Hi, and thanks for having me here today. I’m going to share a little information about my latest release, The Doctor’s Orders, available August 20 from Dreamspinner Press and wherever books are sold.
The Doctor’s Orders is book three in the Copper Point: Medical series, the final book in that trilogy. In this installment, we get to know Jared, an openly gay pediatrician, and Nick, the very closeted CEO of the hospital. Though Nick and Jared secretly dated in high school, it was clear nothing was ever going to happen between them again…until Jared and Nick are trapped in an elevator together, where sparks fly.
Here’s a little snippet from the book, Jared and Nick trying to negotiate their secret dating in a hospital that loves to gossip. I hope you enjoy this excerpt, and I hope you give The Doctor’s Orders a try!
Jared managed to keep his hands at his sides and not slide them up Nick’s crisp shirt and draw him to his lips by his tie. His eyes were rich and full of expression—light and playful, but they hinted at his intelligence too. The whole package turned Jared the hell on. “Well, so you know, your visit is already a point of gossip. I did my best to stop it, but I can only do so much. Unless you changed your mind about this relationship being public?”
Though he’d known the jolt and pullback were coming, it bummed Jared out. Nick wasn’t exactly panicked, but he wasn’t seducing Jared any longer either. “What do you mean, there’s gossip? Because I brought you lunch?”
The man had been back in Copper Point for four years, but he didn’t have the rhythm down. “You ordered from somewhere fancy, which you don’t normally do. You also don’t normally send out people to fetch your food. Then you came to see me. Yes, they’re going to talk about it.”
“We can’t have a lunch together as friends?”
“Sure, but we never have before. And like I said, you didn’t simply bring something from the cafeteria.”
He sighed. “I should’ve hidden it in something.”
“You could have put it in one of the EMT’s organ transplant coolers and they would have been convinced you were smuggling me Italian.”
Nick made a face. “Gross. Why would I smuggle you food in an organ transplant cooler?”
“Well, for one, they’re incredibly sterile. You putting food in them would in fact make them contaminated, but we wash them like crazy anyway. My point is you could disguise it as anything. People in this town notice every little thing that happens, then tell each other about it. You ordered a fancy lunch for two, which wasn’t usual. Everyone wanted to see what you did with it.”
Nick sank into Jared’s desk chair, looking sheepish. “I knew lunch was the way I could see you today, and I wanted it to be nice. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me. I’m not the one we’re hiding for.” Jared slid onto Nick’s lap, heart skipping a beat as he worried it was too bold of a move. He smoothed his hand over Nick’s cheek to cover his nervousness. “I’m sorry I opened with a lecture. I did try to cover for you, and it’s probably good. Can I have a kiss?”
Nick glanced at the door.
Jared nuzzled his nose. “I locked it.”
Nick’s hand rested on Jared’s hip. He nuzzled back but watched the door. “Doesn’t that make it more suspicious?”
Now Nick had his head in the game. Now. “Possibly, but I can say we were discussing something confidential.” Enough. He’d beg for it. “Please kiss me, Nick.”
Nick gave him a soft peck on the lips, but he drew away too quickly.
Sighing softly, Jared climbed off Nick, pulled up another chair, and opened the bag. “God, smells great. Can we eat?”
This calmed Nick somewhat. “Yes, let’s, before it gets cold. I got the chicken parm pasta special and some garlic knots. You used to love garlic knots when we were younger.”
“Still do.” Jared withdrew the package of bread and sniffed it. Then groaned. “So good. And Café Cuore makes the best.” He offered one to Nick. “Want a bite?” When Nick glanced at the door again instead of accepting it, Jared bopped him on the nose with the bread. “Stop. If anybody comes into my office, especially with you in it, they’re going to knock and wait for me.”
Frowning, Nick took a bite of the garlic knot. “Why won’t they come in if I’m here?” he asked once he was done chewing.
“Because you’re the boss. And here, I’m also the boss. They’ll talk about us, though, wondering what we’re doing. Don’t freak out. Yes, some of them will make innuendos because I’m gay, but plenty of other people will scold them for it.”
Nick grimaced. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“Yes, you were. You were thinking about coming to see me, which I very much appreciate.” Jared withdrew the trays of chicken parmesan out of the bag and passed one to Nick along with a set of utensils. “A question for you. When Jack and Simon were dating in defiance of the policy, when did you suspect them?”
Nick paused with his fork over his food. “Hmm. I’d say I started to wonder if there wasn’t something the night of Mr. Zhang’s emergency. I wasn’t sure of Jack’s orientation, but that was the first night I began to watch the two of them.”
Jared laughed. “My God, they weren’t even dating officially yet then. Now I’m thinking back to all the acrobatics we did to hide Jack when he came over and feeling foolish. You knew the whole time. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“It wasn’t my policy. That was all the board’s bullshit. I didn’t care who they dated, so long as it didn’t affect their performance at work. If anything, they seemed to do better.” He looked weary. “But what you’re saying, what you’ve been saying, is it’s going to be impossible to do this?”
“Not impossible, though we’ll have to be a lot more clever. You need to let me drive this bus.”
Nick grunted. “I don’t care for giving up control.”
Jared smiled wickedly around a mouthful of garlic knot. “Mmm.” He swallowed and winked. “That’s not what I remember.” When Nick sputtered and blushed, Jared put down his food and moved to stand between Nick’s legs. “Oh, don’t be that way. You aren’t going to convince me your tastes have changed that much.” He ran a hand down the side of Nick’s face. “You seduced me all sweet, made me melt. Then you wanted me to turn the tables on you and tell you how to take me. You want to keep all the control to yourself right up until you want me to make you beg instead.”
Nick swatted Jared’s butt. “We’re not playing that game here.”
“I appreciate how you acknowledge we are going to play it.” Mostly, though Jared wasn’t going to admit it out loud, he liked that they were somehow, this easily, back into the rhythm where they were playing games, period. Jared let his hand fall away. “Tell you what. You figure out where and when you feel okay about it, and I’ll meet you.”
Oh, but he liked the hungry look in Nick’s eyes. How I’ve missed this. However, he didn’t enjoy the frustration and defeat he saw in his lover’s face. “I don’t know how I can possibly find a place or a time that doesn’t give us away.”
Jared didn’t have many ideas either. “Well, what worked for us in the past, as I said, was smuggling. We’d bring Jack over with him lying down in the back seat. Boy did he hate that. Muttered about this town being ridiculous a lot.”
“It is.” Nick ran a hand over his beard as if he were seriously thinking it over. “I don’t know how that would work. My family….”
“Yes, you come with special challenges. If only you lived alone.” Jared sighed. “Except I wouldn’t wish that on you. I can’t stand living by myself. I was about to advertise for a roommate.”
Nick sat up straighter. “You can’t do that.”
“Unless you’re going to apply for the position, you don’t get a vote. I like people around me, the more the better, and now I go home every night to an empty house. No one to cook for, no one to talk to.”
Nick glowered. “I don’t like the idea of you cooking for other people either.”
Jared kissed his nose. “Figure out a way to get yourself over to my house, and I’ll cook for you every single night.”
Blurb
The elevator at St. Ann’s is out of order…but the chemistry between the doctor and CEO is working just fine.
Once upon a time Nicholas Beckert was the boy who stole kisses from Jared Kumpel beneath the bleachers, but now Jared’s a pediatrician and Nick is the hospital CEO who won’t glance his way. Everything changes, however, when they’re stranded alone in a hospital elevator. Ten years of cold shoulders melt away in five hours of close contact, and old passions rekindle into hot flames.
Once out of the elevator, Jared has no intention of letting Nick get away. It’s clear he’s desperate for someone to give him space to let go of the reins, and Jared is happy to oblige. But Jared wants Nick as a lover in a full, open relationship, which is a step further than Nick is willing to go. They’ve traded kisses under the bleachers for liaisons in the boardroom… and it looks like the same arguments that drove them apart in high school might do the same thing now.
Jared’s determined not to let that happen this time around. He won’t order Nick from his shell—he’ll listento what his friend says he needs to feel safe. Maybe this time he can prescribe his lover a happy ever after.
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Author of over thirty novels, Midwest-native Heidi Cullinan writes positive-outcome romances for LGBT characters struggling against insurmountable odds because she believes there’s no such thing as too much happy ever after. Heidi is a two-time RITA® finalist and her books have been recommended by Library Journal, USA Today, RT Magazine, and Publisher’s Weekly. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading novels and manga, playing with her cats, and watching too much anime. Find out more at heidicullinan.com.