Page 41 of Indebted

Translation: When he doesn’t realize I’m watching him like a creeper.

Play it cool.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Her eyes were eerily penetrating and all she said was, “mmhmm.”

The next week I breathed a sigh of relief when I found Midge had taken some time off.

I needed the break from her penetrating stare.

“Stressful week at school?”

I jolted in my seat. Justin leaned against the wall, arms crossed, the sleeves of his lab coat pulled taunt over his muscled arms. The afternoon lull had hit, which meant he was between appointments and today wasn’t a surgery day.

“Why do you ask that?”

He pushed off from the wall in one smooth move and took Midge’s seat next to me. “You were staring at that screen and sighing.”

The space in our already tiny alcove shrunk with him in it. I became instantly aware of how close his shoulder was to mine. How close our thighs were to touching. His scent surrounded me and that familiar ache between my legs started. His gaze warmed when it locked with mine before starting the trek downward. I could feel his eyes like a physical caress, down the column of my neck where it paused on my breasts down to my lap. I grew damp and clenched my thighs together. The flare in his eyes told me he saw.

I turned my focus back to the computer. “My life is always stressful. I heard back from my professor on that program I’ve been working on,” I decided to share with him and ignore the way my body was reacting to him. “Turns out there’s an interested buyer.”

His hand on my knee nearly had me jumping out of my skin.

“Katie, that’s fantastic.”

I swallowed thickly. “Thanks. They’ve got a little bit of cold feet though, so I’m trying to think of anything I can do to make myself come across as more responsible. As a smart investment.”

“I know a little something about that.”

“You do?”

“Of course, my clinic needed backing and a good handful of investors, some of which, like your buyer, are experiencing cold feet. They don’t like the idea of losing out on money by opening a clinic for low-income patients.”

“How do you convince them?”

A roguish smile curved his lips. “I have my charms. I only have a few more to convince, some of which I’ll be meeting this week. But, more importantly back to you. I can help.”

“You can?”

His fingers squeezed my knee, again the innocuous act spearing heat through my whole body.

“I’d be happy to write you a letter of recommendation about your professional time here, or even a testimony of sorts about the program, if you’d like? I’d need to test run it first though, so I sound like I know what I’m talking about.”

A smile broke through and I couldn’t stop grinning. A testimony about my program from a renown plastic surgeon using my program at his clinic would have to put me at the top of this buyers list.

“You’d do that?” I wanted to swallow the words back as soon as they left. The last thing I wanted to do was push him away, this is what could take me to the next step, this is what could launch my career. I’d be able to make my own way. Leave LA if I wanted.

“Without hesitation,” his eyes snagged mine, the deep blue pools pulling me under.

My heart quivered in my chest.

The quarter was already more than halfway over, my time here ticking down. I should’ve been thrilled, but instead something cold and clammy wrapped around my lungs.

Forcing myself to inhale I turned back to my computer. “Thank you.” I couldn’t look him in the eye, I had no idea what he’d read in them. I couldn’t seem to keep a lid on anything anymore. “I can load the program onto the reception computer, or your office, or any patient room really.” My words came out rushed.

“Katie.”