Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 25465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
If he canceled her consultation, Harriet would want to know why, and it would only be a matter of time before Audra's name came up, only a matter of time before Harriet realized that Audra was also the same girl who had been photographed with Christopher, and after that...
Audra would soon know for herself, Lucian thought savagely, that he was not the kind of man she could play with.
He turned to his secretary. "You heard what I said. I trust I don't need to repeat myself."
"But—-"
He stared at her coldly, and Maud pursed her lips in disapproval. "Very well, Dr. Stanhope."
The door closed behind her, and he found himself reaching for his wallet. On his first day of meeting her, Lucian had made up some bullshit story about needing all of his students to submit a personal essay of sorts along with their ID photos.
It had been his way of getting to know her more as well as this...
Lucian snapped his wallet open, and tucked safely in one corner was a 2 x 2 photo of Audra.
Bitterness welled up inside of him as he gazed at her photo. He had thought, all these fucking years, that the only reason she seemed to avoid him was because she was young and shy...
But obviously he was wrong.
All these years, she had simply been waiting for someone better to come along. Someone who was truly famous, like his own good friend Christopher Masterton.
AUDRA COULD BARELY hear her thoughts over the ruckus her heart was making, and it only thudded faster and far more noisily when she was finally inside Lucian Stanhope's office.
The surgeon was standing back by the windows, his back to her, and as she waited for him to acknowledge her presence, she found herself thinking back to the first day they met.
Lucian had strode inside the classroom, and everyone had fallen silent, dazzled by the sheer gorgeousness of him, and when he started to speak, well...they were dazzled all the more, by the fact that he was giving them a pop quiz on their very first day of class.
The memory had Audra's lips curving, and it was on this note that Lucian finally turned around—-
Audra's breath caught. Dazzling, she thought dreamily. He was just as dazzling as he had been that very first day, and he would always be so because now she knew.
"Hello, Audra."
She belatedly noticed the scorching intensity of his gaze and felt her body tingle at the unnatural thickness of his voice. "H-Hello, Doctor—-"
"Lucian, please." His voice turned silky and intimate as he murmured his name, and Audra could feel her whole body responding to this. "You can call me by my name now, since I'm no longer your professor."
Audra found herself gripping the skirt of her dress in her nervousness. "Lucian then." Her voice came out rather soft and breathy. It was so very embarrassing, and just as she started to apologize for it, she noticed the way his gaze burned even hotter—-
He liked it, she realized with a start. He liked hearing her speak like that, and didn't that mean...he liked her, too?
"May I know the reason for your visit?"
Audra bit her lip.
A moment passed, and then Lucian murmured, "I apologize. My manners have escaped me. Please take a seat."
Audra was relieved when he led her to the sitting area instead of the set of chairs across his desk that his students and clients typically occupied. But just as she took her seat, she found herself catching her breath again, with Lucian folding his impressive length right next to her.
And since the couch wasn't that wide, this left only a few inches of space between them - far enough to keep their bodies from touching, but near enough for Audra to feel the the sexually charged air that seemed to cling to every muscular inch of his body.
Audra swallowed hard.
She used to imagine doctors as kind, grandfatherly, and the very opposite of sexy, but Lucian...
He had always been beautiful in an almost scandalously sensual kind of way. Even when he had his white coat on, and he was lecturing the class on the most boring of stuff, there was always something so agonizingly sensual about him—-
And that was why she had always felt feverish around him, Audra realized.
Because even in her young age, she had wanted to join him in the fire and burn alongside him.
And while she hadn't been able to do that four years ago—-
This time...
This time it was different.
LUCIAN GAZED AT AUDRA under hooded lids. She had always been beautiful in his eyes. Beautiful and angelic...until now.
She usually had her hair neatly tied back in a low ponytail, and if she wasn't in her uniform, he would see her in modest, loose-fitting dresses. Today, however, she had on a dress that bared her entire shoulders, and she had worn her hair loose, too, with her long flaxen locks streaming down her back. She still looked beautiful, yes, but angelic?