Chapter Sixteen
The following week, Emilia’s birthday week, she was booked almost solid at the hospital. But we managed to set something up. I could only pull off massive surprises like whisking her off to Paris or Italy once a year. So I settled for a smaller-scale surprise instead.
The night before her birthday, I showed up at the hospital before her shift ended. The restaurant I’d reserved was only a short drive away, in the Orange Hills, so it made sense to bring the date and prep to her instead of having her come all the way home to Newport and then turn around and drive back. Especially on a Friday night when traffic clogged the freeways.
Thus, I showed up with a duffle bag of her toiletry items—makeup, shampoo, hair dryer, hair styling stuff—and a garment bag with a brand-new dress that I’d been dying to see her wear. All packed, prepped and delivered to me at work by my housekeeper.
I got there before she finished with her duties—hoping, of course, that she’d be done on time, this time.
I found Emilia’s friend, Louisa, at the nurse’s station just where she’d said she’d be when I’d texted her for help.
“Mia’s finishing up with her charts,” she told me. “Let me pop into the residents’ lounge and check on her, then you can surprise her and drop off the stuff. How fun! We had a birthday cake for her earlier.”
After checking, Louisa waved me back toward the lounge a few minutes later. When I entered, Mia was sitting at what looked like a communal desk in front of her work laptop. She was wearing her neon-colored pediatric hospital scrubs. The lounge, bordered by the locker room on the other side, and with a sink, fridge and micro on the far counter, was decorated with birthday streamers, some balloons and the remains of a large birthday cake.
“Hey,” she said wearily, surprise on her features. “I thought Louisa was kidding around when she said you were here. What’s up?”
I blinked, surprised at her wary tone. “Is that any way to greet the person taking you on a surprise date?” I held out the garment and toiletry bags by way of explanation.
Her eyebrows rose in her forehead. “Oh...really?”
She didn’t sound excited, which irritated me. Maybe she was more tired than I’d thought?
“Is everything okay?”
She blinked and smiled, then stood and arched her back in a big stretch. “Yeah, sorry. I was going to stay late and get caught up on some chart work.”
I made a face. “It’s your birthday. Give yourself a break. You can catch up from home this weekend.”
“Well, of course I’m not going to stay late now.” She finally smiled and waved in the air, dismissing my protest. “What is all this?”
“We have reservations in...” I checked my wristwatch. “An hour and a half at Orange Bluff Bistro.”
She raised her brows. “Ooh, fancy. And here I thought we were just getting together with the family tomorrow.”
I grinned. “I get you all to myself tonight. I’m selfish like that.”
Emilia threw a glance at the other side of the lounge where a cluster of doctors conspicuously watched us from their tables. The one paying the closest attention to us looked familiar. It took me a minute, but he was the dude I’d caught staring at us during the holiday party.
I turned back to her. “Is, ah, everything okay? I hope I didn’t get you into some kind of trouble.”
She shook her head vigorously. “No, no. I’m going to wrap things up now and then I’ll shower and get dressed. Do you mind waiting out in the lobby?” And then it was her turn to throw a glance over at that same cluster of doctors. She visibly blushed.
Something weird was definitely going on here. But instead of pushing the issue—which would have embarrassed her and made me look like a colossal asshole, I pointed to my laptop case slung over my shoulder. “Take your time. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.”
She smiled, pecked a quick kiss on my cheek, then sat at her laptop once more. I pivoted, staring straight at the guy who was still watching us from across the room. He met my gaze for a split second before looking away, back at the tablet in front of him.
To quote various Star Wars characters in various Star Wars movies: I had a bad feeling about this.
I left the lounge and stewed for the next hour while I waited for Emilia to get ready.
When she greeted me in the lobby in that form-hugging red dress, I just about forgot my own name—or that I not only knew this beauty gracing my presence but also shared my life with her.
She looked amazing. The dress hugged her every curve, gave a hint of cleavage—just enough to be sexy but not enough to make her feel uncomfortable or self-conscious, as I knew she often got with low cut stuff. Without good reason, I might add, but I respected her limits. She drew eyes from all sides of the general waiting room.
Given her brilliant smile, the gleaming dark hair that fell around her shoulders, and the way she stood, I could tell she agreed.
I shook my head. “You look...”
“I know, right?” She laughed and made a little twirl. “I’ve been wearing scrubs or sweats for so long I think I forgot what it was like to be glamorous in any way.”
“Well, I’d say you clean up pretty damn well.”
I escorted her out to the valet, who retrieved my car in short order. We left the parking lot, heading east for the hills of Orange.
“So what gave you the idea to bring me stuff and start the birthday celebrations early?”
I shrugged. “Just trying to keep things outside the box.” I hesitated for a moment. “I didn’t embarrass you by showing up at your work, did I?”
She shook her head immediately—almost too quickly. “No, no. It’s all good. Just a surprise.”
I braked at yet another red light, suppressing a curse. We’d be getting there just on the heels of the reservation, and we’d be okay, but it was frustrating nonetheless.
“So, what’s the deal with that guy? The blond one with the disheveled hair?”
“Disheveled?” she snorted. “That’s a fancy word for you.”
“What, am I some kind of unwashed, uneducated slob or something?”
She gave me side-eye then grinned. “Well, you did drop out of college. I hold two whole degrees more than you.”
“True...it’s what I get for dating above my class. I promise I won’t use the word disheveled anymore if you tell me what the hell is up with that guy. He was the same dude staring at us at the holiday party.”
She blinked. “You have a good memory.”
“You already knew that.” Why did I get the impression that she was evading? “So, about this guy...”
She heaved a sigh. “He’s the senior resident. He does the schedule. Don’t mind him. He’s just a little weird.”
I paused, signaling to turn onto the narrow road that would take us up the steep hill drive leading up to the restaurant.
“I could swear that he’s into you.”
She let out a laugh—it sounded a little overly loud, I thought. “Don’t project, Adam. Just because you’re into me doesn’t mean the rest of the female-attracted portion of the species is.”
I shrugged. “Okay, maybe I am projecting. But he’s not being weird with you, is he? I mean, you have complained more than once about scheduling, and since he’s in charge of that...”
“Oh, it’s just that Louisa and I don’t get to be on the same service ever. We did a lot of rotations together in medical school, and it was cool when we matched with the same placement for residency. We had visions of being able to work together like we had in med school. It isn’t happening as much now.”
“And she’s about to pop out a baby and go on maternity leave any day now.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, that too. When she gets back, she’ll have to finish up her intern year of residency. Not sure how much we’ll be able to work together then.”
“So that’s it? This guy isn’t being a dick or wielding his power inappropriately or...?”
She shrugged again but said nothing, which made me think that she wasn’t being completely forthcoming with me. But short of tying her up and plying her with some kind of torture device—or multiple forced orgasms—to get the whole truth out of her, she didn’t appear to be telling. And since that wasn’t really my scene, it was unlikely that I’d resort to any torture beyond, perhaps, excessive tickling.
So...how to get to the bottom of it? Or should I even attempt it?
Emilia was a big girl and could fight her own battles. Or so I had to forcibly remind myself on a regular basis whenever that overwhelming protective instinct tried to shove its way to the fore and take over. That had caused us so many serious problems before and I’d learned...I’d learned to bury it. Mostly.
We ended up having a nice dinner. The restaurant was situated high in the Orange Hills overlooking the greater Anaheim and Orange areas. The lights and distant landmarks—Angel Stadium and the massive Honda Center arena—dominated a view that stretched out to the distant, dark sliver of ocean.
Emilia wasn’t drinking any wine, and I had a couple glasses, so she drove us home and I sat back and stared at her beautiful profile. I’d already dispatched a driver to get her car and drive it home from the hospital.
When we were almost home, I finally spoke. “So tonight, I want to propose something,” I started.
She glanced at me, then returned her eyes to the road. “Hmm?”
“I propose that we stop with the thermometers and the ovulation timing and all of that.That we just have sex whenever we want to and not make this whole thing into something tedious.”
Her brows raised. “Did you actually just say you thought our sex was tedious?”
“Uh...” I trailed off, at a loss. Uh oh. Had I just fallen into an unseen pit trap?
She let me flounder like that for a few more seconds before she started laughing. “I got you there, didn’t I? You thought you were in big trouble.”
“Well, I mean, you are amazing and sexy and I do want to eat you up on a regular basis but...”
“Not on demand?”
“Yeah, sorry. I’m not a cable TV channel. I don’t care for the on-demand option.”
She snickered, then signaled to exit the freeway. “Well, I think it might be healthy for both of us to just take a few months off from the baby making altogether. Just kinda...go with the flow, I guess?”
I silently did the math in my head, wondering if her quick agreement had something more to do with scheduling than with actually setting the tedious shit aside. Maybe shedidn’t want to possibly have a baby smack dab in the middle of Thanksgiving or Christmas.Which...who could blame her?
She nodded again decisively as she pulled into our parking spot and killed the engine. She turned to me with a smile. “I like this plan.”
I stared at her, my eyes traveling down to her curvy neckline before gliding back up to settle on those lips. “Okay, but not trying doesn’t mean going back to using condoms, does it?”
She grinned. “Yeah, I don’t think there’s really a need to go back to that.”
“And...”
She blew out a breath, already knowing where I was going. “Yes, it means you’ll get a blowjob once in a while. Such a whiner.” She opened the door and got out. I followed suit. On our way back across the bridge to Bay Island, I took her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together.
“I’m not whining. I’m just...” I gestured with my hand. She rolled her eyes and stopped at the gate to pull off her high heels while I keyed in the code.
She clutched them in one hand by the heel, a flash of shiny black with red soles. “These things look amazing but they’re uncomfortable, and I’m always stressed out that I’m going to walk through wet grass and ruin them.”
“Barefoot it is.” Or...hmm. After letting myself through the gate, I turned back to her, bent, and swept her up in my arms to carry her across the island to our house.
“Adam! Don’t give yourself a hernia.”
My brows knit and I made a face at her. “You don’t weigh that much. Plus, I didn’t get in any strength training today. This will be good for me.” She smacked my arm, laughing.
“Wow, you are feeling the romance tonight, aren’t you?” she said with a flirtatious smile when I set her down gently on our porch.
I took her hips in my hands and smiled at her. She tilted her head fetchingly, gazing up at me. “It’s been a while since I’ve carried you anywhere. Better that way then slinging you over my shoulder like a caveman.”
She reached out and fiddled with my tie. “Oh, you can hide it all you want, Adam Drake, but you still have a whole lotta caveman in you.”
“Me bring pretty woman back to cave, no need to drag by hair. Me ravish. Umph,” I grunted, then opened the door and motioned for her to precede me.
Earlier, I hadn’t had the chance to see her put on the dress, but I definitely enjoyed looking at her in it. Especially when she climbed the stairs to our room ahead of me and I got a full few of that perfect ass. And even better than that—the best, really—was unzipping it slowly and peeling that beautiful dress away from her bare skin.
I tasted her neck, ran my lips along the shell of her ear and whispered. “It’s your birthday tomorrow, but I’m doing the unwrapping tonight.”
She laughed, tilting her head to give me more of her to taste.
And wow...I’d almost forgotten just how awesome non-baby-making sex was.