When You Were Mine [Second Chances 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (14 page)

“Oh,” Jamie said, no longer teasing about water conservation. “Don’t tempt me. You know I’ll spank that beautiful ass of yours.”

All sass, she said, “And I’ll keep on pretending like that’s some sort of punishment.”

His erection standing at attention, Jamie followed her into the shower with a shake of his head. This woman would be the death of him.

When Cora walked through her office door on Monday morning, it was hard to keep the bounce out of her step. She’d ended up spending most of the weekend with Jamie. Part of it had been in bed, but the part that was out of it was just as satisfying.

They’d stopped off at her place for a change of clothes and then spent the day in the park Saturday. They had gone for a hike and then spent the rest of the day lazing on a blanket in the sun. In spite of the fact that they knew each other so well, the conversation still flowed so easily between them. There was always something to talk about.

Cora was startled when she saw Celia already at her desk.

“Are you early or am I late?” Cora asked, checking her watch.

“I had to get caught up on some filing, so I came in a bit early. And, aren’t you chipper this morning, Cora?”

“I had a relaxing weekend.”

Celia laughed and said, “I just bet you did. Care to talk about it?”

Cora rolled her eyes at Celia’s obvious prying and asked, “Any messages?”

Disappointment over the abrupt subject change clearly written on her face, Celia said, “No. Just a couple random hangups with heavy breathing.”

“Oh really?” Cora asked, her eyebrow raised in speculation.

“Must be all those “sex me” vibes I’ve been throwing off since my divorce.”

Both women giggled. Celia had been wearing a man-hating invisibility cloak for the last year. Between fighting for custody over their two-year-old and having to deal with her soon to be ex-husband’s twenty-year-old fiancée, she had no interest in men.

Reaching down, she gave Celia’s shoulder a squeeze and said, “If you need to talk, honey. You know where I am. Not as a doctor. As a friend.”

“I know, babe,” Celia said, patting the hand on her shoulder. “I’m handling it, I think. He brought Kiki with him when he came to pick up Sasha this weekend. When she started speaking in baby talk to him, I wanted to choke her out. That’s a healthy emotion, right?”

“Baby talk,” Cora asked, cringing. “To a grown man? That’s just gross.”

“You’re telling me.”

Cora smirked and added, “If you need some help burying the body, call me.”

“Girl,” she said, a look of disgust on her face. “Don’t even tempt me.”

When the phone rang, Cora took the opportunity to shuffle into her office. After she had dumped her bag and briefcase into the file cabinet, she sat down to go through e-mail. She saw the forty-seven messages waiting for her and knew it was going to be a long day.

Between the correspondence, the backlog of paperwork she had been putting off, and her patient load, she didn’t start to break free until a little bit after two. When she heard the knock on her door, she said, “Celia, you don’t have to knock. You know that.”

She was surprised to see Jamie pop his head in ask, “Got a second, Doc?”

Pleasure bloomed across Cora’s face as she said, “For you? Several. Come in.”

She took him in. He looked particularly amazing in his dark slacks and crisp blue dress shirt. Her eyes zeroed in on the brown bag he held. She sniffed the air and asked, “What’s that in the bag?”

“Lunch. Pot stickers and lo mein. I picked up lunch on the way back from my consult. You interested?”

“I’m starving,” she said as she slid out from behind the desk. She approached him, stretched up on tiptoe, and pressed a kiss against his mouth. “Thanks. By the time I got ready and left, I didn’t have time to stop for breakfast. Now I’m buried in paperwork.”

He stroked a hand lightly over her hair and said, “Yeah. I just barely made it to my appointment on time this morning. So hungry.”

“You can leave some stuff at my place if you want,” Cora said as they settled in together on the couch. “If that makes it easier.”

“Thanks. I will,” he said. “It’s easier than carrying a bag back and forth. I’ll clear out a little space for you, too.”

“Kay,” she said as her focus zeroed in on the bag again.

As he unrolled the top of the paper bag he laughed and said, “Someone’s got a one-track mind, it seems.”

Cora conceded the point by saying, “Maybe I’m a little focused,” as she reached for her lo mein.

When he reached into the bag and pulled out a diet cola for her, she smiled and said, “You’re really the best ever.”

Cracking open his own food, he asked, “Ever?”

She nodded, a mouthful of food and mumbled, “Ever.”

Jamie watched her for a moment, a grin pulling at his lips, then moved for his chopsticks. As he was cracking them apart, she heard a disembodied ring from his pocket and sighed.

He looked at his food, and said, “Really? Come on!”

A moment later, he fished his phone out of his pocket and answered. Cora parked her chop-sticks in her lo mein and gave it a mournful look. As much as she didn’t want to stop eating, she thought it would be rude to continue without him.

He gave her an apologetic glance and then gestured to her food as if she should go on without him. Not requiring any further instruction, she continued to eat her meal and listen to his half of the conversation.

From what she was gathering, he was talking to an old contact and they were discussing video games. When he uttered the words “level 38 paladin,” she bit down on her lip to stop the giggling. Jamie had been really into online games. He got so serious when he played that it bordered on hilarious. She’d even gotten him a headset for Christmas so he could talk hands-free instead of typing.

Jamie, she realized, was a little bit of a nerd. The combination of his outgoing personality and the fact he was absolutely ripped, made it a little difficult to reconcile the image in her mind. It took all types, she supposed.

Cora helped herself to a few of the pot stickers and continued to unabashedly eavesdrop on the conversation until he disconnected ten minutes later.

In a daze, he sat down and said, “Holy shit.”

“Good news?”

“Great news,” he said. “That was Tim, my old contact at Shinobi Games. They’re launching another MMORPG later this year and they want me to work on the campaign for them.”

Cora’s eyes widened. “Holy shit,” she echoed. “That’s amazing!”

“They’re sending me a copy of the beta so I can get a feel for the game. It’s apparently some sort of space cowboy adventure type thing. But a multinational launch, television, online, the whole nine.”

“Wow,” Cora said. “That’s great for your business!”

“I’ve gotta go through a bidding process and all of that, but I’ve already got a couple of good ideas. Apparently, they liked the fact that I liked their games so much and that’s why they thought of me. I’m just thrilled to even have the opportunity. I was completely addicted to their last game,” he said.

Cora’s facial expression turned solemn as she asked him, “So, how does that make you feel, Jamie?”

Grinning, he rolled his eyes and said, “C’mon. You know what I mean.”

“I do,” she agreed. “That’s so exciting for you.”

He nodded enthusiastically and said, “I should be able to download the file later today. Tim’s emailing me some of the specifics about when they’re looking to launch. I’m really looking forward to playing.”

“Does this mean I’m being abandoned tonight?” Cora asked, her pout mostly for show.

With a wince, Jamie said, “Not abandoned.”

Cora waved him off and said, “I’m just teasing. I’m buried in paperwork anyway. I’ve been putting it off for way too long.”

“Bring it with you,” he said. “We can have dinner then work on what we have to work on. It’s not the most romantic night...”

When he trailed off, Cora agreed, “Definitely not, but I like falling asleep next to you.”

Jamie set his food down on the table, then leaned across the couch. His lips brushed against hers and then clung for a moment. They were interrupted by the growl of his stomach.

She laughed against his lips and said, “Eat. Eat. There’s time for this later.”

They sat there on the couch, finishing their meals and talking until finally Cora said, “I’ve got a patient in ten minutes.”

“That’s my cue, then,” Jamie said. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“Thanks again for lunch,” Cora said. “Do you think my next patient would notice if I took a small nap?”

Jamie laughed and said, “175 an hour? I’d notice, sweetheart.”

“You make a fair and valid point,” she said, smiling as she picked a stray piece of rice off of her pencil skirt.

Once the trash had been gathered and disposed of, she walked him to the door, gave him one last kiss, and then mentally prepared herself for the next hour. This particular patient always reminded her of her sister. That made it especially difficult to be objective.

By the time Jamie stopped by her office to let her know he was leaving for the day, she was emotionally exhausted. The session with Rhiane had been just as difficult as it always was, and then the session that followed had been a whole different type of frustrating.

She’d been working with a little boy who had anxiety and bed-wetting issues for a few sessions now. She had been unable to convince his mother to leave the room to allow her to talk with the child freely. When the boy was scared to speak, it made it really difficult to pinpoint any sort of causes for the anxiety.

At the end of the session, she’d been forced to give the mother an ultimatum. Of course, like always, that hadn’t gone well. She had ended up storming out of Cora’s office, her shrill voice screaming echoing down the hall that no one was going to tell her how to raise her son.

Cora suspected that was the problem. If she was unable to pick up on verbal and physical cues from others, then perhaps she wasn’t hearing what her son was trying to tell her. Hell, if she wanted to go down that road with her, though…

She really hoped that the boy would be back in her office, preferably without his mother, but she sincerely doubted it.

Cora shifted her briefcase to the other hand as she locked up the door. Thomas, the security guard, stood waiting. She hadn’t interacted with him much before the incident with the man in her office, but it turned out he was a nice guy.

As he walked her out to her vehicle, he chatted about his wife who was almost ready to give birth to their first child. He had shown her ultrasound pictures, and talked with her about some of the names they were considering before, too. It was difficult to remain in a bad mood when he was just so damned happy.

By the time she stopped home, changed, grabbed some clothes for tomorrow, and made her way to Jamie’s, lunch was a distant memory. She was glad to see that he’d put together a quick meal already. Once her belly was full and she had a glass of wine in hand, she settled into his sofa with her case files.

She had managed to make her way through most of the stack before she said, “Oh, holy shit. Jamie. I know who the guy in my office was now. I didn’t see it before because he was such a mess.”

Startled, Jamie looked away from the monitor and said, “Hang on. Lemme save this.”

A couple of seconds later, he asked, “Who is he?”

“You know I do a lot of pro bono work. A mother came to me via recommendation with her son. He had become really angry and closed off. It took him a long time to open up to me, but some of the things he told me about his time at his father’s house...”

Cora paused, disgust written all over her face. She took another deep breath and went on, “I had to report him. Long story short. He ended up being charged with a number of crimes, and I had to testify in court. My testimony helped send him to jail. His name is Warren Aimes.”

“Is there someone you can notify? Can you get some kind of restraining order?”

“I’ll call my contact at the D.A’s office tomorrow and see what can be done. Since he hasn’t been back in a few weeks, it may be more difficult to prove that he’s a threat. I’d rather be safe than sorry, though.”

Cora set aside the paperwork in her lap. Now that she had taken this not-so-awesome trip down memory lane, it wasn’t likely she was going to be able to focus.

“Me too,” he said, picking up one of her hands. As he rubbed his thumb over her knuckles, he added, “I didn’t think about your job as being dangerous. It worries me.”

She gave his hand a squeeze and said, “It’s not, really. That odd incident aside, the most I ever get is yelled at.”

“Ah, so the very loud woman in the hallway this afternoon was yours?”

“All mine,” she confirmed, sighing. “Today really sucked, Jamie.”

“Aw, baby,” he said as he pulled her into his lap. “Come here. What’s wrong?”

She pulled back from where she had instinctively curled up against him and said, “No, no. I didn’t mean to interrupt your game. Go do your research.”