by Ali Parker
"Hey there. How's your day going, Dr. Tarrington?"
"It's good. Come on in." His eyes lingered on me a little longer than would have been acceptable.
I sat down in the chair across from his desk and crossed my legs. "So I've decided that I'm going to drop my classes and transfer to Baylor for graduation. I might have to stay an extra semester, but it will all be worth it."
"What?" Confusion moved across his handsome face as he leaned back in his chair and pulled his glasses off. "You're not doing that, Dana. We worked all of this out. It's just eight months."
"And that's too long for me." I took a quick sip of my Coke and offered it to him.
He politely declined. "Then I'll talk with Damon about coming to work for him. You're not changing your future for me."
"You are my future." I leaned forward and pressed my free hand to my knee. "I've seen so many things in the hospital over the last six months. People come and go, some survive and some die there, but all of them want the same thing."
"Love?" His voice was soft and drew me in like a moth to the flame.
"Yes. I don't wanna wait another minute to experience what we experienced this weekend. I don't care if I graduate from UT or Baylor. I'm going to most likely drag you halfway across the country to join me while I'm in medical school anyway, or I hope I am."
"I'm fine with us going wherever you need to go to finish up your schooling, but you're not adding more time on the clock because of me." He got up and walked around the desk as I stood.
"Kendal." I lifted my hand and pressed it to his chest, hoping to warn him to keep his distance. The look in his eyes said he didn't give two fucks who came by.
"I'm blown away that you would seriously consider changing your life for me." He slid his hands into my hair and brushed his thumbs across my cheeks. "Let's get out of here for the night."
"I can't. I picked up another shift at the hospital tonight just to help out. I wasn't sure what your plans were, but I assumed that you were working late." I cupped my hand over his and turned my face to kiss the side of his palm. Someone walked by the hallway, and I pulled back as nerves raced through my belly. "I need to go."
"Yeah, but we're not done with this conversation."
"I know, but until we make our decision on who's doing what, I'm not interested in you being caught in a position that could make the decision for us." I moved back and pulled my bag back on my shoulder. "See you around?"
"You'll see me as soon as I can get away. Keep your phone with you." His eyes moved down the length of my body, sending me back to the long weekend we shared at Olivia's place. There wasn't a part of me he hadn't touched. He owned me and I was more than happy to flip the entire universe upside down if it meant we were going to be together sooner.
I winked and turned to walk down the hall, noticing the pretty woman with long red hair shaking her hips a little too much just in front of me. Was that Heather? The woman who was after my man?
She turned and walked into an office, leaving me curious.
I glanced toward the office as she lifted her phone toward me and smiled. "Friend of Kendal's?"
"Nope, just a student." I shrugged and walked down the hall to the exit. The look on her pretty face haunted me. She knew something and planned to use it against us. Or maybe I was just overthinking things.
And another thing... why hadn't Kendal mentioned that the bitch was a supermodel? That was an important piece of the puzzle he'd kept to himself. Why? To protect me or himself?
Chapter 18
Kendal
I had far too much work piled on my desk the night before to chase after Dana like I wanted to. Her coming to my office was a little too risky, and yet there was no way I was going to get onto her about it. The woman was willing to turn her world upside down to try and have me beside her as soon as humanly possible. It meant the world to me.
The only thing that could fuck things up for sure was Heather.
After shoving a piece of toast down my throat the next morning, I drove to the school in silence. I had to talk to Mark. He was the only one who could pull Heather off my back. I could do it myself, but it would be ugly as fuck, and I'd be cleaning up the remnants of that conversation for days.
I pressed the button to call Damon as I turned onto the freeway.
"Sup, buddy? You headed to the office?" He sounded far too chipper for six o'clock in the morning. Being with Bethany changed everything for him.
"Yeah. I'm going in to talk with Mark this morning. Heather is all up in my face trying to get me to bend her over the nearest piece of furniture. I'd never do it, but the bitch is crafty. She'll figure out a way to make it look like I did."
"And you think Mark is going to help you?"
"Why don't I like the way you just asked that question?"
"Because I was reading an article in the paper yesterday that was an interview of big daddy Turner. You know her fucking family is loaded."
"Of course I know."
"The bastard is pledging two million dollars to a new project at UT. I'm thinking Mark might know a little something-something about that."
"He does." I ran my fingers through my hair and pressed the gas, needing so badly to feel like I was in control of something. "He told me the other day that he wants Heather to be quite happy with her position in our department and it's my job to keep her there."
"Oh wow. This is seriously getting better by the minute."
"I have to go talk with him. I don't really have a choice Damon. He might be under pressure to make Heather's family pony up for whatever project they're interested in helping to build, but he's still got a fiduciary duty to the professors in the accounting department. Including me."
"That's true. We'll see if he abides by it." Damon snorted. "I would just record the cunt making demands of me and play it over the loud speakers during the first class period. That should shut her up."
I rolled my eyes. I had no clue how Bethany could deal with him. He was forever a child stuck in the body of a man.
"All right. Good talk, buddy. I'll check in later."
"Take care of yourself, Kendal. No one else is going to do it for you, man."
"Not even you?" I smiled.
"Oh yeah, I for sure will. Come work for me and I'll give you all the freedom you want, a plush corner office and more money than you'd know what to do with."
"Your offer just keeps getting more and more attractive. Too bad I hate Corporate America."
"Pick the lesser of two evils, my friend. You know what I'm saying."
"I can't give up just yet. I've worked too hard for it."
"You'll figure it out. You always do." Damon dropped the call and I let out a long sigh. He was right. I was fighting a battle for something that wasn't paying dividends. Where I loved teaching, it wasn't nearly as attractive as it had been when I was younger and still believed the world to be a relatively good place.
I pulled into my parking spot and sat there a few minutes until someone knocked on my window. Eliza.
After turning the car off, I got out and gave her a warm smile. "I'm glad to see you. We have a conversation that you owe me the other half of if I'm not mistaken."
"We do." She moved back as I grabbed my bag and joined her in our short walk to the business building.
"Tell me about the meeting with Daisy. Why did she leave?"
"Because she fell in love with her boss, and he didn't return the favor. She was nothing more than a nice warm body to snuggle up with when he grew tired of his pregnant wife." She glanced over at me with disgust on her face.
"Oh no." I shook my head as my heart fell. "That's horrible. Daisy was a great professor. So bright and friendly."
"And young and stupid." She took a deep breath as I opened the door to the business building and waited for her to walk inside. "You're being the same way."
"Young and stupid?" I moved up beside her, already knowing the answer to the question before I asked it.
"
Yes." She stopped in the middle of the hall and turned to face me. "You need to take care of this before it ruins everything you've worked so damn hard for." She poked me in the chest and glared up at me. "I cared about Daisy, and I care about you. Fix this before it's not able to be fixed. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Eliza, but it's not like Mark doesn't have his fucking fingers in the pie. He wants me with Heather. There's not a whole lot he's going to be willing to do to help me out. It does him no favors to crucify her even though the bitch deserves it."
"Then you go above his head, Kendal. He's not the final voice in this organization. You go up as far as you have to go and you figure this out."
I ran my hand down my face as my stomach tightened. "I don't want any drama. I just want to teach my class and try to live my life."
"Well, tough. Your life is suddenly locked into the middle of a huge vat of shit and you can paddle to the side and take care of making sure that no one else ends up where you have because of slutty women with hidden agendas, or you can just stand still until you eventually sink underneath the muck and wonder what the hell happened." She poked me again. "You're smarter than this. It isn't going away. Fix it."
I watched her walk away, hating the part of myself that wanted to simply turn in my resignation and walk away forever. Mark wasn't going to be an ally in the fight I had against Heather. He was playing her part on the other side of the street and Daisy was me, just under very different circumstances.
"So... who was she?" Heather walked down the hall toward me, catching me off guard by her question.
"Sorry?" I muttered before walking to the elevator.
She got in beside him and pressed the button for the top floor before turning and moving to stand right in front of me.
Reaching out and wrapping my fingers around her perfectly pale throat sounded like the best choice at the moment, but it wasn't me anymore. My days of playing asshole alpha male were over. I hated that prick and promised myself I would never subjugate another woman to who I could be. No one. Not even Heather, though the bitch was begging for it.
"Who is she?" Heather extended her phone toward me.
It took a second for me to realize what I was looking at. Dana.
"Why the fuck?" I snatched Heather's phone and pushed at her chest as she moved in to snatch it back. "Why do you have a picture of her?"
"Because she's the girl you're dating... isn't she?" She muscled her way closer to me, and I snapped.
"It's none of your goddamn business who I'm dating." I gripped her throat tightly and pressed myself to the front of her as something inside me snapped. "If you think for one second that you're going to come into this school and push me around after all the shit I've been through to be here... You got another thing coming, bitch."
"Let go. Kendal. Let go." She clawed at my hands, and after watching her squirm for a minute I released her and walked out into the hallway.
Fuck her. Fuck Mark. I was going to the top. I'd go sit in the goddamn president's office all day long until I got his attention. Or better yet... I'd pick up Daisy and her and I could take a trip down to the local news station. I wasn't being pushed around anymore. Not by anyone.
"Kendal. I wasn't going to do anything about it. I just wanted to know who she is." Heather followed me to my office and stood like a wounded bird just inside the door as I set my stuff down and glared at her.
"She's the woman I'm going to marry one day. The one who's going to give me babies and hold me at night when I'm tired. She's everything you're not. Get the fuck outta my office. This shit ends here."
"Be careful." She brushed her hair back and lifted her phone to take a few pictures of herself. The angry fingerprints around her throat were incriminating, but I didn't care. If she wanted to ruin my career and the University let that happen after hearing my side of the story, then so be it.
I didn't belong there anyway.
*
She finally left my office after slinging a few more threats and promises to bring me to my knees again. Something about me bowing before her seemed to turn her on good. Funny. She was usually the one reaching up from the floor when we were together before.
I moved through the rest of the day like molasses, hating myself and wishing there were a safe way to tame the bastard inside of me back into his cage. I hadn't come face to face with the part of me that wanted to rule the world for a long time, and I didn't care to for the rest of my days, but here he was... out of the bag, unloosed.
"You all right?" Bethany walked into the auditorium a few minutes before my first class started and put her hands on her hips.
"I've been better." I wasn't going to lash out at anyone else around me, but that meant keeping to myself as best I could. "I'm just dealing with a few things here at work that are driving me toward rage."
"What can I do to help?" Her voice was soft and kind.
Dana. I needed to see Dana. To feel her against me. To remember why we were willing to fight for each other. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to see her, but fuck if I didn't want to. If she could take me when I was angry, then she could handle anything I could throw her way.
"Nothing," I mumbled and pulled a few folders out. "Just help me get ready for the day and we'll be good."
"You know I'm here for you, right?"
"Yeah. I'm glad you are. I just need to work through some shit and figure out where I need to poke the bear and where I need to break the stick and run for my life."
"Sounds... complicated."
"The things that matter most in life usually are." I winked at her and turned back to my notes. She and Dana would come to be good friends, I had no doubt. That being if Dana and I survived the shit storm that was headed my way.
Heather was a conniving bitch with a hard-on for fucking up my life and Mark was hungry for success. Things weren't looking too good, but like Eliza advised... I was being forced in a corner. I could crouch down like a little bitch and hope for the best, or I could come out with my claws drawn and expect a bloody mess.
Time to get dirty.
Chapter 19
Dana
"Yes, Mom. I'll be there. I might be bringing a friend if that's all right?" I pressed the phone to my ear and leaned against the glass window at the end of the hall in the hospital.
"A girl friend or a boyfriend?" My mom's probing was never subtle.
"A boyfriend. I'm dating this guy on and off and I think you'll really like him."
"Oh nice! I'm so excited for you. Why didn't you mention this earlier?"
"Because I know you like to get up in my business, and I wasn't sure I was ready for that."
"And now you are?" I'd hurt her feelings.
"I think so. Is it just you tonight?" I turned as someone tapped me on the back. Jackie stood behind me, bouncing on the balls of her feet like she was about to burst at the seams with great news.
"No. Your sister and brother will be here, and your Uncle Pino."
"All right Mom. I'll be there around six tonight, okay?"
"See you then, Mija."
I pulled the phone from my ear as Jackie let out a long squeal. I smiled in spite of myself. "What?"
"He called! He totally called me."
"Who? Parks?" I crossed my arms over my chest, still not quite sure how I felt about this guy that Jackie was regularly losing her shit over.
"Yes! I was just there on Sunday and it's only Tuesday and he called!" She danced around in a small circle in front of me, chanting that he called over and over again.
"Did you expect him not to call? You just spent a shit-ton of money flying up there to spend the weekend with him. Why would he not call?" I hated to piss on her parade, but her obsession with this guy was getting creepy.
"Because he's busy, Dana." She put her hands on her hips as her smile faded. "Don't do that."
"Do what?" I moved around her and walked back down the hall.
"That." She pressed her shoulder against mine and groaned. "You
're making me feel weird about wanting him to call. It's natural when you really like someone to want him to pay you attention."
"Oh, I know." I stopped and turned to face her. "But this guy hasn't exactly been on the up and up with you."
"But he called." She put her hands together and gave me a cute frown. "That's something... right?"
"Yes. It's something." I reached out and tugged at a long strand of her hair. "Please don't let your heart get invested in this guy. He's a player."
"And so am I." She turned and skipped over to the nurses’ station, leaving all the older women to watch her with confusion on their faces.
"She's in love." I lifted my hands to the side as if surrendering to the idea.
"Oh. I see," one of them muttered and rolled her eyes playfully. "Just make sure it's not with a doctor or a surgeon. Those guys are users all the way."
"What?" Jackie turned as her smile faded again. "Not all of them are that way. That would be like saying all of us are calloused."
"We are." Another looked up and smiled. "Well, all of us but Dana."
"I'll take that as a compliment." I grabbed one of the charts that had my rounds on it.
"And you should." Tensely moved around and dropped down in her chair with a loud sigh. "Mrs. Delmaz has been improving over the last twenty-four hours. It's almost like you bringing that stupid bird up here triggered something inside of her. Dr. Lewis is talking about releasing her to assisted living by the end of the week if she keeps it up."
"Really?" Excitement buzzed through me.
"Yep. Did you take the bird back to her house?"
"No. I took him to the shelter, but I'll call right now and have them pull him to the side. I'll go pick him up."
Jackie moved up beside me. "That's a lot of effort for someone you don't know."
"It's worth it." I glanced over at her. "Healing someone isn't always about shoving a pill down their throat."
