Alpha Billionaire Series

GAVIN

Even with three pairs of gloves on, I still washed my hands like I was scouring a frying pan after making eggs. Dr. Gar Rutger stood to my left scrubbing out too. We shared a recap of the surgery and how we felt things went. It was pretty routine, nothing to note, so we both felt the patient would be well on their way to recovery.

“You know it's the marvel of modern medicine that we can do this tiny little surgery and help a patient not have seizures anymore.” Gary grabbed a towel and dried his hands before taking off his blue paper gown. He tossed the towel in the hamper and the gown in the bin before pulling off his mask and cap. “This kid doesn't realize how lucky he was to have been born in this era.”

I chuckled. “Well, his luck changed since birth that's for sure.” The patient, a boy of I5 years, had a surgery to help ease the effects of epilepsy. I'd performed it a dozen times at least, but this was Gary's first time doing the surgery, and he seemed amazed by the techniques.

“Well, being born with epilepsy in the early I900s resulted in a far different outcome than being born with it now. That's all I'm saying” He winked at me as he headed out the door.

I finished washing my hands and grabbed a towel to dry them. I had the same routine of disrobing from the surgical attire, but I left my cap on because I had another surgery soon. When I was leaving the washroom, I heard my name over the PA.

“Dr. Carpenter, you have a visitor at the nurses’ station, floor 5, sector B.”

Curious, I headed that direction. I had a few stops to make along the way. I checked in on a little girl, for whom I had removed a brain tumor only last week. Then I checked on a stroke patient we were monitoring in case he needed surgery. He was in his 70s and full of spit and vinegar, but I liked him. He reminded me of my mother somehow. Finally, I rounded the corner of the hall and headed toward the nurses’ station. I saw her before she saw me. Madisol was standing with her back to me. She wore a long, dark navy trench coat, and her black hair fell in waves down her back. Part of me wanted to walk away, to hide from her. To hide from the inevitable confrontation that we would have. But part of me wanted to speak to her. After the drunk dialing a few nights ago, I was curious about what was going on.

I had stopped giving her gifts or sending her flowers. After no response in two weeks, I figured I was wasting my money and time. But my heart had settled a bit. I felt a little more at ease with the fact that perhaps we weren't made for each other period, maybe she really was made for Drew. So I was surprised as anyone to see her standing there, waiting for me.

As I approached, she turned and took me in. Her eyes were red from crying and fresh tears streamed down her cheeks. She ran to me, colliding into my chest and wrapping her arms around my torso. I didn't even have to think about it for a second. I held her, pushing her hair back and letting her cry into my scrubs, not caring about what sort of mess she made or how she'd look. She was there—in my arms. That was all that mattered.

“Hey now, shhh, what's wrong?” I kissed the top of her head and breathed in the scent of her shampoo. The smell was so faint, I could barely detect it, or maybe I had just imagined it because I'd smelled her hair so many times, I had her memorized. Every line of her body, each curve. The way one side of her mouth lifted slightly more than the other when she smiled. The way she had a few silver strands of hair near her right temple, and the little almond shaped birthmark on her back, just above her right hip. Everything about her was so intoxicating, so magnetic. I couldn't help but memorize her.

“I'm so sorry. I'm so very, very sorry,” she sobbed, clenching my shirt. “Gavin, I fucked up so bad. Please say you still want me. Please say you love me.”

“Oh, baby, I will always love you. You did not fuck up too bad. What's going on? What happened?”

One of the nurses at the station stared at us unabashedly, to which I replied with a glower, but she did not turn away so I pulled Madison to the side. There was an empty room two doors down, so I led her there, closing us in and shutting the blinds so we'd have privacy. Guided her to the bed where she sat, then offered her a tissue from the bo» mounted on the wall.

“Now, take a few deep breaths and explain to me what happened.” I crouched in front of her, waiting patiently for he to catch her breath. I could tell her tears had been pretty frequent for a long time. She had that puffy-eyed look that only happened when someone was mourning. I'd seen it a hundred times in my profession with parents who are grieving over a tragedy while their child lay in a bed after surgery or in a coma.

Madison shrugged and wiped her face, then said, “I told him. I told Drew about us. It was awful. He literally kicked mq out of the house. All I tried to do was comfort him and help him recover. I was only trying to help him adjust. And—" Her hysterical sobs cut off her words, so I pushed a few tears off her cheeks and encouraged her to keep going. I could tell she was trying to compose herself, but it was difficult. Each time she tried to continue; her body shook wit! disrupted, choppy breaths.

“I'm listening.” I was too. Intently tuned in to how things may have gone. I had played the long game, being patient and listening, waiting. Until Nick got under my skin. Then I had played the fool, thinking an ultimatum would solve our issues. But it hadn't; it had only made things worse. So, I tried again, the romance, the candies, the flowers. All for this moment.

“So, I left. Then I went to Lexi’s house, and she tried to help, but all that happened was we went to a club and I got wasted and then drunk dialed you.” She sniffed and blew her nose.

So that was what had happened. She had the worst day of her life and she had called me for comfort while being totally drunk. I was an a*****e. I had ignored her and thought she was just being dramatic or something. I felt like a complete moron.

“God, I'm so sorry, Madi. I thought...”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“It's okay. I was a wreck. You didn’t want to talk to me then anyway.” She waved her hand in the air. I could tell she was perking up a bit. “So, I went to talk to Drew just now.”

Anger rekindled in my stomach. I thought that bastard had broken her heart and she was coming to me for comfort. But she had gone back to visit him again? I wanted to walk out. I knew what was coming. She was there to tell me they made up and they're back together and I was out. She was crying so hard because she was breaking it off with me.

She pulled a ring out of her pocket and turned it around in her hand, laying it on her palm. She extended it to me and sighed. “Here.”

I stood, my heart cold as ice. “Why are you doing this?” I couldnt believe what was happening. I had tried so hard, done everything in my power, and she was walking away. “What did I do wrong?”

“No, Gavin. You don't understand.”

Madison stood and grabbed my wrist, turning my hand up and placing the ring in my palm. She draped her arms around my neck and rose up on her tiptoes to place a soft kiss on my cheek.

“I love you. But this ring was taken from me in a very vulnerable moment of my life. So, if you want to give it back to me, I would like it to be done properly.” As she lowered back to flat feet, it dawned on me what she was saying. “So...” I offered a confused expression. “I don’t understand.”

Her arms lingered around my neck, and I hooked one around her waist. The way she tilted her head up to meet my gaze, I could easily have devoured her lips, taken her there on that bed, but more than anything I wanted her heart. “Alice talked to him and explained everything. Gavin, Drew tried to initiate sex with me.” I stiffened as she spoke, but she squeezed me and reassured me. “When he put his hand on my thigh, I was uncomfortable. When he leaned in to kiss me, I freaked out. I knew in that instant, that I was not in love with him anymore. I was in love with you. And I knew the only reason I was there taking care of him was because I felt obligated to do it”

It was exactly like Violet said. Madison did things because she felt a duty or responsibility to do them. I would have been completely trash of a human being to use that sense of duty against her, to manipulate her. I felt comforted that I Nick had told me what a jerk I'd have been if I'd have done that to her.

“So, it's over?” I asked, half expecting her to say she still needed to care for him in some way.

“It's over, bud. It's totally, I00% over. Though I would still like to remain friends with Drew and his family. But what I know now is, my heart belongs to you. There is no one else on this entire planet that could make me feel the way yo make me feel. No one could love me like you. And my heart will beat no other name but yours from now on.”

Before she finished the last words, I captured her lips in mine. Pulling her tightly against my body, I quenched my thirst. I had waited long enough to hear her say those words, and they were as amazing as I thought they would be. She returned my kiss with the same eagerness and passion, her fingers locking into my hair with a firm grip.

My groin stirred to life, pulsing as her body melded into mine. I had never experienced a connection so deep with anyone before. Madison really was the woman for me. I wanted nothing more than to lay her on that bed and take her right there, but I had another surgery to perform. So, in spite of the desire throbbing in my pants, I pulled away. “Fuck, I miss you,” I growled against her forehead before placing a kiss there”

“Dinner tomorrow?” she whispered against my lips as I stole another kiss.

“Tonight, I can’t wait. My place at 7. I have a surgery to get to now.” She bit my neck, and I felt her hands searching ug under the back of my shirt.

“Violet is at my house. The earliest I'd be able to get to your place is 9 tonight”

Her heavy breathing was making it very difficult to pull away from her. And the growing bulge in my pants would make it embarrassing to leave this room.

“It takes 45 minutes to get across town...” I was thinking out loud as my hand slipped beneath her trench coat, restin. on the side of her ribcage so my thumb could press into her n****e through her shirt.

“Then you come to my place...” She pulled my head back down to meet hers and we kissed again, this time more slowly, with more affection. “And we can connect”

I didn’t want to leave her there, but I had to go. This moment reminded me of a time not too long ago when we were deep into foreplay, Madii naked on my couch, and I got called in to work. I smiled just thinking how amazing it would be to have her there when I got home. Those moments every man longs for—someone to come home to.

“Go be the hero now. Save someone's life” She winked at me and stepped back. Her lipstick was smudged, and her hair was a wreck, but she was beautiful. And she was mine.

As I turned to go, she smacked my ass like one of the guys would have. I glanced over my shoulder at her smirk, then stood by the door for a second with my hand on the knob, hoping my d**k would stop throbbing and deflate. “What's wrong?” she asked, walking up behind me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me from behind, and I slid her hand down lower until it rested on my d**k. “Ah, I see.”

She laughed and backed up.

“Look what you did to me?” I grinned as I turned around and she looked at the tentpole in my trousers.

“Um, let me help. Close your eyes and think “naked fat lady on a hot summer day.”

Just the thought of it made me cringe. I laughed and pulled her in for another kiss. “I love you, Madii. I'll see you tonight.”

I walked out of that room feeling like a king again. Everything in the world was right now.