Broken Lion (20 page)

“That’s because you don’t know shit about wood carving.”

“I know how to whup your ass, boy.” He threw a half jab with his elbow and we both laughed.

“Don’t drop my carving, old man.”

“I’ll drop you.” He carefully set the carving down. “When you gonna show it to her?”

“Soon as it’s finished.”

“I’m sure she’ll love it.”

There was that word. Love. “Dean, can I ask you a question? Man to man?”

“Your woman give you the clap?”

“No!” I laughed. “This is serious.”

“Fire away.”

“Do you think it’s possible for a man to, you know…” I wasn’t sure how to put it.

“Know what? Do I have to tell you about the birds and the bees, son? You ain’t learned that yet? What they teaching you kids in school these days?” He laughed his wheezy laugh.

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Dean, I’m serious.”

“All right, calm down, son. Don’t get your panties all up in a bunch. What’re you trying to ask?”

“Can a man have… I don’t know… really strong feelings? I mean, right away? For, you know, a woman?”

He pursed his lips and nodded. “You love her.”

I ran my hand through my hair. “Is that possible after only a few weeks?”

“I knew with Helen in a few minutes.”

“I’m sure you knew you wanted to fuck her in a few minutes,” I chuckled.

“Naw. We didn’t have sex in the old days. The stork brought the babies.” He winked at me.

“Yeah, right. I’ve seen old photos of you and her. She was a fox.”

“That she was. Mmm, mmm. I miss that woman every day, God rest her soul.” His lips knotted for a moment. “Nobody else like her.”

“Yeah.” I’d never met Helen, but I’d heard thousands of stories over the years. Dean and I shared a solemn moment. “But you loved her? After only a few minutes?”

“I sure did.”

“How did you know?”

“You just feel it, son. I knew she was different the second I set eyes on her. It took a few minutes, but after talking back and forth, I just knew. She was like nobody else.”

“That’s how I feel. Brigid walked in the room and—BAM!” I smacked my fist into my palm.

“Then you probably love her.”

Hearing him say it made my entire body tingle like it did when I was walking toward the cage before a fight: every nerve lighting up in anticipation of either disaster or victory. “Yeah, maybe I do.”

“You tell her that?”

“No.”

“Then tell her already.”

I just needed to figure out the best way to do it.

Chapter 22

BRIGID

“Are you sleeping with Lion Maxwell?” Donald demanded.

I had no idea how Donald could know about me sleeping with Lion, but I needed a defense strategy.
Play dumb. Quick!
“Who?”

“Your son’s karate teacher? Are you sleeping with him?”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I was terrible at lying on the fly. All I could think about was the truth: I had just spent an amazing week having sex with Lion. More sex than I could remember ever having.

“Well?” Donald pressed. He was here at my condo dropping Daniel off. Normally he never got out of his car. This time he’d come up to the front door with Daniel and asked if he could speak to me outside. I sent Daniel into the house and here we were. Donald stared at me like he was the lawyer and I was on the witness stand. He was good at making me feel like I was the bad guy. “You are, aren’t you?” He sounded pleased with himself, and purely furious with me.

“No, I am not!” I barked. It wasn’t a lie because I wasn’t having sex with Lion at that exact moment. It had been at least eighteen hours ago. Maybe even twenty.

“You are the worst liar I’ve ever met, Brigid. I’ve told you that before.”

“I’m not lying.”
At the moment.

He shook his head. “I can’t believe this. What possessed you to sleep with our son’s karate teacher?”

“How do you know I’m sleeping with him?”

“Because you’re not denying it. Brigid.” He glared at me.

He was right. I was a terrible liar.

He shook his head. “Oh my god, Brigid. Why?”

I growled, “Why not?”

He threw up his arms. “I can think of a million reasons.”

Did he know Lion had been my patient? Had Daniel told him? Did Daniel even know Lion was my patient? I didn’t remember telling him. Maybe I had. But why would I? Stalling for time, I said, “Name a reason, Donald.”

“I don’t know. Does the term ‘conflict of interest’ mean anything to you?”

Shit.
When being attacked, go on the attack.
“He’s a karate teacher, Donald,” I sneered. “Not a… a…” I didn’t want to say my patient. “Not a business associate. Or my lawyer. Or Daniel’s fifth grade teacher who I’m trying to woo into giving Daniel a better grade. He’s Daniel’s karate teacher. They don’t even have grades.” I was really dancing around the issue. “I don’t know what you’re worried about. Do you think he’ll give Daniel special treatment he doesn’t deserve? Cut us a discount on the monthly fee? Advance Daniel to yellow belt sooner than he should? I don’t see how any of this is a problem.”

Donald flashed his trademarked sneer. The one that said,
Do you know who I am? I’m Donald Wright. THE Donald Wright. Why are you questioning me?
I hated that sneer. I had seen it a million times during our marriage. It was often the reason I was too tired to have sex with him.

“You’re not jealous are you, Donald?”

“Fuff,” he snorted. “Me? Why would I be jealous of the man you’re willing to have sex with? I mean, why have sex with me when your son’s karate instructor will do? I was never attracted to you.
Never
wanted to have sex with you. Never even asked.” His sarcasm was as subtle as a fist in the face.

“Do you have to go there?” There, as in our ancient history together. I was already thinking there, but he didn’t have to go and talk about it. “You were the one who divorced me, remember?”

“Good thing I did. Now you’re free to have sex with any Tom, Dick, or Cock that comes along.”

“It’s Tom, Dick, or Harry. That’s what the saying is.”

“I know what the saying is,” he growled through clenched teeth. “I was being sarcastic.”

“You? Sarcastic? I never would’ve thought.” He was always sarcastic when he was pissy.

“Funny, Brigid. Very funny.”

“Are we done?”

“The question is, are you?”

“What, with Lion Maxwell?”

“Yes. Him. Your son’s karate instructor. The one you’re having an affair with.”

If he said karate instructor one more time, I was going to punch him in the face. Then kick him softly in the balls. Not too softly, but softly enough not to make him sterile. I wasn’t that mad. Yet. “It’s only an affair if one of you is married.”

“I was trying not to be crude. You want me to be crude? Fine. I’ll be crude. I was talking about the man you are
fucking
. The one you spent the day with at Universal Studios with our son. Remember him? Daniel? You do know who I’m talking about, right? Your son?”

I cringed. It had been two weeks since that fateful night in the Universal Studios parking structure. This was the first I’d heard mention of it from Donald. I was surprised he hadn’t said something sooner. I’m sure Daniel had mentioned all the fun we’d had on the rides that day, but had he told Donald about seeing Lion fight those men that night? That would be bad.

Donald scanned my face carefully. He sneered, “Yes, that Lion Maxwell.”

Did he know about the fight or not?

I waited for him to say more. I knew Donald, and if Daniel had told him about the fight, he was going to tell me right now and tear me a new one. Suddenly, I was overcome by a sensation I could only describe as what it might feel like to grind my own teeth across a chalk board, the kind of feeling that caused my anal sphincter to squeeze tighter than a fist and all the hairs on my body to stand on end like they were trying to jump off my body so they could flee to safety.

Donald arched a superior eyebrow. Apparently, he could tell how tight my sphincter was at that moment. But he didn’t say anything, which meant he didn’t know.

I sighed. “Donald, we are divorced. I am free, as are you, to date whoever we want. If Lion was a bad person, you might have a point. But he’s not.”
He’s just my patient who I feel only moderately guilty about sleeping with. Forty times in one week.
“So, until there’s an actual conflict of interest—”
one that involves our son, not the one where my medical license gets revoked for having sex with my patient
“—I will continue to see who I please, when I please.” I may have sucked at lying, but I was pretty good at omitting the truth.

Arms at his sides, he flicked both index fingers repeatedly in that way he did when he was ready to blow his top and that I hated. “Mark my words, Brigid Flanagan. You are going to regret this.”

“Is that a threat, Donald Wright?” I smirked.

“No, Brigid. It’s a warning. There is something you’re not telling me and I know it’s going to bite you in the ass. And I don’t want your indiscretions spilling over into the life of
my
son.”

“He’s my son too, Donald.”

“Are you sure? Because you’re not acting like it.” He climbed into his BMW and sped off.

Ouch.

He had played the bad mom card. With me, that card always made for a winning, or should I say losing hand.

Worse, his warning echoed in my mind. Would he find out Lion was a convicted felon? What would he say then? It wasn’t so easy to label someone a good person when they’d spent time in prison.

The other pressing problem was keeping my relationship with Lion—if you could call it that—a secret from the people at the hospital. That was critical. My biggest fear was that Donald might tell them. I had no idea whether or not he knew that it was unethical for me to date a patient. The topic had never come up when we were married, so maybe he didn’t. But, if he put everything together…

Would he tell on me?

I wasn’t sure.

The way he was acting, it was very possible.

Sadly, when we’d given our marriage vows ten years ago, I had thought that the part about loving and honoring each other forever actually meant something. Look how that turned out.

No, I couldn’t trust Donald.

Chapter 23

LION

Despite the time I’d spent with Brigid and Daniel, and all the sex I’d had with her (we were at two weeks worth and counting), she and I hadn’t had a proper dinner date with just the two of us.

At first, I hadn’t thought much about it because Brigid was over at my place all the time and we were having incredible amounts of sex. Brigid was insatiable. I couldn’t get enough either. But we’d never gone out to eat. Sure, we’d eat at my house, but it was always food I cooked for her or takeout, which she insisted on paying for.

In the past few days, every time I suggested we actually go out for food, she had an excuse. The truth was, as much as I loved sex with her, I was missing just hanging out with her and Daniel.

Time to mix things up.

I called her up on Monday morning when I knew she was home.

“Lion Maxwell,” she purred in a voice that was soft and inviting and unlike her usual brass balls doctor demeanor. “Is this my booty call appointment reminder?”

That sexy voice of hers went straight to my dick and I started to get hard. It never ceased to amaze me how much she turned me on. I chuckled, “I thought we had a standing appointment.”

“We do.” She did this sexy laugh that made my dick jerk in anticipation of one of her patented ball busting blowjobs. Brigid was fucking perfect.

I snickered, “I know you’re usually busy evenings, but how about I trade in one of our booty calls for a dinner date? You know: you, me, some restaurant someplace, good food, great conversation, incredible sex after. If you’re pressed for time, we can skip the sex and make up for it the next day.” I tried to sound totally casual, but I was kind of nervous.

“Uhhhh… when?” The soft sexy voice was gone. She sounded scared.

Any confidence I had evaporated in an instant. “Ahhhh, I was thinking this weekend?”

“I don’t know. I have Daniel this weekend.”

“How about Friday? Do you have him then?”

“I work Friday.”

“Oh, right. How about next Friday?”

“I don’t know. That’s a ways out.”

“How about this Thursday?”

“Working.”

“Wednesday?”

“Then too.”

“I’m noticing a trend.”

“I’m sorry, Lion,” she sighed. “I work nights. You know that.”

That was true. All our sex had been either on the weekends or mornings before she went to work, and always at my place. Never at hers. I had told myself it was because she didn’t want us having sex with Daniel around, which I totally understood. But she had him one week on, one week off. And when she did have him last week, she left him with a babysitter. I hadn’t stopped to think about it. Two weeks later, I could put together the bigger picture.

I took a deep breath. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” She sounded like she didn’t want to be having this conversation.

If I had been the one who’d pressured her into bed, I might take a hint and back off. But she had opened that door. Now it seemed like she was closing it. If we had nothing in common, it would make sense. That happened all the time. You fucked someone until you got bored then went your separate ways. But this wasn’t that. I wasn’t bored. Neither was Brigid. I felt like we had perfect chemistry. No matter what we did, we had fun. I loved spending time with her and Daniel. I knew she loved it too. That’s why I knew she was hiding something.

“Brigid, this may sound weird, and I feel weird saying it—”

“Then don’t say it.”

Whoa. She had just put up a wall. We’re talking solid granite, ten feet thick. It was clear as day in her voice. I felt like I was one step away from getting dumped. I had to think before I said anything else. Silence hung between us like invisible poison gas. Man, I hated this. What the hell had happened?

“Lion?”

“I’m still here.”

“I’m sorry. I’m being rude. What were you going to say?”

I took a deep breath and let it out slow. “Do you not want anyone knowing you’re sleeping with me?”