Page 25 of Careless Whisper

She sucked in a sharp breath. “Elias, you…that’s?—”

“I don’t want to lose you, Maren.” Though right then and there, I wasn’t sure if I’d mind it so much.

I didn’t like the way she just ambushed me.

We’d always been friends, and her saying these things was tantamount to a betrayal of who we had been to one another.

“But”— I sucked in a breath and let it out in frustration—"I can’t give you what you want, either.”

“You always were good at clarity,” she retorted bitterly and then picked up her glass. She sipped the wine slowly as if trying to regain her composure.

I sent her a flat, unimpressed stare. “And you always had a problem with hearing it.”

She regarded me with quiet consideration and, on an exhale, set her glass down. “Well, my parents and yours are going to be disappointed.”

“Is that why you’re here? To…” I couldn’t say the wordpropositionbecause it sounded crude.

“To ask you to be mine?” Her eyes filled with sadness. “Yes, Elias, that’s why I came. But I also have meetings. I…at least you’ll work on the paper with me, won’t you? Your collaboration will make it easier for the trial to get funding.”

Was it unsettling that she’d gone from professingundying love to casually discussing a clinical trial?Absolutely.

Was I relieved she’d dropped the whole love-confession nonsense as quickly as she’d brought it up?Also, yes.

“Let me look at your proposal more thoroughly,” I offered because that was all I could at this point.

She tossed up her shoulders in a careless shrug as if she didn’t care one bit about my rejection. “Oh, I heard that Reggie is at Harper Memorial, and you’re making her life a living hell.” She laughed as she said that last part.

My stomach tightened. People were gossiping about how I treated Reggie?

Fuck!

“I have friends at Harper.” She casually tapped her fingers against the table. “One of the attendings said she’s been taken off surgical cases. Word is you’re building a case to have her fired.”

“That’s not—” I stopped.

I didn’t even know what I was about to say because she wasn’t wrong, which made it all the worse.

She glanced at me, the corners of her mouth tugging up in smug contentment. “I’ve got to say, I’m impressed. Most people would’ve just ignored her. But not you. You take your time. Make it surgical.”

That irked me. “You’re talking like I planned this.”

“Didn’t you?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know she was here when you took the job.”

I rocked back slowly in my chair, not having the words to defend myself because I was guilty as hell. I had known she was at Harper, and I’d thought it didn’t matter.

If Reggie was incompetent, she’d be out.

But the second I saw her, I knew she had to go, or I’d lose my mind.

I had tried right away to get rid of her, but I failed, thanks to Cindy, and now it seemed so frivolous and petty to go after her. She was a good surgical nurse, well respected, far better than Delaney or, in fact, anyone else in the department.

“You were always good at protecting your own,” she continued, unable or unwilling to read my silence as a guilty conscience or a deeper struggle—a battle between my brain and my heart.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded.

“I mean, you even the scales even if it means burning someone else down.”

She said it like it was a compliment and then smiled at me. “Elias, I know you think of me as yours. You protected me in Boston, and you’restillprotecting me.”

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