Therapeutic Relations (5 page)

Tak fumbled to sit straighter in his chair and said, “Of course.”

Of course not!

“You may begin when ready, Anne,” he said a little more sharp than he intended. He cleared his throat and gave her the patient-only smile again. “Please.”

Anne’s smooth, arched eyebrow rose, but she said, “Before we start, Dr. Morris said she can’t meet today at 2:30.”

Tak’s eyes glazed over and he nodded. He tried to focus on something beyond Anne, to wrestle his anger back down to manageable. It wasn’t her fault Tanya skipped out on him. No, it was his. He underestimated her stubborness. Why would she make this easy for him when it was so difficult for her?

As Anne read off the names of his upcoming patients, Tak began to formulate the last measure of his plan.

Tanya won’t be able to outmaneuver this one.

Chapter Nine

The rest of the morning dragged by in a series of endless complaints, bellyaching, and finger pointing. Tanya suppressed yet another urge to reach across, slap her patient, and tell her to suck it up. Life sucked for everyone from time to time. She held the thin reins of her patience with all she could muster. Shocked at her slippery grasp on professionalism, she crossed her legs and leaned forward, pretending to be interested in the prattling story of the female patient’s mother.

When the onslaught ceased, Tanya gave the woman a grin she prayed was warm and understanding all the while shuffling her out the door. The clock inched ever closer to 2:30 and she longed to bolt through the thick oak doors and out into crisp air. Before Tak caught her.

Thanks to Debbie’s efficient booking, the day had been a series of patients strolling in and fumbling out of her office. Now the lull in activity would only serve to entice Tak to her door.

I’m not running from him. I’m being strategic. Yes. That’s it.

She shoved a rough handful of papers into her satchel, grabbed up her purse, and ignored the trembling in her hands. With a brief glance over her office, she shut off the lights and inched out of the office, making sure to look both ways for Tak. Finding the hushed hallway empty, she sucked in another breath of courage, stood up straight, and stalked into the uncertainty.

Not that she hadn’t seen Tak today. Oh, she had. The image of him seared right into her eyelids. Whenever she closed them, she saw him in rigid clarity. That silky thick black hair lying carefully against the cobalt blue of his Brooks Brothers button down shirt, and the midnight slacks that draped across those hard thighs – thighs which pinned her on the divan, thighs which supported her as she bucked upward and onto his rigid rod. He’d flashed those dazzling white teeth that had marred her shoulder and inflicted a tiny love wound which throbbed under his

heated gaze. Yes, those hands fondling papers in the same slow swirls they’d loved her breasts, swatted her tenderbox and made her whimper with want.

Yes, she’d seen Tak today, and it for that very reason she had to get the hell out of the office now.

She nearly made it rear exit and down the back stairwell when Anne appeared at the end of the hallway, touting a huge bouquet of flowers, balloons, and a gigantic card.

“Uh, Dr. Morris? Are you leaving?” Anne asked, spying around the huge spectacle. “I mean, now?”

Tanya sighed.

“What do you need, Anne?” Tanya asked instead of answering. Obviously, she was leaving.

Whose birthday, wedding, or baby shower did I forget? This one must’ve slipped by me.

“Dr. Morris, ma’am, these are for you.” Anne hoisted them forward as if about to pitch the entire assortment to her.

Tanya frowned at them. It wasn’t her birthday either.

The puzzle fell into place the moment she walked closer and noticed they were Japanese cherry blossoms. Hard to get, expensive to fit in a contraption like this, and to Tanya’s surprise all the items had been separate. Anne had simply been carrying them as one, but the balloons had Japanese ideograms Tanya knew as meaning love, hope, life, and unity.

Tak.

Tanya opened her door and waited while Anne placed the gifts on her round bistro-styled meeting table.

“Whew! Someone sure likes you, Dr. Morris,” Anne said with a wipe of her damp forehead. “You’re finally moving on past Dave. I’m glad, uh, even if that is a bit too personal.”

Tanya blinked at Anne, finally hearing the words. So focused on the cherry blossoms she’d hardly heard Anne’s little spill. When she realized the other woman remained, watching her, Tanya said, “Oh, yes. Lovely. Thoughtful. Thank you.”

Anne left, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

Tanya reached for the card with her hands slick with anxiousness. Butterflies flapped about her belly and she tried to get a handle on the emotions. Tak had sent her stuff before, birthday, happy divorce, and graduations to name a few. But this, this went beyond friendly bonds.

And she knew why.

A solitary line in perfect placed script read…

Follow your heart and speak true. As mine has done.

Speak true.

It had been in their freshman year of college when they’d been the subject of a group of skinhead teasing and taunting. Well, it wasn’t just Tak and her. There had been a group of about twenty of her friends, and about twenty of the skinheads. Tak had stood up to the bullies and received a pretty good bruising for his efforts. But not before he’d sent a few to the emergency room. Charges pressed and dropped, Tak ended up having to pay the hospital bills which came out of his own pocket. His parents refused to pay. There went his money for Europe that summer.

Later she had asked him why he hadn’t lied to the police about beating the skinheads.

Any number of students could’ve done the damage. No cameras, everyone pointing the finger at someone else.

Tak’s dark raven eyes had met hers and as he brushed his then-long strands of bangs from his face, he said, “To betray oneself is the gravest of all human sin. It begins by lying to others. Follow your heart and speak true.”

Which is how she knew he never lied to her. Ever. Tak always spoke true. Tanya dapped at the burning sting of unshed tears in her eyes.
I’m a fool.

Leaving the items on the meeting table, Tanya’s throat closed over the lump of emotions and feelings. She snatched up her belongings once more and fled.

What’s done is done. My mind is made up. I’m not good for him. Not enough for what he must give up in return.

These hot words buzzed around her mind as she slipped out of her office once more and out of the rear exit. Her heels made a horrible clatter as she scurried to her Lexus, but she didn’t care. Tanya couldn’t hear anything but the coursing of her blood in her ears and the galloping whine in her heart.

*****

Dr. Nakamura watched with mild fascination as his woman, yes his woman, nearly broke her heels racing to her car. He remained hidden behind the fall of shadows in the centralized stairwell. So consumed by getting away from him, from the blossoms and the declarations in Japanese, Tanya hadn’t thought to discover his whereabouts. He knew the over-stimulating gifts would be too much and had in fact planned to set her over the edge. Counting on Tanya to act

predictably, he counted to thirty, until her car vanished into the bright sunlight before sprinting to his BMW and hurrying in.

No ritual today. Not even a seatbelt until he’d breached the upper deck. There at the light! He pressed the accelerator and landed about two cars behind her. Following her home might spook her more, but judging by her body movements, Tanya thoughts were too emotionally muddled to think rationally.

Enough cat and mouse. Enough running. He enjoyed a good hunt like any other man.

He’d already declared her his—a point he reinforced today.

Fully.

Chapter 10

The long shadow fell over Tanya a brief moment before she inhaled the Calvin Klein scent. Heart hurling one hundred miles an hour in her chest, she closed her eyes and clutched the door’s handle.

Tak. He’s right behind me.

His scent charged the cologne, infusing it and making it his own unique aroma. No one carried that rawness quite like him. Despite taking deep breaths, her hands clutched the handle and trembled.

His breath brushed the back of her neck and she slumped. “Tak…”she began, not turning around.

“Tanya,” he said, cutting her off. His tone was as soft as velvet against her skin, like his divan. It stroked her ears and raised goose flesh across her arms, her bellybutton, her nipples. “Hello, baby. Remember me? I’m the guy you spent all day avoiding.”

She grinned in spite of herself.
No way had I forgotten you. But I was avoiding you.

Suddenly, her eyes flew open as strong hands whirled her around and gently pressed her against the door.

Like a stealth predator, Tak’s face appeared inches from hers. His lips, those luscious lickable lips, barely moved as he said, “I want you.”

Tanya flushed, unable to meet his eyes. “Tak, about that, I…” “Shut up.”

She stiffened and swallowed the hot retort on her tongue. After placing both hands on her hips, she muttered, “What?”

“I said to hush that gorgeous mouth and open those equally beautiful ears,” Tak purred against her throat, leaning ever closer – close enough to breathe her breath.

“Tak…”

“No!” he growled and took the liberty of kissing her throat. “I love everything about you. The way you walk, dress, talk… everything. Conversing with you is a pleasure. My life is to be
your
everything.”

“You’re crazy. Your parents…” Tanya declared, trying in vain to push him away so she could think. Being this close to her put him deep into her personal space. He’d infiltrated her defenses. Her well-crafted argument eroded against his warm, minty breath. “You can’t be serious.”

“Do you know me?” he replied, before gliding his lips down her throat and biting her at the juncture of her shoulder and collarbone.

Her libido rose, body arching and aching for more. Her hands wrapped around that cobalt blue shirt and yanked him
toward
her. Betrayed by her body, Tanya melted into him.

“I can’t be what you want, need…” she confessed lips quivering from her own want and fear. “Tak, please…”

“You
are,
” Tak whispered, sucking her earlobe in between his teeth. Her diamond stud clinked against them. “Listen to your heart, and speak
true
.”

“Tak,” she breathed into his ear, her hands winding their ways upward and into his hair. “Please…”

“Please what, baby? Tell me,” he moaned, pressing the rigid hardness of his body against hers, setting her points to peaks and puckered pleasure.

Tanya stiffened.

Damn if this isn’t the exact position I found myself in last Friday night with him. Begging for his body, his heart, and I can’t do it again.

Tak grew still against her. His body language posing the question his lips refused to ask. “I, we, I need to be alone,” Tanya said, the cold, sobering words falling from her mouth

awkwardly. “I mean, I, I, can’t be the person you need.”

Tak stepped back from her, eyes full of something Tanya couldn’t quite catch or read. Wordlessly, he removed his hands and allowed them to drop to his sides.

Quiet. Not good. He’s pissed.

“I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but you need a good Japanese woman. Your parents have been pining away for that for decades. As their only son, it is your family duty. You told me that. Your honor.”

Tak’s blank face held the tiniest hint of emotion though his voice did not. “I was in my third year of medical school.”

“I was too.”

“I have since matured and have become my own person,” he explained, eyes burrowing into hers.

”I’m sorry, Tak,” she whispered, and hurriedly slipped her key into the lock and turned.

Entering her loft, she immediately felt his presence behind her once more. “Go home,” she called over her shoulder.

The door clicked closed behind him and as it did, Tanya sighed.

She glanced over her shoulder and to her surprise, he hadn’t left, but had dropped to one bended knee.

A tremor rippled through her stomach and she hesitated a bit before spinning around completely to face him. There, on her hardwood mahogany floor, Tak raised a raven jewelery box toward her in one hand. Across his heart he’d draped his other hand. Eyes shone with unshed tears and his Adam’s apple bobbed nervously.

“You can’t be serious,” Tanya gasped before she realized the words were out of her mouth. She clasped a hand over her lips.

“Oh, but I am,” Tak said, clearing his throat. “So, here goes. Tanya, since the day I laid eyes on you in med school, I have known without doubt you were my soul’s mate. Throughout these many years, I have loved you from afar, much too far. Please, I love you. I always have. I always will, because we are meant to be together as one. Listen to your heart and speak true. Be my wife. Please.”

He held the position flawless, unwavering like a stone statue. Only his eyes shimmered with the uncertainty he felt, and Tanya marked those flashes of fear on his behalf with a growing awareness in her own. He did love her, true. She had always loved him too and the words he spoke could have easily come from her about her adoration for him. Tak had always been his own person, and she knew deep within how his parents would react to their union.

Still…

After last Friday night, Tanya understood too. No one would ever make her feel the way he did. Ever. Emotionally or physically. He had been her BFF and who better to share her life with until death? The man who already knew and loved her quirks. The man who she trusted and found faithful, dependable, trusting, and nurturing. He had been her rock, her salvation, and her friend.

How could she not be with him forever?

“Are you sure about this, Tak?” she asked, hands twisting in front of her. A grin spread across his face.

“I have never been more certain of anything in my life, Tanya.” And Tak would never lie to her.

“Yes,” she said quietly, studying the expression on his face. Tak’s eyebrows rose.