Secret Obsession

by D. M. Mortier

  The doctor swallowed to cover his nervousness. “Your wife suffered a slight concussion.”

  Colt’s frown deepened. “Yes, I suspected as much since she lost consciousness and hasn’t regained it yet.”

  The doctor nodded and then said, as though he were in a bit of rush, “She’s also about two months pregnant.”

  Colt was initially stunned, and then he smiled. The thought of Imani swollen with his child suddenly had him deliriously happy. Wait, why is this damn doctor acting weird? “Is she okay? The baby’s okay, right?”

  “Yes, yes, all’s okay. I just wasn’t sure you were aware of the situation.”

  Colt wanted to smack the man. He was pretty sure that the doctor’s skepticism had a lot to do with him stereotyping Imani as a scamming young woman and Colt as the dumb white husband. Was this the bullshit Imani had to deal with from prejudiced assholes? He fought the urge to pop the fuck out of the doctor and contented himself by giving him a death stare that had the doc taking two fearful steps back. “Although we’d never used contraception, neither Imani nor I was aware of our baby.”

  “Oh”—the doctor cleared his throat—“well, congratulations. Mrs. Ragnarson hasn’t gained consciousness yet, but I’m sure you can go in to see her now.”

  Colt grunted, letting the bastard know that he didn’t appreciate his bullshit.

  The doctor paled and took another step back.

  After gaining directions to Imani’s room, Colt was almost sprinting to get there.

  While he waited for her to wake up, he couldn’t take his gaze away from her face. She’d become his whole world in such a short time, and he had no idea what he would’ve done if she’d been killed. Holding her smaller hand within his, he vowed right then that he would do whatever it took to keep her safe from the sick bastards sure to come after her for her knowledge.

  Imani woke three weeks later.

  There was no fanfare or particular sound that woke her up. One moment there was nothing, and then the next, her senses were alert to everything around her. It was perplexing, however, that she couldn’t move a muscle, not even the tiny muscle to open her eyelid.

  There was a television in the background. It was CNN with Anderson Cooper as the anchor. She wanted to smile because if there was a voice she didn’t mind waking up to, it was his. She’d had a crush on him since like forever. He was so cute in a super geeky way.

  And next came the smell. Oh God, if she could bottle that shit up, she would. It was Colt. His fresh male scent and strong arms were wrapped around her like a blanket. In her mind, she snuggled closer against him, but in reality, she hadn’t moved. She was paralyzed in body but was quite alive in mind.

  It seemed that he was reclining on a bed and held her against him.

  Was she dead then? This was her own personal version of heaven, and she couldn’t imagine anything more perfect. She raked her brain to try remembering. The last thing she remembered was the building rising up to meet the jet. Obviously, the plane had crashed, and now she was in heaven. It was nice to know that she’d not screwed up too much and had made the heaven-bound cut. Again, she had that inner-smile thing going on.

  “You would’ve loved what I did to that creep lawyer today,” Colt was saying softly. “The bastard had the nerve to try convince me that it was a good thing that they fired Louisa.”

  Imani frowned in her mind. Apparently, Colt had been speaking to her about his case for a while. She struggled to make sense of what Colt was telling her. So this was not heaven. Why was she unable to move, unable to speak? She started to panic, her breathing grew labored and her heart rate accelerated. What the hell was going on? The sound of Colt’s voice penetrated and immediately soothed her.

  “Louisa worked for that damn company for thirty years. She started right of high school, got an undergraduate degree in marketing and a master’s in business while raising seven children. The woman is damn amazing. Do they recognize this? No.”

  She exhaled out, and it was still disconcerting that her mind conjured the exhale. She felt the relief of it, but she was unable to show this outwardly.

  “To save a couple of pennies in their healthcare costs, they are claiming that her job is redundant. The assholes didn’t even bother to hide the fact that they’d already hired someone else for the job, only calling it a different name. When I showed that in court today, and the fact the Louisa’s youngest son has been diagnosis with stage two cancer, the jury took less than an hour to convict Spielman’s of wrongful termination. The judge will be forced to assess a severe punitive fine.” Colt chuckled

  He went on to tell her different events of his day, and Imani fell asleep with the comforting sound of his voice.

  She next woke again to rough hands turning and twisting her none too gently. As soon as she was able to move her hand, she was going to slap the snot out of this person. It felt as though ten hands were pulling at her and scrubbing cold soapy water all over her body.

  “I can’t believe she has so much muscle tone after all this time,” a female voice said snidely.

  “Yeah, well, when you have a rich husband who can pay for round-the-clock nurses and a physical therapist for daily exercises…” another voice muttered.

  Are these the people tasked with taking care of me?

  Despite their clear distain for their task, and apparently wealthy people, Imani’s only complaints about them were the inappropriate and embarrassing scrutiny of her body and the overzealous dedication to getting her clean.

  “He’s one fine man, though.” One of the women giggled.

  “Yes, Lord, he is,” the other woman cooed. “He seems to love her.”

  “He loves that baby she’s carrying.”

  Say what?!?!

  “Could be. But if that was true, why does he spend so much time with her?”

  “He’s making sure his baby is being taken care of.”

  Imani discounted the women’s skepticism. Colt had held her last night. They weren’t there to hear him or to feel how he held her. After last night, Imani had no doubt about Colt’s feelings for her.

  The two women completed her bath, which was more like a scrub down, applied lotion to her body, which she could smell was her favorite perfumed body crème, and dressed her in shorts and a T-shirt.

  The women hadn’t been gone ten minutes before another woman came in to do exactly as the other women alluded to. And the gossiping witches hadn’t been wrong either. The physical therapist seemed to be a masochist. She pulled, stretched, twisted, and bent Imani’s body beyond physical pain.

  Imani screamed her head off! Too bad no one heard her or saw her flaying about in distress. She passed out after an hour and a half in that torture chamber.

  When next she woke, she was again being washed. If she thought the women had been harsh before, this was the exact opposite. Someone was gentle, softly soothing her skin with a bath sponge. Gone were the derogatory comments. In fact, there were no words at all, only soft music playing in the background. Imani was puzzled and wondered if perhaps Colt had caught them mistreating her. And then she realized that the hands that touched her were bigger, rougher, and made her flesh tingle with awareness. It was Colt. His every touch held such tenderness and love that she wanted to weep with overwhelming emotion. And then he lifted her into his arms and placed her slowly onto the bed.

  “Sweetheart open your beautiful eyes for me,” he whispered as he pulled a soft gown over her head. “I miss your smile, miss your loving, baby.” He chuckled and kissed her forehead and her nose. “I even miss your telling me to go to hell when I piss you off.” He kissed her lips with a feather-light touch of his hard lips to hers.

  She longed for the taste of him, but as with the rest of her body, she couldn’t open her lips to achieve it.

  “Who’s going to teach our kid to be a super cool geek, baby?” Colt continued talking to her as he moved about the room. From the sounds he made, it seemed that h
e was cleaning up after her bath. Soft music continued to play.

  He suddenly turned up the sound of music so that it resounded throughout the room. He then sat in the bed and pulled her against him as the soulful sound of Kem’s, “It’s You,” filled the room. Holding her head against his chest, he stroked her hair and hugged her close as he sang along with a deep baritone voice.

  Her heart melted, and she found it difficult to breathe. She had no idea he could sing or that he would know soul songs like this.

  He crooned along with the song, singing about how she was the love of his life.

  She fell in love all over again as he serenaded her.

  “Wake up for me, baby,” he murmured when the song came to an end. He buried his face in her hair and breathed her in.

  Imani never wanted it to end, but soon her body betrayed her, and sleep muted her world. She next woke to Anderson Cooper again and Colt telling her about his day while holding her. It was then she was able to map out the times of the world around her. The Anderson Cooper feature being played was the midnight re-broadcast, the women came to bathe her around eight thirty in the morning, her torture physio was around ten, the doctor came sometime in the afternoon, and her favorite time was Colt bathing, petting her, and declaring his love with a new song, which he sang along with after each bath. She would sleep and then would wake up again to Anderson Cooper and Colt. If she didn’t have the daytime to get through and the inability to make love to Colt, she’d never want to get up.

  She lost count of the days.

  Imani tried every time she woke to move, to show Colt she was trying. Especially when she started feeling flutters of the baby’s movements. She tried in earnest then. One night, after her bath, he played their wedding song for her. Not only did the baby start moving vigorously then but tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.

  “Oh my God, baby! Can you hear me?” He was beside himself with excitement and immediately called the doctor.

  Imani was pissed on Colt’s behalf when the doctor came and very dismissively told Colt that it was her body’s involuntary reaction. Nothing to get excited about. And just to spite the doctor, she kept up the waterworks and wanted to grin when, as soon as the doctor left, Colt whispered, “Don’t worry, baby. I know it’s your way of telling me that you can hear me. That asshole’s days are numbered.”

  Imani got to try out her newfound ability the next day with the nurses who bathed her. It freaked them out.

  “Do you think she can hear us?” one of them asked.

  “I don’t know, but I think we need to take care of this pretty little lady.”

  Imani wanted to laugh. Did they really think they could fool her and get in her good graces now after their treatment of her? She couldn’t wait to wake properly and smack the crap out of them.

  The nurses immediately started treating her more carefully, and all of the disparaging comments about her and Colt stopped.

  The tears didn’t work on the physical therapist, however. Instead, the more she cried, the more the therapist pushed and stretched her.

  “Good! Good girl, Imani. The more you feel, the more you’ll want to get off your ass. Come now, get up and show me that temper I’ve heard so much about.”

  By the time the therapist was done with her, she needed another bath and her hair needed washing, as it was wet with her tears.

  The nurses washed her hair and left it to dry naturally.

  Imani was surprised by the length. Her hair was now almost to her waist in wild curls.

  She didn’t sleep for long this time and woke before Colt came to her for the evening bath. She listened intently wondering what woke her up. And then the sound came again. Someone was in the room with her.

  “I still can’t believe he married you,” Sarah murmured bitterly. “But to be having a child with you like this? You’re not even alive. This is fucking ridiculous!”

  Imani knew that Sarah hated her now and wanted Colt for herself. How did she think to convince Colt to want her? Besides, she should be also ready to give birth with Anthony’s baby. Sarah was nuts if she thought Colt would ever go there with her.

  “If you and this brat were no longer here, that would give me a chance. I changed my mind about giving up my baby when I saw how Colt was going on about your baby. I’m sure now that I can convince him to be a father to my baby. And I can convince him that I am a better fit for him than you’d ever be.” Sarah’s voice sounded strained, as though she’d bent to pick up something heavy. “I’m sure he’ll mourn you because he’s a nice guy. But I promise, I’ll be here to fill the void, give him solace. We’ll go back to being the close family we used to be before you.”

  Imani felt Sarah hovering over her.

  “Should I say you fell from the bed?” Sarah asked as though she were asking someone to pass the pepper. She started pushing Imani from the bed.

  Imani tried with everything in her to gain some strength in her arms to stop Sarah, to scream for help, anything, but again nothing. She knew that she was in her and Colt’s super-king bed, which was at least three feet from the floor. She needed her body to cooperate with what her brain was saying. Come on Imani, stop being a wuss! The baby could get hurt from a fall like this! Move, dammit! Still her body didn’t respond.

  And then Sarah succeeded!

  Imani felt only air under her. She was falling! In a last-ditch effort, she forced her arms out and braced for impact from the fall.

  ***

  “What the hell are you doing in here, Sarah?” Colt walked deeper into room and frowned at his ward, who was draped over his and Imani’s bed. “Where’s Imani?”

  “I just came in here to see how she was doing. But I didn’t see her,” Sarah finished hurriedly.

  “Listen, Sarah, I don’t have time to deal with you right now. I have to find Imani.” Colt turned to leave the room again. He was puzzled by where she could be. The nurses knew his schedule with Imani. They knew better than to fuck with him when it came to his time with his wife.

  “Colt,” a voice called weakly.

  “Imani?” Colt sprinted toward the voice. He was afraid to believe what his ears were hearing, and his heart was hoping for. “Imani?” he called again as he reached the other side of the bed and saw her sprawled on the carpeted floor. “Hey, baby, what’re you doing down there?” He lifted her in his arms.

  Sobbing in distress, she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him as though he were her lifeline.

  “It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you,” he said soothingly. Colt sat on the bed and placed her in his lap.

  She curled herself into a ball and snuggled against him.

  He roamed his palm over her body, wanting to assure himself that physically she was fine. “How are you, baby?” He delivered brief light kisses to her forehead, nose, cheek, and then finally to her lips.

  She whimpered softly.

  Colt groaned at the sheer bliss of having her arms around him. He buried his head in the warm cavity of her neck.

  “Sarah,” she mumbled after a while.

  “Yes, Sarah’s right here, baby.” Colt tightened his arms around her. He didn’t even want to look up from his now favorite spot to see where Sarah was.

  But then Imani decided to move and dislodge his spot.

  “Sarah?” Imani’s voice had risen in volume, and she turned to look around him, forcing Colt to also look at his ward, who hovered at the door as if to make a hasty exit.

  “Don’t worry, baby. She’s still here.”

  “She tried to kill me and the baby.” Imani gazed up at him with wet angry eyes

  “What?” Colt stood with Imani still in his arms. “You did what?!?!”

  “Colt! She’s lying!” Sarah looked at Imani with pure hatred. “I would never do such a thing. She’s just trying to cause trouble between us.”

  “I’m going to kick her ass.” Imani slumped against him tiredly. She’d lost consciousness
again.

  “Colt, I didn’t do anything!”

  “You’d better be grateful I have to take care of Imani right now.” Colt placed Imani on their bed and then lifted the phone to call the doctor. He paused and gave Sarah a hard stare. “Go home to Tony and your kid. I told you already to not come to this house again until my wife invites you.”

  “Don’t do this, Colt. Please believe me! I love you!”

  “Do you need an escort? Because I can get my security team in here to assist you.”

  “Colt, please. You’ve known me all my life. She just came here.”

  Instead of calling the doctor, Colt called Mark.

  Sarah continued pleading her case, and Colt ignored her as he finally called Imani’s doctor. In less than two minutes, Mark, along with another security guard, came and removed Sarah from the room. She was screeching loudly by the time the men got her out in the hall, causing Imani to wake up in confusion. However, she was still so weak from her sustained illness that she immediately went back to sleep.

  Colt was gratified to see that Imani was now sleeping peacefully. Within the hour, the doctor had come and examined her and was also pleased by her now restful state.

  Colt had the whole house in an uproar. He made the cook prepare Imani’s favorite meal of filet mignon, roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli. The housekeeper and her staff had to clean the bedroom and bathroom. Colt sat in an armchair next to the bed and impatiently waited for her to wake after he’d run her a warm bath and laid out a silk ivory gown for her to wear. He was almost tempted to shake her awake, but then she opened her eyes, stared up at him in initial confusion, and croaked out, “Water please.”

  Colt’s grin spread across his face. He had her bathed, fed, and in bed again, wrapped in his arms, over the next few hours.

  “Where’s my song?” Imani mumbled as she snuggled against him.

  “Song?” Colt was so happy to have her alive and well in his arms that he couldn’t stop smiling. However, he was still puzzled by her sudden demand for a song.