The Love Doctors

by Fontaine, Bella

  By the time I got outside, I was happy I’d followed them because it was very clear now that she was definitely in trouble.

  She was crying and tried to scream, but he covered her mouth with his bulky hands. The guy looked like Hulk in the amber lights surrounding the parking lot and the silver of the moon.

  I transformed into the Pitbull when he shoved her hard against the side of a truck and lowered his face to her neck, kissing her hard. That was what they used to call me out on the field. Nothing was faster and tougher than me. While I could run fast, nobody dared stand in my way.

  It was times like these when I ran at speed that the memories would flood my mind of what I used to be and what I’d gone through to run like this again.

  The trucker’s lips must have just brushed the side of her neck when I grabbed him and moved with him to the ground.

  The guy didn’t know what hit him. He actually cried out from the shock. When he saw me, he growled and tried to headbutt me, but not before I did it to him first. His head snapped back, and I thought it would be enough to knock him out, but it wasn’t.

  “Fucking asshole, you’re going to regret that!” he bellowed, rushing forward so hard it knocked me backward.

  Jada screamed as we rolled close to her. I couldn’t spare the second it would take to look at her. I knew if I did, this meathead would pulverize me into the ground and mess me up.

  One hit, a punch to the face, a smack fit in between my nose and my left eye. That was all I allowed him to do to me. All he’d get. Channeling the Pitbull in me, I used my strength and knocked him back to the position I’d previously had him in.

  A one-two punch to his face knocked him right out.

  Actually, it just took the first one. The asshole was heavily intoxicated, so that helped plenty.

  I jumped to my feet feeling the pain lancing through my nose. I knew it wasn’t broken though. It was funny; when you’d had enough body parts break, you knew from the outset when damage was done without the need to go to the hospital.

  I’d had my nose broken six times.

  I turned to face Jada, who was looking at me with tears streaming down her cheeks.

  “Jada, are you okay?” I went up to her.

  She looked at me; it was the first time I’d seen her look weak and vulnerable. Both things that weren’t her.

  She was shaking, shaking so much that when she opened her mouth to speak, her lips trembled and nothing came out.

  “Let me take you home.” I didn’t even know where she lived.

  She brought her hands up to her chest and broke down. “Everything is shit.”

  “Come on, I’ll get you home safe. Will you let me do that?” It was the least I could do, considering I knew I had a massive part to play in that ‘everything is shit’ comment of hers.

  She nodded slowly with caution in her eyes, but at least she was agreeing to come with me.

  “Thank you… for saving me,” she said, pulling in a steady but shaky breath.

  “Don’t mention it.”

  I knew I’d have a great shiner in the morning and look all rough for the show on Friday, but saving her was worth it.

  Chapter 9

  Ivan

  * * *

  Her place was exactly what I’d expected. It was just like her.

  Classy, sexy, and sassy with the neutral undertones set against rose gold and champagne trimmings.

  She fell asleep in the car on the way over, and waking her showed me she was drunk too.

  She was fine when she got into the car, but getting out told me I had to go in with her and make sure the goddess didn’t hurt herself trying to get inside her own house.

  She lived on the south side of L.A., near the woodland area and the lakes.

  It was nice. It was an area I’d looked into way back when. Way back when I I’d met Catherine and thought of us settling down.

  Reminders of the past sometimes made me bitter, although I knew she would hate me to feel that way.

  Jada stumbled as she walked inside her living room. There was nothing there to stumble over other than her feet in those heels.

  Cursing, she took them off and threw them to the side of the room. Then she loosened the band holding her hair up in a ponytail, and all that gorgeous hair came tumbling down her shoulders in luscious waves I would have loved to run my hands through.

  She stopped in the center of the room and looked across the corner, where there was a door.

  “I can’t remember,” she said, shaking her head.

  “What can’t you remember, Jada?”

  “My room. I can’t remember where to find it, and I don’t feel so good.” She placed a hand to her head and swayed like she was going to fall over.

  I caught her as she stumbled again. I had to pick her up and carry her over to the sofa.

  I took off my blazer and grabbed some of the larger cushions near her to prop her up.

  “You…” She pointed at me and shook her head. Hurt filled her eyes.

  “Me.” I pointed to myself and smiled. “What me, Goddess?”

  “Don’t call me that,” she slurred.

  “Why not?”

  “You don’t mean that. You say it to mock me. The universe must be laughing now because you are the worst person to see me like this. I guess we’ll know what tomorrow’s story will be. How Jada Dane got wasted out of her mind. Look at her. How can you take advice from someone like that?” A tear ran down her cheek, and it gripped me right there alongside her words. It was very clear that I’d taken things too far.

  “I’m not going to write that, Jada,” I promised.

  “Psychology is one of the few professions where people are supposed to respect each other. You just wanted to tear me down. Damage my name and all that I’ve built over the years. All for a competition. I didn’t realize that when my clients came to me about bullying, it would happen to me. And like this. You are a complete asshole jerk, Ivan St. James, and I…” She winced and heaved.

  Considering just moments ago, she was unable to walk, I didn’t know where she found the strength to jump up and run toward the kitchen.

  I followed her into the downstairs bathroom, where she got just in time to grab the toilet.

  Right then, I saw her, a complete mess as she threw up, trying to keep her hair out of the toilet bowl and her dress up. Guilt consumed me.

  I kneeled down and held her, smoothing her hair back for her and fixing the straps over her dress so her breasts wouldn’t pop out.

  She just glanced over at me in disbelief when the next wave of sickness seemed to take her. Thank God, I wasn’t the kind of guy to allow vomiting to gross me out because it looked like she’d thrown up everything she’d ever consumed in her life.

  I was more concerned with how frail she appeared after. I got her all cleaned up and guessed where her bedroom must be when I took her upstairs.

  I entered what I called a master queen-sized bedroom, definitely fit for the queen she was. In the center stood a four-poster bed with white nylon curtains that flowed out against the light breeze the door caused as I opened it.

  Plush cream carpet pushed against my feet when I stepped inside. The kind you could sink your toes into.

  She looked smaller when I set her down on the bed.

  I didn’t know what the best thing to do here was, but I knew I couldn’t leave her in here like this by herself, and not in that tight dress that gave a great show of her body.

  I moved over to her wardrobe, opened it, and frowned when I saw more tight dresses. All body cons and pencil skirts, what I called sexy porn librarian shirts, and then there was all this stuff with feathers and fur on it.

  “Jada, don’t you own anything normal?” I turned back to face her.

  “This is fine. This is a Prada original. How dare you insult my clothes?” She lay against the stack of pillows.

  “You go to sleep in your Prada originals?”

  “No.”

  “Do you own a T
-shirt, or bed clothes?”

  “I sleep naked,” she said as simply as if we were talking about the weather.

  Now was not the time for my cock to go hard. She was clearly still intoxicated.

  She closed her eyes and rolled over onto her back.

  I walked over to her and stared down at her beautiful face, which seemed more youthful without her makeup.

  “You can’t sleep naked with me here.” I chuckled.

  “You need to leave.” She turned her back to me now.

  “I probably do, Goddess, but I’m not going anywhere. At least not until I know you’re okay.”

  She turned back to face me. “Why are you helping me?”

  “Because I want to. Part of me wants you to see I’m not a complete jerk.” I meant that.

  She looked at me like she was contemplating something, then her features softened. “My T-shirts are in the walk-in wardrobe.”

  I smiled at her. “Jada Dane has a walk-in wardrobe?”

  “She does. It’s over there.” She pointed to a wooden door.

  I opened it, and the lights automatically came on for me, unleashing a whole other room. It looked like a store. Like I could have walked into one of the designer sections at Nordstrom.

  There was a whole wall for her shoes, then rows of clothes.

  To the left was a shelf for T-shirts and casual wear. The woman lived like a celebrity. It was fascinating, very fascinating, and to my surprise reeled me into wanting to know more about her.

  She seemed to be the kind of woman who loved her stuff, loved being glamorous and the goddess she was, but there was something heartfelt in the way she conducted herself.

  It was that… that was what made me own up to being a jerk. If she were a complete bitch, or rather the kind of person I’d originally perceived her to be, I wouldn’t have felt anything.

  I wouldn’t feel as bad as I did right now.

  I grabbed a long pink T-shirt and went back into the room to her. She was still in the same position, lying on her side, gazing at me with her beautiful brown eyes.

  “I got this. You sure love a lot of pink,” I tried to joke.

  “It’s a good color.” She tried to lift herself up, but her elbows shook.

  I moved over to her and rested my hand on her shoulder. “Let me help you.”

  “Really? So you can write about how I was so wasted I couldn’t change my own clothes? Then there’ll be naked pictures of me all over L.A. No thank you.”

  “Baby, I swear to God, if I get naked pictures of you, they will be for my eyes only.”

  “Ugh, please, just leave me.”

  I rolled my eyes, deciding to take charge when she slipped and fell on her face. This was going to take all night if we were going to keep on like this.

  I went on the bed and slipped my arm around her waist, pulling her to me. She attempted to protest by trying to move my hands, but I didn’t move.

  I slid the zipper down her dress and moved the fabric away from her skin in a way that it still covered her up. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and damn, I tried not to look as I saw the massive swells of the underside of her golden honey breasts, but I couldn’t peel my eyes away.

  Fuck, there really was a first time for everything. This, this version of me taking off a woman’s dress just to be nice in helping her out of her clothes because she couldn’t do it herself.

  Even when down in a mess like this, Jada Dane was still sexy as hell.

  I swallowed hard and pulled the T-shirt over her head, doing the gentlemanly thing by looking away when I caught a slight glimpse of dark caramel-dipped nipples.

  She lay back on the pillows, her back to me. I, however, continued taking the dress off by rolling it down the rest of her. Down past black lace panties that gave a perfect vision of her ass, and down the smoothness of her legs.

  She rolled over and looked at me when I covered her with a blanket.

  “I’m just gonna put this Prada original over here,” I said, pointing to the chair in the corner.

  She watched me while I did that and continued to do so as I walked back around to her. I sat next to her and rested back against the headboard.

  “This is weird,” she breathed.

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I won’t forget my manners and not say thanks. You didn’t have to do any of what you did tonight.” Her eyes looked heavy with sleep.

  “Well, had to do something. Don’t want you hating me more than you already do.”

  “You deserved it.”

  “I’m inclined to agree with you.”

  She shuffled and gazed at me. “Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly grown a heart.”

  “No, it was always there.”

  “You’re kidding me. I would have never thought so. You made me look like the ice queen.”

  I frowned and lowered my head to the pillow next to her, facing her, surprising her.

  “Aren’t you? Principle 8: There’s no such thing as Love at first sight. Do you really believe that?”

  She held my gaze.

  “I used to.”

  “What happened to change your mind?”

  She thought for a moment, then pressed her lips together. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “What if it mattered to me?” I was even more curious than before. As I looked at her, her face only inches away from mine, I realized I was more than fascinated with her. There was something about this woman that got me in a way no one had.

  “It shouldn’t.”

  “And yet somehow, it does.”

  “I think I’ve given you enough ammunition to fire at me. I can’t take any more.”

  “We’re not at work now. This is just us talking, man to Goddess.”

  The hint of a smile pulled at the corner of her pretty mouth. “You keep calling me that, and I’m not sure why.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Tell me what happened to you. I just want to know.”

  She looked more uncomfortable than she’d already looked. “I met the wrong guy. It’s the worst thing ever when that happens, because you think that the risk you took to fall in love means you’ll be forever. Then you find out it’s not true. Then you find out everything was a lie, and you’re so crushed you can’t even pick up the pieces of your own heart. I wrote that book because I don’t want anyone to go through what I did.”

  I was listening and understanding. Hearing her explanation made me feel like more of an ass than I had been to her.

  I’d guessed right, that she’d based her methods on her own heartbreak. Being right didn’t make me feel better. Being right felt stupid and trivial when I thought of all she’d said to me tonight. It was nothing to be proud of.

  I felt worse when a tear ran down her cheek as she closed her eyes.

  Chapter 10

  Jada

  My head…

  God, my damn head felt like it was going to explode and fall off my body.

  I rolled on to my side and winced, bringing my hand to my head. That was a bad move on my part.

  Opening my eyes proved worse. The sunlight that poured through the window was like knives piercing into my eyes, stabbing straight through to my brain.

  I had to shut them quickly and cover my head with the pillow.

  Hangovers…

  They were the absolute worst, and that was why I didn’t drink more than my limit. A glass of red wine, or two cocktails. Preferably Sex On The Beach or a Mojito.

  That was me. I was a complete lightweight.

  So, why did I think it was a good idea to get plastered last night?

  Ivan St. James.

  I was gutsy enough to take that we’d tied in our votes for the show. Sure, I could do that. I was game for a challenge, and I wasn’t the type to run away, crying in the corner, just because I suddenly got some competition.

  What got to me and cut me deep were the comments that were trending on Twitter.

  There was one in particular that hurt me.

  Ca
n we really trust someone who is clearly incapable of love?

  That was the title and there were over a thousand comments. Most saying I wasn’t capable of love.

  I tried my best not to think about Brian at all, because he’d been truly despicable to me, but that whole article made me think of him. He was the first man I’d truly loved.

  There are several times when you should know when to walk away.

  For me, I knew I should have kept walking that first night when Brian first kissed me. Right from the outset, because our relationship was doomed to failure right from the word ‘go.’ I knew that. I wasn’t that young to not know we were wrong together. But I kept going. I kept loving him, loving him hard, even when I was his dirty secret.

  Ivan made me out to be some kind of heartless bitch who didn’t give people chances. He attacked my guidance and basically told the world that I didn’t know what I was doing.

  Incapable of love.

  It was a hard thing to be accused of when I was full of it.

  I’d gone home after our morning meet at Jake’s Spot and tried to brainstorm what to do. After a call from my publicist later in the day, I’d gotten ready and headed out.

  I remembered going to the DoubleTree and ordering a bottle of wine.

  I drank the whole thing and ordered another and drank that too.

  The trucker came to talk to me, challenging me to drink shots with his friends, who were already wasted.

  Then he got too handsy by resting his hand on my thigh.

  My eyes flew open, and I bolted upright when images of what happened next flooded my mind as if someone had turned on a high-powered water hose. They blasted my mind in an instant.

  The trucker had dragged me outside. Ivan came to my rescue and took me

  home.

  He took me home and took care of me, big time.

  He was the last face I saw when I closed my eyes last night.

  Jesus, Lord… What the hell.

  Oh my God.

  My eyes darted to the clock on the wall. It was ten.

  Good. At least I hadn’t woken up at some bizarre time.

  But… wait.