Over Heated (On the Wild Side Book 3)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  She certainly felt like a lover, she thought as she sat at her desk and turned on her computer. Yes, she felt like a lover, someone suddenly free from a prison sentence! Her prison sentence had begun the day she’d been born and her mother had fostered the idea that life was one big trap designed to toss a person into the fiery pits of hell. And it was her mother’s passing that had brought Roxy into the world of the living. Her mother’s insane will had freed her from that prison sentence.

  Roxy smiled as she started her day, thinking that her mother’s legacy wasn’t exactly what she would have wanted.

  “Hey Roxanne!” a female voice called out.

  Roxy turned, grinning a welcome at Rylee Haywood who was rushing down the hallway. “Hi there! What’s up?”

  She and Rylee had been friends for a while. Rylee was one of the few women of Roxy’s acquaintance that didn’t consider Roxy to be a prude and that meant a lot.

  “What’s up?” she asked when Rylee came up beside her.

  “I have a client,” she began. “She got her boyfriend’s name tattooed across her back.”

  Roxy cringed. “Oh boy,” she muttered, knowing where this was going. “And they broke up?”

  Rylee laughed, nodding her head. “Exactly.”

  Roxy stopped and looked at her friend. “And you can’t figure out how to design something over it?” she offered. Rylee was normally pretty ingenious at designing new tattoos to cover old ones that were no longer…desired.

  Another nod. “The letters are huge!” she hissed, leaning in and lowering her voice. Rylee glanced right and left, ensuring that no one else could overhear their conversation. “Seriously, why do people do that? The letters are so big, no one could design something to cover them up!”

  Roxy laughed, which caused Rylee to blink in surprise. “Ah, come on, Rylee. Even you? Your tattoo designs are amazing! You can’t design something to cover the letters up?”

  Rylee shook her head. “The tattoo person who did the name used black ink. It’s possible that I could figure something out, but it won’t be pretty.”

  Roxy sighed. “I’ll talk to Joe,” she said, referring to the surgeon who specialized in removing tattoos. “But warn your client that the process is painful. And it takes multiple procedures to eliminate the tattoo, depending on how deep the ink went.”

  Her friend nodded. “Will do. And thanks!” she said, putting a hand on Roxy’s forearm. A moment later, she was gone, hurrying back down the hallway towards the exit and Roxy turned to head back to her office, still wondering why people tattooed a boyfriend’s name on their skin.

  The rest of her day progressed as usual, but Roxy seemed able to handle the stress of her job more easily than normal. Was it because she was excited to hear from Abe? Or see him? Be in his arms at the next opportunity?

  Or was it because of something else?

  Roxy smiled as she walked down the hallway, a swing to her step that she’d never felt before, but that she liked.

  Suddenly, she froze, watching as Abe bent down to talk to a boy in a wheelchair. He’d been in a car accident last week and Abe had performed the delicate surgery on the boy’s legs. She’d heard the emergency room doctors warning the mother that the boy’s legs were so badly damaged, they might not be savable and she needed to prepare herself for the boy’s legs to be amputated.

  But Abe had stepped in, reviewed the boy’s charts, and ordered him into surgery. Roxy remembered the determined, focused look in Abe’s eyes and had simply stepped out of the way, knowing that Abe was in “Surgeon-Mode”. As much as he’d irritated her, Roxy had complete faith in his skills as a surgeon. He was brilliant.

  Watching him interact with the boy now, Roxy smiled when Abe touched the boy’s hand. Abe then stood up and spoke to the mother, who was crying again. A moment later, the woman threw herself into Abe’s arms, hugging him. Abe took the gesture with a self-conscious laugh, patting the mother on the back a bit self-consciously.

  When the woman pulled away, Roxy knew that Abe was telling her something funny. He did that, she knew. He wasn’t just a brilliant surgeon, he knew how to connect with his patients and that wasn’t a skill that many doctors developed.

  With a sigh, Roxy headed back to work. She had a lot to deal with and not a lot of time. She smiled as she realized that she had to get back home tonight. She had a cat! She had a living, breathing animal that depended on her, not just for food, but who had actually snuggled up against her last night, sleeping close to Roxy’s legs.

  That had been a surprise, she thought as she walked into her next meeting. A very nice surprise.

  Life was full of nice surprises lately.

  Abe watched as Roxy walked away, wishing that she’d slow down and just…well, a look wasn’t forbidden, was it? Just a glance his way? Some indication that they were okay, that their time over the past few days wasn’t a fluke?

  He was acting like a lovesick school boy, wanting the head cheerleader to glance at him. As soon as he realized what he was doing, he turned away in disgust. He had patients to see and charts to fill out. He had a busy afternoon. Which meant that he didn’t have time to waste watching the sexiest woman alive walk down the hallway. Away from him!

  Even if her walk was turning him on with the gentle sway of her hips. She was softer today, he suddenly realized. Softer and sexier, if that was even possible!

  Abe realized that he was still staring at her and chuckled. Turning away, he headed for his office. But before he reached it, his cell phone buzzed and it was the emergency notification sound. Checking the phone, he skimmed over the information.

  Car accident. Three victims, one hadn’t been wearing his seatbelt and had been thrown through the windshield. “Damn it!” he muttered, wondering why people were so stupid.

  Which was ironic, considering that he loved riding his motorcycle. There was no denying the danger of a motorcycle, but…still. Put your damn seatbelt on when in a car!

  Sliding his phone back into his pocket, he turned his thoughts away from Roxy. Focus, he told himself sternly. There were multiple victims coming in and he needed to focus on saving their lives.

  Chapter 8

  Roxy stepped out of her stupid, boring car, slamming the door. She hated Thursdays! It had been a horrible day followed by a series of horrible days and all she wanted to do was curl up on her couch and cry! She’d thought about stopping by the bakery again, but then stopped herself. Joyelle was too sweet and happy. Roxy was…grumpy. She didn’t want to pass along her grumpiness to the surprisingly delightful baker. But boy, a box of Joyelle’s cupcakes would be pretty good right about now! There had been about five different kinds of cupcakes on Monday. And right about now would be a great time to binge on a dozen or more of those decadent cupcakes!

  On top of her misery, the August weather was faithfully running true to form. The one beautiful day last week had morphed back into the hot, humid misery that was normal for August. Those clear, crisp, almost fall-like days were rare– taunting humanity with their beauty and freshness only to whither back to the miserable oppressive heat that was typical of summers in this area.

  “Great,” she muttered. As soon as she stepped out of her stupid car, the heat hit her shoulders, weighed her down like wool sweater. Every step across the parking lot to her apartment building was like walking over a heated pathway.

  It didn’t help that she felt as if she were about to burst into tears. All because of Abe and his stupid, jerk, dumb, jerk…she was running out of bad words. She really needed to learn to cuss!

  Suffice it to say, she hated Abe! She hated him right to the core of her soul!

  As soon as she stepped into the almost-cool lobby where the air conditioner struggled to cool down the small, tiled area…but failed…she stopped her anger towards Abe. She wasn’t being fair, she told herself firmly. Abe had a job to do. He was focused and determined. And it was her fault that she’d thought their time together last weekend had meant more than it had.

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nbsp; For her, their days and one night together had been transformative! It had released her from the iron bars of her mother’s opinions on how one should view life. Making love with Abe had been…sensational, but she knew that it had only been a moment in time. A brief period in her life which she should smile about.

  Unlocking her apartment door, she looked at the tan walls, the tan furniture, the tan curtains…everything was tan.

  Why had she chosen tan?

  Because it was practical. Because her mother’s words about wasting money continued to echo in her ears.

  “I hate this apartment!” she hissed.

  Then she saw Shadow…yeah, she’d renamed her apartment-mate, smiling and getting down on her knees when the black kitty peered shyly around the corner.

  “Shadow!” she gushed, extending her hand towards him. He was still tentative, still slow to accept her attentions. But at night, he curled up to her stomach, pressing as close to her as he could get. When she moved, he moved, needing her touch. When she was in the apartment, he followed her around, watching her, waiting for her to reach out for a stroke. In the evenings, she’d started brushing his fur and both of them had discovered how soothing those moments could be. Over the past few days, Shadow had ventured close just for a bit of stroking. As soon as the little guy realized that Roxy wasn’t going to hurt him, he moved closer, purring tentatively as he brushed back and forth, encouraging more strokes.

  A thought occurred to her. “I’m just like you, Shadow!” she gasped, running her fingers from Shadow’s head to the tip of his tail. “I was slow to accept Abe’s touch, but eventually, I learned to like it. And now…” she sniffed, wiping the tears away angrily. “Well, don’t worry, buddy. It’s just you and me! I won’t disappear from your life like Abe did to me!”

  Shadow, truly a sweet, gentle creature, looked up at her and, for the first time, meowed as if he understood. The look the little guy gave her made her think the cat could relate – and maybe he could. He’d been stuffed into Roxy’s mother’s house for years, probably ignored or smacked for no reason other than her mother’s warped sense of right and wrong. The fact that he was all black had probably made his life more miserable. The witch aspect of the cat’s color would have made the poor guy a target.

  “Come on, let’s get you some food and see what’s in the fridge for me, okay?”

  Shadow obviously understood the word “food” since he raced into the kitchen where his food bowls were kept. There was already food in the bowls, but this was the dry stuff. It was probably more nutritious and better for the cat’s teeth, but Roxanne had started feeding the little guy some wet food every night. Yep, the wet food had been a bribe, not wanting to live in her apartment with an invisible roommate. She’d been at the grocery store on Monday night. Roxy had been depressed because she’d known that Abe would be in surgery after that horrific car accident.

  When she’d left at six o’clock, she’d asked about the patient’s status and heard from one of the nurses that Abe was still in surgery trying to repair the extensive damage. It had been awful, but the patient pulled through the surgery. The guy was still in the hospital, but had been moved out of the intensive care unit this afternoon. He was going to make it – all thanks to Abe and the other professionals.

  Roxanne spooned the canned food into Shadow’s food bowl, and turned to peer into the fridge.

  “Not a lot of options, my feline friend,” she announced. “I can have yogurt or…that head of broccoli I was going to try to cook.” She slammed the door closed. “The broccoli is now brown and I should throw it away, shouldn’t I?” she asked.

  Shadow indicated his agreement by blinking slowly at her before he resumed eating.

  Roxanne sighed, not interested in eating anyway. Maybe she’d order a pizza and eat the entire thing! Immediately, her mother’s voice popped into her head and, because of that ridiculous voice, Roxy decided that a pizza was in order. A little comfort food was a good thing, she decided. Yeah, ordering a pizza to be delivered was frivolous. But that was okay.

  But then again, ordering a pizza required a bit more effort than she could handle just now. Instead, she plopped down onto her sofa and stared blankly out the window. Maybe a movie?

  No, she didn’t have the energy to watch a movie. Something wet tickled her cheek and she reached up to wipe away the tear, furious with herself. “I’m not going to cry!” she told the silent room firmly.

  Shadow jumped up onto the cushion next to her, licking his lips as he stared at her.

  “You don’t think I should cry either, do you?” she asked the cat.

  His response was to inch closer. Roxanne held her breath as he tentatively reached out, his pink-tipped paw gently patting her thigh, then looking up at her, as if asking permission. “You want to come up?’ she asked softly, stroking his fur as if that might give the cat the permission to venture closer.

  It took about five minutes of paw tapping on his part and stroking his back gently on her part, but Shadow eventually climbed onto her lap and curled up into a ball, purring away.

  Roxanne looked at the cat and sighed. “At least you like me,” she whispered, wiping away more tears. “Stupid tears,” she whispered, petting Shadow, which soothed them both.

  Roxanne leaned her head against the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling and wondering what she should do next. “I need to learn to live more fully, Shadow,” she told the cat. “And I’m not letting my mother get in the way!”

  Shadow didn’t mind, but he jumped off her lap, going off to the corner to bathe himself.

  When someone angrily pounded on her door, she jumped, startled. Shadow seemed to cringe and she shook her head. “Whoever it is, I’ll get rid of them, honey,” she reassured her cat.

  Stomping over to the door, she jerked it open, prepared to see a salesperson or maybe a neighbor wanting to complain about…whatever. Roxanne wasn’t in the mood!

  “What…?!” and she stopped, staring at Abe standing in her doorway.

  It had been four days since she’d been this close and every one of her senses flashed into high alert! She could literally smell his clean scent, even from two feet away. Roxanne swayed, wanting to throw herself into his arms. But at the last second, she stopped herself, glaring up at him as she remembered how cold he’d been all week.

  “What do you want?” she demanded.

  Abe wasn’t having it. He’d been waiting all week for some sign that she wanted him again. But every time he’d seen her at the hospital, she’d turned away from him. Enough was enough!

  “I want to talk to you,” he stepped into her apartment. He looked at her and clenched his teeth when he noticed that she was still in her work clothes. “Regressing a bit?” he snapped, irritated that she was still all pinned up and formal. He’d gone home from the hospital and changed into jeans and a tee-shirt. He wanted to reach out and tug her hair down, toss all of those horrible pins into the trash so that she never wore her hair up in that tight twist ever again!

  But every part of her shouted “hands off” and he respected the signal, even if he didn’t like it.

  “What do you want to talk about?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

  He might have given up hope right then and there, but he caught her eyes moving over his arms and shoulders, then lower and quickly back up, lingering on his tattoo. He knew that she loved his tattoo and, if it would get her back into his arms, he’d tattoo his whole damn body!

  “What happened after you left my bed on Sunday?”

  The stunned look in her beautiful eyes confused him.

  “What do you mean?”

  He shifted, fisting his hands on his hips. “Roxy, you left my bed that evening all warm and wonderful. You smiled sleepily at me and told me that you didn’t want to go. But now, whenever I see you in the hallways at the hospital, you’re cold and turning away from me.” He sighed, rubbing his forehead or he might have seen the stunned look on her face. “I tried to re
spect your need to keep our relationship quiet, but it seems as if there is no more relationship! If that’s the case, if you’re not interested in me anymore, just say so. But this cold, silent routine isn’t working for me. I need a bit of clarity.”

  When he looked up at her at the end of that speech, he fell silent, stunned by the shock on her face.

  “I haven’t been cold and silent!” she snapped. “You’re the one that wouldn’t speak to me!”

  “Roxy, you turned away from me on Monday!”

  “I did no such thing!” she argued right back.

  He stepped closer, furious with her now. “Roxy, I was talking with the director! You were walking down the hallway towards both of us and, as soon as you saw me, you turned around and headed in the opposite direction! Explain that to me!”

  Roxanne blinked, thinking back to Monday. She had seen him in the hallway, and yeah, she remembered that he was talking with the director, but…

  “Wait a minute! Are you telling me that you’ve been cold and indifferent to me all week because I forgot about a meeting on Monday?” she demanded, furiously.

  “A meeting?” he demanded, moving closer. “You’re trying to convince me that you forgot about a meeting, Roxy? You never forget anything! You have lists for your lists!”

  He was so close, she could see the golden circle around his irises. “Yes! I forgot about a meeting! It was Monday! You’d kept me up half the night making love to me and I was exhausted!”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment, just stared at her as if he wasn’t sure where to go with that.

  “So, care to explain to me why you’ve been so cold to me?” she demanded.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it shut and took a deep breath. “Roxy, I’ve been trying to respect your distance, damn it! You’re the one who set the tone on Monday, then all week, you’ve turned away from me.”