Breakaway by Rochelle Alers

Author:Rochelle Alers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kimani Press
Published: 2010-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Celia squinted at the tiles Gavin had placed on the Scrabble board. “Are you certain Laodicean is a word?” She’d set up the game on a table on the back porch. The shades were drawn over the pocket doors and Gavin had started a fire in the fireplace to counter the chill invading the space.

“Of course it’s a word,” he said defensively.

“What does it mean?”

“It’s lukewarm or indifference to politics or religion. I like the music,” he added in the same breath. “What station is that?”

“It’s not the radio. It’s my iPod.” Celia had loaded her iPod with hundreds of songs from her CD collection. She picked up her cell phone and pressed a button.

Gavin shook his head. “You’re too much for the heart, Doc.” She’d selected Gloria Estefan’s “Oye Mi Canto” as a ring tone.

Celia flashed a dimpled smile while adding up Gavin’s tiles. “I’m going to give you that one because I’m tired of looking up words.” A well-worn dictionary rested on a corner of the table. She picked up several tiles and placed them on the board. “M-e-p-r-o-b-a-ma-t-e. Read it and weep, lover,” she taunted.

Crossing muscular arms over his chest, Gavin glared at Celia under lowered lids. “What is that?”

“It’s a bitter carbamate used as a tranquilizer.”

He waved his hands. “Hold up, Doc. No medical terms.”

She sucked her teeth. “You can’t make up the rules as we go along. That should be established from the onset. Besides, weren’t you the spelling-bee prodigy?”

“Oh, it’s like that, baby girl?”

“Yes it is, baby boy.”

“Okay. I’ll concede to you using medical terminology, but if I win can I do what I want to you?”

Leaning over the table, she flashed a sensual smile. “Should I be afraid?”

“You should be very, very afraid.”

“Are you going to give me a hint of what you intend to do?”

Gavin wiggled his eyebrows. This Celia he liked. She was soft, teasing. He’d experienced her rage when she thought he’d shot at her, and he saw her professional side when she barked orders like a drill sergeant before she’d operated on Terry.

When they’d lain on the bed together he’d told her things about his past he’d never revealed to any woman—even women with whom he’d had more than a passing relationship. He didn’t know what it was about the tall, slender doctor with the mop of raven curls, large dark brown eyes and dimpled smile that had him pretending they were married. He wasn’t commitment or marriage phobic, yet he’d never entertained the notion with another woman.

“If you concede now, then I’ll show you.”

Celia’s impassive expression didn’t change when her gaze shifted from the board to the man sitting only a few feet across the table from her. “I didn’t make it in a male-dominated profession to concede a board game to a man with an overblown ego.”

“Is that what you think, Celia? That I have an overblown ego?”

“It’s not what I think, Gavin Faulkner. It’s what I know.”

“I’m not going to apologize because I did well in school.

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