by Janice Lynn
How dared he make her want him so badly!
Only, really, what had he done? Had sex with her and told her he wanted to continue their relationship beyond the weekend? How could she hold that against him?
But naive as it might be, she hadn’t expected such a drastic change in their professional relationship.
He turned, caught her watching him, met her gaze for the briefest of seconds. He never missed a beat in how he guided the DBS lead under the neuro-physicist’s guidance, never looked the slightest moved by the questions she knew she hadn’t kept from her face.
Then again, the man was performing brain surgery. One wrong move and their patient could have lasting effects. She should be grateful his concentration was on the patient because for once her mind kept veering off track. Not good. Her career was everything to her.
Her guarantee to never fall into the same pitfalls as her mother, to never need a man.
Her gaze shifted to Vale yet again. She didn’t need him. Want him, yes. Of course she wanted him. He was gorgeous, successful, brilliant Vale Wakefield. But want and need were two very different things.
Thank goodness she didn’t need him, or any man.
No doubt that would hurt even more than the sharp twinges she kept experiencing in her chest just looking at him caused.
Knowing she had to get her feelings safely tucked away, Faith took a deep breath and focused on what she’d focused on her entire life, the one thing she had control over.
Her career.
“Well done, Vale,” Faith congratulated him when they stepped outside the surgical suite. “The DBS implantation went superbly.”
Hearing her say his name brought back memories of the weekend when she’d called out his name in sexual release.
Memories he didn’t want because what had happened between them had ended with the weekend. What happened in Cape May stayed in Cape May.
Unfortunately.
“We won’t really know how successful the implantation was for a few days.” Did he sound embittered? Fine. Let her deal with his moodiness.
He hadn’t been ready to call quits to their affair. It had been years since a woman had ended a relationship with him. He’d forgotten how much it stung to want someone he couldn’t have.
Oh, he could have her. He’d seen how she looked at him this morning. She wanted him whether she wanted to admit it or not. But if he pursued their personal relationship any further, Faith would end up leaving the clinic.
She’d stressed how important her career was to her. What right did he have to screw that up just because he wasn’t ready to let go of her delectable body? Just because, even now, looking at her in her hideous glasses and unflattering scrubs, all he could think about was how she’d come alive tangled with his body, how she’d stared at him in wonder at her orgasms, at how she’d looked while sleeping in his arms?
God, he’d missed her last night. Had lain in his big bed alone and wondered why he’d never noticed how quiet and lonely his penthouse was.
Sure, he’d thought of sex from time to time when sleeping alone, but to want to hold a woman, to breathe in her vanilla scent, to sleep knowing she was next to him, would be there when he woke up? Never.
Not looking at her, he peeled off his protective gear.
When he turned to go, she touched his shoulder. “Vale?”
Not wanting to, he faced her, but didn’t look into her eyes. He couldn’t. Not when he wanted to slide her glasses off her face, lose himself in her gorgeous eyes, and tell her he wasn’t willing to let her toss him aside when she so obviously wanted him, too.
“Yes?” He sounded a jerk, but it couldn’t be helped. Her gentle touch had electrified his body, had made him acutely aware of how close she stood, of how much he wanted her.
He’d told her he wanted her, that he wanted to continue what they’d started, to see where it took them. She’d been the one to say no. Yet here she was, looking uncertain, hurt. He wasn’t going to play games. Did she want him to chase her? To beg her to admit she wanted him? Hell, no.
“I…” She paused, uncertainty darkening her eyes. “Are we going to lunch today?”
Lips held tightly together, he shook his head. “You made your point last week, Faith. Your lunchtime is your own. Unless it’s unavoidable, you won’t be scheduled for meetings during lunch.”
“But—” she began, but he interrupted.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Faith. Go, have lunch, and enjoy your free time. I have other plans.” He turned to walk away, paused, turned and flashed a grin that was difficult to pull off, but by the paleness of her skin he knew he had, knew he had to drive the point home that either she admitted she wanted him, that she wanted to continue what they’d started, or he would move on. “With Lulu.”
He left Faith to stare a hole in his back.
Fortunately, she couldn’t see the hole in his chest that hurting her ripped open.
But he wouldn’t beg any woman for her affections. Not even one he wanted as much as the one he’d just walked away from.
Three weeks passed. Three weeks in which Faith had barely seen Vale. He hadn’t asked her to lunch, hadn’t asked her to work late to review the latest data, hadn’t asked her input on the Parkinson project. She’d gone from essentially being with him almost constantly to seeing him during roundtable discussions regarding surgical consults and in the surgery suite.
Because he acted as if they were no more than colleagues. She hadn’t expected him to continue to pursue her, but she hadn’t expected such a drastic change from their pre-wedding weekend either.
Thank goodness she’d gotten her period, that an unplanned pregnancy hadn’t resulted from her weekend of foolish fantasy.
Despite the additional time she had at home with Yoda, time she’d desperately wanted, she wasn’t happy, was actually quite miserable.
Was actually quite lonely.
She missed Vale.
All the extra hours she’d put in had never seemed like work because she’d been with him.
Now work was a drudgery. She had to force herself to go in each morning. To know that if she saw Vale, it would only be a glimpse, would only be from a distance, because he avoided her, acted as if she had the plague.
Even Kay commented on the change in the relationship between and Vale, asking Faith if she was okay. Everyone else in the office had either not noticed or failed to comment, probably the latter.
“Faith?” Kay beeped Faith’s office. “Sharon Wakefield Woodard is on the phone for you. She called in on Vale’s private line. Do you want to take the call or shall I take a message?”
“Faith Fogarty,” she said into the phone, confused why Vale’s cousin would be calling her. Surely she’d only just returned from her honeymoon?
Sharon didn’t bother with pleasantries, actually sounded a bit perturbed. “We need to do lunch.”
Do lunch? Faith glanced over her schedule for the day, saw that she was booked full with patients, including a follow-up with Mr. Anderson. Except for lunch, of course. Ha. “I’m not sure I can get away today,” she hedged, not sure how Vale would feel about her having lunch with his cousin.
“Nonsense. Of course you can meet me for lunch.” Sharon dismissed her objections in pure Wakefield expectation of the world bending to their will. “You’re a brain doctor, so that means you’re smart, right?”
“Uh, right,” Faith said slowly, wondering where Sharon was going with her question.
“Steve had an affair,” Sharon confessed, her tone going up several octaves. “Vale says I should just forget it, that the affair happened in the past, but I can’t forget something like that, can I? Steve cheated on me. What’s to say he wouldn’t again? How can I ever trust him?”
Unbelievable. And yet another example of a marriage gone wrong. Another reason Faith should stay far away from men. Eventually they all ended up proving they were…well, men.
“I need someone really smart to talk to and Vale’s
who I usually go to, but he’s all man on this subject. Plus, he’s family. Please, Faith.”
Feeling herself weaken, Faith took a deep breath. “Perhaps we could meet somewhere close to the office around noon?”
“Where have you been?” Vale demanded, shutting the door behind him with a loud thud as he entered Faith’s office.
Wearing a boring gray suit and her glasses, she glanced up from the computer screen she was studying, eyed him as if he had no right to be in her personal space. As if she’d been on the computer for hours rather than only a few minutes. He knew that because he’d been listening for her return.
Should he remind her he owned the office? The whole building, for that matter?
“At lunch. Remember, that thing you insisted I take?” she pointed out with a sarcasm that didn’t become her.
Fighting the wave of frustration he’d felt at Kay’s news that Faith had called to say she was taking a long lunch, he placed his hands on his hips. “Insisting you take lunch did not entail your patients having to be rescheduled due to you deciding to take longer than the allotted time.”
Caught off guard at his announcement, she blinked. Her mouth opened, then closed. “Since when did I start punching a time clock?” Her voice sounded as irritated as his.
“Who were you with, Faith?”
Because he couldn’t stand not knowing. Not that it was any of his business, but Kay had led him to believe Faith had gone to lunch with a man. The man she’d been seeing prior to their weekend? A man she hadn’t slept with up to that point, but what about now? Was she spreading those lush thighs and…? No, he wouldn’t let his mind go there.
But, hell, if fire didn’t burn in the pit of his stomach at the thought of another man touching her…
Regarding him with narrowed eyes, she unnecessarily adjusted her glasses. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I had lunch with Sharon.”
Sharon?
“What did she want?” Then it hit him. “She talked to you about Steve.”
Faith nodded, a loose strand of her hair caressing her face as she did so. “About him cheating on her, yes.”
Women. Steve loved Sharon with all his heart, was devastated at her reaction to his confession, yet Sharon now refused to speak to her new husband.
“It was a long time ago during a time when they had broken up. She needs to quit acting like a spoiled child and go home to her husband.”
“Excuse me?” Faith’s brow arched upward. “During her honeymoon, she found out the man she loves cheated on her. I think she’s entitled to be emotional right now.”
“Sharon’s being more than a little emotional. She’s threatening to file for divorce,” he said, knowing his cousin was acting rashly, rather than with logic. Steve loved her.
Faith just nodded and the way she didn’t quite meet his eyes said she knew more than she was letting on.
“Don’t tell me you encouraged her to continue with this nonsense?” When she didn’t answer, Vale let out an exasperated sigh. “How dare you give her advice on marriage, or anything else? You know nothing of what our life is like. The media will be all over her and Steve. Everything either of them has ever done will be plastered in the gossip rags.”
Faith placed her fingertip against the bridge of her glasses, thrust them up her pert nose. “It’s not my place or yours to decide what’s best for Sharon.”
“She needs to stop this nonsense before she destroys her marriage. She needs to see reason.”
Faith’s eyes narrowed. “Reason being to take back a man who cheated on her?”
He placed both palms down on the deep-burgundy, high-back chair across from her desk, dug his fingers into the soft leather. “Don’t pretend to be an expert in things you know nothing about.”
“I know what she told me. Her husband cheated on her, destroyed her trust in him, and she wants a divorce.”
“She acts as if he slept around after they were married. He didn’t. They’d broken up at the time of his indiscretion.”
Faith’s mouth dropped open, then her eyes narrowed. “Isn’t that just like a man, to focus on a technicality? If he loved her, whether or not they were having an off time shouldn’t have mattered. According to Sharon, they broke up quite frequently, but always got back together. She never slept with anyone else and feels he shouldn’t have either.”
Gritting his teeth, Vale squeezed the top of the chair. Was Faith purposely trying to antagonize him? Because of what had happened between them? “Steve didn’t deserve her abandoning him in Rio during their honeymoon.”
Faith’s brow quirked. “Perhaps he should have thought about that prior to telling her during their honeymoon that he’d had sex with another woman, but no worries because she didn’t mean anything to him and he and Sharon had broken up at the time so it didn’t really count.”
Vale wouldn’t argue that Steve’s timing had been lacking, but the man had thought he was doing the right thing, had wanted to clear his conscience, because he truly did love Sharon.
“I know my cousin. She’s confused.” He met Faith’s gaze. “Don’t you have enough problems with your own family’s marital issues? Stay out of mine.”
She sucked in air loudly, looked at him with shattered eyes, making him wish he could take back his words. But he couldn’t and maybe he didn’t even really want to.
Regardless, he’d had enough.
Faith stared at Vale’s retreating back. Had he really just ordered her to stay out of his family’s marital issues? Hadn’t he been the one to drag her into his family’s marital issues to begin with by insisting she be his “date” for his cousin’s wedding to save him from his family’s matchmaking?
Weeks of frustration at the change in their relationship, at his cold shoulder, rose to the surface, blowing her top like a champagne cork. Her anger spewed out in messy, foamy white bursts.
“Don’t you order me around like you own me and then walk out of my office all sanctimonious and holier than thou,” she retaliated, jumping up from her desk to chase after him.
Surprised by her outburst and probably more so by her gripping of his jacket and tugging him round to face her, Vale’s gaze cut into her. She rushed on before he could stop her.
“If Sharon wants me as her friend, I’ll see her any time she wants and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“We’re talking about my cousin,” he reminded her, angry pink stains flushing his cheeks.
“Which doesn’t mean you own her. Sharon is a grown woman and, yes, she may be confused right now, but that doesn’t mean she needs some man telling her what she should and shouldn’t be doing right now.”
“Some man?” he growled. “Oh, you were just waiting to get that dig in, weren’t you? This just reinforces all your hang-ups about relationships and marriage, doesn’t it?”
“Marriage is an outdated sentiment. Disposable in today’s society, just promises made that are only meant to be kept until the man grows bored and moves on. I want no part of it.” Faith stood on tiptoe, nose to nose with him, hating that even in anger her body had taken notice of his proximity, of his spicy aftershave, of the sexuality radiating from his every pore.
“Obviously,” he sneered. “But Sharon doesn’t share that sentiment as she chose to marry Steve. Keep yourself and your jaded views away from my family.”
Did he have any idea that she wanted to pound her fists against his chest? Did he have any idea she’d cried over the loss of his friendship? Of all the precious moments they’d spent together? Of course not. Because if she wasn’t willing to have sex with him, he obviously didn’t want anything more to do with her.
“No, you, you man!” She wasn’t sure if she was denying his request to stay away from his family or if she spat the word out in protest of him not caring at how they’d ruined their relationship, a relationship she’d treasured.
“This isn’t up for debate.” Angry sparks flew from his eyes and she was glad.
Anger meant
she was eliciting some type of emotion from him. She wanted emotion, wanted a reaction from him. For weeks she’d been getting nothing but him ignoring her.
“You’re right. It’s not. You have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do,” she insisted, earning herself a gritted-teeth growl from a man known for his cool composure.
Good. At this point she wanted a knock-down, drag-out fight. Arguing with him felt so much better than walking around on the eggshells she’d been treading since the morning after they’d come back from Cape May.
“Sure I do,” he said arrogantly. “You work for me.”
“Just because I work for you, it does not give you the right to say who I can and can’t be friends with.” Her chin rose another few notches.
“Then you’ll be doing it elsewhere because as long as you work for me, you’ll do what I say. Got it?”
Faith’s stomach knotted, what was left of her heart shattered into dust, and pain like she’d never felt erupted deep within her, battling with her anger for pole position.
“Fine,” she spat at him, clinging to her anger in the hope of abating her pain. “Consider this my official resignation. I quit. Effective immediately.”
CHAPTER TEN
AT FAITH’S threat, Vale’s blood instantaneously froze to hard chunks of ice. Coldness seeped into his extremities, leaving him numb and spent.
“You can’t quit,” he told her, wanting to take her into his arms and shake her, but he didn’t need to. Her entire body was already shaking, whether from anger or frustration or what he didn’t know.
She crossed her arms over her chest, jutted her chin up at him, and gave him the most seething look he’d ever seen cross her face. “I just did.”
“We have a contract,” he reminded her, battling the frost claiming his insides, not liking the panic in his chest, knowing he couldn’t let her quit. “One that says you work for me.”
