Page 49 of Her Braun
“Save me.”
There was a mock urgency in his voice, but the look in his eyes when he moved back showed her that he meant it.
Kay lifted her hand and set it smack dab in the middle of his chest, right over his heart, and saw the other woman’s elegantly sculpted eyebrows raise in surprise.
“Sorry, he might not have even heard you. He was counting the minutes until I finished getting ready after my conference.”
She saw the woman’s eyes narrow at her words and knew she had another card she could play.
Kay gave Gibson a wink and saw a glint in his eyes. It looked like he was only too happy to see where she was taking this.
Looking back up at the other woman, Kay shrugged as if it really didn’t matter. “It just so happened that I’m attending a medical conference at the hotel this weekend.”
Half-rising from her chair, Kay left her hand on Gibson’s chest and noted that there wasn’t an ounce of give against her hand. The man was rock hard with muscle. And yes, her mind had wondered about how rock hard he was in other places.
Kay leaned across Gibson so far that the other woman had to back up.
“I’m a doctor. Doctor Kay Hata. Nice to meet you.”
The other woman had to take her hand off of Gibson’s shoulder to shake and Kay smiled even more at the little victory she’d achieved.
She definitely didn’t like seeing the other woman’s hand on Gibson and she might have put a little more strength into the shake than she needed to, but Kay was suddenly very interested in proving a point.
“Va- Vanessa Christian. It’s ah… ah, nice to meet you too.”
“Isn’t it?” Kay grinned back at her and then waved the waiter over before giving Vanessa a pseudo-sympathetic tilt of her head. “Sorry. I hope you don’t mind, but,” she turned her head to look at Gibson and slid her hand up his chest to the side of his neck with a sigh, “we were hoping to have some private time. With our jobs, it’s rare that I get to spend any real time with my Braun.”
Crestfallen.
Kay had heard the word before, but this was the first time that she’d seen it on someone’s face in real life.
Whatever Vanessa had planned for Gibson before he’d gone to the bar was now a distant memory for the other woman.
“Well, you two have a nice night, okay?”
“Thanks, Vanessa.”
Gibson lifted his hand and gave her a slight wave before she walked off.
All of Kay’s bravado whooshed from her body like someone had taken a pin to her balloon, and as Kay was gathering her wits about her to sit back down in her chair, she felt a warmth cover the hand she’d laid on his neck.
Turning to look back at Gibson, she saw that he’d lifted a hand and was covering her own.
His smile made his eyes shine. “That was something.”
She laughed, but it wasn’t a full gut laugh, it was more of a laugh of nervous relief. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“I don’t either,” his voice had softened, and the pad of his thumb brushed against hers, “but I’m glad you found it somewhere. You’re a life saver.”
She eased into the banter with him, amused and confused at the same time. “We both are, but this is the first time I’ve gotten to use my skills to save a firefighter from another woman.”
“So, who do you save firefighters from, Kay?”
The question was said in a soft tone, but it hit her hard in a way she hadn’t expected. She had treated and operated on a number of firefighters in her time as a doctor. She just didn’t want to think of Gibson needing her kind of help in an Emergency Room.
“Maybe you should just tell me why you wanted to be saved from Vanessa. She seemed like a perfectly nice woman.” As she said the words, her eyes followed Vanessa across the room.
She didn’t need to go that far with the other woman. She didn’t have to stake her claim on Gibson. She could have just made some vague reference to… to something.
