Doctored Vows - Chapter 28

After ensuring Yulia is stable, I join Eva in the locker room for an impromptu patient debrief.

“That was…” Eva shakes out her arms and legs before breathing out heavily. “Whoa!” She peers at me wide-eyed and in awe. “We kicked ass today.”

I laugh, loosening some of the heaviness on my chest. “We did.”

The endorphins released when you save a patient’s life are dispersed in a number of ways. Some interns cry, others holler and shout, and there are a handful who work off the excess adrenaline in a sexual manner—usually in the very room we’re standing in.

Eva appears to be an intern who’d happily tick off all three items on the list. Her eyes are brimming with wetness, she’s hollered a handful of times, and although there is no one to help her with the last item on the list, she thrusts her hips enough times to announce she needs a cigarette before she twists a recently opened pack my way.

I shake my head. I’ve not yet rolled through the emotions I’m anticipating to hammer into me at any moment because my stomach is too twisted up in knots to claim the victory we fought hard to achieve.

Yulia’s blood workup showed no signs of the troponin T protein most heart disease patients have, which means it is unlikely her heart sustained any damage during her medical episode, but the cardiologist they brought in to conduct the tests is the best in the country.

I don’t see his fees being close to that of the savings of an intern’s salary.

My offer looks set to become extremely costly, but I’d be a liar if I said I wouldn’t have done the same thing if I were offered to go back and overturn my pledge.

I wait for Eva to leave the locker room, before digging my cell phone out of my purse and dialing a number I usually only ring at the end of my shift.

It takes Ano a few seconds to connect our call. “Hey. Don’t tell me you’re finishing early for a change.”

“I wish,” I lie. My job is exhausting but rewarding—most notably when the whispered praise comes from a patient whose life is just beginning. Yulia was on the cusp of death only hours ago, and now she is smiling and asking what day it is. She became an instant fan of Donut Holes Thursday. “I need a favor.”

Ano’s pulse quickens so fast I hear its thuds in his voice when he asks, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I just need something back at the apartment, and although I could go get it, I don’t know if I’d make it out of here without a clerk and half the hospital’s administration team on my back.”

He laughs, but the lack of warmth in it exposes his unease.

I learn why when he says, “I’d love to help you, Doc, but I can’t.” Half of my disappointed huff barely rumbles up my throat when he doubles the output of my lungs. “If you’re at the hospital, I’m at the hospital. Maksim would take my nuts if I left you unattended for even a second.”

“Why? No one is out to get me. Especially here.”

I freeze like a statue when he mutters under his breath, “Now.” Before I can get a word of my shock out, he says, “Call Maksim. Whatever you need, he will get it for you.”

“I can’t call him.”

“Why? Because you’re as fucking stubborn as he is?”

Yes. That is precisely why. But since I can’t say that, I settle on, “Because I don’t have his number.” I sound like a moron. Rightfully so. It is ludicrous to be married to someone and not know their cell phone number.

When I say that to Ano, he laughs. It is full of the warmth I was anticipating earlier. “Doubtful it’s the first time he’s slept with someone without giving up his deets.” Jealously slices me open, quick and without mercy, but he covers up the gashes with flimsy Band-Aids by adding, “But it will be the last. You worked a number on him, Doc. I’ve never seen him like this.” My phone pings, announcing I have received a text. “I forwarded you his number.” I’m about to thank him, but before I can, he continues talking. “You’re not gonna break up with him via text, right? I’m kinda enjoying life right now.” His tone tips from teasing to seductive. “And the scenery is mighty fine in Myasnikov.”

“I’m not breaking up with him,” my heart answers before my head can object.

“All right.” Ano appears eager to go, and it is proven without doubt when he disconnects our call half a second after telling me to buzz him the instant my shift is over.

After pulling my phone down from my ear, I stare at the screen for several long seconds, striving to build the courage to call Maksim. He could get any of his lackeys to do the heavy lifting for him, but since it is for me, I doubt he would.

He’s wheeled meals to my apartment every night for the past five nights—even when I hid in the bathroom and pretended I couldn’t hear his knocks announcing it was time to eat.

By the time he left, the meals were stone cold, and Ano was staring at me like I’m a vindictive cow.

Since his assessment wasn’t far off the mark, I ate my meal cold and climbed into an equally icy bed.

When my backbone fails to form again, I take the cheat’s way out.

I call Zoya instead of Maksim.

“Why are you using the funds you set aside?” she asks after I explain the favor I need help with. “Maksim gave you a limitless credit card and permission to use it for whatever your heart desires. Use that.”

“I can’t.”

“You can, and you don’t have much choice.” My silence leaves her the entire stage to work how she sees fit. “You have two, three nights’ admission max saved.”

“And?”

She pffts her dislike of my reply before saying, “And…”—she drags out the three-letter word as if it is an entire sentence—“during your two-minute rundown on what happened, you said the clerk announced the Petrovitchs were several thousand in debt.” She lowers her tone, bringing it closer to the sluggish beat of my heart. “I don’t think you have that much in your box, Keet. Because if you did, you would have purchased your grandfather’s breathing machine with it months ago.”

She’s right. I would have. I counted the cash in the box under my bed every payday, hoping I’d have enough to purchase a new ECOM machine. I was still several thousand short before Maksim entered my life.

“I don’t know what to do,” I admit, my voice croaky.

“Yeah, you do.” Her tone announces she isn’t being pushy or mean. She understands this is hard for me, but she also understands I would have done anything for Yulia not to face the outcome my sister got lumped with. “Maksim gave you that credit card for a reason. He wants you to use it.”

“That was before we…”

“We…?” Zoya encourages, incapable of reading my mind over the phone.

I swallow the lump in my throat before admitting, “We’re kind of not on speaking terms.”

“Huh?” Even the shortness of her reply can’t hide her confusion. “Since when?”

“Since I threatened to leave him⁠—”

“You what?” Her reply is so loud half the patients of Myasnikov Private hear her.

“Things are complicated.” I sigh, not wanting to have this conversation at all, much less over the phone.

“Oh, I bet they are. Maksim is…”

Many words roll through my head when she pauses to consider a reply. They should be about his dark and dangerous side, but my heart wins the battle this time, and it has me expressing something I thought I’d take to my grave. “I miss him, Z.”

“Then tell him that.”

I slump onto the bench across from my locker. “I can’t.” Before she can call me an idiot, I express my biggest fear. “What if I lose him too?”

“Keet…” She stops to breathe out the laughter I hear rattling in her chest, shocking me. How is this funny? “I love you, girl, but sometimes you’re so blind you can’t see what is directly in front of you.” I blame the adrenaline rush of my last two hours in the ER when a tear topples down my cheek. “Maksim would never put you in that position. He loves you too much to ever hurt you like that.”

The tear flings off my cheek when I shake my head. “No⁠—”

“He. Loves. You. That’s why he is struggling to give you the promise you need to move past your fear that you will lose him too. He isn’t a man who can sit back and let the person he loves be hurt because she wants him to promise not to retaliate. I don’t know a single man who could promise that, let alone one who spent most of his childhood protecting his mother.”

My voice cracks when I ask, “He told you about that?”

“No.” Nothing but honesty rings in her tone. “But I know you, and I understand your fear.” A shuddering breath fills my chest when she says, “And I also understand Maksim’s. He doesn’t want to hurt you. He wants to love you, but that comes with a prerequisite of protection. Everyone knows that. You just seem to have gotten the criteria a little mixed up since you’ve forgotten the love a parent has for a child is different from the love of a spouse.” She hits me where it hurts. “Maksim isn’t your dad, but I sure as fuck hope he loves and protects you as fiercely as your father did your mother, because that is the type of love every girl should strive for. That is real love.”

The dam in my eyes breaks, and so does my stubbornness. For years, I only considered my feelings when my father chose revenge over me. I never once considered the hell I forced him to walk through when I demanded he pick me over the love of his life.

I am his daughter, his flesh and blood, but he chose my mother long before I entered the picture.

I am the byproduct of their love, not the source of it.

As I wipe under my nose to make sure nothing has spilled, I say, “Z, I have to go.”

“Fuckin’ oath you do.” Jealousy burns up some of the wetness in my eyes when she says, “Give him a kiss from me.”

She’s still laughing about my grumble when I yank my phone from my ear, toss it into my purse, and then hightail it out of the locker room.

“Dr. Hoffman,” the ER ward clerk shouts when I race past the nurses’ station she’s manning with the billing clerk from the administration team.

“Not now.”

“We need to⁠—”

My head slings to the side when assistance to flee without payment comes from the last person I anticipate. “Let her go. We will get everything squared up tomorrow.”

I thank Dr. Sidorov for his assistance with a smile before I race through the staff-only side entrance. Ano is going to be pissed when my sprint past the security camera in the alleyway will force him to undertake a middle-of-the-day workout, but I’m too eager to get to where I’m going to wait in traffic.

By the time I reach the corner of my apartment building, sweat is beading on my nape and the chilly winds have frozen my tears to my cheeks.

With the media dwindling to two the past few days, the doorman spots my approach before I hit the driveway that leads to the underground parking. He opens the door for me and dips his hat in greeting.

I push through the door just as the elevator doors open, and Maksim races out. He’s dressed to impress in a tailored suit and polished designer boots. He is the epitome of a successful businessman with an edge of darkness that should have exposed his necessity to protect those he cares about from the get-go.

“Nikita,” he breathes out heavily when he spots me standing at the side of the foyer, gawking like it’s the first time I’ve laid eyes on him.

He looks angry, furious, even, but some of the agitation scoured between his brows clears away when I push off my feet and race his way. He catches me in his arms, and when I seal my mouth over his, his shocked exhale flutters over my tongue.

As I lick the roof of his mouth, his arms come around me. One pulls me closer while the other weaves through my hair.

Our kiss is needy and hurried, and it makes me wet in an instant.

I’m not the only one excited. Maksim’s cock is thick and braced halfway up my stomach.

“Not here,” he murmurs over my kiss-swollen lips when I balance on my tippy-toes to grind against him. “If any of them saw you, I’d ki…” Untapped carnal desire scorches through my veins when he fails to finalize his threat.

He doesn’t need words, though. His glare is enough for the men surrounding us to pretend they’re needed elsewhere. As Maksim escorts me three feet to the elevator, they scurry in all directions.

Even the elevator attendant makes an excuse to leave his post. “I think I’m overdue for my break.”

Maksim’s smirk announces his ability to follow unvoiced commands will be significantly rewarded.

Heat sizzles through my body when he places his hand on the curve of my back to guide me inside the elevator. It is chilly today, and my scrubs are as thin as tissue paper, so the temperature shouldn’t be as roasting as it is. It just isn’t possible to be in the presence of a man with such an enigmatic personality and panty-wetting good looks and not get heated up.

I’m burning up everywhere.

“I’ve got her,” Maksim says a second after selecting the floor below the penthouse, his voice sexy and raspy since it is brimming with lust. He works his jaw side to side before he drops his eyes to me. “I will tell her.” He jerks up his chin a second before removing a bead similar to the one Ano wears out of his ear.

“Is Ano pissed?”

He rakes his fingers through his hair, adding to the sexed-up look I awarded it during our kiss. “He is.”

When he twists to face me, my breath catches in my throat. He’s so gorgeously tortured with kiss-plumped lips and narrowed, confused brows that a confession tumbles out of my mouth before I can stop it. “I’ve missed you.”

With his mouth curved at one side, he cages me to the elevator wall and burns me inside out with a searing gaze. “You have?”

The shock in his tone surges my confidence and allows me to speak freely. “Uh-huh.”

One of his hands drops to my back, and as he yanks my hips forward to display how much my confession means to him, he asks, “How much?”

“A—”

He squashes his finger to my lips, silencing me. “Don’t tell me with words, Doc. Show me.”

He is so beautiful sprawled above me, so powerful that I let the last of my inhibitions float away before slanting my mouth above his. I’m desperate to kiss him, to feel the heat of his skin against mine, but there’s no game if there’s no competition.

“Did you miss me?”

His smirk announces he read my game plan a mile out, but he plays along like he has no chance of winning. “For every second of every minute.” He breathes in my exhale when he murmurs, “Even the ones spent with a steel rod digging into my back.” I’m already getting the gist of his confession, but he wants to make sure I don’t underestimate his desire to be with me even when we’re not doing anything sexually charged. “If you ever need space again, Doc, can you pick a more comfortable location? My back has been screaming all week.”

His playfulness has me desperate enough to have him that I no longer care about our public location. My lunge for him this time is almost violent. Our teeth clash as violently as our noses, but I kiss him freely and without restraint.

And he kisses me back.

He rakes his fingers through my hair while exploring my mouth with his tongue. It is a wild, tender embrace that makes me needy with passion. I love how he kisses me as if it is as intimate and sexually gratifying as the sex it will forever lead to.

His hand slides down my back and cups my ass before he encourages me to curl my legs around his waist. I moan when the crown of his glorious cock rubs at the entrance of my pussy.

As I lick, kiss, and nibble on his lips, I grind against his thickened shaft, doubling the pulses of my aching clit.

My needs become too overwhelming, and within seconds, I’m stroking Maksim through his trousers while wishing he was naked.

“I need you, Maksim. Please,” I beg, too horny to care that I’m showing how weak he makes me. My clit is throbbing for attention, pounding as loudly as my heart. “I can’t wait a second longer.”

After cussing under his breath, Maksim places me back on my feet, leans over and jabs the emergency stop button on the elevator, and then tugs down my scrub bottoms to my knees with the same urgency I use to free his cock from his trousers.

He is as hard as stone, and the tip is weeping with pre-cum that drips onto my palm when he realizes how wet I am.

“Christ. We only kissed, yet you’re already drenched for me.” I arch up onto my tippy-toes when he authenticates how much his kisses turn me on by slipping a finger inside me. “You’re so tight.”

“That won’t be an issue too much longer,” I mumble while tugging him closer, notching the head of his glistening crown toward the folds of my pussy.

“No. Not yet.” He pushes out like the words hurt him to express as much as they devastate me. “I need you wet enough to take me.”

My disappointment is pushed aside for pleasure when he falls to his knees before he dips his tongue inside me. He tastes me with long, leisured licks, this kiss as confident and skilled as the one we shared earlier.

Within seconds, my core tightens as a wave slowly forms low in my stomach. My face flushes with lust as tingles prickle every fine hair on my body.

When his thumb rolls over my clit, I can’t hold back my moan of delight.

“That feels so good.”

“Doubt it is as good as you taste.” He steals my ability to reply by gently sucking my clit into his mouth. My stomach spasms violently as my thighs struggle not to clamp around his head. “Do you have any idea how hard it was not to touch you?” His tongue thrusts into my pussy, teasing and needy. “I thought our wedding night was tortuous, but it had nothing on the hell I’ve walked through the past week.”

My pussy convulses around his fingers when he switches from one to two. He thrusts them in and out, stretching me and making me moan. “Yes…”

“I knew how good you tasted but couldn’t do anything to quench my thirst.” His groan vibrates through me, adding to the sticky mess between my legs. “Not even my hand was good enough.” He hits my clit with back-to-back licks before saying, “Don’t ever do that to me again, Doc. Don’t ever leave me hanging like that again, wondering who the fuck I am and where my loyalties should lie.” He pushes three fingers inside me, curling my toes and burning my eyes with tears. He’s not hurting me—physically. I can’t share the same guarantee for my heart. He’s so open and raw right now. So exposed. It is almost too much. “Promise me you won’t ever do that again, and I’ll do the same.”

I shouldn’t be able to think with how much lust is clouding my head, and I shouldn’t be able to comprehend the complexity of his promise, but the glint in his eyes as he stares up at me is too strong to ignore.

He’s willing to compromise.

Willing to try.

He’s promising to put me first.

“Maksim,” I murmur with a moan as a tensing and violent orgasm courses through me without warning.

Ecstasy spasms my limbs as pleasurable zaps of electricity race through my body. I shake for several minutes, my climax long and powerful since its arrival doesn’t lower Maksim’s dedication in the slightest. He continues massaging the tender spot inside me with his fingers while stimulating my clit with slow, teasing licks.

I can barely stand when the heat licking through me augments from him notching the head of his cock at the opening of my pussy. A gasp whistles between my teeth when he pushes inside me with one ardent thrust. He’s so deep. So thick. I’m almost overwhelmed.

After taking a moment to acclimate to his girth, I clench around him, silently permitting him to move.

My muscles ripple and tighten when he pulls out to the tip before he slams back in.

I moan like I am possessed, loving how full he makes me feel.

“Christ…” Maksim breathes out through clenched teeth. “You feel so good.” He pistons his hips on repeat, nailing me to the wall of the elevator. “You take my cock so well. You’re going to make me come so hard.”

Pleasure ripples through me as he plunges in and out of me hard and fast. He fucks me recklessly. Possessively. He uses every muscle to drive me wild, and all I can do is scream and moan.

I’ve never felt so taken… claimed.

He thrusts into me, his body moving like a well-oiled machine over and over again until I’m overcome with the insane need to climax.

I throw my head back and scream through an orgasm that is so overwhelming tears prick my eyes mere seconds before they slide down my face.

I’m a quivering, blubbering mess, but Maksim’s pace doesn’t slow. He continues to dominate my body, demanding every inch of its attention. He plows into me with enough force that my back creeps higher on the wall with every punishing pound.

My body doesn’t mind, though. I grow so hot and wet that I slide up and down his lengthy cock with ease. I accept as much of him into my body as possible, and my acceptance is rewarded with another blindsiding orgasm full of heat and lust.

“Ah, Christ,” Maksim grinds out, his hips as stiff and jutted as his words when the walls of my vagina squeeze around him.

His hips churn impatiently for several more minutes before the desire to mist his skin with sweat wins. He grinds into me another three greedy pumps before he buries his head into my neck and grunts through a brutal release.

My name rips from his throat as he comes. It is a feral, animalistic rumble that sweeps pleasure across my core as ruefully as his cum heats the walls of my pussy.

As the shudders of his release threaten to pull me under for the umpteenth time, he switches our position so his back is against the elevator wall and mine is open before he slides us down to sit on the floor, our connection never lost.

I brush my lips against his sweat-slicked business shirt before pressing my ear to his racing heart. We’re almost still fully clothed—only the most intimate parts of our bodies are uncovered—but I feel raw. Exposed.

He knows my deepest, darkest fear, but instead of hiding from it as everyone else in my life has, he’s trying to understand it. Possibly even lessen it.

Just knowing he’s trying cuts my worries in half.

We stay huddled together for several long minutes, neither willing to break us apart first. I could stay immersed in his bubble forever, but regretfully, I can’t. This is the only elevator in the building. We can’t continue to hog it.

When I say that to Maksim, he draws me in closer, holding me with a tenderness a man his size shouldn’t have, before he mutters against my temple, “They can use the stairs.”

I peer at him, smiling when I notice how relaxed he seems. There are no grooves between his brows, no shadows under his eyes. He appears well-rested, which has me thinking back to his earlier confession.

“Did you really sleep with me every night?”

My heart thumps wildly when he tilts his chin so our eyes align. It isn’t solely his nod responsible for the extra blood pumping through my veins. The raw emotion in his eyes is what my heart is paying attention to the most.

He doesn’t want to hurt me. Not for a single second.

He only wants to protect me.

“What did they do?” I murmur, my curiosity too high for me to contain.

It had to be something mammoth, because I don’t see this beautiful, gorgeous creature murdering three people for something minute and unmeaningful. His title in the underworld demands a level of fear, but this seems more important than that. It appears personal.

He brushes a damp stray lock off my temple before using the same fingers to increase the heat on my cheeks. He isn’t distracting me, but he isn’t racing to tell me the truth, either. He appears torn, like he’s unsure of what my reaction will be to his confession.

“I won’t hold it against you.”

“I’m not worried about how it will have you looking at me.” His voice is husky and lustful, and it makes me wish I could save our conversation for another day. My heart just refuses to listen to the prompts of my brain and body. “I’m more worried about how it will have you looking at yourself.”

Me? How would the actions of others affect me?

Maksim appears seconds from answering my inner thoughts, but before he can, a familiar voice sounds out of the speaker above our heads. “I wouldn’t bother knocking if the elevator was still rocking, but since it’s not, I thought I should tell you that security has your 4:30 appointment in the foyer, waiting for the elevator.” Even during work hours, Zoya still acts like a prepubescent boy.

“Thanks, Zoya,” Maksim replies, miraculously standing.

I want to whine like a fifth grader when he carefully slides out of me after setting me on my feet. I just can’t get any words through the lust clogged in my throat when I realize his cock never seems to go down. It is as thick and lengthy as it is when he thrusts it inside me, just a little floppier.

“If you don’t quit gawking, Doc, I’m gonna clear my schedule for the rest of the day.”

My eyes snap to Maksim before they shoot to the camera in the corner of the elevator when Zoya moans, “Keep looking, Doc. I’m about ready for round two.”

The camera isn’t flashing, and Maksim’s grinding jaw announces he wouldn’t even let my best friend watch our sexcapades, but that doesn’t stop me from shoving my feet into my scrub pants and yanking them up like we have an audience before asking, “Were you listening in?”

“No,” Zoya immediately replies, conscious of where my suspicions lie. “But I didn’t need to hack into the building’s servers to hear you. You were moaning loud enough for half of Myasnikov to hear.” When my cheeks heat so fast she hears their boil over whistle out of my ears, she laughs. “I’m joking. I only joined the party two minutes ago because Ano was too chickenshit to interrupt you guys.” I realize Ano must be close to her when she cups the microphone before repeating her statement to the accused. “You were totally chickenshit.”

While muttering something under his breath about firing his staff and starting anew, Maksim hits the emergency stop button on the elevator panel, jolting it back into gear, before requesting Zoya have the security officers take his guest to his office. “Tell Francesca I will join her in the boardroom once I have Nikita settled.”

“Francesca?” Zoya and I ask at the same time.

Maksim pays Zoya’s grumble no attention. “Doc…” For one short word, he takes an extremely long time to deliver it. “I fuckin’ love when you get jealous.”

“I’m not jealous.”

I glare at the now blinking contraption in the elevator’s corner when Zoya’s pfft rumbles louder than Maksim’s grumbled denial.

Thankfully, I’m saved from the disadvantage of a two-against-one fight when the elevator dings, announcing its arrival at our floor.

I race out of the car that smells of sex and desperation, only just making it to the door of our apartment half a second before Maksim’s sweat-dotted chest warms my back.

When his lips brush the shell of my ear, I’m putty in the hands of a sex god in mere seconds, so we won’t mention how weak my knees become when he growls against my neck, “It’s too late to run, Doc. I warned you the last time you got jealous that it would be the only time I’d fuck it out of your system in under an hour.”

His following sentence has a double meaning, making me more than eager to gauge its authenticity. “I’m a man of my word. It is about time you learn that.”

Once we’re in the safety of our apartment, he shreds my scrubs off me even faster than he did in the elevator. Then, just as swiftly, he falls to his knees and drags his tongue up the seam of my pussy, buckling my legs out from under me.