I returned to my office, hitting the lights once more, but Natalie was still there — looking as bold and brazen as ever.

“May I help you with something, Dr. Ashton?” she said. “Is there a problem?”

“You know damn well there’s a problem.” I set my briefcase on the floor. “But you know what?”

“What?” She crossed her arms.

“I’m not going to reprimand you for sitting at my custom-made desk that I paid a fortune for, nor am I going to reprimand you for rearranging my office without my permission.”

“Sitting down and moving office furniture around isn’t a crime, Dr. Ashton.”

I rolled my eyes, sticking to the subject at hand. “I’m going to hit these lights again, and then I’m going to go for a fifteen-minute walk. Fifteen. Minutes. The second I get back, I’m going to turn on the lights once more, and you know what will happen then? You won’t be sitting at my desk. You won’t be smirking at me, and you also won’t have a stolen Twizzler dangling out of your goddamn mouth.”

I looked over at her desk and saw that she’d returned two vases of Twizzlers to her desk.

“Speaking of Twizzlers,” I said. “Those vases don’t belong to you anymore. They’re only for people who show up when they’re supposed to.”

She didn’t say anything, she just glared at me and took another bite of one.

“Fifteen minutes, Natalie,” I said, hitting the lights. “Or else.”

THE RESIDENT

New York, New York

Natalie

Dr. Ashton walked into his office fifteen minutes later, stopping dead in his tracks once his eyes met mine.

“You’re still in my goddamn chair,” he said.

“I am.” I crossed my arms. “I’ll happily get out of it when you apologize for your rude and unprofessional behavior yesterday.”

“If you have to beg someone to apologize, then the person probably isn’t sorry.”

“I have a feeling you are.”

“I’m not.” He picked up his briefcase and set it on his desk, right next to where my feet were propped on top of the books.

He muttered a few words to himself and I was pretty sure I heard him say, “I wish I would’ve made you come on my mouth that night ...” but I wasn’t sure.

“Did you complete those Yarbrough charts, Dr. Madison?”

“No, I did not.”

“No, you did not?” He raised his eyebrow. “Did you at least start them?”

“Not at all.” I shrugged. “I was pretty emotionally distraught after leaving work yesterday, so I figured you’d understand if I didn’t get to them. If not, I can kindly explain this situation to Human Resources.”

His eyes widened and he looked like he was on the verge of losing it.

“I can get started on them today, if you’d like,” I said, smiling. “But as you can assume, I’ll probably need more time to finish them since I’ll be starting a day late.”

“Cut the shit, Dr. Madison.” He walked around the desk to where I was. “I’m giving you five seconds to tell me that you’ve done those goddamn files because I told you just how important they were to me yesterday.”

I held up my hand and counted down from five on my fingers one by one. “Now what?”

“Now, I tell all of my partners here that I think we need to consider firing you, but I have a feeling you’re just fucking with me right now. Where is the work?”

I stood up from his chair and he immediately moved closer to me, pinning my ass against the edge of his desk.

“Don’t make me ask you again ...” he said.

“Stop attempting to intimidate me and just apologize so we can go back to how things were,” I said. “I know you’re upset because your ego was bruised, but I am not going to stand for your twisted version of sexual harassment.”

“I haven’t even begun to sexually harass you, Dr. Madison.” He leaned close and his lips nearly brushed against mine. “When I do it, you’ll know. Trust me.”

“Do you have any idea what you just said?” My panties were soaked. “I don’t think you meant for it to sound that way.”

“I meant it exactly how it sounded.” His mouth immediately covered mine and my arms went around his neck, clawing at his skin as he slipped a hand under my dress.

As he controlled my lips with his — slipping his tongue deeper and deeper into my mouth, he pushed my panties to the side and rubbed his thumb against my soaked slit.

He groaned when he felt how wet I was, and I sucked in a breath as I felt his cock hardening against my thigh. I didn’t have to look down to know it was huge, and the fact that I felt it through his pants and his lab coat made my cheeks turn bright red.

“Unbuckle my pants,” he whispered against my mouth. “Now.”

I didn’t hesitate. I moved my hands down to his belt buckle, rushing to free his cock, but before I could even get the leather through the first loop, his phone rang.

We both froze immediately and then we slowly pulled away from each other.

“Please do the Yarbrough files,” he whispered, still panting. “And for the record, this never happened, and it can’t happen again.”

“I agree it never happened.” I touched my swollen lips. “And I did complete the Yarbrough files. I’ll happily give them to you when you apologize for pulling a Dr. Jekyll and Hyde on me yesterday ...”

For a second he actually looked as if he was about to say the words, “I’m sorry,” but he took a seat at his desk and picked up his phone before it could go to voicemail.

“Dr. Ashton speaking ...” He kept his eyes on me. “Yes, yes. Okay, fine. I’ll sign them right away.” He hung up the phone, and then he plucked a red candy from his vase. “Dr. Madison, I think you and I need to redefine how this employee-boss relationship works. You are beneath me. I am above you. Therefore —”

I didn’t give him a chance to finish that line of thought. I opened the left drawer of his desk and took out the Yarbrough files, plopping them all on top of his desk.

“You’re right,” I said, upset at how crazy he made me. “We do need to redefine how this so-called employee-boss relationship works. Let’s just send emails whenever we’re not sitting in front of a patient.”