Chapter Seven
Derek couldn’t believe Kendra had called Serena a petty bitch. She was indeed a petty bitch but he could hardly countenance the words coming from his sweet baby girl’s lips. It made him smile to think of it.
His baby had been madder than a wet hen, but still, that wasn’t behavior he was going to allow to become a habit. Though he knew she’d been provoked.
If Serena didn’t stop attacking Kendra, she would have to go. Though Derek knew it wouldn’t make Mary happy, as the girl was her goddaughter, he wouldn’t have Kendra upset. Kendra was too used to fighting her own battles. Soon she would learn he would take care of these kinds of problems for her.
Derek had every intention of slaying all her dragons from this point forward. Even sloe-eyed dragons named Serena, he thought with a wry grin.
When his cell rang, Derek was totally unprepared for his father’s voice and the news he had to impart. His mother had suffered a heart attack, and they were unsure if there was damage.
He charged out of his office straight to Mary. “Mary, I have to go. My mother’s had a heart attack; I’ve got to get to Breckenridge. Please let everyone know where I’ve gone.”
“Of course, Dr. Malcom, don’t worry about anything. Go take care of your family,” Mary said softly.
Derek thanked her and hurried to his truck; if he got right on the road, he could make it to Breckenridge in a little over two hours. He was almost out of Colorado Springs when he realized he needed to call Kendra and didn’t have her number.
He’d intended to program his phone number into Kendra’s phone, getting her number in the process but hadn’t been in a hurry because he hadn’t anticipated being apart from her. He immediately dialed the office; Mary could give him Kendra’s number.
* * *
When the phone rang ten minutes later, Serena was filling Mary in on the events earlier with Kendra. Mary could hardly believe the girl had been so impertinent, trying to come between Serena and Dr. Malcom like that way. So she was shocked to find Derek on the phone. “Mary, can you give me Kendra’s cell number? I totally forgot to get it before she left and I need to call her about our date tonight.”
Mary frowned; the doctor couldn’t date both girls at the same time and as far as she was concerned Serena was a much better match for the handsome doctor. “I’m sorry, Dr. Malcom. I can’t give you an employee’s cell phone number without her permission. This isn’t work related and it could open the practice up to sexual harassment charges.”
She heard the frustration in the doctor’s tone but he obviously had to accept she wasn’t going to break the rules for him. “All right, Mary. I understand. Could you please call Kendra and let her know what has happened and why I can’t make our date tonight.”
“Of course, Doctor,” Mary assured him before hanging up the phone. She turned to Serena. “Dr. Malcom had a date with Kendra tonight.”
“She’d pressured him into it because of the night they spent here together. You should have heard the way he lit into her for calling me a bitch. Chewed her out in front of me and told her he was sending her home, then dragged the little tart into his office to yell at her more in private. When she left it was obvious she’d been crying. So I doubt seriously that Derek has any real interest in her,” Serena told Mary.
Mary decided not to call Kendra. It wouldn’t do to give the girl false hopes anyway, better to let sleeping dogs lie… easier for everyone in the long run that way.
* * *
Kendra waited, pantyless, for Derek all day long. When eight o’clock came and went, she decided she’d misunderstood and she was supposed to meet him at his house. She got in the car and drove over to his house, only to find it dark and empty.
Where could he be?
She couldn’t call him; she didn’t have his cell number. The only number she had was the on-call phone the doctors shared between them and Derek wasn’t the doctor on call. She worried all night long.
What they’d shared… it had been real… she’d opened her heart completely and surrendered it to him lock, stock, and barrel. He’d truly seen her, she knew he had and she’d seen the real Derek too.
Hadn’t she?
* * *
Kendra hurried to work the next day with her heart in her throat, scared something terrible had happened to Derek.
He wasn’t there but when she asked Mary, the woman looked at her like she had three heads. “Dr. Malcom is at a business meeting in Denver, dear. It’s been planned for weeks.”
“Weeks? I don’t understand, he didn’t tell me anything about it,” she said softly.
“Why would he tell you his private business?” Mary asked incredulously.
“Well, I…” Kendra stopped herself short. What was she supposed to say? “Well, we’ve been having lots and lots of sex so I thought we had something special”? At the very least Derek owed her an explanation. “Could I possibly have Dr. Malcom’s phone number? I really need to talk to him.”
“That would be terribly inappropriate, dear,” Mary said gently. “You know, dear, I fear you might have built the night you spent up here with the doctor into something more than it was. If something happened that made you think… well… I’m sure you know boys will be boys but Dr. Malcom has been dating Serena for months. They’ve gotten quite serious.”
Kendra felt as if she’d been punched in the solar plexus. Derek and Serena? Why had he said he loved her? All the insecurities she’d been fighting most of her life came back into play. She had just been an easy lay.
When she thought of all the ways she’d let him take her… the way she’d allowed him to totally dominate her… spank her.
Kendra felt sick inside.
She hurried to the computer and typed a letter of resignation before she could start crying, then put it in an envelope and took it to Mary. “Could you give this to one of the doctors for me, Mary? Just forward my last check to my apartment.”
“Perhaps leaving is for the best, dear. I wouldn’t want you to feel awkward when Malcom and Serena marry,” the woman said, patting her hand in commiseration.
The tears she’d been holding at bay spilled down her cheeks at Mary’s words. “Tell him… tell him…”
“What would you like me to tell him, dear?” Mary asked.
Kendra choked back a sob. “On second thought, not a damn thing,” she said before running out the door.
She got home and curled up on her couch with her old tattered teddy bear, staring at the phone and willing it to ring. Derek would call and explain it was a terrible misunderstanding, he loved her and would never treat her so callously.
The phone never rang… the silence in her empty apartment seemed magnified by the quietness of her phone. Kendra had never felt so alone and broken. Somehow submitting herself so completely had opened her to Derek in a way she’d never thought possible, trusting him to take care of her… surrendering everything had left her completely shredded inside.
She’d given him everything she had and it wasn’t enough… she was all alone again. Kendra buried her face in the well-loved fur of her bear and wept bitter tears.