Killian shifted his attention to Dr. Winters. “Do you make it a habit of allowing any random person into your exam rooms, Dr. Winters?”
The pretty doctor met his gaze with a bland stare of her own. “No. But when the pregnant not-girlfriend of a mob boss says to let someone in, I let them in. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with her.”
Closing his eyes on a sigh, Killian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Aria.”
“What? It only seemed fair, considering I got her shot at.”
“Yeah, what was that all about, anyway?” Goldie asked, her tone brimming with excited curiosity. “Are the local families at war or something?”
“Yes.”
The simple, flat answer did what nothing else had managed to do so far. It wiped the smile clean off Goldie’s face.
“I should be going.” She managed to smile again, but it was distinctly more forced. “Aria, it was lovely to meet you. We should have coffee sometime. Preferably without the bullets. Good luck with… everything.”
When she turned to leave, Brody glanced over, one brow raised in question. Killian jerked his head and Brody slipped out behind Goldie.
“You’re not going to start stalking her now, are you?” Aria demanded.
The father of her child smiled, but it looked more like a baring of his teeth, and it was all she could do not to recoil at that glimpse of the monster he kept so well hidden beneath the fitted suits and polished manners. “Of course not. Brody will simply be impressing upon her the importance of discretion in our line of work.”
“Don’t you dare scare that poor woman. She’s been through enough.”
“Better scared than dead.”
Well. She couldn’t really argue with that.
Dr. Winters cleared her throat, drawing their attention back to her. “If you’re done playing Mr. Badass, I’d like to finish Aria’s exam.”
“Of course.”
She waited a beat, clearly expecting him to leave. When he didn’t, she sighed and turned to Aria. “Do you mind if he stays?”
The thought of him leaving had her throat tightening for reasons she didn’t care to examine too closely just then. “No, it’s fine. He’s seen it all anyway.”
Again he bared his teeth in what could generously be called a smile, though it was more wolfish than threatening this time. “Good girl.”
“Shut up, O’Rourke.”
Humming lightly, he captured her hand in his, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. “You should know the good doctor is well versed in all aspects of my… lifestyle. She’ll think nothing of me asking her to leave so I can teach my naughty little princess a lesson in manners.”
Embarrassment flooded Aria’s cheeks as she tried to tug her hand free. But he only tightened his grip and she wasn’t going to humiliate herself further by trying to wrestle with him, so she decided on the next best thing.
Ignoring him.
“What else do we need to do, Dr. Winters?”
“All your vitals look good, and you aren’t shocky or concussed, but I’d like to check on the baby. Have you had your initial checkup with your OBGYN yet?”
Aria opened her mouth to admit, however ashamedly, that she’d been too busy sulking to make an appointment, when Killian answered for her. “We’re seeing Dr. Byrd next week.”
“Excellent.” Dr. Winters beamed approvingly at them as she tapped a note into her tablet.
Annoyance warred with gratitude as she scowled up at him. “I can make my own doctor’s appointments, thanks.”
Lifting her hand to his lips, he brushed a kiss over her knuckles, and dammit if the butterflies in her stomach didn’t go nuts at that simple touch. “Of course you can, princess, but Dr. Byrd was right there. She works with Naomi here at the private clinic, along with a couple other specialists. There’s no point in you wasting time and energy doing something that took me all of five minutes.”
She couldn’t really argue with that, as much as she wanted to. “Still. I don’t need you controlling my life.”
