Page 25 of Indebted

“And?” Like I hadn’t figured that out myself when he flashed those pearly whites and eyed my chest for a good ten seconds.

“I was looking out for you.”

“Again, I call bullshit. Where were you for the past four years then, huh?”

Shock rippled across his face, but footsteps announced Midge’s return.

I whirled away from him. Done with his alpha bullshit.

I avoided Justin the remainder of my shift. It helped that his afternoon had a constant flow of patients. I’d just finished scheduling another appointment for a woman whose lips looked ready to float right off her face and pulled up my new programming when a sugary coffee drink appeared right in front of me.

I spun in my chair, my mood only slightly improving at the prospect of quick sugar. It would’ve lifted more if the hand holding the drink wasn’t attached to one Justin Kingston.

“What’s this?” I knew better than to blindly reach out and take it.

He was back at his usual perch, leaning against the wall. It looked as if he’d had a long day and needed the coffee more than me. He’d removed his lab jacket, the sleeves to his button up pushed up his muscular forearms. Scruff dusted his jaw and his hair had at least two pieces out of place.

“Consider it a peace offering for acting like an insensitive asshole.”

“You mean an apology?”

Justin winced. “Perhaps.”

“Perhaps?” I arched my brow, crossing my arms over my chest for good measure.

Justin exhaled. “Very well, I apologize for my earlier behavior.”

I made sure to stare at him in an exaggerated manner. “Wow, look at that, you didn’t explode. The great surgeon, Dr. Kingston has successfully removed his head from his own ass.”

The corner of his mouth lifted, and he thrust the drink at me. “Are you always so crass?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes,” it wasn’t like I spent all day talking to nice people. Most trolls on the internet were dickbags and the only way to tolerate them was to become them. It was that or be eaten alive. I accepted the drink and took a long pull on the straw. “Consider yourself lucky, I’ve been on my best behavior here.”

“Lucky, huh?”

“Mmhmm,” I slurped down another quarter of the drink. These things were addicting.

Justin shook his head before his eyes landed over my shoulder on my computer screen. “What’re you working on?”

He’d taken the seat next to me before I could direct his attention elsewhere.

The heat and scent of him teased me and I busied myself by downing more of my drink, causing a brain freeze.

Ow.

At least the pain tampered the response of my body perking up to him being so close to me.

“A program?” Justin asked upon closer inspection when I didn’t respond fast enough.

“Your charting program is shit—uh, I mean awful.”

His azurite eyes sparkled at me, sending my skin tingling.

I turned to my monitor. “As a senior I’ve been working on a final project for the quarter and decided to build my own medical charting software, something more user friendly with faster processing, seamless transition and loading, and something way easier on the eyes. I figured I could test it out here, um, if you wanted.”

I thought I saw a brief flash of surprise. “I think that’d be a great idea, I’m more than happy to support you with this. You’ve been working on this between patients?”

His voice gave no indication that he was digging at my work ethic, but my back went up anyway. “Only between patients,” I stressed, “I haven’t been ignoring my tasks here, if that’s what you’re asking.”