Dating Dr Notorious (27 page)

“How about you, Ms. McCarthy?” Marvin asked Lauren.

“Still looking,” Lauren sighed, waving her naked left hand in the air, her thoughts immediately on Jim.

Marvin walked them to the elevators, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure no one had come into the lobby.

“Can I ask you a question, Ms. Ranger?” Marvin lowered his voice to a whisper as he swiped the card in the reader.

“Sure,” Alexa said, tossing her hair back.

“Why did Mr. Kaiser lie in his TV interview? That wasn’t no other woman. That was Dr. Logan. I’ve seen her sneak out of here in that outfit dozens of times. And he wears disguises too. One day Mr. Kaiser is a biker, the next he’s a rock star. This whole thing stinks. I never saw two people more crazy about each other.” Marvin held the door as Alexa and Lauren walked inside.

“You’re right, Marvin. Ben loves Regina to death. He’s pretending to be a bad guy by letting people think he cheated,” Alexa said, patting the chest of his uniform. She had no qualms sharing the truth with him. Marvin was the most trustworthy man she knew outside of Casey and Sydney.

Marvin shook his head in disbelief when the doors closed on the women.

Rich people
, he thought. They led such crazy lives.

*** *** ***

Upstairs, Alexa pounded on the door and rang the doorbell.

“Open the door, Regina. We know you’re in there. Yes, we know the parking lot is full of press people. Sulking won’t change the fact.”

Lauren held up a hand to stop Alexa’s banging on the door. Alexa was always the bad cop, leaving her no choice but the play the good cop role. She put a hand to Regina’s door.

“Regina, please let us in. There’s no reason for you to be alone. We’re here to keep you company. Come on, open the door.”

“We’re not leaving until we see you,” Alexa warned, yelling again.

When there was still no answer, Alexa turned her back, crossed her arms, and leaned against the wall by Regina’s door. She swore several times, turned back, and pounded the wall with her fists.

Lauren lifted an eyebrow at the show of temper.

“I have the damn access code to get in,” Alexa informed her.

“How do you have her access code?” Lauren asked, shocked and pleased at the same time.

“I can get into all the living areas here because I own the place. I bought the building when Regina leased the condo. I needed a tax shelter and to know she actually had a damn sanctuary from the madness. So I made sure of it as best I could without doing it for her. I never told her. I never intended to tell her. Am I an awful woman?”

Lauren put a hand on Alexa’s arm. “You’re the best friend ever to use your money to help Regina have some privacy, even though we need to invade it. Now open the door, Alexa. I’m worried sick.”

Alexa grinned and punched a series of security override numbers on the card reader. The door clicked. Fortunately, the chain was not on.

They stepped inside and walked quietly through the apartment. There was an almost empty bottle of cognac on the coffee table, an ice bucket, and a single glass.

There was no one in the living room, and no one in the bed either.

They finally found Regina on the bathroom floor wrapped around the toilet.

“Oh shit,” Lauren swore, rushing and stooping to scoop Regina up into her lap.

Alexa got a washcloth from the linen cabinet, wet it with warm water, and handed it to Lauren.

When the temper left her, Alexa shook her head sadly and had to put a hand over her mouth to keep from crying. “Lauren, are we going to have to do an intervention for Regina’s drinking? She worries the hell out me anymore. I know she’s not been handling stress well lately. There has to be a better solution for her than getting drunk.”

“We’ll talk to Ben about it. See what he says,” she answered, nodding.

Lauren pulled Regina more across her lap. She patted Regina’s face with the wet washcloth. “Come on, honey. Talk to us.”

“He messed up his life because of me.” Regina said hazily, tears flowing again. “He’ll hate me one day. I couldn’t stop him. And that snake woman was touching him. Why did he let her touch him?”

Regina stared up into Lauren’s eyes. Lauren saw emotional pain and illness reeling in their depths.

“Snake woman? Regina, you’re not making any sense. The woman Ben talked about cheating on you with was you in your brunette disguise,” Lauren said, rocking her and trying to soothe her emotional pain at least.

“Split-tongue snake,” Regina spat, moaning and closing her eyes.

Alexa studied the ceiling. “Snake? Who the hell does she mean? Could she be talking about Stephanie?”

Lauren looked at Alexa eyebrows raised.

“You know,
About Town with Stephanie
—Stephanie, the interviewer woman who kept touching Ben’s hand in sympathy all the time she talked to him,” Alexa explained.

“He let her touch him,” Regina bawled, her heart seemingly completely broken by the fact.

They both looked at Regina’s sobbing form in disbelief. Finally, Lauren burst out laughing. She rocked Regina’s drunken body in apology, but couldn’t help laughing more as Regina cried harder.

Alexa joined in, leaning on the sink as their laughter echoed off the wall of the small bathroom.

Of all the things Regina Logan should be worried about, it was the woman touching Ben’s hand that had her bawling.

Lauren laughed until the tears were streaming and her stomach was aching. “Oh God, Regina. You don’t have to worry about the snake woman. You know Ben doesn’t like brunettes. All the blond hair dye in the world isn’t capable of hiding Stephanie’s dark roots.”

This sent both Alexa and her into another round of hysterical laughter.

“So much for age and maturity making things better,” Lauren said, choked, fighting back the laughter.

“Love makes you stupid. I feel sorry for any woman who makes a move on Ben Kaiser when Regina is sober,” Alexa said, choking on laughter herself.

When they had calmed and could control their laughter enough to really help Regina, Alexa brought a blanket from the bedroom. They dragged Regina onto it and carried her to the bedroom in it. They even managed to lift her to the bed and roll her out of the blanket.

“You know, you’re in pretty good shape for someone so skinny,” Alexa said, squeezing Lauren’s arm muscle. “Is this your vibrator arm?”

Lauren punched Alexa hard on the shoulder and sent her staggering while she laughed. “You are as mean as Regina. Besides, I’ve given up self-gratification now that I have a chance for the real thing again.”

“That’s ironic as hell to me,” Alexa said, walking to Regina and pulling a cover over her.

“What is?” Lauren asked. “My abstinence from self-gratification?”

“No,” Alexa said, laughing again. Not wanting to wake Regina, she motioned Lauren to follow her into Regina’s living room.

“I think the men in our lives are ironic,” Alexa replied. “I mean, it seemed like Ben Kaiser was a super nice guy, but really he was a closet sex fiend and a total alpha male. Then it looked like Jim Gallagher was a blatant cheater and so not a nice guy, but the truth is he’s running like hell from a real opportunity with a hot and desperate woman like you.”

Alexa shook her head. “No wonder I stopped dating. I’m good at this stuff, but it’s damn confusing out there. Well, I did recognize the alpha in Ben right away, but he’s definitely not like Casey.”

“Well, I sure didn’t see alpha anything in Ben,” Lauren said sadly. “He was just another cute, nice guy until I caught him kissing Regina in the garden at the country club. It was like Regina pushed some button inside Ben and suddenly he was a different man around her.”

They cleared the coffee table of all alcoholic evidence and poured themselves glasses of ice water.

Alexa laughed when Lauren sighed.

“That’s a really big sigh, honey,” Alexa said sympathetically.

“Is Jim ever going to make a serious move on me, Alexa?”

“Probably not without strong provocation to break whatever promises he’s been keeping all this time. It certainly is a mystery. I mean face it, Jim could have as many discreet call girls as he wants with his money,” Alexa said matter-of-factly.

Lauren actually paled at the thought of Jim using prostitutes. It hadn’t even occurred to her.

Alexa laughed and patted Lauren’s arm. “Lauren, honey. Jim would not have stopped at a hicky with you if he was used to going for a quickie with a pro. You’d have come back into my house with your underwear in your hand and a smile on your face. Trust me. The man is not getting serviced by anyone but himself.”

Lauren blushed at the erotic thoughts Alexa was conjuring with her comments.

“
Please. Blushing?
” Alexa snorted. “From the woman who brags about her collection of mechanical toys?

“I guess I just want it to be simple,” Lauren said wistfully. “I want something simple like Ben and Regina have with each other.”

“Right,” Alexa said sarcastically. “This is simple all right. Ben’s given up the CEO position in his company and Regina’s drowning her guilt in booze. This is
simply awful
, if you ask me.”

“I mean the sex part,” Lauren said quietly.

Alexa leaned over and put her hand on Lauren’s. “Simple sex is almost never good sex. I know because I had a lot of it and nothing else. Regina and Ben are the exception. Good sex is almost never simple, but it is always worth it. When Casey and I were first intimate, I was always worried about hurting him because of his injury. It was more inhibiting than being worried about getting pregnant when I was young.”

“How did you stop worrying?” Lauren asked, sipping her ice water.

“When Casey figured out I was holding back, we came to some new agreements,” Alexa smiled remembering. “It wasn’t
simple
, but it was certainly worth the effort.”

Lauren pretended to pick lint off her sweater.

“Want to hear what I think about Gallagher as a male?” Alexa asked, determined to put some fight into Lauren, and also determined her sweet friend would start to face her own truths.

“I guess,” Lauren said quietly.

“I think Gallagher is an alpha male also, but not like Casey or Ben. It’s hard to see the alpha in a man like Jim because he’s a wolf. With women like Regina or me, Jim is just a another nice male—protective, thoughtful, courteous, blah, blah, and more blah from the bedroom point of view—usually,” Alexa said, reaching out to shake Lauren’s arm gently with a laugh before continuing.

“When faced with the right woman, usually only one or two in a lifetime, the wolf in a man like Jim comes out to howl for his mate. He can fight the feeling all he wants, but the alpha male in him takes over. This can be dangerous if the woman is unprepared because those sorts of men don’t just want normal sex and a normal relationship. They want to stand over the woman’s thoroughly used and sated body, howling to prove they did it. And they always brand her to keep other males away.”

Alexa watched the color flood into Lauren’s face as she grabbed her neck where she’d worn Jim’s brand for more than a week.

“You got away easy from the wolf with just a love bite last time. Be careful pushing on Jim’s alpha side. Be really, really sure before you unleash it. My instinct says Jim’s been restraining his feelings for a very long time. When they finally come out, it probably won’t be very pretty or even nice—especially the first time,” Alexa concluded.

Lauren let the breath she’d been holding out with a whoosh. She remembered what Jim had said about not kissing her mouth because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from taking what he wanted. At the time, she’d thought it had been clever seduction talk. Now she wondered if it had just been the bald truth.

Then she remembered the way Jim bowed his head to her breasts and inhaled her scent. She closed her eyes and moaned at how badly she wanted so much more.

“Oh, honey,” Alexa said, taking in Lauren’s unfocused eyes and the flush creeping up her neck. “The brand Jim left on you was more than a hicky. I can practically hear the man howling over you right now.”

Lauren took a pillow and bopped Alexa in the chest with it. “If you’re going to be so damn right about men, you need to write a book to help the rest of us out.”

“I’m saving my memoirs for when I get old,” Alexa joked, thinking it would be fun when she was eighty or ninety to write about the men in her life. “And then I will do it only if Casey gets a better sense of humor. He’s gets jealous and punishes me when I flirt. I used to be offended by his possessiveness, now I kind of like it. It’s a shame what a woman can get used to.”

“Is Casey as great as he looks?” Lauren asked, smiling.

“I’ve never truly liked a lover before him. Casey never holds back in bed, which makes him the best I ever had. He likes me back and loves me madly, which is icing on the best cake ever,” Alexa smiled, her heart filled with gratitude for the truth of what she said.

“Alexa,” Lauren took a napkin and wiped the sweat from her glass, “we probably need to call Ben. Talking is the only way he and Regina are going to fix the misunderstanding between them.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m just being a big chicken. Regina’s going to kill us when she realizes we broke in and helped her. Woman’s too damn proud.”

“Amen to that, sister,” Lauren dug a coin out of her purse. “Flip for who calls?”

“Heads,” Alexa said watching the coin land tails up in Lauren’s hand.

Sighing, Alexa dialed the phone.

*** *** ***

Ben plowed through the press in front of Regina’s building like they weren’t even there. He didn’t even make eye contact.

Marvin ran to the elevator and scanned it open before Ben made it halfway across the lobby.

“Thanks, Marvin,” Ben said, hearing people behind him.

“Good to see you, Mr. Kaiser.”

The press barreled through the lobby doors chasing Ben. Marvin herded them back to door, telling them he was calling the police if they didn’t go back outside.

Ben carded Regina’s door open. Lauren and Alexa were sitting on her couch. Seeing the panicked concern on his face, they pointed to the bedroom. Ben walked in and saw Regina curled up in a ball under the blanket Alexa had thrown over her. He tugged the cover tighter and kissed her hair. He came back out to the living room and took a chair in front of them.