Chapter 3

It wasn't like Cuddy to go out to lunch by herself. Sure she'd go to the cafeteria by herself, but never outside the hospital. When all three of House's employees came back reporting that Cuddy wasn't anywhere in the hospital he knew something was up.

He got around the corner just in time to see Cuddy slip into her office. She was out with someone. He could feel it.

"What is it, House?" she asked him, setting her things down. She didn't turn to him. If anything, she was trying to avoid looking at him. She sat down at her desk and began signing a stack of donor forms that seemed to have been placed on her desk while she was out.

"You were out for lunch. It's pretty irresponsible for the Dean to be out while patients' lives are at stake." He heard her sigh with annoyance and smirked. He was getting to her. The ultimate entertainment. Well, except for the part where she comes back with a smart retort to counter his.

"I was having lunch. Last time check, everyone at this hospital is allowed to have a lunch break, including the Dean of Medicine." She flipped through a few pages to find the page to sign her name.

"You never go out alone. Not unless someone goes with you." He took a step closer to her desk.

"So now it's suspicious if I go out to have lunch somewhere other than the cafeteria?" She had finally looked up from her papers.

"No, of course not. It's suspicious when you go alone. Someone as insecure and people hungered as you would go insane if you ate lunch by yourself in a restaurant full of people to judge you."

Cuddy glared in annoyance and glanced away for a moment before looking back up at him, a hint of a smile on her cheeks.

"What I do in my spare time is my business."

"Right. You have to go to a fancy restaurant to use your vibrator. It's a new atmosphere and different scenery so it makes it all the more arousing."

Cuddy's eyes narrowed at the comment and shook her head. "You're unbelievable."

"I'm even more incredible in bed."

"Don't you have someone else to bug?" hissed Cuddy, her temper slowly rising.

"Foreman's getting the test results and I have nothing entertaining to do at the moment."

"You're just itching to have another episode identical to yesterday, aren't you?"

"Now why would I want that?"

"To...annoy me?" She gave up on trying to write her signature with House in her office and placed her chin on her fist, which was resting on her desk.

"There's that…and the fact that you haven't answered my question yet."

"Fine. You want to know the truth? Vogler called and we had lunch." She tilted her head ever so slightly, eyeing him to see if he would actually buy it.

House smirked. "You-" He pointed his finger at her. "You nearly got me there."

"Right. Everything I say is a complete joke if it doesn't make sense to the almighty Gregory House." She shook her head and went back to her papers. "If that's all then leave. Unlike you, I actually do my paper work."

House frowned. Was she kidding or not?

"You're not kidding," he stated.

"Nope."

"Why'd he want to have lunch with you?"

"Don't worry, House. He only asked how you were, not what you do in your spare time." She smiled up at him trying to get him to leave.

House tilted his head but recognized temporary defeat when he saw it and limped out of her office. It couldn't have been a date could it? A simple lunch? Had Cuddy planned on having lunch with him for a while?

So many questions flowed through his mind. He craved answers he knew he wasn't going to get from Cuddy. At least not right now. After all, she was still pissed at him for yesterday. Anyone within a ten mile radius could see she was still mad.

His pager went off. Something was wrong with his patient. House sighed, rubbed a hand over his face and made his way back to the conference room. The ducklings would be back soon and they had to find out what was wrong with this guy.

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The next few days were hectic for the two doctors. House's patient refused to get better while Cuddy was faced with angry clinic patients, impatient donors, and loads of paper work.

It was a Friday afternoon before House finally swung open her office door, not missing the angry glare from the woman behind the pile of paper work that seemed to have taken over her entire desk.

"You do realize that if it weren't for my position as Dean of this hospital and the law that says I'll go to jail for killing a man, I'd be at your throat choking you till you went down to hell and came back, right?" Her voice was monotonous but her eyes and the straight line of her jaw told him just how pissed she really was.

"If it helps, I wasn't the one who broke the MRI machine again. It was one of your other stupid doctors." He could have sworn he heard her teeth grind.

"As you can clearly see, I'm busy. What do you want?"

"Has Vogler called back?" He avoided her gaze.

"What? No. Why?" Her eyes narrowed at him.

"Just wondering." He turned to leave but stopped and looked over his shoulder to face her when she spoke again.

"If you're jealous, don't be. It wasn't a date and it never will be a date." He nodded and turned once again to leave. She watched as he left and limped to the elevator. God the man was infuriating.

Her eyes widened as the very man she never wanted to see again strode to the nurse's desk and asked to see her. The nurse, remembering very clearly who Vogler was, smiled tightly and nodded.

He opened the door to pass through her assistants' office but stopped to start some sort of conversation. By this time, Vogler hadn't seen her watching him, so she ducked her head and pretended to be reading and signing paper after paper.

Her door opened and she looked up, forcing a smile.

"Vogler-"

"Please, Edward." He took a seat across from her.

Cuddy's fake smile broadened slightly. "Edward. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I was just checking up on you. Making sure you don't get away from me for too long." He smiled then and chuckled lightly to make the remark seem 'friendly.'

Cuddy smiled lightly, trying to hide the fact she was extremely uncomfortable. Her heart raced a bit faster as Vogler got up from his chair and leaned in closer, all humor gone from his face. He reached across the desk and cupped Cuddy's face in his hands, firmly pulling her closer to his lips.

Cuddy's gaze watched as his lips came closer to hers. She couldn't move. Oh God, why couldn't she move? Those dark, fat lips came closer, closer, until they were almost touching and Cuddy turned her head away from him and cleared her throat.

"I think you should go," she said quietly. Vogler straightened and nodded, disappointment and rage evident in his eyes.

"Are you free for dinner?" he asked.

"What gave you the impression I wanted to go out with you at all?" she hissed.

"Any woman of your prestige would be begging me to take them out to dinner."

Her sea blue eyes narrowed and hardened with silent rage. "I'm not interested." She turned back to her papers, clearly dismissing him.

Edward Vogler, however, was not a man who took orders from anyone, much like House. Annoyance became evident in his features as he watched her ignore him. He rested both hands on her desk and leaned forward, inhaling her scent, causing her to tense and look up at him.

"You will go out with me tonight. All other meetings can wait. If you have a date, cancel it."

Anger flashed in her eyes. "No. You can't just walk in here, demand I go to dinner with you and then expect me to oblige."

"I have money, Cuddy. Money can get you a lot of things. I want you and I'll do everything I can to ensure you're mine." He said it quietly but firmly.

She stared up at him, her mouth slightly agape. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, much like the style she used coming back from Singapore with House. Her low cut blouse showed more cleavage than she wanted at the moment when his eyes trailed down and rested on her chest.

She cleared her throat and propped her elbows on her desk, causing her arms to shield her cleavage from his roving eyes.

His gaze came sharply back up and met hers. "Wear something fancy," was all he said before turning for the door.

"I'm not going out with you."

He smiled back at her. "We'll see." He exited her office and saluted her assistant before leaving the hospital.

She sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. He had money and he was right; money got you almost anywhere. If she called the police on him, he could easily get out of the situation by bribing the judge, cops and anyone else who tried to get in his way.

And as if God himself hated her, House barged in her office.

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"Consult!" he shouted and stood in front of her desk.

She looked stressed and pissed at once, something usually only he could make her look and feel. Something was wrong. She avoided eye contact, there was slight trembling to her movements and she looked utterly worried about something.

"What's it for?" She quickly glanced up when House didn't give her an answer and sighed when she saw him frowning at her.

He had that look on his face. A look that said he didn't know what was going on but he was going to find out.

He finally answered her. "My patient needs a brain biopsy."

"Fine." She sounded as if she wasn't really listening. "I also need four bottles of Vicodin and you undressed and in my bed." He watched as she put her head in her hands and rubbed the palms of her hands over her eyes.

"Yeah, sure." That proved his theory. A: She wasn't registering a word he was saying and B: Something was seriously wrong for it to interfere with her usual uptight Dr. Cuddy-self. When she still didn't realize what he had said he tried again.

"My place at eight?"

"Uh, fine."

"Cuddy!" he snapped suddenly.

She jumped, eyes alert and more Cuddy-like. "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'? You just agreed to let me have four more bottles of Vicodin and be at my place by eight, in my bed, undressed! If you can't work then go home!" He looked utterly angry.

"I'm fine, House. I'm not going home."

"Then take a damn nap or something."

"Shut up!" she yelled. "Look," she said before taking a deep breath, "right now isn't the time to bother me."

"You need bothering! You can't work. Look at you, your tired and stressed to the point you're not registering what the hell I'm saying to you. You agreed to things you'd never just willingly agree to."

She leveled a glare up at him. "You need to leave."

"And you need to go home."

"I said I'm fine."

"Not by my watch."

"Then get you're damn watch checked."

"Suck up your stupid pride and go home! You can't work like this Cuddy. If you go into a board meeting like this, everyone will suspect something's wrong."

Cuddy got up, a scowl on her face and walked to the door, opening it and looked at him, expecting him to leave. He walked over to the door, took it and slammed it closed. A slight frown crossed her features, her mouth slightly open.

"That was completely uncalled for." She strained to keep her voice under control.

"No, what's uncalled for is you insisting you're okay and ready to work, when I can tell you right now that once I leave, you'll try to work and get about two words in before you're mind travels elsewhere."

"Fine, I'll leave the office. You stay here and be Dean while I play doctor and go handle your patient."

"Cameron won't let you."

"And why's that?"

"She's decided to get close to this patient and won't let anyone but me and my other two lapdogs get close to her."

"I'm the Dean of this hospital, I can do what ever I want." She reminded him. She put her hand on the door knob and was about to open the door but House put his hand on hers, stopping her from opening it.

"Let go, House." she warned.

"Sorry, hand's stuck."

"Damn difficult culprit."

"You forgot to mention bastard, jerk and, my latest favorite, asshole."

"Bastard, jerk, asshole. There, happy now?"

"No."

She sighed, "Fine, I'll take it easy for the day."

"No you won't. You're just saying that so I'll let go and you can lock me out after you push me out the door."

"Yes, House, that's exactly my plan. Now hurry and let go so I can follow up on it." She tried pulling once more.

"Smart ass." He smirked at her.

"Jack ass," she hissed.

"God you're gorgeous when you're angry."

"Don't get any ideas."

"Only in the shower."

She made a sound of disgust earning another smirk from him. "If I go home, then that's risking my life. I could very well get side tracked and crash into a car."

"My golly, you're right. I know what will get you through the day."

"Really?" She put her free hand on her hip and rested all her weight on one leg.

House then let her hand go and stepped a closer to her. She stared up at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

He leaned down to her mouth, brushing his lips against hers. Her eyes fluttered closed but reopened when he pulled away.

"See? Now you're fully awake and about to yell at me."

Just as he predicted, rage filled her eyes and she opened her mouth to yell, scream, anything that would make him cower.

"Oh, look at the time, I'm late getting my patient into the biopsy room." He looked at his imaginary watch and quickly opened the door, limping as fast as he could to the elevator.

She decided not to follow him, it wouldn't do any good. As usual, he was right. She was now fully awake thanks to his 'strategy'. Her lips tingled from the feel of his rough lips brushing against hers. Her upper lip and chin were tingling from his stubble.

Oh boy, this day was going to be interesting. She was just dreading going home and getting a knock on her door at eight o'clock.

She looked at the time and swore when she noted she was going to be late for her board meeting if she didn't leave right now. She gathered the things she needed and walked as fast and graceful as she could to the meeting on the other side of the hospital.

Cuddy tried to ignore the pounding of her heart and the heat of her face when she thought of House and their small exchange in her office. She took a deep breath and walked into the board meeting, ready for a half hour to an hour of debating on another MRI machine or some other contraption that would help more patients.

"Dr. Cuddy, so glad you could join us." She smiled and took her seat and prepared herself for a stressful hour.