Quiver (Revenge Book 1) (10 page)

Even with her eyes closed, she felt the light in the room come on. Heard the click of the switch that illuminated it.

“Oh my God, I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Veda peeked one eye open, caught sight of Coco’s smiling face, and then stood tall.

Coco clapped her arms around Veda’s shoulders, pulling her into a hug.

“Yeah.” Veda’s eyes fluttered involuntarily. She always forgot how good it felt, being hugged. Still, she stepped back, smoothing her bun. “I was just taking a minute of alone time before my next surgery.”

Coco pointed to her mouth. “Man, you really love suckers, huh?”

Veda snatched the sucker she’d forgotten was lodged in her cheek out of her mouth. “They help me relax.” And she’d already blasted through half a bag that morning alone.

“Cool.” Coco crossed the room to the empty hospital bed and plopped down on it, wiggling her eyebrows. “So… tell me everything.”

“Everything?”

Coco sighed, exasperated. “The other night? After Dante’s? How did it go?”

A tsunami spun in Veda’s stomach. “How did
what
go?” Before Coco could reiterate, her voice hitched. “He took me home and dropped me off. That’s it. He’s engaged, and I would never do anything unsavory with an engaged man. What kind of woman do you think I am?”
A despicable one? A murderous one? Maybe a little of both?
She pondered her thoughts.

Coco cradled her palms on the edge of the bed, swinging her legs while fighting a coy smile. “Yeah… no. Engaged men are yellow lights. Married men are stop signs. Gage isn’t married yet, so you better go get yours.”

Veda cocked her head back. “A seventeen-year-old advocate for adultery. What a way to start my Monday morning.”

“I saw the way he was looking at you.” Coco peered from the corner of her eye. “And when I came in this morning, he asked if you were here yet.”

Veda’s face fell. “Gage is here.” It wasn’t even a question, but a horrifying realization.

Coco nodded, biting her bottom lip. “And his light is still very yellow, by the way—”

“I thought you said he only came to the hospital every once in a while?”

“Well, usually. But the chief of staff got fired out of the blue, something about stealing pills from the pharmacy. Anyway, Gage is filling in for him until they find a replacement.”

Veda pointed at the floor, her finger shaking. “So he’s going to be here…” Her throat went dry. “Every day?”

“Yep.”

“Every. Single. Day?”

Coco’s smile slowly vanished, and her words began to drag. “Yeah….” She surveyed Veda’s face, and her grin was back in an instant. “You like him back.” She waggled her body back and forth. “I can totally tell.”

“I don’t like him. I don’t like anyone.”

Coco laughed.

“And I’ve got a patient in five minutes, so I’m leaving now.” Veda left without another word, her wide eyes flying the busy hall of the hospital as she tried to get her breathing under control.

She hadn’t been back to her apartment since the morning after she and Gage had slept together, opting to sleep in the on-call room just in case he decided to wait around for her to come back.

She cursed under her breath. Her bones felt like they were dislocating from her body, her heart like it was trying to come unhinged. She traveled the halls as it raced, just waiting for the horrifying moment when he turned one of those corners.

She clutched her next patient’s chart to her chest. It had been hard enough hiding from Coco—who’d still spotted her. Now she had to hide from him too?

She wondered why she felt the
need
to hide. Why she hadn’t been able to muster the courage to join him in her kitchen the morning before and, at the very least, enjoy the breakfast he’d been selflessly preparing.

Her next patient’s exam room came in view. Just as she sighed in relief, knowing she’d be safe there for the next few hours, Gage came breezing around the corner.

Veda froze in her tracks.

The heather-gray suit fit him like a dream, and the turquoise shirt underneath gave it the perfect amount of pop.

Holding his navy tie to his chest, his eyes traveled the hallway, looking somewhat distracted. When he locked eyes with Veda, his chest puffed like a balloon.

Veda swiveled on her heel and hurried in the opposite direction.

God
, how old was she?

Peeking over her shoulder, she was relieved to find him moving down the hallway in the opposite direction, dragging a hand through his hair. A nurse approached him and stole his attention, which eased her mind even more.

She took the long way to her patient’s room, the route that forced her to cut through the main lobby, but it was worth it.

Speed walking through the bustling welcome area, she continued looking over her shoulder, eyes frantic, bottom lip trapped between her teeth.

Nope, he wasn’t behind her. Just the anxious patients in the waiting area and her fellow hospital personnel, some of them walking to their next patients and some running.

When she slammed into someone in front of her, a gasp tore from her throat, and she faced forward with wide eyes. “God, I’m so sorry! I should really watch where I’m… going….”

“You know…” Gage’s eyes narrowed, his hands hidden in the pockets of his slacks. “I’ve had girls kick me out before. I’ve had girls sneak out on me before. But I’ve never had a girl sneak out of
her
own apartment
on me before. That was an interesting first.”

Her heart leapt up her throat and nearly flew out of her mouth. The chart in her hand almost went soaring through the air when her arms involuntarily spasmed. She glued them tight to her sides in an attempt to appear composed.

“I, uh….” She patted her bun, avoiding his eyes as she shuffled her feet. “Yeah. I had to leave that morning because I had to, uh… I had to get to work a little early.”

“At 5 a.m.” He paused. “On your day off.”

“Yes. It’s very important to me to be prepared. I over-prepare. My patients are nervous enough as it is, and I want them to know I take their healthcare very seriously. I come in early. I come in on my days off. I give one hundred and ten percent every single day.” She realized she was rambling, and it took everything to force herself to stop. Then she lowered her voice. “And we talked about this.”

Gage searched her eyes, lips pressed together. Veda noticed him trying to control what his face was doing. When he turned his head away from her, hiding the eyes that were speaking words he couldn’t—or maybe wouldn’t—she struggled to speak past her pummeling heartbeat.

She tried to keep her voice level. “We agreed it was a one-time thing. A nice night where we both submitted to the moment to get it out of our systems.”

He reclaimed her eyes with a whisper. “Am I out of your system?”

Her gaze fell to his lips. She swallowed. “Yes.”

His face hardened.

“You’re out. Completely out. And now…” Was her voice seriously shaking? She stopped herself in midsentence, taking a moment to regroup under his unwavering gaze. She tightened her grip on the bronze coin still in her hand. “And now, we’re back to reality. You’re engaged, and I’m….”
Focused on murdering your good friend?
No, that wouldn’t fly.
Here to avenge my body and my womanhood?
Nope, too intense. She found herself sputtering, cursing her body as the warm throb in her center grew more powerful by the second, flaming over her skin, lining it with goose bumps. “And I’m… I’m also your subordinate. A resident with enough student loan debt to bankrupt an oil tycoon. A resident who can’t afford to lose her job over something as ridiculous as…” She lowered her voice. “As a couple of fleeting orgasms.”

“Four orgasms, to be exact, and there was nothing
fleeting about them.”

“Gage Blackwater….”

Something moved in his eyes when she said his name, as if he’d gone to another place. Probably rocketed back to the night before, when she’d moaned, screamed, and whimpered that name. Begged for more on the tail end of that name.

A gentle smile broke on his face.

Veda wondered when her breathing had turned to panting. “You’re engaged.”

His smile fell and he took a deep breath, looking away.

“And as much fun as it sounds to be some rich man’s side piece, I think I’ll take a pass. It was one night. It was…
wonderful
….”
Veda breathed deep when his eyes returned to her and grew heated. “But it’s done now. Forever.”

He appeared in the midst of relenting, but instead his shoulders squared. He licked his lips, raising his eyebrows at her.

Veda backed up, tripping over her feet while pushing a runaway strand of hair behind her ear. “Now, I’ve got a patient that….” She motioned behind her and turned away from him without finishing.

She felt his gaze blazing into her back, and even though she knew she was going the wrong way she picked up her pace, choosing the long route, yet again, just to escape it.

—

Gage watched Veda go, his lips growing tight until they’d gone ghost white.

She hurried down the bustling hall with a calm gait at first, but the farther she got away from him, the faster she moved, until she was one stride away from running.

This woman was
running
away from him.

He frowned after her, amazed that she hadn’t kicked up a small fire on her blazing path, zigzagging through hospital personnel before disappearing around a corner.

“You’ve certainly been spending an awful lot of time in this hospital lately.”

Gage looked to his left, and felt his face collapse.

The head nurse, Latika, smirked at him from behind the welcome desk.

He lifted an eyebrow at her. “We’ve lost our chief of staff. Someone has to stand in until we find a replacement.”

Latika lowered her head, looking at him over the rims of her glasses. “
Mmmhmm
,” she hummed, lifting an eyebrow of her own.

Gage went to walk away, stopped in mid-retreat, and faced her once more. He opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and then turned to leave again. He only made it a few strides before he’d swiveled on his heel and re-approached the welcome desk. “What exactly are you insinuating?”

Latika fought a smile, looked toward the hallway Veda had just disappeared into, and then back to him. “Cupcake, is it supposed to be a secret?”

Gage pushed away from the desk, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Stop. Stop mmmhmm
-
ing me.”

“
Mmmmmmhmmmmmm
.”

Gage turned on his heel, muttering under his breath. He walked away for real that time, not even giving Latika the satisfaction of an annoyed glare over his shoulder. Was he really so obvious? Was the fact that he’d been ditched by a woman—in her
own
apartment—while he stood in her kitchen cooking her breakfast like some simp that obvious? Was it painted all over his face? Could everyone in the hospital see it?

He suddenly felt like they were all staring at him. The nurses, the residents, the surgeons—laughing quietly under their breath at what a fool he’d made of himself.

He’d known it all along. Real connection, real intimacy, real love, trust, devotion couldn’t exist in his world. A part of him wondered if it existed at all.

Regardless, one thing was for certain.

She might’ve fooled him into questioning his life, his parents, and the world he’d always known. She might’ve fooled him into believing, even if only for a fleeting moment, that maybe, just maybe….

He sucked in a breath and forced his mind to stop. To leave that line of thinking behind, right now and forever.

She might’ve fooled him once, but Gage swore to himself, right then and there, that he’d never give Veda Vandyke the chance to do it twice.

—

Veda unlocked the door of her apartment later that evening, so exhausted from a long day’s work that she could’ve easily passed out right there on her welcome mat. Still, as she turned her key in the lock, a shot of adrenaline raced through her, and her fingers began to shake. Even after ditching Gage the day before, he’d still been kind enough to lock the bottom lock on his way out.

Her heart squeezed tight.

She knew before she’d even stepped inside her apartment that it wouldn’t be trashed, even though she wouldn’t put it past some men to retaliate that way. Especially when their ego had been bruised as much as she’d surely bruised Gage’s.

No, her apartment was immaculate. Every pot and pan had been scrubbed and put away. If she weren’t crazy, her counters were actually
cleaner
now than they had been before he’d come over.

And his scent.