LOGINIvy Reyes marries a billionaire stranger to save her sister’s life — two years, one contract, and one rule: never fall in love. But Julian Cade isn’t the cold heir the tabloids describe, and every wall between them keeps quietly falling. When a jealous cousin and a father who won’t stay dead threaten everything, they must decide if forbidden love is worth the risk.
View More“Dok, jangan kenceng-kenceng! Aku udah basah ih!”
Pintu berbunyi klik. Kunci berputar dari dalam. Seorang dokter senior melangkah masuk sambil menarik lengan seorang koas. Karin menatap mereka. Mulut Karin terbuka. Ia mengambil ancang-ancang untuk teriak dan lari. Namun tiba-tiba, tanpa ia sadar, seorang pria tampan dan tegap tiba-tiba menarik pinggang Karin. Tangan pria itu membekap mulut Karin dan tubuhnya menekan tubuhnya. Mereka berhimpitan dan berpelukan. “Shhhhhttt jangan lari!” bisik Arlan, nama pria itu. Sontak saja Karin makin gelagapan, pria yang menahannya itu adalah Arlan Pradipta. Tepatnya, dr. Arlan Pradipta, Sp.OG-KFER,M.Kes. Ia terkenal dingin, selalu menyulitkan koas dan terkenal dengan kesempurnaannya. Dan, tentu saja, semua orang tahu betapa mengerikan jika berada satu ruangan bersamanya. Apalagi… dalam pelukannya! “Aku sudah tidak sabar memilikimu!” Kata-kata sang dokter senior itu segera membuat Karin sadar kembali. “I–itu, dr. Mikael…” Dokter senior itu segera saja mencium bibir koas yang ia giring masuk. Terdengar decak dari tautan bibir mereka. Karin menahan napas di celah balik lemari. Mata Arlan menatap wajah Karin ketika wajah wanita itu kehilangan warna. Dada Karin naik-turun menabrak dada Arlan. Keringat menetes di pelipis Karin. Tangan Arlan menetap di mulut Karin. “Sudah, Dok! Ahhhh nanti ada orang. Dokter nakal ihhh,” ucap koas itu. Ini sering terjadi terjadi. Orang-orang sering melakukan hal ini saat jam jaga malam di ruangan spesialis. Suara-suara desahan selalu menyela waktu istirahat Karin. Karin mengepalkan tangan. Kukunya menekan telapak tangan. "Sialan!" desis Karin. Desahan terdengar. “Ahhhh. Enak banget Dok, punya Dokter besar banget. Eumphhh!” Tapi bukan itu yang sekarang membuat Karin bingung. Dia penderita Haphephobia dan sekarang dia bisa baik-baik saja dipeluk oleh Konsulennya. Seharusnya perut Karin mual. Seharusnya kulitnya meremang dan napasnya tercekat akibat serangan panik, reaksi tubuhnya setiap kali kulitnya bersentuhan dengan manusia lain. Namun, terkurung di antara dinding lemari dan dada bidang Arlan, penyakitnya itu seolah lenyap. “Hemm, cepet banget sih padahal aku masih mau dok,” ucap koas itu setelah mereka menyelesaikan percintaan dengan cepat. “Aku masih ada operasi malam ini, besok malam tunggu aku lagi, kita main lebih lama.” “Oke, sayang. Muaaah.” Setelah mereka selesai, ruangan itu kembali sepi dan tidak dikunci. Arlan cepat-cepat mengajak Karin untuk keluar dari ruangan. “Kau tidak akan bicara tentang malam ini pada siapapun, kan?” tanya Arlan dengan ketus. “Nggak dok,” jawab Karin sambil menggigit kuat bibirnya. Karin masih ingin selesai kuliah kedokteran dan mungkin Arlan tidak tahu, setelah ini Karin masuk stase ditempatnya. “Bagus!” Dengan santai Arlan meninggalkan Karin tanpa merasa berdosa mendekapnya selama itu, tubuh mereka berhimpitan, jantung mereka sama-sama berdebar dan Karin bisa merasakan itu. “Kenapa aku nggak ketakutan dipeluk olehnya, ya?” Karin bukan main herannya, Tidak seharusnya dia kuliah kedokteran dengan penyakit yang dideritanya seperti ini. Haphephobia. Orang lain mungkin menganggapnya lucu tapi tidak untuk Karin, ini seperti Bom waktu yang kapan saja bisa meledak dan membuatnya hancur. *** “Ginekologi,” gumamnya sambil merapikan buku-buku di ruang istirahat Internal Medicine, Karin baru saja melewati stase itu dan sekarang dia harus beralih ke bagian Ginekologi. Membayangkannya saja sudah menakutkan. Dan Karin baru saja bertemu dengan Konsulennya. “Dia biasa aja lihat gituan, seolah gak terjadi apapun. Jangan sampai dia sama seperti dr. Mikael,” gumam Karin. Karin memasang earphone di telinganya cepat-cepat dan berlari dari ruangan itu. Malam ini Karin berjaga sampai pagi, dia mulai membuat daftar visit. Di stase ini, Karin harus berjuang keras. Ini adalah ujian sesungguhnya. “Dokter, ada pasien pendarahan Dok, cuma Dokter yang lagi jaga,” ucap perawat saat Karin baru saja masuk. Karin menelan salivanya dan melirik ke arah pasien, dia bergegas menuju ke pasien sambil bertanya ke perawat yang berjaga. “Sejak kapan pendarahannya?” tanya Karin sambil menggunakan sarung tangan lateksnya. “Sudah dari satu jam yang lalu Dokter,” jawab perawat dengan cepat. “Dokter sakit banget Dokter, aku udah ngak tahan,” keluh pasien dengan keringat yang bercucuran sedangkan Karin pun ikut panik. Penyakitnya kambuh, memikirkan harus menyentuh pasien dengan tangannya, membuat Karin membeku. Tapi kenapa, tadi dia berpelukan dengan dr. Arlan. Karin tidak mempermasalahkan itu. “Dokter kenapa kau diam? Anakku sudah kesakitan!” Teriak orang tua pasien. Karin tidak ada pikiran untuk menyentuh organ intim pasien karena Karin sudah mulai gemetar, dia panik, gelisah dan berkeringat hebat. Berulang kali Karin melirik ke perawat dan perawat juga merasa bingung dengan sikap Karin. Karin mundur selangkah demi selangkah. Karin tidak bisa menutupi rasa paniknya, dia harus menyentuh pasien itu. Memikirkannya saja sudah membuat Karin gila. “Aku gak bisa,” gumam Karin dalam hati. “Aku gak sanggup, aku bener-bener gak bisa.” Karin menggigit kuat bibir bawahnya sementara pasien dan keluarganya menunggu Karin melakukan sesuatu. “Dokter, ayoooo cepat! Sakit dokter, sakit banget. Toloongggg!!!”# Chapter Seventy: Ivy and WestonWeston raised an eyebrow, something guarded but genuinely curious in his expression. "And what exactly do we have in common, Ms. Reyes?""We've both spent our lives being underestimated by people who had more power than they deserved," Ivy said, plain. "You, by an uncle who decided, arbitrarily, that you weren't worth investing in, and spent twenty years proving it through every small, cruel withholding he could manage. Me, by every kitchen I ever worked in that assumed a line cook from Queens couldn't possibly know more about food than the men footing the bill. I understand what it feels like to spend years trying to prove you deserve something, only to watch it handed to someone else simply because of who they happened to be born to."Something shifted in Weston's carefully composed expression — a flicker of surprise, then something more guarded, wary of where this was headed."I'm not here to ask you to feel sorry for me," Ivy continued. "I'm here
# Chapter Sixty-Nine: Personal NowThe weekend conversation Ivy and Julian had planned got delayed by a single day — not by either of them, but by a call from Harriet on Friday afternoon that arrived with the particular tight urgency Ivy had learned, over the past year, always meant trouble."Weston's made another move," Harriet said, once Julian had put her on speaker, Ivy close beside him in the quiet penthouse. "Having lost ground with the board on the leadership question, and clearly aware his earlier offer didn't land the way he hoped, he's shifted tactics. My sources indicate he's preparing to leak a different story to the press — not about Desmond's survival this time, but about the genuine romantic relationship between the two of you, framed specifically to embarrass Ivy publicly. Timed, I believe, to coincide with Liwanag's official grand opening next week."Ivy felt her stomach drop. "Embarrass me how?""The angle, as I understand it, is designed to paint you as a calculatin
# Chapter Sixty-Eight: Practical HelpJulian arrived at Liwanag within the hour, still in his work clothes, sleeves already rolling up before he'd even fully crossed the threshold."Priya called," he said, standing a careful, respectful distance from Ivy near the kitchen pass, giving her room to set the terms of this. "She told me about the inspection. I'm not here to fix anything about — about us, tonight. I just wanted to help, if you'll let me. With this specifically."Ivy studied him for a long moment — tired, sincere, none of the careful boardroom polish he sometimes retreated behind, just a man standing in her half-cleaned kitchen offering the one thing he actually knew how to give without it becoming its own kind of overreach."Okay," she said, finally, quiet. "The walk-in needs a new temperature log system, something automated so this doesn't happen again. And the dry storage needs to be fully cleared and treated before Thursday. I don't have the staff to do both properly befo
# Chapter Sixty-Seven: Alone By ChoiceIvy threw herself into Liwanag over the following days, grateful for the restaurant's demanding, unglamorous rhythm as a place to pour the restless, unresolved ache she was carrying — inventory to manage, a new hire to train, a health inspector's routine visit scheduled for later that week that she'd been meaning to prepare for and kept, somehow, not quite getting around to.The inspection, when it finally came, did not go well."Your walk-in's temperature log has three gaps in the past two weeks," the inspector said, unimpressed, marking something on his clipboard. "And I'm seeing some pest evidence near the dry storage that needs immediate remediation. I'm not going to shut you down today, but I'm scheduling a follow-up in five days, and if these issues aren't fully resolved, we will be discussing a suspension."Ivy stood in the middle of her own restaurant, exhaustion and stress crashing over her all at once, the temperature log gaps a direct,






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