The back door opens and Evander climbs out, somehow managing to juggle me in his arms as he does so. Lucas, who joined our driver in the front of the car, waits for us on the sidewalk. “Ready to meet Doctor D, little one?”
“I wasn’t aware I had a choice.” I’m sulking, and not bothering to hide it, but all my sass gets me is a round of laughter from him and Evander.
“Fair enough,” Lucas says, pulling open the door to the doctor’s office so Evander can carry me inside.
We’re greeted by a somewhat harried-looking blonde who forces a smile as we walk in the door. “Good morning, Mr. Hawthorne. Is this Natalie?”
“It is. Say hello to Millie, kitten.”
“Hello, Millie.”
Her smile loses some of the tightness around the edges. “Hi, Natalie. It’s nice to meet you. If you’ll just go through that door to your left, I’ll meet you over there so we can check your vitals.”
“Aren’t you supposed to tell us you’ll be right with us and then make us wait forty-five minutes even though we have an appointment?”
Giggling, Millie rolls her eyes. “Doctor D would absolutely have my ass if I ever made a patient wait like that here on the island.”
“Millie.” Evander’s voice dips down to a low, warning tone that has Millie’s eyes going round. “Are you supposed to use that kind of language at work, little girl?”
Her eyes somehow get even wider. “No, Sir. I’m so sorry, it just slipped out. Please don’t tell Doctor D.”
“I won’t, if you promise it won’t happen again.”
Relief washes over her face. “It won’t. I’m really very sorry, Mr. Hawthorne.”
“I know. You’re a good girl, Millie, which is why I’m keeping this our little secret for now.”
“Thank you, Sir.” She disappears from the window in the front office and meets us just beyond the door. Lucas elects to stay in the waiting room, and I can’t help but feel a sense of loss that he won’t be with me for whatever awaits me in this office.
“Just this way.” Turning, Millie leads us to an exam room, and I can’t help but notice the way she waddles a bit when she walks.
“Are you wearing a diaper too?”
Surprisingly, the question doesn’t seem to bother her at all and she grins as she gestures for Evander to take a seat. Which he does on a small stool, all while holding me on his lap. “I am. I don’t use it because it gets messy without someone to change me but I like the way they feel anyway.”
“Oh. Doctor D isn’t your Daddy?”
Horror flashes over her face as she wraps a blood pressure cuff around my arm. “God, no. He’s my boss and he has very strict rules about dating his nurses, thank god.”
“But Evander said?—”
“Natalie.”
My name is more sigh than warning and I roll my eyes. “Daddymade it sound like you’d be in trouble for swearing.”
“I would be. Big trouble. He does, um, spank me for stuff like that because that was part of the agreement when I chose to work here, but that’s it.”
“That sound you just heard is every human resources person on the planet fainting dead away.”
Head thrown back, Millie lets out a long, loud laugh. “Tell me about it. If I’m being honest the employment contract I signed probably isn’t entirely legal but?—”
“Camilla.” A cold, stern voice cuts off whatever Millie was about to say and her face loses every ounce of color as she looks up at the man glaring at her from the doorway. Older, with plenty of silver in his hair, he’s still strikingly attractive even with that cruel glint in his eyes.
Definitely not because of the cruel glint. I’m not that fucked-up.
Right?
Okay, not going down that rabbit hole.
