Janice Lynn - The Doctor's Meant-To-Be Marriage

God, he hadn’t been able to get close enough, hadn’t been able to stop himself from kissing her even though he’d known it had been wrong. He’d have sold his soul that night to have made love to Chelsea.

And although he’d gotten his body under control before they’d done much more than kiss, he hadn’t walked away with his soul intact. Far from it.

No, kissing Chelsea had cost him a great deal, too much.

Which he didn’t need to be thinking of because some things were best forgotten.

Not that he’d been able to forget, despite years of trying.

Some things truly were unforgettable.

“Jared,” she repeated, her gaze traveling over him, almost as if she couldn’t resist seeing how time had changed him. Her honey-colored gaze softened, almost becoming a caress, stroking his insides to an ooey-gooey mess. Red stained her cheeks when her eyes lifted to his and she realized what she’d done. “It’s been a long time.”

His heart thudded against his chest in a rapid beat and his bones turned to jelly, leaving him off-kilter. Had he secretly wondered what Chelsea would think of him after all this time? Of how she’d perceive the changes the years had etched on him?

Annoyed at her stirring of his senses and thoughts, he frowned. How could he want to lean in and get a better smell of a woman he didn’t even want to like?

“Yes, it has.” Too long. Not long enough. “Iwasonmy way to say hello,” he said matter-of-factly to cover his slip.

She smiled, flashing perfect white teeth. Her mouth made him think of his favorite female actress, of her classic, infectious smile. Wide, bright, and contagious. Despite his determination to remain impassive, outwardly at least, her smile made his lips want to curve upward.

Which only served to annoy him all the more.

Although she was older than the too-young-for-him seventeen she’d been when they’d first met, there were a thousand reasons why he needed to stay away from Chelsea and safeguard himself from getting close to her. Even if she did now work at Madison Medical Center.

Chelsea held out her hand. She had nice hands with slender fingers and clean, unpainted nails.

Unable to avoid the greeting, Jared clasped the hand of the girl who’d become a woman in the years since he’d last seen her.

Warm. Electric.

His blood sizzled and fried his brain, short-circuiting the logic that said he shouldn’t think Chelsea’s soft touch so compelling, her smell so mesmerizing, her nearness so seductive. Time hadn’t changed the way she heated his blood. Unfortunately.

He let go of her hand, wondering why he wanted to turn her hand over and run his fingers over her palm. Ridiculous. He wasn’t a romantic and even if he had been, Chelsea would be the last person on his list of possible valentines. She held the power to destroy everything he held dear.

Their gazes met and desire flickered in her eyes. Desire he’d last seen right before she’d kissed him ten years ago.

At seventeen she’d affected his libido more than any other woman before or since. She’d also left him feeling guiltier than at any other point in his life.

Foolish as the notion was, he’d thought avoiding her would protect him.

He’d learned the hard way not to tempt fate and Chelsea tempted in too many ways.

“Ahem.” Will cleared his throat from behind his sister.

First shooting Jared a dazzling smile, Chelsea scowled at her brother. “Hold your ’taters.”

“My ’taters, huh?” Will laughed, giving his sister a conspiratorial wink. “That’s a new name for them. But if you insist on my holding them…”

“Eww.” She rolled her eyes. “Keep your nastiness to yourself, please.” Seeming glad of the interruption, she sighed with great exaggeration. “Do you have a brother, Jared?” she asked. “Because, if not, you’re welcome to mine.”

“Hey, what happened to being your favorite brother?” Will asked, pretending to be hurt.

“Like you said, you’re my only brother. Which means you’re also my least favorite.” Obviously relaxed in her brother’s presence, she grinned mischievously. “Now, quit pestering me at work. I’ve got patients to see.”

With that she paused long enough to bestow another uncertain glance on Jared, swished her ponytail with a great deal of sass at her brother, and headed toward the exam rooms.

“Isn’t she something?” Will asked with obvious indulgence.

Not sure how he was supposed to answer, Jared opted for watching Chelsea pause outside the first exam room. Why did she hesitate? Had their reunion left her as shaken as he found himself? Was she recalling how their mouths had felt against each other, how she’d moaned, parted her lips beneath his, granting him sweet surrender?

He winced. Her reasons didn’t matter because Jared planned to keep his distance. No matter that he found himself wanting to lean in and inhale her seductive scent, to know if she still tasted heavenly, to know everything there was to discover.

He turned and found Will watching him with narrowed eyes.

“She’s off-limits.”

Jared snorted. Despite the way he’d once again responded to Chelsea, he didn’t need this particular warning. “It’s not like that.”

“Uh-uh.” Will didn’t look convinced. He pulled him inside Chelsea’s small office. “You’re one of my partners and best friends.” Will’s eyes lost the good-natured humor that usually shone there, replaced by a steel Jared had never seen in his pal’s gaze. “But my sister is not your type.”

Recall of the electricity that had short-circuited his brain reminded him that physically Chelsea was exactly his type, but he kept his mouth shut. He was above acting on physical attraction when that attraction came in the form of something so bad for him.

“No problem.” He spoke slowly, keeping his voice level. “Because I don’t date coworkers anyway.”

Particularly one who was his partner’s baby sister and would turn his life totally upside down if he wasn’t careful.

He’d already been through that scenario once and didn’t care for an encore.

CHELSEA paused outside the exam room door and closed her eyes, welcoming Jared’s image into her mind.

The deep blue of his eyes stirred her memory. They were just as she remembered them, as blue as the Caribbean Sea and caressing her soul as if she splashed in their seductive depths.

In stark contrast to his eyes was the midnight inkiness of his hair, hair that promised silky smoothness beneath her fingertips. She’d itched to reach out and touch a strand, to see if his hair was really as soft as she recalled. His cheekbones were high, his chin strong with a tiny cleft in the center. Jared’s slightly crooked nose added character, making her think he’d probably broken it as a mischievous little boy.

God, she’d missed him, hadn’t realized just how much until this moment. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him how rarely a day went by that she didn’t think of him, and that never had just seeing someone caused so much chaos to her mind and body.

But her attraction to Jared ran much deeper than the surface. For all his good looks, she’d met more handsome men and not felt the flutters still dancing in her belly.

The whole package appealed, drew her in.

The way he smelled spicy clean. The spark that flickered through her when his warm fingers clasped hers. The heat in his eyes when their gazes met. The way she’d instantly wanted him with an intensity she’d never experienced before or since that spring break they’d met.

She’d looked at him and seen her future.

She’d seen…

Chelsea! Get a grip. Her hot thoughts meant allowing someone to see the Chelsea she kept carefully hidden away from the world, and that’s something she’d only done once. The result hadn’t been pretty, and she never wanted to bare her scars again.

Yet, realistically, she knew that to marry and have children, which she hoped to do someday, she’d eventually have to trust someone to see the real her.

She sighed, reminding herself the first day on her new job wasn’t the time or the place to be fantasizing about the hunky doctor who’d haunted her heart for ten years. Or to be rehashing all the reasons why that particular fantasy wouldn’t ever come true.

Taking a steadying breath, she knocked on the door and entered the exam room.

With tachycardia, bulging eyes, and rapid weight loss, her first patient probably suffered from hyperthyroidism. After giving him a complete examination she gave a lab slip to the nurse and asked him to schedule a follow-up appointment for a few days hence.

Chelsea washed her hands and went to the next patient room to read the chart notation.

Five patients later, and feeling good about her morning, she stood outside an exam room, reviewing the nurse’s note. Hannah Belew. Sixteen. Wants to go on oral contraceptive.

“Hi, Hannah.”

The petite young woman on the exam table didn’t appear to be in her teens, much less like she should be asking for birth control. However, Chelsea refrained from pointing out her observation as the girl already looked like her hackles were up.

“The nurse’s note says you’d like to discuss birth control. I’ll need to ask some questions so you and I can decide together which birth-control option is the most appropriate for you.”

“OK,” the girl said with a pink tinge to her cheeks. She didn’t meet Chelsea’s gaze.

“Have you ever had a pelvic examination before?”

Mouth agape, the girl shook her head. “No way.”

“Are you sexually active?”

She hesitated, giving Chelsea her answer.

“You won’t tell my mom any of this? Patient confidentiality and all that, right?”

A sticky question if ever there was one.

“I’m not obligated to tell as long as you’re not threatening your life or someone else’s.”

“I have a boyfriend,” Hannah admitted, apparently satisfied with Chelsea’s response. The young girl shrugged her shoulders. “He likes sex.”

“Do you?” Chelsea asked the obvious question, catching the teenager off guard.

“Like sex?” Hannah averted her eyes and took a moment before answering. “I like my boyfriend.”

Apparently Chelsea wasn’t the only one who could answer with diplomacy.

“Hannah, if your boyfriend really cares about you, he’d like you regardless of whether or not you agree to have sex.”

Regardless of whether or not long scars marred your back.

Kevin hadn’t, and Chelsea often wondered if the scars from his rejection ran deeper than those of the surgeons who’d operated on her scoliosis.

Then again, Jared had also rejected her, without having seen the imperfections of her body. But she’d understood, even respected his determination to do the right thing as she’d been underage.

Hannah didn’t speak, but Chelsea could feel walls being thrown up. The young girl didn’t want to hear what needed to be said.

“At your age,” Chelsea continued, “abstinence is most often the wisest choice, but, regardless, sex is an important step in a relationship. Both parties should be ready for that step and should enjoy making that step when the time arrives.”

“He didn’t force me,” Hannah said pointedly.

“Perhaps you were ready for that step,” Chelsea continued gently, “but perhaps you weren’t and only went along with what your boyfriend wanted because you were afraid of losing him.”

Hannah’s lower lip disappeared into her mouth and the girl squirmed on the exam table, crinkling the protective paper covering the vinyl top.