“Sloane! Oh my god, Sloane.” A hand lands on my shoulder. The next thing I know, I’m being pulled into a rough hug. Suresh, beaming from ear to ear, squeezes me tightly, then holds me at arm’s length so he can look at me. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he tells me. “Now everything’s perfect.” He plants a wet kiss on my forehead, and Rebecca, suddenly at his side, laughs brightly.
“Yes, so glad you came,” she tells me, kissing my cheek.
“Thank you. You look beautiful.”
“And I see you used your plus one,” Suresh says. “You must be the guy Sloane’s fucking.” He holds out his hand to Zeth. All the blood rushes from my face. I cover my mouth with my hands, remembering what Suresh had said back in the hospital canteen the day he reminded me about his wedding—that I couldn’t just bring a friend. It had to be someone I was fucking. When I peek at Zeth, he’s shaking Suresh’s hand, not even remotely fazed.
“Yep. I’m that guy,” he says. “Zeth. Pleasure to meet you.”
“You too, man. Zeth? Cool name.” He slaps Zeth on the arm, and then the bride and groom move on through the crowd, smiling and hugging more people as they go.
The sea of milling people eventually reaches a small boutique hotel three blocks away. Not time for speeches or food yet, a string quartet begins to play as soon as the wedding guests arrive. Zeth holds his hand out to me, and the night gets even weirder.
“You want to dance with me?” I ask.
“Yes.” Zeth takes hold of me and pulls me into him, breathing me in. “I want nothing more right now.” He holds me, and we dance, and in this small moment, the nightmare we’ve just been through doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing does. It’s well after midnight, after the food and the speeches and lot more dancing when Zeth tells me we need to leave.
“What? We have to go? Why?”
“Because.” He kisses me lightly, his mouth lingering on mine. “The clock’s already struck twelve. That’s how most fairytales go, right? The beautiful young woman has to leave before the end of the ball?”
“No,” I say, laughing, shaking my head. “Not this one. Not this time. And this time the princess gets her Prince Charming, too, right? You said it yourself. One night only.”
He smiles. “I’ll give you more than one night, Sloane, I promise. Or at least I’m gonna work on it. But right now we do have to leave because you have to be up early in the morning.”
“I do?”
He just nods, fighting back the beginnings of a smile. We slip silently out of the wedding party, and my heart feels heavy in my chest. It would have been nice to stay and eat, to laugh and dance more, but I’m intrigued by his cryptic clue.
In the back of the car, Zeth hands me a black backpack. “Here.” It’s the backpack he had over his shoulder when he came back from Michael’s place earlier. I look at him, trying to figure out what’s inside even as I open the zip.
My heart stops beating when I see what’s inside.
Scrubs.
Blue scrubs.
“What…what’s this?” I can barely breathe.
“That’s what you normally wear to work, right?” Zeth bites back a grin as I pull the scrubs out, my mouth hanging open.
“But…how? How did you…? Oh god, you didn’t threaten anyone, did you?”
“No. Money talks, Dr. Romera. Though threats were gonna be next if that chief of medicine woman didn’t give me what I fucking wanted.”
“You bribed Chief Allison?”
He tuts. “I gave her something she wanted.”
“Which was?”
“A new MRI machine.”
“Zeth! MRI machines cost millions of dollars! There was a lot of cash in those bags, but there wasn’t a million dollars.”
“There wasn’t, no. But Charlie had a fair chunk of cash sitting in his safe, and he didn’t exactly need it anymore. And I sure as hell didn’t want any more of his money.”
God. I try to imagine the chief’s face when Zeth handed over that amount of money in cash. She’d have had to accept it as an anonymous donation. The paperwork on something like that would be a nightmare. I suddenly feel like throwing up.
“So I’m going back to work? I’m really going back? Tomorrow morning?”
Zeth checks his watch, as though my shift is about to start any moment now. “Nine am sharp. Which means, Sloane, we have just enough time to go home and spend some time together before you need to sleep.” His hands are already sliding up the silk of my dress, and I can barely believe this is happening. He fixed this for me. Doctors don’t just get to steal medical supplies and involve themselves in shootouts inside hospitals and then expect to go back to work. He made all of that disappear.
By the time Michael pulls up outside The Regency Rooms, I’m severely sexually frustrated and my hair is all over the place, and I am even more in love with this crazy, sexy man. Michael goes to park the limo, leaving Zeth and me to ride up to our floor in the elevator.
“What are you going to do all day without me if I’m back at work? You’re gonna miss me, aren’t you?” I tease.
Zeth presses me up against the side of the elevator, hands working quickly as he slides his fingers underneath the lace of my panties. I gasp as he slips two of them inside me, a devious smile on his face.
“Don’t you worry about me, Dr. Romera. I have plenty of things to keep me busy.”