Page 5 of Sweet Torture

Already half past the hour so vitals are due again. “Thanks for keeping an eye on him for me.”

“No problem. Maybe you’ll get some downtime for a lunch break after you discharge him.”

“Maybe.” Doubtful. There’s always another to replace the one you send out the door.

I stop at the curtain to Owen’s room before entering. Deep breath in, Ashlyn. Exhale slowly.

It really pisses me off he still has this kind of effect on me five years after the fact. One encounter. One damn night five years ago and the man can still wreck me today.

Fate is unkind to me. Why the hell couldn’t his body have gone to shit after he stopped playing college ball? Why does he still have to be so damn hot?

Fuck being hot. It doesn’t make up for being an asshole.

“What’s the matter, Ashlyn? Trying to think of a way to explain what you did?”

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

I yank the curtain back and march to his bedside, my hands fisted at my side. “What I did? I know you didn’t actually just say that to me.”

“That got your attention, huh?” His mouth tugs at one corner and the adjacent eye narrows as his brow arches.

Holy shit. Jacob makes that exact face…every time the little shit is up to no good.

And now Owen Bliss is up to no good. I’m sure of it.

Like father, like son.

Chapter3

Owen Bliss

I could barely keepmy eyes open when Ashlyn was in my room earlier. But not now. I’m awake, fully alert, and we’re going to talk about how it’s possible we spent the most spectacular night together and then she walked out the door without a fucking word. “No more pretending you don’t know who I am?”

She crosses her arms over her chest and her right brow rises. “I wasn’t pretending. I had no idea who you were when the surgery nurse rolled you into recovery from the OR.”

Does she think I’m stupid? “I highly doubt the surgery nurse dumped a patient on you without telling you my name?” I hold up my armband. “Even if she didn’t, it’s clearly written right here and all over my chart.”

She works her bottom jaw back and forth as she shakes her head. “Of course she told me who you were but the name Owen Bliss means nothing to me; I never knew your last name.”

“How could you not?” Everyone at school knew me. Every. One. But she didn’t go to UT.

“You introduced yourself as Owen that night. That was it. No last name.” She didn’t try to find out who I was? That stings.

“Your last name is Shepherd. Ask me how I know.” Ashlyn needs to understand that I didn’t wake up to an empty bed the next morning and just say to hell with her. That night meant something to me. And it hurts to know it meant so little to her.

She points to her name badge. “Shepherd. It’s clearly right here so I don’t have to ask.”

“I’ve known you were Ashlyn Shepherd for five years. How? I spent the following Monday tracking down your friend Brittany so I could find out what happened. Why you took off on me like that.”

“And her response was…?”

Why is she being so sharp with me? I’m not the one who left. “She said you thought I was an asshole and never wanted to see me again. Told me to leave you alone and never show up in your life.”

Her arms are still crossed as she stares a hole through me. “Yup. That’s exactly right.”

“I don’t understand. We had a great night, or at leastIthought we did.”

She laughs but I don’t mistake it for amusement. “I guess it was a great night for you. You got laid.”

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