Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
She’s his student…and the first spark he’s felt in years.
Angie Simpson has always been the quiet one in the “awesome foursome”—the youngest women in the Steel family. But now, miles from her ranching roots in Western Colorado, Angie is finally stepping into her own life. Medical school is grueling, but it’s her path. Her purpose.
Dr. Jason Lansing was once a rising star in the world of surgery, but a devastating car accident ended more than just his career. It took something far more precious. Now he’s exiled to teaching first-year anatomy lab, surrounded by eager students with two good hands who have everything ahead of them.
When beautiful Angie Simpson walks into his lab, she flinches at the cadaver table and reveals her interest in psychiatry—the one medical discipline Jason has no faith in. Still, Angie gets under his skin, and a stolen kiss in the lab awakens something inside him that he thought was gone forever.
But some boundaries aren’t meant to be crossed.
And some pasts refuse to stay buried
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
If I can’t have you, I’ll make sure no one else ever does.
She never heard me say the words out loud.
But they live inside my mind.
I watch.
And I wait.
Chapter One
Angie
Today’s the day.
Anatomy lab begins.
And I’m feeling a little…nauseated.
This is a huge part of a medical student’s education, and I knew it was coming. Still…
The room is chilly. It has to be, so the cadavers won’t rot.
Yeah, more nausea.
“How can you not be more excited?” Tabitha Haynes, a bubbly blonde and my assigned lab partner, asks me.
She and I met briefly at the mixer at the beginning of the first semester, but we haven’t been friendly. I haven’t been very friendly with any of my fellow students, to be honest. I’m kind of an introvert. I was popular in high school and college simply by being one of the “awesome foursome,” which consisted of my twin sister, Sage, and my cousins Brianna and Gina. We’re the youngest in our large family, so we’ve always hung out together. Sage, Bree, and Gina are all extroverts, so I tagged along, and they brought me out of my shell.
But I’m alone here in Boulder, Colorado, as I begin my second semester of my first year of medical school.
“I’m going into psychiatry,” I tell Tabitha. “The thought of dissecting an actual human being kind of makes me want to barf.”
My comment doesn’t seem to faze her. “I’m going into surgery, so this is huge for me,” she says.
I wrinkle my nose. “Don’t you ever think about the ethics of it? Like, what if we recognize him? Or her?”
“Now you’re just being gross,” Tabitha says. “Besides, we’ve only been in medical school for a couple of months so far. You may really enjoy this lab. You may decide you don’t want to focus on psychiatry after all.”
I shake my head. “My aunt is a renowned psychiatrist. She’s retired now, but she’s amazing. If I can be half the psychiatrist she is, I know I’ll contribute something wonderful to the world.”
Tabitha rolls her eyes at me. “Dr. Melanie Carmichael Steel. We all know who you are, Angie.”
Yeah, everyone knows I’m a member of the Steel family. I may not carry their last name, but my mother, Marjorie Steel Simpson, is sister—and the only female sibling—to the three Steel brothers.
“I don’t flaunt my family ties,” I say.
“Did I say you did?” She purses her lips. “There’s been talk, of course. I’m not saying I’ve been talking, but there’s been talk.”
I should be surprised, but I’m not. There’s always talk.
“About what?” I ask.
“About you and your hefty Steel trust fund. About why you’re even bothering with medical school when you have enough money to last your entire lifetime and more.”
“God.” I let out a huff. “I’m so sick of this kind of shit. I got it all through college, too. Maybe I should’ve gone to medical school somewhere on the East Coast where no one has ever heard of the Steels.”
“Calm down,” Tabitha says. “I haven’t been talking. That I promise you. Frankly, I think anyone who has the drive and perseverance to get into medical school—which is not easy, as you know—and the desire to heal should be here.”
I nod. “I have that. I’ve learned so much from my aunt over the years. I want to help people the way she does.”
“Then you totally should.” She crosses her arms. “But I’m just saying, don’t count out surgery, because once we cut into this cadaver, you may find you like it.”
I force a smile at Tabitha. Maybe we could be friends. She’s cute, with her blond hair and light-brown eyes. She’s half a head shorter than I am, but I come from tall stock.
“So what should we name him?” Tabitha asks, looking down at our cadaver covered with a thick white sheet.
I drop my jaw. “You want to name the dead guy? I’m still on ‘what if we recognize him?’”
She smirks. “Are you kidding me? These bodies have been soaking in formaldehyde for years. Have you had anyone you know die and leave their body to science in that time?”
Ugh. I don’t want to think about that. “We don’t know whether we’re going to get a male or female,” I say.
“So we choose an androgynous name, then. Like Jordan or Morgan.”
Is she kidding me? “Don’t you think we should see what he or she looks like first?”
God. Soon we’ll have to look at it.
She lets out a laugh. “You are too funny! You don’t want to do any of this, but you want to wait until we see the cadaver before we give it a name?”
I grimace. “Hey, if I had it my way, there would be no name. There would be no anatomy lab.”
“Then why didn’t you just pursue a doctorate in psychology? Why bother with med school at all?”