Page 7 of At Last

In a sudden bout of self-preservation, I grip her upper arms to push her off my lap. “Gotta piss,” I tell her.

Caitlin continues to smile, though less coyly, more assessing, then presses a second kiss, this time squarely on my lips. It’s longer, though just as gentle. Then she stands. “You need a smoke, too. Although as a doctor, I should advise you to quit.”

How the fuck does she get me?

But as she stands from my lap, I know without a doubt that she does. She pats my chest, and turning her attention back to the little girl mumbles, “Outdoor smoker’s lounges… only in Kentucky.” Then she blows a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her eye out of her face.

Cute. Sexy. Sweet. Smart. Caring.Dammit!What I need to do is walk away right now. Bypass theKentuckysmoker’s lounge outside and head for my truck. Head for the compound. There’s gotta be a piece still around this morning. Maybe a hot mama that’s down to fuck. What I don’t need is to stay anywhere near Dr. Brennan.

I nod, then get the fuck out of there. Only I don’t make the break for the parking lot. I press the down button on the elevator that’ll take me to the smoker’s lounge. A courtyard out behind the hospital.

There are two older guys, a chick, and a kid who doesn’t look older than sixteen already in the courtyard sucking down smoke when I enter. They all look beaten down, but the kid won’t look anywhere but his shoes. I watch him closely. When he finishes his first smoke, he pulls a soft pack of Reds from his jeans’ pocket and tips the package for another but it’s empty. The kid growls loudly, crushing the pack in his hand and whipping it to the ground.

When I catch his eyes, they’re glistening, and I get it. That’s real heartache right there. I’d recognize the signs anywhere. He’s about a second and a half away from losing it. So I do the only thing I can and reach inside the pocket of my cut to pull a hard pack of Reds. Without words, because with that level of pain, he don’t need some stranger’s words, I hand him off a couple of cigarettes, then light one of my own.

Quietly, we all sit on benches or lean against the exterior brick wall while the courtyard fills with a gray haze around our heads. When I’m finished, I snuff out the nub against the ugly beige, plastic ashtray and toss it inside with the other butts, and turn to go back inside. Again, like a fool, I walk to the elevator and push the button for the fifth floor. The stainless steel doors slide open, and I climb aboard.

Caitlin’s sitting on the side edge of the bed, running her knuckles down the side of the little girl’s cheek when I knock on the doorframe to announce my arrival. The girl is awake, though appears groggy. And for the first time, I’m able to get a good look at her. She’s the spitting image of her mother. Showing the kind ’a beauty I know when she’s older, poor Caitlin’s gonna have her work cut out for her keeping those horny boys at bay. The woman’s gonna need a man around to pick up the slack. Someone who can put the fear ’a God into any pubescent fucktard who thinks of putting his dick anywhere close to that little angel.

Shit. I should leave. I’m the kind of man who can put the fear ’a God into a pubescent fucktard. The last thing I need is to be considering becoming that man.Get the fuck outta here, Duke. But I don’t take my own advice, no matter how good that advice is. And that’s because Caitlin smiles at me. Her bright eyes saying she’s glad I’ve come back. That twinge of glorious pain, the kind of pain a man usually wants to feel hits my heart. I recognize that kind of pain, too. Though I ain’t felt it since that first day on the beach with Dawna.

Prettiest thing I ever saw, at least up ’til now. She was a few years younger than me and she’d missed so much school, her mama decided to homeschool.

She’d been in remission the first time we met. Thick, burnished chestnut hair swayed as she sashayed, swaying those hips which for sure caught my attention next. And the kicker, she didn’t even realize she was doing it, getting me harder the longer I watched.

Dawna was sixteen to my Twenty. Some of my buddies knew who she was and told me not to bother with the homeschooled freak.

I, however, thought more with my dick and my dick told me any girl who looked that good in a bikini, it had to get to know intimately.

When I plunked my cocky, dumb-ass body down on the bank next to her and her sister, it was done because I was done for. That gorgeous, petite woman became my world.

“Hey, Duke.” Caitlin actually leaves her little girl’s side to come to me, meet me halfway inside the room. I blink back the thoughts of Dawna. Can’t be thinking about her when I got Caitlin here with me, especially not when she wraps those thin, shapely arms up around my neck, resting her cheek against my collarbone.

My arms, I bring around her waist to hold her back. She feels good here. I hate that she feels so good here.

“Who’s dat, Mama?” The little girl’s scratchy voice pulls my attention away from the gorgeous woman who I should be smart enough to walk away from, but clearly, I ain’t. A full night of her sleeping on my lap, no sex involved, tells me I ain’t smart enough for that.

Doc drops her hold from around my neck and shifts around to face her daughter. She glides one of her hands down to lock with mine and drags me over to the bed. “This is my friend, Duke.”

“He the one who wides motocycwols?” the girl asks. She has her hand raised to her mouth like she’s whispering her question so I don’t hear, though she says it full volume. And what the fuck does it mean? Did Caitlin tell the little angel about me specifically, maybe because I brought her here? Or had she talked about the club in general?

“Yes,” Caitlin tells her. “He’s the one who rides motorcycles. But he brought his truck to take us home in.”

That her way of telling me she wants me to stay until the girl gets released? Why do I like the thought of that so well?

Both Caitlin and her daughter look to me as if waiting for me to introduce myself. I say the first thing that comes to my head. “Hey, Peaches.”

Caitlin chuckles, probably because her daughter scrunches up her nose at the endearment. “My name is Jade,” she says. “Nowtpeaches.”

“Yeah, but you got peaches and cream skin like your mama. So it’s either that or creamy.” I tease.

Jade giggles her high-pitched little girl giggle. “I wike peaches.”

And the way she giggles, fuck, I’d hardly know she’d been injured last night. Let alone how bad it could have been.

Then Caitlin, one hand still locked with mine, grabs a hold of one of Jade’s, and looks between us. “The nurse came in for a vitals check and said the on-duty doctor should be around with the discharge papers in about a half hour, which means we’ll be here for another couple of hours, at least.”

“Giving away doctor’s secrets?” I ask with an eyebrow raised. Fuck, am Iflirting? What the hell is wrong with me? I don’t flirt. Ever.

---