Page 36 of Yours to Keep

Not only because he was my boss, but also because he wasn’t my type. I didn’t go for blazing hot billionaires who were as arrogant as they were infuriating. The man was the human embodiment of a hostile email dressed up in a tailored suit.

But also, he’d looked very, very good almost naked and I was only human.

For the last three days, I’d been telling myself that it’d just been the adrenaline that’d made me wrap myself around him like saran wrap. That the absurdity of him standing there in a paper gown like a pissed-off Greek statue had made the room feel suddenly too small and that my body had reacted before my brain could get involved.

Although none of that explained how the kiss had instantly taken on a life of its own. Electric didn’t even begin to cover it. It had curled my toes and sunk straight into my bones. My stomach still flipped every time my mind replayed it all, his mouth, the heat of him, and the very unmistakable proof of how much he’d been affected too.

God, you could fly a flag off that thing.

I squeezed my eyes shut in the medication room and muttered, “Get it together, Bree.”

It’d been a one-time slip. That was it. A cosmic glitch. A lapse in judgment brought on by proximity, tension, and a man who had no business looking as he good as he did while wearing a sandwich wrapper.

Never again. That’s all I’m saying.

“Hey.”

I nearly jumped out of my shoes when Liana appeared out of nowhere. I hadn’t even realized that I’d left the medication room, but when I came to, I was beside the nurses’ station. She wore a smile that was entirely too perceptive for my comfort as she looked at me.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I wasn’t startled,” I said quickly. “I was… just thinking.”

“Uh-huh.” She glanced at the chart I only noticed I was holding upside down when I followed her gaze to it. “Deep in thought, I see.”

I flipped it the right way up and cleared my throat, forcing a smile I hoped looked relaxed and easy. “What’s up?”

She propped her elbow on the countertop, still smiling at me like she could see every thought racing through my head. “I saw my brother went back to the old gowns.”

My pulse hiccupped, but I kept my face carefully neutral. “Yeah. Yeah, I, uh, I noticed. The patients are much happier.”

“It was a full rollback,” she said thoughtfully. “The cloth gowns are back in rotation and the supply order has been reinstated. He even followed it up with a very dramatic internal memo to the entire Crowne Medical decision-making structure about patient comfort metrics.”

“Did he?”

She grinned. “I assume this was your doing.”

“Nah.” I shrugged. “I don’t know anything about emails or metrics.”

Liana laughed. “That’s not what I was asking about. I need to know your secrets, woman. Tell me how you convinced him. I’d love to know what to do the next time I need something that big from him.”

I snorted. “Trust me, you don’t want my methods.”

“Oh, now I definitely do.”

I shook my head. “Honestly? The gown did most of the work.”

“The gown.”

“The paper gown,” I said. “It turns out I was right about it being a nightmare against the skin. Who knew?”

She chuckled but studied me for a beat as the sound tapered off. “You’re being weird.”

“I’m always weird.”

“No,” she said. “You’re never evasive, but you sure are now.”

I met her gaze, my heart suddenly thumping. Does she know? Did he tell her? Do siblings talk about workplace kisses over dinner?