Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Salem had barely attained his seat when his work BFF sailed through the open door, parked one hip on his desk, and slurped coffee. Alexis had very strong Greek heritage and it showed in the high brow of her face, her dark silky hair in a loose curl around her shoulders, and her olive skin tone.
“Hello, Alexis,” he greeted, deadpan. “May I help you?”
“Dish! I need wedding details. How was Brazil?”
He’d known Alexis since freshman year in college, and they had basically survived residency together, so to say he confided everything in her would be an understatement. Salem had no compunction about spilling the beans.
“Wedding was beautiful. I have literally never seen my brother so happy, which made the long-ass flight worth it.”
“Hell, I’d be crying tears of joy if I had a dragon husband, for that matter. I bet you wished you could have stayed longer.”
“Yes and no.” Salem leaned back in his chair, feeling a wave of fatigue hit him all over again. Thanks to Gregori, he had not gotten a lot in the way of sleep. “A complication followed me home.”
“Is the complication handsome?”
He shot her a warning look. Alexis was of the opinion he worked too much and lived too little, so she would not be sympathetic to his plight. He knew this, so he must be venting out of habit.
“An ice dragon by the name of Gregori has decided I’m his mate.”
“Ooooh.” Alexis leaned in, riveted now. “You said no.”
“Of course I said no.”
“I figured. You’re too much of an idiot to say yes.”
“Alexis…” Salem groaned, already wishing he’d kept his mouth shut.
“I’m just saying. You only do casual hookups these days—ever since college really. I’ve seen guys approach you and you shoo them away without even a backward glance. Good guys with amazing careers, hot bodies, decent personalities, and you can’t even drum up interest. So of course a sexy dragon with the hots for only you is an aggravation. I sadly didn’t expect different.”
Salem just stared at her, waiting for her to accept he would not change and move on. “Can I go back to work now?”
“No.” Alexis gave him a sweet smile and started pumping. “How many times have you had sex with him?”
“Too many times.”
“Oh, more than once? Damn, you really do like him.”
“I absolutely did not say that.”
“It’s okay, after nearly a decade of knowing you, I also know how to translate you. You said he followed you here? Where is he now?”
“My apartment.”
Her eyes bugged right out of her head. “Oh. My. Fucking. God. He charmed you into letting him stay? The sex must be fantastic!”
It was. He knew better than to admit it out loud. “I haven’t had a chance to review the surgery notes. Why was—”
“You’re not going to switch the topic until I have two things. One, name. Two, picture.”
“Why the hell do you think I have a picture of him on my phone?”
Alexis looked at him like she knew that he knew this stalling was absolutely useless, and why he bothered was beyond her and to hand over the goods already.
Ugh, fine, might as well get this over with. Salem grabbed his phone, pulled up the Insta for the wedding, and scrolled through for precisely three seconds before he found a picture of Gregori and Dimitri.
He handed his phone over, just wanting to drop the subject. “Gregori. Guy on the left.”
Alexis took it, whistling low. “Wow. Stunning. Aren’t dragons pansexual by nature?”
“Yeah.”
“Awesome. So when he gets tired of you being an idiot, I’ll shoot my shot.”
Normally Salem would make some sarcastic comment about her going for it, but this time he couldn’t. He didn’t like those words at all, and he shifted uneasily under them. Surely this wasn’t jealousy. Not when he’d already made it clear he wanted nothing to do with a relationship. He didn’t own Gregori—the man was free to pursue whoever.
The more of a pep talk he gave himself, the more sour his emotions became.
Salem took his phone away from her and pointedly changed the subject. “Why was Kyle nervous about this surgery?”
“Fine, fine, I’ll let you off the hook.” Alexis shrugged her shoulders, sipped her coffee, and played along. “So, get this. The kid is one of those. Situs Inversus.”
Salem jerked his head back in surprise. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
Situs Inversus was a very rare genetic condition where the organs in the chest and abdomen were positioned in a mirror image of normal human anatomy. Salem had seen this in person precisely once, years ago, when he was still in residency himself. Well, no wonder Kyle was hesitant to be lead surgeon. It could definitely be confusing having everything flipped, and the last thing you wanted was confusion at a surgery table.
“There’s a growth on the kid’s liver, and biopsy is showing it’s not cancerous, but it’s also not stopping. It’s grown a centimeter in the past year and it’s already causing both pain and discomfort. So it’s got to come out.”