Читать книгу In His Corner - Vina Arno - Страница 7

Tommy Raines was back inside the ER five days after he’d met Siena Carr. Although he knew she wouldn’t be there that day, his heart sank when a male doctor showed up to remove his stitches.

While the man fiddled with Tommy’s eyebrow, he closed his eyes and conjured up Siena’s image—face as delicate as a bone china cup, big brown eyes that sometimes looked innocent and sometimes sultry, and shoulder-length, golden brown hair. The two beauty marks, one on each cheek, made her twice as beautiful. She was around five-foot-three and probably weighed 110 pounds. He could bench-press two of her. It would be nice to “power lift” her onto his bed.

He smiled at the thought. She exuded the kind of sexuality that took him by surprise. Hell, ambush was more like it. In his vocabulary, the word “sexy” didn’t apply to a woman wearing shapeless scrubs and no makeup, no cleavage showing, no display of skin whatsoever. And yet she radiated sex.

The letter S embroidered on her blouse was now emblazoned in his mind. S for Siena. S for soft and sumptuous. S for all-night, all-weekend sex with her was the fantasy presently consuming him. He’d been imagining it from the moment he’d met her.

His lust was in overdrive. Not having any sexual relations in almost a year might have something to do with it. The abstinence was self-imposed. There was no shortage of women throwing themselves at his feet, but he’d learned the hard way he couldn’t train properly while he was dating.

He’d lived with his last girlfriend, Rachel, a hairstylist at a posh salon. She’d offered him a refuge from the stress of watching his mother die of cancer and from the pressures of training. She’d given him a haven, at least for a while.

Two months before the Olympics, she’d started dropping hints that she wanted a commitment from Tommy, as in an engagement ring on her finger. When he failed to produce, her hints had grown into demands, which had turned into crying fits that lasted for hours at a time.

He’d been so terribly distracted by the drama that his coach had threatened to pull him out of the competition. So when Rachel gave him an ultimatum, he’d moved out of her apartment and out of her life altogether.

It was the right thing to do. He had dominated the men’s middleweight competition and won America’s only gold medal in boxing.

On the day he began training full time to turn pro, he also started his abstinence from sex. The goal: to stay celibate until the Las Vegas fight. No deviations, romantic or otherwise, until then.

But now he’d been ambushed by a woman in scrubs. All he could think of was kissing those lips that looked so damn luscious whenever she said, “Excuse me?” She was so feminine and dainty that he could barely stop himself from scooping her up. No woman should look that beautiful in front of a man who was avoiding sex.

There were three long months of arduous training ahead of him before his big fight. What should he do? Could he wait to bed Siena that long?

By the time his stitches were removed and he opened his eyes, he knew the answer. No, he wouldn’t wait three agonizing months. He just couldn’t. He must see her now. It was Sunday afternoon, and the weekend was almost over. His fantasy of spending two days in bed with her would have to wait. Not for long, he hoped.

He scoured the busy corridors of the Emergency Department for either the nurse or the clerk who had worked that Tuesday night with Dr. Carr. He only knew their first names. Luckily, that was enough to locate them both. The receptionist said they were part of the night crew.

Jonah and Nancy started work at six in the evening, so Tommy had to go back to the hospital for the second time that day. Nancy was not at the front desk, but he bumped into Jonah in the hallway.

The nurse gave him a high five. “You’re looking good, Jug!”

“Thanks. I feel better now that my stitches have been removed.”

Jonah launched into a long spiel about how many times he’d watched Tommy’s fights on YouTube, how he couldn’t wait to watch the Las Vegas bout.

Tommy touched him on the shoulder. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Anything.”

“Is Dr. Carr single?”

Jonah guffawed.

Tommy’s face burned from embarrassment. “What’s so funny?”

“You know, I was just talking to Nancy about you and Dr. Carr. Come on, let’s go find Nancy. She would love to hear all about this.”

Jonah walked fast, Tommy trotting behind him. They found Nancy chatting with a patient in the waiting area. As soon as she was free, the nurse said, “Hey, Nancy. The Juggernaut wants to know if Dr. Carr is single.”

“Yes, indeed,” Nancy told Tommy. To Jonah, she said, “What did I tell you? Didn’t I say they’d make a cute couple?”

“You sure did.”

The Juggernaut had never been this open about his romantic pursuits before, but he was at the mercy of Jonah and Nancy. Siena’s Facebook page didn’t show her relationship status or give any hint of a boyfriend. It only displayed pictures taken at various work-related events: the Free Family Health Screening Day in Oakland, charity fundraisers, and visits to a Bay-area hospice.

“So, you said she’s single?” asked Tommy.

Nancy nodded. “Dr. Carr and Dr. Feldman broke up about a month ago. What a pity. They looked so good together.”

“We called them the Ivy Couple,” said Jonah. “Dr. Feldman’s a Harvard graduate and Dr. Carr’s from Princeton. They met at UC San Francisco.”

Tommy’s heart deflated. He was a college dropout. What if Siena dated only doctors and Harvard graduates?

“You better act fast.” Nancy poked him in the arm with her elbow. “You have some competition.”

He scratched his head. “I’m in a bind here. I don’t plan on being injured again, so I don’t have a way of seeing Dr. Carr. I could contact her through Facebook, but I prefer to call her. Do you have her phone number?”

Nancy and Jonah exchanged glances before she said, “It’s against our policy to divulge personal information about our staff members, or our patients. You should appreciate this policy. Dr. Carr refused to talk to Zach O’Riley about you.”

“What?”

Zach O’Riley was a blogger and a sportswriter whose column was syndicated nationwide. Everything he wrote spread fast. He was Tommy’s biggest fan, a hair’s breadth away from stalker. He followed Tommy’s personal life with great interest, forever digging up information about his off-the-ring activities. Tommy avoided the guy at all costs.

This kind of attention was part of the price he had to pay ever since the press had proclaimed him the savior who ended the twelve-year drought for American boxers. Overnight, he’d been propelled to the limelight, to the pedestal occupied by other Olympic gold medalists like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Oscar de la Hoya.

His moniker became a household name. The offers for product endorsements started pouring in: Gatorade, Kellogg’s, and Nike, among others. Management companies and promoters from Los Angeles to London began courting him as well. Newspapers, magazines, TV, and cable stations couldn’t get enough of him. This latest intrusion was no surprise, but it was aggravating just the same.

“O’Riley kept calling Dr. Carr to find out the nature of your injury,” said Nancy. “Finally, he showed up here.”

“But Dr. Carr didn’t cave in,” finished Jonah.

Tommy shook his head. “I owe her an apology for that.”

“You owe her a dozen red roses and a nice dinner.” Nancy was like a meddling aunt, nosy but sweet.

Tommy didn’t mind the unsolicited advice. “She likes roses?”

The clerk nodded. “Dr. Feldman used to give her a dozen red roses quite often.”

Dr. Feldman again. A stinging reminder that Siena was an Ivy League graduate who was out of Tommy’s league. It was best to forget her. He had a whole lot of training to do and a high-stakes fight to win. He should just stick to the plan.

He was about to head for the door, when Nancy said, “We can’t give you Dr. Carr’s phone number, but this is a hospital. Nobody can stop you from coming here to bring flowers.”

Jonah shot Nancy a conspiratorial look. “Tomorrow, anytime between seven in the morning and four in the afternoon would be a fine time to stop by.”

“She works from seven to four?” asked Tommy.

“Tomorrow, at least. Her schedule can change just like that.” Jonah snapped his fingers to drive the point home.

“Dinner after work tomorrow would be nice too,” added Nancy. “Around seven would be great. That would give her a few hours to go home and dress up. A girl needs time to get out of those dreary scrubs.”

Tommy chuckled. “Wow, thank you. You two have saved me a lot of thinking and handwringing. I owe you guys. I won’t forget this.”

Jonah gave him another high five. Tommy had a thousand questions about Siena, but an ambulance arrived with a man complaining of chest pains. All of a sudden, the ED was very busy.

He didn’t get any additional information, but that was all right. He would ask her directly. He would win her affection and make knockout love to her. The hell with Dr. Feldman or whoever the competition was. He wasn’t known as the Juggernaut for nothing.

Siena Carr had ambushed him without mercy, but now he was ready for her.