I stared at her, totally dumbfounded. “Um, Dr. Conway—”
“I told you to call me Natalia. We’re equals now, Dex.” Her hand slid down my chest to my stomach, and her fingers slipped underneath my shirt to feel my bare abs. “I’m not your mentor anymore. I’m your friend. And…I’m very attracted to you.”
The blood pounded between my ears like a drum as I realized she was unmistakably coming on to me. “Natalia, you’re a very attractive woman, but…it wouldn’t be right. I value our professional relationship deeply—”
“Babe, I just want to bang you. That’s it. We can be lovers and colleagues. No expectations. No commitments. That’s how I like it—and so do you.” Her hand moved farther up my hard stomach to my chest. “Have you ever been with an older woman?”
“No.” She was at least fifteen years older than me, but the age didn’t bother me. A sexy woman was a sexy woman.
“You’re going to love it, Dex.” She moved in close again, placing another kiss on my mouth.
This time, I kissed her back, even though I knew I shouldn’t. It was hard to deny a seduction, especially when it was wrong, practically taboo. To top it off, she was brilliant, and I’d always had a thing for a smart woman.
“Come on.” She pulled away and took my hand. “Let’s go to your place.”
“You did what?” Derek snapped his head in my direction from his spot on the couch.
“Yeah…I know.” I cringed, knowing I shouldn’t have done it. I should have just walked away.
“You slept with your residency mentor?” he asked, still incredulous. “You slept with Dr. Conway?”
Now I called her Natalia. Said her name a couple times when she rode me like I was a wild stallion and she was the wildest cowgirl in the wild, wild west. “A little bit.”
Derek shook his head as he stared at me with disappointment. “What the hell are you thinking, Dex?”
“She came on to me, alright?”
“So?” he snapped. “You politely decline. I do it all the time.”
“I’m not married.” Anymore.
“Doesn’t matter. You know how to turn a woman down. You used to do it all the time too.”
When I wasn’t depressed, bitter, and lonely. When I was in love with my wife, eager to get home to her every night, to fuck her brains out like she was a whore I paid for and then make love to her right after as if I hadn’t just pounded her pussy mercilessly. Times were different. Everything had changed. I had changed.
“That relationship is ruined now. You understand that, right?”
“She said we can just hook up and still be professional—”
“Never. Gonna. Happen. Women say that shit all the time, and they don’t mean a word of it.”
“Look, she’s in her forties, and she’s never been married or had kids. That’s not what she’s looking for.”
“Maybe she is looking for a fuck boy. But you want to be that fuck boy?”
I shrugged. “I mean, it’s kinda hot.”
Derek chucked the pillow at my face. “I’m serious.”
I let the pillow roll onto the floor before I fixed my messed-up hair. “I know. It wasn’t my finest hour.”
“And I thought you were doing better? You’re back to surgery, doing research, in good spirits…”
“I am.”
“Then why did you fuck up so bad?” Lizzie and the boys were asleep in their rooms down the hallway, so they couldn’t hear us talking in the living room.
I shrugged and rubbed my palms together. “Come on, give me a break, man. I’m a single guy, and she’s a single woman. We did nothing wrong. Was it professional? No. Was the sex good because it was so wrong? Yeah, I’m not gonna lie. But it’s not going to happen again, so whatever. It’s over.”
“Even if it is over, the damage is done.”
“She’s not like that.”
“She’s a woman. They’re all like that.”
I turned to him. “That’s sexist, and you know it. She’s a gorgeous woman who’s got brains. If she wanted a husband, she would have had one. She doesn’t. We don’t work together and she’s not my mentor anymore, so there’s no harm.”
Derek faced forward but shook his head anyway.
Emerson came from the kitchen in the rear. “Derek, let it go.” She had a glass of wine in her hand, wearing sweatpants and one of his t-shirts. When she approached the couch, her fingertips moved through his short, dark hair before he leaned back against the couch so she could sit on his lap.
His arm moved over her thighs and his other hand cupped her ass, but he sighed in annoyance.
“Yeah,” I said. “Listen to your wife.”
Her arm circled his shoulders as she sipped her wine.
“And you’re one to talk,” I said. “You hooked up with your assistant.”
Derek turned back to me, his eyes narrowed. “You’re always going on and on about how hot Sicily is.”