Free Future Investment: (Taboo Romance Series) (Forbidden Fruit Book 2) by Ali Parker

hospitals there were no different.
    "Alright. On my count." He looked up at me and I nodded. "Three. Two. One."
    We moved quickly together, shifting and turning the patient on the bed as we closed him up and shared the responsibility with the nurses of keeping pressure on the right clamps while releasing others. Within half an hour, the man was closed up, and his vitals were looking good.
    Aiden let out a long sigh and stepped back. "Great job. Scrub out and see if they need you out there. If they don't, then meet me back in my office. We'll talk through some of the things I've done today, and I'll have you write up reports for me. I'm exhausted."
    "Of course." I turned to go, a little disappointed that I couldn't stay with him and help with the next thing he had coming up.
    "Elizabeth. Great job today. I'm impressed." He tugged his goggles down and winked at me. "Thank you."
    "Of course." I ignored the intense fluttering in my chest, and washed up, only to turn back and watch him share a laugh with a pretty blonde nurse next to him. I didn't want to feel jealous, but I did. It was stupid and childish, and I really needed to get over myself. He was too far out of my league to expect anything other than what we had.
    Besides, I had bigger things to worry about. Like how to support myself over the next three years with little income and huge student loans. I could push the worry off only so long before it crept up and pulled me under. I was sure that time was coming, and fast.

Chapter 10
    Aiden
     
     
     
    I wrapped up my time in the OR and moved back to my office with a bit of pep in my step. I couldn't help it. Between saving ten lives that morning and seeing Elizabeth jump into action so well beside me, I was a little in awe. She was every bit as impressive as Peter had warned me she would be. I needed to tell her, to make sure she knew just how incredible she was.
    The sound of her voice stopped me as I approached my office. It was tight, pinched... stressed.
    "Mom, I know. I'm trying to figure it out." She sighed, and I could hear her pain. It was a sound I was accustomed to hearing daily. "I'm not calling Jackson. Because, Mom. We broke up, and I'm sick of having to ask him for help. I'll get another job. Yes. No. You're not getting one. Mom... I gotta go. I honestly can't do this right now."
    She got up as I moved to stand in the doorway. I shouldn't have stood there and watched her, but I couldn't help myself. She had taken her hair down, and it moved across her back and shoulders as she walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window in my office.
    Her face was tucked into her hand, and I could barely hear the sound of her crying, but it broke my heart. I didn't know this woman, but, for the first time in forever, I wanted to.
    "Elizabeth? Should I come back?" I hated to have her turn and see me standing there like some kind of creep.
    She jerked around and wiped at her face as her shoulders stiffened. "No. I'm fine. Sorry. Just a fight with my mother. She's worried and all up in my business."
    "Do you need to go?" I walked in and stopped in front of her. There was less than a foot between us, and I knew by the sadness sitting on her that she needed me to reach out, to grab her shoulders and pull her against me, but I couldn't. We would end up in a place that I wasn't yet ready to take us to. She depended on me to maintain the space between us, and I was just barely strong enough to hold that unspoken promise in check.
    "No. Really. I'm good. Just stupid shit that shouldn't be brought into my job." She wiped her eyes once more and forced a smile. She was beautiful in her softness, her femininity. The strong, tough girl who had been walking around the hospital for the last two days was gone for the moment, but I could sense her trying to regain control.
    "We can't help it when life follows us in here. It's part of what makes us great doctors, right?" I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth and studied her.
    "I suppose you're