by Katie Dowe
*****
He took her to her apartment early in the morning and went up with her in spite of her telling him not to and waited until she had put on her clothes to go to the hospital. They had showered together and he had used his mouth on her until she had been weak and shivering before he was finished with her.
“I have a late meeting tonight so I will come by your apartment after,” he said as she came into the kitchen.
“I have no idea what time I am getting off today,” she told him coolly. So it was back to that, he thought wryly. She was wearing dark green scrubs this time with a thin white sweater beneath and her hair was scraped back into a ponytail.
“I will be here when you get here. What are you eating for dinner? I could order Italian.”
“You think just because I am carrying your child you suddenly have control over my life?” she asked him heatedly.
“I am as responsible as you for the life you are carrying and I am making sure you eat properly,” he told her mildly.
“I am a doctor-”
“And that does not say anything. I am ordering some groceries for this apartment for when we are here. My housekeeper usually buys enough food to feed an army so no worries there. “
“We are not a couple, Gavin.”
“So you keep saying but I beg to differ.” He came around and kissed her thoroughly before she could move. “You have a week to tell whoever it is you need to tell at the hospital before I do something about it.”
She fumed all the way to work and cursed him beneath her breath.
*****
“You are buying me lunch and you look as if you won the lottery,” Gail mused as she stared at her brother.
“I have more money than a lottery winner and I just thought I could take my sister out for lunch. Anything wrong with that?” he asked her as he nodded to the hovering waiter.
He had picked her up and had taken her to the exclusive restaurant where they had been greeted by the manager himself and taken to a corner booth.
“Nothing at all except the fact that I have never seen you so happy. What’s going on, Gavin?”
“Remember the relationship I was telling you about?”
“The one you said was over?”
“It is far from over.”
“I am happy for you.”
“I am going to be a father,” he said with a wide grin that had his sister staring at him in shock.
“The woman is pregnant?”
“She is.”
“Gavin, who is she?”
“Savannah.”
Her eyes opened wide. “You’re involved with Doctor Myles?”
“Yes.” He sipped his water and looked at her in amusement.
“How long?”
“Since several months ago.”
“You never said anything.”
“She keeps resisting and refusing to go out with me.”
“And now she is pregnant.”
“Three months.”
“And you are just telling me.”
“I am just finding out. She pushed me away but I saw her the other night at the medical function and she could not deny it.” He put his glass away. “She has not said anything to me but something in her childhood caused her to be hard and bitter, Gail, not to mention what she sees at the hospital made her decide that she never wanted children.”
“Is she going to carry the child?”
“She will.” He sighed as he stared at his sister. “I have never felt this way about another woman before and I asked her to marry me but she refused pointblank.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Force her hand if I have to and hope and pray that she will feel the same way about me the way I do about her,” he said with a wry smile.
“Gavin!” Gail reached over to clasp his hands. “I am so happy for you.”
“Thanks!”
*****
“Doctor Myles, what can I do for you?” Administrator Laughlin asked as she looked up and saw the young woman hovering in the doorway.
“I can see you are busy. I can come back another time.” Savannah started to turn away.
“I am not going to be less busy so you might as well spit it out.”
Savannah closed the door behind her and came to sit on one of the chairs in front of the desk. “I have news.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“I have no intention of letting it interfere with my work in any way and I promise that I will still be performing at my best,” she said in a rush.
“I am sure you will,” the woman said, looking at her puzzled.
“I am pregnant.”
The administrator leaned back and stared at the beautiful young woman. “Oh. Congratulations, my dear. And the father?”
“I cannot disclose that right now.”
“I see. Is it one of the doctors?”
“No,” Savannah said a little impatiently. “It’s – I cannot tell you yet.”
“Sounds mysterious. Have you told your superior?”
“Not yet. I have told you first.”
“I wish you all the best.”
“Thank you.”
“Dr. Myles, I suggest you be prepared for a flood of questions and gossip. This is a hospital and nothing remains secret for long.”
*****
“You are pregnant?” Pamela hissed two hours later as she brought something over to her desk.
“What?” Savannah looked at her startled.
“It’s all over the hospital, honey, and Calvin is especially crushed.”
“How did you-”
“Know?” Pamela stared at her for a moment and then smiled. “Doctors talk, honey, and nurses listen and repeat what they hear. Who is the lucky guy?”
“That is going to be kept a secret for much longer,” Savannah said with a sigh. “If you excuse me I will now have to go and call my dad and tell him before someone else does.”
*****
“Calvin, you startled me,” Savannah said as she looked up and saw him standing next to her table. It seems to her that all eyes were on her and she could just imagine the whispers. She hated the gossip and in this day and age a single doctor pregnant still stirred up talk.
“You could have told me,” he accused her as he sat next to her. “I had to hear it from goddamned Sheila in radiology who relished sticking it to me.”
“It’s no one’s business,” she said impatiently, refusing to feel guilty. “We are not in a relationship, Calvin, and I never led you to believe that we were.”
“I thought we were friends.” He had a hurt look on his attractive face and Savannah felt the impatience melting away.
“We are, and I did not want to tell anyone. I had no idea what I was going to do.”
“Are you in love with this guy?” he demanded.
She started to shake her head no and then stopped as she felt her heartbeat quicken at the question. “That’s none of your business.”
“You crushed my heart, baby girl,” he said with a woeful expression on his face.
“I doubt that,” she said dryly. “I have a feeling you are going to bounce back in a day or two.”
“Maybe a week or two,” he said with a grin as he clasped her hands. “I hope he treats you right.”
*****
“My dad wants to officially meet you even though we are not really in a relationship,” she told him as soon as she sat at the counter where he was taking the cartons out of the bag.
“Why would you tell him something like that?” he asked her as he handed her meal.
“Because it is true and I don’t want him having the expectation that we are engaged or something like that.” She had come to see him waiting out in the parking lot for her.
He reached for her left hand and passed his fingers over her ring finger in consideration. “A size seven I think,” he murmured. Before she could pull away he had lifted her finger to his mouth and closed his lips over it sucking it inside e
rotically and causing her to close her eyes as the desire darted inside her. He released it and looked at her with his smoldering grey eyes. “I am not taking no for an answer, darling, and I have every intention of wearing you down. I told Gail about us and she wants us to have dinner at her place where you get to officially meet my mother.”
“No.” She was trembling but she was determined to be firm. “You are not railroading me into marrying you.”
“We will see,” he said briefly. “Eat up. We have a movie to watch.”
*****
“I suppose I don’t have to ask what your intention you have to my daughter seeing as how you already started a family, Parker,” Simon Myles said mildly as he shook Gavin’s hand.
“Dad, don’t!” Savannah said angrily as she pushed past them and went inside the house.
“Why don’t you come this way, Mr. Parker? It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Carissa, ever the gracious hostess, declared charmingly as she led the way into the pleasant living room.
“Why don’t you call me Gavin?” He handed her a bouquet of lovely pink roses and a bottle of cabernet.”
“And you may call me Carissa.” She beamed at him. “Savannah, dear, would you come and help me in the kitchen?”
Savannah stared at the woman darkly and then went with her to the kitchen. “He is quite a handsome young man and a billionaire at that,” she said conversationally as she sliced tomatoes to make the salad. She had prepared chicken Alfredo and had made her famous mashed potato and macaroni and cheese. She had also baked a rhubarb pie which was cooling on the rack.
“Is there a question?” she asked as she plucked a piece of tomato and chewed on it.
“Your father is pretty excited and wonders when the wedding will be.”
“That’s funny seeing as how he is still shacking up with you. I have no intention of getting married,” she said coolly.
Carissa put aside the knife and looked at the young woman in front of her and squelched the anger she was feeling. “Your father and I are taking it one step at a time and trying to make you accept me before we take that plunge but you are still harboring destructive anger and pain inside your heart and refuse to let go of it. I am not the enemy here, Savannah, and I hope the fact that you are going to be a mother will help to change the way you think of me and him.” With that, she swept out of the kitchen and went to set the table.
*****
“Are you going to tell me what’s eating you up?” he asked her as they were on their way to his apartment.
“No,” she told him abruptly as she stared out the window. The conversation had been stilted with her father and Gavin carrying on most of it and not to mention how awful she had felt about being so rude to Carissa.
“You went into the kitchen and both of you came back out looking like you been in a boxing match. Talk to me, darling. Your dad is there grilling me about our relationship and I skirted around it because I wanted to respect your wishes. I am not going to be able to do that for very long.”
“I told him about you, didn’t I?” She rounded on him furiously. “I never told you I wanted a relationship, Gavin.”
“No, you did not.” He swung off the road and brought the car to a halt. Before she knew what he was doing he had pulled her into his arms and onto his lap. “We are in a relationship whether you like it or not, darling!”
Chapter 11
It was July before the papers caught their picture and printed it along with a very detailed article! She had gone to dinner with his mother, sister, and Gabby who had been pretty excited to see her and had flown into her arms immediately. They had sat outside Gail’s balcony and ate food from the grill while his mother asked her about her work. She had been surprised that his family had accepted her and taken her pregnancy in stride, but she had noticed that Gavin was not close to his mother. He had told her once that they were two of a kind and now she realized why.
They had caught them as he took her hand as she stepped from the car outside his apartment. She had started showing a little but the light cotton dress she had been wearing had made it obvious that she was pregnant.
The caption read: ‘Pharmaceutical giant Gavin Parker seen here with the lovely Doctor Savannah Myles and rumor has it that they are having a child together. Is there marriage in the making?”
She had not been at the hospital a few minutes before the speculations started!
“Gavin Parker, honey? You could have told me. No wonder we got such a state of the art wing,” Pamela said, looking at her curiously.
“What?” Savannah stared at her puzzled.
Pamela passed the paper to her. “I am afraid your secret is out and I have no idea why you would keep such a fine looking man a secret.”
Savannah read the entire article and passed the paper back to her. “Because it’s no one’s business,” she said grimly. She felt as if every eye was on her! “I have work to do.”
But wherever she went there were stares and questions. Savannah finally escaped and went straight to her apartment.
She was lying on the sofa when she heard the knock and knew it was him. She went to open the door and let him in. “I take it you have seen the papers?” he asked her as he followed her into the living room.
“I did.” She sat back on the sofa and curled her feet beneath her.
“My office was flooded with calls from reporters who wanted to know if the reason I gave the hospital the new wing was because of you.” He sat next to her and pulled her reluctant body onto his lap.
“And what did you say?”
“I told them to go screw themselves,” he said mildly as he wrapped his arms around her.
She smiled at that and rest her head on his chest. “I was the center of attention at the hospital today.”
He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “It’s going to get worse.”
“Great,” she said disconsolately. “I will be undermined as a surgeon and only thought of as Gavin Parker’s ‘baby mama.’”
“Or we could change that and you could be Gavin Parker’s wife,” he said softly.
“How is that any different?” she asked him in exasperation.
“A whole deal of respect.”
“I don’t want to get married.”
“I want us to live together as a family, Savannah, and I am asking you for that.”
“We don’t love each other and this could unravel very fast.”
“But it won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I am in love with you.” His tone was soft and the words took her breath away.
“No, you are not,” she said weakly.
“I have been angry at my mother for years because she got married very soon after my dad died. I was bitter and I thought all women were as fickle as she was and I had no intention of settling down. I had sex and when I got bored I would move on without the slightest bit of regret. Then I met you and it became something more than sex. You got into my blood and into my head and I could not get enough of you. Even when you told me you did not want to see me again I could not say to hell with it and go on to the next woman. That was when I knew it was different. When I found out that you were carrying my child I felt hopeful and kept feeling that way every single day I have been with you. I am in love with you, Doctor Savannah Myles, and I want you to be my wife.”
“You are insane,” she said shakily as she looked up at him.
“Maybe.” He bent his head and took her lips with his. Savannah shuddered against him as his mouth moved over hers gently, his tongue easing into her mouth like the softest of breath. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him as he bared his soul in that kiss. He lifted his head after a while and stared down at her, his grey eyes smoldering. “Marry me,” he whispered. “If you say no I am going to ask every day until you say yes.”
“It will never work,” she said huskily.
“It will. Just say yes.”
“I am not givi
ng up working,” she said shakily.
“I don’t expect you to do that.” He felt the hope thundering through him as he felt her weakening.
“We don’t know each other.”
“We will get to know each other during the time we spend together. Stop making excuses.”
“Then I guess my answer is yes.”
“Good,” he whispered as he lifted her into his arms. “Let’s consummate your very wise decision,” he whispered as he took her into the bedroom.
That night she was the one who watched him sleep as he buried his head on her breasts and wondered if she was in love with him as well!
*****
“Are you going to resign?” Administrator Laughlin had called her into her office as soon as soon as she had seen the papers. “Gavin Parker of Parker’s Pharmaceuticals to marry the woman carrying his child: Dr. Savannah Myles,”
“Why would I do that?” Savannah asked with a tone of impatience in her voice. She was pissed at Gavin for leaking the news so soon because now she was faced with being the center of attraction yet again, not only with the nurses and doctors but the patients as well. Who knew that sick people had time to read frivolities like these or even care?
“Your fiancé has enough money to buy this hospital and several others around the country. He has not offered to buy John Hopkins for you?” the woman asked her mildly.
“Look, Paula. I am the same person I was before this started happening and I will be the same person when I add Parker to my name. I want the same treatment if that is okay with everyone.”
“You were never a regular doctor, Savannah.”