“You still owe me, puta.” A guy who looked more like a beer-bellied gangbanger than a landlord chased after her, clutching her bra in his meaty fist. “You promised me that cherry pie.”
As Seth raced to Heavenly and caught her in his grasp, rage—white and hot—enveloped every cell in his body. “Get inside.”
She looked over her shoulder with revulsion and terror. “B-but—”
“Go!” Beck insisted. “We’ll take care of this.”
The moment she dashed to her unit and slammed the door, Seth charged toward Sanchez. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Not if I do it first,” Beck growled beside him.
Here was something else they agreed on. Miracles never ceased. “We could make it hurt more if we did it together.”
That was probably the only thing they would ever do together, and it was only happening because they both wanted Heavenly safe, protected, and sheltered. Plus, neither could wait to pulverize this shitbag.
Beck shot him a wolfish grin. “You’re on.”
CHAPTER THREE
Monday, November 26
Four Months Earlier
“Since my shift is over, and you’re done with patients for the day, why don’t you stop making me suffer and ask me out, Dr. Beckman?”
Beck bit back a quip that he knew a couple hundred ways to really make Kathryn Hitch, ER Nurse Specialist, suffer. Instead, he merely glared at the brunette with crazy eyes who’d cornered him outside the OR.
He had two hard-and-fast rules: First, he didn’t date where he worked. Second, he didn’t touch vanillas. As far as he knew, Kathryn wasn’t part of the lifestyle. She damn well wasn’t a member of Shadows, the BDSM club his friend Macen Hammerman owned, which had been his second home for the last seven years. He strictly maintained rules one and two because unleashing his kinky proclivities on the gossipy female staff would do irreparable damage to his professional reputation. After all, no one wanted a doctor who moonlighted as a sadist. Kathryn’s unrelenting pursuit was strike three.
She was out.
“You know my answer,” he said impatiently, shouldering his way past her.
“Your ‘rule’ about not dating co-workers again?” She followed, lower lip stuck out in a pout.
Her childish expression didn’t do anything to soften his resolve, just his cock.
“Yes.” He sighed. “Glad you remembered this time.”
“I was hoping you’d changed your mind. Our conversations have been so meaningful.”
The ones in which she’d chased him between surgeries and his office while he’d done his best to be civil but distant?
“You think so?” He raised a brow at her, which usually made savvy subs stammer and back down.
Once again, Kathryn proved she was neither submissive nor smart.
“I do. I want to tell you a secret.” She leaned in. “I have a rule, too. I don’t sleep with a guy on the first date.”
Oh, so you and Dr. Manning were having your second date when you fucked him in the janitor’s closet. Got it.
Slipping her hand into the pocket of his lab coat, she whispered, “But I’d bend that for you.”
Usually, he encouraged a woman begging, but he was willing to get down on his knees to shut Kathryn up.
Beck brushed past her again. “That’s not going to happen. I’m late. Excuse me.”
Kathryn chased after him. “I know you’re busy. But I won’t give up on you.”
Yeah, he’d already figured that out, just like he knew she pursued him because she wanted bragging rights as the first of the hospital’s slut squad to bag and tag him.
Not in this lifetime.
Determined to escape, he ducked into an empty elevator and smirked as the doors shut in her face.
As he descended to the lower level so he could escape to the parking garage, he sighed in relief and eased a hand in his pocket. What the hell had she shoved in there? Phone number? Naughty note? Naked picture of her tits?
He felt something silky.
Frowning, he pulled the scrap free. A pair of her panties. Given how warm the slinky black satin was, Kathryn had been wearing them moments before slipping them into his pocket.
He fought not to puke as he pinched the waistband between his thumb and forefinger and ducked into the first empty lab on his left. When he flipped on the light with his elbow, he spotted a red bin on his right marked BIOHAZARDOUS WASTE.
Perfect.
With a shudder, Beck disposed of Kathryn’s unmentionables, then scrubbed his hands raw in the nearby sink.
What would it take to make the delusional psycho back off?
Shaking his head, he shoved his way out of the lab and headed for his car. If he didn’t leave fast, Kathryn would catch up to him again. No idea what other blatant shit she’d pull to get his attention—and he’d rather not find out.
As he marched around a corner, he accidentally plowed into a soft, feminine figure in pink scrubs. On impact, the little blonde gasped and stumbled.
He managed to grab her by the shoulders before she tumbled to the linoleum. “I’m sorry, miss. I…”