Chapter 9
NINE
Kay hadn’t intended to attend a wedding when she’d packed for her trip to Chicago. Before they even walked through the door into the Boleo restaurant, Kay hesitated. “Maybe it’s best if I just go up to my room. I doubt I’m dressed for a wedding.”
Before she could extricate her hand from the crook of his arm, Gibson put his hand over hers and leaned closer. “You look amazing, Kay, but if you don’t want to stay at the party with me, maybe you’ll let me take you for a late dinner.”
She paused, thinking over his words. “You really want me to stay?”
“I wouldn’t have asked you to come if I didn’t. I know it’s not what people think of as a lot of fun, but before I left to get some air, there was a band showing up. And knowing my friend and his fiancée… his wife,” his smile broadened, “they booked a really good one.”
Her hesitation didn’t last long.
“Okay.” She mustered up a smile. “As long as you think I won’t look completely out of place.”
“You look great,” his hand that covered hers gave her a little squeeze, “right here beside me.”
She walked on with him, passing amongst the wedding guests with nods or waves from Gibson. As he steered her toward a table near the back of the room, he pulled out a chair for her and waited for her to sit before he sat down beside her.
A waiter showed up a moment later and took their drink orders.
As soon as the waiter stepped away, Gibson set a hand on the back of her chair and leaned in to whisper to her.
“I’m going to be useless trying to introduce you to anyone.
I’ve known the groom since we were children, but I don’t really know many people outside of him and his parents.
Even with the couple, I’m more friends with the groom, so if someone comes to the table-”
“Well, hello handsome!”
The overly friendly greeting came with rows of perfectly white teeth and the complexion that a marble statue would envy. The woman was practically spilling out of the bodice of her dress and her hair looked like it had been styled and curled for hours before she was set free upon the world.
Gibson’s breath tickled the side of her neck. “Like right now.”
The woman moved to Gibson’s side and set her hand on his shoulder. “Shame, shame.” She simpered and leaned in so that the crests of her breasts were positioned perfectly to pillow his head if he leaned to the left. “When you disappeared, I thought you’d forgotten that I asked you for a dance.”
To Kay’s delight, he leaned in closer to her.
“Save me.”
There was a mock urgency in his voice, but the look in his eyes when he moved back showed her that he meant it.
Kay lifted her hand and set it smack dab in the middle of his chest, right over his heart, and saw the other woman’s elegantly sculpted eyebrows raise in surprise.
“Sorry, he might not have even heard you. He was counting the minutes until I finished getting ready after my conference.”
She saw the woman’s eyes narrow at her words and knew she had another card she could play.
Kay gave Gibson a wink and saw a glint in his eyes. It looked like he was only too happy to see where she was taking this.
Looking back up at the other woman, Kay shrugged as if it really didn’t matter. “It just so happened that I’m attending a medical conference at the hotel this weekend.”
Half-rising from her chair, Kay left her hand on Gibson’s chest and noted that there wasn’t an ounce of give against her hand. The man was rock hard with muscle. And yes, her mind had wondered about how rock hard he was in other places.
Kay leaned across Gibson so far that the other woman had to back up.
“I’m a doctor. Doctor Kay Hata. Nice to meet you.”
The other woman had to take her hand off of Gibson’s shoulder to shake and Kay smiled even more at the little victory she’d achieved.
She definitely didn’t like seeing the other woman’s hand on Gibson and she might have put a little more strength into the shake than she needed to, but Kay was suddenly very interested in proving a point.
“Va- Vanessa Christian. It’s ah… ah, nice to meet you too.”
“Isn’t it?” Kay grinned back at her and then waved the waiter over before giving Vanessa a pseudo-sympathetic tilt of her head.
“Sorry. I hope you don’t mind, but,” she turned her head to look at Gibson and slid her hand up his chest to the side of his neck with a sigh, “we were hoping to have some private time. With our jobs, it’s rare that I get to spend any real time with my Braun. ”
Crestfallen.
Kay had heard the word before, but this was the first time that she’d seen it on someone’s face in real life.
Whatever Vanessa had planned for Gibson before he’d gone to the bar was now a distant memory for the other woman.
“Well, you two have a nice night, okay?”
“Thanks, Vanessa.”
Gibson lifted his hand and gave her a slight wave before she walked off.
All of Kay’s bravado whooshed from her body like someone had taken a pin to her balloon, and as Kay was gathering her wits about her to sit back down in her chair, she felt a warmth cover the hand she’d laid on his neck.
Turning to look back at Gibson, she saw that he’d lifted a hand and was covering her own.
His smile made his eyes shine. “That was something.”
She laughed, but it wasn’t a full gut laugh, it was more of a laugh of nervous relief. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“I don’t either,” his voice had softened, and the pad of his thumb brushed against hers, “but I’m glad you found it somewhere. You’re a life saver.”
She eased into the banter with him, amused and confused at the same time. “We both are, but this is the first time I’ve gotten to use my skills to save a firefighter from another woman.”
“So, who do you save firefighters from, Kay?”
The question was said in a soft tone, but it hit her hard in a way she hadn’t expected. She had treated and operated on a number of firefighters in her time as a doctor. She just didn’t want to think of Gibson needing her kind of help in an Emergency Room.
“Maybe you should just tell me why you wanted to be saved from Vanessa. She seemed like a perfectly nice woman.” As she said the words, her eyes followed Vanessa across the room.
She didn’t need to go that far with the other woman. She didn’t have to stake her claim on Gibson. She could have just made some vague reference to… to something.
Then why had she gone that far? Especially after she'd nearly made a complete mess of whatever it was that they had.
She didn’t really need to ask herself the question. She knew why.
It was him.
Gibson Braun.
As much as she knew it would be difficult to maintain a relationship with anyone given her time commitments at work, she wanted a relationship, with him.
Even before they'd talked at the Emergency Room, she’d heard his name in Center City. Working in the first responder community of Center City meant that she’d heard about the police, the 911 operators, and the firefighters. They were all revered. Honored.
They worked so damn hard to keep the people of the city safe. And no, they weren’t all heroes, but those that were? Well, their names kept coming up.
And Gibson Braun was a big damn hero.
She’d seen photos of him in the paper and video of him on the news.
She’d seen the bolded letters of brAUN in reflectors across the back of his turnout coat.
All of his exploits. All of his heroic acts.
Her heart had always pounded against her ribs when she’d heard about the lieutenant who was stationed just a few blocks away at Station House Twenty-Nine.
But up close and personal, wearing a suit that had to have been professionally fitted and tailored, he wasn’t just a soot-covered hero that the nurses tittered and whispered about, he was flesh and blood, and he was built.
Even a woman who’d spent most of her life in classes and shit jobs to earn the MD after her name could appreciate the hedonistic hunger that welled up when she’d gotten close enough to smell his cologne and seen the hard planes of his face warmed by the bar’s golden light fixtures.
To be honest, she'd felt the same way when she'd seen him in the hardware store paint aisle. It didn't matter what he wore or what he was doing at the time.
It was Gibson Braun that she wanted.
So, even if she would never admit it out loud, Kay could admit to herself that she’d squashed Vanessa’s hopes of a chance on the dance floor with him because she, herself, had wanted his attention a little while longer. How selfish was that?
How selfish was she?
“Kay?”
She turned her head back toward Gibson and saw the curious look on his features.
The last thing she wanted him to see was how selfish she’d been with her actions.
Lowering her gaze away from his, she started to sit back down in her chair.
Gibson felt her pulling away and he wanted to pull her back.
He didn’t want to let her go.
Not at that moment.
Not even at the end of the night.
He adjusted his position on his chair so he could keep a hold of her hand until she was seated on her own chair and even then, he managed to prolong his hold on her for a few seconds more.
Gibson was sure that she had no idea what she’d done to him just moments before.
Leaning against him.
Putting her hand on the center of his chest.
How had she not felt his heart pounding against his chest?
He was still trying to catch his breath.
And then he’d all but lost his ability to breathe when she’d snaked her hand up his chest and against the pulse at the side of his neck.
He could have lost his sanity at that moment if it hadn’t been for the pain that flared when his dick went rock hard in his pants.
Sure, he’d had the thing tailored for him thanks to Taylor’s generosity, but tailored meant it was fitted to him, and no one had counted on him getting hard as a rock wearing the damn thing.
Smiling, he tried to find a sitting position where he wasn’t cutting off the circulation to that particular appendage, and he wasn’t begging anyone to see it either.
“Are you okay?”