by Lucy Rinaldi
I sat at our table with Veronica watching both Blake and Robbie talking to another Doctor at our table; even at an event like this they’re still talking about work! I can’t seem to drag my eyes away from my gorgeous Dr. I am so proud of him! “Your brother really is handsome” I turn to look at Veronica and smile. “Oh my goodness, did I say that out loud?” She looks at me and we both burst out laughing.
“You really like him, don’t you?”
“Is it that obvious?” I nod. “I wish it were more obvious to him. I really do like him, he’s the most wonderful man I’ve ever met” She looks down at her hands.
“Why do you look so sad?”
“I guess I wish he liked me in return”
“You don’t think he does?” She looks at me and shakes her head. “Why do you think that?”
“Look at me, I’m not exactly Tina am I?” Jesus, she has to be joking, how can she honestly think that thing my brother went out with is better than her? God, she sounds like me! I place my hand over hers.
“No you’re not Tina. You are so much prettier for a start” She smiles at me. “That and I like you, and that goes a long way, trust me. Besides, I have absolutely no idea what the hell my brother saw in her. She may have been pretty, but she spoke with a God awful accent. My brother was so out of her league”
“And mine, I fear”
“You may be out of his” She giggles and shakes her head. I smile at her. She talks like my brother, such a smooth British accent, it’s so pretty. They would look perfect together! I wonder if I could get them together? I can but try. And try I will, and before the night is out I’ll at least find out if he does like her in return.
“What are you two whispering about?”
“Just having a girly chat, dear brother”
“Good I hope?” We both smile at him, and he gives us a what-are-you-up-to? Kind of smile.
“Very good. Your sister is fast becoming my new favorite person” She squeezes my hand and winks at me making me smile.
“Really?”
“Yes, Robbie, really,” I smile at him.
“Wow, you must be special, Ronnie” Ronnie? Oh, I guess that’s short for Veronica. “Mercedes, would you mind if I steal this beautiful lady away for a dance?” I shake my head with a smile on my face. I then lean over to her and whisper in her ear.
“He so likes you to” I lean up and wink at her, she smiles as she gets out of her seat and takes my brother’s hand. I watch as he leads her to the dance floor. I can’t help but smile as he pulls her close to him while they dance. Yes, I think my brother may have found his Miss Right... I do hope so, they look perfect together. I’m pulled out of my daydream as Blake kisses my cheek, and then takes a seat next to me.
“You look like you’re in a world of your own, baby girl”
“I’m okay,” I smile sweetly at him and take his hand in mine.
“What are you smiling about?” He asks in amusement.
“Just thinking about how happy you make me” He smiles so sweetly at me then kisses my hand.
“You make me happy too, baby. More than you know. Looks like your brother’s having a good time”
“She likes him” I giggle. “I think he likes her too”
“Oh, I’m sure he does,” I can’t help but laugh at his, Oh-he-so-wants-her smirk.
“Dr. Benedict” Both Blake and I look up at the photographer standing in front of our table, camera against his eye. Blake looks back at me and smiles. He wraps his arm around my shoulder before looking back at the camera. I know from the way he’s holding himself that he’s uncomfortable with being photographed, but he should be used to it by now being who he is. I smile at the cameraman as he takes a shot of us. “Beautiful couple” He says with a smile before walking away from us.
“Fucking photographers” Blake grumbles under his breath.
“You don’t like being photographed?” He shrugs while sipping his drink. I smile to myself. I can only imagine what it’s like for him. Back when I was a child and staying with Roberto in Italy I was photographed a lot. Simply because of who Roberto was and the fact he was so rich. As kids, myself or my brothers had little privacy because of it all. So I do sympathize with Blake. Wanting to keep yourself private and not being able to can be annoying. I’m just glad I never had to put up with it all back home because I don’t think I would have coped. Maybe that’s why Blake hasn’t introduced me to many of his friends, in case photographers hound me like they do him, when they can catch him! If that’s the case, its kind of sweet. “Please excuse me” I need to pee in a bad way! I kiss Blake’s cheek and smile at everyone around our table, then take my leave.
As I’m walking back from the bathroom, I’m stopped by a young man, blond and well dressed in a black dress suit, and he’s as drunk as hell! “Hey, come here” He grabs my hand and pulls me toward him.
“Eww, let go of me”
“Come on, don’t be like that. I’ve been watching you all night; you’ve been flirting with me”
“I have not! I don’t even know who you are, I’ve never seen you before” He pushes me against the wall and tries to kiss me! “Get off me!” His hand travels down my leg, pulling at my dress, trying to lift it. God, he’s trying to force himself on me! I push him by the chest with both hands, but the more I push him the more he leans into me. “Let go of me!” I feel sick, I can’t even shout for Blake because the musics so loud in the function room that he won’t hear me. I suddenly feel him being ripped from me with such force my wrist pops as his hand lets go of me.
“Take your fucking hands off my sister!” Thank fuck for that! My brother’s fist connects with the guy’s face, and my hearts racing like crazy. My brother may look and sound like a prince of England, but when it comes to his sisters, brothers, and parents he’s just as dangerous as the rest of our brothers! I hate to say it, but he could possibly be as dangerous as Roberto if pushed hard enough. I just thank God he’s nothing like his biological father in any other sense! “Son of a bitch! Don’t you ever fucking touch her, do you hear me?!”
“I didn’t know she was your sister. I’m sorry!” What the hell, so does that mean he thinks it would have been okay to touch me if I wasn’t Robbie’s sister?
I watch my brother slam the guy against the wall and punch him in the face again, and then in the stomach. “Say sorry to my sister... Say sorry!”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” Jesus H Christ! My brother’s crazy! He punches the guy again, then let’s go of him as he falls to the floor, but he’s not even done yet. I can’t even speak. Fuck, what if Blake finds out, he’ll literally kill the guy!
“Robbie, stop, please!” I grab his arm; I know my brother, he won’t stop if I don’t make him, his tempers as bad as mine. I grab his face between my hands, pulling around to look at me. “Ssshh, please it’s okay, he didn’t hurt me. Please, Robbie, I don’t want Blake to see this, he’d kill him and I can’t take both of you going postal on me”
He looks at me then at the guy on the floor, and back to me again, and smiles. “Come on, let’s get back to the party. Your young man will be wondering where you got to” Why is it every man has to be violent? Although, this time I’m very grateful.
“And your young lady will be wondering where you got to”
“My lady?” He laughs.
“You can't fool me, big brother, I know you like her”
“Do you think it’s too soon after Tina to start any kind of relationship with Ronnie?”
“Do you like her?” Oh, my brother so likes her, I can see it in his eyes, and hear it in his voice, he’s smitten with her.
“I do... I always have”
“Always? How long is that exactly?”
“About eight years” He shrugs. Damn, that’s a long time to like someone and do nothing about it!
“Eight years?”
“Yes, we were in medical school together. I liked her the second I saw her. I wanted nothing more than to ask her out, but sh
e was the one girl who was always far too beautiful for someone like me”
“Someone like you?” I laugh sarcastically. “Robbie, she’s you in woman form” He narrows his eyes at me. “She’s kind, smart, beautiful, amazing. And she likes you too”
“You think?”
“Yes. Robbie, Jesus, go tell her that you like her” He smiles at me. “Go, really don’t waste time, you never know she could be the one for you. And just so you know at the table, she basically told me that she’s in love with you” Well, she almost did, it’s what she meant at least.
“She did?” I nod and smile at him as I shoo him away. He smiles so wide at me then kisses my cheek, and walks quick time back to his new lady friend. I can’t help the smile on my face, I love seeing my brother happy.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Twenty Five.
“I thought you’d got lost” I really love the smile on my man’s face every time he sees me, it lights up his whole face.
“I’m sorry. Do you want to dance?”
He pulls me into his arms and kisses me softly, making me smile against his mouth. “Let’s dance” He leads me to the dance floor, pulling me close to him as he moves his hips against mine in time to the music. I don’t recognize the song, it’s a slow up tempo beat, but it doesn’t matter, I see and hear nothing but the beautiful Godlike man in front of me. He takes my hand and twirls me around making me laugh, and his beautiful smile threatens to spit his cheeks apart! He leans down and kisses me gently as I wrap my arms around his neck; he wraps his around my waist pulling me closer to him, swaying me to the music. Right now I don’t think anything could be as good as this. I’ve literally never felt anything like this, the way he loves me blows my mind!
As soon as the music stops we turn to face the stage as Veronica takes the microphone. Blake wraps his arm around my waist, and my sweet brother stands beside me smiling up at Veronica like she’s the only woman in the room. Veronica told me that she may be a pediatric doctor, but she’s also a midwife and has delivered more than Eighty babies! She went to medical school to train as both a Dr. and a midwife. How on earth did she manage that? Jesus, things are so different in England to America. I still haven’t gotten used to it all! “I would just like to thank you all for coming, you all look wonderful” Everyone claps and she smiles sweetly. “We have one more thing we’d like to get out of the way before the night ends. But first I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine. Now, she’s an extremely beautiful woman so don’t all drool at once, we don’t want a swimming pool” She raises her eyebrow in mock amusement making everyone laugh. “Mercedes, would you like to join me on the stage, please?” What the fuck?! I swear I’ve gone bright red. I look at Blake, who just shrugs at me with a smile on his face. I look at my brother who gives me his go-on look, then pushes me forward. I reluctantly walk over to the stage and climb the few steps onto it. “Now boys and girls, I’d like you all to meet Mercedes,” I hear the wolf whistles of men around the room, and I’m so fucking embarrassed I want to run and hide. “Now, who would like to dance with this beautiful young lady?” What the hell!? My eyes dart right to her, and she smiles at me, but I’m shaking my head at her. I really don’t want to dance with anyone else, and I know Blake won’t like it, but I can’t say that right now. I can hear a lot of men shouting how they’d like to do more than just dance with me, and the look on my man’s face is really confusing, he looks neither mad nor amused. “Well, I’m sorry, but she’s taken, so dancing is not on the menu” Okay, she may think this is funny but I don’t! I hear the sighs of men, and I can see Blake’s amused smirk, how can he think this is funny? “This beautiful young lady; is none other than our very own Dr. Robert Hamilton-Forbes' younger sister, who tonight has helped raise over sixty four thousand pounds for our charity with her wonderful donation” I did? How did I manage to do that without actually doing anything? I do find it weird how she calls my brother Robert. Maybe because no one but his grandparents call him that normally. I guess with his work colleagues its much more respectful to call him by his given name. “I’d like everyone to give her a round of applause” The applause is deafening.
I lean into her. “Veronica, what are you talking about, I haven’t done anything?”
“Sweetheart, you and your lovely young man made the most amazing donation to our charity, and he doesn’t want to take any credit. But someone has to and that someone is you” Okay, now I really am confused, what the hell? Did I fall into a coma and wake up in a twilight zone? I give her the most puzzled look, but she just smiles at me. “It’s time we now reveal the winner of Mercedes wonderful donation. So, without further ado, the winner of a weeks all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles, staying at the beautiful Beverly Hilton hotel is... Dr. and Mr. Dewhurst” Everyone claps as Dr. Dewhurst comes to the stage to accept her prize, a prize I’m supposed to have donated but I seriously have no fucking clue when I did that! Dr. Dewhurst is a short, stocky woman, in her mid-forties. Her hair is short and more silver than any other women of her age are sure to have. Funnily the color of her hair matches the color of her dress. She shakes my hand and kisses my cheek, thanking me. “Tonight we have raised over four hundred thousand pounds” Veronica says proudly. The applause is deafening. “Keep the donations coming! If you would like to donate further tonight, there will be someone at the front desk taking those from you. Thank you all for a wonderful night, we hope to see you all next year” Veronica takes my hand and leads me back to Blake and Robbie. I smile as Robbie kisses her cheek and tells her how wonderful she did up there. I’m guessing they’re now and item.
“You looked scared up there”
“Don’t laugh, Blake. I’m really confused”
He pulls me into his arms and kisses my cheek with a smile on his lips. “I’m sorry I should have told you, I donated that gift from us both. I’m not one for drawing attention to myself”
“So you set me up?”
“If you like” He laughs. I can understand why he wouldn’t want any attention, there were so many people here that recognized him as it was. Even though every time someone mentioned his business he made some excuse to get out of the conversation. So many people from British TV shows came up to him and spoke to him like they knew him. I realized that they obviously did and I couldn’t believe he would shrug them off and walk away! I don’t get why he doesn’t want me to know who he is? Does he honestly think I’m stupid? Like I’m the only person in the world who wouldn’t know who he’s name? Like I’m from a different century with no internet or any way of reading a newspaper or magazine! I get it, he likes that I like him for who he is, and I know that he knows I know who he is, he’s not stupid. But he knows I have millions of my own, so there is no way I would want his money. Money doesn’t matter to me anyway! Although he’s never mentioned my money, or the fact he knows exactly who Roberto Moretti is. So why can’t he just tell me about his business? I know Blake the Doctor, but I know nothing about Blake the businessman. Ugh! Did he know who I was when he first met me? If I’m honest as this night has gone on the fact he hasn’t told me anything about who he is has really bugged the hell out of me. I just want to know the real him. I want to see where he works when he’s at the office. I want to meet his friends! If he doesn’t say anything soon I’ll have to bring it up. How can we have a relationship if he won’t talk to me? He should be proud to tell me about his business and how he came to be so rich. He should be proud of who he is, he should be proud of me! It’s a little disheartening to think he could be ashamed of me. But then if he was, he wouldn’t have stood by my side all night where so many people who recognized him could see. I need to stop thinking into things so much.
“You could have warned me, Blake. I really hate being in front of people like that”
“I’m sorry, baby. Don’t be angry. It’s for kids, I was just trying to do something nice”
“I’m not angry” I laugh to myself, how can I be mad at him when he so obviously loves kids, all he wanted t
o do was give something to sick children. “I do love you, Blake”
“And I love you, baby,” I smile as he kisses me.
“You know, Blake, I’m really glad my sister has you in her life. I’ve honestly never seen her so happy” I smile at my brother and take his hand in mine.
“She means the world to me” Blake says to my brother while looking at me.
“I can see that... Thank you” My brother shakes Blake’s hand and I hug them in turn. Two of my most favorite men in the whole world like each other, I really couldn’t ask for more.
When I hug my brother, I whisper in his ear. “Is she your girlfriend then?”
“Yes,” I feel his smile against my ear; I pull away from him and hug Veronica.
“I told you”
“I know you did” She giggles. “Thank you”
“Anytime. You’re exactly what he needs, and I know you’ll be happy together”
“Come here, Miss match maker” Blake pulls me into his arms and kisses me so passionately, not even caring that people can see us, and it really makes me giggle like a little girl because I realize he’s in no way ashamed of me.
As the night came to an end, we said our goodbyes to Robbie’s friends. My brother explained how he’s going to stay on and have a drink with Veronica. The thought makes me smile. I kissed his cheek and left with my man. It’s gone so cold out and I’m freezing as we wait for the valet to bring the car around from the parking lot. I shiver and rub my hands up and down my bare arms. I feel Blake’s jacket drape around my shoulders. “Here baby, this will keep you warm” I smile at him as I put my arms inside his jacket. It’s way too big of course, but it feels so warm against my body, and it smells of him, of heaven. He snakes his arm around my shoulder and pulls me against his hip, I wrap my arms around his waist, and breathe the fresh air deep into my lungs.
