Doctor Boss Is My Baby Daddy novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Showing Up

He came inside because I pulled him in by his wet sweater.

Water ran off his hair onto Jody's welcome mat, and I didn't care.

"You've been gone four days," I said.

"I know."

"You said you needed time."

"I did. I used it." He held up his phone with a hand that wasn't quite steady. "I want you to see what I did with it."

On the screen was the staff message board.

Under the anonymous post, at ten past midnight, someone had added a reply.

It was under his full name and title.

"If anyone wants to say more about Dr. Hartigan, they can say it to me in my office, with the door open. Dr. Rhys Gallagher, Chief of Surgery."

Four hundred people had read it by now.

Nobody had written a word under it.

"You signed it," I said.

"I'm done being the quiet one."

"They could fire you for that."

"They could. They won't." He took one step closer. "I should have said it the night she brought that box. I should have thrown it down the stairs. Instead I let her turn me into the man she described, and you stood there alone, and I'm so sorry, Valeria."

I looked at him.

He'd gotten thin in four days.

His knuckles were cracked from washing.

And he had stood up, in writing, under his own name, in front of the whole building.

It was the costliest thing I'd seen anyone do for me, and he'd done it at midnight in the rain.

"It's a start," I said.

"I know it's only a start."

"Good. Because I'm still angry."

"You should be."

"I'm angry and I'm happy you're here, and I don't know what to do about both."

"Neither do I," he said. "Can I try something?"

"What?"

"Be here. For whatever it takes. And ask you, at the next appointment, to let me stay in the room."

I took his face in my hands.

"Stay in the room," I said. "And stay in this one."

He kissed me, and he tasted of rain and the cold.

His mouth was cold and sure, and I opened under it and pulled him down toward the couch.

I got his sweater up over his head while he was still kissing me.

It landed on the floor with a wet slap.

"You're freezing," I said, against his jaw.

"Warm me up."

I ran my hands down his chest, over the goosebumps, the flat tight muscle, the trail of hair under his navel.

He caught my wrists and held them at my sides.

"You first," he said.

He pushed my T-shirt up and ducked his head.

His mouth closed over my nipple and I made a sound I didn't mean to make.

He sucked, slow, and looked up at me while he did it.

I grabbed a handful of his wet hair.

"God. Don't stop."

He moved to the other breast and bit, just enough.

My hips rolled up into him on their own.

← Chapter 11 · All chapters · Chapter 13 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend