Doctor Scandalous : A Fake Engagement Romance (Boston's Billionaire Bachelors Book 1)

by J. Saman

  She sucks in a breath, her eyes shining with tears, and I reach out, unable to stop it and take her hand. I hold it in mine. I hold it because I cannot hold her here in this stupid restaurant I’m suddenly wishing I had never taken her to. We should be at my place. Just us. And she should be telling me this when I’m able to comfort her.

  “Your parents died,” I echo.

  “They did. I got the call in the middle of the night because that’s how it always goes until they can locate next of kin. I rushed home. It was midterms, so he stayed. I didn’t think too much about it at the time. My heart, my mind… I didn’t think about it. Then two days later he sent me a text. Right before the funeral. It said, I’m not coming. I’m not ready to leave school or become a stepdad yet. I’m sorry, but I have to end this now before your life ruins mine.”

  I blink at her, staring so dumbly because words absolutely fail me in this moment.

  “I’m sorry…” I begin only to trail off. “He said…” Yep, words fail me.

  “He did.”

  “And he did that by text?”

  She gives me a wan smile. “He did. A few days later, all of my stuff arrived in boxes and that was that.”

  Damn. And I thought Nora was a bitch. “Is he still alive?”

  She doesn’t laugh and I don’t intend for her to. I’m not kidding. I know people. I’m a Fritz. I could pay for him to be dead in under an hour. No wonder Amelia is such a mess with me. No wonder she’s so reserved and afraid. There is more to her situation with Layla. I’m certain of it. She’s holding something else back.

  But hell, how does a human rebound from that?

  From someone they love, who swore love to them, abandoning them at their most dire hour of need? All the while dealing with the grief of losing both parents and having to leave school to come home and take care of their much younger sister?

  Fuck. How is she sitting here breathing? But the fact that she’s opening up to me? Sharing something with me I know she doesn’t ever talk about?

  “Amelia…”

  “My point behind that story wasn’t for sympathy or drama,” she says, giving me a withering attempt at a smile. “It wasn’t to one-up you. It was to let you know that I get it. I get why you do the things you do, and you do not have to explain yourself to me. I have no judgments even if it sounded that way. That was… jealousy, I guess. Anyway, you date a lot of women because you don’t trust easily, and you don’t want to put yourself back out there and I hardly date at all for the very same reason. We’re the same, yet opposite, both doing whatever we have to do to get by.”

  Except what has she done? How is she getting by? She’s surviving. It’s not the same thing. What would I give to rid her heart of all its ache? She’s already doing that to mine and she doesn’t even know it. Hell, I never even wanted it.

  One week and my world has become Nora who and Amelia yes.

  “I never thought I’d find someone worth taking the risk on,” I tell her. “That’s for sure.”

  She angles in my direction. “What would you call this then? Letting everyone think you’re engaged?”

  “You and I are different. This situation is different.” At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. “You’re different than the Nora’s of the world. And I’m different from your nameless asshole. I wouldn’t be here with you otherwise.”

  Except that’s not why we’re together at all, is it? Even if it feels like yet another truth I maybe shouldn’t have said.

  “You are different,” she tells me. “I wouldn’t be here with you otherwise. I’m trusting you with this and you’re doing the same with me. It’s the trust of everyone else we’re putting at risk.”

  I frown at that. Thinking about my mom. How she’s sick. How we’re just at the start of a very long road for her. The thought of hurting my mother, of hurting anyone I love, is like knives stabbing into me and twisting around.

  The slice and burn of betrayal is not a favor I want to return.

  “Would you still want to be with Nora? Married and about to become a father?”

  She misread my expression completely, but still, I answer her all the same. “No. I’m glad Nora is gone. I’m glad I’m not married to her.”

  And this I can say that with ease. I don’t miss Nora. I feel like I dodged a bullet when she broke up with me. Who knows the type of man I’d be now otherwise. Probably working in dermatology and carrying her purse whenever we went out shopping. I let Nora hold too much power over me.

  A mistake I know I’d never make again.

  It’s why I’ve been surviving as the lone wolf. Women want my name. Women want my money. Women want to manipulate and take advantage because I come across as a nice, easy-going, malleable guy.

  No thanks. All set with that.

  “What about you? Would you still want to be with that guy?”

  She thinks about this. And the fact that she has to do that, burns my blood. “No. I only wish I had lived more before I met him and done more after he was gone.”

  “Is that what you’re doing with me?”

  “I like to think so. At least that’s how I’m selling this to myself. It’s insane. So over the top. But it’s also something I don’t want to look back on and regret not taking the leap with. Even if it’s just for Layla.”

  Amelia is different. Just as I said.

  The glimmer in her eyes. The stubborn lift of her mouth when she effortlessly calls me out on my shit. The way she looks at me with understanding as if she knows I’m more than the person I show the world. It’s all kinda heady. She’s not a game player. She’s not an opportunist. She has zero fucks to give when it comes to my money.

  She’s just a woman trying to get by doing the best she can for someone else. A woman who has been hurt, ransacked by life, and come out stronger on the other side. Fuck all if that doesn’t make me want to give them both everything simply because I can.

  And before I can stop myself. Before I can think about anything else, I cup Amelia’s face, lean in, and kiss her lips. Her lips that I’m hopelessly addicted to. Her lips that taste like honey and home.

  “If I had married Nora and you had ended up with that guy, I wouldn’t be here with you tonight.” I pull back an inch, staring into her eyes, my heart thundering in my chest as realization sweeps through me like a drug. “Amelia, there is nowhere else I’d rather be than here with you.”

  She starts to smile, starts to lean in to kiss me back, only to catch a flash of something out of the corner of her eye. A camera. Narrowing in on the diamond on her hand, she pulls away. Then she frowns, staring at it before finding my eyes like she’s searching for the lie beneath my words.

  She thinks I said that as part of this thing.

  As a line.

  Only I didn’t and before I can tell her that, we’re interrupted by our waiter again and Amelia is gone. Sitting up straight in her seat and staring at the menu and I’m ordering wine for us and that’s that. Moment over.

  Maybe it’s just as well.

  A saving grace from the way her story tonight is holding me captive. From the way she’s holding me captive. A way for me to keep my head on straight and my mind in the game. The game that does not end with me wanting more from Amelia Atkins. No matter how much I’m starting to.

  14

  OLIVER

  “How’s your fake engagement going?” Carter asks, shifting the cereal around in his bowl. He does this. Come upstairs to my place at random times, eats my food, drinks my drinks, and generally ingratiates himself into my days. He’s my brother and my best friend, so I think he feels that gives him permission.

  “If we’re going by the pictures from the other night,” Grace says, “I’d say it’s going swimmingly.” Grace also likes to just randomly show up. It doesn’t help that she and Carter work together as OB-GYNs at the same hospital I now do a couple of shifts a week in as a family medicine resident.

  That and I also always have food they both like to pillage. />
  “I didn’t look at the tabloids yesterday,” I say, sipping at my coffee.

  Both Carter and Grace give me dubious looks, but it’s true. I haven’t checked. Yes, obviously there is a part of me that’s curious, but the larger part of me doesn’t want to know. After our somewhat strained start to our date, things got progressively better and better. Amelia relaxed. I did too and by the end of the night, we were laughing and talking so much we lost track of time and practically closed the place down.

  But I haven’t talked to her since I dropped her off with an awkward hug and a stupid wave. Nothing yesterday. I wanted to call and text her so many times I nearly chucked my phone over my balcony so I wouldn’t do it. And like the douchebag I’m turning into, I was disappointed she didn’t call or text me.

  I finally succumbed to the temptation and texted that I had a good time with her Saturday. She never responded. I have no idea what’s happening between us. What’s happening to me. Neither the good nor the bad.

  “Well, you were all over them.” Grace has a smug grin I’m choosing to ignore.

  I didn’t pay attention if anyone was watching us. I know we were photographed at least once because that’s what ruined my moment with her after we bared our souls to each other. Spoke truths I know neither of us ever willingly speaks.

  I have no idea how it happens, but no matter where I go in this city, if there is a woman on my arm, I’m photographed. It’s the same with all my brothers. Only Rina and Landon escape this. Rina because she’s been through enough and made sure to keep a low profile. Landon, because he’s a single dad and much like Amelia, he doesn’t go out often. Rarely at all. His heartbreak has depth and teeth, sort of like Amelia’s, and he doesn’t take that lightly.

  “Are you going to do the Boston Magazine thing?” Carter asks. “Kaplan said they’re being persistent with you.”

  “They are and I haven’t decided. I want to talk to Amelia about it.”

  “It would make Mom happy.”

  “And make us look shittier when this ruse is over.”

  “But aren’t you two actually dating now or is this really all for show?” Grace pushes, looking forlorn by the idea of this really all being fake.

  I stare at Grace, allowing her question to marinate in my brain for a moment. I also think about the sparkle in Amelia’s eyes when I told her there was nowhere else I’d rather be than there with her. The words tumbled out. The desire to be close to her strong. The need to kiss her pervasive, like a sickness I haven’t been able to stop from spreading.

  “No,” finally slips from my lips. “We’re not.” I set my mug down and go about getting my stuff together for my shift, including my stethoscope and ID badge.

  “But you should be. She’s perfect for you.”

  “You don’t even know her, Grace. You barely knew her when we were in high school.”

  “I know you liked her back then, and I know you like her now. The pictures say it all.”

  I scoff at that. “Because tabloid pictures never exaggerate anything or know how to spin a smile to look like love?”

  “I didn’t say anything about love. You did.” She points an accusing finger at me. “I said like. So again, why aren’t you dating her?”

  Because I do like Amelia. That’s why. I want to be good for her and I’m not sure I am. In fact, I’m pretty positive I’m not. Look at the mess I’ve gotten both of us into. She deserves a better man than me. Someone who has their head on straight. Who doesn’t have crazy trust issues and isn’t lying to their sick mother.

  Only I can’t say that because I know Grace and she’ll be all over me for that. Yeah, I like Amelia and there is potential there, but I respect her too much to bring her into the mess that is my head and heart and world. I don’t stay with a woman past one or two dates. I don’t get serious. Never again.

  Amelia’s not casual. She’s not someone I can just fool around with to get out of my system. Hell, one night with her, and I was already craving more, not less. That only seems to grow stronger the more time I spend with her.

  But she set a hard limit of no sex. She set a hard limit of boundaries. She doesn’t want to confuse what we’re doing with something else. The woman hasn’t even responded to my text. Given our situation, attempting something like actually being together would be disastrous anyway.

  I need her too much right now.

  “Not everything is as easy as your heart wants to make it,” I say.

  “And not everything is as difficult as your brain wants to make it. Sometimes your heart knows better.”

  For a second, I have no retort. Her words cling to me like an old wool sweater, rubbing me all wrong and yet a little too right.

  I clear my throat. “Let it go, Grace. It’s not going to be like that with Amelia and me.”

  Grace huffs, pushing her cereal bowl away with gusto. She opens her mouth, ready to really lay into me when Carter cuts her off. “Drop it, okay? Oliver knows what he’s doing. We’ve pushed him deep into this enough not to make comments on how he plays it.”

  Grace catches his eyes and I watch as my big brother tells her a whole fucking play’s worth of shit with just his eyes. I don’t interrupt. They’ve developed a shorthand of sorts. Maybe it’s from working together? I don’t know. They have a connection that even Grace and I don’t seem to have, and we’ve been best friends since infancy.

  Finally, she acquiesces. “Fine. I’ll keep my comments on this to myself. For now,” she warns. “We should get going, or we’re all going to be late.”

  ***

  “Dr. Fritz, we’ve added on a last-minute patient to your schedule.”

  I glance up at the nurse who is newish to this practice. “You do realize my schedule is already full and I have three appointments that are already double-booked, right?”

  Welcome to family medicine in community health.

  She shrugs like she’s not quite sure what to do. “She requested you specifically.”

  She? I inwardly sigh, leaning back in my chair. “What’s she here for?”

  “She wouldn’t say.”

  Now I want to growl, because it’s her job to ask. And typically, patients aren’t just added onto a schedule without a chief complaint or reason for appointment. But at this rate, the longer I argue with her, the farther behind I’ll be on my day.

  “Do I need a chaperone?”

  She shakes her head and then shrugs again. “No. I don’t think it’s that type of appointment.”

  “You don’t think?”

  The nurse blushes and looks down at the floor and this time, there is no suppressing my sigh. I’m still strung tight after my impromptu come-to Jesus breakfast meeting with Grace and Carter, and I don’t mean to snap but come the fuck on.

  “Sorry, but in the future, when adding someone onto my schedule, please find out a bit more about the reason for their visit, so I know what I’m walking into.”

  “The other nurses said you’ve been nicer since you got engaged.”

  Jesus hell. Is that even true? And when was I ever not nice to anyone, let alone the nurses? I am a prince to the nurses. Even when I’m not screwing them.

  “They said I wasn’t nice before?”

  “Maybe nice isn’t the word they used? Maybe they said you were different?” She tilts her head as she contemplates this until she snaps her fingers in an ah-ha way. “Oh, they said they liked you better before you got engaged. That was it. But it was Christy who said that, and I think she was more jealous because you never went out with her like you did a few of the other girls.”

  I have nothing for that.

  “Please, just stand by the door in case I need you,” I say, trying to check my tone. A woman requesting me specifically isn’t something you play with. If I have to, I’ll haul an arsenal of nurses and med students in with me.

  Dragging my ass out of my chair, I make my way down the hall, the nurse pointing to room 304. I knock and the second I swing the door open; I practical
ly growl out, what the absolute motherfuck? Because that’s precisely what I’m thinking.

  “You’re not a patient here,” I tell Nora, who is sitting primly on the exam table wearing a plethora of designer clothing, diamonds and a satisfied smile.

  “I am now.”

  For fuck’s sake.

  I turn back to the nurse. “Thanks, I’m all set. She won’t be staying long.”

  The nurse gives me a tight grin and shuts the door behind me, closing me in this tiny four-by-five room with a woman I was hoping never to see again.

  “What do you want, Nora, since I know you’re not here for a physical.”

  “What if I am?” She tilts her head coquettishly, and that’s it. I’m already done. I move to leave when her voice stops me. “You look happy with Amelia.”

  I spin back around, leaning against the door and squinting at her. “Is that why you’re here? To see if I’m as happy as I appear? Because the answer to that is yes. Mission accomplished, now you can go.”

  “Robbie and I aren’t happy,” she says, ignoring that last part. Her gaze falls to her lap. “Things have been bad between us for a while. I was hoping this pregnancy would change that, and it hasn’t.”

  I sigh, because that seems to be my thing today, dropping onto the rolling stool, though I press myself against the wall, ensuring I have plenty of space between me and the blonde snake.

  I rub a hand over my forehead, trying to rein in my temper. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “No, you’re not and I don’t blame you. I swear, Robbie only made a move on me to try and show you up. I doubt he ever loved me. But I was lonely. You were always in class or studying. Working so hard we barely ever saw each other.”

  “Are you kidding me with that?” slips out. “Nora, lest we forget the myriad of sacrifices I made for you.” I point at her. “Why the hell else do you think I was working so damn hard all the time?”

  She swallows, licking her lips as she nods. “I know. I was stupid and young. I made a lot of mistakes with you, Oliver, but I’ll never forgive myself for the way I hurt you.”