Rekindled Hearts: A Billionaire Love Story

Nathan's POV

"Hello there, Mr. Peters ." I smiled brightly as one of my favorite patients entered my consult. "How are you feeling today?"

"Oh, not so good," he shot back quickly. "I've had this cough for three weeks, my throat hurts like hell, and it's affecting my bad back."

I only half listened as he rattled off his list of symptoms, knowing it wouldn't be anything serious. Mr. Peters had a great personality, and as a person, I got along with him, but as he descended further and further into old age, he started to develop that hypochondria many people seemed to get.

I was convinced it wasn't even about seeing the doctor, not really. I felt like a lot of it was the social aspect of hanging around in the waiting room. I almost wanted to create some kind of club for them all, anywhere but the hospital, just to give me the time I needed to see people who really needed me.

"Okay, well, let me just do some checks. Why don't you tell me how your writing is going while I take your blood pressure and run an ECG?"

I set about to work as he told me all about the book he was working on, the one he was certain would be the next bestseller. I made agreeable noises wherever needed, but I didn't have to fully listen because he'd told me about it a million times before.

"Of course, if I'd won the lottery last night, I wouldn't need to be fussing about with this book now, would I?"

I laughed along, but the thought of that sort of cash really tugged at my heartstrings. I always brought a ticket with the hope of being able to sort out my finances, but so far, I'd had no luck.

I didn't harbor dreams of a jobless future with endless luxuries at my disposal. I didn't think about holidays and mansions and God knows what else. All I wanted to do was to pay off my debts because they were dragging me down. They felt endless, like they would be with me for the rest of my life, and I really wanted to shake them off.

They had started in medical school because I'd had to fund a lot of it with credit. My parents didn't have a lot of money themselves, and I didn't want to pressure them and leave them in debt because of my damn dream. So, I told them I would work through college to fund myself, and that was what I thought I would do.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out like that.

I tried, I did, but it just wasn't possible. I had too much course work, too many hours in placement, and I had stop and get a loan instead – a massive loan no one knew about but me.

I thought that all would be okay when I became a fully-qualified doctor. I was under the illusion that I would be making plenty of money and that I'd be able to easily put all my problems behind me, but again, my thoughts were wrong.

As soon as I started working, I found out that a lot of people didn't have the insurance or money to pay for treatments, and I couldn't stand that. It made me angry, so I stopped charging the full amount to those who were struggling, pushing myself further into debt.

Now that I'd started that, I couldn't seem to stop. With every person, my heart kept growing bigger and bigger, and I kept giving and giving – even though I really couldn't afford it.

"Yeah, would be nice," I said in a joking tone of voice. "I can't imagine it."

"Well, no one has claimed it yet – it could be you!" he laughed loudly. "Can you imagine it? You could spend the rest of your life travelling the world, getting to see what the rest of the world has to offer. It's no good spending your entire life in Arrendale or even Bayrow! There's so much more out there."

I didn't know if this was supposed to be a dig or not, but it certainly felt like it.

I had chosen to spend my entire life in the town I grew up in, however small it was, apart from the time when I was in college. But I liked it. It was my home; it was the only place I truly felt comfortable and I didn't want to go anywhere else. I didn't feel like I needed to know what was out there in the rest of the world. I had everything I needed right where I had always been. I had a good job here, my friends, my family, and there were plenty of women that were keen to get in my pants... What more could I need?

Luckily, before I had time to answer that, Hannah, the nurse, entered the room in a flurry of perfume and beauty. I sent her a sly, flirtatious smile as she handed me some paperwork, and I could instantly see that familiar spark floating behind her big, blue eyes. She was one of the hottest women I'd ever laid my eyes upon, and somehow, I'd gotten lucky enough to land a sweet friends-with-benefits deal with her.

"Thank you," I muttered as she swung her long, blonde hair around. "I'll see you after the appointment to discuss bloodwork, okay?"

That had slowly become our code over time, and from the way she nodded excitedly, I instantly knew it was game on. Before the day was out, I would be screwing Hannah in the nearest, private place we could find. That was one of the best things about her: she was up for anything, anywhere. She might not have been a long-term type of deal, but she was a whole lot of fun.

"Wow." Mr. Peters gazed at her as she swung her hips out of the room. "That is some woman! You are a lucky man getting to work with her all day, but I guess that's just one of the perks of being a doctor."

He laughed loudly at his own joke, and it took all that I had not to smirk at his remark. I couldn't let him know the truth about me and Hannah... that needed to stay strictly a secret because if anyone found out about us, we could both be in serious trouble.

"I'm just in this to help people," I told him with a mock seriousness to my tone. "I don't have time to be worrying about the nurses scurrying around here." I put all my equipment down and stared him in the eyes. "Right, well, for now, I can't see anything obvious, but we will go through all your test results and I will call you with them in the next couple of days, okay?"

"Thank you." Mr. Peters smiled at me before standing up. "I appreciate it."

We said a quick goodbye, during which time my mind was already onto the next thing.

My lunch break was coming up, which meant I didn't have any more appointments for a short while – except for the one I'd just made with Hannah.

Even the thought of her – hot, sweaty, and with those heaving breasts bouncing against me – had my cock standing to attention. She really did make me so damn horny, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on her again.

I quickly found her standing next to the reception desk, talking to one of the women there, and I called her over to me. Normally, I would wait for her to have her conversation finished, but there was something needier about me than usual. I felt like if I didn't have her right then, I might just die.

But as she walked towards me, she didn't look quite as fired up as before. In fact, she appeared to be all business, which made my heart sink. I would just have to let her get whatever it was out of her system and do what I could to get her back in the mood – she was usually easy to rile up all over again.

"We have a new patient coming in tomorrow," she told me in that rapid voice she always used when she discussed work with me. Sometimes it made her difficult to understand, which was just one of the many reasons why we could never become anything serious.

"Oh, yeah?" I asked, discretely grazing my hand along her side, trying to distract her from whatever she was about to say to me. "Okay, sure."

"We'll need to transfer the papers. I think she lived here once before... Jane Andrews. I don't know if you recognize that name?"

Jane Andrews.

My heart leapt into my throat at the mere mention of Jane Andrews, but I did what I could to keep it off my face.

I was good at keeping my emotions in check, and that came into play right then.

Jane Andrews was the mother of one who went away and left me. She knew me well, and I did her. Seeing her again was going to be incredibly awkward.

"Come with me," I rasped to Hannah, needing her more than ever. I needed to bury myself into her, to distract myself entirely. I couldn't keep thinking about Jane and Emily... Not unless I wanted to drag up a whole range of emotions I was nowhere near ready to deal with.

I pulled her into the janitor's closet and started kissing her furiously, trying to lose myself in the physical sensations. My mind was struggling now, flickering all over the place, and I needed to shut it the hell down.

Luckily for me, my lips had Hannah right back in the mood again, and she panted happily, quickly dipping her hand into my trousers and underwear, pulling me free. I knew that she loved the feel of my cock, and that helped me to forget the rest of the world, even if it was only for a second.

"You're so big," she groaned excitedly against my mouth, her breaths becoming raspy with desire. "Fuck, I need you."

As she stroke me hard and fast, I tugged her breasts free from her uniform and wrapped my teeth lightly around her very familiar nipples, giving them a tug. She was keen on the pleasure, pain thing, and I was happy to indulge in that, too, if it kept her happy. To be honest, as long as I was getting the release I so desperately needed, I was willing to try and do anything.

She cried out far too loudly, considering we were supposed to be very quiet, and she threw her head back in ecstasy.

In the heat of the moment, Hannah pressed her back up against the cold wall behind her, practically begging me to take her there and then, which I was more than happy to do.

She liked it fast and furious – and that was exactly what I needed, so I quickly slammed myself into her and started fucking her so hard that we were practically shaking the whole damn building. I slid my cock in and out of her repeatedly, making sure I was all the way in, filling up her insides.

As I looked at her face, her eyes shot back at me with burning desire. I felt like teasing her, so I pulled myself out, and had my hands work their magic down low. She moaned with pleasure, lost in the bliss I curated for her.

My dick was standing at attention, and I had to get it right back in where it belonged. I slowly slid the entire length of my cock against her vertical lips, making sure to let it know just how big what was coming was, before finally thrusting it right back up.

"Oh shit," she yelled, clawing at my back, digging her nails in so deep that it felt like she could have been drawing blood. "Oh fuck, Nate, you feel fucking amazing."

As the pleasure burst free from me, concluding our quickie in a fast and timely manner, I felt on top of the world. Was there any better feeling than no-strings-attached fantastic sex? It certainly didn't feel like it to me. I thought this was the highest that life could get, and I didn't understand why anyone would want anything more.

Emily's POV

I loved my office, I really did. It was the one thing about New York that I truly adored. Sure, my apartment was okay and the city was nice enough, but it was really my office that did it for me.

It made me feel like I'd made it. It was a whole room to myself – one with massive, floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed me to enjoy the huge expanse of world stretched out in front of me. I could look out of that window and see the hundreds of people walking below. I often lost myself in wondering what their lives were like, and that was something that I hadn't ever wanted to give up.

When I moved to the city in a hurry, I hadn't expected to land on my feet quite so quickly. But much to my surprise, the first job I applied for as a speech therapist turned out to be the one for me. I was hired on the spot at the interview, and that was where I'd stayed ever since.

To be honest, I thought I would always work at the same job for the rest of my life, but because of circumstances out of my control, I was having to leave it all behind – the job, the apartment, New York... But it was my office that I was going to miss the most. That and the friends I'd made working in it.

"Come with me," my friend Susan grinned at me, shrugging lightly. "Come on, you knew that it was going to happen. You knew the guys weren't going to just let you leave without doing something for you; just act surprised, okay?"

I followed behind her with an odd fluttering occurring in my heart. No one knew the reason why I was leaving except for my boss, and I was certain that I'd have a million and one questions flying my way about it – questions I would have to keep batting off if I didn't want to break down. There was no way I could tell these people what was going on with my life and still hold it together; it just wouldn't happen.

To be fair, I'd managed to keep it to myself ever since I'd handed my notice in a few weeks before, so a couple more hours shouldn't be too hard. People just couldn't understand why I was leaving behind a life that I seemed so happy in, and to be honest, I was struggling with it myself.

"Surprise!" they all yelled, bursting out from odd places in the canteen, and although I was expecting it, it did make me jump, so at least my reaction was somewhat real.

"Oh my God, guys," I was already tearing up; this wasn't going well. "This is so nice."

"We baked you a cake, too," someone told me excitedly, and I made my way over to the table to spot a suspicious-looking cake that had clearly been created by someone who didn't do it all the time and laughed loudly at the words written across it.

'Gud luck! Wheel miss you!'

They were obviously making fun of our job, and that made me feel very happy. I was glad I'd made close enough friendships that they felt like they could tease me... I was just sad to have to leave it all behind.

"That's great. Thank you so much, everyone."

As I looked at all their faces in turn, I had to really force myself to remain strong. This didn't have to be forever. I might have been moving back to Bayrow, but that didn't mean I couldn't come back and visit. I could come and see these people whenever I wanted, and it would be even better because we would all make an effort to really hang out and have a good time.

But even as I tried to convince myself of that, I knew it wouldn't be the case.

I wasn't naive enough to not understand how things worked. People were always friends with their colleagues during the time that they worked together, but once that was over, the friendship would slowly die. You would quickly find that you never had anything in common with them except for your job, and over time, things would simply fizzle out...and that was when you remained in the same city. I was going to a whole new state. This really was the end of an era.

I did my best to enjoy the small talk of the next hour, but I was already starting to feel a segregation, a sense that I no longer belonged. It wasn't purposeful, not by anyone, but things were already becoming different.

My mind wandered as some of the girls discussed a new patient coming their way in the following weeks, and I started to think about all that I still needed to do. I knew I wouldn't be able to pack while I was still working; I spent far too long burning the candle at both ends to even attempt it, which was why I'd agreed to leave a few days earlier. I figured that having some time to do nothing but get organized would be good for me, but now that it was time, the prospect was almost overwhelming.

How the hell was I supposed to just up and move my entire life? I had everything there, all my belongings, and that was going to be a bitch to get right all the way across the country.