CHAPTER SIX
I kept the blindfold on until we were in the washroom where I provided her with aftercare. The scene we played out was pretty vanilla except for the bindings and blindfold—and public sex—but Kate still needed to be cared for. I cleaned her off with wet paper towels, watching her face while I did to detect her emotional state. She seemed elated.
"You were magnificent, Katherine," I said, smiling at her. "You never protested once or failed to comply or showed hesitancy."
She smiled back. "I'm surprised I didn't run away."
I shook my head slowly. "The fact you responded to the public sex the way you did suggested to me that you'd secretly enjoy it, but that you could never do it on your own volition. That's why you have me," I said as I smoothed her hair back from her face.
"I have you for more than just pushing my limits," she said. "But you’re right. I could never suggest it myself."
I grinned. "So I'm more than merely a bone to you?"
"That and much more," she replied and ran her fingers through my hair. "You’re not going to tell me whether it was public or private, are you?"
"Nope." I zipped up her dress when I was finished cleaning her off, leaving the zipper low enough to show her delicious cleavage.
"You are so mean…"
I laughed out loud. "I know what you need, Kate. Let's leave it at that."
"Damn you!" she said and pounded my shoulder. "I want to know!"
"You'll never know,” I said coyly. “I'm very good at keeping secrets."
"I'll deprive you of sex until you tell me," she said and gave a fake pout.
"Ha!" I tickled her until she squealed, twisting out of my arms in a vain attempt to avoid me. "You'll deprive yourself then. You're as horny as me."
She laughed, trying to shield herself. "All right, all right. Stop!" She giggled when I ran my fingers down her ribs. "I won’t ask. You'll tell me if and when you think I should know."
I stopped ticking, then pulled her against my body and kissed her tenderly.
"Oh, Ms. Bennet," I said and brushed an errant strand of hair from her cheek. "How happy you make me."
I pulled her into my arms, her softness warm against me.
During the drive back to the hotel, we sat together with our arms around each other, her head on my shoulder.
"I'm so surprised that I got off on the possibility we were being watched,” she said, her voice soft. “I'm so inexperienced."
"I knew it was possible that first time we were at the dungeon party in Yonkers," I said, remembering how she responded to watching people fuck.
"Did you like that I had little experience or was it a drawback?"
I smiled and brushed the tops of her breasts, which bulged deliciously out of her dress.
"Don't kid yourself. Every man wants to be the first to introduce his lover to something pleasurable,” I admitted. “I enjoy your inexperience. Your response when you enjoy something you didn't expect is a real turn-on for me."
She said nothing for a moment and stared out the window at the passing scenery.
"And once we've done everything and tried everything?” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “You won't get bored?"
I turned to face her. "Kate," I said, shaking my head. "After we've tried everything you want and I want, then we perfect it. Believe me, it takes an awful lot of practice to perfect any one thing. And," I said, leaning closer, touching her bottom lip with a finger. "And once we perfect something, then we enjoy the perfection. Stop worrying."
She sighed. "I know," she said, frowning. "I'm sorry. I should enjoy, right? No analysis?"
I nodded and kissed her softly before turning back to watch the streets outside the limo.
"I'm that girl, aren't I?" she said, her voice soft.
I turned back to her. "What girl?"
"The girl who thinks too much."
I couldn’t hold back a grin. "That's my girl. D/s is intense. Everything feels much more significant. It's hard not to over respond." I watched her face, smiling internally at her intensity. "It'll pass. It's the high from the orgasms. I've read that the testosterone in semen gives the woman a bit of an energy boost, and drains it from men so it makes women wake up, their minds race while men fall asleep. …"
She smiled at me, clearly amused at my conversation.
"That's what I wanted to see." I took her in my arms and kissed her forehead. "You can't resist me. I don’t want you to. I like when you comply with me, Kate, so tonight I feel like you and I passed a threshold in our relationship."
"Really?" she said, sounding surprised.
"Yes. Once you gave in, you allowed me to make all the decisions about what we'd do. No questions."
"It's not really fair," she said, smiling.
"What's not fair?" I pulled back a bit.
"You know," she said and put a hand on my chest. "You know my mind. Sometimes, I think you know me better than I know myself."
I smiled and trailed my fingers down her cheek to her throat, and then her collar. "I know you, Kate. I told you that the first night we were together. I meant it."
"How do you know me?"
"Your father talked a lot about you. He described you to a 'T'. He understands you far more than you realize."
Then I wrapped my arms around her for the rest of the drive.
"I missed you all week, Katie," I said, emotion filling me.
She said nothing for a moment, and together, we enjoyed the mood.
"I missed you, too." She tried to pull away but I held her firmly.
"No, stay like this," I said, pulling her closer. "What made you so insecure, Kate? What happened to you to make you doubt how much a man would desire you?"
She hesitated, considering my question. "I don’t know," she said and sighed. "Daddy issues?"
I pulled back and looked in her eyes. "Your father loves you so much, Kate."
"I know that now,” she said quietly, “but I guess I always felt like second best next to Heath. Like I was of no consequence. My father was always doing things with Heath, taking him to games, playing ball with him, showing him off like he was his little clone. I felt like nothing."
I shook my head and then pulled her back against me. From what Ethan had said, he found it hard to know how to treat Kate, once she reached a certain age. She became a beautiful young girl and he didn’t want to embarrass her by being too affectionate.
"I'm sure he never meant to make you feel that way. He's very proud of you. He kept you away from us bachelors because he knew you were worth more than being arm candy on some hungry dog's arm the way you could have been."
"Arm candy? Me?" she said and laughed. "Hardly."
"You don’t think you qualify as arm candy?" I said in disbelief. "You are the definition of arm candy to me, with the delicious advantage of being brain candy and heart candy. I wish you knew that. I'm going to spend the rest of my life making sure you do."
She smiled and laid her head against my shoulder. I squeezed her a bit tighter, my chest tightening from emotion. I was going to spend the rest of my life with her, making her happy the way I promised Ethan.
It was entirely selfish of me for that was the surest way to my own happiness.
I took a day off later in the week so we could do some shopping. After a breakfast and coffee, we sat on the patio and enjoyed the morning. It was clear except for a few high clouds. In the distance, the Ngong Hills were dark against a bright blue sky.
I turned to Kate. "We get the place next week. What do you say we ask Jan if we can go to the house and take some measurements? We could go shopping for furniture."
"That sounds nice," Kate said, smiling. "Where do Kenyan's shop for furniture in Nairobi?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea."
She picked up her cell. "Claire will know. I'll call her." While she made the call, I read the local papers, listening to her speak to Claire, pleased that they had become friendly so Kate felt comfortable enough to call her for advice.
"Drake and I chose a house and want to do some shopping for furniture. We get possession next weekend so we want the furniture to be delivered before we move in."
Claire spoke for a while and then Kate wrote something down on a piece of paper.
"Thanks so much," she said and listened some more. "That sounds great. Drake will be working tomorrow, so I'm as free as a bird. I'd love to."
She ended the call and turned to me.
"Well?" I said, putting my paper down. "What did Claire say?"
"She gave me a few ideas of where to shop." She handed me the list of stores.
"What else did she say? It sounded like you two were going to get together."
Kate shrugged. "She suggested that I register in a studio art class through the Institute. That way I'll meet some students. Maybe make a few new friends who share my love of art."
I nodded, but said nothing, for of course a stab of jealousy went through me at the thought she’d be taking art classes and meeting new people. I tried hard to fight it for it was juvenile. I knew Kate had to have a life outside of what we had together but it still made me envious of those who would be sharing that part of her life.
"You don't mind, do you?" she said and sat beside me, her thigh pressed against my knee.
I opened my paper to another section, and didn't meet her eye for I felt incredibly guilty for being so petty. "Why would I mind? You love art. You should do art."
She sighed audibly. "You seemed, I don't know, a little hesitant."
I exhaled, and turned to her. "I thought having a studio in our home would allow you to paint as much as you want. That's all."
"It will, but we'll be here for six months,” she said. “You'll be away all day every day and on call every three weekends. I need to make a life here for myself apart from you. If I take a class, I might meet a few students I can have coffee with now and then, when you're busy at the hospital or teaching. With Dawn and me on the outs, I have no one else but you."
"Sure," I said and put my paper down, reaching out to take her hand. I squeezed it. "I will be very busy, especially at first. But I want us to be together when I'm not working. I don't want to compete with anyone for your time and attention. When you agreed to come with me to Africa, I had visions of you waiting for me in our house, pining away for me, dressed in something revealing, nice and wet for when I returned home at night… You know, typical male fantasies…"
She laughed at that. "Don't worry," she said, grinning. "When we've been apart, I'm always ready for you."
I kissed her knuckles.
"When you're free, I want to be with you." She squeezed my hand back. "At your beck and call." She wagged her eyebrows suggestively.
"At my beck and call, hmm?" I said and grinned, trying to look as rakish as possible. "I like that. Reminds me of your slave-girl persona. I'll hold you to that, Ms. Bennet."
She smiled coyly.
We hired a taxi and went to the first of several furniture stores that Claire recommended and spent the day choosing furniture for the house. I wasn’t interested in furniture usually, preferring to hire someone to decorate my apartment in Chelsea, but I tried to be engaged with the whole process because it was important to Kate and I wanted her to feel this was important to me as well. Because it really wasn’t that important to me, I encouraged Kate to choose what she preferred and was pleased by her choices. We were worn out by the time we’d visited all the stores on Claire’s list and needed to relax once we were back at the hotel.
"Let's have a swim, and then a drink before dinner," I said on our way back to the hotel. "I'd love it if a certain slave-girl gave me a nice full body massage tonight. All that shopping used muscles I haven't used for a long time."
"Your wish is my command," Kate said, smiling and bowing in mock servitude. "The hotel has a spa shop with lots of essential oils and lotions. I'll stop in and get a nice massage oil on our way to the room."
"Sounds amazing," I said as we drove up to the hotel’s entrance.
Our butler arranged to have our packages delivered to our room and while I sorted that out, Kate went to the spa to get the massage oils. It was after the butler left that I received a call from the hospital. I checked my cell and it was from Michael.
Kate arrived back in the room just as I received the call. She put down her bag and came to my side, a frown on her face.
I looked in her eyes and shrugged while I listened to Michael describe the trauma patient that was being flown to the hospital.
“I know it’s the weekend, but can you assist?”
"Sure," I said, not really pleased that my plans for the evening were ruined. "When should I be there?"
“Helicopter will be here in fifteen. Can you come right away?”
"OK, fine. See you then." I ended the call and exhaled heavily. "Sorry about this, but we have a patient…"
"Let me guess," she said, disappointment clear on her face. "A pediatric trauma case."
"You got it. I'm meeting Michael at the hospital. The child's being air lifted in from a car accident and we're meeting the helicopter. I'm sorry," I said and pulled her into my arms. "Sorrier than you can imagine. I'm exhausted already. Can you manage until I get back?"
"Isn't someone else on call this weekend?"
"Cardoso's sick. Michael's taking his call."
She sighed. "How long will you be?"
I shook my head. "I have no idea, but depending on what we find, surgery could be a few hours. We'll probably stay at the hospital until the child stabilizes. You should go ahead and order dinner in. I'll grab something at the hospital with Michael."
She nodded and squeezed me. "Will his resident be operating with you?"
"Sam?" I said, keeping my voice light. "Yes, of course. She scrubs in on all his cases."
Kate turned away, but said nothing.
"Kate…" I turned her to face me, because I needed to make her understand. "We already talked about this. How can you still be jealous after last night?"
She shook her head. "Ignore me."
"You have no reason to be insecure. Sam's a resident. A fellow surgeon. Female surgeons are almost never submissive, so even if I was looking, she wouldn’t be on my radar." I pulled her hard against my body. "And I'm not looking, so you can relax. No one but you is on my radar. I'm all yours. Every inch of me."
She smiled up at me. "I love every inch of you, Dr. Delish," she said. "It's just that I know other women would love you as well."
"Other men would love you, too, Katherine," I said, my voice firm. "Admit it, we're both catches. We caught each other. It's settled." I grinned, trying to lighten her mood.
She smiled back and leaned in closer. I kissed her deeply, warmly, trying to impart every ounce of emotion inside of me so she’d understand.
There was no one else. There could never be.
I gathered up my things and kissed her firmly before I left the hotel.
"Make sure you have that massage oil on hand when I get back. I have a feeling I'm going to need it."
I made my way to the hospital and arrived just moments before the chopper landed with the trauma patient. Michael was waiting on the helipad and I rushed out after hastily pulling on a set of scrubs and mask.
“Just in time,” he said and patted me on the back.
We examined the patient in the OR for we already knew we had to go in and work on the skull fracture and damage to the child’s spinal cord. It was an intense and extremely critical injury and the next hour would determine if the child would survive.
Before I knew it, an hour had passed as we worked away to put the child’s skull back together and deal with the spinal fracture. Finally stabilized, the patient would be taken to recovery and then to the ICU. Michael and I left Sam to finish dealing with the patient, ferrying him to the ICU once he was ready, where he’d be under constant surveillance and care for the first few days post-op.
Michael and I went to the waiting room where the family had gathered and delivered the news that the boy had survived the surgery and now it was a matter of how damaged the boy’s brain was and whether he would recover with any loss of function. The spinal cord had been compressed but was not severed so he would likely get the full use of his limbs back.
Whether his brain would be unaffected was another thing altogether and only time would tell.
We went to the break room once we finished answering the family’s questions and slumped down on the sofa after getting a coffee.
“That was intense,” I said when Michael sat across from me. “I think he’ll be okay if his brain swelling isn’t too severe.”
“I think you’re right. I was glad to have you here,” Michael said. “If you’re serious about pediatric surgery, you’ll see a good share of cases working with me.”
I nodded. I did want to work with children. They were a special challenge as their developing brains were more elastic and able to deal with trauma but at the same time, required real skill working with robotic implements because of their small size.
My experiences with pediatric patients had all been so rewarding and my time with Liam during his illness and treatment encouraged me to specialize in pediatric neurosurgery.
Being here with Michael now was a great career decision.
Sam arrived in the coffee room a few moments later and poured her own cup of coffee. She came up behind me and relayed a status update on the patient, who was stabilizing. Michael got a page and excused himself to use the hospital phone.
After he left, Sam laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Feels like old times,” she said and leaned down, her mouth next to my ear. “I’m so glad we’re together again.”
I frowned and craned my neck to look at her. “You know I brought my fiancée with me.”
She shrugged. “Of course,” she said lightly. “I didn’t mean anything. All I meant is that the three of us used to work together on cases.”
I nodded, kicking myself mentally for jumping to conclusions. “I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding about us,” I said, wanting to make it clear.
“I understand, Drake. It’s just that you told me back when we were together that you didn’t plan on getting married again or doing the whole ‘relationship’ thing. What happened?”
“Kate happened,” I said and stood up, wanting to end the conversation. I went to the counter to dispose of my paper coffee cup. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to check on the patient and I have to get back to the hotel.”
“It was great watching you and Michael in the OR,” she said. “I know I’ll learn a lot from you.”
With that, she left the room and I felt as if she didn’t really take me seriously. I had told her back when we were together that I had no plans to enter into a typical relationship. It wasn’t for me and at the time, that was true. Meeting Kate changed all that.
With her, I wanted a typical relationship. Marriage. Children. Family.
I wanted it all.
Michael returned to the break room after Sam left, his phone in his hand.
“I’ve been trying to get ahold of Claire, but her cell is off. A colleague of mine is in town for the week and wanted to get together for a drink. You might like to meet him – head of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of Cape Town. You should come along.”
I shook my head. “This was supposed to be my night with Kate,” I said and went to the door. “I’m going to stop off and check on the patient and then head back to the hotel.”
Michael nodded. “I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be young and in love,” he said with a smile. “Go to her. We can get together for coffee later this week.”
“Sounds great,” I said and ducked out, taking the stairs to the critical care unit. On my way to visit the patient, I sent Kate a text.
I'll be home a bit earlier than we first thought because our patient has stabilized. I hope you're waiting for me, all hot and bothered, Ms. Bennet. I want to take advantage of every spare moment we have because the way Michael works, it's only going to get busier…
I went to the unit and spoke briefly with the nurse in charge of the patient’s care and then stopped in to see how he was doing. It was still very early in his recovery, so it would be a while before we knew if he’d regain function.
When finished, I checked my cell but there was no response from Kate, so I sent another text, expecting that she might have been in the shower, or perhaps the pool and missed the first one.
I'm on my way back to the hotel. I hope you get this and are waiting for me, eager as I am. Text me when you get this.
I went to my office and sat down to dictate some notes on the case and check over reports on the patients I’d cared for that week. When Kate still hadn’t responded to my text, I left and drove back to the hotel. Once back in the room, I sat on the couch and when she still hadn’t responded, I texted her once more.
Where are you? Did you and Claire go out? I called Michael but he's not answering. I'm at the hotel waiting…
I waited but no response. It was so unlike Kate not to answer me that all kinds of terrible scenarios passed through my mind – abduction and rape, an accident while she was out with Claire…
Kate, where are you?
Finally, a few moments later, I received a text from her.
I'm sorry. Claire and I went to a faculty art exhibit at the Institute for Art. We're out with a group from the function for dinner. Our meal is almost finished so as soon as we're done, I'll get Claire to drop me off. So sorry I missed your texts and phone calls but my cell died. I can't wait to see you and see what you have planned…
At that moment I was so relieved that she was okay that I didn’t feel any anger at her not letting me know where she was. The more I thought about it, though, the more upset I became. Kate was out with Claire for dinner with faculty members from the Institute for Art and hadn’t bothered to send me a text because her cell died.
That disappointed me.
I shouldn’t have been angry, but I was. It showed a lack of consideration for me as her partner. Yes, Kate probably thought I’d be in the OR for a long time and would be late, but she could have sent me a text or email letting me know she would be out with Claire. That way, I wouldn’t be worried when she wasn’t at home or didn’t answer my texts.
It was a sign that she didn’t think of me and my needs.
While I waited for her to return, I tried to decide what to do. I needed a shower, so I slipped in for a quick one and then put on the hotel’s plush white robe and waited in the sitting area in the dark facing the patio so I could watch the moon make its way across the sky.