Unwrapped, p.1
Unwrapped, page 1
Are you ready for sexy firefighters, dirty doctors, and hot cops?
Do you wish Grey’s Anatomy and Chicago Fire were available all year-round and could be read whenever you wanted?
Me too! I took all your favorite TV fire/police/medical drama tropes and gave you the addictive plot twists, sexy times, and drama you are dying for. (I’m a real doctor so it’s more legit!)
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Catch up with your favorite couples as the ladies of MetroGen After Hours and MetroGen Scandals for a holiday season full of fake weddings, sexy drama, and plot twists you never saw coming during your Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Good Kwanza wedding shower…
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(Note from Carina: you haven’t read a single MetroGen After Hours book, you’ll enjoy yourself more if you start at the beginning with Volatile: A Steamy Grumpy Sunshine Small Town Medical Romance available in KU today! )
Unwrapped
A Steamy Holiday Romance
Carina Alyce
Contents
YOUR FREE GIFT
Previously on MetroGen After Hours
Cast of Characters
Part I
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part II
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Part III
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Part IV
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue I
Also by Carina Alyce
Afterword
About Carina Alyce
Need more MetroGen STAT
YOUR FREE GIFT
There’s a naked ER doctor in her shower promising her screaming orgasms. Should she say ‘yes?’ As if that’s a question . . .
You will need a fan because this is get-naked-burn-down-the-building scorching hot!
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Get a free copy of the sexiness at
Wanted: A Steamy Medical Romantic Short
carinaalyce.com/hot-treat-for-you
Scan below to grab your copy!
For my fan club and their best birthday card ever!
Previously on MetroGen After Hours
Carina Alyce’s MetroGen Downtown books encompass the Medical, Fire, and Police heroes of Cuyahoga County and their complicated love lives with the steam and the drama of your favorite TV shows. Everyone needs a hot protective hero falling for a strong woman with goals.
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MetroGen After Hours tells the secret past of MetroGen Hospital, and what sacrifices were made before the series MetroGen Scandals.
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Volatile starts you out when nurse/part-time arson investigator Jennifer Bayani gets exiled to small town USA where she’s following up on a set of suspicious fires. Getting cuffed by Deputy Brandon Smythe, tattooed and so surly hot, is not one of her goals.
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Burn Card follows grumpy Fire Captain James Haskell on what is supposed to be a weekend of firefighter business in Las Vegas. Things change when he crashes into the Vegas B4 Vows Bachelorette party and his secret crush - his next-door neighbor, Caroline Peters.
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Roulette happens during Burn Card at the Vegas B4 Vows Bachelorette party when superfans ER doctor Ryan Yates and NICU nurse Kyra Washington find they have perfect chemistry and make a bet on their future - that they can live together without sex. . .
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Tempted pushes Lieutenant Fabian Santos to face the one that got away - Cassie Odon from Vegas B4 Vows. He’s waited long enough and nothing will keep him from coming for her - not hell or high water.
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Sampled spins its own steamy tale on the other side of Tempted with Firefighter Royce Murphy from Firehouse 19 as he bumps into college student Vandy Patel. She could learn to loosen up, and a night of skinny-dipping with sex on the beach is just the beginning.
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Matched moves onto the medical students of MetroGen where Nora Borenstein has met her match in the mysterious and handsome Barak Perez. Unfortunately, he might be a lying international super-spy assassin which could be a problem for the woman with the perfect memory.
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Wrapped Up leads our previous After Hours couples on a hot holiday adventure bringing you up to speed on who’s still together, who didn’t make it, and who’s gonna pop the question.
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(Includes special appearances the super HOT MetroGen Heat series including, Stella from Unchecked who doesn’t know who her baby daddy is - out of three doctors, and Sean from Guarded Royce’s police officer brother who likes to be tied down. You’ll even catch a bonus scene from one of the After Hours prequels Wildcat: A Steamy Opposites Attract Football Romance!)
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Get ready because there’s steam, secrets, lies, and betrayals ahead. . .
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(And by the way, the MetroGen Chaplain might be the one who actually knows which doctors deserve a lump of coal this year . . .)
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Don’t miss the whole series!
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Volatile: A Steamy Grumpy Sunshine Small Town Medical Romance
Burn Card: A Steamy Grumpy Sunshine Firefighter Romance
Roulette: A Steamy Opposites Attract Vegas Medical Romance
Sentinel: A Steamy Grumpy Sunshine Medical Romance
Tempted: A Steamy Friends to Lovers Firefighter Romance
Sampled: A Steamy Opposites Attract Medical Romance
Matched: A Secrets and Lies Medical Romantic Suspense
Wrapped Up: A Steamy Holiday Romance
Enamored: A Steamy Valentine’s Day Romance
Unwrapped: A Steamy Holiday Romance
Live Wire: A Steamy Friends to Lovers Firefighter Romance
Wildcat: A Steamy Opposites Attract Football Romance
Embers: A 9/11 Romantic Suspense
Cast of Characters
MetroGen Hospital
Elizabeth Kandal – general surgeon at MetroGen
Kayla Varma – pulmonologist, Elizabeth’s sister
Cassie Odon - ER desk clerk
Dr. Ryan Yates – ER doctor, married to Kyra
Cuyahoga Combined Fire Department
Leslie McClunis – Battalion Chief CCFD
Jennifer Smythe – Geauga County Fire Chief/Fire Marshal/Nurse
Kyra Yates – nurse-paramedic for the CCFD, Cassie’s best friend, married to Ryan
Francis Witte – assistant to CCFD head of PR Hannah Fitzpatrick
Unwrapped
Past tense verb
To have removed an injury/object from a covering
To have revealed a previously hidden convoluted problem
-Netter’s Medical Dictionary
Part One
The Week Before Christmas
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
The holidays are here! We’ve got snow. We’ve got ice. We’ve got more snow. A perfect time to get together with your family for a nosh and to talk about the goings on.
Like the latest on The Wedding.
Only six weeks away.
And opening presents.
Chapter 1
For her entire life, Cassie Odon had prided herself on her sense of humor and can-do-attitude. She was the front desk clerk of the hugely busy MetroGen hospital emergency room. The people who came in—with the problems they brought—you really had to go with the punches.
And she was dating a crazy hot firefighter, Fabian Santos, for over one year now. She was used to irregular schedules; him showering her house in ash and dirt, and long, loving talks about his favorite axe with the rest of his other firefighting friends. While he’d moved in two months ago, and had yet to unpack, she tolerated his giant piles of stuff on most surfaces with a smile.
Yet her patience was being sorely tested by the Odon family holiday party.
Her parents got tired a few years back of trying to balance the out-of-state family and the in-towners for a Christmas dinner. They gave up and declared Christmas lunch for any comers the weekend before Christmas. If you could make it, you did, regardless of how far flung you happened to be from the family.
Cassie vowed to never bring a man to her family’s annual Christmas lunch unless she was married with at least four kids.
Bringing Fabian had clearly been a mistake due to the constant stream of well-meaning—meddling—relatives pretending to need her help. In reality, these tasks were ruses to interrogate her about her life choices and where she and Fabian stood.
Each meeting was worse, especially since her parents had already asked the same questions of her.
“Are you going to college yet?”
“No.”
(Your
“Have you gotten promoted yet?”
(See the above response. Desk clerks don’t have a promotion track.)
“How long have you and firefighter been dating?”
“Over a year.”
(Your sister’s been married six years with kids. Your brother eight years with kids too. Loser.)
“And you’re not pregnant?”
“No.”
(Cue drinking a big gulp of the mystery mistletoe punch.)
“Why hasn’t he put a ring on it yet?”
“All in good time.”
(Smile hard to ignore the suggestion you should have gotten pregnant because you’re not good enough to keep him on your lonesome.)
She resorted to sending her best friend Kyra increasingly desperate texts.
Cassie: Back up, STAT. This is a five alarm emergency.
Kyra: Aren’t you at the family Christmas party?
Cassie: YES. I’ve been asked if I’m pregnant three times.
“Oh, Cassie. Can you help me stack these presents?” her Aunt Paris called out.
Which was how Cassie found herself cornered by yet another well-meaning auntie by marriage (or no longer marriage) who wanted to discuss her future plans.
Cassie: I need a STAT general surgery consult for an aunt-ectomy. SAVE ME.
Kyra: Find Fabian.
That was a great idea, because across the house, she saw Fabian in deep conversation with Uncle Raymond.
Oh no. Uncle Raymond was slightly eccentric, and he had his phone out.
Cassie: He’s with Uncle Ray.
Kyra: Is he showing the moles?
As a best friend, Kyra had been at this party more than once. Uncle Ray had cornered her to show her an exhaustive collection of his multiple moles—since she was a nurse.
Lucky Kyra had gotten married and thus allowed to avoid the party.
Chapter 2
“Uncle Raymond, I see you met Fabian,” Cassie approached, and her uncle guiltily put his phone away. Most members of the family usually stopped him before he shared his latest hobby.
“Hey, paixão.” Fabian put his arm around her, kissing her cheek.
Only Fabian could make an overly loud red Christmas sweater look hot due to the muscles Cassie knew were underneath. She’d deliberately chosen not to coordinate with him, lest they give off the weird ‘pod people’ matchy vibe that weird, out to prove themselves couples tended to trot out.
“Nice guy you have here,” Uncle Ray backed off quickly. “Gotta catch up with your mom. Besides, Mel is here.”
Cassie watched him go as Fabian asked, “Who’s Mel?”
“His ex. What did he show you? I’m sorry if it was his moles.”
“I missed moles?” Fabian let his hand fiddle with the passionflower necklace he’d given her last Christmas. “What’s a family party without moles?”
“Kyra vowed never to come back.” Cassie glanced up at him. “What was he showing you?”
“His possessed cricket collection.”
“What? Did you say ‘cricket collection?’”
“‘Possessed cricket collection. If I followed his line of reasoning, he believes the movie Cloverfield is based on the encoded messages from Pinocchio.” Fabian lifted his hands in a helpless gesture.
“Cloverfield? Is that a place?” Cassie couldn’t follow this line of reasoning.
“It’s a horror movie. New York is destroyed by a praying mantis-cricket alien. I have the DVD.” Fabian had pretty eclectic taste in movies.
“Of course you do. If only we had a DVD player, instead of stacking them around the house.”
“Look, paixão. I can just order us a DVD player, and then we can watch—”
“No. We don’t need a DVD player too. But let me get this straight. Uncle Ray showed you pictures of dead crickets?” Cassie’s family was not showing their best side today.
“He has a few thousand. I guess he feels Jiminy Cricket isn’t letting his conscience be his guide.”
“We have to leave. Now.”
Cassie: Ray has photos of dead crickets. HELP!
“Why? I’m having a good time.” Fabian frowned at her. “I didn’t think I’d miss my family this much when they left the country.”
Fabian’s sisters had remote tech jobs and his parents were retired. When he’d told her his ‘people’ were tropical people, he hadn’t been joking.
“We zoomed them.”
“It’s not the same,” Fabian said, though a three-month trip to Brazil wasn’t possible for a working firefighter. “How are you doing?”
“Still a failure. Can we leave?” Cassie asked.
“How can you be a failure?”
She didn’t get a chance to answer because Uncle Ray hadn’t been lying. Auntie Mel was bearing down on them, intent on getting more intel.
Stepping up to them, Auntie Mel’s eyes lit up with interest. “So, this is Fabian. The firefighter.”
“Lieutenant Fabian Santos, at your service, ma’am.” He gave her a little tilted bow without removing his arm from Cassie. “You are?”
“Cassie’s Aunt Mel. I was with Uncle Raymond a while ago,” she said.
It was interesting how she stated that since they’d dated fifteen years ago and had two kids, before she’d cheated and moved to Detroit for a while. She was still invited every year and showed up when she felt like it.
Uncle Ray disliked her enough at this point, even he wasn’t going to show her cricket pictures—though Cassie admitted Mel had one of those sharp, pointed faces that reminded one of a praying mantis.
Or cricket.
“Oh, I met him. Nice guy. Had a good talk,” Fabian said pleasantly.
“Right. Now that Cassie’s introduced you to the family, is she going over to the Santos’s this year?”
“Not this year. My parents and sisters are in Brazil for the winter.”
“It’s summer there,” Cassie said. “I’ve already met his family.”
Via Zoom, but that counted.
“Why aren’t you two in Brazil then?” Mel suggested, a thinly veiled comment that Cassie and Fabian weren’t solid enough.
“Firehouse 10 and the ER need us for the holidays,” Fabian said. “I’m working Christmas and Cassie’s working the day shift starting on Christmas Eve.”
“They’d better pay you extra,” Mel huffed. “It’s wrong for a couple to put their jobs first.”
“We’ll make up for it the next week,” Cassie said.
“The two of us home together,” Fabian seconded.
“Oh, you two live together?”
“Hey, Fabian, did you try Uncle Jackson’s sweet potato pie?” Cassie decided she was done with this line of questioning—again.
