Devaney’s Doctor Daddy by Honey Meyer

Chapter Eight

The next morning, Eric lowered the bottom rail on Devy’s bed. He perched next to her and woke her with a cool hand over her forehead, pushing back some golden locks from her porcelain skin. She woke with slow blinks, looking sad and then smiling weakly when she saw him. That was nice. Real nice. He wouldn’t mind waking up to that every day. Except of course the sad part. They’d have to work on that.

“I thought you were a dream,” she said, her voice scratchy. He’d have to get her to drink some water today. Hopefully her stomach would be able to tolerate at least that much without evicting its contents.

“Not a dream. Very real,” he assured her, planting a kiss on her forehead. “How’s my little patient this morning? Don’t you dare lie to me. Naughty patients get spanked.”

Her eyes got wider but she didn’t seem afraid.

“My head is throbbing.”

“Are you still nauseated?”

His sweet little girl nodded, her blond hair rustling on the starched pillow.

“Then you can’t drive those boys to school. Carter needs to do it. Here’s your phone so you can call him. I’ll wait here while you do.”

Devaney took her phone from him but didn’t make the call. She stared at it in her lap.

“What’s the matter, Devy? You can tell me,” he coaxed. He wanted her to tell him everything. He wanted to solve every problem she’d ever had and ever would have. What he wouldn’t give for her to waltz through life, sunny and content and his.

“He’s going to yell at me,” she sighed. “I don’t like getting yelled at. And he’ll be right. I did say I would bring the boys to school and I don’t want to ruin his job and—”

Her narrow shoulders shook and she put her hand over her mouth, trying not to sob. He knew she was sturdy—taking care of those boys was no joke, especially as a single parent—but she was also fragile. Perhaps she hadn’t always been but it seemed as though Carter had chipped away at her happiness and security while putting the weight of unfair expectations on her. Plus the intense and unrelenting pain of migraines? No wonder she was cracking under the pressure of it all.

“Oh, sweet girl. I’m sorry. Okay, come here.”

Eric put down the other section of the bedrail and climbed in beside her, tugging his little patient into his lap.

“Carter should not be insisting you bring the boys to school. I get that you agreed to be responsible for that task but you’re in no condition to be driving. People get sick. It happens. It can be disruptive, yeah, but what does he do when one of the boys gets sick? Complain?”

“I stay home with the boys when they get sick. If they get sick when they’re with him, I go pick them up.”

Of course she did. What the fuck good was Carter as a father? Had he been any better as a husband? Probably not.

Eric shook his head, trying to clear it of the rage he felt at Devaney’s ex. This was a problem he could solve at least.

“Give me Carter’s address and the addresses of the boys’ schools. I don’t have any early patients this morning so I should have time to pick them up from Carter’s and drop them off. And if I’m a little late, Marni and Jane will be in shortly and they can get things started. Now why don’t you lay back and rest? I hate that he makes you so upset.”

“That’s so nice,” she said, shaking her head. “But you can’t. Carter would kill me. He wouldn’t let the boys go with you and he’d be furious at me for sending you and—”

His heart broke when she cried. How could any man stand it? But probably the answer was that Carter was a sack of shit and not a man. Maybe he got off on the power trip of making Devaney cry, at manipulating her feelings. What a slime ball.

Yes he knew people who had a humiliation kink, but this was different. She hadn’t said it was okay and clearly found no satisfaction from his cruelty. This was abuse, plain and simple.

He couldn’t do anything about Carter, not at this very second anyway, but he could do his best to take a load off Devy.

“Okay, shh, sweetheart. You’re going to make your migraine worse if you keep crying like that. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll go together. I’m not letting you drive but I get why Carter wouldn’t be excited about just me showing up to take the boys to school. Does that work?”

She blinked up at him, eyes red-rimmed from her crying, but hopeful. “Really? You would do that?”

“Anything for you, baby. Now let’s get you ready to go.”

* * *

Devaney supposed she could’ve argued with Eric, but what was the point? She didn’t want to. At some point he’d get sick of her neediness and her inability to adult, and she didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness, but at this very second? He was solving a problem she desperately needed help with and while she might be stubborn, she wasn’t stupid.

Eric slipped out from under her, settling her back under the blankets and handed her a cup then, but not a regular cup. It was pink and purple and blue and it had little white stars on it—and a sippy lid.

“What—”

“It would be good for you to drink some water so you won’t get dehydrated while you can’t have your IV. This will help you not spill and not drink too fast. Hopefully that will help your tummy not get upset.”

Oh. Well, that made sense. And if she was being honest, she liked the bright colors and the fun print on the cup. And the sippy didn’t feel bad in her mouth when she tipped it back to take a drink. She supposed it made sense that the opening was small so it wouldn’t spill even if the cup got dropped but it also meant she had to suck as she held the little handles on either side of the colorful plastic.

“That’s a good girl. And that’s probably enough for now. You can take more sips in between getting ready, okay?”

She nodded, slipping into a space where it was easy to do what Eric told her to.

Her whole life, people had praised Devaney for being smart which was great. She had a master’s degree in consumer psychology to show for it. But she’d never been great at life. Mortgages and insurance and taxes and all those grown-up things had always been struggles—being a mom had come pretty easily though.

Not that the boys didn’t give her a run for her money every day but caring for Logan and Chase had never stressed her out the same way figuring out retirement accounts or reading her apartment lease or dealing with lawyers or contractors had.

She didn’t love cleaning but she kept a tidy house and she really did enjoy cooking. Didn’t even mind carpool duties and managing everyone’s calendars and yet the things she did take care of never seemed to come up.

Carter had always been angry at her for everything she struggled with—You’re an intelligent woman, Dev, why the fuck don’t you understand this? For god’s sake, do I have to do everything around here? Seriously, I have to deal with this too? You’re so goddamn useless.

But Eric didn’t seem to mind helping her, at least not for now.

She turned her head as he slipped the IV needle from her forearm and covered it gently with a band-aid—one that had unicorns on it and it made her smile.

“Take another sip, Devy,” he said, handing her the sippy cup back and she obeyed, handing it back to him after she was done.

“Did you go potty in your diaper overnight?”

Ugh, she’d forgotten that she was wearing a diaper. How mortifying.

“Um, I don’t think so?”

“Then it’s a good idea to take care of that before getting you changed.”

He put a large, warm hand low on her belly and pressed firmly but gently and she gasped as she felt the sudden urge to go to the bathroom.

“I—I have to go!” she whispered urgently, trying to hold back because she couldn’t, just couldn’t, wet a diaper.

But Eric put his other hand on her shoulder and held her down while pressing harder on her belly. “I know you do. So be a good girl for me and let go. Come on, Devy baby. Just relax. You know you’ll feel better if you relax.”

It was too much to fight against. Between how crappy she felt and the firm pressure holding her down and on her bladder, her resistance crumbled and she did as she was told and let go.

She’d changed what seemed like a million diapers between Chase and Logan but she certainly didn’t remember using them herself. But there was something not entirely awful about the wet warmth between her legs and the way she’d been forced into doing it. Especially the way Eric petted and praised her, peeled her hands away from her eyes because she’d buried her face in her palms.

“There’s my good girl, using her diaper the way she’s supposed to. Doesn’t that feel better?”

Unfortunately for her pride, it really did so she nodded and Eric beamed at her. He had such a nice smile, the way his eyes creased at the corners and his full lips spread to reveal his straight, white teeth. She’d never felt someone’s approval as viscerally as she felt his and it made her squirmy and warm in the best way.

He gave her a little more water and made quick work of her diaper while she drank. She actually missed the softness cushioning her bottom when it wasn’t there anymore—it made her feel more naked than she did when she took her panties off.

What also made her feel naked was the way Eric flattened the bed and rolled her face-down onto the wedge to take her temperature again. Her face flamed as he snapped on gloves, lubed up her bottom and pushed the thick tube of glass inside her but she didn’t protest. Didn’t protest either as he “fed” her again, pushing two more doses of the nutrition solution through the large syringe and into her rectum, or when he finished with another two suppositories.

She couldn’t remember if they’d made her feel better last night, but she had fallen asleep quickly. Although sometimes her migraines hurt so bad she had trouble falling asleep so maybe the medicine had worked? At least it didn’t make her throw up like pills sometimes did.

After he’d had her rest for a few minutes, he scooped her up and carried her into the attached bathroom and set her on her feet so he could untie her flimsy gown.

“We only have time for a shower this morning, but next time I’ll give you a bath,” he told her, and then pressed a kiss to the crest of her shoulder. “Do you need to wash your hair or just brush it out?”

“Just brush,” she said absently as his arms circled her waist and he continued to sweetly attention her neck with soft, lingering kisses. Those were nice. Very nice.

And because the man seemed to think of everything, Eric pulled a shower cap from under the sink and twisted up her hair before tucking it under the cap and urging her into the shower.

It was tiled in pure white walls with gleaming chrome fixtures, and grey-blue tiles on the floor that were definitely prettier than your usual institutional shower but somehow didn’t feel like something you’d find in a home. Made this all feel more clinical in a way Devaney found she didn’t entirely mind.

She was Eric’s special patient, of course he would take care of her. Why wouldn’t he soap her up from head to toe and rinse her off with the hand-held shower head?

And when she got out, obviously he’d brush her hair and plait it into a loose braid that didn’t put any extra strain on her scalp. It seemed natural, too, for him to brush her teeth and smooth moisturizer into her skin and help her get dressed as well.

When she’d woken up this morning, she thought he’d been a dream. She pinched herself on the underside of her wrist just to make sure she really was awake, and felt the sharp sting of pain, then looked up to see Eric smiling at her gently in the mirror.

“Okay, baby. Time to go get those boys to school. Can’t have them being late.”