The doctor exhaled on stage, his shoulders relaxing for the first time all night, and she wondered what that was all about. When he looked at her again, this time, his smile was real. She swallowed hard, her pulse racing, as she tried to figure out her next move. She thought about running out of that room and pretending that tonight never happened, but she couldn’t embarrass Dani that way.
So much for keeping her shit together and trying to figure out her life. It looked as though she had just bought herself a night that she hadn’t planned for with a man who looked capable of complicating everything that she had been so carefully avoiding.
Elias
Elias stayed on the stage long enough to shake hands with a few of the other contestants, accept applause from the audience, and let the host squeeze his arm like she had personally discovered him. He smiled and waved one last time to the audience and turned to walk backstage. The moment he was clear of the lights and chaos, he let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding for the last hour. Being up on stage was the most nervous that he had been in a damn long time.
“Well done, Doctor Daddy,” one of the volunteers teased as she handed him a drink.
He shot her a look. “Please don’t ever call me that again,” he grumbled. She laughed and wandered off, leaving him alone with his thoughts and the undeniable fact that he’d just been bought. The question was—who was the mystery woman who had purchased him, and why would she do such a thing?
She looked way too young for him. Hell, she was the type of woman the entire hospital would be talking about if he showed up on a date with her. Where would he even take her? This whole idea was a huge mistake, but Elias had a feeling that getting out of fulfilling the agreement with the sexy brunette who stood in the back of the room wasn’t going to happen.
The only thing that he was sure of was that it was time for him to meet his mystery woman. He scanned the room until he found her again. She was still in the back of the room, looking just as tense as she had during the bidding. One of the nurses, whose name he thought was Dani, was leaning in close and talking animatedly at her side. The poor woman looked rattled, and he wondered what they were talking about. She looked as though she might bolt at any second, and he could sympathize with her.
For some reason, the idea of her disappearing before he could even say thank you for supporting the hospital twisted something low in his gut. That’s what today was all about. If she didn’t want to go on the actual date with him, that was her right, but he hoped to at least meet her before she took off.
“Dr. Kingston,” the host chirped, stepping between him and his view of the brunette. “Your date is just over there.” She pointed to the poor woman as though calling her out. “If you come with me, I’ll introduce you to her, and then, I’ll leave you two alone to give you time to connect.” He wanted to laugh at her word choice. The last thing that he planned on doing was connecting with the young woman.
“Right,” he said, following the host out into the audience and back to where the brunette stood, staring him down. Her eyes weren’t the only ones on him. As he crossed the room, he became painfully aware of how many people were watching him. Women smiled at him, some seemed disappointed as he passed them by, and some seemed to be assessing him like he was still up for grabs. He ignored them all, focusing on the woman who spent good money on him.
As soon as he stood in front of her, she gave him her full attention, ignoring her friend's pleas to leave with her. Up close, she was even more striking than from afar. Her dark hair had escaped her messy bun and was now framing her face, and herexpressive eyes widened just a fraction when she realized he was standing in front of her. She smelled faintly of citrus and something warmer beneath it, and for half a second, he forgot every rehearsed line he’d planned in his head on the walk over.
“Hi,” she said, voice steady despite her nerves that were evident. Dani whispered something into her ear, smiled and nodded at him, and walked away.
“Hi,” he echoed, then cleared his throat. “I guess that I should thank you.”
She huffed out a soft laugh. “Thank me?” she asked. “For what?”
“Um, for bidding on me,” he said. “The money goes to the hospital, and well, I appreciate your support.”
“I think I should be apologizing to you. I didn’t mean to—well, I didn’t plan on bidding. It just sort of happened.” Yeah, that admission stung a little bit. She had bid on him by accident and didn’t really want to go on a date with him.
He smiled, slow and genuine. “I appreciate your honesty, and if you’d rather skip the date, I’d understand. I mean, I am old enough to be your father.” That seemed to surprise her. He could see it in the way her shoulders lowered, just a little.
“Oh, I see,” she breathed.
“It was nice to meet you, though,” he said. “I’m Elias.” He held his hand out to her, and she looked it over, hesitating to shake it.
“Aliza.” Her hand slid into his, warm and firm, and damn if that didn’t send a jolt straight through him. He released her hand far too quickly and took a step back from her.
“So,” she said, glancing around the room and back to him. “If I wanted to go on the date with you, how would this work? Do we leave together and just go somewhere, or do we do this another day? Should I fill out some paperwork? Do I get a receipt?”
He chuckled before he could stop himself. “Wow, that’s a lot of questions. I was actually wondering the same thing. Unfortunately, I’m as clueless in all of this as you are.” Her lips twitched, and she smiled at him. He loved the playful amusement sparking in her eyes, and something inside him seemed to settle. Talking to her wasn’t as awkward as he expected it to be. It wasn’t forced, and that had everything to do with Aliza being easy to talk to.
“I guess we just make the rules up as we go then,” she said. “My friend is going to interrogate me later,” she added, nodding toward Dani, who was pretending not to stare at them from the front of the room. “But I’m free tonight, if you are.”
“Then maybe,” he said carefully, “I should get changed out of this God-awful tuxedo, and then, we can figure out where you’d like to have dinner. I’m betting that we can give you enough material to report back to your friend.” She seemed to consider his proposal for a moment, searching his face like she was trying to decide if he was worth the risk.
Finally, she nodded. “Dinner sounds good.” Relief washed through him, sharp and unexpected.
“Good,” he said. “I was worried that this might turn into a medical consultation. I get enough of those. Once people find out what I do for a living, they want to tell me about their aches and pains.”
She laughed then, and it felt like a victory. “Well, if it helps, I’ve been dealing with a bum knee since I fell jogging a few months back. If dinner doesn’t work out, maybe you could x-ray it.” His face must have given him away, because before she even finished what she was saying, she was giggling at him.
“I was kidding,” she teased. “You should have seen your face.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “I’ll get changed if you want to hang out. We can take my car to the restaurant.”
