“Ready to go?” she yelled at Deb.
“Yeah.”
***
Sherina spent the better part of the day thinking about David and his discomfort when she had mentioned visiting him at home. If he was so uncomfortable with her presence in his home, she was almost afraid to wonder why. It was a measure of how uncomfortable she had made him, that he had not called all through the day when he had taken to calling her at least once at work.
As though on cue, her phone rang and she grabbed it expectantly. She tried to tell herself she was not disappointed when the caller ID showed it was Andre.
“Hey Andre,” she said into the receiver.
“Yes, Sherina. Could you please come get some documents for Mr. Wingman from my office? Pronto!”
“Of course,” she replied unenthusiastically. She liked Andre well enough but these days, he was getting kinda exhausting. She liked him; she just didn’t know how to let him down easy especially now she was so hung up on David.
His eyes brightened immediately when she walked into the room and automatically dropped to her legs. A flash of disappointment clouded his eyes when he discovered them covered up by her ankle-length pants and Sherina hid a grin.
“Stay and chat for a minute, why don’t you?” he invited genially.
Sherina grinned down into his happy, handsome face as she took him up on his offer. The man really was a looker, she mused, eyeing him from across his desk. Her phone rang immediately and the moment she saw Deb’s name on the screen, it was like someone had turned on the lights.
“Hey, where are you?” she asked immediately she picked up, her excitement leaking through her voice.
“Why do you ask and what are you planning?” was Deb’s immediate response.
Sherina rolled her eyes, Deb always could read her.
“Nothing,” she answered demurely. “What do you need?”
“I’m downstairs at your office. Took a turn around the park and discovered I had forgotten my key.”
“Okay, come get mine. Come on upstairs. Ask for Andre Duval’s office.”
“Who is that?” he asked as she shut her phone.
“A friend,” she said with a satisfied smile as she leaned back to wait.
Deb knocked gently on Andre’s door before poking her head around it.
“Come on in Deb, come meet my friend,” Sherina invited.
Deb pushed open the door, her pretty face glowing with good health and exercise. Sherina saw Deb’s green eyes widen as they met Andre’s and she smiled secretly to herself. If her plan worked, maybe Deb would find happiness with someone else and Andre was as decent as they came.
“Andre Duval, may I introduce Deborah Canter; my best friend.”
She saw Deb cast her a surprised and pleased look because she had described her as her best friend and Sherina realized for the first time that she had truly forgiven the other woman. Deb was wearing a short summer dress with strappy wedge sandals that accentuated her legs and made her look even more feminine.
Andre rose and took Deb’s hand in his before raising it to his lips in a courtly kiss that was so romantic and classic Andre.
Deb fluttered nervously, giggling like a little girl; though Sherina noticed that she left her hands in his. Her green eyes had that sparkle again, her red hair swayed becomingly around her shoulders as she laughed at whatever Andre was saying, totally lost in his even darker green eyes.
Discreetly, Sherina picked up the files and snuck out of the office; it was a measure of how enthralled they were by each other that neither of them noticed her leave.
CHAPTER TEN
“Okay my house is not in the best shape,” David said for the umpteenth time, his hand on the door knob in front of his house.
“Just open the damn door, Knight. We are already here,” Sherina said smiling up at him. He had shown up at her house with a smile, and a bouquet of flowers and invited her out to dinner.
She had been so mad at him she almost said no. Dinner turned out to be located at his house and she was so happy that he had apparently taken her seriously.
With a heavy sigh, he shoved open the door and Sherina gasped; the man had to be rich. His home was a model of perfection with expensive-looking antique furniture. A thick cashmere rug graced the hallway and the walls of his living room were adorned with paintings which looked original to her untrained eye.
When she saw the dining room, she couldn’t hold back again. “Oh my God, you are rich!”
“Er, is that bad?”
“Well, I’m not sure how I feel about dating a rich guy. Why couldn’t you just be a normal doctor with normal wages?”
He chuckled, pulling her into his arms for a long, drugging kiss. “You are something else! Most women would be pleased.”
“I’m not most women,” Sherina objected.
“Tell me about it,” he agreed, releasing her as he went to set the table.
Sherina’s hot chocolate eyes warmed with pleasure as she helped him set the table; the more time she spent with David, the harder she fell for him.
Dinner was a romantic and fun affair with David playfully feeding her off his plate. They cleared away the dishes together, sharing the chores and laughter.
Then he turned to her with heat in his eyes, “I don’t know how you do it. Sometimes you drive me out of my mind without even trying.”
“You do the same thing to me hotshot,” she purred, cupping his cheek in her palm.
“I need you. I need to feel you,” he breathed, leaning down and melding his lips with hers in a long drugging kiss.
“Easy tiger. I’m going to have a shower first and you should do the same too. I mean dinner was awesome but you do have that faint scent of onions clinging to you,” she said, wrinkling her nose at him.
“No I don’t,” David said automatically sniffing his clothes.
“Yeah you do. It’s like coming out of your pores. In fact, I believe Mrs. Peterson can smell it all the way from 4c!”
“I’ll show you smell,” he threatened, setting her into gales of laughter as he chased her up the stairs and into the Master’s bedroom.
Sherina whooped with laughter as David caught her up in his arms, nuzzling her neck as he pretended to suffocate her by stuffing her head under his armpit.
“Ewww the stench!” she laughed.
He laughed with her, tousling with her even as he noted with surprise that she had amazing body upper–body strength.
He tumbled her onto the bed and rolled her beneath him as he straddled her thighs with his knees on either side effectively immobilizing her legs. Then he started to tickle her, sending her into helpless gales of laughter as she cried and begged for mercy.
“Say it,” he demanded, tickling her mercilessly.
“Uncle!” she screamed at once.
“Nope! Say it!”
The tickling continues mercilessly, finding all her spots.
“Alright, alright. You don’t have an odor. I take it back! I take it back! Please!”
He relaxed, and slowly withdrew his hands from her watching her warily because her eyes were still alive with mischief.
“I swear I got nothing more. I’m winded.”
David grunted disbelievingly, but gently slid off of her, watching her like a hawk.
“Besides, I think you wrenched my ankle a little,” she said gently massaging her left ankle with one hand, wincing as she did so.
David was immediately all concern as he leaned over her to examine the ankle. He noticed the mischief gleaming in her lively brown eyes a second too late; Sherina seized the opportunity to grab his arm and pinch as hard as she could.
He yelped and wrenched his arm away. Before he could even retaliate by pinning her down for another round of tickling, she had fled into the bathroom shutting it behind her and whooping crazily with laughter.
“Stench,” she shouted through the door and he shook his head, laughing at her antics. The woman was a nightmare; a delightful
nightmare he decided as he went into the guest bathroom for his own shower.
In the Master’s bathroom, Sherina hummed happily to herself as she rinsed the soap off her body. She didn’t know why she had ever let Deb’s suspicions get to her. David’s house was as normal as possible and he wasn’t hiding a thing!
She turned off the shower and traipsed into the bedroom, reveling in the sweet scent of her newly-showered body. She hummed to herself some more, unconsciously tap-dancing her way to his closet. She opened it, still humming as she searched for a tee-shirt to wear. His wardrobe emphasized what she had thought; there was no evidence of a woman anywhere. All the clothes were completely masculine and definitely David’s.
She picked an old Duke University tee-shirt and tugged it on, smiling as she imagined his expression when he walked in and found her wearing nothing but a smile and his tee-shirt which was so old it was almost threadbare and transparent.
Idly, Sherina reclined onto the bed, supporting her head on one elbow as she watched the door expectantly. Her gaze wandered around the room as the minutes ticked away and a sparkle of light on the dresser caught her eyes.
Curious, she went to inspect the source of the light and her breath caught in her throat; it was a ring. It had to be the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. It was yellow diamond cast in an exquisitely wonderful setting of pure, crystal clear diamond stones.
Oh my God, was David going to propose, she wondered feverishly. As she admired the ring, her eyes drifted to the sheet of paper it had been resting upon and her world stopped. The ring was not for her at all.
According to the very formal, very official document there was a Mrs. Knight. David was married!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sherina moaned, a raw keening sound of distress as she folded in on herself. David was married?
Oh God! Oh God! She had been a raving fool; a blithering idiot, and an imbecile. Her subconscious had screamed that David was too good to be true and her subconscious had been right, but she just hadn’t listened.
Faint sounds of pans rattling emitted from the kitchen and her eyes rounded with panic as she realized that she couldn’t face him! If she had to take one more look at his cheating, lying face she was almost afraid she would rip it into shreds with a knife; she was so angry!
Hastily, she ducked about the room gathering up her jacket, lingerie and shoes into an ignominious heap. Inspiration struck and she hurried into the bathroom to turn on the shower; making him think she was in the shower was a genius was to buy more time. She tugged on her pants beneath the threadbare Duke shirt and then barefoot, she padded silently down the stairs, past the living room and straight out the front door. Once she had cleared the door, she ran for all she was worth about a yard up from his door before stopping to hunt for a taxi.
Her pain was so intense it was actually physical as tears coursed down her smooth cheeks in rivulets all the way home.
At his house, David smiled to himself as he padded up the stairs imagining Sherina’s face as he pictured surprising her with his treat; strawberries and whipped cream. The was hot chocolate on the side and of course some bits of cake.
“I swear that woman has the worst sweet tooth of anyone I have ever met,” he chuckled to himself.
He entered his room, surprised to find it empty still. He could hear the shower running though and he grinned to himself as he recalled she sometimes liked to linger in the bathroom.
He set down his treats beside the bed and sat down to wait. Soon, the silence coupled with the long day began to get to him and he lay down still waiting for Sherina unaware that his eyes were drifting shut.
Hours later, David woke up with a start, his body craving Sherina’s soft, warm one. He looked around, he was alone in the room and the shower was still running.
Raw panic clawed through him as he pictured the worst scenarios. He dashed into the bathroom, drawing up short as he found it empty. He backtracked into the room and looked around carefully again. This time he noticed she had not left a stitch of clothing behind.
His heart constricted in his chest as realization hit Sherina left him.
***
“You have been a wreck these past few days. Are you sure you are alright?” Deb asked, concerning darkening her green eyes as she stared across the table at her friend.
Sherina bit her lip worrying at the soft bit of flesh which was already sore form so much biting. “I need to just rest is all.”
“Sher, you can’t get much past me you know? You are all skin and bones! You have lost so much weight in just five days and you jump every time the doorbell rings. What is going on? Are you in trouble?”
Yeah, trouble was right, Sherina thought humorlessly. She was in trouble alright. Five days and she still could not get that cheating bastard off her mind. Her hands curled into a fist as she recalled the bold beautiful scrawl of his signature on that marriage certificate. She had seen him sign enough prescriptions to recognize that signature anywhere! She bit down on her lip so hard this time that she drew blood.
“Oh God, you hurt yourself,” Deb shouted grabbing a bit of Kleenex and dabbing it gently against Sherina’s lips. “Please tell me what’s wrong. You’re starting to scare me. Is it me? Did I do something?”
“Oh no, Deb, you’ve been wonderful,” Sherina assured her, patting her arm.
“Then?” Deb persisted, cocking her head to the side.
“It’s David. He’s married.”
“No. No.”
Deb read the unhappy truth in her friend’s expression and anger and sorrow warred inside her as she took Sherina in her arms and let her sob her heart out.
***
David came over later that night; it was a cool Deb that informed him in an even frostier tone that Sherina was ‘unavailable’. She banged the door in his face and for good measure, called in a locksmith the next day and changed all the locks, effectively shutting him out.
All through the next day, the phone rang incessantly as David tried desperately to reach Sherina. Deb bore the incessant ringing for as long as she could then she grabbed the phone and flung it against the wall, causing it to shatter into a million little pieces.
Sherina looked up at her in surprise and she shrugged, “We have to get a new phone.”
Sherina cracked a smile, the effort stretching her face since she had not smiled in so long.
“Sherina,” Deb said sinking onto the cushion beside her. “I think you need a break. A vacation sort of.”
“Take one by all means. I’m fine right here.”
“David isn’t going to stay away. He’s going to keep coming after you and you need to face him. Just hiding away isn’t good enough. You need to recover, you need a vacation.”
“What about Andre?”
“What about him? I think he may be taking me for granted just a little bit. I also need time away from him.”
Sherina chewed on her lip some more, her thoughts jumbled as she considered Deb’s idea. As though on cue, yet another knock sounded on the door, causing both women to jump.
“Sherina open up, it’s David,” the voice from the other side of the door, sounding slurred as though he had been drinking.
“Is he drunk?” Sherina whispered to Deb her eyes automatically filling with tears at the sound of his voice.
The sight of her friend’s distress was too much for Deb and she stalked to the door. The moment it opened, she yelled, “Stay the hell away from her Knight! You’ve done enough. She doesn’t want to see you.”
She banged the door shut in David’s face and stalked back inside to comfort her weeping friend. On the other side of the door, David rested his head weakly against the door frame; Sherina was avoiding him he realized. He just didn’t know why.
The next morning, Sherina and Deb set off for Vienna for three weeks.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Ms. Jones? You have a visitor,” the new receptionist said chirpily.
“Okay. Show them in,” S
herina replied absently. She had only just returned from her trip to Vienna with Deb and while she had a blast, she was glad to be back in New York. Deb had flirted outrageously with the natives whilst Sherina had taken long strolls and just enjoyed the night life all the while aware of the pit of despair in her stomach that wasn’t going away.
She missed David, much as she hated to admit it to herself, she missed him terribly. But his betrayal was just as bad as Darren’s and she could never forgive him because she had loved him more than she had ever loved anyone alive.
The door opened then and she gasped. The person at the door was David, just as though he had materialized from her thoughts. Except, he didn’t look so much like his usual self. His face was gaunt and pale, his clothes hung loosely about him as though he had lost weight; and he had. He had lost several pounds, she thought. His hair was in disarray around his head; his clothes were wrinkled and his eyes were bloodshot as though he had been drinking.
She rose to her feet, her hands trembling so much that she had to hide them behind her back. Seeing him was affecting her more than it should, she thought raising her chin defiantly.
“I’m surprised they let you past security, looking the way you do,” she said frigidly tamping down on her emotions.
His eyes lifted dully to hers, their expression so confused that for a second she was almost afraid he had lost his mind.
“Sherina,” he breathed coming around her desk and standing a hair’s breadth away from her.
Sherina braced herself for the onslaught of the stench of beer but he didn’t smell like he had been drinking. For all he looked like some hobo, he smelled clean enough.
“What happened? Why did you walk away from me?” he asked.
“Gee, what do you need me for? Mrs. Knight not doing enough?” she asked sarcastically.
“Mrs. Knight? What are you...”
“Don’t lie to me,” she interrupted with barely restrained violence.
“What do you mean?”
“You are married! I found the papers and the big honking ring you got her! What was I to you? A holiday fling?” she screamed.
Falling For The Doctor (BWWM Pregnancy Romance) Page 6