Page 148 of A Very Naughty Christmas

“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.

Chapter Eight

Derek was full of conflicting emotions; he was thrilled his mother’s heart attack had been relatively minor and she would be fine, but he was disturbed that Kendra hadn’t called him.

Her lack of response in his moment of need hurt him more deeply than he’d thought possible. How could he have been so wrong about her? He’d been so sure she was the woman of his dreams… the woman he’d spend the rest of his life pampering and disciplining as necessary and loving her to distraction.

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