Page 90 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

AVERY

“ Y ou look stressed.”

Kai and I say that at the same time, and then we burst out laughing. “I’m the therapist,” I tell him when I regain my composure. “I’m pulling rank. You go first.”

He smiles at me, openly affectionate, and drapes an arm over my shoulder.

I snuggle into his body, and his cat, Betsy, plops herself next to us.

This is the first time that Betsy hasn’t fled under the couch when I show up, and so I consider this a huge win.

“Okay,” he says easily. “There’s a bunch of different things. I’m worried about Maddox, of course.”

“The dad thing or the evil brother thing?” Maddox had told me about Gage’s power play on Thursday, and I’d been furious on his behalf. I cannot believe that after everything he put Maddox through, that he has the nerve to ever contact him again.

“The evil brother thing.” Kai plays with a strand of my hair, curling it around his fingers. “What Gage did, it blindsided Maddox. Made him harder, less trusting.”

“More likely to set up a deal where he spent fourteen Saturdays with me in a sex club in exchange for five hundred thousand dollars.”

Kai shakes his head. “That was a dick move. Are you holding that against him?”

“Oh God, no. I think I was mad about that for all of ten minutes. If you remember, I jumped the two of you right after that.”

He chuckles, and I feel the sound rumble in his chest. “That you did,” he agrees. “It was very unexpected.” He trails his fingertip over my forearm, and goosebumps rise on my skin. “And very appreciated.”

If he keeps this up, he’s going to get me all hot and heavy, and then I won’t be able to get at what’s stressing him out. I stop his hand and lace my fingers in his. “You don’t think Maddox will be able to handle the party?”

“Last week, I would have said no.” He brings our linked fingers to his lips and brushes a soft kiss on the back of my hand. “But that was last week.”

“What’s different this week?”

“You,” he says simply. “You’re good for Maddox. You make him warmer, happier, more of the person he used to be before Gage broke his heart.” He tilts my chin up and presses a kiss on my lips. “You’re good for me too.”

A warm glow of happiness fills my chest. “I am?”

“I was a dick when I met you at Club M,” he says. His fingertips are stroking my calves now, making me shiver and yearn for more of the achingly soft touch. “I’d like to think I’m less of a dick now.”

“Hmm.” He tickles my foot, and I giggle and push his hand away. “Hey. No tickling. That’s not fair.”

“You have a safeword, don’t you, Avery?” he retorts. “Use it.”

It’s tempting to stroke him back. He’s changed into a faded pair of jeans, and I can see the hard ridge of his erection underneath the denim. We’d spent the night together yesterday, but when it comes to Kai and Maddox, I’m insatiable.

I resist. “You said there were a bunch of things bothering you. What else?”

“Persistent.” He taps my nose. “I’ve got OR next week.”

“A difficult case?”

He shakes his head. “Three weeks ago, a patient died unexpectedly on my table. She was young. Seemingly healthy. It freaked me out.”

I lace my fingers in his again and let him talk it out.

This is why he’d snapped at me during the first week of the stress workshop.

My worst-case scenario is a patient dying, he’d snapped.

It makes sense now. Poor Kai. “The hospital has procedures in place for unexpected deaths,” he says.

“They did an autopsy, and they cleared me. But I couldn’t shake it off.

” He takes a deep breath. “My hand developed a tremor.”

It’s my turn to inhale sharply. “That’s not good, is it?”

“Not if you’re a surgeon, no,” he agrees wryly. “Jayla’s a neurologist. She ran a battery of tests to rule out the obvious suspects. Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, anything neurological or degenerative. But it wasn’t anything diagnosable. She thought it was stress.”

“Hence the stress management workshop?”

“Exactly. Joanna Wadsworth, who is the hospital administrator, ordered me to attend.” His voice is laced with humor. “I was pretty cranky about being forced to go to some stupid workshop. I didn’t exactly expect to see you there, as gorgeous as ever, charming every guy there.”

I roll my eyes. “You have this very flattering view of me,” I tell Kai. “I’m pretty damn sure I didn’t charm anyone.”

He kisses me again. “You charmed me,” he says.

“Your advice did help. You told me to face my fears, and I did. I thought my life as I knew it was over because of the tremors, but I lay in bed one night, thinking about it, and I realized that while it would suck if I couldn’t cut anymore, there were things I could still do. Like teach.”

“But you’re operating next week.”

“I haven’t had a tremor in six days,” he says. “I’m not taking any chances. There’ll be another surgeon in the OR, scrubbed up and ready to take over if I can’t finish.”

“And you’re nervous.”

“Do you blame me?” he asks quietly.

“No.” I twist around and kiss him, letting him tug me into his lap. “In your shoes, I’d be a nervous wreck too.”

“You’re not going to tell me everything’s going to be okay?”

“We don’t know that.” I wrap my arms around him and kiss him softly. “But whatever happens, you’ll deal with it, and you won’t be alone. I’m not going anywhere.”

His blue eyes rest on me for a long time. “Good,” he says. “I don’t want you to.”

I swallow hard. I really need to tell them about Victor. I almost told Maddox today, but then Kai had called from downstairs, and we’d had to get a move on.

Except I can’t tell them now. Not until Kai has finished this surgery that he’s so obviously nervous about. “When is it?”

“Friday,” he replies. “Five in the evening. OR scheduling at its dumbest.”

“That’s the same day as the engagement party.” Kai should be done by ten. Maddox as well. That’s when I’ll tell them everything.

The moment I make that decision, a sense of peace fills me. I’ve been holding off on telling them about Victor for over a week. I don’t like hiding the truth from them. Telling them is the right thing to do, and Friday night, exactly a week from today, I’m going to do it.