Seduced by the Heart Surgeon

by Carol Marinelli

  Freya shook her head and he held up some water and she nodded.

  ‘Why don’t we at least try it tomorrow?’ Zack said. ‘It’s all set up and we can speak face to face wherever I am in the world.’

  He gave Freya a smile that said, thank God he wasn’t video chatting with his parents today, because the towel was lifting and Freya, who hadn’t properly smiled in a long time, found that she was.

  He put ice and lemon in her water and then, while dealing with this very difficult conversation, he came over and placed it down on the desk. And there was one little problem, Freya realised.

  Well, there were many, many problems, but he thought she was there for sex and the sight of him naked and a taste of his tongue, and, as his hand slid around her waist, she was turned on.

  Okay, sex tonight, and she’d tell him tomorrow, Freya thought, and she stood.

  Or, should she just write ‘I’M PREGNANT’ on the little hotel pad now and pass him a note?

  Zack was just finishing up the conversation as his fingers worked her breasts. Her thick nipples told him she was just on the edge of getting her period and he loved the intensity of a woman’s orgasm then.

  He turned off the phone and was just so relieved that call was over and especially that she was here and his response told her so.

  This kiss was as fierce as their first. It was actually more so because it toppled her back onto the bed.

  ‘Freya.’ He said it like a moan. He was kissing her face, her mouth, her ears and just pressing her into the bed. Her legs were over the edge and he was roughly parting them and just tearing at her knickers but Freya was hungrily kissing him back.

  She was holding his face just to keep it still enough for her mouth and then she gave in and held onto his shoulders as Zack seared inside.

  His feet were on the floor and his elbows were each side of her head.

  He thrust in hard and the friction they generated meant neither would last. Her legs wrapped around him as all the hurts of past weeks were gathered into an intense peak.

  Freya came, a beat before he did, and it was a come so deep that it demanded him now and Zack spilled into her.

  ‘God, but I needed you tonight.’ He really did, so much so that he had been planning to head to Freya’s because living like this wasn’t working. ‘What made you change your mind and come over?’

  He saw her rapid blink.

  ‘Freya?’

  ‘I came here to talk to you...’

  ‘What?’

  He replayed the events and Zack pulled out and got up and whipped a towel around his hips and looked at her as she pulled down her dress.

  ‘I didn’t force you?’

  ‘Zack,’ Freya said, ‘I might not have come with the intention of sex but I was a very willing participant.’

  ‘But you came here to talk?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He was still going over it in his head. ‘For a moment there I thought...’

  ‘Thought what?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Zack said. ‘What did you want to talk about?’

  ‘I’m pregnant.’ It came out faster than she’d intended.

  It just came out.

  He hadn’t had even a hint that she was and there was no lead in, no warning, she just hit him right with it.

  ‘You choose your moments, don’t you?’ Zack said.

  ‘I thought I’d tell you when you weren’t working...’

  ‘I lost a six-week-old today, I’ve got my parents on the phone, crying about St Toby and all the grandchildren they haven’t got. Should I ring them back and tell them I’m going to be a father?’ He went on, ‘But do you know what, Freya? I wouldn’t do that to them on a day like today!’

  ‘I didn’t know it was the anniversary of your brother,’ Freya said. ‘We don’t know enough about each other to do specific dates.’

  ‘I lost a six-week-old today!’ Zack said. ‘How’s that for a specific day because his parents will remember it for ever!’

  ‘Zack?’

  ‘You know for a moment there, I thought...’

  ‘What?’

  He shook his head. He had honestly, for a moment there, thought that Freya had got him.

  That the woman he had first met had come to his room and that they were back to the beginning but with history and understanding now.

  That maybe, just maybe he’d met someone who things might work out with, but he had only just been starting to think like that and now Freya had her voice on.

  ‘Now, I know it’s a lot to take in, Zack, but—’

  ‘Don’t do your psychologist voice with me,’ he warned. ‘Don’t tell me it’s a major life-changing event, but that soon I’ll—’

  ‘It doesn’t have to mean a major life change.’

  He looked at her.

  ‘Er...do I have a say here?’ Zack checked, but there was still a warning note to his voice. Was she popping by to tell him she was on her way to get a termination?

  ‘That’s why I’m here, Zack.’

  ‘Stop calling me Zack in that voice,’ he hissed. Freya was using her patient and reasonable and very together voice and it was driving him insane.

  ‘I’m not having a termination.’

  Zack looked at her as she told him how things would be, as Freya, because it was Freya, dealt with all the current things on her to-do list.

  ‘I was already looking into fertility treatments and donors—’

  ‘Oh, so I’ve done my job, then.’

  ‘You’re being petulant.’

  ‘I feel petulant,’ Zack said.

  ‘I’m just saying that I’ve thought this through and there’s no need for you to get worked up. I can more than cope with single motherhood.’

  ‘That’s good to know,’ Zack said, but with an edge. ‘And do I get to see my child in this plan you’ve made?’

  ‘If you choose to, then I’m sure we can sort that out.’

  ‘You’ve really thought this through.’

  ‘I have,’ Freya said. ‘So when I have your thoughts we can make plans or not.’

  ‘Are you worried, upset?’ Zack checked. ‘You were just getting back into psychology.’

  ‘I don’t see that one has to exclude the other.’

  ‘Are you—?’

  ‘Zack, I’m thirty-one,’ Freya interrupted his questions. ‘I was already planning on single parenthood. I’m not going to fall in a heap.’

  ‘You don’t like it when the tables are turned, do you?’ Zack said. ‘You want my thoughts, yet you refuse to give yours.’

  ‘Ask away,’ Freya said.

  ‘Okay, what about us?’

  ‘You’ve made it clear that it’s just sex you want from me.’ Freya put her nose in the air as if she disapproved.

  ‘You don’t want sex?’ Zack asked, and she didn’t answer. ‘Well,’ he said.

  Freya pressed her lips together. She didn’t know this mood. He was arrogant and angry yet there was this twist of a smile on his face that she didn’t get.

  Zack carried on. ‘With all this sexual attraction do Mommy and Daddy do it when you drop the baby off?’

  ‘I don’t know where this is leading, Zack.’

  Oh, my God, Zack thought, she’d just used that voice again.

  ‘Well, you’ve been so busy sorting it out I just wondered if that was covered already. Curious...’ Freya could see that black smile was there and it wasn’t the news he seemed annoyed with but her.

  Freya.

  The woman, Freya knew, that he didn’t want to have a relationship with.

  ‘What about the two of us?’

  ‘No,’ Freya said. ‘I lived through my parents’ unhappy marriage. I’m no
t inflicting it on my child.’

  ‘You jump straight to marriage.’ His grin was incredulous now!

  ‘I’m saying that I don’t want a marriage, I want to do this on my own. Of course you’ll be entitled to access.’

  ‘Do you know what I like about you, Freya?’ Zack said. ‘You’ve got it all worked out.’

  Freya looked at him.

  ‘Do you know what I don’t like about you, Freya? That you’ve got it all worked out without me.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘That’s okay.’ Zack shrugged. ‘I’m not in the mood for explaining. Well, thank you for dropping by.’

  He stood and went to the door.

  ‘Are you asking me to leave?’

  ‘Yes.’ Zack said. ‘Pay attention to the sign next time. If it says don’t disturb, don’t disturb.’

  ‘But we need to talk.’

  ‘We already have.’

  ‘I need your thoughts.’

  ‘Well, you can’t have them yet.’

  He didn’t have a clue what they were.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  HIS HANGOVER WAS impressive and instead of going to The Hills, where no doubt Freya would be tapping her feet, waiting for him to snap to her snappy tune, he took the morning off and in the afternoon he drove into South LA and to the Bright Hope Clinic.

  ‘Mila’s not here today,’ Geoff said.

  ‘I know. I’m just dropping by to see how things are going.’

  ‘Well, we’re taking delivery of an MRI machine tomorrow,’ Geoff told him, ‘and I’ve just ordered a state-of-the-art ultrasound that might mean we can have intelligent conversations...’

  It had been frustrating. Knowing that The Hill’s equipment would give clearer answers, there had been a lot of doubling up. Zack wanted state of the art, so nearly every test Geoff had done had been repeated.

  ‘It’s great news about Paulo.’

  ‘I think he’ll be going home soon,’ Zack said.

  They went through the patients and Geoff said he’d like to come and watch the scheduled ablation.

  ‘On a Sunday?’ Zack checked. ‘And it’s Valentine’s Day.’

  ‘My wife is very understanding.’

  Zack saw a few patients and then drove back to the hotel and lay on the bed with his hands behind his head and tried to make some sense of his thoughts.

  He took out his laptop and typed in a few things, and found out that their baby, assuming it had been conceived on the first night, was due on September twenty-fourth.

  He stared at that date for ages and then he texted Freya.

  Are you okay?

  She took less than a minute to respond.

  I’ve told you I’m fine with it.

  He fired back another text.

  Such a well thought-out response!

  Then he deleted it, unsent, and wrote another.

  Let me know if you need anything.

  She wouldn’t.

  That much Zack knew.

  He still couldn’t get over how she’d been the night Cleo had died. Even he had teared up but not Freya. It was like she kept all her emotions inside and yet he had glimpsed them.

  The things she’d told him, Zack knew, only he knew.

  And it worked both ways. Freya knew stuff he would never discuss with anyone else.

  She had pushed too hard and too soon, though, Zack thought, but then he smiled as he did so because that was Freya.

  They were so good together and she had wanted more, and he could see now that she’d probably known she was pregnant and starting to stress.

  His head was a mess and there was no one he could talk to, or was it that there was no one he would talk to?

  His alarm went off and Zack remembered that his mother had reluctantly agreed to try video-chatting.

  Zack sat up and picked up the laptop.

  This should be fun!

  Not.

  After a few goes, there was his mum and she had make-up on, when she only wore it at Christmas or on birthdays.

  ‘How are you?’ Zack smiled when he saw her.

  ‘Sorry about yesterday.’

  It had been a very tense phone call, which was why Zack could not have been more relieved when Freya had arrived.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Zack said. ‘Yesterday was a tough one.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Judy said. ‘Alice deserves to be happy.’

  ‘So do you guys,’ Zack said. ‘Where’s Dad?’

  ‘He’s in with a patient. Max is here for a check-up.’

  ‘How is he doing?’

  ‘Very well,’ Judy said. ‘I was thinking when you come home in April...’

  And that was the trouble with communicating like this. Judy saw Zack close his eyes.

  ‘You’ve changed your mind?’

  ‘No,’ Zack said, but how did he tell his mother that things here in LA had suddenly got very complicated? They didn’t speak about such things.

  Could they?

  ‘I’ve got some stuff going on at the moment...’

  ‘Another patient who needs you?’

  ‘Isn’t Dad the same?’ Zack challenged, and Judy smiled.

  ‘I guess.’

  ‘Anyway, it isn’t work that’s complicated,’ Zack said. ‘I like someone.’

  His mother said nothing.

  ‘A lot.’

  ‘You can tell me, Zack.’

  ‘I’m trying to.’

  ‘Times are changing.’ Judy sat very composed and Zack looked at her, and then his face went right up to the screen.

  ‘Do you think I’m gay?’

  He could not believe it.

  ‘You’ve never had a lady friend,’ Judy said. ‘Tara had a thing for you and you never did anything about it...’

  He’d been trying to keep Tara’s dad from knowing! ‘Mum, just because I don’t discuss my sex life with you it doesn’t mean that I don’t have one.’

  ‘I’m talking about relationships. You’ve never spoken about anyone special and I was worried that you felt you couldn’t tell me.’

  ‘There hasn’t really been anyone special,’ Zack said. ‘Till now.’

  ‘And you said that there would never be grandchildren.’

  ‘Because I could never see myself as a parent or tied down.’ And he sat there in silence, with his mum doing the same, and it wasn’t a strained silence this time. He didn’t feel tied down with Freya. That morning when she’d suggested he move in had jolted the hell out of him but he could laugh about that now. That was Freya. It was who she was.

  ‘I need to work a few things out,’ he said.

  ‘Well, I think that’s a very good reason not to come home,’ Judy said. ‘Does she have a name?’

  He was about to say ‘Fred’ but realised his mum maybe wouldn’t get his joke. ‘Freya.’

  And he named her.

  He named the woman who, wherever they were headed, was in his life.

  Freya and Zack.

  ‘I might have a glass of sherry tonight,’ Judy said, and Zack laughed.

  ‘I am coming home soon,’ he told her, and he thought about what Freya had said. ‘Maybe for two or three months. I could help out properly and give you and Dad a break.’

  ‘That would be wonderful.’ Judy smiled. ‘But sort yourself out first and while you’re at it, get a haircut.’

  And the relationship that had always been difficult was being worked on and it felt good that it was.

  ‘There’s your dad. I’ll let him say bye to Tara and then go and fetch him.’

  ‘Can I see Max?’

  He wanted to see the little guy.

  After a
little bit of drama getting them all on the sofa and the computer in place, there was Tara and they shared a smile.

  ‘Thank you,’ Tara said.

  He looked at his ex and the feelings were only of friendship, both knew that, but all these years on and, without talking, this friendship remained a good one.

  It wouldn’t have.

  Both knew that had they stayed together and made promises that the other could not keep, they would have been fighting and, yep, a divorce statistic now. And he thought of Toby and Alice. It had been such a hard secret to carry but Freya knew it now and that helped.

  ‘This is Max,’ Tara said. ‘The cause of all this drama.’

  ‘He looks fantastic. Cale told me that the surgery went really well.’

  ‘It did,’ Tara said. ‘But apparently we got there just in time. He collapsed in the air ambulance.’

  Jed, Tara’s husband, spoke then. ‘We’re very grateful to the surgeon and to you and Dr Carlton. You made a great team.’

  Even if they’d only managed to work as a team that once, it was a great result. Max was healthy and starting to cry and Tara tried to quiet him with her finger as Jed spoke on. ‘I was saying to Tara it’s hard to imagine now but in a few years he’ll be bringing in the cows...’

  And Zack looked at a very little infant that would probably be as strapping as his father one day and there were all the assumptions there, but then Tara spoke.

  ‘Max gets a chance to be anything he wants to be now.’

  It was a little message between her and Zack.

  ‘He does,’ Zack agreed.

  ‘Thanks, Zack.’ Tara smiled. ‘You’ll be sure to stop by when you’re home?’

  ‘I shall.’

  They stood and walked off and left Zack with his dad. No doubt his mum was leading them through to the kitchen where she would have some cake ready. It was never just a visit for some patients.

  Zack could remember most days getting in from school and the lounge would be full with patients, or families of patients.

  ‘I’ve been tough on you, Zack,’ his father said.

  ‘And I get why you have been,’ Zack said. ‘I hate that it all falls down to you. And I do worry about you retiring and what’s going to happen but—’

  ‘You’ve got your life.’ His father said it without malice now.