Chapter 209: Chapter 209: The Devil in the Hospital
Chapter 209: The Devil in the Hospital
Yvonne heard the sweetness in Elias’s voice and thought of Giselle.
Her face did not change.
She only watched as Elias carried the tray of coffee around the conference room, stopping before each doctor with a cup and a quiet, careful reminder.
"Careful. It’s hot."
His voice was soft enough to calm people who had spent hours under fluorescent lights arguing over treatment plans and risk windows. Every movement looked polite. Useful. A little shy.
Several of the older physicians softened immediately.
"What a capable young man."
"Thank you, sweetheart."
"Such a good kid."
Elias accepted every bit of praise with a small smile and lowered lashes. He pressed his lips together as if embarrassed, then moved on to the next cup.
Yvonne sat at the head of the table and watched the performance without blinking.
He left her for last.
When Elias finally reached her, he placed the cup in front of her with both hands, the picture of obedience. Then he leaned close enough that the others would see nothing more than a student whispering politely to a doctor.
His breath brushed her ear.
"Dr. Quinn," he murmured, "do you think I’m... capable?"
He paused in the middle of the last word.
The pause ruined the innocence of it. A perfectly normal compliment shifted in his mouth, turning warm, private, and indecent before it ever reached the air.
And he did it here.
In Longhaven Hospital.
In a conference room full of senior doctors.
In the kind of place where suffering was measured, recorded, treated, and billed with exquisite professionalism.
Yvonne looked at him.
Elias looked back with wide, clean eyes, as if he had no idea what he had done.
Then Mira Perry finished setting down the last of the coffee, and Elias followed her out.
They returned to the private physicians’ floor. In front of Mira, Elias had no choice but to head in the direction of his father’s room. Before he could fully escape, Mira stopped him.
"If you still have time later," she said, "you can sit in Dr. Quinn’s office for a bit."
Elias turned back to look at her.
Mira scratched lightly at the side of her head, suddenly awkward. "You helped bring the coffee. If Dr. Quinn finds out I let you leave right after that, she might blame me."
Elias smiled. "Okay."
Then he went into the stairwell.
There was no reason to visit Arthur Hale or Marlene Bennet unless absolutely necessary. His foster parents were their own kind of trouble, and tonight had already been crowded enough.
He waited there for a while.
When enough time had passed, he walked openly into Yvonne’s office.
No one was inside.
Good.
Elias treated the place as if it belonged to him.
He wandered through the room, checking the desk, the shelves, the neat placement of files, the clean scent of paper and disinfectant. Yvonne’s office was exactly like her: precise, useful, and calm enough to make danger look like routine.
Then he found the tie.
It lay where it should not have been, folded with professional care. Elias recognized it at once.
The same tie Yvonne had worn earlier.
Of course she could not wear it to a medical meeting. Taking a tie dampened by him into a room full of doctors would have been disrespectful to their noble work of saving lives.
Elias picked it up and brought it to his nose.
No odd smell.
Amazing.
Being a main character did come with certain privileges. He did not have to smell sweet, but he apparently could not smell bad. Even after the kind of night he had just had, nothing betrayed him.
He laughed softly.
Then he lifted his shirt.
The tie slid around his smooth waist, narrow and dark against pale skin. He tied it neatly at the front, making the knot pretty enough to look deliberate rather than strange.
He admired it for a second.
Perfect.
Yvonne would appreciate the effort.
After that, he sat in her chair and waited.
The wait lasted two hours.
Outside the windows, the city had gone fully dark. The hospital settled into its night rhythm: elevators moving less often, wheels passing distantly in the hall, nurses’ voices lowered behind closed doors. The stars beyond the glass looked clean and far away.
By the time Yvonne opened her office door, the first thing she saw was Elias collapsed across her chair.
He had fallen asleep crookedly, boneless and shameless, half-slid down as if the chair had failed to hold him properly. His glasses sat on the desk. Without them, his face was completely exposed.
Mira, standing beside Yvonne, looked confused. "What is it?"
Yvonne drew the door closer, blocking the view. Her voice stayed flat. "It’s late. Go home."
Mira visibly relaxed.
Finally.
She did not ask about Elias. In her mind, the boy had probably left long ago. She had no reason to imagine he would be bold enough to turn Yvonne Quinn’s office into his personal bedroom.
"Then I’ll head out," Mira said. "Dr. Quinn, you should rest soon too."
Yvonne gave her a mild smile. "Be careful on your way home."
Mira felt the familiar little jolt that came with being on the receiving end of Yvonne’s gentleness. The doctor’s smile was too beautiful when it was aimed directly at someone. It always made Mira want to straighten her back and flee at the same time.
"Thank you, Dr. Quinn."
She left quickly.
Only after Mira’s footsteps faded did Yvonne open the door and step inside.
The office turned silent around her.
She walked without sound. Elias did not stir.
Yvonne stopped in front of the chair and looked down at him.
Sleeping, he looked too harmless. No sly smile. No theatrical tears. No bait set out in careful layers. His lashes rested softly against his cheeks. His mouth was relaxed. The face beneath the missing glasses was so beautiful it seemed unreal under the office lights, clean in a way that made all his filth harder to prove.
No one would believe, seeing him like this, that he had been moving between women all night.
Yvonne reached toward him.
Before her fingers touched him, Elias opened his eyes.
His hand shot up and caught her wrist. He pulled.
Yvonne did not move.
Not even a little.
She only looked down at him with the same calm expression.
Elias’s widened eyes slowly settled.
Then he smiled. "Dr. Quinn, this is where you’re supposed to fall on me."
"And then?"
"Then you put your hand under my shirt." His smile turned wicked around the edges. "I’m pinned by you. I can’t resist. Even if you want to kiss me, I can only behave and let you do whatever you want."
There was no trace of sleepiness in him now.
His eyes were bright and sly, the look of a fox that had been pretending to nap beside the trap.
Yvonne considered his instructions and replied calmly, "Unfortunately, your strength is negligible."
Elias huffed. "No, you’re just too straight. Painfully straight."
Then he kicked her.
His foot landed against the front of her white coat, leaving a clear print on the clean fabric.
Yvonne lowered her eyes to the mark.
Elias lifted his chin, smug and fearless. "Why are you looking at me like that? Are you going to punish me or... ah!"
His sentence broke into a startled cry.
Yvonne caught him with a force that left no room for performance, pulled him up from the chair, and brought him into her arms.
The next second, she lowered her head.
Elias rose onto his toes.
Their mouths met with the ease of people who had already crossed the first line and found the second waiting nearby.
This time, there was no stall door. No auditorium outside. No Serena searching the restroom. Only Yvonne’s office, locked away from the corridor, filled with the faint smell of coffee and antiseptic.
Elias climbed into the kiss like he intended to win it by force. His arms locked around Yvonne’s neck. His legs hooked at her waist. By the end, he was nearly wrapped around her completely, holding on with the greed of someone who wanted to devour the doctor in her own office.
When they finally separated, Elias had somehow ended up slightly above her line of sight. His lips were red, his eyes wet and bright, his voice low enough to be a temptation.
"Dr. Quinn," he breathed, "do you want me to..."
"No."
Yvonne’s lips were still numb.
Her voice stayed even.
"This is a hospital."
There was a line in her mind, clean and immovable.
Outside the hospital, she was Yvonne Quinn.
Inside Longhaven, she was Dr. Quinn, the physician people trusted with their lives.
Elias did not look disappointed.
He dropped down from her at once, light on his feet, then backed away with a smile that seemed to hide a precious secret. He returned to the chair and lay down again, sprawling beneath her gaze.
Then he looked up at Yvonne as if offering himself to something holy.
Slowly, he raised both hands to his shirt.
One button.
Then another.
The fabric opened piece by piece.
Under Yvonne’s eyes appeared his flawless pale body, and tied around his waist, dark against his skin, was her tie.
