teeth came down on her lower lip. “No.”
He waited, sensing there was something inside her fighting to come out.
“He said I was...frigid.”
Brad wasn’t sure what he’d expected her to say but that hadn’t been it. He kept his voice very even, trying to push past the growing fury in his chest. “Excuse me?”
“W-well, he didn’t say it. The woman he was with did. Said he was right about me...that I even looked frigid.” She took a gulping breath and for a second he was afraid she might burst into tears. “I wanted to talk to someone about it, but it’s just so...so...” her eyes went back to the floor “...humiliating.”
He damned the man, putting his fingers under her chin and forcing her to watch him say the words. “It’s not true, Chloe.”
“It is true. I was standing right there when she said it.” Her blue eyes flashed at him.
“I didn’t mean they didn’t say it. I meant that whatever that man said about you is a lie.” He remembered the sexy way her body had arched in an effort to capture his mouth as they’d kissed. What had made it even hotter had been that she’d seemed totally unaware of how crazy she’d driven him, doing that. How close he’d been to giving in to his baser urges.
There had been an eager innocence about her that he’d never encountered before. It had taken him by surprise at the time, but now he understood. If he had been furious at Travis before, that emotion now paled beside what he was currently feeling. Whatever had gone wrong between them in the bedroom had been Travis’s fault, and not Chloe’s. He would bet his life on it.
His fingers tightened their hold. “Listen to me. You are a sexy, beautiful, desirable woman.”
And he didn’t trust himself not to throw her down on the floor and show her exactly how desirable she was.
“Then why didn’t he want me?” Her chin trembled. “And why did I dread being with him?”
Because the man you saved yourself for was a bastard who stole everything from his beautiful wife and gave nothing in return.
“Travis cheated you in more ways than one. If I could, Chloe, I’d...”
Show you just how good it could be.
He wanted to say the words. They were on the tip of his tongue, fighting to get out. And it was true. He wanted to take her home tonight and lay her down on his bed and tease her mouth open. Taste her. Fill her. Take her to heights she’d never dreamed of.
But Jason’s words clanged in his head, stopping his thoughts in their tracks with a warning that Brad had better not hurt her.
As if sensing the war going on inside him, Chloe’s lips parted. “You’d what, Brad?”
YOU’D WHAT?
She repeated the question silently as she finished up Melanie Roberts’s discharge instructions, glad that the woman—and her unborn baby—had recovered well from the surgery to repair the neural tube defect. Sending up a quick prayer that Cade’s fingers had worked their magic, she stood up and made her way over to the patient’s room.
More problematic had been the way her heart had leapt into her throat yesterday as she’d asked Brad what he meant. She could have sworn he’d been about to say something else entirely. Instead, he’d muttered something about kicking someone’s ass, and then he’d gotten up from his seat, saying he needed to get back to work.
And that had been that. They’d both gone their separate ways and then had ridden back to the apartment on his bike. Only instead of his low, rich voice filling her head and her senses through the helmet speaker, she’d been met by silence.
She’d finally spoken directly with Jason, though, and had let him know that she was filing for divorce. She gave him the name of the attorney, and Jason had said their father would give the office a call and make sure all Chloe’s bases were covered.
Entering the hospital room with her clipboard, she smiled at Melanie. “Are you ready to get out of here?”
“Absolutely.” She laughed. “No offense to the chef.”
“Believe me, we all feel the same way about that particular chef. He does make an excellent strawberry gelatin, though. Have you tried it?”
Melanie smiled. “Only for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
“It never gets old, does it?” Chloe said, her hands going to her chest as she swayed back and forth as if in love. She smiled again and handed the clipboard to the other woman, showing her where to sign and going over some care instructions with her.
“I really have to stay in bed for that long?”
“Really. Your little one has to heal, and so do you.” She squeezed Melanie’s shoulder. “It’ll all be worth it. You’ll see.”
“I know.” Melanie scribbled her name just as a wheelchair manned by a cheerful hospital volunteer rolled through the door.
Taking the paperwork, Chloe helped her patient get into the wheelchair. “I think your husband is bringing the car round.”
“He is. Thanks again for everything.”
On impulse, Chloe bent down and gave the woman’s shoulders a quick hug. “I want to see pictures when he’s born, okay?” As she said it, she realized she might not even be here in three months’ time. A pang went through her. After only a week she was already getting attached to the hospital and its patients.
And maybe a little too attached to her boss?
As long as he didn’t notice, and she took care not to let things get too cozy, her secret should be safe. Although when they had been in that observation room, she could have sworn he’d been about to say something about men and women, and how he wanted to...
The huge expanse of mirrors over his bed came to mind just as the elevator doors opened, allowing Melanie and the volunteer to get in. As the wheelchair turned to face the front, her patient gave a happy wave. Chloe waved back, mortified to even be thinking about things like mirrors and Brad’s naked muscular back.
Her eyes strayed longingly to the patient’s abdomen just as the doors swished closed, cutting it off from view. Maybe someday she would be that pregnant lady. When she found someone who would love her as she was.
Even if she wasn’t a firecracker in the bedroom.
Brad’s words about her being desirable had given her a jolt of hope that maybe all was not lost. If she could find someone patient enough to show her the way, she’d make sure she held onto that person and never let go.
Or, if for ever was too much to ask, maybe he could at least teach her what love—real love—was.
* * *
Something smelled delicious.
Brad
