Hardball

by V.K. Sykes

  * * *

  The next day, as Holly tried to focus her mind on her afternoon meetings, vivid memories of the previous evening kept breaking into her thoughts.

  She’d slept at Nate’s apartment because she’d felt uncomfortable about the prospect of going home and stewing about Arnold all night. She shut off her cell phone, didn’t check her home voice mail messages, and spent a relaxing evening snuggled up with Nate on his butter-soft leather sofa. They’d planned on watching a DVD, but never made it that far.

  They’d started with Vietnamese takeout, deliberately avoiding any mention of the day’s events while they ate. After they’d finished, and Nate had finally found a comfortable position lying on his right side on the sofa, Holly had slipped into place in front of him. She molded her body to his, wriggling her bottom against his groin. The pressure of his stiffening cock on her ass made her weak with passion in a heartbeat. It hadn’t taken long for things to get scorching hot between them.

  Just thinking about it now, sitting at her office desk, made her flush with prickly heat. The long and short of it was that Nate had taken over, despite his painful shoulder. He knew exactly how to please her, and to guide her in pleasing him.

  At the end, he lay on his back, stripped from the waist down, his shirt wide open. She was poised above him, her legs spread and her palms carefully flat against his rock hard chest. When he finally sank his shaft deep inside her, thrusting upward into her waiting, wet flesh, Holly had cried out in a kind of delicious agony that she hardly believed existed. After all the staggeringly hot foreplay, she’d been out of her mind with the need to have him inside her. And when it happened, it had felt as if they were created only for each other, their bodies designed to fit in a perfect lock. Quickly, she’d shuddered into an explosive climax that left her gasping for air.

  Holly snapped out of her reverie when the department secretary buzzed to announce the arrival of the first of her two appointments. She pushed her daydreams aside and zeroed her focus on the case files in front of her.

  An hour later, she was done. Both appointments had gone smoothly. She had even managed to forget about Lance Arnold. Like the two couples she’d just seen, almost all the parents she’d met over the years had been wonderful. Understanding, brave, determined, and trusting of their physicians. She admired them and felt a bond that would support them all through the trials ahead. It reminded her of why she did what she did in the first place. No matter what, the Lance Arnolds of the world could never diminish that.

  As a bonus, both sessions finished up in less time than she’d allotted for them. She would never rush a parent out of her office, and hadn’t in either case, but the truth was that she couldn’t wait to get home to finish packing for Florida. In just a few minutes she was out the door and fast-walking to the High-Speed Line for the short trip to the Jersey suburbs.

  When she was young, Holly had spent all kinds of time at Jacksonville area beaches, including Ponte Vedra. It thrilled her that she and Nate were traveling together to one of her favorite places. She’d also make sure they had time for a visit to her mother in Jacksonville. Nate had readily agreed to go with her. That felt like an important step forward in their relationship, even though she hadn’t made a big deal of it when she’d brought it up. But Nate seemed fine with the idea, and that secretly thrilled her, too.

  Not that it came without its worries, though. There was no telling how her mother would react when a sexy ballplayer strolled through her door with her daughter. Aristocratic in style if not by birth, Jacqueline Villiers Bell was not going to be overjoyed to see her bring home a professional athlete. Not even a rather rich and famous one. In fact, Nate’s fame would probably be a strike against him in her mother’s eyes. She’d no doubt see it all as rather crass.

  Holly could only say a prayer that her mother would be on the good side of insufferable that day.

  Once she got home, she quickly packed and piled her luggage by the front door, ready for Nate to pick her up. One thing she still had to do before leaving, though, was check her home voice mail. She’d just noticed the message light blinking.

  There were three new messages on the machine. The first was from her mother, her voice decidedly lukewarm in reaction to Holly’s news about their upcoming visit. That made her wrinkle her nose, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

  The second was from the cable company trying to sell her an upgraded package. When she deleted that one and the third message kicked in, Holly almost dropped the phone. She instantly recognized Lance Arnold’s gruff voice—not surprisingly, since she’d replayed their conversations in her head so many times.

  She concentrated on her breath for a couple of moments, in and out, belly-breathing, long exhalations. It quickly calmed her. She didn’t want to listen to the message, and briefly considered waiting until Nate was with her. Then she mentally scolded herself and started the message again.

  His voice was icy, sneering. “I know you’re not at home, Doctor Bell, but I thought I’d send my regards. Say, you’ve got a real nice little house there. Quite the fancy town you live in, too.”

  Shit! A stab of panic shot through her. She put a hand onto the kitchen counter to steady herself. How did he find out where she lived? She wasn’t even listed in the phone book.

  Another thought made the breath catch in her throat. The monster might have followed her home one day. Maybe he was even outside right now.

  The message played on, chilling her to the bone. “Think about what I said about the surgery and the court order. Think real hard, okay?”

  Her legs were suddenly so shaky that she had to sit down.

  She could hear his heavy, raspy breathing for a couple of more seconds, then his voice kicked back in. “I know you went to the cops. But I’ll bet they told you to get lost, didn’t they? Cops are too busy to deal with your kind of paranoia.” His clipped laugh was as menacing as his words.

  But mixing in with her fear, now, was growing anger. Arnold was taunting her. Gloating.

  “Make it easy on yourself, Doc. Forget about the surgery. Let Tyler go home.” The message ended.

  Sure, let the boy go home and die. That’s really what you really want, isn’t it, you sick son of a bitch.

  She slammed the phone down onto the table. Panting, she grabbed her bag and rummaged through it for the business card the detective had given her yesterday. She found it, but it took her three tries before she finally punched in the number correctly. The detective had a direct line, and he answered in seconds.

  “Detective Rich, this is Dr. Holly Bell,” she said, almost breathless. “You said to call back if Lance Arnold harassed me again. Well, he left a threatening message on my voice mail late last night.”

  “Okay, Dr. Bell. Try to calm down. What did he say this time?” Rich asked in a calm voice.

  Holly told him, almost word-for-word. “And I’m sure he’s been following me,” she added.

  “Did you actually see him tailing you?”

  “No, but he knows where I live, so I’m assuming that’s how he found out. And he also knew I had gone to the police,” she said, both worried and exasperated. “What can you do to help me?”

  “You saved the message?”

  “Of course I did.”

  “Make sure you keep it saved. Tell me again exactly what he said.”

  Holly repeated the message virtually word-for-word.

  Rich paused, clearly thinking. “Okay, he’s crossed the line now. We’ll go talk to him. I’m prepared to cut him some slack because of the kid—I’ve got a son of my own around that age. But he’s got to stop contacting you outside the hospital. Enough is enough.”

  Relieved, Holly exhaled a sigh. “Thank you, Detective. I’d really appreciate that.”

  “Sure. We’ll be in touch in the next day or two.”

  “I’m going out of town for a few days, but you can reach me on my cell.” Holly gave him the number.

  “Doctor, I’m sure I don’t have t
o tell you this, but the next time you see Arnold at the hospital, make sure you have security with you.”

  No kidding. “Have no fear on that score, Detective.”