“Just wanted to congratulate you on the new clinic.”
“Okay.” Turning away and hoping he’d get the message, I was too busy for small talk, I hoisted my messenger bag higher on my shoulder. I inserted the key into my office door. I could feel the heat of his breath behind me and I knew if I turned around he’d still be standing there. He was.
“You want something, Steven?”
“I....” Glancing at all the people in the waiting room, he shifted foot to foot. He looked broken, his hands fidgeting at his sides. He’d also stopped cutting his hair I noticed. All of a sudden, he produced a potted plant I recalled from the lobby the day before. He thrust it at me.
“What’s this?”
“For your new office of course.”
“Didn’t I see the same thing in the newly renovated West Wing?”
“Oh. I don’t know.” He shrugged looking sheepish.
“Steven, I don’t have time for this. If you want something, spit it out. I have work to do.” I turned the key in the lock and stepped inside my office.
To my surprise he turned his back on me, started conversing with one of the patients. One of my patients.
Okay, whatever.
I shut the door.
A few minutes later, the door creaked open slowly. I was about to tell my secretary I wasn’t prepared for the first patient yet. I burst out laughing instead. “Steven, what are you...?”
“I’m not as bad as this guy, am I?” he asked. He’d combed his hair over his eyes and was holding a comb under his nose.
“I suppose you’re Hitler now. Fitting.” Despite myself, I grinned. Just seeing him all goofy did something to my gut. Even though the skit was in poor taste, he didn’t know that. He was adorably stupid in fact. Kind of funny for a man with a master’s degree. The fact that he cared enough to act foolish in front of everyone for the sole purpose of making me smile, sent a warm glow directly to my heart.
Dang, I thought I had that tucked away safely.
“Well am I?”
“Steven, I’m Jewish.”
“Oh! Sorry, I forgot. What an idiot I am.”
“No, it’s okay. Steven, why are you here?”
“To apologize of course.”
“Apology accepted, now leave. I’m sure you have patients to see as well.”
“Nope. This is my day off.”
“Well, it’s not mine.” I pointed toward the door.
Ignoring me, he picked up a photo on my desk. “Ultrasound huh? Looks like me.” He sat himself on the edge of my desk, giving me a lop-sided grin while he bounced a foot upon his knee.
“You can’t tell what a child looks like from an ultrasound photo,” I said. “Even newborns don’t look like much until they’re a few months old.”
“We’ll, I can tell.”
And what if it isn’t yours?
“If you say so. Are you leaving or do I have to throw you out this window back here?”
He knew I didn’t mean it. We both laughed.
“Ya know, I’m not buying that acceptance of my apology,” said Steven. “You still seem angry with me. Unless this is morning sickness making your face all...” Squishing up his features like a wrinkled prune, he crossed his eyes at me.
“That is not working,” I said with a giggle. “I forgive you, Steven. Now really, I have work to do.”
“Nope. I don’t believe you.”
I let out a groan, crossed my arms over my chest, resting them on my belly.
“I mean, you didn’t even kiss me or anything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Like that is gonna happen anytime soon.”
“Not leaving until you kiss me, Mattie.”
“I’m at work for God’s sake! And I am not kissing you and you are leaving.” I tried to shoo his reluctant ass out the door, but when I opened it and looked out, my waiting room had filled to capacity in record time. “Oh dear.” I slammed the door shut.
“That’s what it’s like when they don’t have to make appointments,” Steven said sounding like a Mr. Know-it-all.
“Yes, but... I’ve only been open for three days. How did they...? There are so many.”
I should have been prepared. This is what being a doctor was like and a free one to boot. Why the hell was I so surprised? I knew it was going to be an adjustment to my usual free-floating schedule, but I’d thought I’d made concessions for that fact. Two other doctors had volunteered to fill in for me on different days but we hadn’t sat down and worked out our schedules yet.
“And it’s going to get worse as the day progresses,” Steven said. “I could stay and help you. If you want.”
“Oh my back.” It just slipped out. The last thing I wanted was sympathy.
“Lean forward, put your hands on the desk.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
Right about now, I’d do anything for some relief and I’d hardly slept the last three nights because the baby was sitting on my bladder. I placed my hands on the desk.
“Now push your pelvis out.”
Amazingly it felt better when I did that. Slightly.
“May I?”
“Whatever.”
“There’s a knot right...there.” I felt pressure just above my hips as he massaged my lower back.
“Oh that feels good,” I said.
“Careful Mattie. I may get the wrong idea. Now about my helping you in the clinic.”
“I’m not sure that...Oh God, don’t stop.”
“No charge except for the kiss. Oh and lunch. You have to have lunch with me if I help you out.”
“Fine,” I said reluctantly. I glanced over my shoulder. “But only on the cheek, Doctor Russo.”
IF IT HAD BEEN A MISTAKE to open a clinic in the hospital where Steven worked, I was guilty as charged. I’d never stopped loving him and as much as I told myself, he was just a do-gooder, showing me the ropes, being a good team player and all that, on some level I knew we’d rekindle our relationship. Maybe I should have set up my practice somewhere else. There were plenty of hospitals to choose from but... I didn’t want to. Just when I thought I was over him, my heart started beating all over again.
Steven Russo was not a man you could resist. He was helpful and sweet plus those piercing blue eyes seemed to bore into my soul, but it was his touch that did me in. And that back rub. The slightest brush of his hands upon my skin, the scent of his cologne. All of it made my pulse quicken to say nothing of the kiss. It wasn’t a passionate kiss and it wasn’t a friendly kiss, but a promise of more. Against my better judgment I’d leaned into it, soaking up the man that I’d missed so much only to find him break away all too soon. He grinned down at me and then asked what I needed.
After three weeks of lunches in the cafeteria, flowers delivered to my home every night, I agreed to go to dinner with him. I can do this, I told myself. It doesn’t mean we are back together. After all, we are friends. Very good friends as a matter of fact. I’d insisted on treating because that was what friends did, right? Plus I was grateful. He’d called in a few favors for building permits so we could break ground on the Mission in the Spring. Right after the baby was born.
“God, you look gorgeous by candlelight,” Steven said, holding my hand across the table. “I’m glad you came.”
“Me too.”
He was very fidgety for some reason. Almost like he was nervous but why should he be nervous? This wasn’t our first date. Sweat dripped down the side of his face and he kept glancing at his watch for some reason.
“Steven... What’s going on?”
“Just want to make sure I don’t have any emergencies,” he explained.
“In the kitchen?”
“What?”
“You keep glancing toward the kitchen.”
“Oh. Um no. Ha Ha. Yeah, no.”
Strange.
“Uh huh.” I wasn’t buying it. Not one bit. I placed the napkin on my lap, trying to ignore whatever was going on with him. Maybe it
was like our first date. For him anyway. “I’m starved. I feel like I haven’t eaten all day but I know I have,” I said. “Pregnancy is weird. I’m always hungry. Horny too.”
The water he’d been sipping burst forth like a geyser.
Giggling I added, “Sorry. It just slipped out.”
“It’s fine.” He dabbed his lips with a napkin then glanced over his shoulder once again.
“Steven, what are you looking at?”
“Oh, they’re here.”
“Who?”
“The musicians.” A man with sandy brown hair and a handlebar mustache, appeared on my right. He was holding a violin. “Madam,” he said by way of greeting and started to play.
Steven reached for the water glass, nearly spilling it as he rose from the table. He took a sip then set the glass back down. His whole body shook and he looked as if he’d seen a ghost. Either that or there was a raging hippopotamus behind me.
“Steven...?”
I was glad when he dropped to one knee because I was afraid he was going to fall flat on his face. The violinist played softly.
“Mattie,” he began reaching for my hand. “Oh God, I didn’t think you’d ever agree to see me again and here we are.”
I cast a glance around the room. I saw everyone was watching us.
“Doctor Matilda Goldwater, I’ve loved you since the moment we met and these last few months without you have been torture for me.”
Tears filled his eyes and for the first time since our breakup, I realized I wasn’t the only one hurting. My eyes watered too.
“I have a huge ego,” he continued, “but really I’m just a scared little kid. You are, without a doubt, the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met. I was afraid that if I shared you with another human being, you wouldn’t want me anymore. Now I realize I can’t have you all to myself. It’s just not possible nor should it be. I know that now. Will you forgive me?”
“I forgave you a long time ago,” I whispered. When he smiled at me like he was doing right now, my whole world lit up. How could I live without that smile every day?
This man.
This man who treated me like gold when all I had was a sprained ankle. A man who had more passion and caring for people, all people, than anyone I’d ever known. It went way beyond the Hippocratic oath and I paled in comparison.
He squeezed my hand in his. “If you’ll have me, Doctor Goldwater, I’ll spend the rest of my life proving how much I love you and I’ll cherish you and our son until the day I die.”
“Son?”
He winked. “A guy can hope,” he said. “Of course a daughter would be nice as well.”
“But Steven, I told you...I...”
“Shhhhh.” He put a finger to my lips. “It doesn’t matter. Not one bit, Mattie. Besides, what kid wouldn’t love to have two fathers. I can teach him how to throw a football and Kyle can...” He chuckled. “Teach him whatever Kyle wants to teach him.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. He didn’t care if the baby was his or not. He never had. Tears rolled down my cheeks.
He produced a small velvet box from his pocket. He flipped the lid and by God, I thought my heart would seize on the spot. Inside was the most beautiful emerald-cut diamond ring I’d ever seen in my life. Tiny blue stones offset with smaller diamonds surrounded a platinum band. I was momentarily speechless and the tears gushed forward.
“Will you marry me, Matilda Goldwater?”
The whole restaurant went quiet, waiting for my response.
Chapter 20
Steven
“So, did you finally do it this time?”
“Do what?”
“Because if you chicken out on proposing one more time, Russo, I just may take a crack at the good doctor. One Russo is as good as any other, right?” Harvey set his tray next to mine giving me a wide grin. He raised his brows up and down, a weird talent he liked to show off with, looking like one of those ventriloquist dummies you see on television. He was always so chipper, so full of joy and good cheer and for the first time ever, I knew I was going to miss him. He was leaving at the end of the month. Would that optimism wane after working in a third world country I wondered. “Well...?”
“What do you think?” I said unable to hide my smile
Harvey leaned over his tray, dipping his tie in a dab of ketchup. “And...?”
I took my time, enjoying how he squirmed. Harvey always had to know everything about everybody. Especially me. I finished chewing my sandwich and then swallowed the last of my coffee. I looked up at him. “She said yes.”
“Hot damn!”
“Was there ever any doubt?”
“Oh I don’t know,” Harvey sung out. “You can be a bit of a...”
I raised my own brows in warning.
“Never mind.” He laughed. “Congratulations, when’s the big date?”
“We haven’t set a date yet.”
“I hope it’s before I leave,” he said.
“Why? You want to be our entertainment at the reception?” Harvey was one of the best joke tellers of anyone I’d ever known. More than once, someone suggested he do stand-up.
He rubbed his chin. “Now that I hadn’t thought of.”
I threw my napkin down on the tray. “She wants a small private affair but she’s got this huge family. I’m afraid that won’t go over so well, especially with her mother. She’s the youngest daughter and they’re very close. I’m afraid if they know their future son-in-law deprived anyone of being at the wedding, I’ll fall off that pedestal thy placed me on.”
“Ah. I see your problem. Need to make a good impression from the get go.”
“Right.”
“She doesn’t want her family there?”
“She thinks they’ll turn the wedding into a circus.”
Harvey laughed. “See. Now you do need me for the entertainment.”
“That’ll be the day.”
MATTIE’S LOVELY FACE grimaced. “I’m so huge.”
I let a nipple slide out of my mouth with a pop. “Huge is the new beautiful.”
“But look at my boobs, Steven.”
“I love looking at your boobs.” Her breasts were big and beautiful, the areolas a dusky brown and lately a bit of milk had started to produce. Sexy as freaking hell in my book.
“You don’t think they’re grotesque?”
“Are you kidding?” I sucked the other nipple into my mouth, pulling in gently because that was the sore one.
“All my pretty bras are too small too. Who knows if I’ll lose all this weight later. I’ll have to buy new ones.”
“So buy new ones,” I said, refusing to encourage her less than stellar mood. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to wake up with Mattie in my arms every morning. The added bonus, our child kicking me in the nuts, which wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounded. Maybe he’d be a basketball or football player and if it was a girl...Well, I’d teach her martial arts.
“Okay, you can say it. I’m a neurotic preggo.”
“I love neurotic.” I ducked below the blanket, planting kisses along her breasts, her belly, her hips, then finally her thighs. I lifted her feet into the air. My mouth landed on her mons and her legs pulled taut. I coated my tongue with her arousal.
A half moan/whimper erupted from her throat. Her buttocks contracted. “I...I’m trying to be sorry this is the only way you can get close to me these days,” she said. “But...Oh! I just can’t.” Her hips tilted upward. “I love you, Steven.”
“I love you too. Now let me take care of my pregnant wife, will you?” There had never been any confusion about whether we loved each other, but it was nice to hear the words at last. “So swollen and wet. Mmmm.”
I breathed in the velvety sweet scent of her skin as she raked her fingers through my hair. Tingles skittered across my scalp. “Steven....I... I wish... Oh fuck.”
Coating my fingers in her arousal, my cock pushed against the mattress. I’d take care of that later in the shower or Mattie
would take care of it for me, depending on how tired she was. I didn’t like to push her beyond her comfort level. Besides, there was nothing I liked better than doing what I was doing. This was all about her. At least for now. Heat pulsed through my body, balls pulling tight. I dipped my tongue inside her folds. Tasting. Licking. Exploring every inch of her with my tongue.
This woman. She was my match in so many ways. I’d never been this happy in my life.
The bed rocked and her back lifted. A scream rang out from above. Thrashing her head side to side as she hit that incredible peak. Her body pulsed and the flavor changed, energizing me even more. She tried to stop me but I didn’t relent. Her scent. The heat of her fevered skin. All of it had consumed me with a longing I couldn’t control any more than a man could control his thirst. I wanted her more than anyone I’d ever wanted in my life. I pushed her knees open around my head. When I was sure she couldn’t take anymore, I lifted my head from between her legs and grinned.
Panting she looked down at me and motioned me upward.
“Good?” I asked.
“So good,” she replied out of breath.
I covered her with my mouth and kissed her head, her nose, and finally her lips. Her breathing finally slowed.
“Let me reciprocate, Doctor Steamy,” she finally said. “I want that big cock.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” I rose to my knees, positioned myself near her head. She opened her beautiful full lips and took me in her mouth. I couldn’t help lurching forward. She massaged my balls with one hand while suckling on the tip of my dick. The air filled with the scent of sex and adrenaline. I hissed through my teeth.
“So sexy,” she murmured. “Why are you so sexy?” Her tongue shot forward, licking a bit of pre-cum. “They should call you Doctor Sexy. Not Doctor Steamy.”
“Very funny.”
I inhaled a lungful of air, fisting the sheets as I did so. I was trying to hold back from pummeling my cock in and out like a mad man, but when my balls felt compressed, it was all I could do not to go insane. When she swallowed me whole, I went ballistic.
Thank you Jesus.
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