Page 13 of Accidental Doctor Daddy

She bit her lip once more before blurting, “Bad breakup.”

“What happened? If it’s bad enough that you needed a passport to escape your breakup, you likely need to talk about it.”

Her smile died. “I guess that’s true. We dated for two years, give or take. Things were mostly good. Kind of. Anyway, I thought we were really gonna be something, you know?”

“What went wrong?”

“Recently, God, I guess it’s been almost a month now—he told me he couldn’t see himself settling for someone like me.”

“Settling?” I didn’t have the time to blink before the anger set in. “What precisely did he mean by that?”

Her voice cracked, and she gave a tight, embarrassed laugh. “That I’m... not exactly his type anymore.” She shrugged, but it didn’t hide the hurt flashing in her eyes. “Too soft. Too much of me, I guess.”

All sense of satisfaction evaporated upon hearing those words. “That son of a bitch?—”

“He has a lot of problems,” she said as some sort of explanation.

“He’s about to have another.”

She laughed. “Stop. It’s not the first time some guy has said something rude to me about my body, and it won’t be the last, I’m sure of it. He’s a big pill head and drinks too much, one of those artists who take the Hemmingway approach to life, you know what I mean?”

“All too well.”

“He mixes too much of one with the other, and sometimes, it makes him mean. He says…rude things. I’m not trying to excuse what he said—only trying to explain it.”

“You don’t need to do either for my benefit, Ella. No context excuses what he said to you.”

She shrugged. “Anyway, my boss told me I needed to come here and get my head straight. She and her husband come here to get out of the city, so she recommended this place.” She rolled onto her hip to face me. “I’m glad she did.”

“Enjoying your stay?”

“Tonight in particular.”

I traced along her collarbone and down her sternum, losing my fingertips in her cleavage. “Tonight has been especially good.”

Her breath hitched in her chest. “Agreed.”

I loved seeing the effect I had on her. Every inch of her had been so responsive, and knowing she’d likely been neglected by her bastard ex-boyfriend, I made a silent vow to make up for his mistakes. “I owe you another punishment.”

Her smile turned playful. “But I thought I had been so good.”

“The punishment isn’t because you were bad. It’s because I’ve been good.”

Her pupils blew as her breaths increased. “You have been.”

“Stay here.” I exited the bed and fetched a pair of robes from the closet. “Put this on.”

“What kind of punishment requires a robe?”

“Put it on and find out,” I said as I put mine on.

She huffed and took the robe. “All right, but this better be good. Someone promised to distract me all night long.”

“Yes, well, you were five minutes away from falling asleep not long ago, so I’m not sure you could keep up with me.”

Her indignant laugh made me smile. “Oh, bullshit! You’ve got ten years on me?—”

“Eighteen, actually.”

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