“You’re a dick.”
I take a breath and look up at her, watching the way her silent tears track down her face. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “It killed me to dismiss you like that, but I had to. You made an error, one that never would have happened had you been prepared, and so I did what any other doctor would have done to their student.”
Those big hazel eyes flash up to mine and pull at everything within my chest. “But that’s just the thing. I don’t understand. Help me out here, because I’m clearly missing something. What error? I did everything by the book. It was a perfect delivery.”
“Technically, you’re right. It was perfect and you did an incredible job.”
“So, what then?”
“The couple standing beside Rebecca were the adoptive parents of those twins, and when you—”
Autumn sucks in a deep gasp, her hand flying to her mouth as she straightens on the bed, her back stiffening like a wooden board. Her eyes somehow fill quicker with tears as she gapes at me in horror. “I robbed that woman of the first hold of her son.”
My hand flinches at my side, and I use every little bit of will power that I have to stop myself from pulling her into my chest and holding her until the tears are gone. “It’s okay,” I tell her, pressing my lips into a tight line. “The adoptive mother came and spoke to me, and she said not to worry. This is her fifth and sixth baby, so she’s not put out, but had that been anyone else; perhaps a first-time mother who had been waiting her whole life for that very moment … Look, all I’m saying is that in the future, you need to be better prepared for situations like this.”
Autumn wipes the tears off her face and takes a few slow, calming breaths. “I promise,” she tells me, fighting the need to break down again. “I will never fuck up like this again. I want to be the best. I swear, I would never intentionally go out and try to hurt someone like that. I … I …”
Fuck it.
I reach out and grab her, curling my hands around her toned waist and pulling her into my lap. She instantly falls into me, straddling my lap and allowing me to crush her against my chest and hold her as she cries. “I’m sorry,” I murmur as I feel her tears on my neck and her soft hair brushing against my cheek. My hand roams up and down her back and despite her misery, I’ve never felt so content.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” she tells me over the lump in her throat. “You had to send me away. It was the right thing to do. I can’t be getting special treatment just because …”
She cuts herself off as my hands pause on her back. “Just because of what, Autumn?” I prompt, gently pulling back.
Autumn straightens and pulls her face out from the curve of my neck. She meets my eyes before wiping her hands over her own. “Don’t act like you don’t know,” she murmurs, her heart on her sleeve. “Something is going on between us and I know you feel it just like I do.”
I reach up and curl my hand around the back of her neck, my thumb lazily resting along the curve of her jaw. “You and I …” I start. “No matter how I feel, you’re my student. We can’t be involved.”
Autumn nods. “I know,” she whispers, her heartbreak shining through as another tear falls from her beautiful eyes. My thumb reaches out and instantly wipes it away.
“Please stop crying,” I urge. “Your tears are killing me.”
She watches me for a quiet, drawn-out moment before slowly looping her arms around my neck. I sink into her touch. The longer she’s there, the more I seem to like it, which only has me pulling at her waist, drawing her body tighter against mine.
Without warning, Autumn closes the gap and before I know it, her face is hovering right in front of mine, her lips just a mere breath away. It would take no effort at all to pull her that little bit closer and finally feel her lips on mine.
I know I shouldn’t. I should be telling her to put herself back together and get back to work, but I can’t. This moment has been growing between us, every day, every minute spent together, leading us toward this. To send her away now would be to commit a heinous crime.
Her eyes bore into mine, silently begging me to leap with her. I can’t resist her. Those eyes are like a beacon pulling me in.
My hand tightens around the back of her neck and in an instant, I pull her in, closing the space between us and crushing her lips to mine. Her body relaxes into mine as our lips finally begin to move.
A soft moan rumbles through her chest as my arm wraps tighter around her, keeping her as close as physically possible. It’s as though her body fits mine perfectly, effortlessly resting beside mine like two puzzle pieces that were always supposed to fit together.
Autumn’s arms tighten around my neck as our lips continue to move in a dance. I’ve never felt anything so perfect, so right. Just like that, I know that every other woman is ruined for me. I will never find anything as good as this.
Autumn has it all, and I’d be a fool to let her slip through my fingers. She pulls back, breathing heavily as she rests her forehead against mine. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I promise. I’ll be better from here on out.”
“No,” I say shaking my head. “It’s your third day and I should have given you a warning that you were going to be delivering those babies. That’s on me. I should have prepared you properly and made sure you were aware of what was going on before you walked into that room.”
“I’m not going to let you take the blame,” she says, running her fingers up through my hair. “I’ve had five years of nursing experience before this. I know better, but I allowed my excitement to run the show and assumed it was a normal delivery. That’s on me, but now I know better, and I swear, I will never make such a moronic mistake again. You have my word.”
I watch her for a minute, pulling her back in and gently brushing my lips over hers. “For what it’s worth, you delivered that baby perfectly. You’re a natural.”
Her eyes shimmer with joy, the pain and despair instantly fading from her eyes. “You mean that?”
“I do,” I tell her. “You really are going to be the best in the field, and with me at your side, you’ll be unstoppable.”
Autumn’s lips come crashing back to mine, and she kisses me deeply, her lips moving as though she doesn’t have a care in the world, and right now, it’s easy to say neither of us does. Her tongue explores my mouth and I let her, knowing damn well that I’ll give her anything that she wants.
When we finally pull away, she stares at me with wide, beaming eyes. “What does this mean?” she asks, panting as she untangles her fingers from my hair.
I shake my head, unable to keep the smile off my face. “I have no fucking idea,” I tell her. “But there’s no way in hell that it’s going to stop.”
Autumn grins back at me, and without another word, crushes her face back to mine.
CHAPTER 12
AUTUMN
Aalia’s high-pitched squeal rocks right through my chest as I watch her fly down the slide at the park across the road from her apartment. “Holy shit,” I gasp as I sit by her mom’s side. “I swear, she gets faster every time she goes down that thing.”