When I thought she'd finally clamp her hands on me, there was a knock on the door and I looked up to see Craig in the doorway with a bouquet of roses that were bigger than his head. He walked in guiltily and I glared at him.
"Well, I better leave you two alone," mom said, sensing the instant tension in the room. "I'll be back in a couple hours."
She pecked me on the cheek but I didn't feel a thing. I was too busy staring into Craig's eyes, wishing he'd leave me alone. I waited until mom walked into the elevator before picking up the roses and hitting him with him.
"Get out."
"Etta!"
"Get out. Get out. Get out. GET OUT!"
One of the nurses looked up from the reception area but quickly glanced away when she saw the look on my face.
"You have some nerve being here."
"Etta listen."
"No!"
I hit him again and he snatched the roses back.
"Calm down. Please..."
"Calm down? Are you serious? I told you not to come back here."
"I love you!" he cried.
Pushing him away from me, I walked back to the bed and resumed packing, hoping he'd take the hint and eventually leave me alone.
But he lingered in the corner with his puppy dog eyes and the roses hanging by his side now battered and ruined.
"Go away. I said. I'm not going to tell you again."
"Fine... just... Call me when you calm down, okay?"
He moved toward the door.
"I won't," I said as I watched him leave. "I just want you to transfer over my half from the joint savings account so I can get somewhere else to live."
His mouth hung open slightly and he walked back, making sure the door was closed so the nurses outside couldn't hear. They'd congregated around the reception desk, obviously loving the drama.
"You're not coming back?" he gasped.
Looking up from my case, I shot him a look of sheer derision.
"You don't possibly think things can just return to normal, can you?"
"I guess not," he sighed and dumped the roses in the trash.
Zipping my case shut, I reached for a glass of water and winced as the pain shot through my neck. The painkillers were starting to wear off but it wouldn't be long until Bosworth was back and he'd give me some more.
"So will you?" I asked as I took a gulp of water.
"Will I what?" Craig pretended not to understand.
"Transfer my half of the savings."
He remained silent but I could sense his nervousness without looking. Turning round, I saw his face pale. I was even sure for a second that his pupils dilated.
"About that," he began. "Erm... It's..."
"What?"
"There's a... There's a problem."
"What kinda problem?"
He chewed on his lip and clenched his hands into a fist.
"The money it's... n-not there."
It felt like a rubber band was winding itself tight around my chest, ready to snap at any moment.
"What are you talking about?"
I suddenly felt faint and slumped against the railings to steady myself.
"It's gone," he said at last with a relieved breath. "It's all gone."
My heart beat in my throat as I curled my white-knuckled fingers around the bed frame.
"Where has it gone, Craig?"
The calmness in my voice surprised me. It felt as though it was coming from outwit my body as though it was someone else speaking in my place.
"Just gone..." he said.
My breaths became shallow and desperate. I clutched my chest and clenched my eyes shut.
"Where has it gone?"
The silence was overwhelming. When it felt as though he'd never speak again, he opened his mouth and stammered.."R-r-r-emember that bachelor's party in Vegas?"
I cast my mind back. It was a few months ago and he'd come back exhausted and hungover. In fact, he was so hungover he spent the next three days in bed.
"How could I forget," I said. "You came back smelling like tequila and strippers."
He stumbled into the nearby chair and looked down at the roses at his feet.
"We had a private poker night with some big shot we met at one of the tables."
This did not sound good.
"And I thought there was a chance I could beat him, you know so I...."
"You..."
"Took out the savings and..."
He didn't need to tell me the rest.
"Craig there was almost thirty grand in there! We'd been saving for years!"
My voice screeched out of me as I screamed like a banshee.
"You bastard! You absolute fucking bastard!"
"Please! I was so close to winning you have to believe me."
"You lost everything!"
One of the nurses hurried in and flung the door open.
"You're going to have to leave," she pointed at Craig. "You're upsetting the other patients."
“But?” he started to protest.
“Out,” she pointed at him. “Security is on the way.”
~
There weren't anymore tears to cry by the time Dr. Bosworth showed up. As soon as he saw me, he frowned and sat down on the end of the bed.
"Something happen?" he asked.
There was a softness in his eyes, a look of concern that I'd wished I'd seen present in my own family.
"Everything's happened," I said.
I told him everything, from finding out about Craig to my mother and her boy toy. It all fell out of me in one long sentence and when I finished, I was breathless and Bosworth was staring wide-eyed.
"So you have no place to go," he said, his bottom lip upturned into a sympathetic grimace.
"Well I have my home but..."
"You're too proud to go back to him?"
I nodded.
He jumped down and began to pace, tapping his pen against his mouth as he thought.
"There is a place I know of but.... I don't think you'll like it."
I raised an eyebrow. Was he going to invite me to live with him? Chance would be a fine thing.
"It's in Broadwood, you may have heard of it."
I had, and my stomach sank at the prospect of living in that part of the city.
"People call it skid row," I said.
He gave a wry smile and said, "I volunteer down there. It's not that bad. The people are, how do I say it, the salt of the Earth."
"That's one way of putting it."
"You don't seem convinced."
The look on my face gave him his answer.
"Look, I'm just trying to help. I work the weekends in a place where women can stay if they're in trouble. It's called Walters House and-"
"The Broadwood Hilton!" I gasped. "No way!"
The place was infamous for being a hot bed of sleaze and crime.
"But hookers live there!”
"It would only be for a few days until you find something else," he said. "Until you can find somewhere to rent I suppose."
I thought about what my bank account must look like. With all my savings gone and only a month’s wages to my name, it didn't look as though I'd be renting anywhere anytime soon. It would seem that right now, I didn't have many options.
"Of course," he interrupted my thoughts. "You could stay with friends."
I shook my head, too embarrassed at the thought of imposing on them with my problems.
"Broadwood it is," I said as I reached for my bags. "How do I get there?"
~
The room was half the size of my bathroom back home and the decor was as tired as I was. The single bed was pushed up against a mold covered wall where a single beetle was making its way across the peeling wall paper. As I moved toward the window to catch a view of the docks, my shoes stuck to the carpet.
"I'm sorry. It's grim, isn't it?"
Bosworth was behind me with my bags in his hands. He was being unbelievably kind and on the drive over here, he smile
d and joked, made me feel as though I didn't have a single problem in the world.
"Thank you so much, doctor. You've been so nice to me."
When everyone else wasn't, I mentally added.
"Please, call me Lincoln, or Linx if you prefer. It's what everyone here calls me."
"Linx," I smiled. "Sure."
Out of his white coat he looked even more handsome but not any less smart.
"I'm sorry. Would it be weird if I hugged you?" I said. "To say thank you."
"That wouldn't be weird at all," he grinned and opened his arms.
I fell into them with a big heaving sigh of relief as his hard body pressed against mine. It was the happiest I'd felt in days and as his arms wrapped around me, I had the overwhelming urge to fall asleep. Instead, all the memories of the last week piled up on me and I found myself sobbing into his cashmere sweater.
"Aw. It's okay," he soothed and hugged me tighter. "You've had such a horrible time."
I cried harder.
"Let it all out," he urged.
Embarrassed, I pulled away and wiped my sleeve across my eyes.
"Sorry," I whimpered.
"Don't be. Hey... You know what?"
I looked up expectantly.
"I have a rare night off. Literally never happens. How about I take you out for dinner? Looks like you could do with cheering up and well, if I'm honest I could do with the company."
The tears dried up in an instant.
"Sounds terrific.
~
The restaurant was a cozy French place tucked into the fishing district of the city. From the outside it looked a rundown but indoors it was like a Victorian boudoir. I couldn't help but think he wanted to go someplace nicer but chose somewhere beneath him so as not to embarrass me.
After a diet of hospital food, I was grateful for the steak in front of me that was swamped in peppercorn sauce. I ate silently as I listened to him talk about his work. His eyes were dancing as he talked about the Cardiospan, something I'd heard of but had no idea he'd created. On the napkin in front of him, he'd drawn out diagrams of the circuitry and as I looked at it, I began to feel rather stupid.
"I'm just a nurse," I said. "We're not exactly trained in this stuff."
He smiled and folded to napkin.
"Just a nurse," he shook his head. "Without you guys hospitals wouldn't exist. Believe me, you're most important than we are."
Below the table, his leg pressed against mine but I didn't pull away and neither did he. As his eyes met mine, a shockwave of tingles ran down my spine.
"It's late," he said."I better get you back before curfew. Phaedra can be one strict cookie."
I didn't want the night to end, but by the way his thigh remained pressed against my leg, I knew he didn't either.
~
I lay on my back staring up at the stained ceiling. Lincoln sat in the wicker chair by the window with a coffee in his hands.
"I feel like you're about to ask me about my childhood," I laughed.
He put on his best psychiatrist's face and hummed.
"Do you want to tell me about your childhood?"
I shrugged.
"Nothing to report. It was all pretty good except for my dad. He left when I was small, didn't have much of an inclination in being a family man."
He licked coffee off his lips and leaned his head against his closed fist.
“I hate to be so personal but do you think you stayed with Craig for so long because you were missing a father.”
He was right. He was being personal.
“No. I mean it’s not like he was older than me and I did truly love him. We were a perfect match. I thought we were anyway.”
He looked as though he didn’t believe a word I uttered but said nothing.
“I better be on my way home,” he said with a yawn.
“Do you have to go?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “Can’t you stay a little while longer? This place is kinda scary.”
He looked down at his watch and furrowed his brow.
“I don’t see why not,” he smiled and walked over to the end of the bed. “You want me to stay until you fall asleep?”
“That would be really nice of you.”
What did I do to deserve this man in my life? He appeared out the blue like a guardian angel.
As I pulled the covers up around my shoulders, I smelled the mustiness of the bed and the dampness in the walls but had never felt more grateful.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you,” I said. “If you hadn’t turned up I’d either be dead or homeless.”
“Please, you have to stop thanking me,” he leaned forward and rubbed my shoulder. “I’m just doing my job.”
“You seem to be going beyond the call of duty right now, though.”
He glanced away with a twinkle in his eye.
We both knew what was coming next. We could feel the sizzling energy between us and how our bodies were responding to each other. Looking down at his left hand, I took note of the absence of a wedding ring.
He was leaning in closer and instinctively I reached out a hand to caress the side of his face. When he didn’t push it away, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him closer. We hesitated for a minute, lingering in the moment as we both decided whether we were doing the right thing.
“Are you sure?” he whispered as his breath tickled my lips.
I answered him with a kiss and we tumbled down beneath the covers. His kisses were soft as he gently eased me out of my clothes. But even as I lay naked beside him, he didn’t touch me but rather kept a respectful distance as he lay fully clothed.
The feeling of being beside him was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. I’d only ever been with Craig, had only felt his touch, his kiss. Apart from stumbling into the boys’ locker room he was the only man I’d seen naked and the thought jolted through me as I slid a hand up Lincoln’s shirt.
His muscles were hard and rippled beneath my fingers. As I pushed my hand below his belt I could feel the tip of his hardness and rolled on top of him as I took it in my hands. He let out a long breath as I curled my fingers around him and cried out as I lowered myself down until he was inside of me.
Despite the surroundings, I was catapulted to another time, another place where no problems existed. Lying down on his chest, I kissed his neck and groaned as we both reached a steady rhythm.
“I could get in so much trouble for this,” he whispered as he brushed the hair from my face.
“I promise I won’t tell a soul.”
For a long while, we pushed and pulled at one another until we were exhausted and our lips became sore. Climaxing in unison, I toppled forward onto him, biting onto his fingers to stifle my screams.
Sliding down off him, I snuggled up against his shoulder and felt my eyes grow heavy.
“Woah…” was all he could say.
I looked up at him tapped my finger against the bead of sweat on his brow.
“Can you stay here tonight?” I asked.
“Sorry.”
He tucked his finger beneath my chin and raised my lips to his.
“I wish I could but…”
“I understand.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow. First thing.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Chapter Eight
Lincoln
At first I wondered why the car behind me honked its horn but then realized it was because I was sitting idle at a green light. My head with in the clouds, my mind still clinging onto the few hours of bliss I shared with Etta.
She was so sweet, so pure and innocent. All she wanted to do was help people, be a good nurse and become a wife. She had such humble aspirations and a modest self-perception but it only made her more attractive. She was a million miles away from all the stuck-up socialites I met at charity balls and a thousand times more beautiful too. Not that she knew it. She walked around with the confidence of a mouse and spoke as quietly as one too.
>
Stepping on the accelerator, I sped out of Broadwood feeling guilty for leaving her there.
There was a moment back at the hospital when I'd seriously considered asking her to live with me until she was back on her feet, but I could only imagine the shitstorm that would come down on me if word got out. Hospitals were always rife with gossip and I didn't need any sort of drama or added attention in my life.
Still, it would be nice to not have her trapped in that house. Phaedra was terrific and the place did good work but it wasn't any fun to live in and she'd find herself living amongst some intimidating characters. I thought about the red head with the lived in face and the eyes that belonged to someone twice her age.
Fuck, I thought as I pulled up outside my house. I should never have left her there.
But it was too late now. Maybe tomorrow I could see about finding somewhere else for her to stay, maybe speak to the chief at the hospital and see if she could get a dorm room in the student nurse faculty.
Broadwood House certainly seemed to be light-years away from my own home which stood in the crest of Talbot Mountain facing south. It was situated so it was protected from the wind but received the maximum amount of light. At times like this, when the North Star was high in the sky and there was no light pollution for miles, you could see the constellations as though they were only a few feet away from you.
As I entered my home office and dumped my briefcase, I slumped onto the couch and looked out the plate glass window to the valley below. Taking a sip of scotch and feeling it burn my throat, I watched as a fire burned on the horizon where Lake Muncie sat deep within the virgin forest. It was probably teenagers out camping for the weekend and I was suddenly struck with an overwhelming jealousy.
Ah, to be a teenager again with no problems.
Not that I was ever like ordinary teens.
The clock beside my computer flashed as it turned midnight. I should be really going to sleep but couldn't bring myself to lie in an empty bed, not after having just been with Etta.
At a loss as to what to do, I ventured into the kitchen and stared into the refrigerator as though it would burst out some source of inspiration from the leftover boeuf bourguignon and manchego cheese. But the sparse shelves looked as void of ideas as I did so I slammed the door and proceeded to make myself a coffee; a double espresso macchiato with soy milk and a thimble's worth of amaretto just for added flavor. Once made with almost military precision, I walked down into the basement and pressed my thumb into the scanner. It beeped and released the lock. A second later, the door was gliding open to reveal my own personal laboratory, the one nobody knew about, not even the hospital.
Jewels And Panties: (Book 1-15) Billionaire Romance Series Page 5