Arrhythmia (8 page)

And what exactly was I supposed to do now?

I surely could not run around the ER all night. I had as much right to sit in the kitchen as he did. Actually, I had more of a right, since it was technically the nurses’ and not the doctors’ kitchen!

Annoyed, I scampered up and down.

Why exactly was I so afraid of Desiderio? Was my anxiety about him or about this pathological reaction my body had to him?

Without even noticing, I had been approaching the kitchen door. I was pacing back and forth in front of it.

Why couldn’t he just leave me alone? What was wrong with that man?

I could hear the TV, and I imagined him relaxing on a chair, his arms above his head, showing his outrageously pretty abdomen while I was out here making a fool of myself and nearly losing my mind.

Damn it!

I wrung my hands and thought about how to proceed. Should I go in there, hit him over the head, and then drag him out of my kitchen by his hair?

“Why don’t you come in and sit with me?” Desiderio’s voice called.

I froze. Could he read my thoughts or something? Nonsense. He must have heard me pacing, which made the whole situation even more embarrassing.

What should I do now? Oh my God, why am I acting so dumb?

Because it would have been even more embarrassing to retreat at this point, I planted myself in the doorframe with a grim look on my face.

“Why don’t you just go to bed?” I snapped.

Desiderio was indeed sitting very comfortably and had even placed his legs up on a second chair. Without so much as looking at me, he concentrated on the images on the TV screen. “I’m not tired,” he calmly replied.

My fingers twitched. I continued to stand there gloomily.

After a while, Desiderio added, “Also, there’s a movie coming on that I haven’t seen in a long time. I think you’ll like it too.”

“Oh, I’ll like it, huh? What is it, a soap opera or something? No, thanks.”

“Uh, no, actually. It’s
Kill Bill
,” he said coolly. “But if you want to watch something different . . .”

His hand moved toward the remote control while I silently watched his slow movement. Just before his hand closed over it, I gave in and shouted, “Wait!”

His hand hovered over the black device.

“Volume one or two?”

“Volume one.”

Cool. I hadn’t seen that in ages. For a moment, I struggled against myself. But in the end, my predilection for Tarantino movies won out.

“Fine. But let’s just watch the movie, OK?”

Desiderio returned his hand to his lap. “Sure,” he said as I slowly entered the kitchen and took a seat on the chair farthest from him. “But I have no idea what you mean by that.”

Shit!
I immediately regretted my decision and almost fled.

He turned to face me and laughed. “Sorry! I promise to behave myself,” he said quickly.

I growled sullenly because I did not trust his promise in the slightest. Still, I remained seated as I heard the famous theme music begin to play.

Surprisingly, Desiderio kept his promise. We both silently watched the movie and, although I squirmed in my chair at first, I ended up feeling what can almost be described as calm. At least until the first commercial break.

I was still deciding whether to flee to the restroom when Desiderio turned to me.

“So why didn’t you go to medical school?” he asked. His question came as such a surprise that I could only stare for a moment.

“Because I don’t have a high school diploma,” I finally replied.

“But you did attend an academic high school.”

Again, he’d caught me by surprise. Did this mean he’d asked around about me?

“How . . .”

“As far as I know, Italian is taught only at academic high schools.”

“Oh.”

Well, at least he hadn’t been pumping other people for information. Clearly, the guy was a careful listener.

“So? Why no high school diploma?” Desiderio repeated.

I squinted and shrugged my shoulders. “Too dumb, I guess.”

“That’s BS. I don’t believe you for a second.”

He didn’t believe me? That meant he considered me intelligent. Why did that make me so happy?

Stupid Lena!

Because he was still waiting for an answer, I shrugged my shoulders again.

“None of your business, all right?” I said with determination.

Desiderio briefly examined me with his penetrating gaze. Then he nodded and turned away. “OK.”

Now I was a little taken aback. Did this mean he really accepted my brush-off or was he actually demonstrating something resembling sensitivity?

The most likely explanation was that he wasn’t really that interested in my answer. Yeah, that made a lot more sense than his noticing or respecting my tense expression or my defensive posture. Because that one little question inevitably took me back to a part of my past that I preferred to forget. Only my mother and my closest friends knew about the greatest mistake of my life, and I was certainly not about to divulge it to this dude.

When the commercial break finally ended, I was able to let myself be distracted once more by Uma Thurman’s vendetta.

Chapter 10

It was Saturday and I was roasting on my balcony in my bikini. I really was roasting, because the heat was indescribable. That explained my scanty attire, which had driven my neighbor to water his plants three times in the last hour. I didn’t bother to begrudge him the highlight of his day, preferring to be absorbed in the novel I was reading.

The story had just begun to really draw me in when my cell phone startled me. I answered in a daze. “Hello?”

“Lena? It’s me, Frank. Were you sleeping?”

“Not quite. I was engrossed in a book, is all. Are you home already?”

“No, that’s why I’m calling. Today isn’t going to work out.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” I exaggerated my sigh, but inwardly I was rejoicing. The prospect of reading complicated instructions on mounting a wall unit in this heat had already made my mood plummet earlier in the day. I would never have begged off, however, so Frank’s call was very welcome. “Why not?” I asked.

“My boss just called a meeting at the last minute because we’re expecting a special guest from Dubai next week.”

“From Dubai? And what exactly does this guest expect to find in Wollbach, of all places?”

“I’ve been wondering that myself, to be honest. In any case, my boss is in quite a tizzy and is making us all crazy. ‘Everything has to be immaculate!’ And ‘There’d better not be a single complaint!’ As if everything weren’t always in order already. Whatever. So our little furniture-assembly party is going to have to wait. But I thought I’d take you out to dinner when I get done here tonight. What do you think?”

“Three courses?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“And I get to choose the restaurant?”

“But of course.”

“Yippee!” I rejoiced like a little girl. Mr. Kaltenberger strained his neck to discern the reason for my jubilation. I waved at him, and he promptly hurried into his apartment. “When will you be here to pick me up?”

“Around seven thirty?”

“OK. See ya.”

“Ciao!”

I put the phone aside and indecisively bopped my toes up and down.

Dinner with Frank sounded good, but I easily had six hours to kill before then. Vera and Sebastian were gone, as far as I knew, and, as I didn’t have many friends, I was left to my own devices.

What does a young, single woman do when the heat index is creeping toward dangerous?

Go swimming!

I congratulated myself on making this excellent decision while I threw a few things into my backpack. Since I was already wearing my bikini, I simply slipped on my little flowered sundress. Soon, I was in my Ford, headed to the Wollbach Waldsee.

The crowded parking lot revealed that I wasn’t the only one with the grand idea of driving out to the lake to swim on this hot afternoon. It actually looked as if all of Wollbach had the same plan. The public area was full. Children were running around among randomly scattered sun worshippers. Some teenagers had created little camps for themselves. None of this dampened my good mood whatsoever.

I calmly drove past the cars in the lot and turned up a small, hard-to-spot road marked “Private.” I happened to know that the owner of the small house at the end of the road had died a long time ago and that his heirs had never taken possession of the property. I parked in front of the weathered walls that once belonged to the house and made it the rest of the way on foot. A concealed, overgrown path led through the piney shrubbery directly to a small clearing on the lake.

Once I’d made it through the underbrush, I was speechless for a moment at the idyllic beauty of the place.

The clearing was on the opposite side of the lake from the crowded, noisy public meadow. I heard muffled cries and laughter, but they were almost completely drowned out by the rustling of a huge weeping willow whose big branches extended overhead and whose tendrils reached all the way down to the water’s surface. Previous floods had covered the forest ground with soft river sand, and the path led directly to the clear water.

This place was my own secret garden.

Only Vera, Sebastian, and Frank knew about it, and I was always careful to cover my tracks to make sure it stayed that way.

I drew in the fresh forest air, spread my large towel on the ground, and pulled off my dress. I jumped into the water and laughed with abandon, knowing I was alone.

The water was wonderfully refreshing!

I splashed, dove, swam, and rejoiced in simply being alive.

Later, I lay on the bank and allowed the warm breeze to dry me. My book was so captivating that I didn’t even notice how much my arms hurt from holding it above my head.

I was paying no attention to the noises around me, but after a while I became aware of soft lapping sounds coming from the lake. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone swimming past my secret place.

That wasn’t so unusual. There were a bunch of private beaches around the lake. Of course, none was as beautiful as mine, but since I felt sure that no one could figure out how to get to my special spot, I didn’t worry about being seen.

However, this individual suddenly changed direction and began swimming toward me, which was a little unusual.

And when the swimmer started to come up the bank toward me, I was forced to sit up in indignation.

Who dared disturb me in my secret garden?

My mouth fell open when I recognized the troublemaker’s happy smile and bright blue eyes.

Desiderio was striding out of the water, looking like Poseidon himself, and I found myself transported to a commercial for men’s shower gel.

Dear lord in heaven!

Desiderio approached slowly, exposing a little more of his perfect body with every step. I couldn’t help but stare at him. His right shoulder alone was enough to make me break into a sweat.

His tan skin glistened in the sunlight. Water ran over the pronounced muscles of his upper arms and smooth chest. My eyes followed the small streams down his body to his flat abdomen. Below his navel, a narrow strip of hair took my gaze downward, like a fateful arrow, to the edge of his tight trunks.

Help!

My book slipped out of my fingers, and I was unable to catch it before it hit the ground.

Somebody give this man a towel! Or better yet, a snowsuit!
This had to count as some sort of scandal.

Desiderio’s appearance irritated me greatly. And aroused me. But mainly irritated me.

By now he had exited the water completely, and he gave me a rakish look that probably would have caused any other woman in the world to throw herself at him. My hormones were trying to talk me into doing something along those lines, but my irritation prevented me, thank God!

“What are you doing here?” I barked at him as soon as I’d found my voice. “Have you resorted to stalking now?”

Desiderio must have anticipated my reaction, because he pretended not to mind in the slightest. In fact, he continued smiling smugly at me. “Not exactly. But I saw you drive past me in the parking lot, so I decided to look for you.” He looked around enthusiastically. “I have to say, you did a great job of hiding yourself.”

“My car? How in the world do you know what kind of car I have?”

“From the DMV, of course,” he replied casually. He shook the water out of his hair. A few drops landed on my skin and made me shiver.

I stared in disbelief. “From the . . . Have you lost your mind?”

“Jesus, Lena!” he said, laughing. “How do you think I know your car? Hm? From the hospital parking lot, maybe? I do see you get into your car there, you know.”

I accepted this explanation without saying anything even though, at this point, I would have believed him capable of the DMV thing as well.

“It’s really incredibly beautiful here,” he said, and looked around again. Unfortunately, he did not confine his appreciative gaze to the surroundings. He unabashedly looked me over with a mischievous grin.

I bit my lip and resisted the urge to cover myself with a towel. I could not let on that his assessment was embarrassing for me.

“Are you finished?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

Desiderio briefly shrugged his shoulders. “For now.”

“Great. Then you can get lost.”

He took a deep, theatrical breath and plopped down on the sand next to me. “First I have to take a little rest.”

“No! This is my secret spot and only invited guests are allowed!”

“Hey, I just swam all around the lake to find you. You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”

“No one told you to do that, right?” I ran my fingers through my hair in desperation. Then I literally pleaded with him. “Can you please go now? I just want to read my book in peace.”

“You go ahead and read. I won’t disturb you.”

“But you are disturbing me by being here!”

“Why do you always have to be so mean to me?”

Taken aback, I squinted at him.

Was I really mean? No, I was actually always trying to be polite, which was not easy given his persistence. If Desiderio was going to continue to chase me like this, maybe I’d really have to get mean!

“Since you refuse to accept a simple no, I have to resort to more explicit language,” I finally explained.

He grimaced with exaggerated boredom. “Well, that won’t do you any good, I’m afraid. Because I’m as clingy as a little puppy.” He stretched his arms and lay on his back with a satisfied sigh.

“More like as bothersome as a bluebottle fly,” I groused.

“Do you want to read now or what?” he said, observing me through half-closed lids.

Jerk!

Furious, I ground my teeth. Unfortunately, there was only one way to avoid his company. Since I was physically weaker and thus unable to dump him back in the water by force, it was up to me to leave. And since I had absolutely no intention of doing that, I had to come to terms with Desiderio’s presence. Defeated, I picked up my book and glumly stared at it. It took a while for me to realize the letters made no sense.

Blushing deeply, I hastily turned the novel right side up. The little chuckle next to me told me that Desiderio had noticed my mistake. When no asinine comment ensued, I cautiously peered over at him.

He was relaxed, lying on his back and obviously enjoying the tranquility of the clearing. I could not help myself and had to let my gaze wander over him again.

My God, what a body!

I normally would not have described myself as superficial, but surely any woman in the world would have salivated at such a sight. Well, there were those who played for the other team, shall we say, but even they would surely describe this man as beautiful.

Yes, he was truly beautiful. And charming. And exciting. And . . . I wondered if his skin really felt as velvety as it looked.

Take it easy now, Lena!

That was easier said than done. Desiderio was lying so close I could smell him. The scent of water, sunscreen, and a faint touch of musk completely clouded my senses. I was suddenly overtaken by a powerful urge to simply reach out and stroke the sinewy, strong forearm that almost touched my knee. I sighed inwardly.

If he weren’t so, so . . . what, exactly? What was he?

Desiderio actually always treated me in a friendly and charming way. I also had to admit that I was finding his sustained efforts to gain my attention increasingly flattering. I had not had an admirer try this hard since . . . Well, actually, no one had ever tried so hard to win me over. Up to this point, my rejections had always been accepted from the beginning—as they should be, after all.

What sort of mixed-up thoughts were these?

The man is a heartbreaker if ever there was one . . .

And for this reason, I must not be hoodwinked by his charm. He himself had admitted that my rejections were only goading him on. He was not going to accept the first rejection of his life without a fight, so he was really going to town trying to bring me around. It was nothing more than a game for him. A personal test of his seductive talents. Well. I could play the game as well. And he would emerge the loser, of that I was certain.

I tore my gaze away and turned onto my stomach, carefully moving away from him a bit as I tried to concentrate on my novel.

For a while, I was successful.

Desiderio lay next to me, dozing. Once in a while, he would move to chase away a pesky fly or to scratch his nose. Each of these small movements was enough to startle me and make me look over at him, something that irritated me for several minutes each time.

What was I afraid of? That he would suddenly lunge at me?

Would it really be so bad if he did?

Lena!

This was ridiculous. I could not allow this guy to continue to throw me off balance like this. The whole thing had to stop at once!

Despite my resolution, my heart skipped several beats when Desiderio suddenly asked me, “Have you read the first book in the series?”

I looked at him as though he had spoken an unfamiliar language. Amused, he pointed to the book in my hands.

“Yes, of course!” I blurted. “Otherwise, it would make no sense for me to read the second book now, would it?”

He did not respond to my stupid answer. “I liked book three best of all. Book two gets a little wordy toward the middle, in my opinion, but you should form your own opinion.”

Surprised, I put my book aside. “You read?”

“Yes! Just imagine, I can read.” He grinned.

“Ha, ha. Who would have thought . . . No, seriously. I meant that you read books. The fact that a man
can
read in no way means that he actually
does
,” I explained.

Men who were interested in literature were completely alien to me. At least, those in my age group were. Literature for the men I’d met always seemed to begin with the sports section and end with a fishing article in
Playboy
.

“I know,” he groaned histrionically. “I feel shame every day for the male sex.”

He sat up, resting his elbows on his angled knees, and cradled his chin in his hands. Dreamily, he looked out at the lake. “I’ve always read a lot. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by stories, in both films and novels. I definitely prefer novels to movies, though, because I think it’s impossible to capture thoughts and feelings in a picture. There are always unanswered questions. Like when you study a painting and ask yourself what the woman who’s looking at a rose is thinking. That doesn’t happen in a good book. Of course, there are things that are impossible to describe, but there are countless words in the world you can use to at least make an attempt.”