by Lyn, K.
“This isn’t right.”
“It feels right, Leah. Come home with me.”
Leah tried to back away, but he pulled her closer to him. “You’re married,” she stated flatly.
“It’s over, Leah. She moved out, and what she didn’t take with her will be sent to her tomorrow.”
Leah feared what he might do if she left him at this vulnerable time, but she didn’t know if she wanted to share his bed, if that was what he was asking her to do.
His eyes bore into hers as he pleaded, “Please, Leah.”
“Just stay with you?” She hoped she was getting her point across without actually saying it.
“If that’s what you want, Leah,” he said.
Instead of playing twenty questions with the doctor, Leah followed him to his house. The place was cold and lacked any sign of hominess.
Craig turned on nearly every light in the house and poured a couple of glasses of wine. “I hate the darkness,” he stated as he handed a glass to Leah. “The world has too much darkness.”
Leah said nothing, assuming the doctor needed to vent. She could only imagine the number of death certificates the man had signed. If he was depressed, she could certainly understand why.
“Sit with me, Leah.”
Leah took a seat beside him and realized that the doctor felt a little uncomfortable in his own home. He had seemed much more self-assured in his office. The place was scantily decorated, with very few pictures on the walls, and no photographs of his wife. Leah had taken only one sip when her glass was taken from her. She was once again wrapped in the bear-like embrace that had made her give in to the kiss of the doctor. He was making love to her with his mouth, never getting enough, and he lifted her into his arms as he stood.
“Craig, it’s not right,” Leah protested.
His eyes were pleading. “I’m tired of doing what’s right. That’s all I’ve done since the day I was born.”
Leah understood the life of a doctor. Where others saw money and prestige, she saw loneliness and unrealistic expectations placed upon them by too many. She couldn’t go to bed with him out of pity, but she also couldn’t deny that she wanted him. He reminded her of the ‘boys of fall’, the men who dazzled the crowds every Sunday in their football uniforms. Craig was built like a linebacker and Leah liked the feeling of being carried to bed in his arms. He laid her down on the bed in what she guessed was the guest bedroom, but she had to know.
“Is this your bedroom?”
“Yes,” he said.
When she looked at him with a questioning look, he added, “Hers was at the other end of the hallway. We haven’t shared a bedroom for quite some time.” His lips were on hers again before she had a chance to ask anything more, but she wanted to know if bedroom meant bed. As the doctor kissed his way downward, he unbuttoned Leah’s blouse as quickly as he could, eager to taste the breasts of the woman he had fantasized about. There was nothing subtle about his moves. He pulled each breast into his mouth and held its nipple between his lips. “Take these off,” he said in a commanding voice. But he didn’t wait. He forced the jeans from Leah’s body and heard a soft moan. He looked up at her. Her eyes were closed and her beautiful lips slightly parted. He unveiled Leah as if she were a rare painting, and parted her legs. She looked so fragile beneath him that for a moment he feared he was taking advantage of her vulnerability. But he wanted her too much to stop.
When he had shed his clothes, he whispered her name, “Leah,” and she opened her eyes. She pulled him to her, offering herself to him. He entered her slowly, consuming her, and softly calling his name as he gave himself to her. He gave her body what it had been craving, but what she gave him was much more than physical. He felt a connection with her that he could not explain even to himself. He felt his climax building and felt Leah’s hands upon him as she held him inside of her.
“Is it…?” he asked.
“You know it’s okay,” she whispered, followed by a wink.
He drove hard into her, releasing his seed inside his fantasy woman. When she pulled him down to her afterward, he said, “I don’t want to hurt you,” and straddled her left leg to lessen the pressure of his large body on her petite frame. As he lay with her, he played with the blonde curls that spiraled downward and rested upon her shoulders. He wrapped his fingers in the twirling strands and looked up at her. She was the kind of woman he wanted. Beautiful and caring, she would be the ideal wife. One day he would be the head of his department and he needed someone like Leah by his side. He tried to turn his mind off, but thoughts were entering too quickly. Leah was sleeping beneath him, and if this was a dream, he never wanted to wake up.
When an unwelcoming ray of the morning’s sun hit Leah’s face, she opened her eyes. Craig was sleeping soundly on top of her, his body spread across her like a blanket, and his penis still buried deep inside her. As she lay listening to the sound of his slow steady breathing, she thought about what she had done. She had gone to bed with her doctor, something she had faulted other women for doing in the past. Now she realized how easily it could happen. She thought about his soon-to-be ex. Through the hospital grapevine she knew the woman had come from Southeast Asia, Vietnam she believed, and had a chip on her shoulder the size of her home country. It was rumored that her father had escaped Ho Chi Minh’s brutal regime during the fall of Saigon, but she and her mother had been left behind. She didn’t remember it, since she had been an infant at the time, but stories and rumors had painted Americans at that time as heartless vermin. Her bedside manner was horrendous, and she had trouble getting a hospital to hire her. Leah wondered why she had come to the U.S. Perhaps she had been looking for her father, and perhaps she had thought of Dr. Holcomb as a ‘father figure.’ Maybe vengeance had been the driving force behind her move. Whatever her reasons, Leah would never think it okay to use people. Then she fought the urge to laugh. She had used someone last night and he was lying on top of her. In her mind she justified her actions. Theirs had been a mutual using. She shifted and Craig looked up at her.
There was fear in his eyes, but not because of what he had done. “Am I hurting you?”
Leah shook her head as he positioned himself to straddle her leg. “You didn’t hurt me, Craig. I moved my leg underneath you for warmth.”
“I could have hurt you. I could crush you if I’m not careful. You’re fragile.”
“But you didn’t hurt me.”
He rested his head on Leah a few minutes until he knew he had to get up. “I’m expected at the hospital.”
“I know.”
“Will you be here when I return?”
Leah could make no promises. “I have a business to run,” she said.
“That’s right. I guess that’s what got us here, wasn’t it?” He was joking, but Leah was proud of what she had accomplished in only a few years and her on-line publishing business was thriving.
While Craig was in the shower, Leah checked her email via her cell phone and scrolled through the websites she did every morning. With the number of manuscripts waiting for her to publish, she would be busy for at least the next six months.
Craig wasn’t prepared to see Leah dressed and ready to leave. He pulled her to him and looked into her eyes. “Please come back tonight. I should be home around six. Here, let yourself in.” He handed her a key to his house.
“Craig, I can’t. You still have a wife.”
“Please,” he pleaded.
Leah smiled and allowed the doctor to place the key in her hand. Too busy to give much thought to the doctor during the day, she opened the door to his home a little before six. It was dark and dreary, and she understood why the man spent so much time away. She turned on the lights and went into the kitchen to find something to make for dinner. After finding nothing but a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, she gave up and decided to give herself a tour of the doctor’s home. When the phone rang, she let the machine answer and listened to the voice of the doctor’s soon-to-be ex spew every
nasty word in the English language, a few in her native tongue. She trashed his kids, his first wife, and threatened to sue for half of his pension. Leah wished she could erase the message before Craig heard it, but she was merely a guest in his house.
“Leah?”
Leah turned to see Craig coming through the back door. She hadn’t heard the garage door. He kissed her and asked if she would mind calling for takeout while he went upstairs to check his messages. When he returned, he seemed distracted.
“Bad day?”
“No, just another ex-wife. What the first one doesn’t take, the second one will.”
He poured a glass of wine and sat down at the table.
“They are only threats, Craig. I don’t know about the first wife, but the one making the threats has her own job and a damned good one, and the two of you have no children together. You may be ordered to sell the house and split the equity, but that doesn’t mean she gets everything.” She sat down beside him and rubbed his back. “You’ve had a long day, Craig. You’re tired, and I think you’ve been tired for a long time.” His eyes had dark circles beneath them and he looked much older than he had the night before. “Unless you’re starving, let’s cancel our takeout order. Come with me.”
Leah took him by the hand and led him up the stairs to the guest bedroom. “Lie down, Craig.” He took off his shoes and lay down on the bed. Leah curled up next to him and wrapped her arms around him. “Sleep, doctor, sleep.”
Once the doctor had fallen into a deep slumber, Leah slipped away quietly and tiptoed to the doctor’s master bedroom. She was determined to learn more about his ex, but what she discovered was more about her doctor. Tucked away in the back of a dresser drawer was a stack of letters from years ago when he was an undergraduate at a very prestigious university. He had been accepted to every ivy league school in the country, but the program he had chosen was different. “We excel in diversity” an empty envelope read. That seemed like a strange phrase to Leah, so she looked on-line for the school. For a hefty sum from foreign governments, the program promised acceptance to students from select countries. She skimmed down the list and found India, Saudi Arabia, and Iran among those with the most students accepted. The program all but promised citizenship upon graduation. With only five percent U.S. citizens, Leah realized how citizenship was granted. It was easy. Simple demographics insured that most foreign students would eventually pair up with an American. Leah read about some of the alumnae men from the U.S. and learned that they were extremely intelligent but felt they couldn’t relate to “average” women. The tuition was expensive and it was certainly a top notch school, but the human toll it took was tragic. Preying upon the vulnerabilities of men and women who were barely adults was appalling. Leah shook her head. She wasn’t surprised about the actions of the U.S. government, but she felt bad for Dr. Holcomb. While his colleagues had strong ties to their alma maters and faithfully watched the sports teams year after year long after they had graduated, his alma mater was geared toward those of higher intellect or with foreign deep pockets. Being smart did not equate to being happy, nor did it exempt someone from having self-esteem issues.
“Leah?”
Leah closed the drawer and hurried down the hallway to where Craig was sitting on the side of the bed. “Feeling better?”
“Yes, but hungry.”
Leah ordered from the vegetarian restaurant that was her favorite and wrapped her arms around Craig when he entered the kitchen.
“What’s that for?”
“Nothing, and everything,” she said.
He gave her a strange look, but Leah just smiled. She listened as he talked about his day and the ideas he had about his book. “They come to me at the oddest times,” he said with a laugh. Leah nodded. If the doctor wanted to be a novelist, she was going to do whatever she could to help him. He deserved everything he wanted, including her.
***
After the doctor’s ex had moved out, Leah moved in. Unfortunately, the ex was determined not to walk away without causing problems for the doctor. According to one of the medical assistants who had become friends with Leah, the doctor’s ex came to the office unannounced often. He agreed to see her, but she never arrived without making a scene. She would open the door marked ‘doctors only’ and as soon as she saw him between patients, she would say in a loud and childlike whiny voice, “Are you done yet?” Dr. Holcomb had been told by the managing partner that his ex’s behavior would no longer be tolerated and if Craig didn’t do something about it, he would. Craig felt like a fool, allowing someone else to tell him what was appropriate professionally. He felt emasculated and out of touch in yet another way.
Craig’s divorce became final on a cold day in January, and Leah wasn’t prepared for the broken man who walked through the door of his own home that day.
“You okay?”
“I’m divorced, again. I’m a man who has been divorced twice. Who could possibly want me?” He closed his eyes and laid his head back. “I’m alone.”
Leah walked slowly over to where Craig was sitting. She slipped her feet out of the sexy black heels and planted her bottom on the doctor’s lap, her knees on either side of his legs. He was a tall man and Leah leaned forward and put her hands on his face. She kissed him lightly on the lips, placed her cheek against his, and whispered into his ear. “You are not alone. You have me.”
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him so close that she could feel the beating of his heart against her breasts. She let him hold her for as long as he needed to, and when he let her loose just enough to see her face, he saw her, truly saw her, for the first time that night. She was beautiful with blonde hair that she had curled in long ringlets. Her eyes were bluer than any blue eyes he had seen, with a dark ring of blue outlining a slightly lighter shade. They were so big they were like windows. He guessed her to have been a cheerleader when she was in high school, probably homecoming queen, prom queen, every boy’s dream, and the envy of every girl. She had been the description of his dream back in the day, but women like her didn’t spend much time with men like him. Women like Leah spent their nights in the arms of the football quarterback, not smart nerdy guys like him. Leah watched his eyes as they moved back and forth, up and down, as if trying to solve a puzzle. He slid his hands down her back and held the two halves of her butt that fit perfectly in his hands. He realized that the little black dress had been worn for a reason, the table set with candles, and the house dark except for the glow.
“You did this for me?”
Leah nodded.
Craig closed his eyes and Leah kissed away the tear that trickled down from beneath his right eyelid. “Why?”
Leah kissed his cheek and spoke softly. “You deserve it.” She felt the rise and fall of his chest against her own as he took a deep breath.
“Leah, let’s be honest with each other. I don’t deserve you. You can’t possibly be interested in a man like me.”
“Why is that?”
“I’m not your type.”
“Really, doctor? What is my type?”
He took one of her blonde curls and wrapped it around his finger. “Someone as beautiful as you.”
“That describes you.”
“Leah, you and I both know that’s not true.”
Leah explained to the doctor about her late husband, his advanced degrees, and that he had been a self-proclaimed nerd. “I’ve always been attracted to and turned on by ‘smart guys’. Perhaps it goes back to my high school boyfriend. While I was reading the latest Jackie Collins novel, he was devouring the works of Fitzgerald, Dostoevsky, and others I had never heard of. But I’m not a complete airhead. It took me awhile to find my niche, and my degree in business administration has served me well in starting my own business.” She winked at him and finally elicited a smile.
“You’re a long way from an airhead, Leah, and thanks.”
“For what?”
“For telling me about your late husband, and I’m sorr
y you had to go through that.” The glow from the candles left the room in total darkness except for the shadows that danced on the wall as a result of the light from the moon. “Go with me to the office party.”
“Do your colleagues know about me?”
“No, but they will love you.”
“Will they think I’m a home wrecker?”
“I believe that’s a title I have earned…all by myself.”
Leah kissed him passionately with a lingering kiss. “Tell me where and when, and I’ll be ready,” she said out of breath.
He pulled her to him and parted her legs to straddle him. Lifting her into his arms, he carried her up the stairs and to the guest bedroom that was now the master. The door to the bedroom he had shared with his second wife would remain closed until the house was sold.
***
Leah was elegantly dressed, yet not ostentatiously so, when she and Craig entered the home of Dr. Michaels, the head of the department. Craig introduced Leah to his colleagues as the woman in his life. It was the light in his eyes, the blush in his cheeks, and the smile on his face that told everyone he had finally found what he had been looking for. Leah’s easy nature and humility won the hearts of Dr. Holcomb’s colleagues who wanted nothing but the best for Craig. At the end of the evening, Mrs. Michaels took Leah aside and thanked her for the gift she had brought.
“You’re the missing piece to Craig’s puzzle,” she said.
“Puzzle?”
“He’s happy now…truly happy. We’ve known him for years and never has he been happier. There’s a mutual respect between the two of you. His first two wives were unwelcome fixtures at the office, his second wife demanding to see him whenever she arrived, but you don’t do that.”
“It’s not my place, and I really don’t have the time anyway,” Leah laughed.
“You bring out the best in him, Leah. He believes in himself.”