Falling for Him 4 (Rachel and Peter in Love) (6 page)

BOOK: Falling for Him 4 (Rachel and Peter in Love)
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She
clung to him like a drowning woman and experienced for the first time in her life the complete oneness that only happened when two people were meant to be together. His kisses completely absorbed her and her emotions were set on fire by his tender hands moving across her body. She murmured words of pleasure, pleading him to go on with his caresses.

As their desire started to climb towards the next peak,
David suddenly retracted from her, taking several steps away to catch his breath.

Lara
felt bereft. Her body was in physical pain, it longed for his hands touching her and his body pressing against hers again so badly.

"Lara. We can't."

Lara took a step back, trying to make some sense from what he was saying. Many emotions rushed in at her suddenly.
Hurt. Unfulfillment. Emptiness.
Lara bit her bottom lip, struggling for at least an ounce of self-control. She watched him with incredulous eyes. How could he leave her like that, when what she’d just experienced was the most beautiful thing ever? Didn’t he feel the same? Didn’t he want her?

"You're my patient. We are not allowed
to interact like this. I will lose my license."

Lara heard his words, her heart breaking as he finished speaking.
She said with a sad voice, "I know. We shouldn't."

With these words
, she turned on the spot and left. She made it as far as the corner of the pool house before she just couldn’t resist. Turning back, she looked at him one last time.

Chapter 9

Lara had spent a restless night, tossing and turning as she replayed the scene between herself and David over in her head. Kissing him was like no other experience in her life. An experience that she would love to revisit, but David was her doctor.

She’d been able to tell that his professional ethics weighed heavily upon him and he wouldn’t put them aside easily.

After breakfast, she spent a few minutes in her room, trying to get up the nerve to approach his office. Usually she looked forward to their one-on-one appointments, but this morning she was nervous.

She approached the sunny sitting room where she and David normally met, but instead of opening the door, she paused. Normally, she would knock and then enter the room without a second thought, but today, she hesitated.
Should she bring up what had happened the night before? Should she pretend nothing had happened? Should she wait for him to bring it up?

Her mind was in a quandary. Thinking back to how easily she
’d responded to David’s kisses and touch, she blushed. He was a gorgeous man, and up till this point she saw him simply as a challenge. One more acquisition to her list of “followers”.
You’re falling for him!
She shook her head, trying to dislodge that thought from her thinking.
No, I’m not! He’s a man like all the others, a good-looking one, but that’s about it.

She continued the argument with herself in her head.
After the disaster with Peter, she definitely was not looking for a new relationship. She shouldn’t be! She’d already proven that she couldn’t handle either the pressure, or the disappointment.

But you really like David!
The voice in her head just wouldn’t stop. Yes, David had become very important to her. Because of him, she was getting help and learning how to cope with all of her issues. She hadn’t even thought about the future; a future where she recovered enough to leave the center. A future where she wouldn’t see David each day. He was instrumental to her recovery and she didn’t want to do anything which might cause her to lose his support.

When Lara saw
someone coming down the hall, she stepped away from the door, and leaned against the wall, giving herself time to get her head in the right space for this therapy session. David had helped her to see so many things in her life; things that had caused her to believe certain things about herself and others. Issues that weren’t necessarily based in reality, only her perception of it. Once identified, the hard work had begun and David had been immensely helpful in providing her the tools she needed to deal with those issues. He’d given her insights on how to change, and helped her be able to identify problem areas in the future before they became catastrophes.

She
liked David on a professional level – he was an excellent doctor.
Who are you trying to kid here?
Her inner voice was calling her on the lie. She’d grown to like him for much more than his professional abilities. Much more than she should, given their relationship and her recent past.

 

 

And then yesterday
came to mind and she shuddered as she once again recalled his smell, his touch, and his delicious kiss.  God, he’d made her feel things that were just too wonderful to ignore.
He’s off-limits, remember?

Lara shook her head in frustration. She didn’t know what was up with her inner
voice, she knew that David was off-limits. That fact had been made very clear to her, by him, last night.

Taking
a deep breath, she faced the door and knocked once before turning the handle. She was already several minutes late, and expected to see David sitting in his usual seat patiently waiting for her. She entered the room, turning to shut the door, with an apology on her lips and stopped in her tracks. David’s not there. There's another man sitting in the chair David normally occupied.

"Where
is David?” Lara asked, confusion and concern mixing in her voice.

The man
had looked up at her entry, and watched her closely for a minute before answering, "He needed to take a few days off due to a personal emergency. I am acting as his substitute.” The man stood to his feet and held out his hand, “I don’t believe we have met, my name is Oscar Fernandez."

La
ra was shocked. David left? Why? She needs him! He can’t leave, not yet!

While al
l these thoughts ran through her mind, she did her best to keep her posture and composure together. She looked at the hand held out to her in greeting and forced herself to place her own in it briefly. She murmured, "I’m Lara Bishop."

It was like she was watching a movie of herself. Her thoughts were consumed with David’s absence, yet her body was still going through the motion required by civility and good manners.

Oscar gave her a brief smile, "I know. David left all his notes, but I'd like you to tell me what you want to work on today.” He gestured for her to take a seat and waited until she had settled before he continued, “I'm sure we’ll be able to continue where you and David stopped.”

Lara
shuddered; a small smile appeared on her lips when she remembered where they had stopped yesterday.
Continue where she and David had left off? Yes, please. But only with David!
Oscar would never be able to continue from there. Thank God, he didn't know what she was thinking. She blushed, hoping he wouldn’t notice, or if he did, he’d be polite enough not to comment on it.

Lara didn’t
want this doctor. She wanted David. She trusted him, and had been opening up to him in ways she’d never done with anyone ever. But how could she explain this to Oscar without also giving away the fact that she’d fallen for the good doctor?

Shaking her head
, Lara finally answered him, "I’m sorry, Oscar. I was expecting David and now, frankly, I'm a bit confused. Would you give me a moment to get my thoughts together?"

Oscar
smiled at her kindly, "Of course, I understand. It's not easy to change doctors in the middle of the therapy."

Lara
nodded at him before dropping her eyes to her lap.
Especially not if you’ve been making out with him. Or flirting shamelessly with him. Or fantasizing about him at night. No, changing doctors definitely wasn’t going to be easy.

Somehow
, she managed to get through the therapy session, but it was not the same. This doctor was just that - a doctor. David had become so much more. He had earned her trust; getting her to admit things, she'd always been in denial about. Things like the lack of love she received from her mother and the dysfunctional relationship with her father.

A recent breakthrough had spotlighted the pride she’d taken over the years, that her father would do
whatever she wished; the concept that he might say “No” to her not even in the realm of possibilities. David had made her see that for what it was and deal with it.

David
had helped her to see many of her flaws, but along the way, he’d also helped her see the good things about her. He had helped her deal with the ugly, and find the beautiful that had been buried deep inside. Those things might need a little polishing up, but he’d also given her the tools and the confidence to take on that task.
God, she needed David back in her life!

Chapter 10

 

David tried to ignore the clock on the wall of the small hotel he found himself in. He tried to ignore the fact that right about now, Lara was preparing for her morning therapy session – with
his substitute Oscar!

After returning to his room the night before, he’d showered and gotten ready for bed, but been unable to settle. No matter what he did, he couldn’t get away from the memories of Lara beneath his hands and her
marvelous taste.

Several hours later, he
’d hurriedly packed a bag and called the center’s director at home. Claiming a personal emergency, he had asked for a few days off, promising to return call if he needed more than three days to get things handled.

The director had been very sympathetic and true to form,
she hadn’t even asked for an explanation. David still felt guilty over the small lie, but he needed some space to figure out how to handle the situation with Lara.

Leaving in the dead of night had been a cowardly thing to do, but he hadn’t wanted to risk encountering her the next morning. Not before he came to terms with his feelings.

Over the last several weeks, he’d grown so attached to her. She had proven him wrong, and his initial impression of her had been completely off based. She was very different than he had assumed; she actually wanted to change.

Yes, she was still trying to flirt with him, but he had grown accustomed to that and found it didn’t bother him as much as he pretended.
He saw so many good traits in her. And she was finally beginning to see them for herself.

Thinking back to how she had saved his life the night before just put the final nail in his coffin. He couldn’t deny his true feelings for her any longer. He
was head over heels in love with her! Which was not professional at all.
Why didn’t they cover this possibility in med school?

How on earth
was he supposed to be near her on a daily basis and without kissing and touching her? Now that he knew the joys to be found in that endeavor, he wanted to do it again. And again. And again. The kiss they had shared still shook his body and sent waves of stimulus up and down his spine when he thought about it.

His common sense usually disrupted the memory by reminding him he
would ruin his career by continuing to go down this path. A career he’d worked so very hard for.

Unlike most of the patients he worked with, David
did not come from great affluence. He came from a middle class family and fought for his education. He had worked two jobs to put himself through med school, and studied at nights.  After some excruciating and exhausting years he finally graduated at the top of his class.

Now he was one of the most renowned young ps
ychiatrists in the country and after several interviews and working his way up, he had landed this well-paid and prestigious job at Sunset Malibu. He was the lead psychiatrist at one of the premier rehab facilities in North America! The youngest one ever to hold such a prominent position.

Since he had graduated from
university, all he had wanted was to help people deal with their inner demons and become better prepared for life. This is why I went to work in rehab center. In his dreams, sick people would come here and change their lives for the better. They’d go back into the world, as a changed person, someone able to cope with the harsh realities of life.

Unfortunately, he’d become very disillusioned with
his job. He worked in the most prestigious psychiatric clinic in the country, supposedly helping patients to overcome depression and addictions, but he work still filled empty. His career hadn’t played out as he wanted.

David truly wanted to help people.
These celebrities didn't want to change. They wanted a quick fix and in a year or two, they'd be back again. He only had worked there three years, but some of his colleagues had been with the clinic for more than twenty years. According to them, some of the patients were regulars who came back every year.

It was as if they scheduled a rehab treatment into their calendars, between movies or concert tours,
just to go back and fall into the same old behaviors within a few weeks of leaving the center.

This was not what he wanted.
That kind of yo-yo approach to therapy wasn’t true recovery. It was simply a short-term fix and not something he was proud to be a part of. Sure he worked with some world-renowned people, but he didn’t care one bit if his patient was a celebrity or not.

BOOK: Falling for Him 4 (Rachel and Peter in Love)
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