Hooked (A New Adult Romance) (2 page)

Chapter 3

Jake

Of all the subjects I’ve been
introduced to thus far in med school, anatomic and surgical pathology has been
my favorite. Learning about how disease and trauma is diagnosed and examined
has literally been life changing, revolutionizing the way I see
myself and others
. And I’ve got Dr. Dan Hartley to thank for
that.

Dr. Hartley really opened my eyes
to the world of traumatic injuries, and has been by far the most influential
professor I’ve ever had.
 

He’s even made me a better
fighter (although neither he nor anyone else in my program knows about my side
job;
gotta
keep the fact that I frequently send dudes
to the ER on the down low. Those sorts of revelations will get a guy kicked out
of med school for sure).

In fact, my prolific knowledge of
human anatomy is responsible for my nickname, ‘The Surgeon’, because when I’m
done rearranging your insides you’ll need a surgeon to put your sorry ass back
together again.

Of course, no one in the fighting
world except Ricky, and a few close trainers, know I’m in med school.

During a training session once,
shortly after I had been accepted, Ricky humorously asked if my violent actions
in the cage would in any way conflict with the promise that I do no harm as a
doctor?
 

To that I said: Nope.

A man has got to make a living, and
I was born to make money.
And lots of it.

So I don’t waste time concerning
myself with abstruse philosophical quandaries or the implications of the
Hippocratic
Oath
.

I bash heads. I get paid. Then
with that money I learn how to put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Simple as that.

Right now I’m hurrying to a study
session. I’ve got a big fight in Chicago coming up in two days, but before I
leave for that I’ve got a couple of exams to ace.

I’m meeting a really cute girl,
Sara. She’s all about fucking any chance we get, and although she’s a cool girl,
can expertly handle my dick, and smart as hell, she’s looking to settle down and
start a family after med school.

And I’m not into that.
 

No, I’ve got bigger fish to fry.
And I got to keep my head in the game.

And, admittedly, I’ve been a
little distracted as of late.

Distractions are the last think I
can handle right now.

Can’t get caught thinking about a
girl when my brain should be thinking about pounding an opponent’s face in.

The stakes are simply too high at
the moment.

Ruby

“Hey, Julie! Thanks for meeting
me on such short notice,” I reached out and tightly hugged my best friend.
Julie is going to be my maid of honor, and with work and planning the wedding I
haven’t had a lot of time to hang out with her. We used to go to coffee at
least once a week, but lately it’s been more like once a month, if that.

“No problem, babe,” she smiled.
“How’s the planning going?”

“Close to done,” I sighed
triumphantly.

We both order black coffee and
sit down at a quiet table in a corner.

We chat mainly about my wedding,
and a little about her life. Julie is definitely a little crazier than myself,
but in a responsible way. She’s artsy and spontaneous and rides life by the
seat of her pants, unlike me. Her upbringing was much more stable than mine,
giving her the confidence to strike out and try new things and talk to new
people.

Julie is also a much more
animated speaker than I am.

During our visit, she began
telling a wild tale about a situation at the nightclub where she works. As she
was getting into her story, with arms gesturing and head enthusiastically
bouncing around, her eye happened to catch something outside the window.

A moment later she halted her
story and turned to look more intently at what captured her attention.

Following her lead, I turned to
look as well.

“Say…isn’t that Dan?” she asked
with a frown.

I leaned forward and squinted out
the window. We were sitting towards the back of the café, so I didn’t have a
good look. “Yeah,” I said with bated breath.

Dan was standing outside with a
tall, slim, gorgeous redhead in a short skirt, exchanging flirtatious looks and
appearing a little too interested in his companion. She appeared to be about my
age, maybe a little younger.

“He was supposed to be booked
with cases all day,” I said, more to myself than to Julie.

We both sat silently and watched
them. Then, shockingly, Dan leaned forward and kissed the girl on the cheek.
They then parted ways.

“Uh, who was that?” Julie shifted
in her seat uncomfortably.

“Never seen her before in my
life.”
 
I looked into my cup of
coffee, as if searching for answers.

I glanced out the window one more
time, absentmindedly watching the passersby. An awkward silence fell over our
table for a moment.

Cheerily I recovered and said, “
Hm
, well it could be anyone. Dan is such a busy body,
always has in hands in a million endeavors. It could be a former or current
student, a patient, a coworker, who knows?”

I was fairly certain that this
was indeed the case, and reassured myself that there was nothing to worry
about.

We transitioned back into our
conversation, and wrapped it up twenty minutes later.

I went home and got myself ready
for a yoga class. I decided that after yoga, when I was to meet Dan for dinner,
I would ask him about the young woman.

But I never got the chance.

Because when I turned my phone on
after class I was alerted to a text from Dan. In it he said something came up
at the office and that he wouldn’t be able to make it to dinner.

I have to
admit,
this was a little disconcerting, what with the woman earlier today, and now
this. I’ve had my fair share of asshole boyfriends, and considering the kind of
shit my dad pulled on my
mom,
my trust in men was
already tenuous.

Nevertheless, I once again did my
best to comfort myself by remembering that Dan was a busy man, and that when
you’re a leading physician in your field and a popular professor, there are a
lot of people vying for your time.

“Drat,” I texted back
, doing
my best to sound playful and unbothered. “Hope
everything is ok. Julie invited me over for a hot tub party earlier today. I
declined because of our plans, but I’ll take her up on it after all. Love u,
TTYL.”

Unfortunately, a seed of doubt
was now firmly planted in my head. I couldn’t help it. Even though I resisted,
my instincts were on heightened alert, and no matter what I told myself, I
remained suspicious of his whereabouts.

Chapter 4

Jake

Disaster struck.

And I mean that literally.

My opponent in Chicago went by
the name ‘Disaster’. The guy was a total loser. I should’ve been able to take
him down with both hands tied behind my back. But I screwed up.

As I approached the ring to
sounds of raucous applause, I caught a glimpse of a woman who looked
exactly
like Ruby.
‘WTF
?!
’ I mumbled under my breath as I
mounted the stairs to the platform. I glanced quickly over her way again, but
there were too many people, cameras, security guards, and bright lights that
prevented me from getting a clearer look.

Trying to play it cool, I
continued to go through the motions of getting ready for the fight. I met the
ref and my opponent in the center of the ring. The ref said the usual things
about clean fighting and protecting ourselves,
then
told
us to touch gloves and move to our corners

The bell went off.

We sparred lightly, getting a
feel for each other, and I danced around to the other side of the ring where I
figured I could better examine the girl. I stepped back three solid paces to
make sure I was out of Disaster’s striking range, then took a good hard
look.
 

‘Oh, it isn’t Ruby, after all,’ I
thought. ‘Dammit, Jake! Get it
togeth
—‘

And that’s when the lights went
out.

In the brief millisecond it took
to glance at the girl, Disaster nailed me with a hook kick that knocked me out
cold.

When I came to, the ref had
already called the fight.

Ricky and the ringside physician
helped me out of the cage and down the long aisle back to the dressing room.

The crowd viciously booed me. A
lot of people lost a lot of money betting on me that night. That’s the first
fight I’d lost in over four years.

Talk about taking the walk of
shame. Fuck, I thought that only happened to slutty college girls.

Thankfully I’m back home. Now my
only problem is that I’ve got to perform the walk of shame all week long to my
classes and explain to everybody why a shiner covers half my face and my lip is
cut and swollen.

Fuck.

If anyone were to find out what I
do for a living, I’d be kicked out of school faster than a drug-dealing crack
whore.
    

Fucking A, there’s Dr. Hartley
now. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to tell the faculty and staff.

Ruby

The worst night.
Ever.

That’s the only way I can
describe it.

I called Julie and asked if I
could attend her hot tub party after Dan said he couldn’t make it to
dinner.
 

 
But when I went to look for my bathing
suit I couldn’t find it. Then I remembered I left it at Dan’s the last time we
hung out at his pool.

Okay, no big deal. I’ll just
quick run over and get it.

So at around 9pm I headed to
Dan’s place to retrieve my swimsuit before heading over to Julie’s.

Big mistake.

        
Because
when I got there Dan’s car was in the driveway. And so was someone else’s. But
the house was dark.

        
I
parked my car across the street and walked quietly up the driveway and around
the side of the house. As I got nearer to his back yard I heard soft giggling
and the sound of voices. I crept silently closer to where the voices were
coming from. The wood fence that surrounded Dan’s yard and pool was too high to
peer over, but the individual slats had occasional gaps, which allowed one to
peek through every so often.

        
Finally
I came across an opening. I looked through the crack and was mortified at what
I saw: Dan and the redhead from earlier in the day were getting it on in a
lounger by the pool. Four candles gave the scene a romantic, soft glow. Dan was
totally naked, his raging cock standing at attention, and the woman was in her
panties, and if her nipples were any indication she was clearly aroused as
well.

        
I
turned away, automatically covered my mouth with my hand, and slowly dropped to
my knees.

        
Tears
came to my eyes. My lower lip started to tremble.

        
I
paused there for a minute in the grass, not thinking, not moving, with tears
rolling down my cheeks.

        
So
this is what my life had come to.

        
This
is what Dan was up to.
That dirty fucking bastard.

        
I
got up and began moving back towards my car. But then I stopped. I stopped long
enough to give my situation some thought.

        
Then
I crept back to crack in the fence, pulled out my phone, and snapped a picture
of Dan boning the redhead. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but I was sure it
would come in handy at some point, even if it
was
just
a reminder to save me from a moment of weakness in the future.

        
I
put the phone back in my pocket and went home to cry.

        
 
A sleepless I spent going over the day’s
events. Pain, anger and humiliation boiled through my veins.

Now I’m at work.

Everyone can tell something is
wrong with me.

What am I going to do now? The
wedding is certainly off—how do I go about telling everybody? How do I confront
Dan? What about all the excruciating time spent planning? The caterers?
The wedding invitations?
Everything’s fucked.

People are flying in from all
over the country, hell, from all over the world.

Next week.

Dan even has one friend flying in
from London, another from Paris.

That stupid son of a bitch! He
just ruined everything.