I didn’t bother to answer him.
Otherwise I might’ve said that I now wished that I hadn’t been paying attention.
Motherfucker.
Who did he think he was?
My mother wouldn’t stoop so low as to get her daughter a job…would she?
Chapter 3
Whatever, motherfucker. Whatever.
-Coffee Cup
Tommy
I was thankful that the shift was over.
This had been one of the worst twelve hours I’d had in a very long time—since med school, at least.
Not because the patients had been difficult or anything, but because of her.
The freakin’ student who made my dick hard with one whispered word from those luscious, would-look-great-wrapped-around-my-cock, lips.
She wasn’t tall, but she wasn’t short.
Her long brown hair looked just as good flowing down her back as it did up high in a ponytail, or in a fucking messy bun scrunched at the top of her head.
Sweats. Scrubs. Jeans.
They all did it for me when she wore them.
There was literally not a goddamned thing she was able to wear that didn’t get me harder than stone.
Her green eyes were mesmerizing. One look into them, and it was easy as hell to forget that she was a student, a twenty-year-old one at that.
All right, Mr. Perv, I thought to myself. Time to stop thinking about girls who are more than ten years younger than you.
My body, however, didn’t care that she was twenty (nearly twenty-one according to her school files) to my thirty-three.
It didn’t care that I’d get fired if I was found fucking her.
It also didn’t care that I was trying to control it.
The beast wouldn’t be controlled.
“See you tomorrow, Dr. Bones.”
I flipped off my fellow doctor and good friend, Dr. Wild.
Dr. Wild was an ex-Marine who thought it was damned hilarious that all the nursing students—and now nurses—were calling me that.
I, on the other hand, hated it.
I didn’t care if I did induce lady boners in my students. It was annoying, and if that motherfucking nickname was whispered to my club brothers, I’d never hear the fucking end of it.
“Catch you tomorrow, asshole,” I mumbled, pushing through the staff exit that led to the staff parking lot.
The moment the door closed behind me, I headed around the building to where I pulled my motorcycle up onto the curb.
I came to a quick halt, though, the moment I realized that there were two people standing incredibly close to my bike.
Freezing in the shadows to see what they were doing so close to my baby, I listened.
“I want to keep her overnight,” a man said into the darkness. “It’s time. She’s eight months old. She’s old enough now that you can wean her off your tit for a night and let me keep her. Sheena wants to have a part in her life.”
I could’ve told him that bringing another woman into this conversation wasn’t the right thing to do, but it was useless. He looked like the stupid type.
“I still breastfeed her overnight,” an extremely familiar voice filled the air. “And you know this. If she doesn’t have it, she doesn’t do well.”
Wait. Talith had a kid?
The man let out a frustrated groan.
“This is ridiculous,” he growled. “I’m never going to see this kid. She’ll be fifteen before she’s finally off your boob and ready to mingle with the world.” He kicked the gravel at his feet, causing stray rocks to jolt forward and hit Tally’s feet as well as the building. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”
Tally stiffened. “Russell. My daughter is eight months old, and in those eight months Tallulah has been diagnosed with asthma. She has pneumonia once a month. Strep throat every other month. Ear infections. Stomach viruses. She’s been on every freakin’ antibiotic that the world of modern medicine has to offer. The one and only time you had her, you fed her aspirin. Aspirin that nearly killed her. And you didn’t even feel bad about doing it. What, exactly, do you want from me?”
My stomach tightened at hearing he’d fed a child aspirin, even ignorantly.
The repercussions of that one act could’ve been catastrophic, especially to a baby.
“It’s obvious that you aren’t gaining anything by doing what you’re doing. I said I’m sorry for that. How long are you going to hold it over my head?” he demanded.
My eyes turned to her, and she looked like she was ready to cry.
“I’m not, Russell. I’m just doing what I have to do to get me and Tallulah through. So please, for the love of God, leave me alone. You have your visitation days. If you feel that you want those changed, please feel free to take me to court.”
“I can’t take you to court, and you damn well know it. Your father’s friends will shut me down again with some ‘medically necessary’ bullshit that we both know isn’t actually necessary in the slightest.”
I came out of the shadows, startling not just this Russell character, but Tally as well.
“Actually,” I cut in, making sure the both of them could see me well. “Breastfeeding is one of the best things a mother can do for her infant, especially a sickly one like it sounds like your daughter is. You’re lucky that your daughter has a mother that cares for her like she does.”
“And just who are you?” Russell bowed his chest up.
Russell was about three inches taller than my six foot one-inch frame, and he looked like he was in incredibly good shape.
I now could see what Tally saw in him.
He was an attractive fucker, I’d give him that.
His attitude, however, was not.
“I’m Doctor Tomirkanivov.”
Russell blinked, then sneered.
“Well, this is a private conversation,” he informed me haughtily.
I shrugged. “Just need to get to my bike.”
I pointed, and the man turned, eyeing the bike like it was some random piece of trash.
“Figures,” he grumbled. “I’ll be talking to our lawyers again, Tal. It’s time.”
Tally didn’t bother to reply, and watched him walk away with barely restrained violence shimmering in her eyes.
“You okay?” I rumbled, turning fully to face her.
She breathed out a shaky breath.
“Yeah,” she nodded twice. “I’m okay.”
“You had a real winner there.” I meant it to come out as teasing, but she nodded in all seriousness.
“I know.” She swiped angrily at her eyes. “I broke up with him before I even knew I was pregnant. The worst decision of my life was dating him, but out of it, came one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”
“So the kid that your mom shows around the ER is yours and not your sister’s?”
She smiled and shook her head.
It was nice to see that she was hiding the bitch tonight…something I’d been dealing with ever since that day in my class two weeks ago when she was talking about me and I could hear every word.
Well, not her, but her friends. But then she’d defended them, blatantly lying to my face, and it’d pissed me the hell off.
Which was why I’d said rude words to her about her mother getting her the job in the ER.