9781631052347OnCallKenyan (13 page)

Chapter
Eleven

“I remember when I found Michael
with Lisette. I almost killed him
.” AJ replayed the conversation he had with Reno in his
mind. He didn’t know why that particular part echoed in his mind. It might have
been because Lyle had just stepped in his line of sight. It was like the roach
could tell AJ was watching him. He looked up, shot him a sly grin and a wink
for good measure. AJ felt his feet move before his mind could comprehend his
next move. His fists were itching to connect with Lyle’s grin. Maybe he would
kill him, see if he would flash him that same grin when he was on ice in the
morgue.

But his
anger, rage and hate was misplaced. It was Katherine who had allowed Lyle to
have sex with her. However, it was AJ who hadn’t made the parameters of their
relationship clear to her. He had been so busy having sex with her, trying to
be the best in his field and avoiding the other women in the hospital that he
hadn’t been paying enough attention to what really mattered. That he was in
love with her, that he wanted to be her one and only. But now he wasn’t.
Katherine had always been haunted by his past women, and now he had Lyle to
haunt him for the rest of his life. So AJ was mad at Katherine and at Lyle—but
he was livid with himself.

“Dr.
Ross.”

AJ
turned toward the voice with a growl. But his rage quickly flew when he saw the
chief of staff standing before him. “I hope you are not planning on beating up
Dr. Lyle again. Anyway there is a medical program that just came across my
desk. It’s a ‘Doctors Without Borders’ kind of thing. I think you’ll be well
suited for it. I also think the timing couldn’t be more appropriate.”

AJ
noticed the chief looking past him, and when he turned, Lyle was playing with
Katherine’s ponytail. Immediately the memory of her lying on his bed, asleep,
but sobs still racking her body filled his mind. He wouldn’t forget how the
moon light bounced off her golden hair, and shone on her tear-streaked face. He
had curled up next to her, holding her until he heard her sigh and fall into
deeper sleep. Her body had latched onto his. Even in sleep she had somehow
known he would be there for her. It had pained him to put her back in her own
bed. That was why he couldn’t wrap his mind around her betrayal.

“Sign
me up.” He ground the words out through clenched teeth. He needed time away.
This hospital was haunted with the memories of his past and a future he didn’t
think he would be able to have anymore. But the two things he couldn’t bear to
look at was Lyle’s grin of triumph and the guilty tears that shone in
Katherine’s eyes. He needed time away, alone, to just keep busy. Flying off to
a different continent to do the profession he loved sounded like a great idea.

“But
you haven’t looked at the program yet. You don’t know where you are going or
for how long.”

“Do you
want me to pretend I care where and when you’ll send me? I can’t do that. It
could be for eternity in a hell hole.” He tossed a glance over his shoulder.
“As long as I’m away from here, I don’t give a damn.” What he failed to say was
that his heart was breaking every second he shared the same air as Katherine.
His rage rocked through him like an infuriated cobra, when he saw Lyle and knew
he couldn’t beat the crap out of him. He needed to leave. AJ marched off in
fury.

* * *
*

AJ
knew. Katherine could feel it in her gut. Sure, he had made her breakfast,
given her a ride to work and hadn’t once brought up Lyle. It was the unusual
silence blanketing them that told her he knew. The glances he directed her way
tore through her. They were filled with hurt and questions. Questions she
didn’t think she could answer herself.

“We
need to talk,” Katherine told Lyle as she waved off his hands from her hair
once again.

“Sure,
my pet,” he drawled.

“Don’t
call me that. We can talk after work.”

“We’ll
go out for drinks.”

“No.”
But then, Katherine didn’t think hashing it out in the hospital was a good
idea. Maybe talking somewhere else, somewhere AJ couldn’t see them was better.
Later on that evening she was determined to confess to AJ. “Fine.”

Katherine
turned around just in time to see AJ’s retreating back. His spine was stiff,
his shoulders rigid as he stormed through a herd of nurses who had gathered
around him. She could tell he was angry—he didn’t stop to flash a smile at his
fan base.

Katherine
twiddled her thumbs on her lap. Every few seconds she looked up at Lyle,
feeling his gaze burrowing a hole in the side of her scalp. Looking up was
instinctive. She hated how he smiled at her, like she was a prize possession he
had won in a bet. The smirk curling at the corners of his lips unnerved her.

So
whenever his hand reached for hers, she found a way to busy them. She either
shoved them in her hair or rummaged through her purse for a non-existent
object. She was regretting her latest decision. It seemed as if, when she had
woken up that week, life had presented one bad decision after the other for her
to make.

Katherine
looked up at Lyle again. She met his smile with a weary one of her own. Nothing
about him inspired passion. The set of his nose and jaw were all wrong. His
shoulders didn’t seem to be the right breadth, his arms not thick enough, his
pearly white skin not dark enough and his hair too blonde and too straight. Not
to mention those baby blues were the wrong shade. She wasn’t staring at a
roaring sunset when she looked into them, they were just, blue.

“Where
are we going?” She finally broke through the blanket of silence that had
enveloped them.

“There
is a nice bistro down the road. I used to go there when I was in Varsity. They
have the best burgers and fries in New York.”

She met
his enthusiastic smile with a frown. Great—like she wanted to pack on a few
pounds. She needed her body to be perfect for AJ, if he took her back. She
groaned as she leaned her head back on the head rest. The daunting fear that AJ
wouldn’t ever touch her again squeezed at her heart. Before her indiscretion
with Lyle, her biggest fear had been that AJ wouldn’t ever grow to love her.
Now her biggest fear was she wouldn’t be able to make it into his bed ever. She
swallowed the ball of nerves which had gathered in her throat. She didn’t know
her distressed sound had been so loud until Lyle turned a questioning glance at
her.

“Is
everything all right?”

No you idiot. My sex life will
never be the same again. Now I’m stuck with the likes of you. Always trying,
but never getting there.
That was what she wanted to say, but instead she said, “I’m just hungry.”

“Don’t
worry. I’ll feed you soon, my pet.”

And
left to his devices she didn’t put it past Lyle to feed her to the point of
explosion. She flashed him a grin, then looked away and rolled her eyes.

Katherine
first heard the noise, then saw the lights before Lyle drove into the parking
lot of what looked like a busy bar. A monster truck caught her eye as they
drove in. She could swear she had seen it before, but she couldn’t place a face
to the black beast. She let Lyle help her out of his SUV. She even let him hold
her hand as they made it through the throngs of people gathered around the bar
and the pool table. She began to hesitate when Lyle led them toward the back.
It was dark and the only people around were those clawing at each other’s
clothes. This must have been the make out spot. She started to stop, but a
shove from behind, drove her into Lyle’s waiting arms. She let herself get
dragged into the booth, and sandwiched between the wall and Lyle’s leering
body.

Katherine
watched as Lyle looked around the secluded areas. A sly grin on his lips, he
turned to her and said. “Look at all these horny kids. Maybe we should show
them how grownups do it.”

Katherine
saw Lyle’s face lower toward her. And of its own volition, her hand stuck out
and pushed Lyle’s puckered lips away. And just as Katherine was turning her
head away, her eyes caught sight of a brown leather jacket she remembered
snuggling into—wide shoulders that looked so stiff, but so gentle to the
touch—and a storm brewing in those sunset brown eyes she loved so much. AJ
stood in the middle of the busy bar, his murderous gaze settled on her.

“Oh
look—it’s Ross. Maybe we should give him a show.” Lyle sneered.

Katherine
used both her hands to push him back. She tried to climb over the table but
Lyle had his hold on her. Besides, AJ was already gone. But someone else was
there, the owner of the monster truck. “Reno, help, please.”

He
didn’t need to be asked twice. Reno crossed the room in three giant steps. He
stood behind Lyle and picked him up from the booth. It was a case of David
versus Goliath, but this time Goliath was winning. No matter how much Lyle
pushed and punched, Reno didn’t seem fazed by his attempts. He tossed Lyle to a
corner of the room and held his hand out for Katherine.

Once
they were out of the bar and inside the comforting warmth of his truck,
Katherine turned toward him. “Thank—” the words stuck in her throat. The anger
that boiled in Reno’s glare silenced her. She sat in silence as Reno pulled out
of the parking lot and onto the main road. She hadn’t told him where to take
her, but since he and AJ were so close, she suspected he knew to take her to
his place.

“I feel
like I should apologize,” she started and when he made no effort to join in the
conversation she went on. “I don’t know what happened with Lyle. One minute he
was telling me about Rose and AJ, and the next—” And the next what?

She
couldn’t finish that statement. She knew she was a chore for Reno already. She
expected him to stop his car and toss her out. But then a thought came to her.
“Why hasn’t AJ kicked me out yet?”

“Why
should he?” The anger in his deep baritone filled the air.

“I know
he knows what we did. He must want an explanation. But I don’t understand what
happened either. It’s my fault anyway. I’m the one who suggested we be
roommates with benefits. Of course he would want to screw Rose the first chance
he got. Why is he mad at me anyway? It’s not as if we were exclusive.”

“Why
are you mad at yourself?” Reno asked.

“That
is such an absurd question,” she shot back. But then it did make sense. AJ
hadn’t shown any sign of anger toward her. He had just pulled back. He no
longer made advances toward her, he didn’t talk to her, and he didn’t even give
her that earth-shattering smile she lived for anymore. “He’s never going to
kiss me again, never going to touch me. We are never going to make love again,
are we?”

Reno
didn’t answer her. He kept his eyes fixed on the road.

“I’m
angry because I know I hurt him. I can feel it in my heart because I’m hurting
too. I loved that he was the only man who knew every inch of me, knew the look
in my eye or how I sound when I climax.”

“I
don’t need to know all that,” he cut in.

“You don’t
get it. He knows all my little quirks. I have only been living with him for
three weeks and I feel like he knows me better than I know myself.”

“That’s
a good thing.”

“But I
ruined it. I was going to be the wife who has only slept with her husband because
he was the one I was saving myself for.” Reno snorted a laugh. “He told you how
we met didn’t he?”

“Yep.”

Katherine
leaned in closer to Reno. This was her chance to get a little bit of
information about AJ—something that she could use to bring him back to her.
“What else did he say about me?”

Reno
shot her a look of animosity and Katherine shrunk back into her corner. “Trust
is a big issue with AJ. I’m not going to tell you what he confided in me.”

“I
understand.” She whimpered as she chewed on her bottom lip.

“That
doesn’t mean I can’t give you some insight.” He smiled at her. The anger
completely disappeared from his eyes.
How
did Lisette stay with him without getting whiplash from his constant change of
moods?

“I’ll
appreciate any information you can give me.”

“Be
honest with him.”

Like an
eager student Katherine leaned forward to hear the rest. But after a couple of
silence-filled seconds she realized she wasn’t getting any more. “That’s it?”

“AJ is
a lot like you. Strong on the outside, but fragile on the inside. He never got
into a serious relationship because he’s looking for a girl who is just like
his mothers.”

She
threw her hands up in defeat. “Then we don’t have a chance. I don’t know
anything about his birth mother. But no one can be as perfect as Rosalinda. The
woman is a saint.”

Reno’s
amused chuckle frustrated her even further. “You don’t need to be Rosalinda.
You just need to be honest with him. Treat his heart with the same care he’ll
treat yours.”

“But I
don’t know how he feels about me.”