Page 75 of Must Be Love - Irresistible Bachelors

I shake my head. This is a ridiculous train of thought. AJ cares about me, both as a patient and as a girlfriend. He wouldn’t ditch me in the middle of an appointment.

The door opens, ending that train of thought.

“So sorry. A patient called with an emergency. She was having a reaction to her acne medication. It wasn’t severe, but I had to talk to her.”

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“Thanks, Amber. This is Nurse Jackie.”

A woman who looks to be in her forties stands behind AJ. She is pushing one side of the big camera AJ was pulling when he walked in. It’s on stand similar to the ones teachers used to wheel TVs on.

“Okay, so here’s the camera. We just fit you into the stand, and it takes a couple of pictures. It’s a big setup for something so minor.”

“Sounds good.”

AJ and the nurse put the camera in front of me. I lean forward so that my forehead is leaning against the upper padding. AJ adjusts the straps to keep me in place. The actual pictures take about ten seconds to take. He lets me out of the contraption, and we sit back as the system sends the pictures to his computer.

“Nurse Jackie and I are going to return the camera to its hiding spot while we wait. It won’t take as long this time, I promise.”

AJ keeps his promise. It only takes about five minutes for him to return. By then, the pictures have landed in his inbox.

He shows the pictures on the display. My face has only a few small spots of green and blue. The rest looks clear.

AJ’s mouth is wide open. “This is incredible!”

“What am I seeing here?” I ask. “I don’t get it.”

“Sorry, sorry. You’re seeing good things. The blue is damage, and the green is dry skin. You have negligible amounts of both.”

My eyes widen. “Are you serious?”

He nods. “Two months ago, this wouldn’t have been the case. Your entire face would have lit up. I didn’t need to take the pictures to know that. The results here are completely different than I would expect for someone who used tanning booths regularly as a teenager.”

I touch my face tentatively. My skin isn’t damaged anymore? This is a miracle! Like AJ said, even though I’m only twenty-five, there should be way more blue on this photo. I destroyed my face by tanning all the time.

Apparently, though, I didn’t destroy it completely. With AJ’s help, I’ve reversed the damage I caused.

I could cry. This is better than I expected it would be. I hoped my skin would be better, but I never thought it would look this good on the surface and down below.

AJ is still staring at the photos. He’s studying them the way I’ve seen people look at art in museums.

“It must be the serum,” AJ remarks.

His tone is wondrous. Did he give me the serum expecting it to fail? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. He hadn’t really tested it before he gave it to me.

“This is incredible. It’s really working!” AJ continues.

I grin and squeeze his arm. “You’re a miracle worker.”

AJ’s face drops. It’s not the right reaction to my words. He’s clearly offended.

I just don’t know why.

23

AJ

Amber can read the panic on my face. It’s in her eyes.

“Is everything okay?” she asks.

I force myself to smile. “Yeah, no worries. Just thinking.”

Thinking about how my life is over.

The serum was not supposed to work. At least, not to this degree. What are the chances that this stupid secret ingredient would cause such a change in the quality of Amber’s skin? I saw the proof on the surface, but I didn’t believe it until I saw the UV picture of her face.

My product could change lives. If it worked this well on Amber, imagine what it could do for the general public!

I should try to get the product approved by the FDA. I’ll use Amber as my proof. AJB-9 works.

They’ll have no choice but to give me their stamp of approval. No one can deny that Amber’s skin is a million times better because of AJB-9. Everyone will be using my secret ingredient.

But is it only my ingredient that works, or is it semen in general? More testing will be necessary. That will be easier once I get approval from the FDA.

I nearly laugh out loud, but I can’t. Amber is still here, staring at me, waiting for an explanation for my silence. I’m looking at the photos of her face, pretending I’m studying them. How long can I keep this up?

The FDA will never approve a product that uses my semen. Any semen. They’d have my medical license revoked, and I could even be arrested.

At least Amber is my girlfriend now. I can use that as an excuse for what I did.

The problem is, she wasn’t my girlfriend when all this started. I gave my semen to a perfect stranger to test.

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