Layla The stench of surgical-strength antiseptic burned my nose. My lashes fluttered against fluorescent lights that turned the room around me to blinding white. I was at work; had I fallen asleep in my office with all the lights on? Wouldn’t be the first time, I supposed. I shifted to try and f
Daylilies. Disgust uncurled in my stomach, but I watched silently as he set yet another vase on the windowsill. It was starting to look like a garden in here. “Hi, Layla.” Aldo offered me a tight smile as he hovered by the window. “How are you feeling?” I withheld the sigh that had built in my c
Layla Bright morning sun cast a golden glow over the sprawling Marcello estate as I stepped out of Aldo’s car and onto the flagstone driveway. The manor loomed up over me like a harbinger of doom cast in a breathtaking sheath of stone and carved marble. Reminding me, as if I needed the reminder, o
Or maybe it was the way Aldo smiled at me, his grin wide and white and so very much like the Vasco I once knew. “Don’t get cocky until you can do it ten times.” Ten became twenty, became fifty. My shoulders ached from the backlash—both the good one and the bad. But confidence swelled like a balloon
Layla I pulled in a deep inhale, squared my shoulders, and stepped through the door into the hospital. As a doctor this time, not a patient. Back where I should be—but still, my heart raced as the familiar hum of the lobby washed over me. Could I really just return to my life as if nothing had
“Fate.” “Destiny.” I turned my head to look at him sideways. “It feels like fucking destiny. Like we were meant to be together. But …” “You’re not together,” Carlo noted dryly. “What would I do without you around to finish my sentences?” “Drink more, I suspect.” I laughed, but didn’t feel
Layla I’d always prided myself on my independence. Before Vasco, I’d crafted myself from a country girl into a big-city med student. And after he dumped me on my wedding day … Well, I picked myself up by my bootstraps and rebuilt my life—my self—brick by brick then, too. And Aldo, this new vers
He was trying to buy my love, and I was afraid it was working. One evening, I sat in my office filling out charts—I was actually able to take time to do this, since Marco’s absence had been filled by not one but two doctors—when a low male voice spoke from the door of my office. “Hey, Layla.”
Maybe that’s what made the next words tumble from my lips. “Have we met before?” Ethan’s dark brow furrowed, and his words came out softly. “Why do you ask?” “You just …” I chewed my lower lip, trying to find the right words. “You remind me of someone.” “Do I?” The lines of Ethan’s face smoothed
Layla I’d barely stepped back inside the front doors of the hospital before I was returned to the demanding pace of medical life—hadn’t even made it back to my office. “Incoming! Stab victim, male, mid-thirties!” a nurse called, her voice sharp with urgency. In no time at all, I was gloved and ma
Dammit! It wasn’t a shortcut; it was a dead end. My heart plummeted. “No.” The footsteps grew louder, slowing as my follower approached. I turned around, that brick wall to my back, to face the hooded stalker. My hands clenched into fists at my sides. Weeks of self-defense training wouldn’t go to
Layla The hospital’s signature fluorescent lights hummed in my ears as I completed my final round before my dinner break. It was late—far too late for dinner for anyone but a healthcare worker—and most of the staff had gone home. The quiet hours gave me time to think. I wasn’t sure if that was a
“You’d really do that?” she asked, and my chest clenched tighter at the sound of hope in her voice. “Yeah,” I murmured. “I would.” For a long moment, she said nothing. Just studied my face, like maybe she was searching out lies. But this night had been only truths. Relieving ones. Painful ones.
Aldo The light and music of the ball faded behind us as we strolled from the manor. Our footsteps crunched lightly against the flagstones, and the cool night air kissed my cheeks in a welcome respite from the stifling perfumes and colognes and potpourris of the ballroom. A gentle wind wove its fi
I knew what it was to be driven by ambition. I knew what it was to work hard, every day, trying to fill the emptiness in your chest. Only to wonder if you’d be hollow forever. I knew what it was to get the things you wanted, to grow and achieve and prosper, and still lie away in bed at night. That
Layla I found solace out on the rear balcony, in a quiet corner of the night. Free of Marco’s smile and Aldo’s steadfast presence, I felt suddenly shaky, my chest too tight. The champagne in my fingers did little to calm me. The cool air caressed my skin, a welcome reprieve from the suffocating te
The floor was almost entirely filled with guests dressed to make my new attire feel shabby. I lingered along the fringes of the room, tongue-tied, overwhelmed, and outclassed. How long was I supposed to stay here? Maybe I could walk around, nod and smile, and be on my way? “You look beautiful.” Al