“So Dr. Logan, most of your books are about sexual issues. This one seems to be more about relationship problems,” Stephanie said. “Is this a new focus for your work?”
“Actually, all my books are about relationships. Sex is a fundamental relationship revealing our true selves in a way nothing else does,” Regina said.
“I was especially intrigued with chapter eight and your advice about how to pursue a relationship with someone younger than you. Looks like your friend Alexa Ranger has been taking your advice. Her latest beau is rumored to be a lot younger,” Stephanie said.
Regina laughed loudly, shocking Stephanie into shifting uncomfortably in her chair.
“The last thing Alexa Ranger needs from any woman is dating advice. Alexa dates who she wants to date, though I can understand why someone might want to know her secrets for success,” Regina said, giving Stephanie a knowing look as if she had been fishing for Alexa’s secrets for herself. She didn’t mind the personal nature of some of the questions, but Regina never got used to people using her friends to get a rise out of her.
“How about you? Do you ever take your own dating advice?” Stephanie asked, thrown off guard enough to go ahead and ask the question she’d been building up slowly to in the interview. “There was a picture in the paper a week ago of you with a man intimately hugging you outside a local restaurant here in town.”
“Yes, and I also recall the article said the man was a client, which for the record he is not and never has been. He happened to catch me when I stumbled on a curb while waiting for a cab,” Regina shrugged her shoulders, smiling at Stephanie, phrasing the truth as carefully as she could.
“The man in the picture is Ben Kaiser. A mutual friend met us both at a restaurant hoping to hook us up. Ben’s a very nice man who doesn’t deserve to be wrongfully slammed by the press for simply trying to be nice to me. My lawyers have already contacted the paper for a retraction of the article,” Regina said to Stephanie. Then Regina turned and looked at the camera straight on. “God help the source who lied about him being a client, and they had better not be on my staff.”
Stephanie was very surprised Regina Logan had just spilled the whole story. She had been prepared to pry the information out of her. It truly hadn’t occurred to her that Logan would voluntarily tell her the truth.
She was trying to figure out where to take the interview next when Regina crooked a finger at her.
When Stephanie inclined her upper body in Regina’s direction, Regina leaned across the news table conspiratorially, “You know, Stephanie, I’m forty-seven years old. If the press doesn’t leave me the hell alone, I’ll never be able to get a damn date in this town.”
The live audience for the show broke out in loud laughter and applause at Regina’s candor.
“How sweet! Thank you for your support,” Regina said, blowing the audience a kiss off her fingers, and then turning back to Stephanie who had gone very pale at the swearing, knowing it probably just blew the station’s chance of selling the show.
When the show went to commercial, excited audience members saved Regina from dealing with Stephanie’s ire.
When the show was finally over, Regina fled, vastly relieved it was done.
She hoped if Ben saw the show he would understand that she had taken as much heat off him as she could.
*** *** ***
The bad part about being the head of a family business, Ben thought, is that family thought everything about his life was their business. This was why all the people sitting around the conference table were talking about his sex life instead of work.
Well, they were talking about Regina and him, which now was his sex life as far as Ben was concerned.
“Didn’t you see the interview?” Janet asked him.
“What interview?” Ben asked, perplexed by the question.
Janet Lindsay was one of numerous cousins who worked for the business. She ran the main office and had her finger on every pulse, mostly because it gave her something to do with her nosy energy. Ben struggled to keep Janet’s fingers off his pulse, as he preferred his privacy, though she had been quite handy at dealing with the media calls about the picture in the paper.
“You still don’t watch TV, do you?” Janet asked, shaking her head because she already knew the answer.
“He’s clueless,” Alfred said to Janet. He looked at Ben with pity. “Dr. Logan talked about you in her Channel 32 interview yesterday. She even mentioned you by name, Ben.”
Ben blinked, and ran a hand over his face. “What did she say?”
Panic rose and Ben fought it down. It must have not been too bad, he told himself. No one had called him about articles in the paper this morning. But he didn’t miss Alfred, Daniel, and an assortment of other male cousins and in-laws laughing and elbowing each other at his obvious discomfort. His secret relationship with Regina was going to turn the rest of his hair gray at this rate.
“Dr. Logan seems to really like you.” Janet was fairly vibrating with her eagerness to share the news.
Ben sighed, resigning himself to having to hear whatever Janet or anyone else thought about the situation. He wished Regina had at least warned him about the interview.
“Ben, I think Dr. Logan wants you to ask her out,” Janet said after a few moments.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Ben saw the other women in the room giggle and fan themselves for emphasis while the men fought not to burst out laughing—bastards.
“What are you talking about?” Ben asked, confused, questions pouring out of him. “What do you mean ask her out? How do you know what she wants? Did she say that on TV?” His eyes scanned the table and came back to Janet. “Did you record the interview?”
Janet jumped up, dashed out of the room, and was back in a few seconds popping a DVD in the player.
Ben leaned back in his chair as he and everyone else watched Regina embarrass the newswoman over her comment about Alexa Ranger. That loyalty ran deep he saw, and he could only appreciate Regina more for it.
Then Ben heard Regina spinning the story about Lauren setting them up. All she said was truth. It was what she left out that was the more interesting part of the story. For example, Ben thought it was much more interesting that just the sound of her husky voice on TV could make his clothes uncomfortable under the conference table.
Ben laughed along with the audience about her comment on dating. Regina had wiped the proverbial floor with a person who had meant to wipe the floor with her. He admired Regina for being adept at dealing with people who intended to harm her or the people she cared about.
As Janet was forwarding through the commercials, Ben had an epiphany. Just like she protected Alexa from Stephanie’s prying, Ben saw Regina would stand between him and the media as well, growling and snarling until they bit at her instead of him.
If the media was always demanding the personal details of his private life, it would drive him insane, Ben thought. Then the stark truth hit him. The media crap happened to Regina all the time. Even the idea of their private lives being under such public scrutiny made Ben madder than hell. He couldn’t imagine how Regina dealt with it.
Then a second realization hit him even stronger than the first one. Regina had dealt with it for years. She constantly dealt with it and handled it like a pro, and in this case had made Stephanie Sawyer look like an idiot in the process.
Damn, Ben thought. Regina’s balls really were bigger than his. He watched her wrap up the interview and get swamped by a mob of audience people rushing forward to talk to her. Ben wanted to scoop her up and run away with her somewhere. He didn’t think Regina would likely go for it since she probably just doubled her book sales.
Janet punched the stop button when they were done.
“Is it true, Ben? Did a mutual friend really set you up with Dr. Logan? Did you ask her out?” she asked, excitement evident in her voice.
“I hate to burst your romantic bubble, but I actually asked Lauren McCarthy out to dinner. La
uren’s the woman I went to see at the restaurant,” Ben told Janet, eliciting shocked gasps from all.
Ben couldn’t help laughing. That would teach them to make him sweat over Regina. Okay, he admitted, he also liked the idea he could surprise people who thought they knew everything about him. It served them right for thinking they could analyze his sex life.
Then he remembered Regina’s reaction to thinking he had asked Lauren out and swore. Sighing, Ben figured he owed it to both of them to tell the truth to his family at least.
“As much as I enjoy the shock on your faces, I confess I only asked Lauren out to talk to her about Regina,” he corrected. “Lauren is a close friend of hers. Regina Logan is a celebrity as you can see and—well, it’s complicated. Lauren did try to set us up, but I never got around to asking Regina out.”
Ben laughed when he saw eleven rapt gazes suddenly hanging on his every word.
Absolutely amazing, he thought. He usually had trouble getting this group to take anything he said seriously unless it involved the company’s money. He felt a little like Regina with all the attention his board members—family—were paying to his dating life.
He smiled and shook his head.
“I can’t believe I’m even telling you this because it’s really none of your business, but what the hell. The picture in the paper was a total surprise to me, but I admit it caught my interest in her. If Regina Logan can defend me on TV to the public at large, I won’t lie to you all and say I’m not interested in her,” Ben told them, his green eyes deep and serious. “She’s not like anyone I have ever met.”
“You should definitely ask her out then,” Janet said decisively, while ten other heads around the table nodded their agreement.
Several of the men, including Alfred and Daniel, snickered but still nodded in approval. Ben knew what Alfred and Daniel were thinking. He was never admitting to them how right they had been about her. He’d never hear the end of it, and that was the least of his worries.
“Janet, you told me yourself we got over twenty-five phone calls about the picture in the paper,” Ben said. “As CEO, it wouldn’t be right for me to bring that kind of media circus to the company all the time. I definitely am not in favor of using company resources to handle issues with my social life.”
All eleven faces looked deeply disappointed with his speech. Ben stared back at them. He found it hard to take in that he had worked all these years with a bunch of closet romantics.
“Maybe we could use a little notoriety,” Daniel suggested, leaning back in his chair. “Hanson’s financials are still better than ours. Their name is out there in the public eye, and you know we do better work. Maybe if you date Dr. Logan, we’ll draw some attention. You know what they say about any press being better than none.”
“Regina Logan’s a well known, mass-published, and very out-spoken sex therapist, Daniel. What kind of questions do you think her dates get asked by the press? I don’t think they’re going to be interested in what I do for a living,” Ben supplied.
“I’m only suggesting you consider it, Ben. From the looks of that picture, Dr. Logan’s interested in you, too,” Daniel argued, defending his view of the situation.
“What could one date hurt?” Alfred said, his eyes twinkling. “If the publicity is too much, don’t ask her out again.”
Ben had been thinking about a lot of things concerning Regina, but mostly with a part of him other than his brain. There was a difference between being conservative and being naïve. He knew if he kept sneaking to see Regina, eventually someone was going to discover it.
Maybe making their relationship public was the only logical next step, but Ben wanted to be sure he could handle the heat first. And he wanted to make sure the company wouldn’t melt in the spotlight his relationship to Regina was going to shine on him.
“All right,” he said finally. “One date. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about the media circus.”
When they’d left him alone in the room, Ben couldn’t stop thinking about openly dating Regina.
It wasn’t himself he worried about, but rather the company and the people who counted on him. The people he worked with had been a part of his life practically as long as Catherine. If there had been twenty-five calls about the one picture, there would likely be a hundred when he showed up around their conservative town with the notorious Dr. Logan on his arm.
He tried to imagine how easy this would be if Regina were just any other doctor, any other normal person. The image wouldn’t even form completely.
What would she do with all that fire if she wasn’t who she was?
He thought of her warning him—multiple times in fact—that she wasn’t a nice woman. Then he thought of what she’d said to Stephanie Sawyer about dating. If other men knew what he did about how vulnerable Regina was under the tough exterior, he’d have been more than number six in her bed. Truth was it was no longer just one side of Regina he wanted. He wanted all of her.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t still complicated. He for damn sure needed some help. With a vision of being asked embarrassing questions running through his head, Ben picked up the phone in desperation, dialing a phone number he had looked up some time ago—just in case.
When Ben wanted to solve an especially challenging problem, he sought advice from an expert who demonstrated a proficiency in the area. This situation required an expert about Regina’s public life.
“Hello. Yes, this is Ben Kaiser. I’m a friend of Regina Logan’s and was wondering if Ms Ranger could meet with me for lunch today if she doesn’t have plans. Can you ask and give me a call back? Tell her I have something important to talk with her about concerning Regina.”
*** *** ***
Across town, Sydney Banes hung up the phone and went to Alexa’s office.
“Get this,” he said, his voice husky and conspiratorial as he leaned against the doorway. “Regina’s nice man, Ben Kaiser, called to ask you to lunch.”
“Well, how intriguing,” Alexa said on a laugh. “It’s so rare when a nice man asks me out.”
“Hey, I’m nice,” Casey said gruffly, using his cane to shove Sydney out of the doorway as he walked into Alexa’s office. He didn’t need the cane to walk much anymore, but it was handy for removing obstructions from his path.
Sydney laughed and punched Casey’s shoulder as he passed.
“Are you planning to cheat on me with Regina’s new boyfriend?” Casey asked Alexa, as he slid into one of the chairs in front of her desk.
“Thinking about it,” she purred in response. “Want to make it a threesome? You’re still my favorite guy.”
Casey rolled his eyes to the ceiling as Sydney laughed behind them. He wondered if he would ever outsmart that very smart mouth of Alexa’s.
“I’d suggest a fourth, but I already have plans,” Sydney said, sounding terribly disappointed.
“Order in something for us, okay?” Alexa asked Sydney, her eyes twinkling, her bottom lip protruding in thought. “We need some privacy for our nooner with Mr. Kaiser. Tell him to meet us here and send him back when he shows.”
Sydney smiled broadly as he left.
“So tell me the truth. Are you planning to play nice with the nice man?” Casey asked, wishing the nooner had been his idea when he saw Alexa stretch her arms overhead and strain the buttons on her shirt.
Alexa felt lust spring to life inside her at Casey’s interested look, so she got up to walk over and sit in his lap. He arranged her in a position they both enjoyed so he could hold her comfortably. She kissed his neck and moved to his mouth for a taste. It would have to hold them both for a while, she thought.
“I don’t know yet how nice I’ll be to Mr. Kaiser, but it’s interesting he would call me the day after the interview. I’d bet Regina doesn’t know about him calling me either. So like I told Sydney, I’m intrigued,” Alexa said, running her finger along the edge of Casey’s collar.
“Intrigued, huh? Well, for the record I’m definitely not
into sharing my woman with another man,” Casey warned. “Maybe just this one time. Don’t get used to it.”
Then Casey gripped her hair to hold her head still while he had his way with her mouth. He pulled away just before it got bad enough to make them lock and bolt the office door.
Alexa groaned in frustration and buried her face in Casey’s neck. He stroked her back to comfort them both. Not smart, he thought, but always satisfying to stake his claim to her.
“After that kiss, I’m not in the mood for nice now,” Alexa said, mildly irritated with Casey for stirring her up.
“Don’t worry,” Casey said, confidence returning where she was concerned. “I’ll join you for lunch. I’m the model of self-control.”
They both knew better. Neither of them had much control where the other was concerned.
Alexa swore as she laughed against his lips, kissing him one last time before she bounded up to answer the intercom.
*** *** ***
Ben took a cab to Alexa’s building to avoid looking for a parking place.
The main area was in total disarray, a contradiction to its calming blue walls. Off in a distance, discarded clothing was strung over every available surface. There were pedestals and sewing machines, drawing tables and office chairs.
No one was around except a tall, handsome man dressed more sharply than he was. Ben looked at the man’s clothes and sighed. It was his worst vanity, and not always considered a masculine one, but he liked nice clothes and looking sharp. He always had.
Sydney liked Ben Kaiser immediately when he saw him checking out his clothes and sighing. He didn’t think twice, just pulled a card out of his desk drawer and handed it over.
“Mr. Kaiser? My name is Sydney Banes and I’m Alexa’s assistant. This is the card of my favorite tailor. He carries some of my clothing line and the rest are his own designs. I swear he’s worth every penny you will ever spend with him,” Sydney told him.
Ben took the card from Sydney with a stunned expression. It was the name of a men’s clothing shop. He suddenly envied Alexa’s luck at finding such an assistant, wishing Janet could learn to read people so well.
Dating Dr Notorious Page 8
