by Katie Dowe
“What?”
“How many lives did you save today, honey?”
“What difference does that make?” she asked impatiently.
“Tell me anyway.”
“Fourteen if you count the one who will be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life,” she said bitterly.
“That is not on you,” he said firmly. “You did your job and I am sure you and the other doctors fought tooth and nail to save those children’s lives. It is on that monster who turned the gun on children and as long as we live in a world where people think that they should take out their shit on innocent people we are going to have that happening over and over again! You made a difference, Savannah. Never forget that.”
“Did you just say shit?” Savannah asked in amusement.
“I did, and I would do it again.” There was a smile in his voice. “You going to be okay?”
“I am now. Thanks, Dad.”
“You are welcome, honey. Now go get some sleep.”
She was toweling her hair when she heard the bell. “Dad,” she said with a sigh as she belted her robe and went to get the door.
She frowned as she looked through the peephole and saw who was standing there. Her first thought was not to let him in but she had a feeling he was not going to leave. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door open and stood there blocking his way. “I had an incredibly long and awful day and I need to get some sleep to go back to work tomorrow.”
“Gabby woke up.” He looked tired and his hair looked as if he had been running his fingers through the strands. “Just now.”
“Good.” She nodded even though she did not move. “I will get to see her when I go there in the morning.”
“I want to come in.”
“And I want to right the injustice in the world but I cannot. Now if you don’t mind I need to get some sleep,” she told him coolly.
“You are pissed at me.”
“Why would I be?”
“I have not called you and you think I just took what you gave me and walked away without a backward glance.”
“We used each other, Gavin,” she told him succinctly. “I was grief stricken because of the loss and you were there and you offered comfort in a really interesting way and I appreciate it. Now please go away and leave me alone.”
“I am afraid I cannot do that.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I want you.”
“Oh, and let me guess: you always get what you want.”
“Yes, but that is not what the issue is right now. You want me too and together we can make beautiful music together.”
She stared at him and then laughed. “Did you read a fortune cookie before you came over here?”
“No. I came up with it all by myself.” He smiled at her for a moment and then sobered up. “We are not a couple.”
“Who?”
“Don’t pretend that you did not see the papers. Amy and I had a thing some time ago and I accompanied her to two functions. The reporters caught us and put their own thing together. I am not into her, I am into you.”
She put her hands together and clapped. “I feel so special,” she said sarcastically. “But the truth, Gavin Parker, is that I am not interested in men like you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that men like you use women and discard them and I am too special to be used and cast away when the next available woman comes along.”
“I thought you said you used me too.”
“I did.” She folded her arms over her chest and unconsciously caused the robe to gape open revealing her swell of flesh, directing his gaze to it. “When I feel the need to do so again I will let you know.” She stepped back and started to close the door but his foot prevented her.
“I am not leaving and I am sure you would not want your nosy neighbors to know that you are entertaining a man right in your doorway.”
“You think I care about that?”
“In about ten seconds I will be pulling you into my arms and sliding that robe off your delectable naked body and I don’t care if that guy in the horn rimmed glasses peering out sees me screwing your or sucking on your nipples.”
“You bastard!”
“Let me in, darling.”
She stepped back and marched off towards the kitchen hearing when he closed the door behind him.
“What do you want, Gavin?” She plunked the kettle on the stove top and turned on the flame.
“I am feeling vulnerable about almost losing my niece so I am here for comfort.” He had come up behind her and pulled her against him, his hands reaching up to cup her breasts.
“Let go of me!” she hissed.
“I would believe that you want me to do that if your nipples are not as hard as the proverbial rock,” he whispered as he bent his head to nip the flesh between her neck and shoulder. He pulled the robe away and passed his thumbs over the hardened buds feeling the shudder in her slender body. “I am going to take you inside your bedroom and screw the living daylights out of you and I am spending the night so I suggest that you turn off the fire and come along with me.”
“You bas-” She screamed as his hand reached down and felt for her mound.
Savannah almost passed out as his fingers found their target going into her moistness with a force that had her leaning against him weakly.
“Turn it off or I am taking you right here,” he whispered raggedly. “I need you.”
Somehow she found the strength to turn off the flame and shuddered as he lifted her up and took her into the bedroom.
*****
Her steps faltered as she came into the kitchen and saw him sitting at the counter looking at something on his phone and drinking coffee. She had hoped he had gone when she woke up and did not see him on the bed next to her. She had tamped down the disappointment and told herself it was something else.
“Hey.” His eyes wandered over her freshly scrubbed and makeup-less face and her hair caught in a careless ponytail. She was wearing a white sweater beneath her dark blue scrubs and looked every bit the doctor she was. “I made coffee and I am going to have to buy you some real coffee. This tastes like crap.”
“What are you still doing here?” she asked as she went to pour herself some from the pot. She had to admit with him sleeping next to her after he had made love to her thoroughly last night made her slept like a baby.
“I don’t have to be in the office until ten so I thought we would go in together. I want to see Gabby.”
“I am not going in with you and shouldn’t you be going back to your apartment to shower and change?”
“You are right.” He looked down at his wrinkled shirt and jacket and then at her. “How about we swing by my apartment and you wait while I shower and change?”
She glanced at the large face watch on her slender wrist and putting away her half empty cup on the counter she walked out to the living room to get her jacket.
“You may leave the key with the security downstairs when you go.” He caught her as she made to open the door and pulled her into his arms. “How about dinner at my place tonight?”
“No.” She pushed at him but he would not budge. “Look, I know you are grateful because you think I singlehandedly saved your niece but there were other doctors involved.”
“Not one who look the way you do and not one whom I am extremely attracted to,” he said softly.
“I am sure it will pass. Now I have to get to work.”
“You are kidding yourself if you think that.” He swooped down and took her lips with his, his tongue entering her mouth as he pulled her closer to him. Savannah kissed him back because she could not help herself. But she somehow found the fortitude to end it and stepped out of his arms.
“Are you coming?”
“Yes.” He followed her out and waited until she had locked up.
He waited sedately by her side as they waited for the elevator and the minute the doors closed with them in there he
took her in his arms and pushing her up against the wall he finished what he had started inside her apartment leaving her shaking and breathless when the doors opened!
*****
“You look flushed,” Pamela commented as soon as she came running inside, a few minutes late. “You left here broken and defeated and early this morning you have a glow around you which makes you look even more beautiful. I really hate you! Who is he?”
“I am just happy to be at work,” Savannah told her smoothly as she checked her device.
“My ass,” Pamela grunted. “You are going to tell me one day soon because, honey, nothing escape these eyes of mine.”
“There is nothing to tell. Now if you will excuse me I have patients to see.”
The first person she went to check on was Gabby and both parents were already in the room along with her grandmother.
“Gabby, look who it is!” Gail said softly as she entered the room. The little girl had gotten her color back and was propped up against her pillows.
“Doctor Savannah!” she said softly.
“Hi Gabby, how are you feeling?” she asked as she came towards the bed.
“I am fine and Dr. Sylvester told me that I will be okay. I was not scared at all when that man came into the room with the gun. Mommy and Daddy said I am brave girl.”
“You are.” She sat on the side of the bed and took one of her hands. “I am so happy that you are okay.”
“Will you come back and see me?”
“Try and stop me,” she said with a smile as she ruffled the little girl’s hair and got to her feet. “I will be back later.”
Gail followed her out. “I want to thank you again,” she said as she walked with Savannah. “I know that there were other doctors there in the OR as well, but I know that you fought for her. How do you deal with this every single day?”
“Fortunately, this sort of thing does not happen every day. We see terminally ill children who fight to stay alive and still have a smile on their faces. This that happened to these children at their school should not have happened at all.”
“I agree and I aim to do something about it. There should have been proper security measures in place and I am going to see to that.” She touched Savannah’s arm lightly. “I owe you.”
“No, you don’t. I was just doing what I am trained to do.”
“Thank you.”
“Is something wrong?” His deep voice behind them caused her heart to jump as she remembered what they had done last night and the way he had ravished her in the elevator.
“No, darling, I was just expressing my heartfelt gratitude to Savannah,” Gail said as she turned to her brother. “I thought you would have gone to the office.”
“I wanted to see Gabby first and give her this.” He held up a white stuffed bear.
“She is going to love it.”
“Please excuse me,” Savannah said as she turned to walk away. She forced herself to walk with her head held high and tried to pretend that she was not affected by his presence!
Chapter 9
Savannah leaned her head back against the tiles and closed her eyes wearily. She had to face what her body had been trying to tell her for the past two weeks. She was carrying his child and by all indications she was a month pregnant. How on earth she could allow this to happen was beyond her! She was a surgeon for crying out loud and she was supposed to be responsible! She had not been on the pill or any other contraceptive because she had not been sexually active and when she had started with him it had been something spur of the moment which was very unusual for her. She had thought it would be a onetime thing until they had done it several more times and she had put the thought of protection from her mind. Then she had taken up her dad’s offer and had been busy with helping him out when she had time available and on her days off. She was going to have to run an official test and she had to do so in secrecy. It was now the middle of May which meant that she had gotten pregnant sometime in April. He had come over to her apartment and she had been to his, but she had refused to take the relationship outside the bedroom.
“Let’s just keep it this way,” she had told him briefly the last time she had been with him. “It’s simpler.”
He had looked at her as if he had wanted to say something but had not and she had been relieved. She was scared of long term and she was not about to make a commitment to a man who changed women the way he changed his designer shirts. Gabby was on the mend and had gone back to school but she had heard that her father was thinking of fighting for custody and that was one of the many reasons she did not want a relationship. It never last and even if it did, the adults usually stay for the child or children and end up hating each other. She could very well do without that. Now she was pregnant by the biggest name in the pharmaceutical business and the very man responsible for the state of the art wing that had been finished in April with a grand opening. She spent a lot of time in the extremely elegant rooms that included a large sitting room, play areas for the children, and rooms where parents could bunk for the night. The wives she had read about had become involved and had been responsible for donating the furniture and toys of every description including large flat screen televisions in most rooms. There was even a small movie theatre where the children could watch their favorite movies with 3D images with boxes of popcorns and fruits of every variety. It made the fact that they are dying pretty easier, she could not help but think bitterly. And here she was pregnant with no idea what would happen to the baby she was carrying or what would happen in the long run. She had seen parents come in with children and leave broken and bitter wondering what happened and why they were going home without them. She was scared and she knew her thoughts were irrational but she had seen enough to make her wonder if she ever wanted to be a mother and now this! Her pager sounded and galvanized her into action. She had taken her few minutes lunch break to puke everything she had eaten this morning and now she had to get back to work and pretend as if everything was okay!
*****
“You wanted to see me?” Grace Abbot came into the office and stood just next to the row of chairs lined up in front of Gavin’s desk.
“Have a seat.” Gavin gestured to one of the chairs and continued looking at something on his lap top. He waited a few minutes and then gave her his attention.
“Something wrong?” she asked him a little coolly.
“You tell me. I have been trying to put my finger on why the FDC kept coming up with reasons to decline the Alzheimer’s drug that to my knowledge happens to be the best on the market and I could not for the life of me figure out why.”
“What are you implying, Gavin?” she asked him.
“You moved in with Fabian to throw him off so that you could sell the drug to our competitor,” Gavin supplied with not an ounce of emotion on his handsome face.
“You cannot prove that.”
“Did you even love him or was this your plan all along?” he asked her coldly.
“I am not going to sit here and have you accuse me-”
“You are going to damn well sit there for however long I please to have you sitting there!” His voice sounded like a whiplash in the large room and had her jumping in fright.
“If I go down, so does Fabian,” she said defiantly.
“You used me?” Fabian had opened the door and stood there in the doorway without them noticing.
“Fabian, I am sorry-” She broke off at the look on his face.
“I told you I would handle it, Fabian,” Gavin said to his friend.
“And I wanted to find out if I was this stupid to allow a woman to use me like this again.” Fabian looked at his friend, and Gavin felt his heart constricting at the agony there.
“You are fired effective immediately. I will have a guard escort you out to make sure you are not taking anything from the company with you,” Gavin told the woman coldly. “As for Fabian going down with you, I have made sure that will never happen. Confess to the authorities and y
ou stand the chance of getting a suspended sentence.”
Grace stood up with trembling feet and looked at Fabian. “I am sorry,” she whispered.
“Why?” he asked her dully.
“I needed the money. My brother owes some money for gambling and I did not see any other way out.”
“Please have your things out of my apartment by the time I get there.”
The silence stretched out a little after she had left and then Fabian spoke up. “Go ahead, say it.”
“Say what?” Gavin asked him.
“Say you warned me about moving in with her.”
“She shocked me too, Fabian, and I am sorry she hurt you like that.”
“Am I fired?”
“No. You had nothing to do with it.”
“We worked together along with the others trying to find the right blend of ingredients to make the drug work and I remember how we went home and celebrated sitting by the fire drinking wine and planning a future together.” He shook his head. “Fool me once shame on me, but what about being a fool twice? What does that make me?”
“Stop beating up yourself. I never thought she would do something like that.” Gavin pushed back his chair and came to sit next to his friend. “Take the rest of the day off.”
“And do what? Go bury my head somewhere?” Fabian asked bitterly. “I would just as soon go back to work if you don’t mind.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am not sure about anything anymore, Gavin, but at least I have work.”
*****
“We are not having this discussion, Otis. You already know my answer to that. I am not having our daughter move in with you,” Gail said firmly.
“I don’t want to fight you for custody, Gail, but I will if that is what it takes. She almost died and I cannot afford for that to happen again.”
“You son of a bitch,” she hissed, getting up to go and close the door to her office. “How dare you use that on me?”
“Like I said I don’t want to fight you, but I am going to make sure that what happened to her will never happen again.”
“I am a lawyer, Otis, and I know how to fight and believe me when I say that I will use the considerable amount of resource my brother has to make your life a living hell.”