Take Me in Your Arms

by Judy Lynn Hubbard

  “Why not?”

  “Maybe I’m just not interested in you romantically.”

  “Oh, you’re interested,” he replied confidently, and grinned when she chuckled.

  “What a conceited thing to say.”

  “It’s not conceit,” he quickly denied. “I know you feel that spark of awareness between us whenever we’re in close proximity.” Oh yeah, she felt it, but she had no intention of acting on it.

  “Sorry to disappoint you, but no, I haven’t.” She told the little white lie with a straight face, hoping to convince him of her sincerity.

  “No?” His eyes twinkled in challenge.

  “No.” Before she could blink, he grabbed her hand and pulled her until she was sitting beside him on the bed. “Let go, Cam.”

  “What’s wrong?” He tugged on her hand until she was leaning over him slightly. “Tempted?”

  “No,” she lied. Who wouldn’t be tempted by your gorgeous brown eyes, alive with mirth and dogged determination? “Not in the least.”

  His free hand moved to softly caress her jaw before anchoring behind her neck. “Then why are you trembling?”

  “You’re imagining things.” Lord, he was too close, too handsome and much too tempting.

  “Am I?” He pulled her nearer still. “I don’t think I am.”

  “Cam, please...” She placed her free hand on his chest for leverage, which was a big mistake because the feel of his hard muscles only made her want to press tight against his unbending length instead of escaping.

  “Please what? Kiss you?” She fought a groan when his gaze darted to her lips before returning to her turbulent eyes. “You don’t have to worry. I plan on kissing you a lot once I get out of here. In fact, let’s get in a few trial runs. Shall we?”

  At that moment the door opened and Derrick waltzed in. He chuckled when he saw Cam and Angela’s intimate position. Angela was relieved—and if she was honest, a little disappointed—by the intrusion.

  “I see you’re feeling much better,” Derrick drawled, placing a change of clothes over the back of a chair.

  Cam sighed. “Senator, you have lousy timing.”

  “Sorry. Want me to leave?”

  “No.” Angela seized the opportunity to break free of Cam’s loosened hold and back away toward the door. “Good morning, Derrick.”

  “Angela.” Derrick grinned.

  “We’ll finish this later, Angela,” Cam promised from the bed.

  “The only thing you’re going to finish is your breakfast.” Her shaky voice took the sting out of that order as she pointed to his tray. “See you later, Derrick,” she murmured, and left.

  * * *

  “Well, well, well.” Derrick eyed his friend with interest.

  Cam folded his arms behind his head and reclined on the pillows. “What are you grinning about?”

  “Are you finally ready to date Angela?” Derrick asked.

  “Yes,” Cam affirmed. “You know I believe in taking advantage of opportunity, and Lord knows there’s nothing like a brush with danger to light a fire of urgency underneath you.”

  “So—” Derrick pulled a chair to the bedside and sat down “—am I to understand that now you’re happy about your accident even though your baby was totaled?”

  “Oh, please, don’t remind me about that,” Cam groaned at the mention of his beloved car. “It’s going to take a long time to get over losing Yvette.” He paused and then said philosophically, “I guess you have to lose something to gain something, though.”

  “True.” Derrick stretched his legs out in front of him and switched subjects. “Have you called Mama Mabel yet?”

  “I’ll call her when I get home, dude.” Cam sighed and treated him to a frustrated glare. “When I get home.”

  “She’s gonna skin you alive for not calling her sooner.”

  “Not really.” Cam smiled slyly. “I’ll just tell her I was out of it and thought you had called her.” Alarm lit up Derrick’s eyes, and Cam’s smile widened.

  Derrick sat up straight in his chair and growled, “Oh, no, you don’t!”

  “Look at you, scared of my mama!” Cam slapped his thigh and laughed heartily.

  Derrick smiled and asked, “And you’re not?”

  Cam sobered and said, “I plead the Fifth.”

  “You just keep me out of your alibi.”

  “I’ll consider it, although it would be the perfect payback for your blackmail to keep me here last night.”

  “Cameron—” Derrick’s eyes glinted dangerously “—you wouldn’t want me to tell Angela some of your most embarrassing moments, would you?”

  “No more than you’d want me to share a few of yours with Alesha,” Cam shot back easily. At Derrick’s darkening countenance, he promised, “Don’t worry. I know how to handle my mother without implicating you.”

  “Good,” Derrick said, relaxing back in his chair again. “Do you know when they’re going to spring you yet?”

  “Today, I hope.” Cam frowned at his untouched breakfast tray. “I can’t take any more of this so-called food.”

  “You’ll live.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  Cam’s eyes suddenly turned to the door through which Angela had escaped. The delighted expression spread across his face until he laughed out loud again. Cam’s jubilance coaxed a corresponding smile out of Derrick.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I have the feeling totaling my car is going to be well worth it in the long run. It’s given me a new lease on life.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “Uh-oh is right,” Cam agreed. “I’m about to unleash the full brunt of my charm on Angela Brown, and you, my brother, know how devastatingly charming I can be.”

  He winked at Derrick, who shook his head and wagged a finger in reproof before joining in his friend’s optimistic, determined laughter.

  * * *

  Later that morning when Angela entered Cam’s room, she found him fully dressed in faded jeans and a white T-shirt that was stretched tight across his muscled chest. He was standing by the bed and talking on his phone. He motioned for her to come in and quickly ended his call.

  “I see you got the word from Dr. Jackson that you’re being released.”

  “Not a moment too soon.” Cam raised his eyes heavenward. “I told you I was fine.”

  Lord, yes, you are! she couldn’t help silently agreeing.

  “Well, it’s our job to make sure. Now that everything officially checks out, we agree with you.” She paused before adding, “You were very lucky.”

  “In more ways than one.” Her breath caught at the way he was looking at her. “Cam...”

  “What?”

  He didn’t try to mask the appreciation shining in his eyes as he slowly examined her from head to toe and back again. She’d never met a man who made her feel like the sexiest woman he had ever seen when she was dressed in loose-fitting, bland hospital scrubs—until now. A shiny stethoscope was slung around her neck, and Cam had a look in his eyes like he would love to play doctor with her, and if she was honest, that might be a lot of fun.

  “Nothing,” she finally answered, shaking her head to chase away forbidden thoughts. There were a lot of things she could have said, but she settled on, “I just wanted to say goodbye and take care.”

  “Oh, this isn’t goodbye,” he said, walking toward her.

  “You are leaving today, aren’t you?”

  “With wings.” He stopped directly in front of her. At five feet eleven inches, she had to tilt her head to stare into his eyes, which made him a little over six feet.

  “Well then, this is goodbye.”

  “This is only see you later,” he contradicted. “And speaking of later, I have a reques
t of you.”

  “What?” She eyed him warily.

  “Have dinner with me tonight.”

  “I’m working tonight.”

  “Tomorrow night, then.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because you need rest.” She adopted her sternest voice and continued, “You suffered a mild concussion, and you should be concentrating on your recovery, not dating.”

  “I’ll rest for the remainder of the day and tonight, if you’ll have dinner with me tomorrow night,” he bargained. “Come on.” He grinned infectiously. Lord, she could make out faint dimples visible through the light hair covering his cheeks, as if he needed another attribute to add to his handsomeness. “Give me a reward for being a model patient.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “You think you’ve been a model patient?” He nodded vigorously, and she suppressed a smile with difficulty. “I think your head injury was worse than we thought.”

  “I don’t know what you’re smirking about. I’ve been very agreeable.” At her continued skeptical expression, he suggested, “Ask any of my nurses.”

  “That won’t be necessary. I’ll let you cling to your delusions.”

  “Will you also reward my good behavior and go out with me tomorrow night?” he persisted.

  “Isn’t getting out of here incentive enough for you?”

  “You’ve got me there,” he quickly agreed. “But...”

  She sighed. “There’s always a but.”

  “Yes there is,” he agreed. “And this one’s very important.”

  “Well, let’s hear it,” she prompted drily.

  “But we’ve waited long enough to go out on a real date. Granted, we’ve both been insanely busy, but now fate has brought us back together, so let’s not waste this opportunity. Let’s seize the moment and do something we should have done months ago.”

  “Is that the reason you want to go out with me? To check off some to-do list?” she challenged.

  “Of course it isn’t.”

  “Why do you want to go out with me?”

  “Because I like you. I have since the moment I met you,” he answered immediately. His warm eyes held hers captive. “Don’t you like me?”

  “You’re a very nice man, Cam, but—”

  “No buts,” he interrupted with a smile.

  “No fair, you got to use buts, so I should too,” she argued.

  “Sorry.” He shrugged. “Those are the rules.”

  “Some rules,” she huffed.

  “Come on. You know you want to give in. I promise to show you the time of your life if you’ll go out with me.” A smile played about her lips at his persistence. “I’m not seeing anyone. Are you?”

  “No.” Her truthful response tumbled out before she could stop it.

  “I don’t understand how that’s possible, but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.” He grinned again, showing off those dimples that her fingers were itching to trace. “Don’t you want to see where this leads—finally?”

  She did and she didn’t. She did like Cam, she had since meeting him, but she was dedicated to her career—a career that was very demanding of her time and focus. She also had a lousy track record with men, and she didn’t want to travel down that losing road again...but maybe this time could be different. Maybe Cam would be different. He certainly made her feel different. She wished she knew whether that was good or bad.

  “You’re thinking too much,” he said. “That means you really want to say yes.”

  “It means no such thing.”

  “Yes, it does.” He reached out and took her hand. “Come on, Angela, you know we’re long overdue for our date.”

  “We’ve seen each other several times. A few nights ago, to be exact,” she reminded him.

  “For a few minutes at Alesha and Derrick’s.” He grimaced, and she bit back a laugh with difficulty. “That hardly qualifies as a date. Does it?”

  “That depends on your perspective.”

  “Well, my perspective is that seeing each other at our mutual friends’ house is not a real date.” He made another distasteful face, and this time she did laugh. “Come on, I’ll show you the time of your life.” Of that she had absolutely no doubt. She was having a good time just standing here sparring with him.

  She hadn’t been on a real date in ages—years, in fact, and with good reason. She liked her life the way it was—predictable and uncomplicated. She had no intention of starting anything serious with anyone, but where was the harm in sharing a good meal with a man who was funny, smart and godfather to their best friends’ son while she was the godmother?

  “All right,” she heard herself agreeing.

  “Excellent.” He brought the back of her hand to his lips, sending goose bumps up her arm. Suddenly the room seemed much too small for the two of them, especially when he said, “Your skin is very soft.”

  “Um...I have to go.” She cursed her breathless voice and removed her hand from his. “I’m due in the O.R.”

  “Okay, I guess I can’t object to that.” Her eyes widened when his fingers smoothed her bangs off her eyebrows. “I’m looking forward to our date, Angela.”

  “Just remember you promised me a great time.” She was surprised she could articulate this, because his nearness was doing strange things to her ability to breathe naturally.

  “And I’ll deliver,” he promised. “Where would you like to go?”

  “Surprise me.”

  “You may be sorry you said that,” he teased.

  “On second thought...”

  He placed a silencing finger lightly on her lips. “Too late to take it back.” Her lips tingled from his touch. She took a step backward, ending the disturbing contact.

  “Your nurse will be in with your discharge papers soon.”

  “Hallelujah!” A small smile played about her lips at his jubilant response.

  “Try to contain your enthusiasm.”

  “No can do.” His smile widened. “I can’t wait to get outta here.”

  “Just make sure you rest when you get home.”

  “I will.” He paused before pointedly reminding her, “You’ve given me great incentive to. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven?” he asked as she backed away toward the door.

  “That’ll be fine.”

  “I can’t wait.” He stepped forward and touched her cheek. “See you tomorrow night.”

  “Tomorrow,” she echoed before leaving.

  On the other side of the door, she took and released a deep breath. What had she gotten herself into? It was just one date with an acquaintance—nothing serious, and she would take great care to make sure to keep it that way. Casual and uncomplicated. That was her plan, that was her goal, and she would stick to it no matter how charming Cameron Stewart was. And Lord knows he was the very definition of charming!

  * * *

  Angela walked into her office and sank gratefully into her comfortable chair behind her paper-laden desk. Closing tired eyes, she sighed audibly. She was beat but still had a lot of hours left before she could go home. She groaned as that horrible realization hit her. At least she had time for a decent lunch before her evening staff meeting.

  Opening her eyes, she picked up numerous pink message slips with a weary hand and began reading each one. Boy, was she popular today. One message in particular caught her eye—it was from Cam. She checked the time and found he had called an hour ago. She wondered what he wanted. Maybe he had a question about his discharge instructions. Well, there was only one way to find out.

  Picking up the phone, she dialed the number and waited for him to answer. He didn’t. She hung up and redialed, thinking she must have pressed a wrong digit somewhere. Again, there was no response.
She bolted upright in her chair, fingers tightening on the receiver as she waited for him to answer. When he didn’t, she tried to calm her suddenly racing heart.

  Why wasn’t he answering his phone? Why had he called her? Was it for an innocent reason? Like he simply wanted to tell her where they were going for dinner tomorrow? Or had he been feeling ill and needed some medical advice?

  “Get a grip, Angela,” she sternly admonished. “He wouldn’t have been released if he wasn’t okay.” She frantically dialed his number again with the same results—no answer. “Calm down. He’s fine,” she said, trying to reassure herself.

  She considered ringing Derrick or Alesha and asking them to check on him but quickly dismissed that idea. She didn’t want to upset them unnecessarily, and such a call from her would do just that. Besides, she was upset enough for all of them.

  Without success, she fought valiantly to keep dire thoughts from racing through her mind. What if Cam had passed out and couldn’t answer the phone? What if he was...? She glanced at her watch. She had about two-and-a-half hours before her meeting; that should be enough time. She could get his address from his hospital chart.

  Coming to a decision, she stood, grabbed her purse from the desk drawer and hurried out.

  Chapter 3

  Angela drove down George Washington Memorial Parkway for about forty-five minutes until she reached the high-class neighborhood of Potomac, Maryland, where Cam lived. She admired the beautiful multimillion-dollar mansions that sat an aesthetically good distance from the road, until she located Cam’s house—a sprawling two-story white edifice surrounded by a white iron security fence, which thankfully was open. As she drove up to the house, she spared a quick glance at the magnificent, well-manicured lawn. It was only the third week of March, but the grass was already dark green and healthy. Tiny shrubs, colorful plants and flowers strategically framed the circular driveway. A spectacular view of the Potomac River was visible just to the left of his house.

  Once she stopped the car and put it into Park, she sprinted out of the vehicle and ran to the front door. She rang the doorbell, alternating with knocking furiously. Just when she thought she was going to have to call for help, she spied a blurred figure approaching through the purposefully distorted frosted glass door and it finally swung open.