he drew the passion from deep inside me. He was an amazing lover, both tender and commanding. Sam never failed to drive me to the point of powerlessness, and I loved breaking free from every inhibition that had been drilled into my head since bi
rth.
I closed my eyes and sucked in the surrounding scent of him one last time. I knew that telling him good-bye wasn’t going to be easy, but I began to question whether I had the courage to snuff out the light he’d brought to my life. I didn’t want to slide back into the lonely, dark single life again. But I was strong. I’d learn how to live without him…somehow.
Sam opened the door and settled in next to me. The heat of his body surrounded me like a warm caress. As he pulled out of the parking garage, I watched him grip the steering wheel and studied his hands…hands that knew every curve and crevice of my body. The same hands that could set me ablaze with the slightest touch. As my mind began to spool through the happy memories we’d shared, I knew that strolling down memory lane would only make my heart hurt more. But try as I might, I couldn’t keep the happy times at bay. Like wine and cheese picnics in the park beneath the shade of a big oak tree. Walking down the street, holding hands, and eating ice cream as we laughed at silly nothings. Or stealing to the back row of the movie theatre to kiss and grope like a couple of teenagers.
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. This was definitely going to be a lot harder than I’d imagined. Especially when Sam turned and glanced at me with those erotic sapphire eyes. I didn’t miss the flicker of lust and adoration twinkling there before he turned his attention back to the road. My heart sputtered and my nipples hardened. And for a moment, I wanted to believe that Sam hadn’t been unfaithful, and that the connection we shared wasn’t short-circuited beyond repair.
But he had and it was.
“How open-minded are you, Cin?”
Open-minded? My stomach lurched.
Surely he wasn’t suggesting what I thought he was…or was he? No. Maybe? My heart rate tripled. There was no way in hell I would ever participate in some kinky threesome with him and Destiny.
Anger thundered through me.
Slashes of rage ignited like lightning, coalescing into a violent and unrelenting storm that rocked me to the core.
“Take me to my car. Right now. Turn around and take me back to the hospital,” I snapped.
