The lecture hall at UCLA was empty. In about ten minutes it would be filled with young doctor hopefuls, vying for a chance to get residency placements in my hospital. I basked in the silence for a minute. As much as I tried to mentally prepare for this damn lecture I couldn’t stop thinking about Dylan. The hunt for a good babysitter seemed like it would never end and every other day he was stuck with a new person.

Dylan is my world; the reason I keep going every day. Just waking up to his bright smile every day makes it all worth it. Nothing came remotely close to being important to me like he was. The kid was only six, but he’d sure as hell been through much more than most adults these days. He didn’t like when I left for work, but I would always tell my little champ to be tough for me.

And he always was.

Even after the last babysitter bailed on me.

No matter how many zeroes I added to her check, it wasn’t enough to keep her working the admittedly odd hours I kept. At least, that was her excuse.

Now I was on the hunt, yet again.

I gave my shoulders good roll and loosened up the buttons on my blazer just a bit. I shuffled through the papers that were sprawled out on my desk. Even though this was the tenth semester I’d be teaching, I still couldn’t find it within myself to get those damned papers organized.

Looking at my watch, I realized ten minutes had already passed.

“Well, here we go.”

Chatty students began to pour in, snapping me from my random thoughts. By now I had the types all down to a science. The ones all the way in the back had no intention of getting through medical school and were most likely held at gunpoint to go by their parents. Students in the middle were most likely to argue with me about grades and whatnot and to that I’d say, ‘Go ahead and teach. Give me a day off why don’t you.’

And the ones in the front? The ones in the front were-

My thoughts stopped as my eyes traveled to the young woman that took up a seat directly across from my desk. Her wavy blonde hair wrapped in a neat little bun that sat on top of her head like a crown. Vibrant emerald eyes that sucked me in like a magnet. And a smile that was seasoned, not too wet behind the ears. That track jacket she was wearing covered up most of her chest, but just a bit of her supple cleavage peered its way from underneath the discreet folds.

I was immediately drawn to her. Something about the look on her face screamed trouble or adventure. Maybe a bit of both?

Waiting until the hall settled down a bit, I walked around to the front of my desk and took a seat with one leg keeping me grounded to the floor. Her eyes followed me all the way through.

“Alright, since you all seemed to have quieted down, we’d better get started here. I’m Dr. Paul Gray. This is ‘Concepts in Cardiology’. If you’re in the wrong lecture, you should probably leave before I hand out the quiz.” There were audible gasps and sighs at the sound of the word quiz.

It was cruel, I know. But hey, a doctor has to be ready for anything.

“Two volunteers please.”

Not a single soul in the hall moved. This was going to take a little more probing.

“Whoever volunteers gets extra credit.”

A swarm of people nearly stampeding each other hustled their way to my desk and I handed the stack of papers to the first two I could see. Watching them pass the quizzes out, I kept my eye on the blonde-haired beauty that couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of me either.

“You have ten minutes. Let’s go.”

* * *

Ten minutes later I motioned for the tests to be collected and passed to my desk.

“Here’s where the fun begins. You’ll probably think I’m an ass for this, but I promise you I’m teaching you a valuable lesson you’ll need as doctors. If you make it that far.” The room was so quiet the sound of a pencil dropping would probably start an earthquake.

Looks like the age-old scare tactic worked.

“Professor will this count toward my grade? I didn’t know any of the answers!” There were calls out from other students in agreement with the voice that blurted out the inane question.

“I’ll decide that when I see how you did.” Scanning over a few papers on the top of the pile, my hand traced lightly over the very first paper in the stack.

“April Madison. Who here is April Madison?”

I looked around the crowded lecture hall feeling sorry for the poor sap that I was going to make an example of.

“That would be me, Professor Gray.”

As my luck would have it, that emerald-eyed beauty casually shot her hand up in the air. My eyes widened at the look of her confidence. Her voice was airy and smooth. A sexy dance on my eardrums.

April Madison hmm?

“Well Miss Madison, you have the wonderful pleasure of getting your test graded in front of the entire lecture room.” A burst of surprised gasps shot out through the hollow walls of the lecture room. She didn’t budge an inch.

Confident. I like that.

Placing her quiz on the lecture projector, I proceeded to go through the four questions fully expecting her to get every single one wrong.

Boy was I wrong.

“A, A, B, A. Looks like she got every question right. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. If any of you want to get an A in this class, you better sit next to April.”

The class erupted into jokes and laughter and I continued the lecture, finding it too damn hard to get her out of my head.

I wasn’t just impressed, I was dumbfounded.

After the lecture was finished, the hall emptied out and I reached over to April before she made her way out.

“April! Can I see you at my desk for a moment?” My voice was firm, I didn’t want her getting any ideas that my mind was going to places I’d rather not admit.

“Of course.” She walked over to my desk and it took everything in me to not focus on her hourglass hips swaying over to me. April was beautiful. Breathtaking. Probably going to make teaching a lot easier to get through.

“I have to say, I’m incredibly impressed with your performance on that quiz. It’s not really written to pass. Well done.” We were standing just a few feet from each other and I could feel her gentle breaths on the surface of my skin.

Fuck, was this some kind of magic or something?

She clenched her textbook in her chest and gave me an innocent smile. “I heard stories, I prepared.” I wasn’t sure if she even realized that she winked slightly. I never thought closing your eyelids together could be such an inciting, lust-inducing expression.

But it was.

On her at least.

“Well I don’t want to keep you, just wanted to let you know that I guess I’ll be expecting good things from you from now on April.” Nodding her head confidently, she gathered her things and sashayed out the door leaving me alone with my increasingly promiscuous thoughts.

There was no doubt in my mind that this little thing could be a problem with April Madison. If I didn’t get myself under control.

I grabbed my briefcase off the desk and jogged out of the hall. It was four in the afternoon and Dylan should be back home from school. Nothing excited me more.

Racing out to my beamer, I fired her off and sped down the highway down to West Hollywood.

* * *

“Daddy, you’re back!” Dylan ran into my arms and nearly plummeted me where I stood in the entryway to the condo.

“That’s right little guy! How was your day? Wanna tell me what you did?”

He brought his little hands to his eyes and rubbed them before any tears could get out. My heart wrenched.

“Oh no little man. What’s eating you?”

I picked Dylan up and placed him on my lap and we sat on the sofa in the living room.

“I’m sad dada. Ms. Lorrie told me she won’t come back anymore to stay with me.” He rubbed his little nose briskly and sniffled. My heart was broken. I couldn’t stand seeing him sad. Especially when the source of his sadness was probably me.

Lorrie Wills was Dylan’s babysitter for almost two years. She worked as a medical tech in my hospital and Dylan seemed to like her enough, so I kept her. Two nights ago she told me that my surgery hours were just too much and that today would be her last day. It was sudden and made a huge inconvenience for me, but didn’t expect Dylan to take it so hard.

“Don’t you worry Dylan. We’re going to find an awesome new babysitter that’ll spend tons of time playing cars with you when daddy’s gone, okay?” I rubbed his shaggy hair and sighed.

“Will we dada?” His googly blue eyes wrenched my heart even more.

“Of course. I promise you Dyl. Now, why don’t we get ready for bed okay?” I grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs to his bedroom.

Randomly, April Madison came to my mind. Beautiful and intelligent. Killer combo. It was definitely way too soon to be asking her to do favors for me. But I intended on keeping her at the forefront of my mind. She was going to be taking up all of the space in my head on her own anyway at the rate this was going.

Tucking Dylan in, I thought about whether or not it would be too forward to ask her if she was interested in babysitting Dylan. Between surgery and teaching, there was no way I was getting a break.

“Goodnight Dylan.”

“Night daddy!”

I left the door slightly open and walked into my suite.

Why the hell was I already going so crazy thinking about April? I almost wanted to kick myself for even thinking about getting emotionally attached to that striking, scorching distracting fucking woman.

The button up I was wearing was starting to constrict me and I felt a few beads of sweat dripping down my back. I unfastened the buttons and threw the shirt to the floor. There was a heat suffocating me the more my thoughts went to deeper places.

I stepped into the glass shower and let the cool water run down my body.

She had no idea what she was doing to me with just one look.