Page 11 of The Night Shift

“Well, it’s certainly entertaining for me. And who knows, maybe you'll find it entertaining too. Once you loosen up a bit.”

“Unfortunately, my definition of entertainment involves seeing you horizontal —”

His smile widens. “In your bed?”

“In a grave. Preferably decapitated.”

His face falls. He’s about to open his mouth to quip back with something sarcastic, I’m sure, but right that second one of the night shift nurses walks by us and Theo momentarily breaks eye contact with me to wink at her. The nurse giggles and walks towards the pediatric ward. His gaze follows her, blatantly checking her out from head to toe. Sick.

Once the nurse has disappeared out of sight, Theo turns his attention back to me. “I’m sorry, Dr. Moore. What were you saying?”

My patience, already stretched thin, snaps like a frayed thread. I flip him off. “Get fucked.”

“That’s a strange way of apologizing for spilling coffee on me.”

“My bad. Next time I’ll be sure to switch it for sulphuric acid. Now,getout of my way.”

He doesn’t. Instead, he just steps in front of me, blocking my path for what feels like the hundredth time tonight. “Why don’t you try that again? This time with the word please?”

Very well. “Theo, please get out of my way so that I’m not forced to punch you in the throat.”

A deep chuckle vibrates out of him. “That desperate to cop a feel, huh?”

“Am I really that transparent?”

“What can I say? I can read you like a book.”

“I’m surprised you can read at all.”

He shrugs. “It’s one of my many, many talents.”

“In addition to what? Being a gigantic pain in my ass?”

He tilts his head, grinning like an absolute imbecile. I don’t know, maybe helikesbeing humiliated by women. Specifically, me. Maybe it’s his version of a fucked-up power play.

“Causing you pain is the last thing on my mind, Hollister,” he says, his voice still low. “But if pain is what you’re into, then I have no qualms about asking you to bend over for me.”

I’m sure my face visibly cringes. “Really? A sex joke? How professional.”

“Not joking at all, love. Who knows? You might just hate how much you like it.”

“Funny. I have the same theory about kicking you in the balls.”

“Ask nicely and I might allow it.”

Normally this is where I would’ve quipped back, gotten the last word in. Because if there’s anything that ticks me off more than Theo Carter himself, it’slosingto Theo Carter. Sonormally, this is where I would’ve told him to go fuck himself with the cactus they keep in the hospital waiting area, but not tonight. Tonight, I just don’t have the energy to partake in his petty games.

I inhale, exhale, tell myself that it would be extremely unhygienic to gouge a colleague’s eyeballs out with my bare hands, and take a step back. “As much as I’d love to take you up on that offer —” I say to him, “— I think I’m going to head back home and get some rest. A six-hour-long surgery is exhausting enough, I don’t need to stand here and listen to your soul-sucking voice. Good night, Dr. Carter.”

Theo’s smirk wavers for a second and his scrutinizing gaze sweeps across my face. “Good night? Shit, Holly, did I break you?” He lifts his finger to poke at my forehead, and I lurch back.

God, someone needs to present me with an award for the sheer amount of self-restraint I’ve practiced tonight.

“Is it because of the sex joke? Oh, come on. If I knew you were that desperate, I’d be more than happy to oblige.”

I narrow my eyes into slits and stand my ground.You’re rising above, Holly. You’re better than this.You will not let him get a rise out of you. I repeat the words to myself like a prayer.

“Of course, you’d have to buy me dinner first and an expensive bottle of champagne for me to even consider having sex with you, but I can see it happening —”