by Tiana Cole
“Kayla!”
Little feet came pounding up the hallway behind me without sounding like there was any intention of slowing down. I felt her body collide with my legs and her arms hook around my calves. Her hot little face buried itself in my skin, her hair tickling the space just below my dress. I reached down to pat her on the head and she slid around to stand directly in front of me. It was so silly, but I felt better with her there. I felt safer somehow.
“Hey, sweetie, you get your lollipop?”
“Yup! The cherry kind. It was okay.”
“Just okay?”
“Too sticky I guess. Who’s the man?”
I looked back to Dr. Johnson and saw that he was giving what he must have thought was a friendly look. From the look Kayla gave him back, she was not impressed.
“This man is Dr. Johnson. He’s someone who works with your dad.”
“Like friends?”
“No, not like friends. They just work together.”
“I don’t like him.”
“Kayla! You can’t talk to people like that. It isn’t polite, is it?”
“No.” She didn’t look like she cared all that much and I had to fake a cough to keep from laughing. I didn’t want to teach her bad manners but I couldn’t say I disagreed with her.
“It’s okay, I know children can be shy of strangers.”
“Sure, that’s true. Anyway, it was nice to meet you, doctor. I need to get this little girl home and give her a real treat. Something better than that cherry lollipop.”
It was true, I had promised David I would get Sophie home, but I was also desperate for any reason to escape George Johnson. Standing there with him made my skin crawl and I couldn’t get away from him and out of this hospital fast enough.
“Of course, I understand. Have a lovely day.”
We started off down the hallway, me not even caring if we were headed in the right direction. The further away we got from that confrontation the better I could breath. Now if only I could get his words out of my head. If only I could stop thinking about that little “habit” rattling away in David’s pocket.
***
“So did you girls enjoy the rest of your day?”
David was finally at home and I wanted it to be enough to calm my fears and doubts. I wanted so badly to go back to the way things felt when we were in his office and he was kissing me for the first time. That kiss felt like it lasted for centuries and yet only a second. It made time stop and nothing else had mattered. But then the kissed stopped and Dr. Johnson happened and things had gone back to making not a bit of sense.
I was beyond confused. I kept thinking about Yvonne’s advice to just let the revenge thing go and enjoy liking him. She was probably right and I knew it, but it was a whole lot easier said than done. How could I just shut my eyes and ignore the possibility that David was hurting his patients? Even if the possibility was tiny, wasn’t it my responsibility to do something about it, to see if it was true?
“Earth to Kayla.”
“Sorry, David,” I said with a shaky laugh, “I guess it was just sort of a crazy day. I think I just need a break. Maybe a long, hot bath would do the trick.”
He moved towards the kitchen table where I sat perched and put his hands around the back of my neck. I could feel his strong, sure fingers massaging the tense muscles and I shut my eyes, wanting to think of only this. It would make things so much simpler, for everyone. Everyone but George Johnson, but he was making himself more and more unlikable with every interaction.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been insensitive. You just make things seem so flawless that I think I forgot how stressful they could still be. You have absolutely earned a bath. In fact, I insist on it. Doctor’s orders.”
“Thank you, David. I can make dinner afterwards.”
“No, don’t worry about that. I can make the dinner.”
I raised one eyebrow at him at the same time that Sophie called out “yuck” from the hallway. We both laughed at the same time and David shook his head with mock sadness.
“Alright, alright, I get it. I seem to have proved my ineptitude in the kitchen. How about this. I will find something outstanding to order in. You can use the master bathroom upstairs. The tub there is a whole lot better than the one in the guest apartment. By the time you’re good and relaxed the food will be here without you ever having to lift a finger. What do you think? Did I do good?”
“Yes, you did good.”
He smiled down at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. Something in his face just looked so hopeful, like he was genuinely excited by the prospect of a night of takeout with me and his daughter. It was hard not to like a man like that, especially when it came in such an attractive package.
“Excellent. I’m glad to hear it. Now, up you go. That’s it.”
He offered me a hand and helped me up, catching me in his arms once I was standing. He kissed the top of my head, my eyelids, the tip of my nose. He kissed me so lightly it felt like I might have dreamed it and there was a good chance I would have forgotten the bath completely if we hadn’t both heard Sophie snickering behind us.
“You guys like each other now.”
“Yes,” he said as he glanced at me to make sure it was okay, “I suppose we do. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes! I like her too!”
“Good, Sophie, I’m really glad. Now go see to that bath, Kayla. Dinner will be waiting for you.”
I nodded and headed slowly for the stairs. Pulling myself up each one felt like a chore. I felt like I had aged one hundred years in just a day. I was split down the middle, completely torn about what to do. I felt like I knew David, like I knew his heart, but Dr. Johnson made a compelling argument against him that made everything confused and blurry for me. I needed to know. I needed to know that it wasn’t just my desire for David that had me convinced that he was a good guy who couldn’t have done the things Dr. Johnson insisted he had.
I cautiously opened the door to David’s master bedroom, feeling very much like I was breaking in. It was ludicrous. He had given me permission to be in here, but it was so much nicer than the bathrooms I was used to. Nevermind that, this place was better than my last apartment! He was right, a bath in that massive jetted tub was going to feel pretty good.
But there was something else, something I couldn’t get out of my head once the idea wormed its way in. This was his bathroom, where nobody but him ever went. He didn’t need to hide things in here because he didn’t think there would be anyone to find them. This felt like my best chance to find the evidence I needed. If there was actually anything to find.
I crept towards his vast medicine cabinet, hardly breathing as I moved. I didn’t know what I would find in there but I knew now that I was hoping not to find anything that took David away from me. I didn’t want to let him go.
I opened the door and there it was, a bottle of Oxycontin screaming out at me with David’s name plastered across the front. I picked it up and sank to the floor, feeling like someone had just knocked the wind out of me. It was exactly the kind of thing Dr. Johnson had said I would find. I pulled my phone out of my pocket with shaking hands and started to type a text. It was time to let him know that he was right, David was taking pills. I would tell him and then everything would be over.
“No,” I said to myself with a conviction I hadn’t even known I felt. I didn’t want it to be over. I couldn’t imagine this being the last night I was here with Sophie and David, the three of us happily existing in this little bubble of safety we had created just for us. I knew now that David had been injured and that it had been bad. Maybe that’s what these pills were from. Maybe it wasn’t, but there was that possibility and that was enough for me. It was enough to make me erase the text one letter at a time and slip the phone back into my pocket.
I couldn’t do it. I liked him too much, wanted him too much. I had to make a real decision right then and there and I decided to believe in David, even if not all of the evidence
was good. I couldn’t straddle the fence anymore and so I chose his side and all of the possibilities that might include.
I slipped out of my clothes and into the large jetted tub David had loaned to me. The feeling of the hot water running over my skin melted the stress out of my body. It felt like it was cleansing me of my confusion and my sins against David. I wasn’t going to think about it now. All I would think about now was the food that would be waiting for me when I got back downstairs and the feeling of David’s lips brushing against my own.
Chapter Twelve
Kayla
“Thank you so much for the dinner. That was amazing. I’m truly impressed, Dr. Wyatt. I didn’t think you could make something like this. In fact, I seem to clearly remember you assuring me that you would be getting takeout.”
“Ah, so you doubted me?”
“Well,” I laughed breathlessly, “I wouldn’t say I doubted you per se, but after watching you make breakfast I thought something like this might be just a little bit out of your reach.”
He grinned his beautiful grin at me and I felt my stomach do a little flip flop. Even though I had been here for weeks now, the experience of having David look at me was still an exhilarating one. When he wanted to he could be a formidable, intimidating man, but there was so much more to him than that. He could also be warm and exciting and incredibly sexy. There seemed to be no end to the different layers he had.
Take this meal, for example. I had watched him try and make something as simple as eggs and fail miserably, and now it turned out he was capable of making a these amazing steaks and decadent sides. He certainly seemed to have a whole lot of tricks up his sleeves and I was enjoying being a part of them.
Or I was mostly enjoying it. There was still that nagging little voice in the back of my head telling me not to trust this man, reminding me of that little bottle of pills, but I wasn’t going to listen to that. I had made my decision up in the bathroom only a few hours before. I had made the choice to trust in David, to be a part of his and Sophie’s lives, and I wasn’t going to go back on it now. I couldn’t. I was too invested. The absence of my sister in my life still left an invisible gaping wound inside of me, but I just couldn’t believe that David was at fault. Not anymore. Not after having gotten to really get to know him.
“Confession time?”
His voice roused me out of my own thoughts, his choice of words rattling me a little bit. Confession. Did he have a confession? Was there something he was hiding? God, I hoped not. I was afraid that losing these two would be the thing to really break me.
“Okay, sure. What do you need to confess?”
He leaned towards me in a conspiratorial manner, his eyes twinkling with mischief. I could smell the earthy scent of his cologne and it made me feel almost dizzy. We had already put Sophie to bed and now it was just me and him. Nobody to walk in and interrupt us. Nobody to use as a buffer. Just the two of us in this vast room with a bottle of wine that had to be the best I had ever had. It felt dangerous and completely delicious at the same time.
“I looked it up.”
“You what?” I couldn’t help laughing, although I had the decency to try and cover it up with one hand. It was just the last thing I had expected him to say.
“Don’t laugh, the internet is our friend! That’s right, I looked it up. We had a bunch of food in here so I looked up what I could make. Then I looked up how to make it.”
“But why? I would have been totally fine with delivery. Just a pizza or something would have been great.”
“I don’t know. I wanted you to have something better.”
“You did?”
“Yes. But it’s more than that. I wanted to impress you, Kayla. I wanted you to be impressed.”
He had such an earnest look on his face, shy and slightly embarrassed, and I reached out and put one hand lightly on his shoulder. It floored me to think that a man like David would be thinking about how he could impress me. He was a doctor, for god’s sake. Wasn’t that impressive enough?
It was so sweet, though, the image of him on the internet trying to figure out how to cook me a fancy meal. He was a super fast learner, too, because the food was truly delicious. I probably would have told him it was good no matter what, but this really was. This guy must really be able to do just about anything he wanted to. It must be nice. I couldn’t help but be a little bit in awe of him, not for the first time.
“That sounds sort of pathetic, doesn’t it? Kind of makes me sound like a sixteen-year-old boy.”
“No! No, don’t say that. It’s sweet. It might be the sweetest thing a man has ever said to me. I like it. I like how thoughtful you are.”
“Do you?”
He was looking at me with deeply intense eyes and I could feel my face growing hot. All of the sudden it was kind of hard to breath and I couldn’t figure out the best place to look. I felt very, very exposed, like I was vulnerable to him in a whole new way.
“Yes,” I said, hardly able to speak above a whisper, “I really do.”
“I like how brave you are, and how good you are with Sophie. I like how smart you are. How outspoken.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
With every word he spoke he moved closer to me until his face was only inches away from mine. I thought he was going to kiss me, but he waited, hovering right in front of me. I could feel the heat coming off of his body and wrapping itself around me like a wool blanket. I could feel the tension, too. I knew how badly he wanted me and yet still he held himself back. I couldn’t say for sure, but it seemed like he was waiting for my go ahead. I hadn’t ever had a man be respectful of me in that way and it sent me over the edge. I bridged the small remaining gap between us and pressed my lips against his.
It was just as exhilarating as before. Maybe even more so. This time there was the anticipation. I had spent the whole day thinking about that first kiss and wondering if I would ever get another one again. Now I didn’t have to wonder anymore. I didn’t have to ask myself if he was really attracted to me the way that I was to him or if he had just gotten caught up in the moment. The moment my lips landed on his I could feel his entire body respond to me. It was like electricity was flowing between our two bodies, pulling us closer and closer together.
The kiss started out slow, maybe even a little bit unsure, but it quickly became something else. His lips were more forceful, needier, and his hands found my ribcage and urgently pulled me in closer to him. Now I was practically in his lap and it still didn’t feel close enough. It seemed like I couldn’t ever get close enough to him, like I couldn’t get enough of him. His hands moving over my body left my skin tingling and screaming for more, more, more. My hands made their way up to his thick, unruly hair and plunged in deeply, pulling lightly and reveling in the sound of the light moan it elicited from deep in the back of his throat.
“Kayla,” he gasped, pulling away from me so that he could speak.
“Yes? Is this wrong?”
“No, not wrong. That isn’t what I was going to say.”
“Then what?”
“I want you. God, I want you so much.”
“I want you too,” I whispered, afraid of how true the statement was. I had never wanted a man in my entire life the way I wanted him. It scared me how badly I wanted to have more of his touch.
“Will you come upstairs with me? Is that something you want, too?”
I couldn’t speak anymore, just nodded vigorously, trying and probably failing not to look too eager. Once we were in his bedroom there wasn’t anything else to stop us. There was no chance of Sophie prancing in and asking for a glass of milk. There was just him and me. It was one of the most exciting things I could remember happening to me.
He rose, slightly unsteady on his feet, and extended a hand to me. I took it, feeling a little bit light headed but completely up for the challenge. He didn’t let go of my hand, held the tips of my fingers as he led me up the impressive stairway. He didn’t say a word and n
either did I. The entire house was silent and it made what was about to happen feel even more monumental than it might have otherwise. I kept having to remind myself to breathe, in and out, in and out, trying to time each breathe with my steps. Faster than I expected we were standing in the foyer of his vast master bedroom. He shut the door quietly behind me and then we were utterly alone. It was almost like we were the only two people in the whole wide world. I liked that feeling. It was something I thought I could get used to.
The room was dark enough that my eyes struggled to adjust to the change in light, but I could still make out David’s outline, see his hand as he lifted it and gently stroked the side of my face.