David spun away from me and slammed his fist down on the counter in the corner of the room. The security men moved towards him as though afraid he might do more, but I waved them back as I hopped down from the examination bed I was sitting on. The last thing David needed right now was to deal with any more trouble.
I moved to him and wrapped my arms tightly around his waist, moving into his embrace and pressing my head against his chest. "David, this is not your fault. I told you to leave. I need you strong, not tired and grumpy. One of us injured is enough. And anyway, if he didn't come today he would simply have found another time to do it. Perhaps when I was back at my own apartment, alone, and unable to call anyone for help..."
David's arms tightened around me as I spoke. The thought hadn't even occurred to me before now. I was incredibly lucky. What if he had targeted me when I was alone in my apartment? There would have been no one to interrupt if he had done that. He could have done anything he wanted... The thought sent a shiver chasing down my spine.
"Are you cold?" David picked me up from the floor as though I weighed nothing. All thoughts of Robert disappeared from my mind as David pressed me close against his body. I knew what his body could do to me—the way he could make me feel with just the touch of his hands. I longed to trace my fingers across his bare chest, to watch the excitement light up his eyes as I followed my fingers with my tongue.
"Carrie?" I snapped my gaze back to David. He still looked concerned but I could tell that he knew exactly what I was thinking about. It was as though he could read my mind. With him near me, my thoughts were never my own. I didn't mind, it was comforting to think that the man who held me in his arms knew me well enough to know exactly what I was thinking.
He carried me back to the bed and set me on the edge. I looked down at my bare feet and it slowly began to sink in that I was still in my hospital gown. No slippers, no robe. It was at that moment that I was grateful that the gown wasn't the usual open-backed affair.
"You're all flushed. What were you thinking about?" He tilted my face up to his. Gently he stroked his fingers down along my jaw line until they ran down the side of my neck to the wide neckline of the hospital gown.
"You know what I was thinking. I was thinking about you and what you can do to me... The things you make me feel with your hands and your body..." I trailed off as the heat built within my core.
David's laugh startled me. "Carrie, you're not even out of the hospital and you were just attacked and that is what you were thinking? If I had known all those months that I watched you tottering around my office just how insatiable you truly are I would have built up the courage to take you a lot sooner..."
I blushed and ducked my head, letting my dark hair fall across my face like a curtain. He had watched me for a while. He had liked me for some time and he had needed courage to approach me. I found it a little hard to believe. David Ashcroft was a man who got what he wanted. He didn't pussy-foot around situations and he certainly didn't need to build up courage to take what he wanted. It was part of the reason he was so successful in business.
"I don't believe you..." The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. I wasn't sure if it was the shock or if I was simply getting braver around David that made me say it. He instantly stopped laughing. His grip on my chin tightened as he lifted my face up to look at his.
His expression was all business and I knew he wanted answers. He didn't even need to open his mouth to ask me what I meant. I could simply tell from the look in his eyes, the set of his jaw and the way his fingers brushed ever-tightening circles on my chin.
"I mean, you're David Ashcroft. Business man extraordinaire. You don't need to build up courage for anything, let alone asking someone like me out..."
For a moment David's expression was one of utter confusion, until finally he seemed to understand what I was saying. "You think I didn't struggle with the idea of asking you out?"
I tried to duck my chin down again but this time David was having none of it. He held my face tight and forced me to meet his gaze.
"Yes, that is exactly what I think. The only thing that might have been a struggle would be asking someone who looks like me out... I'm not exactly your typical type... I don't exactly fit the supermodel mould you seemed drawn to..."
"So you think that because I dated slim women in the past that you can automatically put me in a little box? That you know how I think or how I feel or how much courage I need to build up in order to ask out the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on in my life?"
My mouth dropped open and the air caught in my lungs... There had to be a mistake... There was no way he could possibly think of me in that way... It just wasn't possible. Men didn't see me like that. I wasn't beautiful and I certainly wasn't the most beautiful woman they could lay their eyes on... I remembered back over the parade of beauties I had been witness to. Each one of them would leave me far behind in the beauty stakes and yet not one of them seemed to last much longer than one date...
In fact, if memory served me correctly, many of the dates had been business functions of some type or other. And there were often occasions where David had rung the women up to cancel before the date ever happened. He had been a very gracious gentleman, sending them apology flowers and little gifts but he was the one-date-wonder... Or at least that is how I had known him... That was until he asked me to go to the bathroom and remove my panties, starting our own little affair.
"You can't mean that... I'm not..."
"Not what, Carrie? Not beautiful? Don't give me that bullshit. You know how I see you. You know I find you irresistible. It is for that very reason that you are even alive. I couldn't stay away from you that evening. I had business to finish up, calls to make. But seeing you in that dress and knowing what lay beneath it was enough to have me call off all of my business plans for that evening and follow you down to the beach. If I hadn't... Or if I had just gone down with you in the first place... Goddammit, Carrie, but you frustrate me sometimes."
He turned away from me and moved to the door.
"David, I..."
"Just don't say another word. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to show you what I think of you and how beautiful I really believe you are but I'm going to have to figure out a way..."
He stalked out of the room and pulled one of the security guards with him. "I need to talk to your manager. What happened here today is unacceptable... I want Miss Grant moved immediately..."
His voice faded away as he moved down the hall. I wrapped my arms around my body and shivered. It was all far too much to believe. Robert and David and everything that had happened. Part of me wished that what had occurred with Robert had been a dream but I knew better. I also knew that the moment I tried to close my eyes and sleep that his face would haunt me.