His head tilted in curiosity, and he looked at me in a way that gave me nervous knots. “Why didn’t I have any female nurses looking after me when I was here last time?”
Oh, fuck.
“How am I supposed to know? I’m not in charge of the nurses’ schedule.”
Marco tried to cover up his snort with a cough, but we both heard it. Felix looked at him, then back at me.
“I think you are.”
His smirk turned into a wince as Marco stuck him with a needle, fixing the IV plug to draw his blood before checking his vitals. I stayed on the couch, out of their line of fire, waiting until they’d finished with their reunion.
“I’ll be back shortly to wheel you in.” Marco threw his gloves in the hazardous waste disposal before walking out and shutting the door behind him.
“Thanks, man. See you in a bit.” He called out. “Mol, come here.”
Betty would have been proud of the questioning glare Felix seemed to have nailed, and was currently using on me. I sat on the bed, his hand sliding along my thigh, holding me in place until I answered.
I sighed. “You’d just kissed me and I didn’t want all your usual female fan club hanging around. It was bad enough you didn’t remember.”
He pulled me further up the bed, bringing me in as close as he could possibly get me. “As long as you’re my number one fan, then that’s all I care about.”
The damp had dried from his hair, returning it to the pale blonde I loved, the silky strands slipping through my fingers. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay.” He made out like it was nothing, but I could see the nerves starting to present themselves. “What if it doesn’t work?”
“Hunter and Jameson are brilliant surgeons. They perform ACLs every day.”
“But they’re using a dead guy. They’re taking my messed up one out and putting a dead guy’s in. What if he haunts me?”
“Least you’ll have some company.” I laughed at the disgust on his face. “Yes, they are, but that’s because it’s the best option. It means reduced surgery time, reduced post-operative pain, all-around better for getting you back on the ice quicker. Plus, if they’re not taking from one of your other tendons, then you have less overall pain.”
“How many have you done before?”
“ACLs?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
I’d been part of one thousand and thirteen surgeries total from start to finish, performed four hundred and sixty-seven as the lead surgeon. This would have been my two hundred and fiftieth ACL. And I should be doing it, but ethically, I wasn’t allowed to, which Felix knew, and I didn’t want to distract him before going in.
“I don’t know.”
“More than a hundred?”
I laughed. “Yes. More than a hundred.” I cupped his cheek, the beard he’d shaved off for New Year already turning to thick stubble again. “You’ll be fine. Hunter and Jameson are the best surgeons you could possibly have.”
He held onto my hand, his face becoming solemn, filling with the fears everyone had right before they underwent surgery. “Don’t leave me, Molly.”
“I won’t. I’ll be in the gallery the whole time, watching, and I’ll be there when you come out.”
I leaned into his smile, coaxing it open with my lips until I could brush his tongue with mine, gliding against it. We’d kissed a thousand times over the last two weeks, and it was differentevery time. This one was a kiss of reassurance, transferring every ounce I could to take away his fears with each stroke I made.
His hands slipped into my hair, slowly, carefully, curling one of my ringlets around his finger in the way I did, my body melting under his touch. Every single square inch of my body heating up and coming alive, forgetting that barely thirty minutes ago it had been waving a white flag of surrender at the prospect of more sex as I groaned loudly.
He moved back at the sound of the door opening. A second later, and whoever was walking through the door would have found me straddling him. His eyes held mine and with a swipe of his thumb across his lip, he smirked at me. A smirk of victory. And I knew I’d just been played.
“On my face.” He whispered so quietly that only my vagina heard him.
He looked over my shoulder at Marco. “Hey, man.”
