I sighed. I didn’t want to be patient. But saying that out loud would make me look like a spoiled child.
Peter handed the letter back to me. “Give me a bit more time. Please. I think I can swing something.”
“I don’t like not having any control.”
Peter smiled. “Nobody does, Aiden. But sometimes, the best things happen when you loosen your grip just a little bit. I’m in your corner. Elizabeth’s too. I want a happy ending for you guys. And I want a happy ending for me, too. That doesn’t involve you being shipped off to another hospital.”
Peter was a good friend.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
Peter clamped a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t mention it. Now, shall we go out there and rejoin our peers for some drinks and good food? Because although I enjoy my quality time with you, I would much prefer to be in their company, not yours, at this present moment.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Lead the way.”
Peter and I rejoined the party. After making my rounds and saying hello to everyone, I called them to their meal. People filled their plates with pasta, salad, and garlic bread, and everyone ate in different places. Some sat at the stools at the kitchen island. Others claimed spots at the dining room table while some of us, me, Elizabeth, Peter, Parks, and Stephanie included, made ourselves comfortable on the sofa.
Stephanie leaned back to get comfortable in the corner spot. She twirled her fork in her pasta and looked at Parks, who was sitting on my righthand side. I don’t think he noticed, but the way she looked at him reminded me of the way Elizabeth looked at me, and I at her.
He was in trouble.
Elizabeth nudged Stephanie’s knee with her own, and she averted her gaze from Parks as he ate.
It was funny to be here with these people and consider how different my life looked now. I wasn’t the solitary doctor carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Yes, my burden of saving lives still got to me, and there were still bad days, but they were infinitely better than they used to be. Having a woman like Elizabeth to come home to at the end of a fourteen-hour shift after losing someone on my table during surgery made the dark days a little brighter.
I had no idea how I would ever thank her properly for that. The only thing I could do was spend my days doing everything in my power to make her happy. And that was what I intended on doing.
I was still going to help her with her financial situation. Her and her mother. I would do whatever it took to ease her mind and help her focus on her career, which, in turn, would help future patients who were going to rely on her care and her sharp mind.
I wasn’t her patient, and I already relied on it.
37
Elizabeth
I held out Stephanie’s jacket for her at the end of the night. She was the last of the guests to leave and had stayed back to help Aiden and I tidy up. We appreciated the thought, but she ended up just having another glass of wine and talking our ears off about Parks.
Some things would never change.
I didn’t think I wanted them to.
Stephanie shrugged her hair out of the collar of her jacket and turned back to me. “Thanks. Tonight was fun. Right?”
“Definitely. I had a good time. And it was nice not to feel like there was so much pressure on us.”
“Agreed. We’re part of the ‘in crowd’ now. Who would have thought?”
“Not me. Not in a million years.”
She laughed softly. Her eyes were a bit red from the wine, and her cheeks were rosy. She sighed and looked at her feet. “Do you think Parks will ever notice me the way I notice him?”
I rubbed my lips together. She was in a tight spot. And despite how different Steph and I were, I could relate. Back when I’d pined after Aiden, I wondered what he thought of me.
“I think Parks likes the chase,” I said, picking my words carefully.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, he seems to go for girls who make him work for their attention.”
“Like you?” she asked darkly.
I gave her a reassuring smile. “Parks liked the idea of me. He and I never would have worked. You know that. But maybe you just need to switch up your strategy. Because what you’re doing isn’t working. Right?”
Her shoulders slumped. “Right.”
“So back off. Give him space. If he comes around, then great. If not, I hate to say this, but maybe it’s best to move on. Why would you want to be with someone who won’t give you the time of day?”
It wasn’t that Parks wouldn’t give her the time of day. He just didn’t seem at all interested in being anything other than coworkers with Stephanie. There was nothing wrong with that. He was also very good looking and probably used to girls throwing themselves at him. At some point, he might have become desensitized to it all, and passes at him went right over his head.
“I hate when you’re right.” Stephanie picked at a loose thread on her coat.
“Yeah. I know. So do I sometimes.”
She smiled. “All right. My cab is waiting. We’ll catch up soon?”
“We’re still on for coffee on Tuesday before our shift?”
She pulled me in for a hug. “You bet your ass we are. Now, go help that man of yours clean his kitchen. He looks too damn hot with his sleeves rolled up to be in there alone.”
I opened the door and watched her walk to the cab. “Love you, Steph!”
She looked back at me as she opened the door and winked. “Love you too.”
I’d taken my mother’s advice and sat down with Stephanie last week to reconnect and make sure she knew our friendship was still my priority. I apologized for making her feel like she wasn’t, and then she got all misty eyed and apologized for being all lovesick for Parks.
And now it was like nothing had changed.
Everything was as it should be.
Well, minus the fact that I was about to go into the kitchen and drop my dress and tell Aiden to bring me to bed.
Once I was under him and we were naked, then everything would be as it should be.
I locked the front door. Then I moved to the kitchen, drawing the side zipper of my dress down to my hip.
When I stopped at the island, Aiden had his back to me. He was scrubbing the last of the pots in the sink, and I savored the moment to watch him work. There was nothing sexier than a man in the kitchen. I would dare any woman to argue with me. As he scrubbed, his shoulder blades gently pushed at his white button up. It accentuated his wide shoulders and narrow waist, and I ran my tongue along my bottom lip as he turned off the tap and leaned over to dry his hands on the towel hanging off the oven handle.
I shimmied out of my dress and let it fall to my feet before stepping out of it.
And then I waited.
When he turned around, he froze. His eyes moved from my toes to my breasts and then back down before his stare darkened with lust and flicked up to meet my gaze. “Is that what you’ve had on under that dress all night?”
I ran my hands over my hips, over the lacy black panties attached to garters and nylons with a wide trim around my thighs. Then slowly, I trailed a finger up the middle of my stomach to play with the jewel that dangled from my bra right smack between my breasts. “It is. Do you like it?”
“Like it?” he asked, taking a step forward.
I retreated. “Leave the rest of the mess for tomorrow. We’ll do it together.”
“And right now?”
“Right now, I want you inside me.”
He let out a primal sound deep in his throat. It was enough to make me pinch my knees together.
“When did you get so bossy?”
I giggled softly and fell back another step. He followed. “I’ve never been afraid to go after what I want.”
“That is true. And neither have I.”
I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth. “Then show me what you want, Dr. Crawford.”
“You’re a naughty girl.”
“I’m your girl.”
“Damn fucking straight you are.”
Aiden came for me. I let out a playful yelp as he scooped me up and threw me over one shoulder. He slapped my ass hard as he toted me to the bedroom. Then in one fell swoop, he dropped his shoulder and swung me down onto the bed.
I propped myself up on my elbows as he undid the buttons of his shirt with agonizing slowness. Every flick of his wrist had me on edge, and all I wanted was for him to flick his fingers like that inside me.
He caught me staring at him and rewarded me with that devilishly charming smile of his.
I blushed under his stare. Even now after all this time, after coming to the forefront with our relationship, he still made me giddy.
Aiden shrugged out of his shirt and then stripped out of his pants. His cock strained against his black boxers as he came to his knees on the bed, straddling me. Then slowly, carefully, he began undressing me.
He started with my bra. Once it was off, he moved down to unclip my garters. He drew my nylons down, sliding them down my thighs and over my knees and calves. His fingers grazed my skin and drove me wild, and he knew it.
Lastly, he hooked his fingers in my panties and tugged them down as well. Then he threw them across the room and descended upon me for ravenous kisses. I held myself to him like I could become part of him. He ran a hand up my hip and waist. All I could see, smell, and feel was him. Always him.
There was no place I’d rather be.
Aiden tugged his boxers down around his thighs. His cock sprang free, and he leaned across me to grab a condom. Once it was on, I reached for him as my body thrummed with lust.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
He chuckled into our kiss as I stroked him and let my legs fall open. Then I guided him to my sex and rubbed my clit while he entered me.
The tension that left my body had me trembling beneath him.
He drowned out my soft moans with a hand over my mouth. His hips worked nice and slowly at first, warming me up, and when he quickened his tempo, I reached above my head to grip the pillows.
He didn’t relent. He knew what I liked, and he was after something. An orgasm and a scream and a full body tremor perhaps. He loved when I lost control.
So did I.
He fucked me harder.
My back arched, and the world blurred, and stars exploded behind my eyes.
My scream was muffled in his palm, and he growled above me as his thrusts grew more and more wild. He pushed my legs back and pushed himself in deeper. My eyes rolled back in my head.
It was happening.
Right as I lost myself, he pulled his hand from my mouth. My cries broke free of me as I came, and he came right along with me, bowing his head and rolling his hips as we both descended into the soft moment that followed passion like this.
I curled up against him once we were done. He held me to him, and I loved how perfectly we fit together. I listened to his breathing and closed my eyes.
“What did Peter say when you talked to him tonight?”
Aiden rested his chin on my shoulder. “He asked me to give him more time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s trying to pull strings for us. Don’t get your hopes up too high, but knowing him, he has something up his sleeve.”
“We’re lucky to know him.”
Aiden stroked my hair and drew it off my face. “Yes. We are. But however it turns out, I’ll be happy.”
I turned around to face him. “You promise?”
“Of course I promise.” He cupped my chin. “Elizabeth. You’re the only thing in this world that I want. I would give it all up for you in a heartbeat.”
“I’d never ask you to do that.”
“I know you wouldn’t. But the rest of it doesn’t matter if I don’t have you. I mean that. You’ve changed everything. You’ve changed me. I like the man I am now. Before you, I’m not so sure how I felt about who I was.”
I reached up to touch his jaw. “You were the same you, Aiden. You just didn’t let people in.”
He held my hand to his cheek. “And that was a mistake.”
I smiled and shook my head. “No.”
“No?”
“If it had been any other way, we might never have found each other.”
He gave me a crooked grin and leaned in to kiss the tip of my nose. “My girl, the romantic.”
“You love it.”
“I do. And I love you.”
My insides were fuzzy and warm. “I love you too. So much.”
He kissed my palm, and we lay there for a while, facing each other until it became too difficult to keep our eyes open. Then I let sleep take me, and just like every night for the last few weeks, my dreams were as good as my waking hours.
Epilogue
Three Years Later
Elizabeth
We’d done it. Three years had passed since I started at St. Mark’s Hospital, and my residency was over. Peter had allowed both of us to stay at the hospital after Aiden turned in his resignation, but I was assigned a new mentor, which worked out well. Parks had taken on the job, and I honestly learned more from him than I ever could from Aiden. He was a different type of teacher, one who didn’t give accolades and praise too often, but when he did, he meant it.
And it was a good thing Parks stepped up to the plate, too. Initially Peter had wanted to hand me over to Sarah Vant. The thought had been more than a little repulsive, and I told Peter she was the opposite of a role model.
Being the decent man he was, Peter asked what I meant, and I came clean with all of Sarah’s misbehaviors and her harassment of Aiden in the hospital. Needless to say, her career went to Hell in a hand basket fast, and she was charged for harassment when other doctors, nurses, and residents came forward with the same concerns after Aiden and I took the first step.
Stephanie finally got past her crazy phase and met a really cute guy at the club a few years back. They were married a year later, and she moved in with him and left me to make the hard decision of finally giving in to Aiden’s push for me to move in with him. He paid off my student loans within the first year of us dating and moved my mother into a beautiful little townhouse near the edge of the city. She started dating an old friend from school, and everyone seemed settled now. Parks was forever the bachelor, but I had no doubt that someone would come in and steal his heart, though he told me it still belonged to me.
He just did that to get to Aiden.
I knocked on the door just outside Dr. Miller’s office, much like I had three years before starting my journey, and took a seat. My knee wasn’t bouncing as much as it was back then, but my heart fluttered with the fact that my residency was over, and I’d taken my final exams to become a full-fledged doctor. She would have my scores, and I was going insane with the need to see them.
“Elizabeth. Right on time as usual. Come on in, and don’t mind the visitors.” She smiled warmly and moved back, leaving me to wonder what the hell she was talking about.
I walked in to find most of my friends from my residency shoved into her office, including my mom, Steph, Parks, Peter, and Aiden.
“What is this?” My heart raced in my chest as I glanced toward Dr. Miller.
“Congratulations. You did it. You were ranked number ten on this exam in all of the entire nation.”
The whole room exploded with claps and shouts of excitement. I pressed my hands to my lips and turned to press into Aiden’s arms as he wrapped them around me.
“I’m so proud of you, baby.” He kissed the side of my face as I cried.
Thirteen years of killing myself, and I had done it. Not only had I reached my goal, but my dreams were flourishing because of the man in front of me. He wanted to give me the world, to know every part of me, and exploit every pleasure known to man together.
My mom pulled at me and laughed. “Back up, Dr. Hottie. I want a hug from my girl.”
I laughed and wrapped my mom in a hug. �
�Thanks for all your support, Mom.”
She moved back and squeezed my shoulders as her eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t do much, but I’m so proud of you. Your daddy would be too.”
“I think so too.” I hugged her again and noticed out of the corner of my eye that Aiden was watching me.
I moved around the room, hugging people and talking to them about the craziness of the journey. It was overwhelming, and some part of me wished I was racing around the ER, dealing with trauma rather than having to entertain so many people, but I was grateful for their support. It was a good lesson in the fact that life didn’t have to be spent alone—ever. I had a whole room full of people who cared for me and truly wanted me to succeed. One in particular.
“Why are you watching me so closely? It’s turning me on.” I moved up to my man and wrapped my arms around his narrow waist as he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.
“I got you something. I hope you don’t mind me giving it to you now.” He nipped at my mouth.
“Is it a dick in a box?” I whispered against his lips. “Because that’s what I really want.”
He jerked back, laughing loudly as he shook his head. “Oh shit, baby. Not much has changed in the last three years, has it?” He pulled out a small black box as the room grew quiet. “I’m not sure this is the place to do it, but most of these people have threatened my life about being present when I did it.”
“What are you doing, Aiden?” The blood rushed from my face as the room started to spin. I reached out and touched his shoulder as he dropped to his knee and lifted the box, popping it open and smiling at me. The petite diamond ring inside the box was perfect. It was me all the way, and I couldn’t have done a better job having someone handcraft it for me.
“You make my life worth living. You’re my partner at the hospital, my lover at home, my best friend everywhere else. Be my wife. Let’s make this forever thing legit. Marry me.”
I let out a short laugh as tears dripped down my face. “Yes. God, yes.”
Between The Sheets Page 22
