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“Because nobody in this building is going to question a thing you asked for yourself,” he interrupted, and he smiled at me while he said it. The smile of a man who had thought this through weeks ago and now it was time for me to catch up.

But then he walked away from me and my eyes widened. Part of me hoped it meant I had been dismissed so that I could get the hell out of there.

However, there was no such luck, as he walked back across that room, past the chair he had been sitting in, and sat down on the edge of the examination bed instead. The paper crackled under him. Then he put his hands on his knees and looked up at me the way a man looks up in a waiting room when they finally call his name.

Then he opened his thick arms wide and held them out as if inviting me to do something.

“Have at it,” he said, making me frown in question.

“What?” it came out barely more than a hiss of a whisper.

“You have a job to do, do you not?” He nodded down at the clipboard I had dropped on the floor. “An admission check, I believe you said. And that you would talk me through every part of it beforehand.” A pause, and then, dryly, “But then, you never did finish that sentence, did you… Erin.” He added the name at the end, and he mocked me with it.

“You’re serious,” I said in disbelief.

“You look surprised, little nurse,” he replied, and that thing happened at the corner of his mouth again, as if he was fighting a full grin.

“I can be reasonable,” he said, and it was as far from reassuring as you could get. To the point a little snort of skepticism escaped me. But then he nodded down at himself as if to prompt me to get to it. So, with nothing left in me, I walked toward the door, making him tut.

“Uh-uh, just the board, little bird, because you may not like what happens should you touch that handle,” he threatened in that unnervingly calm way of his. A threat I took seriously, because I had already learned the hard way what happened when I forced his hand.

So, I slowly picked up the clipboard and then I did my job.

I honestly don’t know how. My hands were doing one thing and the rest of me I swear was standing about four feet behind my own body watching them do it. But somehow, they got the cuff off the wall and the right sheet onto the clipboard. Then I somehow carried both of those things across the room to a man who had just finished telling me that he owned me.

“You won’t get away with this,” I said, trying to keep the fear out of my voice and no doubt failing.

He laughed just once at that, and it was a chilling sound because there was genuine amusement in it.

“I already am,” he stated as he watched me set the tray down beside him, entirely relaxed about it. “Have you not worked that out by now? I always get what I want, little bird. Always. And right now, what I want is your compliance.”

“Yes, you have made that abundantly clear,” I bit out indignantly.

“Not entirely.” He shifted his weight and got comfortable and looked down at me, as even on the bed, he was still inches taller than me.

“There will be no running to doors. No slipping notes to colleagues. No whispered words exchanged.”

“I know,” I forced myself to say through gritted teeth.

“And no tipping off your talkative little friend, Roz.” Everything in me stopped at once the second he said this and my wide eyes found his.

“She has nothing to do with this,” I said quickly, far too quickly.

“And it is very easy to keep it that way. Do you understand me?” He said firmly this time, and the warning was crystal clear. Behave or others will suffer.

“I will do whatever you want, just promise me that you won’t hurt her.” He grinned at that and leaned closer, making my breath catch when his fingers lifted to brush some of my loose hair back behind my ear. His touch was that of a gentle caress, as the tips of his fingers whispered softly against my cheek.

“Her well-being is entirely in your hands.” Then, after a moment, and in a completely different voice, one with no edge to it, he told me,

“But you have my word. I will not touch her.”

“Your word,” I repeated.

“I have never once broken it with you.” He held my eyes and didn’t blink. And God help me, but I believed him.

I nodded once and then went back to my job, starting with getting a cuff around his big arm. Or at least, I tried to, as it was clear that he had no intention of making one single part of this easy for me. I knew that the moment he didn’t roll his sleeve up.

No, he just looked at me in that amused way of his, as if he was waiting for me to do it.