Page 17

Ellie

Wednesday night after work, I had a simmering Alpha wolf waiting for me on my condo floor. He was just off the elevator, clearly not even knowing which of the three penthouse units was mine… And that didn’t improve his mood.

He studied me a moment, upset in his eyes, before lifting the bags at his feet.

“Mum says you must have been Asian in your previous life because you got upgraded to bigger containers like her half-Korean children. She also hopes you like the garlic chives in the white kimchi you suggested because she’s a fan. ”

“Your mother is seriously amazing,” I praised, shocked at the large bags. “I’ve been so busy that the food she keeps giving me is the only way I’ve been surviving.”

His gaze was hard. “I heard Dr. Tai and Dr. James both say they were worried and couldn’t catch you. Otherwise, I would think you were just avoiding any chance of seeing me.”

“No, I wasn’t,” I told him firmly.

“But you also didn’t get me your number and snuck out of my bed and three days later I have to come find you once I had an excuse,” he grumbled.

I felt small at the hurt in his voice. “Let’s take this inside.” I led him to my unit so now he knew which one was mine. I unlocked it with the key so he didn’t see my code. He snorted, but I always did that when I wasn’t alone. Tommy didn’t know the code either.

But I let it go. He had every reason to be miffed and distrust me—be upset with me.

I accepted the bags from him and took out the containers before putting the washed ones from the last food back in them for his mother.

Then I went to the fridge and gathered what I had for them.

“Three of these are for your mother as thanks and one for you to show I appreciate you keep feeding me as well while I’m going through too much. ”

“Pie?” he asked, after sniffing the air.

“The best pie in the South,” I told him. I cleared my throat when he simply nodded. I rambled on about how to reheat a slice so it was better and the best dessert he would ever have.

“That’s not what I want my mouth tasting, Ellie,” he told me as he was suddenly too close. “And we both know that.”

Shit. He really was too sexy and every inch of him walking seduction.

I cleared my throat again and stepped away. “I’m sorry. I meant to talk to you sooner about my lapse in judgment and—”

“Twice,” he cut in.

“Pardon?” I asked, meeting his pretty blue eyes… That were full of anger.

He ran his tongue over his teeth and crossed his arms over his expansive chest. “If you’re going to give me the bullshit talk about my being a mistake and regretting me, then be honest at least that it was twice and—”

“I don’t regret you and you certainly weren’t a mistake ,” I cut in, holding my hand up to stop him and that line of talk. I nodded when he didn’t seem to believe me. “You are not a mistake, Dr. Clark.”

That was the wrong thing to say since he wanted me to use his first name, but this was what I needed to do.

“The lapse in judgment was mine, for me, and… That’s not even right.” I turned away from his upset gaze and let out a slow breath. “I don’t regret it. Full stop.”

“Tell me what’s going on, Ellie,” he whispered when I couldn’t seem to continue, probably understanding that I was struggling.

“I need some time,” I heard myself saying, feeling like a cliché.

“I need to heal. I don’t regret you, but I do regret not realizing that jumping into bed with someone else was something I wasn’t ready for and it could hurt you.

That is my regret. I was selfish and didn’t—no, I didn’t understand what I was feeling because I never have fucking time to worry about myself.

“And I’m sorry for that. But I’m not… I’m more damaged than I thought.

I almost caved and let Tommy up that night, and I hate myself for that.

I was angry at you for being the reason I didn’t cave instead of valuing myself.

I clearly have issues, and I need to handle them instead of just pushing them aside more. I can’t keep pushing everything aside.”

“Please don’t cry,” he whispered as he moved behind me and kissed my hair.

I hadn’t even realized that I was, quickly wiping the two tears that had fallen. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had shed tears like this, but I was a ball of too much and just… Broken.

“I hear what you’re saying, but I get to be pissed that I had to track you down,” he said after a moment, trapping me against the counter and sort of hugging me but not really.

“Yes, and I’m sorry for that. I actually scheduled time to talk to you Tuesday morning, but my day went to shit,” I admitted. “I needed to figure out what I was feeling.”

He nodded but then kissed my neck making me shiver. “I’ll give you time because you do deserve it and I want you happy. No matter what, you are always allowed to hit the brakes and say things are too much.”

“Thank you.”

He pressed his lips against my ear and nibbled on my earlobe.

“But you awoke something in me, Ellie Reed. As a man. As an Alpha. As a wolf that I didn’t know possible, so we are not done.

You said you wanted to be my Alpha fling and that’s not for a weekend.

It’s for nine months. I will come back for those months when you’re ready. ”

“Wait, that’s not what I’m saying or—”

He spun me around and kissed me breathless, his body pressed against mine doing everything that just confused me even more.

“I will wait and help in any way I can to show you how much you should value yourself.” He brushed his lips over mine.

“But when you come to me, you won’t run like this again, Ellie.

“We will have our nine months, and you will reward me for being patient and putting you first. On your knees. Naked.” He licked the shell of my ear as he massaged my breast. “Do you want to suck me off like that, Ellie? I know we both want that. I want to see you control my pleasure again, my cock in your pretty mouth and rocking my world.”

I whimpered. Fuck, I whimpered just thinking about it.

“That’s how you will come back to me,” he growled. “That’s what I will hold onto while longing for you and waiting.” He kissed me again. “But I won’t promise to leave you alone. Not after what we experienced and you made me addicted to you. I fucking crave you .”

I moaned as he kissed me again.

“So I will wait like you deserve, but when you can’t stand anymore and need what you crave as well, you will treat me as I deserve for being so patient with you.”

And then he was gone.

I blinked and my front door was closing.

He even took the damn clean containers and pies.

My legs were shaking so bad from him wreaking havoc on my body that I slowly sank to the ground.

“That man—how did he turn—that wasn’t what I was trying to say,” I grumbled when I got myself back under control. “Fucking stupid wolf.” I scrubbed my hands over my face and bitched some more.

But he was right about one thing… I did crave him. I craved what he’d given me.

Like it was almost all I could think about the moment I had a break at work or I was alone. I didn’t know sex or feeding or any of it could be that good.

Fucking wolf.

The next day was when Tommy came back from suspension and that was a lot of why I’d been so busy… And what tipped me over to not start something with Dr. Clark. Not because of Tommy.

No, because of what I was pushing with the board.

“You always say it’s only Ms. Reed, but clearly it’s not if all of the department heads are here saying the same thing and the hospital was reprimanded by the president,” Ms. Boyd said firmly, cutting into Joel Warren’s ranting this was all overkill. “It’s needed, and we fell behind—”

“Don’t act like you care about more than your niece,” Warren snapped. “You were right there agreeing when we—”

“No, I never agreed,” she snapped. “I nodded my head knowing it was done. I was too tired to argue with you on something else when you were being so damn belligerent.” She gave him a look of hate.

“Honestly, I’m tired of you being our supposed leader because you are the main reason so much of this hospital is toxic starting with how you treat Ms. Reed. ”

I could have been pushed over with a feather to hear that… And then others agreed.

Dr. Carpenter used that lead-in to go off on how the board wasn’t of any help to the hospital, and if this didn’t change, there was going to be a major upset—all of the department heads agreed.

I’d never seen Warren speechless before. I expected the look of hate he gave me, but even Gordon told him to sit down and not make things worse.

“This is too much of an overcorrection,” Warren grumbled once we finally outlined the new guidelines and HR rules.

“Maybe,” I accepted. “Probably.” I swallowed a chuckle when people looked at me in shock.

“But it’s needed because we let this go on too long.

The kids need to be spanked, and we as the parents have to be harsh and correct this out-of-control behavior.

Let’s see where it takes us and maybe we can tone it back next year. ”

That seemed to appease those who were vehemently against all of this.

“But things cannot go back to what they were,” Dr. Carpenter said firmly.

“I’m tired of wasting my valuable time training people—we put so many limited resources into people only to lose them over this bullshit.

And it ties Ell—Ms. Reed’s hands from expanding.

We can’t expand and push medicine with the revolving door and joke we’ve become. ”

Dr. James snorted. “I’m actually shocked we got Dr. Clark here with the reputation we’ve started having.

If it wasn’t always his dream to work here and Ms. Reed promised him that things would change, he would have walked.

He made that clear. That he didn’t want to be used for money by another board of directors and work in a toxic place. ”

I didn’t think he was fibbing, but that was surprising. I was glad that the board seemed to believe him and took it in step.