Page 80 of Dr. Aster

“No shit,” he chuckled, kissing my nose. “Who knew that your sexy ass was my sexual soul mate?”

I smiled at him. “That’s one way to describe it. I’ve never felt anything like this before,” I covered his confident smile with my fingers. “Don’t get a big head about it, but I’m serious. This is wild.”

“I aim to please,” he teased.

“We need to get up,” I said, pulling myself from the mattress of love and running my hands through my tangled hair. “I need a shower. I don’t even know what time it is.”

“The day that time stood still,” John said, lying flat on his back as I climbed over him.

“Your jokes are officially cheesy and lame. I’m getting in the shower.”

“And I’m joining you,” he said, slapping my ass after getting out of bed behind me.

“Shower sex?” I teased as he walked into the bathroom with his tight, dimpled ass looking ridiculously gorgeous.

“Might as well,” I laughed, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge now that the fog had burned off it and moved out of the bay. “The marine layer has lifted, so it’s got to be at least noon?”

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with an extra night’s stay in this room. God knows the hotel was about to refund me my money for that bullshit picture cutting you. Either way, I love this room, this place, and I’m going to come out and say it whether it scares you or not. I love you, baby.”

“You just love the sex,” I teased, stepping in front of him and cupping my hands to catch the warm water as my body acclimated to it.

“No, gorgeous,” he said, encircling his arms around me. “I love you.”

John and I had been back to work for two weeks, and we’d be lying if we tried to act like our entire worlds weren’t flipped upside down during our trip to San Francisco. The first couple of days back at work, I struggled to get the man out of my mind. It is a hard enough thing to do when you work together, but this was so much more than that. His smile touched my heart and soul differently, igniting a passion and fire that I didn’t know could exist between two people.

Thankfully, I was able to focus on work because if I couldn’t do that, I’d need to quit my job and live on that damn vineyard in France with him and drink wine, staying drunk and in love for the rest of my life.

Being consumed like this was out of character for me, and adjusting to these potent feelings took all my concentration. It felt like someone put a love spell on me, and it was potent as hell.

“And she drifts off in thought of the charming Dr. Aster once again,” my RN friend Brenda said as I scrolled through social media and tried to act like I was absorbed by it.

I grinned and looked up at her as she started in on her fourth slice of pizza from the hospital buffet station. “How do you fit all that into your tiny body?” I questioned, perplexed by where the food this woman always ate went.

She shrugged and laughed. “I think it’s my magical Korean metabolism,” she said, swallowing another bite and blotting the corners of her mouth. “But I’m pretty sure it’ll catch up with me someday. The hamburger was delish, by the way. Thanks for giving it to me. You missed out.”

“No problem. I’m not too hungry these days, which is odd since I’m not one to skip a meal.”

“Ha,” Brenda chuckled as her partner, Victoria, walked up and joined us at our table in the corner of the beautiful restaurant, “you’re newly in love, so your appetite is going to be toast for a while.”

“Hi, Victoria,” I acknowledged the sweet and beautiful woman who always made time to meet Brenda on her lunch or dinner breaks.

“Hey, Mickie,” she said. “So, you finally landed the one doctor who?—”

“We’re not doing that,” I kindly interrupted her with a smile and a laugh. “Trust me, I’ve heard all about every GQ model doctor in this hospital, and the story seems to be the same with every single one of them.”

“And what’s that?” Brenda said, moving her pizza platter over to Vickie.

“Well, they’re either in love with the one woman who finally settled them down or they’re still playing the field and leaving broken hearts in their wakes.”

“True,” Brenda acknowledged, licking her fingertips. “However, Aster is different.”

I tried not to roll my eyes at that statement, “Why? Because I managed to land him?”

“Not really,” Brenda answered, picking at the pizza toppings she’d tried to stop eating moments ago. “John typically only dates outside of the hospital, and he makes it clear that he will never get married. He also makes the reason very clear to the people he’s close to.”

“And that reason is?”

“His family,” she answered. “Have you met them yet?”

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