by Baer, Susan
She sat back on her heels, curled her arms around his sides and pressed her cheek against his chest.
“Wow. That was unexpected.” Her voice was barely a whisper as she struggled to catch her breath.
He lifted her from his desk and dropped back into his chair, holding her tight to his chest.
“Was that to your satisfaction, your majesty?” He whispered in her ear as she lay sleepily against him.
“Mmm hmm. I just need a quick nap. I have to finish that report before I go.”
She snuggled closer and yawned.
“Sleep well, my queen. For I shall guard you while you rest.”
He kissed the top of her head and felt her smile against his chest. He gently stroked his hand through her hair and rested his cheek on her head.
“Mmmm…”
Burying his face in her hair he listened to her breathing take on a slumberous rhythm. When her body went slack and he knew she was asleep he whispered into her hair.
“I think I love you, Marie. You are my angel.”
Chapter 14
Marie let her mind wander as she finished filing the last of the paperwork she’d been working on for Dr. Carrington’s next lecture. He had left for New York two days ago and had only called her once to say he’d decided to fly home on Sunday afternoon instead of Monday morning. He was obviously not impressed by the attendees of the conference and had decided to skip the last social event on Sunday evening. She had changed his flight and emailed him the information.
Since then she’d had the office to herself. Warren had been at the hospital all week training the nurses responsible for assessing patients for involuntary commitments. Dr. Jameson had given him orders to reduce the amount of money being spent on overtime when one of Warren’s doctors was called in to evaluate a patient in crisis.
Warren seemed eager to fix the problem since he was short on psychologists and that meant he was one of the doctors being called in every weekend. He’d spent long hours working with each shift making sure he met with each nurse personally.
Today was the first day he’d come back to his office before five. He winked at her as he walked to his office and talked on his cell phone. It wasn’t much but it was enough to get her heart racing. Marie had always looked forward to the end of the day, and with Warren in her life it was downright exciting to watch the clock strike five.
“Okay, baby. Pencils down, time’s up. It’s five o’clock and you are all mine for the next sixty-three hours.”
Marie turned around to see him closing his office door. His suit coat was draped over his arm and his tie was loosened with the top button of his shirt open. He looked sexy as hell.
“Why sixty-three hours?”
“Because AJ will be back from New York by Monday morning and I will unfortunately have to relinquish my claim on you by eight AM.”
“What’s on the agenda?” She locked the file cabinet and shut down her computer.
“It’s a surprise. I think you’re going to like it.”
Warren held her coat as she put it on. He spun her around and kissed her.
She loved the feel of his arms around her. She loved him, too. Marie hadn’t said the words yet and she couldn’t seem to muster the strength to do it.
The last time she spoke to Janet the realization that she loved Warren came to her slowly, like a cool summer breeze. The thought warmed her heart and as she remembered special moments with him the heat spread through her body until she was completely content.
Janet was convinced Warren was in love with her and Marie couldn’t find a valid argument to dispute Janet’s claim, but still a small part of her was hiding from him waiting for him to speak the words, I love you. Those three little words would seal the deal for her. Those three little words would wash away the last of her insecurities.
****
Warren was a little nervous about this weekend. He’d made plans for what he was hoping would be the most romantic time of Marie’s life. He’d spoken to his sister, Liz, to get some ideas. He even smiled when she teased him about being in love. He knew he wasn’t in love yet, it was too soon, but somehow Marie had become as vital to him as breathing.
Dinner had gone better than he had hoped. Marie loved the place. It was a new Italian restaurant with an intimate dining atmosphere, complete with violin players roaming between the tables adding to the romance with soft music.
Next was the tour through downtown. The horse drawn carriage was white with plush red velvet seats inside and a plaid blanket to keep the cool fall air at bay. The outside was decorated with garland made with fall leaves of bright orange, gold, and crimson.
The scenery would be beautiful. The streets of Lincoln were lined with lights all year long to attract the tourists to the carriage rides, and every other corner had live music to entertain the restaurant patrons who chose to dine on the terraces along the Lakota River. He couldn’t wait to see her expression, he was sure she’d love it.
Warren helped Marie into the carriage and pulled her close to him. When she laid her head on his shoulder he felt complete, like the last piece to the puzzle was in place. They sat in silence for a long while and listened to the rhythmic clicking of the horses’ hooves.
He felt like she was the other half of his soul. It was as if he’d known her all his life, yet he knew nothing about her. His other relationships all started with getting to know each other first, but his desire for Marie was so intense his sense of what should come first got lost in the chaos of his primal urges. He laughed at the thought.
“What’s so funny?” She snuggled closer.
“Well, I just realized I don’t know much about you other than you squeal like a school girl when I do this.” He reached under her sweater and tickled her ribs.
She flinched and giggled. “Stop it.”
“Told ya.”
She cuddled back against him. “So, what do you want to know?”
“Everything. Like where did you grow up? Do you have any family? What’s your favorite color? Things like that.”
“Willshire Heights, one sister, one brother, my mother and father, and orange. So what about you?”
“Smartass.” He tickled her again.
“Stop it.” She swatted his hand. “Answer my question.”
“Okay. Lincoln, one older sister, five younger brothers, my parents are gone, and red.”
She sat up and looked at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“Don’t be.” He kissed the back of her hand. “I wouldn’t have expected you to know.”
“Was it very long ago?”
He tucked her hair behind her ear. “They passed away in March of my Junior year in high school.”
“What happened?”
“They were on their way home from my sister’s place. She had an apartment on the north end of town. They were hit head on when a pickup crossed the center line. My parents and the driver of the pickup were killed.”
“Was the driver of the truck drunk?”
“No, actually, the autopsy showed the other driver was dead before the collision. He’d had a massive heart attack.”
“That must have been hard to lose your parents so suddenly. And you were so young.”
“It was and because it wasn’t anyone’s fault I had no one to blame.” He threaded his fingers with hers. “I became very angry at the world and God. I started getting into trouble at school. I was picking a lot of fights and since I was bigger than most of the other kids, not much was discouraging me from changing my attitude. Liz started calling me Wild Child.”
“I can’t picture you as a bully.”
He looked out at the scenery. “Yeah, I did some things I’m not proud of.” He paused then looked back at her. “Anyway, Liz started picking me up after school every day to keep me from fighting and that’s when the depression set in. I stopped caring about everything. My grades dropped and I almost failed my junior year.”
“So what happened?”
/> “Liz made a deal with the school that if they let me move on to my senior year she’d send me to summer school and get me into therapy.”
“How did she get you to agree to that?”
“She didn’t. The first time I went to see the psychologist Liz had to call the cops and I was taken there in the back of the squad car.” He smiled. “That was enough to tame my attitude. Those cops scared the shit out of me. They told me if I didn’t go see the doctor I was going to jail. Of course I agreed, but I still had no intention of participating beyond what was necessary to keep my sorry ass out of jail.”
“I take it he was able to help you.”
“Yeah. He was amazing. He was able to get through all the pain and anger I was drowning in. He helped me see things from a different perspective.” He hugged her tight. “Then one day I realized I wasn’t angry anymore. My life got so much easier after that and I decided I wanted to do the same thing for other people. So, I got my degree in psychology and specialized in treating people suffering from trauma.”
“Well, you’re obviously very good at it because all the nurses talk about how wonderful you are.” She poked him in the ribs. “Then again, maybe they’re blinded by your charm and good looks.”
“Thanks…I think… So what made you want to do all the crap work you do?”
She poked him again, hard. “Hey, what do you mean ‘crap work’?”
He grabbed her hands with his and wrapped them around his waist. “I mean you seem to enjoy doing all the tedious, boring, yet necessary, work of running an office. Seriously, if I had to do it, it would never get done. I wasn’t made for repetition. That’s why I like trauma. It’s something different with every client.”
“I just like making sure everything gets done. I’ve never been patient enough to wait for someone else to do it because I’m always waiting for chaos to break out. And I hate chaos. I enjoy dispelling it by making sure everything is where it should be or by completing a task quickly that needed to be done ten minutes ago. It makes me feel good when I can keep things running smoothly.”
“You do a fantastic job. You’ve got AJ so spoiled he doesn’t even have to lift a finger.”
“Well, that’s my job. His job is to be in the spotlight.”
“He wouldn’t be in that spotlight if it wasn’t for you and he knows it. He knows his research but he couldn’t organize his way out of a paper bag.”
Marie giggled. “I know. But that’s why he needs someone he can count on to do it for him. His work is very important.” She looked up at him and smiled. “So is yours.”
“I hope HR can find me someone like you, because that’s what I need. A secretary to keep my life organized for me.”
“You make me sound like some miracle worker. My job isn’t that difficult.”
“It’s more difficult than you think. It takes a strong person to stand in the shadows. Most people have a hard time doing all the work while someone else stands in the spotlight.”
“It’s not hard for me. I really have no desire to be in the spotlight. I was always in my sister’s shadow. She was the pretty one who got all the attention. Sometimes I resented her for it and sometimes I felt sorry for her. She had to work so hard to keep everyone else happy that I don’t think she knew how to make herself happy. So, I learned that settling for hand-me-downs was worth doing what I wanted.”
“What do you mean hand-me-downs?”
“She had all the good looking guys chasing her and I got the ones she rejected.”
“Marie, you have to understand something about the male species. We’re all stupid and lazy when we’re young. We let our penises think for us. Then we grow up and realize women like your sister aren’t really what we want. When they get everything handed to them they become dependent on others to do things for them. They’re too high maintenance. What we really want is a woman like you, a woman who’s beautiful and strong. Finding a woman like you is like finding the Hope Diamond in the pocket of an old jacket you bought at a yard sale.”
“But I still get the hand-me-downs.”
“So, am I a hand-me-down?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Then you’re not getting them anymore.” He kissed her passionately. “You’re too beautiful for that, inside and out.”
She smiled and laid her head on his shoulder again.
He entwined his fingers with hers and kissed her knuckles. “Did you have any pets when you were growing up?”
“A dog. Duke was a German Shepherd. I found him one day when I was chasing a butterfly. The butterfly was so beautiful I wanted to take it home to live in my room with me.” She laughed. “I was so determined to catch it I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and I got lost.”
“You were lost? How far did you chase it?”
“Back then it seemed like miles but I was only seven years old. I think it was only about fifty yards into the woods behind my house. Anyway, my parents were furious with me for wandering off.”
“How did you get home?”
“Duke. He kept nudging me to go toward this line of bushes. Every time I would turn he would nudge me again.”
“Were you afraid of him?”
“No. It was the weirdest thing. I felt completely safe with him, even after I realized I was lost.”
“They’re pretty smart dogs. Is that why your parents let you keep him?”
She laughed again. “No, actually, they were terrified when they saw him follow me out of the trees and thought he was going to attack me. They chased him off but he kept coming back every day and following me to school. So, eventually they let me keep him.”
Warren stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. Now he knew what to get her for Christmas. It would be her dog but he’d have to keep it at his house. He smiled. Then she’d have to come over every day to see him.
Marie raised her head and kissed his neck. “This has been a lovely evening. I hate to say I’m surprised, but I am.”
He squeezed her tighter and laughed. “Me, too. I don’t know the last time I planned something like this. I usually let someone else do all the work and I just go along for the ride.”
“It’s been perfect.”
He pulled her onto his lap to face him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He slid his hands under her coat and sweater. “You’re perfect.” He gently squeezed her silk covered breasts and kissed her.
She leaned forward and he pulled her tight against him. He needed to get her home soon. He’d been rock hard for the past hour and if he waited much longer he was going to get dizzy from lack of blood flow to his brain.
The carriage stopped at the square and Warren helped her down. He could hear her hurried steps behind him as he practically dragged her to his car. He shut his door and reached for her. He buried his fingers in her hair and kissed her hard. When she got to her knees and grabbed his jacket he broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers.
He still had a hold of her hair and whispered, “I better get us home. Friends or not, AJ would kill me if he had to bail you out for public indecency.”
Marie giggled. “I’m so not sure he’d bail me out.”
“I am. Me, on the other hand, he’d leave in there to rot and hope I’d become someone’s bitch.”
She smiled. “I have a hard time believing you’d let anyone do that to you.”
“Of course I wouldn’t. But that wouldn’t stop AJ from hoping.”
Warren took a deep breath and shifted in his seat. Fred was demanding attention and if he didn’t get her home now he wasn’t going to make it out of the parking lot.
He concentrated on the traffic, trying to be extra careful. He knew where his mind was and it was nowhere near where he needed it to be at the moment.
Marie cleared her throat. “Janet was showing a house the other night and she took me along to see it. It was really nice.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. It would be nice to have a house.” She sig
hed. “But I guess I’d have to buy a car first. All the nice houses are outside the city limits.”
“I guess. So, what’s the rush? Is there something wrong with your apartment?”
“No. But, I am twenty-seven. I should be at least saving some money for a house.” She groaned. “I need to find a cheaper place. I let Janet talk me into the more expensive apartment. If I had taken the one in Hillside I’d have extra money each month to put back.”
“There’s no way in hell I’d let you move to Hillside.”
“That’s what Janet said.”
“And she’s right. You’re better off where you are. Hell, I wouldn’t feel safe driving through Hillside. I’m certainly not going to let you live there.”
“So, where would you suggest I look? If I stay where I am I’ll never be able to save enough money to buy a house.”
Warren gripped the steering wheel tight enough his knuckles were turning white. He didn’t know why it bothered him that she wanted to buy a house, but it did. Things were perfect the way they were. Why would she want to change anything?
“I think you should stay where you are for now. Maybe AJ will give you a raise. Then you could save some money.”
“I suppose, but I’ve always wanted to make my life happen instead of waiting for it to happen. You know?”
Warren pulled into his garage and turned the engine off. “Aren’t you happy?”
“Well, yeah. But…sometimes I want more.”
He pulled the key from the ignition and walked around to open her door. What did she mean she wanted more? Wasn’t he enough? She practically lived at his house now anyway.
He held her hand and led her into the kitchen. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and a love tap on her backside. “I got a movie ready to go. Make yourself comfortable and I’ll be in with some drinks.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
He watched her walk into the den and ran his hands through his hair. He whispered, “What the hell does she want to move for?”
He pulled two wine glasses down and opened the bottle. “And why the hell are you so upset about it? So what if she wants to move? She didn’t say she wanted a new man in her life, just a new apartment.”