DASHIELL
By morning, Nathaniel Brooks had confessed to lying about me and to things far worse than anything he had said to a reporter.
I discovered it in the passenger seat of Alexander's car, with my phone in one hand and the coffee he had bought me in the other.
The first video had already spread far enough that deleting the original would accomplish nothing. Nathaniel sat facing the camera with one side of his face badly swollen and dried blood across his shirt while he admitted everything.
I stopped the video and turned towards Alexander, who continued driving as though there was nothing unusual about Nathaniel appearing online overnight looking as though someone had beaten the truth out of him.
I had no intention of watching the second video. The headlines told me enough. Nathaniel had confessed to taking part in the sexual assault of another student when they were teenagers and named others involved, while police confirmed he had been found badly injured and taken to hospital. Detectives were already reviewing his statement and trying to locate the people he had named.
When I looked at Alexander again, his profile remained infuriatingly calm.
"What?" he asked without taking his eyes from the road.
"Nothing."
His gaze flicked towards me. "You keep looking at me."
"I'm allowed to look at my husband."
Alexander didn't answer. His hand simply left the wheel and settled on my thigh.
I moved my leg away, only for his hand to follow. When I shifted again and his palm moved with me, fingers spreading firmly over my thigh, I looked down at it.
"Stop."
"No."
I turned towards him. "I'm still angry with you."
Alexander's thumb continued moving against the inside of my thigh as though that information had no effect on him at all.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "You don't seem distressed enough."
"I've suffered greatly."
His face stayed completely straight, and I stared at him for a moment before taking his hand and placing it on the center console.
"You're mocking me."
"A little."
Alexander left his hand where I put it for only a few seconds before returning it to my thigh, and this time I let it stay because moving it again would only encourage him.
My phone vibrated with a message from Leo.
Please tell me you've seen this.
Another appeared before I could answer.
Actually don't tell me. Just get here. Sari has been vibrating for twenty minutes.
I locked the screen, and Alexander glanced towards my phone.
"Who is it?"
"Leo."
"What does he want?"
I took another drink of coffee. "For me to get to work."
When I offered nothing else, Alexander turned his attention back to the road.
The timing of Nathaniel's injuries was too neat to ignore. Suspicion was not evidence, but Alexander had made himself extremely difficult not to suspect.
We drove another minute before he glanced at me. "Are you planning to speak to me before we reach the hospital?"
"I am speaking to you."
His eyes narrowed faintly before returning to the road. "Barely."
"You asked questions. I answered them."
His fingers flexed against my thigh, and when I caught the smallest movement at the corner of his mouth, I turned towards the window before he could enjoy my irritation any more than he already was.
"You're very difficult to punish," I muttered.
Alexander's hand slid higher along the inside of my thigh, his thumb brushing close enough to my crotch that heat curled low in my stomach.
"Then you'll have to find something I don't enjoy."
I turned my head towards him, and the calm look on his face made it obvious he knew exactly what he was doing.
I refused to give him the satisfaction of answering.
A few minutes later, he noticed me rubbing my fingertips together and adjusted the temperature on my side of the car without mentioning it. Warm air reached my hands, and I curled my fingers around the coffee cup instead.
I hated how easily he caught things I did not always catch myself, and I hated even more that the man I was trying to remain angry with kept making it difficult by taking care of me anyway.
*****
Neurology was louder than usual when we arrived, and Sari intercepted me before I reached the nurses' station.
"There you are."
I looked at her. "I work here."
The corner of her mouth lifted. "Yes, Dash. I know."
Her gaze moved past me to Alexander, and she straightened a little. "Good morning, Dr. Astor."
"Morning."
Leo appeared behind her, his usual ease fading when he noticed my husband.
"Morning, Dr. Astor."
Alexander gave him a brief nod. "Morning."
Only then did Leo look me over, concern replacing the caution on his face.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm all right."
Leo's brows pulled together as though he didn't believe me. "Dash—"
Sari touched his arm before he could continue. "Leo."
He glanced at her, then back at me, and whatever he had been about to ask stayed behind his teeth. I appreciated that enough not to point it out.
A resident passing the station slowed when he saw me and hesitated before coming closer.
"Dr. Harper-Astor, I wanted to say I'm sorry."
I frowned at him. "For what?"
His eyes dropped for a moment, and I understood before he found an answer.
"You don't need to apologize for something you didn't do."
He let out a small breath and nodded, but his eyes drifted towards Alexander, who stood beside me with the same unreadable face that usually made people rethink how long they wanted to remain in his presence.
The resident excused himself and continued down the corridor.
I looked at my husband. "You frightened him."
"I didn't do anything."
"You rarely have to."
A strangled sound came from Leo, and I glanced back just in time to see him lower his head over the chart in his hands when Alexander looked his way.
My phone vibrated with a message from hospital administration requesting that I attend a meeting later that morning. I showed it to Alexander, and his face hardened as he read.
"They want you in a meeting already?"
"It concerns the article and the investigation."
He stared at the message for another moment before he looked down at me. "You shouldn't have to spend another morning sitting in a room while people discuss what happened to you."
"I know, but if it concerns my work, I need to be there."
Alexander looked like he wanted to argue, but he let it go and reached for my coat collar instead.
I caught his wrist. "I can fix it."
"I know you can."
He still didn't move his hand away, and after staring at him for a moment, I released his wrist. Alexander straightened the collar anyway, his knuckles brushing beneath my jaw before his hand slid behind my neck.
"Alexander."
His eyes dropped to my mouth.
"I'm still pissed at you."
"You've made that clear."
His thumb moved beneath my hair as he leaned down and pressed a lingering kiss to the corner of my lips, sending heat through me before my anger had any chance to object.
When he tried to take more, I turned my face away and narrowed my eyes at him. "That was manipulative."
"Yes."
The complete lack of remorse on his face somehow made it worse.
The meeting contained fewer surprises than I expected.
Legal, Compliance, administration and Communications were all there, but Nathaniel's confession had not solved the problem that mattered to Astor Medical. Confidential hospital records had still reached a reporter, and nobody could explain who had taken them or how.
The hospital would continue its internal review while cooperating with the independent investigation Alexander had already started, and Communications planned to issue a limited statement addressing inaccuracies in the article while confirming that the unauthorized disclosure of hospital records was under investigation.
Alexander remained quiet through most of it, although the set of his jaw made it obvious there were parts of the discussion he disliked. His father seemed to notice too and kept the meeting moving rather than giving him an opening to argue.
When the meeting ended, Alexander came with me into the corridor. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"
"I have thirty-six minutes before my next case."
I gave him a look, but the elevator arrived before I could say anything else.
Once the doors closed behind us, I pressed the button for Neurology and glanced down at his hands.
They looked exactly as they always did, clean and unmarked, with nothing across his knuckles or beneath his nails to tell me where he had been.
Alexander noticed and slowly lifted one hand between us. "Find anything?"
"No."
His eyes stayed on my face. "Dashiell."
I turned towards the doors instead, but he stepped closer until the heat of his body reached my back.
"You think I hurt him."
I looked over my shoulder at him. "Did you?"
Alexander reached for my face, and I caught his wrist halfway.
"No kissing me instead of answering."
His eyes dropped to my fingers around him before returning to mine. "I'm not answering."
"That doesn't help your case."
"I'm not trying to help it."
The calmness of the reply annoyed me more than denial would have.
I released his wrist. "You're not even going to tell me I'm wrong?"
"No."
The answer sent an uncomfortable twist through my stomach, and I stepped back until my shoulders met the wall. Alexander closed the space between us, planting one hand beside my head while the other settled at my waist.
"At least tell me something."
"I already told you what matters." His fingers pressed into my side. "Nothing from last night is coming near you."
I narrowed my eyes at him, frustrated by the answer and even more frustrated by how aware I was of his body against mine.
Alexander's thumb slipped beneath the edge of my coat and moved slowly over my waist.
"Take your hand off me."
"You can move it."
I looked down at his hand, then back at him. "You're annoying."
His mouth twitched as he leaned closer. "So move it."
Instead, my fingers curled into the front of his shirt.
The teasing left Alexander's face as my grip pulled him closer, and his mouth slammed into mine.
His tongue slid over mine as the hand at my waist pulled me firmly against him. I caught his lower lip between my teeth, and his fingers dug into my ass while his thigh pressed between mine.
My fingers twisted harder in his shirt the second he pushed higher. Alexander felt it—the sharp catch in my breath, the way my hips jerked against his hand—and his tongue dragged slower against mine, tasting the exact second I started to lose it. His other hand slid down my spine and locked around my hip, yanking me flush against him so I could feel how hard he already was.
I tore my mouth away just enough to drag in air. His lips followed without missing a beat, dragging along my jaw until his teeth scraped the skin beneath my ear.
"You're enjoying this too much," I said, already breathless.
"Obviously."
"That wasn't permission to keep going."
Alexander lifted his head just far enough to look at me, one hand still locked against the small of my back. "Tell me to stop."
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out, and a small, knowing smile appeared on his face before he kissed me again.
I hated that smile enough to sink my teeth into his lower lip harder this time. Alexander answered by driving his thigh more firmly between my legs until my breath shattered against his mouth and my hips gave a helpless little roll.
The elevator chimed before either of us could take it further, and I shoved at his chest and stepped back as the doors opened. I was still trying to catch my breath when Alexander reached for my collar.
I slapped his hand aside. "Don't."
The look on his face made it obvious he was pleased with himself, and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't look at me like that either."
His mouth twitched. "Like what?"
"You know exactly what you're doing."
He nearly smiled, which only made me glare harder as I stepped onto Neurology.
Alexander followed just far enough to catch my hand and pull me back, pressing a brief, possessive kiss to my forehead.
I looked up at him. "Was that necessary?"
"For me."
His thumb brushed over my knuckles before he let me go. "Eat the apple in your bag."
I frowned. "You put an apple in my bag?"
"Peeled and sliced."
The elevator doors closed between us while I was still deciding whether the apple counted as grovelling.
Leo looked up from the nurses' station as I approached, then glanced towards the elevator.
"Are you two fighting?"
"We're having a disagreement."
Sari's gaze lingered on my mouth for half a second before one eyebrow rose, but I ignored both of them and kept walking towards my office as my phone vibrated with another update about Nathaniel, followed by another headline.
I left them unread because patients were waiting, and Alexander had already made it clear I would get nothing more from him about last night.
I could stop asking for now without pretending I believed him.