Page 71 of Dr. Attending

Spank me, Daddy.

I have no idea how long I spend trying to decide if I’ve actually died and ascended to heaven, but the car horn sounding behind me to get my attention finally pulls me out of my stupor.

This is definitely real life, and it’s only going to get better.

***

“You know what I was thinking about?” Caroline asks, peering up at me from behind my hand-carved executive desk.

I didn’t bother searching for her when I walked through my front door. I knew without a doubt that she wouldn’t listen to my empty threats. But she will after what I have planned for tonight.

I let out a soft chuckle as I eye the current state of my office. “Something you shouldn’t be, considering it’s nine in the evening.”

It looks like a tornado came through the room, with multiple cans of energy drinks crushed on the desk and papers stacked on the floor. And yet, the woman behind the chaos couldn’t look more beautiful. Her straight, dark hair falls midway down her chest, cascading across one of my white button-down shirts. And if I had to guess, based on what she’s chosen to wear to bed this week, she doesn’t have anything on beneath it.

Caroline shoots me an unamused glare as I sink into the leather armchair across from her.

“No,” she replies, closing her laptop like I asked her to do hours ago.

She looks so goddamn sexy when she gets all serious like this, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to let her finish her thought, because all I can think about is how I feel like I’m at the principal’s office, and I’m about to be averybad boy.

There’s that role play kink . . .

“I was thinking about how you haven’t tried to have sex with me.”

I have to pause for a second because I can’t tell where she’s going with this, and I don’t want to respond the wrong way. Her tone is abnormally timid, but her expression is schooled into indifference, like she’s reciting something from a medical textbook.

I decide to take her approach and reply with the facts.

“No, I haven’t.”

Caroline cocks her head to the side, studying me for a moment. “Have you not been tempted?”

I’m not sure if she’s talking about temptation this past week or from the moment she came back into my life. Either way, my answer is the same.

“Every second of every day.”

It was one thing to control my blatant lust for her from afar, but sleeping beside her this week has been borderline torturous. Not only is she the first woman that I’ve let stay in my bed overnight, but she’s also the first one that I haven’t tried to make a move on.

It’s like I’m hyper-aware of going too far with her. Of pushing her away. Of asking for too much. Because Caroline Winters is the prize of my life in a game where I’m holding the winninghand. But if I play my cards at the wrong time, I’m going to lose her.

She purses her perfect lips in thought. “That sounds frustrating.”

A pained laugh escapes me because that’s certainly one way of describing it. “Yep.”

Caroline’s midnight-blue eyes widen as they drop to the bulge in my scrubs that I’m not even bothering to hide. A playful grin sweeps across her face. “Looks pretty frustrating, too.”

All I can do is grunt in confirmation and try to focus on something other than the fact that I can definitely see her nipples beneath the thin cotton of my dress shirt.

After what feels like a solid minute of blankly staring at the black bookshelves that line my office while I visualize the steps of hepatectomy, I hear Caroline ask, “So why, then?”

I puff out my cheeks and release a long breath as I meet her gaze. “Why what?”

“Why haven’t you tried?”

I run my fingers through my hair, buying time to think through what I want to say. I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to have this conversation until she was willing to have an honest discussion about her feelings.But after a week of uninterrupted time together, I can still tell that she isn’t there yet.

And I want her to know that’s okay.

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