What others are saying about the writings of Fiona McGier:
Fiona McGier writes an above average story of the loves and losses of a well-to-do Latin family. It is enchantingly warm and sexy, and full of promise. I was impressed by this author’s delightful voice in portraying the ins-and-outs of a large loving family who stick together to help one another through thick and thin. It’s a must read.
JoEllen Conger, Conger Books Reviews
Fiona McGier brings us another salsa-hot segment in the history of this Hispanic family. She has a way of sharing the Reyes family’s love and exciting passion for life…the kind of passion that keeps a large family together sharing their love and compassion for one-another. It’s the type of family you wouldn’t mind belonging to yourself.
JoEllen Conger, Conger Books Reviews
Fiona McGier has an amazing talent for setting a scene and then throwing in the unexpected to keep the reader on their toes.
Delane, Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
Fiona McGier has done it again in the next book of the Reyes family... the passion is all there. I loved it and can’t wait for more from this talented author. She creates characters that come to life and the story line never fails between them.
Mary, Reviewer for Night Owl Reviews.com
Prescription For Love
By
Fiona McGier
Published by Fiona McGier at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 by Fiona McGier
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Chapter One
Enrique hurried down the hall to the closed door of what he hoped was his last appointment of the day. He was surprised to see out of the corner of his eye, that all of his nurses appeared to have gone home already. The usually busy reception area was now deserted, and the waiting room was empty. He shrugged as he took the chart off the wall adjacent to the closed door, and he briefly scanned the paperwork.
“Unexplained fever”…”Can’t sleep at night”…”Feelings of discontent and agitation”.
He sighed. He was a general practitioner, not a psychiatrist! While he might be the only doctor in the area, he was not capable of curing all of the ills that the local populace might present to him. He was over-worked and tired. But there was no one else there to go in to tell the patient that he was not going to see her, so he straightened his shoulders, took a deep breath, and rapped on the door with his knuckles.
“Come in,” a low, sexy voice purred from inside.
He opened the door to see his last patient of the day.
The woman was beautiful: long red hair trailed down her shoulders, grey eyes stared at him, and her sensuous lips smiled at him as he slowly walked into the room. He was trying hard not to stare at her cleavage, but she had not belted the small examining gown very well, and it gapped open in just the right places. The rounded globes of her breasts peeked out of both sides of the gown, and as she uncrossed her legs, he caught a quick glimpse of more red hair.
“The carpet matches the roof,” was the only thought he was able to muster, as the woman spoke to him.
“Hello, Dr. Reyes.”
He cleared his throat. “Umm, hello, Miss…”
She smiled again, before licking her lips.
“I didn’t supply a name because you don’t need to know who I am. Just that I need your help. Only you can make me feel better. I need you, Dr. Reyes.”
“How odd,” he thought to himself, but the bulge in his pants was making it difficult for him to think, as each tiny movement she made showed off her various assets, and he found himself unable to look away.
“She’s a patient! I can’t do this!” He thought to himself.
He now spoke out loud, trying to distract himself.
“What seems to be the problem?”
She sighed heavily, then leaned back on her elbows, which made the gown gap even more, and the only part of her luscious breasts that he was unable to see were her nipples. They poked insistently through the thin fabric, and he had a quick thought that the air conditioning must be on too high, causing her areolas to stand out even more, with tiny bumps that accentuated the larger pebbles of her nipples…they looked like they could cut glass.
He felt himself sweating profusely, which did not seem possible if the AC was on too high. He had been unable to move since he entered the room. He felt like he was in a trance; his feet seemed to be rooted to the spot.
The woman now began to gently swing her legs…she had been sitting on the edge of the examining table with her legs crossed when he walked in. Now she was leaning back, but her legs were extended off the table. She was still on the edge of the table, so each swing of her legs caused a breeze that gently wafted the gown up, giving him more quick glimpses of the curls of dark red hair, and sending up to his nostrils the scent of a woman in heat. Her pheromones were driving him crazy: his cock was twitching in response, and he could feel moisture already leaking onto the thin fabric on the front of his pants.
She spoke again, her words sounding like a seduction.
“Doctor, I’m so hot! No matter what I do, I can’t stop being hot. I can’t get any relief, I can’t sleep. I don’t know what is wrong with me, or what I need, but I think you might have the cure for me.”
He took a deep breath, “I…uh…I guess I should examine you?”
Her grey eyes glittered, “Yes, you should.”
He moved closer to her, each step bringing him closer to losing control over himself and violently taking this woman.
“Does it hurt you up here?” He asked, as he gently examined her neck, a relatively safe place to start.
“No.”
She rolled her head, rubbing her face against his hands and arms like a cat would, scent-marking her prey.
“Does it hurt you here?” He asked, lightly touching her shoulders.
He gasped as she shrugged her shoulders slightly, causing the gown to fall backwards onto the table, exposing her breasts.
“No, but you had better look closer at them, Doctor. They are on fire.”
He lowered his head, and she raised her breasts with both hands. As if in a dream, he felt himself lowering his head farther, and somehow her nipple ended up in his mouth. She moaned loudly, then the only noise was the suckling noises made by his mouth, as he licked and teased and sucked on her tiny hard nub.
Aghast at what he was doing, he pulled his head back slightly, and she turned slightly, then pulled his head down again, so that her other breast could get the same attention from him. She moaned again, and began to writhe on the table.
“Oh, you have made it worse!” She hissed. “Now I’m burning up! What are you going to do about that, Doctor?”
He was confused, there was no blood left in his brain, so coherent thought was difficult.
“What should I do? How can I help you?”
“Take my temperature!”
He turned to look in the drawers behind him for a thermometer.
“No! With this!”
Her hands now began to stroke the twitching bulge in his pants; she quickly undid the button at the top and unzipped his pants. Somehow he had forgotten to wear underwear that day, so his throbbing cock sprang out of the dropping pants, and she moaned again.
“Now! I need you now!” She gasped.
He took a step up and stood on the ledge that patients used to get up onto the table. She spread her legs wide open, and the smell of her juicy pussy drove him wild! He could see the gleaming moisture that welcomed him, and he leaned closer to her as she stroked his cock, then rubbed it against the moisture she was producing. She arched her back, pushing against him, and he tensed his butt muscles as he thrust forward, into the welcoming heat of her body.
She screamed, “Yes!” as he pushed himself forward until he felt he had come to the end of her, and bumped her cervix up and out of his way. Then all coherent thought left him, as he pumped himself into her, drawing out, pushing back in, over and over again, until with a mighty roar, he felt himself begin to spasm, and the hot sperm shot up and out of his balls, to explode into the welcoming slick heat of her tight hole.
~*~
With a start, Enrique woke up and instantly realized where he was.
“Damn! Gonna have to wash the sheets again,” he whispered out loud, then laughed at himself for whispering, when there was no one else in the room to hear him.
He rolled onto his back, away from the gooey mess in his bed, and smiled at the ceiling.
“Last time she was a blonde. The time before that she was a brunette. I wonder what my brain is going to think of next?”
He smiled even broader into the darkness.
“But that is my favorite fantasy. Of course, I would never do anything like that with a patient…I wouldn’t risk my medical license; it wouldn’t be worth taking that chance. But then, since it’s forbidden, that must be why it’s such a hot wet-dream for me.”
He sighed heavily, “And part of why I’ve been doing this so often, is that it’s been so long since I was with a real woman.”
He remembered how quickly every mother of an eligibly-aged daughter had beaten a path to his office, once word got out that the new doctor in town was an American, and a single man at that. They all wanted to see him for themselves, before they started dragging their daughters in for him to see, as if it was a cattle-call. At first he had been amazed at how many young women in town appeared to be ill with unexplainable things. But it didn’t take him long to realize just what the mothers were doing. And after he had dated a couple of the young women once or twice, he also quickly realized that in their small town, if a man wanted to sleep with a woman, he had to marry her.
Enrique did not consider himself a snob, but he had grown up in a suburb of Chicago, and he had gone away to college for many years, in order to earn his medical degree. He was a well-read man, who valued stimulating conversation almost as much as good sex…though these days, he might value one just a bit over the other!
No one in the town he now lived and practiced in had ever been out of the area they were born and raised in. Even though it was not really that long of a drive, few had ever even been to Mexico City, the cosmopolitan capital of their country. Enrique had taken a few day-trips there, on his infrequent days off. He had attended a few medical conferences there also, and had been befriended by some of his colleagues who taught classes at UNAM, the colloquial shorthand for the world-famous Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.
They had agreed with him that it was probably safer for him to date women who had a more worldly view of life, and who would not expect him to choose someone to settle down with before he got to know her. They had also been amused that, due to the way he was raised, Enrique did not intend to have a traditional Hispanic-style marriage. He had no desire to regard his wife as merely the bearer of his children, while he would feel free to pursue many other women.
His parents had met while in high school, and had dated only each other. They had been happily and monogamously married for over thirty years, and had eight children to prove it. Enrique was not sure that would be easy to re-create, especially since he was already thirty and had not yet met any woman who made him feel as if he couldn’t live without her. The women of his dreams were a good-enough substitute, for now.
With that thought making him smile again, remembering how much he enjoyed that particular dream, he drifted back off to sleep.
Chapter Two
Had she not been forced to attend as a guest speaker, a symposium on the origins of exotic medical plants before she boarded the bus that was to take her to the jumping-off point for her research, Tanora Doyle would not have been wearing high heels, which she had never really been comfortable walking on. And if she had not been wearing high heels, she would not have gotten a heel stuck on the steps that led down off the bus. As it was, she had felt herself free-falling forward with one heel stuck in the grates of the last step, and she had instinctively put her hands out to catch her fall. Due to the angle she fell at, her left hand took the brunt of the weight of her fall, and she heard her wrist snap at the same time as her brain registered unbearable pain.
Her research assistant of many years, Raul Mendoza, had gotten off the bus right before her, so he was immediately at her side to help her up.
Solicitously, he asked, “Are you alright, Boss?”
Still swearing, she tried to answer without sounding like she wanted to cry, but the pain made it difficult for her to speak.
“Damn it! I hate high heels! I’m so damned clumsy in them! I think I broke my wrist!”
He cradled her arm, and bent it at the elbow, to allow for her to hold it up with her other hand.
“Yeah, I heard a snap too, Boss. We’d better get you to a doctor, pronto!”
She shook her head in frustration.
“First it took forever to get permission to head out…then we had to find locals to hire to be our guides and send them on ahead of us, with the truck loaded with our gear…then that damned conference. Now this! If I didn’t have so much riding on this expedition, I’d say to hell with the whole thing!”
He smiled at her, long used to her outbursts.
“You know you don’t mean that, Boss. Let’s just find out where the nearest local medicine man is, and get you fixed up.”
“Just get me some heavy-duty pain-killers, and be done with it!”
She gritted her teeth against the pain.
He shook his head.
“No. Tannie, you can’t go traipsing around in the wilderness of Mexico with a gimpy wrist. We will probably need to get you a cast, and then we’ll figure out our next move.”
Reluctantly agreeing with him, she sat down on the bench he led her to, and rocked gently, trying to keep her mind off of the extreme pain of her injury. She lost track of him, while he located the local men they had hired to accompany them, and found out from them where the only doctor in town was. She had to glare at many a man who ogled her, their obvious interest only serving to make her angrier, since she was currently unable to physically fend them off.
She was aware that her looks were just exotic enough for them to want to add her to their lists of conquests. She had long curly brown hair with a few gold highlights, but it was held up in a bun as usual; her hazel eyes had yellow centers if you looked closely enough, and her skin was the color of café mocha, courtesy of her bi-racial heritage. But at the moment, all she could think of was trying not to cry, and hoping against hope that the bone might not be broken, and that she might still be able to head out into the country in two days, as she had planned.
After a brief, bumpy ride in the truck they had hired for their journey, she found herself sitting in a crowded waiting room, trying not to pay attention to the conversations that had ceased when she and Raul had walked into the room, but which now had resumed with a vengeance. Had she not been in so much pain, she might have been greatly amused, as she usually was, listening in on the words spoken in español, which they figured she would not understand.
“¡Que bonita!”
“¡Pero, es una mulata!”
“¿Por que esta aqui?”
She grimaced as another twinge of pain raced up her arm, and she had to concentrate on trying to convince her brain that the aching was far enough away from it for it to ignore. Meanwhile Raul was busy flirting with the receptionist, trying to convince her that Tanora had to be seen before the others who had been waiting longer. He did not appear to be having much success, until the door opened and a stern-looking nurse with steel-grey hair pulled into a tight bun walked out.
She peered over her glasses at Tanora before speaking in heavily-accented English.
“Eet ees broken, señorita?”
“Si, lo temo,” Tanora answered.
The nurse now held her arm at the elbow, and did a cursory examination of the wrist, which was steadily turning dark red and bruised. Tanora had to bite her lip so as not to scream, but she let out a few curses, some in English and some in español, for good measure.
The nurse’s lips twitched as once again, all conversation ceased.
“¿Habla usted español, señorita?”
She grimaced, as she nodded, “Si.”
With a significant glance around at the now-silent people in the waiting room, the nurse motioned for Tanora to get up and follow her into the office. Raul asked if he could go with her, in flawless Spanish; but then since his father was originally from Mexico and he resembled his father, for him it was not unexpected.
The stern nurse shook her head before leading Tanora down a short hall and into a small room. Just walking had jarred the wrist so much that Tanora was once again, having to fight hard not to cry from the pain. The nurse, who had a gentle touch despite her harsh manner, helped her to sit on the examining table, and filled out the information sheet that would tell the doctor what her problem was. She closed the door behind her as she left the room.
Tanora was left to study the walls, which held only the medical documentation that Enrique Edgar Reyes Hernandez had passed all necessary exams at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, completed his residency there as well as at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, and was certified as a medical practitioner by the state of Illinois two years ago. There was further documentation in Spanish verifying that he was also licensed to practice in Mexico, but she was just starting to read that when the door opened, and the doctor walked in accompanied by the stern nurse.
Enrique walked in still reading the chart, and didn’t look up as he said, “Miss Tanora Doyle? I’m Dr. Reyes…”
Then his eyes met hers, and he smiled despite himself, as his eyebrows rose questioningly.
She nodded wearily, speaking through gritted teeth, “My dad is Irish. Mom is black. Since he figured I would probably look more like her than him, he gave me a name that would announce to the world that I’m half-Irish.”
He smiled at her, “Oh...that explains things. Now let’s take a look at your wrist.”
He asked questions and did a thorough exam, after which he proclaimed the wrist to be undoubtedly broken, and in need of a x-ray to be sure it was just broken in one place, with no fragments floating around. He would need to set the bones and apply a cast.
“Fortunately for you, I have what I need to do all of that right here.”
He nodded at the nurse, who went out to get the necessary equipment and supplies.
Meanwhile, Enrique got some pills out of a locked drawer, and offered them to Tanora with a glass of tap water.
“Is it okay to drink the water here?” She asked, looking longingly at the pain pills he held out to her.
He nodded, “Yes. We have a filtration system for the water coming into the building. I wouldn’t offer it to you if it was going to just make things worse. Now swallow these, and it will take the edge off some of the pain for you. I’m afraid I’m going to have to hurt you a bit more, as I set the bone and get the cast on.”
“How long will I have to keep it on?” She asked after she gulped the water, suddenly realizing how thirsty she was, after the long, hot, dry bus ride, and the time she had spent waiting in his anteroom.
He answered her in a distracted manner while he looked in the drawer for some more pill samples to give her.
“Probably six weeks should do the trick. You’re young and healthy…I don’t think you’ll need to have it on much longer than that.”
The nurse had returned with a portable x-ray machine, which he used to take two x-rays of her wrist. He gave them to the nurse to develop. She soon returned to deliver a tray filled with supplies, and Enrique busied himself washing up and getting things ready.
A few moments later another nurse brought in the x-rays, and Enrique hung them on the wall, flipped a light switch, and examined them closely, looking for fractures. He nodded in a satisfied manner, before turning to smile at his patient.
“As I had hoped, no shards of bone anywhere. You just fractured the radius right above your wrist…it’s one of the two main bones that make up your lower arm…the inside one. I can easily reset this and immediately put it into a cast, so the healing can begin.”
He nodded at the nurse and they got to work on the wrist.
Tanora yelped as he moved the bones into place, then she began to complain.
“You said six weeks? Will I be able to move around, do my job with the cast on?”
He looked up to smile at her, “As long as your job doesn’t require you to do any heavy lifting, I think so.”
She sighed heavily.
“I was supposed to head out into the back country with my team. I’m a botanical research biologist. I go out looking for the plants that can be developed into viable medicines. There are some promising studies that have shown that just a couple of days from here, there are plants that might have the answer to all kinds of things. Who knows, maybe even a cancer treatment?”
Enrique didn’t look up while he finished applying the wet strips of cloth that were already hardening into the cast.
“You mean like that movie with Sean Connery…what was that called, Medicine Man?”
Tanora nodded, “You’ve seen it? Down here?”
Now Enrique looked up to smile at her, and he shook his head.
“No, they don’t show many American movies down here, except for big action flicks and porn. Didn’t you read my shingles hanging on the wall? I grew up in Illinois, close to Chicago. I’ve only been down here a little over a year. My mom is a really big fan of Sean Connery…she used to tease my dad that if she ever left him, it would be for the first James Bond. No one else. My dad would then point out to her that Sir Sean was fond of wearing skirts in public. That usually ended the discussion.”
Tanora smiled briefly at that, and realized that the pain had become bearable.
“A kilt is not a skirt,” she sniffed. “What was in those pills you gave me?”
“Why? Did they take the pain away like they were supposed to?”
“Not completely…but I can think about other things now, besides how much my wrist hurts.”
He nodded, “Good. Part of that is the bones are set back where they belong now, and they are held in place by the cast. And of course, part of that is the fact that you are a skinny little thing, and I gave you an adult-sized dose of Vicodin. I’ll give you some to take with you too, so when those wear off, you can still get some sleep tonight.”
“How are you able to set a bone without being in a hospital?” She asked curiously.
He smiled, “Many of the conveniences of modern medicine are just that. Convenient, but not really necessary. I could see the fracture of the bones in your x-ray. Once I had eased them back where they belonged, you stopped gritting your teeth. Not really rocket science. But down here, there aren’t many lawyers in the area, so I’m not afraid of being sued over every decision I make. That’s part of why I opened my practice here, instead of up in the states.”
The nurse took the tray with all of the used medical supplies out of the room. Enrique once again assiduously washed his hands before turning back to Tanora to ask, “How do you feel? Can you walk?”
Tanora eased herself off of the table, and promptly felt her legs buckle underneath her. Enrique caught her with one hand under her arm on the side of the broken wrist, and the other on her opposite shoulder.
“Whoa there, little lady. Is there anyone here who can help you walk to where-ever you are staying?”
Tanora smiled gratefully at him before she nodded.
“Thanks for catching me, Doctor. I don’t need to break any other bones today! My assistant, Raul, is outside in the waiting room.”
“Okay then, I’ll help you out the door, and he can take you from there.”
He held her gently but firmly, as they walked down the short hall, then the pretty receptionist that Raul had been flirting with opened the door, and Raul was instantly on his feet, concern evident on his face.
“You okay, Boss?” He asked urgently.
Tanora smiled at him, and nodded, which made her dizzy.
“Yesh,” she slurred at him.
He gave Enrique a questioning look.
“I had to give her some pain killers, to be able to set the break in her wrist. I’m giving her some extras, to use over the next couple of days.”
“You’d best give them to me,” Raul said, “She’s in no position to be handling any drugs right now.”
Enrique smiled at the older man, while still supporting Tanora, “That’s for sure. I guess I shouldn’t have given her an adult dosage, considering how skinny she is.”
Raul nodded, as he filled out the paperwork to be able to leave.
“She’s not one to do drugs of any kind…guess they are more effective on her because of that, huh?”
Enrique nodded, “Probably. You know where you are staying? Will you be able to get her there, or do you want me to have someone go with you?”
Raul shook his head, “Nah, we’ve got a few local guys hired to help us head out into the wilderness. They are already on the payroll, so they’ll give me any help I need. How long will she need to stay around here? We were supposed to leave within a couple of days.”
Enrique shook his head, “No. I think she should stick around town for a week or two…just so I can see her every couple of days, to be sure the cast is doing what it’s supposed to, and she doesn’t need any more pain-killers.”
Raul made a face.
Tanora yelped, “A couple of weeks? No way, José! I’ve got plants to find, research to do. Just try and stop me!”
Enrique let go of her for an instant, and she almost pitched forward into Raul’s arms. Enrique quickly grabbed her again, and handed her over to Raul, who supported her while they started to walk to the door.
Enrique walked with them, to open the door for them, and he turned to waggle his finger in Tanora’s face.
“You listen to me, young lady! I’m your doctor now, and I’m telling you that you need to rest this wrist for a minimum of a week. I expect to see you here a couple of days from now. You won’t need an appointment, since all I need to do is check on the cast. But you are not to go out on any kind of camping trip until I tell you it’s okay! Got that?”
Tanora stuck her tongue out at him, but Raul nodded over her head at the doctor.
“Yeah. Message received. Now, Boss, let’s get you to the hotel we are staying at, and I’ll tuck you into bed, so you can get some rest.”
Enrique smiled after them as the door shut, then he turned to go back to work.
~*~
Many hours later, he opened a beer while he heated up the dinner that his cleaning lady had prepared for him before she left for the day. He walked out onto the porch of the small house that was assigned to the doctor of the town, as part of his pay. He sat on the wicker rocking chair, and looked meditatively at the sunset. He tried to clear his mind, to relax, but he knew just what he wanted to think about before the day’s events had even begun to be processed by his tired brain.
“She is gorgeous!” He thought to himself, and he smiled at his body’s instant reaction to remembering what she looked like…the same reaction that he had had to fight while he treated her broken wrist.
Tanora Doyle was of medium height, with a slight build. She didn’t look anorexic, like some modern American women; she was thin, but there was a hint of healthy musculature under her skin that spoke of good genetics. She had curly light brown hair, and most unusual for a woman of her warm café au lait skin color, she had green eyes. There were freckles scattered around on her lovely face, and when she smiled there were dimples crinkling around her mouth, making her look like she smiled frequently, lighting up the room. She wore light brown tinted glasses with gold rims, and her hair appeared to be curly, but was put up in a sort of bun-thing…Enrique wondered just how long her hair was, and if he would ever get a chance to find out.
He smiled to himself again, as he remembered her slurred reaction to his insisting that she needed to stay in town for at least a week. He had added “Or two,” just because he wanted to try to keep her around for as long as possible.
“Hey,” he reasoned to himself, “It’s been a long time since I’ve met any woman as interesting as this one. And she’s going to be using my town as a jumping-off point to going out into the countryside. She’ll have to come back regularly for supplies. I want a chance to impress upon her just why she needs to come back to see me whenever she’s in town.”
He shivered with anticipation, when he remembered what she had felt like in his hands, when he was helping her out of his office. His hands tingled where they had touched her. Meditatively, he smiled, taking another swig from his beer.
The alarm rang, letting him know that his dinner was heated up enough for him to eat. He toasted the sunset with his almost empty beer bottle, and headed inside to dine.
Chapter Three
Raul grimaced as he held the door open for Tanora to enter the waiting room at the doctor’s office. She had been torturing him non-stop for the past couple of days, and he was almost ready to ask the doctor to prescribe more pain pills, just to mellow her out…or else to give him some, to increase his already large amount of patience. Enforced inactivity was not something that Tanora dealt well with, especially when she was looking forward to getting out into the wild to do what she loved so much: commune with the local plants.
Raul walked up to the window to check in with the pretty receptionist that he had flirted with the last time, but Tanora used her good arm to push him out of the way to announce, in flawless Spanish, that she was here for a check-up, and the doctor had told her she did not need an appointment.
Raul rolled his eyes, and announced, “I’m going out for a smoke, Boss.”
Tanora made a face at him, as she always did when he smoked, or talked about smoking.
“Fine, go kill yourself…then I’ll have to find a replacement assistant, in addition to all of the other damn delays I’m having to deal with for this expedition!”
Raul bolted out of the door none too gracefully, glad for a reason to be away from her complaining. He walked out a ways away from the front of the office, and sat on a bench under a large tree, for the shade it would provide. He lit his cigarette and inhaled slowly, enjoying the familiar feel of the hot smoke as it burned his lungs. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes for an instant, sighing with enjoyment of the simple physical pleasure of smoking.
“That’s not good for you, you know,” a voice said conversationally, and he opened his eyes to see the good doctor standing in front of him, lighting himself a cigarette and inhaling deeply.
He gestured at the space on the bench next to Raul, and asked, “May I?”
Smiling, Raul nodded, “Of course.”
Enrique sat down and inhaled again, sighing with pleasure.
“I have to sneak out to have a smoke, because I lecture my patients all day about how they need to quit. I usually stay out back, where no one can see me, but I saw you come out here. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
This last was said in a tone of importance, so Raul turned with curiosity to look at the doctor.
Enrique took a deep breath, “You work for her?”
Raul, who had suspected this line of questioning would arise, sooner or later, smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, for the last four or five years.”
Enrique leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he tossed his lighter from hand-to-hand for a moment, as if he was thinking over what to say next. He turned to look up at the older man.
“Are you lovers?”
Raul smiled briefly, then shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
Raul smiled ruefully, “You’re much younger than me. Maybe when you are my age you will know why not.”
At Enrique’s curious look, Raul continued.
“I was married when I met her. I had been on expeditions before, but never with anyone as talented…or as just plain lucky as she is. I was honored that she chose me, out of all of the applicants, to be her assistant.”
He sighed heavily.
“Then when my second marriage broke up too, I had a momentary hope that something might develop between us…but nothing ever did. As for her, she is oblivious as to the effect she has on us poor men. But she helped me through the pain of separation like a good male friend would, taking me out to get me drunk, telling me I was better off without her, and things like that. In return, I’ve helped her to get over many things…most of which I am sworn to secrecy about.”
He sighed again, “Sometimes it bothers me that she views me as a ball-less eunuch. But she depends on me to be everything else that she needs, and I am glad to do it. I only had one son with my first wife, and I don’t get to see him much. I guess I treat her like the daughter I never had, and I’m like an uncle figure for her. It works for us. And she is most generous about sharing credit for her discoveries with me, so I’ve had my name published in more professional journals than I can even remember, as the right-hand man to a very successful research biologist. Win-win for both of us.”
Enrique stubbed out his cigarette and turned to the older man to ask earnestly, “Then you won’t have a problem with me asking her out?”
Though he had been prepared for the question, Raul let the other man see his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline.
“You may want to reconsider that, Doctor,” he said.
“Why?”
“I told you, she is oblivious as to her effect on men. She will be surprised, and then irritated, because you are talking about something other than her burning passion, which is her research. I have watched her brutally shut down many an aspiring suitor, both young and old. It’s not that she means to be cruel…she just doesn’t want to waste time on something that doesn’t interest her.”
Enrique smiled broadly, “But she’s never experienced the Reyes charm, has she?”
Raul raised just one eyebrow this time.
“That confident, are you?”
Enrique sighed heavily, “Yes…no…I mean, more desperate, I guess…and intrigued.”
He shrugged, “All of the eligible women in town are anxious to get married and to start popping out a dozen babies. While I am flattered by their attentions, I’m also old enough to realize that spending your life in bed only sounds like a wonderful idea…though after as long as it has been for me, it sounds better every day!”
Raul smiled ruefully and nodded in agreement.
“In reality, you have to get out of bed to go to work, and to carry on all of the other details of your life. While getting laid is something I think about day and night, finding a soul-mate, a woman who is interesting to talk to, who can enhance my life by being an equal partner…that is what I am really looking for.”
Raul snorted, “And you think Tannie might be what you are looking for?”
Enrique nodded.
Raul let out a quick bark of laughter, “Good luck with that!”
At Enrique’s curious look, he smiled, saying gently, “She’s not really looking for a man, or to be a soul-mate to anyone. She’s pretty one-dimensional these days…concerned only with her work.”
Enrique looked at his watch then stood up, “It’s time for me to head back to work. I presume she’s in there, waiting to see me?”
Raul grimaced, “Yeah, and she’s in fine form today. Nothing makes her happy while the expedition is being delayed. Good luck with her, but don’t expect too much.”
Enrique began to walk away.
“And Dr. Reyes? Don’t take it personally. She doesn’t mean to be cruel and abrasive…that’s just her way. She’s direct. She doesn’t brook fools.”
Enrique nodded, “Thanks for the heads up.”
He inclined his head towards the office building, “Coming?”
Raul shook his head and lit another cigarette.
“Nah, I’ll just wait to hear the news when she gets out.”
“Adios, then,” Enrique said as he turned to walk back to work.
Raul shook his head as he watched the younger man’s form go around the back of the building, and disappear from view.
“And good luck, Dr. Reyes. You will need it!”
He took another drag from his cigarette, and stared meditatively off into space.
Chapter Four
Tanora had been sitting with the others waiting to see the doctor as patiently as she was capable of being…which was not very. She was trying to ignore the rapid conversations in Spanish involving speculations about who she was, and what an obviously young, attractive woman of color was doing here in their small village in an obscure corner of Mexico, not much frequented by tourists. She was tempted to yell out at them that she could understand every word, and that they should stop talking about her, when the stern nurse once again walked through the door leading to the inner offices, and smiled at her.
“Senorita Doyle? The doctor will see you now.”
Tanora jumped up and strode through the open door without a backwards glance.
Once again, the nurse showed her into one of the small examining rooms. Tanora got up onto the examining table to sit, and the nurse did a cursory check of the cast. She wrote some notes on the clipboard, then walked towards the door, saying, “He will be right with you.” She walked back out and closed the door behind her.
“Yeah, right,” Tanora snorted, “Like I can expect him anytime in the near future! He’ll probably keep me waiting in here so long my bones will be all knitted by the time he gets here!”
“Don’t you wish that was true?”
She looked up in surprise as Dr. Reyes strode briskly into the room.
He stopped at the sink and assiduously washed his hands.
“Uh…I’m surprised to see you so quickly, that’s all,” she stammered in her embarrassment. “I was out in the waiting room so long, I figured I’d have to be waiting in here just as long.”
He turned to her and smiled, and for an instant, she forgot why she was even here, as she basked in the admiration that he radiated at her.
He really is a good-looking man, she thought to herself. Surprised at her own reaction, she shook herself, returning to reality.
Enrique, meanwhile, had moved closer to her, and his physical proximity made her hyper-aware of how thin the fabric of her blouse was, and how tight her shorts were. Since she felt so flustered, which was an unusual feeling for her, she fought her own instincts with her usual abrasiveness, which had managed to turn off many an interested man in the past.
“You know, I’m really pissed off about having to spend so damn much time sitting around picking my ass, waiting for you to approve my going off into the country.”
He gently held her arm in his warm hands, and turned it this way and that, examining the cast.
“You kiss your mother with those lips?” He asked, a small sly smile playing around his lips.
Tanora was momentarily taken aback, both by his teasing tone, and by the sensuous curve of his lips, which she hadn’t noticed before.
“Of course…I mean, what do you mean? Are you making some kind of insinuation, Dr. Reyes?” She glared at him defiantly.
He shook his head, still smiling.
“No, I was just wondering why such coarse words were emanating from such beautiful lips, that’s all.”
Tanora’s stare wasn’t as much defiant this time, as surprised.
“What are you talking about?”
Not sure she wanted to hear the answer, she abruptly changed the subject.
“So, is it healed enough for me to be able to head out on my expedition yet?”
He shook his head, not smiling this time.
“No, young lady. You are most definitely not able yet to withstand all of the rigors of backwoods camping. The cast is holding up well, but I expected that. Your bone, on the other hand, will take some time to heal completely. The last thing that you want to do is push your luck. That will risk a re-injury that might mean either it won’t heal right, and would have to be re-broken and reset…or it will heal more slowly than it should. Either way, trying to rush things is ultimately not in your best interests.”
He smiled at the dismayed look on her face, and held a finger up to her lips as she opened her mouth to complain.
“No. You are a professional woman, Miss Doyle. You need to respect me as a fellow professional. Listen to what your doctor tells you. You need to stay in town for at least another few days. That will give your bone time to proceed with healing… enough for you to be able to have limited use of it.”
He smiled slyly at her.
“And it will give me time to work up the nerve to ask you to have dinner with me.
She almost bit his finger off, as she exploded.
“What?” What are you talking about?”
He continued smiling at her.
“You know, dinner…en español, cena…a late evening meal, best consumed with company so you have someone to talk to. I’m sure a sophisticated woman like you is familiar with the concept.”
She sputtered, “Of course I know what it is…but why the hell do you think I am interested in eating with you?”
He shook his head, gently admonishing her.
“You really need to get a handle on your language. You may be used to working with men, and swearing like a marine, like they do. But you are in a town now, and will find that most people will recoil when they hear words like that coming out of the mouth of such a lovely young woman. And someday, when you have children, you will have to watch what you say, or your kids will pick up your bad habits. Time and place, woman. Time and place.”
Tanora jumped down off of the examining table, ignoring how the jarring hurt her wrist. She walked quickly over to the door, and her uninjured hand was on the doorknob, when he spoke again.
“Fine, go ahead and leave. But you won’t be able to go anywhere until I sign off on your official paperwork that your injury is sufficiently healed for you to be able to return to work.”
She froze at the door, and slowly turned to glare at him.
“What did you say?”
He smiled innocently, turning to wash his hands again, taking his time drying them, and answering her only when he was done.
“Well, the paperwork that you need to have signed by a local town official will have a space on it for any reasons for your not being able to leave at the expected time. You had said you were leaving in two days, which I presume means you want to leave tomorrow. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to sign off on your going, so the mayor, whose very pregnant wife is out there in my waiting room as we speak, won’t sign off on your going. That means that the locals you hired to go with you won’t be prepared to disobey his orders, so you won’t be going…unless you and Raul can carry everything yourself?”
In the stunned silence, he winked at her.
“Oh, wait…you can’t carry much with a broken wrist, can you?”
She exploded.
“You asshole! You are enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Tsk, tsk. What did I tell you about your language? “
“But I have to leave! You have no idea how long I’ve been planning this trip! Or how long I had to wait for the funding! Or how many asses I needed to kiss, in order to get permission from my bosses at the university! Or just how much is riding on my finding what I told them I thought I could find out there! You have to let me go!”
He shook his head at her, “You know, not once did I hear a please in any of that.”
She glared at him again.
“Is that all you want? Then please may I have your permission to go?”
He shook his head again.
“No, your wrist isn’t healed enough yet.”
She gave him a suspicious look.
“When will it be healed enough?”
He smiled at her conspiratorially.
“I knew you were an intelligent woman.”
“When?” She asked through gritted teeth.
“After you have dinner with me.”
The silence that greeted his words was beyond stunned. Tanora wasn’t sure she was even still breathing. She felt as if she was trapped in a dream, her feet glued to the floor, unable to move, unable to express just how angry she was.
If she gave in to her irritation right now, he would make good on his threats and not allow her to leave. The idea of being at the mercy of the obviously delusional, though admittedly, very good-looking Dr. Reyes, was enough to make her want to scream. But she had to admit, he had the upper hand here; and just as she had to do when begging for funding, she was going to have to give in to the inevitable, and do whatever was needed to get permission to go out into the field. This meant she had to bite the bullet and accept his invitation.
She gritted her teeth again, as Enrique smiled pleasantly at her, obviously enjoying her conundrum.
Trying to swallow her anger, she glared at him.
“One date? Just out to dinner?”
He smiled and nodded.
“Where?”
He shrugged.
“It’s a very small town, I’m sure you’ve noticed. About the only place to get a decent meal and a few drinks, is the restaurant in the hotel that I presume you’re staying at. Today is Friday, and I’ve got a full slate of patients out there that I still need to see. I don’t know when I’ll get done, so tonight is not a good choice. But tomorrow is Saturday, and I only work a half-day. I could meet you in the bar about six o-clock tomorrow. How does that sound?”
She gnashed her teeth again briefly, before choking out brightly, “Fine, just fine.”
He smiled at her.
“You know, if I didn’t already know you are part Irish, I’d be guessing that by now. You may not have red hair, but you’ve sure got the temper of the Irish.”
“What a great way to endear yourself, Doctor. First you force me to accept your dinner invitation, then you insult my heritage. I can’t wait to hear your dinner conversation.”
He smiled at her again.
“I’m hoping you’ll see what a great conversationalist I can be, when I’m given a chance. That’s all I’m asking for, Miss Doyle. A chance.”
She glared at him again.
“And I assume you’ll be expecting to call me by my first name?”
He smiled even more broadly.
“Hey, I’ll even allow you to call me Enrique. Dr. Reyes would sound so formal, while you are screaming out my name after dinner.”
She stuck out her tongue at him.
“As if, Dr. Reyes. All you said I had to agree to was dinner. That’s all you are getting. Dinner, then you will sign my paperwork so I can go, right?”
He nodded solemnly.
“Of course.”
She turned the handle of the door and opened it.
“Fine. See you tomorrow night, Dr. Reyes.”
“Hasta la vista, hermana,” he spoke after her, as she left the room.
Then he spoke under his breath to himself.
“I can’t wait!”
He walked out of the door and returned to his work day with a smile on his lips.
Chapter Five
Tanora briefly considered just wearing the clothes she had on already for her dinner date. She was dressed for checking and repacking the equipment she needed for her field research, and she had gotten dirty and disheveled, as usual. But she had just enough female in her, that she wanted to make a good impression on the doctor…she wanted him to see just how good she could look, before she shut him down decisively.
She also had to admit to herself, though reluctantly, that she really did find Dr. Reyes attractive. He was quite a few inches taller than her, so she guessed he was about six feet tall. He was thin but muscular, as she had noticed when she got the opportunity to study his arms up close, while he applied her cast. He also smelled nice…a combination of his after-shave and his personal scent, made all the more noticeable since it always seemed so damned hot in Mexico.
When the drugs had kicked in, she had unconsciously leaned against his shoulder, as he applied the layers of fabric that became her cast when they hardened. She had enjoyed that brief contact, but in retrospect, had almost convinced herself that it was just the drugs that made her act so uncharacteristically. Almost.
Dr. Reyes also had short, curly black hair, and eyes so dark they almost appeared to be liquid…much darker than even her mother’s. When he smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkled…and not because he was old. She didn’t think he was any older than her thirty-one years; after all, it had taken her until she was twenty-six to earn her doctorate, but he had to add in internship and resident hours. So if he had been in practice for almost two years, he was probably about thirty.
With a sigh, she heard her mother’s voice in her head, telling her that she wasn’t getting any younger, and that this obviously educated young man was a good choice, and that she should consider…what? Marrying him? That would involve her having sex with him. She shuddered convulsively.
She quickly shook her head and said out loud, “Enough! I don’t need to think about that now. He said just dinner, and that’s what I intend to hold him to. But there’s no reason not to let him see just how good I can look…or that I know how to behave in polite company as much as he does. As long as he doesn’t say or do anything to piss me off, that is.”
She chuckled to herself, perfectly aware that the main reason that Raul had been with her so long, was that he was able to overlook or just plain ignore her frequent temper outbursts. Whenever she got too demandingly imperious, he would excuse himself and go smoke. She hated being around anyone who was smoking, and he knew why. So he also he knew she wouldn’t go looking for him and risk having to breathe in the noxious fumes
She sorted through her clothes and realized that she really only had one choice of dressier outfits. She took a shower before dressing herself in a long brown-printed peasant-style cotton skirt, and a dark brown cammi. The top was one of her favorites because not only did the color look good on her, but it showed off her shoulders and her cleavage, yet was padded in the bust area, so she didn’t have to worry about her nipples poking through the fabric, no matter how cool the air conditioning would be on in the hotel restaurant.
She put on brown sandals also, which she had bought at a Renaissance Faire that her mother had dragged her to a few years ago. They had long straps that she laced up her legs. They looked impractical, and were more expensive than she had expected, but they were the most comfortable sandals she had ever owned, and she was able to walk for hours in them without her feet hurting. Whenever she attended official events where she had to stand for a long time, making small talk with potential backers for her expeditions, she often wore long skirts that would cover her feet so she could get away with not wearing heels, and instead would wear these sandals, to give her confidence.
She smiled to herself as she thought, I won’t need confidence tonight. All I have to do is make nice with the good doctor until I can beg off early, telling him I’m tired and need to get to bed. Then he’ll sign the paperwork, and I can be off only a couple of days later than I planned to leave.
Tanora stopped at the door, and took a last look at herself in the mirror that was over the dresser next to her bed.
You look really fine, girl, she thought, hearing the words that her mother often used on her when she got dressed up, as she so rarely did.
She made a face at herself in the mirror, then walked out the door and locked it behind her. She resolutely straightened her shoulders and headed down to the lobby.
~*~
She had not seen her dinner partner in the hotel restaurant area when she entered it, so she went into the bar area and found an unoccupied chair at the bar and sat down. She ordered herself a Sol, a Mexican beer that she was fond of because it was light and refreshing in the heat that even the air conditioning couldn’t completely alleviate. She was beginning to think that her being alone in the in bar wasn’t a good idea, based on the number of men who were ogling her and slowly making their way towards her, moving from chair to chair, competing to be the one to reach her first, when she heard a voice from behind her address her in an amused tone.
“I almost didn’t recognize you. You clean up so nicely.”
She turned and felt herself blush at the intense scrutiny in the eyes of her doctor.
Unconsciously, she licked her lips and said quickly, “It’s about time you got here. Meeting me in the bar wasn’t such a good idea. Look at them,” she gestured, waving her uninjured hand around slightly, indicating the men who had ceased their forward motion when a man began to speak to her
He chuckled, saying in a low voice, “Circling like buzzards around road-kill, aren’t they?”
Download this book for your ebook reader.
(Pages 1-31 show above.)