The Man Who Saved Me

Chapter 5

Shonali opened her eyes and saw that the sun was definitely up.

It had been a while since she’d slept through the night like that.

She felt the comforting weight of an arm over her, and didn’t panic. She knew who it was.

Even if she had just woken up, she knew who it was.

She raised a head and saw that Adam was just as adorable in his sleep as he was when awake. Maybe even more.

She was about to wake him up with a kiss when she heard the loud and very harsh sound of something beeping like it was on fire.

She sat up straight, pushing Adam off.

“Fire!” she cried before she could think.

Adam shook his head, but he was already out of the bed and pulling his underwear on.

“Not fire. Emergency. I have to go.”

Shonali sat there, still naked, shell-shocked, as Adam dressed in about twenty seconds and ran out the door, without a glance back at her.

She heard the door slam and still sat there.

Was he…

Did he…

He did.

Hadn’t he?

She looked around again.

Yep.

He sure had.

He had left.

They had had s*x. They had even slept in each other’s arms.

Well, mostly in each other’s arms. She had never been much of a snuggler, and she had slept so soundly that she wasn’t sure if she had snuggled up to him or not.

But in the morning, instead of sharing sweet nothings and maybe indulging in a morning romp, he had just upped and left.

After making her scream ‘fire’ like some kind of deranged idiot.

With a sound that sounded somewhat like ‘gleeep’, Shonali buried her face in her hands.

What the hell had she just done?

She had slept with the man who had saved her life, the man she had idolized for years. That’s what she had done.

In all her dreams, she had never considered that.

No, that wasn’t really true. She had considered that in some of her wilder dreams.

But then, she had dreamt of sleeping with Jon Bon Jovi, too, much to Carlos and Malia’s disgust.

She’d considered this about as likely as that.

And here she was, naked, in bed, and alone, after having slept with Adam Catten, her golden doctor boy.

She didn’t even have his number, realized Shonali.

That was mortifying.

So had all of that just been an act? Had he just been looking for casual s*x?

Had that been what she’d been looking for?

No, it wasn’t. It really wasn’t.

She hadn’t been looking for anything more than a tattoo.

“Sh*t,” muttered Shonali, and kicked off the sheets.

She swung her shapely legs out of bed and hurried to the bathroom.

She turned and looked at herself in the mirror.

Well, it didn’t look like anything they had done had done any damage. The tattoo still looked perfectly fine.

Shonali wasn’t sure what she’d thought might happen to it. That the colors might bleed out and it might disappear?

Now that she was in the bathroom anyway, she grabbed a towel and hopped in the shower.

As the warm water ran over her, she started feeling a bit better, slowly.

So what if she’d had a one night stand with the awesome Dr. Adam Catten?

He was a good man. She knew that. Somebody who volunteered for Doctors Without Borders and didn’t brag about it was a good man.

He was definitely a good-looking man.

That was understating it. He was truly gorgeous.

He was an interesting conversationalist, and he was good company. He had a good enough sense of humor, appreciated the power of the ridiculous, and he was very good in bed.

So what was she beating herself about, really, at the end of the day?

Just because she’d slept with him?

Shonali had always embraced her sexuality, and she saw no reason why she should stop doing so now. Why would she regret it now?

She was just out of practice, that was all.

Her time with Fred had done more damage than she had thought if she was second-guessing a one-night stand so badly.

But the trouble, she had to admit as she dried her hair, was that it hadn’t felt like a one-night stand.

She had no problems with having a fling, as long as all parties involved knew exactly what they were getting into. It wasn’t a problem, not in the least.

But you have to go in prepared for a fling.

She had only gone in prepared for a tattoo, and she hadn’t expected that connection she had felt with the man.

She hadn’t thought she could ever feel it. There was a part of her that felt as if she knew him, all the way to his soul.

Well, she very well might, but one thing she very definitely didn’t know was his phone number.

Or his address.

Or his damn email address.

She had absolutely nothing. She’d spent hours with him the day before and she was left with absolutely no way to contact him.

Shonali got ready, choosing her clothes for the day with a deliberation that would’ve signaled to anybody who really knew her that she was mad as a wet hen.

She considered skipping breakfast, but why the hell would she deny herself that?

She had muffins, ready to bake, in the freezer.

Feeling determined, she popped them in the oven and settled down with her giant mug of coffee.

By the time she was halfway through the coffee and the oven timer beeped, she was feeling a bit sheepish, though.

Obviously, she had needed caffeine to get her brain started.

Adam had said that it was an emergency.

The absolutely horrible alarm that had sounded from his phone had made it pretty obvious that he’d chosen that tone to be sure that he was never tempted to ignore it.

So she was making a fuss and stewing over a doctor who obviously dealt with emergency cases going to deal with an emergency case.

Now she felt a bit ashamed of herself.

Still, she bit into a muffin appreciatively.