Before she quite knew what she was doing, Sherina let fly with her fist, slapping Deb so hard the other woman’s head snapped back. Red welts appeared on Deb’s cheek with gratifying speed and Sherina felt a sort of bitter satisfaction as she watched more tears well in the other woman’s eyes. The ring on her finger seemed to be on fire and she ripped it off, tossing it at Darren; it hit him right in the crotch but she was too angry to think it was funny.
“I hate you! From this day, you are dead to me! You’re both dead to me! I hate you!” she yelled, even as a sob burst from her throat and she turned on her heel and ran towards the front door, banging it shut in her wake and ignoring Deb’s frantic yells.
The cabbie was in a fine temper when Sherina jumped into the cab, sobbing her heart out, her entire body trembling.
The man just glared at her out of mean, beady, eyes and said, “Guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t like you. You now owe me a twenty!”
The sheer insensitivity of the comment made her pause as she looked up at him, absently dabbing at the tears coursing down her dark cheeks. The door she had just exited swung open and Deb and Darren poured out, running straight towards her, disheveled clothes and all. At least Darren had grabbed a robe.
Sherina turned to the driver, her eyes wide with suffocating panic, “Get me out of here and I’ll give you a freaking hundred!” she pleaded.
The man’s eyes swung to the approaching figures and sympathetic understanding lit his eyes. He started his cab immediately and drove off, tires screeching.
Sherina buried her face in her hands and sobbed for all she was worth, all the while knowing she had lost her lover and her best friend in the same day!
***
Sherina dragged herself out of bed trying hard to fight the nausea. She had drunk way too much last night. Unfortunately though it was fast becoming a habit. Her hair fell into her eyes and she wearily shoved it away, stifling a yawn as she trailed towards the bathroom.
It had been six weeks since the day she had come to think of as That Day and she was still operating on some kind of autopilot. She had fled Columbus that very night taking a very exhausting, very draining flight back to New York. A moving company had packed up her things and sent them over a week later and she had spent the day unpacking and settling into her new apartment when she should have been walking down the aisle that same day.
Sherina stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror out of swollen, blotchy eyes. She cried herself to sleep just about every night and when she wasn’t crying, she was staring at the world out of tired, jaded eyes. Six weeks! It was six weeks since she had set eyes on Darren and Deb. She had changed her phone number and gotten a new, unlisted number which meant they couldn’t reach her either. If she never heard from the pair of them for the rest of her life it would be way too soon!
A wave of nausea assaulted her and she bent over the sink, grunting as dry heaves rocked her entire body. When the nausea had passed, she grabbed a bottle of aspirin from the medicine cabinet and tossed it down her throat, washing it down with a glass of water.
As she made to return the aspirin to the cabinet, a box of tampons caught her eyes and she froze automatically. Oh God! Six weeks! She hadn’t had her period. Oh God! Could she be pregnant? She was in such a poor state after the incident she didn't even realize when she missed her period.
“Please God, don’t let me be pregnant; not like this. Please,” she moaned, folding in on herself and rocking back and forth where she stood.
Salma, one of her friends back in Columbus had given her a big box of pregnancy test kits at her bridal shower, she recalled. She had wanted to throw it out, but the movers had included it in what they shipped everything to her in New York. Hastily, she dashed into her bedroom and grabbed open the dresser beside her bed.
She picked a test kit, raced back to the bathroom and peed on the stick. The next few minutes of waiting was pure agony. Oh Lord, she couldn’t be pregnant. Please. Not with Darren’s baby; he was a cheater without an ounce of integrity!
Reluctantly, as though in slow motion, she reached for the stick and lifted it from where she had dropped it onto the sink; her eyes tightly shut.
You have to do this girl; you have to know, a voice said quietly inside her head.
“You’re right I have to know. But what if it’s positive?” she wondered aloud. “I’d go crazy! I can’t have his kid inside me!”
I don’t know. You’re already talking to yourself; it doesn’t get much crazier than that, her conscience sneered.
Reluctantly, Sherina took a huge deep breath and then forced her eyes open. Her world shifted on its axis immediately; she was pregnant!
CHAPTER THREE
“Sherina Jones?” the elderly looking nurse called, looking this way and that around the waiting room.
“That’s me,” Sherina responded, leaping to her feet even as her shaky knees protested the sudden, undignified motion. It wasn’t as though she had a single nerve or body part that was not shaky right now but her knees couldn’t very well support her when they were literally knocking together.
Sherina walked towards the nurse, noting absently that every finger on the woman’s hand was ringed and she also had a nose piercing. It was a rather strange appearance for a nurse, and an elderly one at that; but then again, this was New York; anything was possible. Sherina’s gaze rested on the faint ring mark on the middle finger of her left hand and a knot of pain tightened in her chest once more. The pain was less these days; less but still there.
“Sherina Jones?” the nurse repeated as Sherina reached her.
“Yes ma'am.”
“Excellent. Dr Knight will see you now,” she said, indicating the doctor’s office with a wave of her hand.
Sherina swallowed a knot of apprehension as she walked towards the huge, imposing oak door which, to her inexperienced eyes, seemed a bit out of place and inappropriate for a hospital.
Sherina’s eyes were gritty from lack of sleep which was no surprise since she had been unable to sleep or indeed function at all since yesterday when she had seen the result of her pregnancy test. Truth be told, she had spent the night tossing, sobbing and alternately pacing the entire floor of her apartment. It had not helped in the least that she had also used up three more test kits with the same result.
If she was pregnant, she could never abort it, but it just meant every time she set eyes on her child she would remember Darren and how he had betrayed her with Deb. She had spent long, dark hours alone, agonizing over the fact that she was likely pregnant and carrying the child of a man without common decency who had proved himself a heartless cheater, a wimpy liar and a spineless bastard. He had to be or else he would not have cheated! And with Deb! They had all been friends since the third grade, which was when she had met Darren. She’d known Deb forever but in the end, it hadn’t mattered; the woman had still betrayed her and lied about it.
She pushed Darren and the bitch out of her mind as she knocked lightly on Dr. Knight’s door before swinging it open.
“Hey, you must be my ten o’clock,” he said cheerfully from behind his desk as she turned to shut the door.
“Yes,” she replied dully, turning around to face him. “I’m Sherina...” she began but her voice trailed off as she took a gander at her Doctor.
He was simply magnificent. He had a dark blonde head of wavy hair framed perfectly around his skull in a way that had to have come from nature; perfect aquiline features; a long aristocratic nose, a firm chin and the most arresting pair of dark eyes she had ever seen. His eyes were so dark they were almost black with an intense silver light shining in them as he looked at her; and they looked so deep she was certain she could easily fall into them. Sherina couldn’t stifle a gasp of surprise at the bolt of electricity that shot through her when her gaze met his. Her gaze drifted to the straight, chiseled line of his lips and dark heat coursed through her with almost alarming speed. Even from his position behind the desk, she could tell tha
t he was at least 6”2 and he kept a small goatee which she ordinarily found disturbing but on him... It gave him a sophisticated appearance that made him look irresistible. His full lips and sculpted mouth, was enough to give any woman with an ounce of estrogen serious palpitations.
“What seems to be the problem Ms. Jones?”
“I think I’m pregnant”
“Why would you think that?”
“I think I may be pregnant,” she repeated slowly as though in a drugged haze.
“I heard you the first time. Why do you think so?”
“I did a home test; four actually and they were all positive. So again, I think I’m pregnant.”
He hesitated a bit, his dark gaze clinging to hers before he said quietly, “I’ll order a test. We should know for certain in a few minutes. Before we do that though, when was your last period?”
“Eight weeks ago.”
“So for all you know you could be 6-7weeks along?”
Sherina swallowed a fresh wave of nausea before saying, “Just about.”
“No period whatsoever since then?”
“No.”
“Any spotting?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Have you been under any stress lately?”
A million dollar question. Stress? Which part? The cheating fiancé; the lying best friend; the new job with a boss who constantly watched her like she was a bad business decision; the new colleagues who were all stuffy and unfriendly; or the new town she hated because she knew no one? And that was to say nothing of the hundreds of wedding guests she had had to call to cancel as well as the caterers and wedding planners. Her mum’s wails over the phone from Hawaii where she and dad had stopped over in their tour of the world had only made Sherina sink further into despair. Then of course dad had boomed that he always thought that Rowe kid was up to no good, and why hadn’t she listened? He had been threatening to buy a shotgun and shoot “that boy’s caper off” by the time she hung up. No... why would she be stressed?
She tensed, “You think stress could make me think I’m pregnant?”
“Well stress could be responsible for a missed period; it’s been known to happen.”
“I doubt stress could make my test show a positive. Four times!”
“Hmm. A lot of factors could intrude. I take it from your line of questioning you do not want to be pregnant,” he observed, pinning her beneath his smouldering dark gaze.
Sherina felt a frisson of awareness shoot through her and she wrenched her gaze away from his in confusion. What was this? He was good-looking enough but been there, done that, she was going to steer clear of guys and their stupid problems for as long as she had anything to say about it.
“I do not want to be pregnant Dr Knight. In fact, I would prefer I weren’t.”
“Okay. I’ll just draw some blood and let you know for sure in a few minutes.”
Sherina kept her eyes averted as she felt the sting of the needle and as soon as the doctor departed, she leaned back against her seat and shut her eyes. She must have drifted off to sleep though because in seconds, the Doctor was leaning over her and shaking her awake. Her eyes drifted open slowly and then fastened immediately upon the firm, wicked mouth just inches from her face. Heat coursed through her in another dizzying rush and she was silently glad she was sitting down.
“Are you alright?” he asked, moving around to his side of the desk.
“I’m fine,” she murmured, faking a yawn to hide her inexplicable reaction to him as she sat up. “Just tired.”
Sherina’s eyes fastened onto the sheet of paper in his hand with fascinated horror; she already felt as though her world was upside down. The prospect of hearing the doctor confirm what she already knew to be true was enough to make her feel even more queasy and she slowly fanned her already heated face with her hand.
“So Doctor?” she asked.
“Ms. Jones, for starters, you’re definitely", the world stopped ,“not pregnant.”
The world began to rotate on its axis again even as she let out an unconscious yelp, a small sound filled with such triumphant joy that the Doctor gave her a weird look. Fear slowly began to seep out of Sherina and in that moment, she realized for the first time that she had been sweating profusely despite the air conditioned interior of the consulting room.
“I had four tests! They were all positive,” Sherina cried as doubt slid off her short-lived joy infusing her with a fresh wave of alarm that made her bolt upright in her seat and grab Dr. Knight’s hand from across the desk.
“Trust me, you are not pregnant. A number of things could cause a kit to malfunction and give a wrong result. Yours could have been expired for instance but you probably did not realize. Sometimes, it may simply be that you waited too long to read the result, any number of things really.”
Sherina beamed at him, a megawatt smile that lit up her entire face and made her look so devastatingly pretty that his breath caught in his throat. She was a knockout! She reminded him of one tall, long drink of hot chocolate on a cold day. She was sparkly, warm, and intriguing all at once. She had large, brown eyes, the color of sinful dark chocolate; her breasts were a gigantic 38D cup that made him clench his fists beneath his desk; her lips were full, pouty, and sensual; she had a waist that just begged to be spanned by a man’s hands and her legs, topped by high, round, firm ass which seemed to go on for miles. When she had walked into his office clad in her short jean skirt that flapped this way and that, giving him a tantalizing view of her upper thighs, he was hard and ready. He had felt his big cock bulging against the fly of his pants and he had groaned inwardly; he had never had this sort of reaction to a woman in as long as he could remember. Heck she didn’t even know his first name yet!
“I’m David,” he said huskily, his dark, smoldering gaze tracing her lips.
She beamed at him again, “Dr. David Knight.”
“Just David,” he said, his deep, masculine voice giving a sexy timbre to the name.
“David,” she said slowly, her voice a caress.
Her British accent almost made him cream his pants a little and he rose to his feet immediately smiling at her across his desk. At least he aimed for a smile, but given the battle raging in his pants, it felt more like a grimace.
“Anything else?”
“My missed period? There must be some reason right? Plus I have been having bouts of nausea; although that’s probably as a result of the alcohol.”
He slowly lowered himself back onto his seat. Would the torture never end?
“Ms. Jones, have you been under stress lately?” he asked, repeating his earlier question.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I have.”
“In that case, I’m going to recommend some vitamins for you and a three day complete bed-rest at least. You should be right as rain after that. And in the meantime, no alcohol, no caffeine and no long hours.”
“Anything else?”
“Try to eat right. I will see you in two weeks if nothing changes and we will do some more intensive tests then.”
“Thanks so much Dr.,” Sherina said, flashing him a pair of beguiling and intoxicating dimples, her soft, breathy voice coupled with her British accent swirling the words around like fine wine.
“A pleasure Ms. Jones, I have to see other patients now.”
Sherina rose to her feet in one sinuous, slow motion that made all the curves and dips on her body undulate before his eyes. She flicked her long-lashed gaze up to his face, cocked her head to the side, and beamed; a natural temptress.
“Thank you Dr Knight, you may well be my favorite person today. I won’t forget this,” she breathed happily.
“You’re welcome. It’s David,” he reminded her, his puzzled frown evident he could not understand why she was so very relieved not that her pregnancy test was actually negative.
He extended a hand to Sherina in farewell and she hesitated for a fraction of a second before taking his surprisingly rough palm in her soft one. Elec
tricity skidded in intense waves through their clasped hands and they both dropped their hands as though burned, their confused gazes clashing.
Sherina swallowed hard, trying to control the ridiculous way her body was responding to her doctor. Then turning on her heels, she strode from the room on cloud nine, leaving David staring after her as he tried to squelch the feeling at the back of his mind that he hadn’t seen the last of this patient.
CHAPTER FOUR
Sherina picked up the last collection of files from Mr. Paul Wingman’s office and headed towards the outer offices, distributing them as she went. She was not normally given clerical duties but some days it seemed to be all she got. She didn’t mind though; in fact she was feeling particularly chipper this morning.
It was just a week since she had met Dr. Knight but this morning, her period had made an appearance with all the attendant pain, nausea and irritability. But she didn’t mind. A painful period was way better than no period in her book. The Darren-sized cloud over her head had been removed finally. In fact in the one week since her visit to the doctor, she had not shed a single tear over him or even thought of him much. Perhaps time did heal all wounds, she mused as she took a sip of her latte.
“Hey Sherina,” someone called from accounting as she passed their office.
“Hey,” she called back cheerily.
She was making friends now too, although even she had to admit she was somewhat wary of really letting anyone in. She had a hard time forgetting Deb with her fiery head of hair, her intense green eyes and her lying lips.
Sherina strolled into her office and plopped onto her seat, shoving Deb from her mind. The door opened almost immediately. Andre Duval was framed in the doorway. He was tall at six feet with salt and pepper hair, a warm mobile mouth, dark green eyes that made her think of green grass on a rainy day, and a penchant for showing up wherever Sherina went.
Falling For The Doctor (BWWM Pregnancy Romance) Page 2