REGENCY: Loved by the Duke (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Short Stories) (49 page)

“No.”

He arched an eyebrow.  “No?  That’s too bad.”

She looked him over.  He spoke with the confidence of a man that was making simple conversation and none of the over-the-top flattery that some of the men she’d spoken to tonight had used… on other women, at any rate.  “Why?”

“I would have liked to learn more about you,” he said plainly as if he were discussing the weather with her. 

Her cheeks felt warm again and she could only vent that heat by smiling. 

“I heard you mention that you are a doctor?” he asked.

She nodded.  “Yes… trauma surgeon.”

“A lucrative business, I would imagine.”

“It has its ups and downs,” she admitted.

“And, the hospital… it is to your liking?”

“It is and very much so.”  As soon as she said it she realized that she wasn’t speaking to be polite.  She was being honest with her answer and not simply doing what she figured her superiors would have wanted her to do.  She actually was quite comfortable with the new facility and was pleased with all of the upgrades that had been made to it.  “Do I have you to thank for that?”

He gave a half shrug.  “Is that really important?”

A quick search of her feelings told her that it wasn’t.  “No, I guess it’s not.”

“I’m glad to hear,” he said, his voice soothing.  “Then you are looking forward to the ribbon cutting on the new wing tomorrow?”

She started to speak, but then recalled a small bit of uneasiness.  “Actually, no.”

“No?” he asked, genuinely surprised.

“It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it,” she clarified, “but I’m due for a little time off.  So I’m afraid I’m going to miss the whole thing.”

“Are you?  A pity,” he said, his voice full of genuine remorse.  “Then surely you must have a good reason?  Some pressing appointment, perhaps?  A life-and-death surgery or some such thing?”

She hung her head a little dejectedly.  “Uh… no, I’m afraid not.”

Erik looked at her with some small amount of confusion. 

She took a short breath.  “I’ve been working nonstop for a while now.  I’m supposed to be taking a couple of days off starting tomorrow.  It’s my boss’s orders, really.”

“Orders?”  Erik’s look of confusion turned into something else that she couldn’t quite place.  It wasn’t anger and it wasn’t disappointment, it was something in between the two.  “Then I shall have to have a word with your superior.  Make him see reason.”

She giggled a little.  “Why would you do that?”

He shifted nervously on his feet.  “You’ll forgive me for eavesdropping, but I could not help but overhear how you enjoy your work.  Someone who is pleased by such a noble pursuit should not be forced to rest if they do not choose to do so.” 

She smiled warmly at the man across from her.  “Thank you for saying so.”

“My pleasure,” he said, his green eyes watching her with a kind of intensity she would have thought an artist to have when focusing on the model for a painting.  “So, why would you choose to hide yourself away out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Erik.”

“
Touché
,” he added after a brief pause and a soft chuckle.  “I’ll answer for you if you’ll do as much for me?”

“Sure,” she said quickly before she realized that she hadn’t given the idea very much thought at all. 

“In all honesty my fiancé insisted that I come to this event.  She seemed certain that it would be good for my… uh… business…” he said uncertainly, almost cautiously.

“Oh,” she said, feeling the sudden crushing weight of disappointment on her shoulders.  She wasn’t entirely certain why, but the idea that this man was a contributor to the hospital had been a tad demoralizing.  That he was engaged seemed even more upsetting.  “You’re…” she paused, careful not to let the wrong words leave her mouth, “… a benefactor?”

He nodded.  “I am, in a small way.”

“How small?”

He shrugged.  “I merely contributed enough to build the new wing.  That was all.”

Evie paused and a memory surfaced in her mind.  She recalled the renovations done to the hospital… the new wing that was built… bringing everything in there up to code…  She gasped.  “But… the new wing… it cost twenty five million!”

He nodded.  “It did indeed, so my real estate experts told me.  And every square inch of it was tax deductible.”  He looked sadly at the ground.  “Although that was not the reason I had it built.  And the real reason was… well… I suppose I’m ashamed of the real reason and I preferred to have some private moments.  That is why I came out here.”

Evie’s mouth was slightly agape.  No words came to her mind as to how she could respond to such a statement.  The man standing before her was wealthy enough to build the entire new wing of the hospital and he shrugged it off like he’d only had the parking lot painting. 

There was something undeniably interesting about him.

“Your turn,” he said, looking up.

“Excuse me?” she asked, coming back to her senses.

“The reason you chose to hide yourself out here?” he reminded her.

“Oh… uh… I suppose… uh…”

He waited for a few moments and when she failed to do anything more than stutter, he chuckled.  “You just wished to get away from them because you simply don’t care to be around such a – shall we say – a tight-assed group of people?”

Her manners were forgotten and she wondered only how he could have known this about her even though she had not said a word to him.  “Uh… yes… I suppose you could say that’s true.”

He nodded approvingly.  “Good.  I would too.”  He looked down at his empty glass and then to hers.  “Oh, where are my manners?  Forgive me… you spilled your drink when I startled you.  Please… allow me to get you another.”

“Another?” she asked. 

“Yes.  After that, I’m sure we can return to the solitude of this balcony… away from that rabble inside.”

There was a strange tickle of excitement in the back of her heart at this suggestion and she felt that she could be oddly comfortable with it.  “Yes… that would be nice.”

He smiled and offered her his arm like a gentleman from one of those old fashioned movies that she had always laughed at as a child.  But she wasn’t laughing now as she slipped her arm through his and they went back inside to find the bar.

Chapter 3

Evie lay in her bed staring blankly up at the ceiling with a fool’s grin on her face.  Her mind kept rotating back to the previous night and the captivating man that she had met there.  She replayed the entire event over and over in her mind like a loop function on a DVD.

Erik
.  Just thinking his name excited her.  The strange man was everything that she liked in a man: intelligent, forthright, honest, and even a little mysterious.  That he was rich and spoke with an accent that she still couldn’t quite place had been unexpected bonuses. 

She reclined on her pillow, thinking of him and a multitude of questions rose up in her mind like bubbles in a soda.  They had spoken so much last night and somehow she still didn’t know anything about him.  She was bursting with a desire to know more about him.  What was his last name?  Where was he from?  What kind of business was he in that he could afford to build a whole new wing on a hospital?  Why had he really bothered to go to that party last night?  Why did he feel it was necessary to hide away like that when he should have been first in line to have his ass kissed?  Why did it seem that he detested money so much? 

The last of the questions that rose in her mind was the most difficult to bear.  It was one that she didn’t care to acknowledge, but also one that she couldn’t ignore either.  Who was his fiancé?

The question bit at her like a venomous snake.  The feeling that coursed through her at thinking it wasn’t poison, but jealousy, which she felt was far more caustic.  More, its effects were far more severe and lasting.

She couldn’t stop her mind from pondering the question.  The woman that had Erik both in her life and her bed was certain to be the subject of much envy.  She built a list in her head of what a future-wife of the mysterious Erik’s was sure to be: wealthy, intelligent, successful, and perhaps even a little overbearing.  The way Erik had been dressed and how he seemed so intent on looking humble despite his fortunes told her that he was anxious to be free in one manner or another.

Maybe there’s trouble in paradise?
  The thought put a selfish grin on her face.  That Erik should revert to bachelorhood was not at all un-appeasing.  Her only problem in that was that she would have no way to explore that possibility, were it to happen.

He’s getting married... and not to a low-income doctor
, she reflected sadly.  True, she wasn’t rich, but she wasn’t poor either.  But a man like Erik was like a thoroughbred horse: he was meant to be paired with someone who would be nothing short of advantageous for him.  It was as simple as that.

Depressing though that was, she found that she had enjoyed his company last night.  There was no denying that.  She had enjoyed it to the point where had even been feeling a little adventurous.  If Erik had hinted that he was there in any way for the same reason that other supporters of the hospital were – to get a little on-the-side-love of all things – she felt like she could have obliged him in that regard and enjoyed it.  And she could have done so especially by the end of their time together.  They had wound up speaking for nearly three hours, far longer than she would have anticipated staying there at the party.  But every minute that she had spent with Erik felt well wort the effort.  If only he’d wanted… more.

But no, Erik had been nothing short of polite with her.  Evie had not always been great at reading people but even she was able to realize a sexual advance when she saw one.  And nothing about Erik’s manners or conduct last night had done anything to suggest that was craving something more delightful than the snacks or the drinks or a good conversation.  All of his needs, it seemed, had been met in as civil a manner as could be found.

Still, it was a pleasant thought just the same if he would have wanted more. 

She sighed deeply and rubbed her forehead.  In all likelihood she would never see the mysterious man again.  Functions for a hospital were like holidays with family: done only so many times a year and not everyone would turn up for them if they turned up at all.  The people that had donated to the hospital had had their fun and their photo opportunities, the hospital had lent out is people as a kind of payment to the people with the money, the hospital had gotten its publicity… everyone was happy.  And the odds of seeing anyone from last night were somewhere between a snowball’s chance in hell to a meteorite landing squarely on her head.

“Shit,” she mumbled. 

She got up after a few more minutes of depressing thought and dressed herself.  She had two days to herself and there were more productive things for her to be doing.  She made herself a pot of coffee and resigned herself to do what people usually did on their days off. 

She was about to begin making a grocery list when there was a sudden knock at the door.  The knock was loud and insistent and it was enough to make her jump a little, ruining the early morning tranquility of her home.  The knocking persisted as she drew closer to the door. 

“Alright, alright,” she called to the closed portal.  “I’m coming!  What’s so important that it can’t wait a…” she gasped when she opened the door.

Erik stood there.  He was still dressed in the same suit he’d worn the previous evening, but something was out of sorts with him.  His eyes were red, he looked a little pale, and he leaned his weight against the doorframe of her apartment like a man who needed a crutch.  His clothes and his shoes were lightly soiled with dirt and grime, a far cry from the mysterious man she had conversed with the previous evening.

“Good morning,” Erik said, his voice a little low.  “I’m sorry to just drop in like this and unannounced… but I had to see you…”

The words sent bolts of lightning to her heart.

He straightened up and her eyes fell to his left side where his matching hand held a handkerchief to a bloody stain that had ruined his suit and was already permeating the fine fabric of his shirt.

“… I needed to see you badly…” he added, his weight beginning to slump against the frame.

She barely had time to reach out and catch him.

“Oh, my god!” she muttered, panic mixing with confusion that only barely managed to keep her from crying out completely.  “I have to get you to the hospital!”

“No hospitals,” he managed to say weakly.  “No hospitals… I came to you directly… please… I can trust no one…” his voice faltered as did his legs and he nearly fell face-first upon the hardwood floor of her apartment before slipping into unconsciousness.

Chapter 4

She had managed to haul him up onto the kitchen counter top of her apartment and the scene looked like something from a disaster movie where a person would have had to perform the equivalent of tree-side surgery in a world without power or proper tools or some other such thing. 

She had stretched out a couple of towels that made the counter top only slightly more comfortable for him while she worked, rolling up one such towel and placing it under his head in place of a pillow.  He lay with only his trousers still upon him, but his chest was bare, allowing her to work.

She had only had a moment to savor the sight of so much of his skin before the feeling of delight had passed and she’d set to work.  His shoulders were indeed broad and his torso was very well developed.  A patch of hair rested on his chest, along with a few other scars that looked as though they could have been obtained in childhood. 

But she’d found enough focus to ignore such things and resorted back to her usual methods and training and performed the work she could with the few items that she did have available and substituted what she could for what she lacked.  All together she was able to determine that the damage wasn’t severe and already there were signs that the wound was infected, but she believed that she managed to catch the danger in time as she sewed him back up.

It was hours before he regained his faculties and Evie sat closely by, watching him and keeping a close eye on his injuries.  She was bursting with questions and counted it a small mercy that he hadn’t been awake to answer them while she had worked.  Answers could always come later, but not if he bled out from his wounds.  That had set her priorities straight

When he finally did open his eyes she sat up like a nervous prairie dog in its mound to see him.  His eyes were foggy, but he did not seem so out of his senses that he would require treatment that she couldn’t provide.  His fatigue was owed to exhaustion and loss of blood and while he was still pale in the face, he seemed strong enough to convince her that he would survive.

“Careful,” she whispered, standing up over him.  “You might pull a stitch.”

Erik’s eyes fluttered as he looked down the left side of his body.  Whether he approved of her work or not was immaterial.  “Bad?” he asked, his voice a little cracked.

“No,” she said with a little relief.  “It was a clean entry and exit… it was just a step above being superficial.  You’re lucky that it didn’t hit anything major.”  She gathered up a cup of water and put it to his lips, helping him drink.  “Drink this, I don’t have any I.V.’s and you need to replace some of the fluid you’ve lost.”  He accepted her help and only lightly sputtered the water he drank before reclining his head back upon the makeshift pillow she’d provided for him. 

“Thank you, Evie.”

She paused; an uncomfortable feeling crept into her gut.  “Normally, I would have called an ambulance and had them pick you up.  Flattering as it is that you came to me, I have to ask you some questions.”

He nodded.  “I thought as much.”

She got right to it.  “This is a gunshot wound, Erik.  How did you get it?  Why didn’t you want to go to a hospital?  How long ago did this happen?  Why come to me?”

His eyes regained some of their mettle and in them she could see the desire within him to move.  “I… I’ve upset you… I’m sorry… I’ll go then…” he tried to sit up.

“Hold it!” she said, stretching her arms out and keeping him from moving.  His weight shifted and he nearly fell off of the counter top.  “Don’t move!  Christ!”

Erik looked around confusedly.  She noted his confusion at seeing that he wasn’t in a bed, but on the counter top of her kitchen. 

“Sorry… I couldn’t carry you to the bedroom and dragging you any further wasn’t really an option… it could have made your wound worse.   And I needed you to be somewhere that I could flush your wound.  This was the best that I could do, I’m sorry.”

He observed his wound.  She had stitched him up and dressed the injury; twin patches of cotton dressing covered the entry and exit wound on his left side.  Each was only an inch and a half apart.  Deep enough to be lethal if left untreated, but shallow enough to have avoided major and necessary organs. 

“You’re showing some early signs of infection in the wound.  I’ll need to get some antibiotics before you’re well enough to move,” she advised.

This news didn’t seem to bother him.  “Do you… often keep tools necessary for surgery in your home?” he asked.

“I am a surgeon,” she said, sitting back down on the chair she had dragged over from her dining table.  “It pays to be prepared.  Although, performing a minor surgery on a man that I met last night wasn’t really on my list of things to do on my day off.”

He nodded apologetically.  “Yes… I’m sorry.”  He stretched his fingers in and out she recognized the motion well enough: a person realizing that their senses were not as perfect as they should have been.  “Pain killers?”

She picked up a bottle of scotch that she had opened that was drained of some of its amber liquid.

He almost smiled at her resourcefulness.  “No vodka?”

“It’s all I had,” she said, setting the bottle down.  “Too much would have thinned your blood and made the bleeding worse.  But you were unconscious anyway… that made it easier.”

He sighed and rested his head flatly on the counter top.  “I’m in your debt, Evie.  How soon before I can leave?”

“Not for a few days at least, this isn’t the movies.  You can’t get patched up from a bullet wound and just walk off the same day it happens.  Like I said, you need antibiotics and what I’ve got here simply won’t cut it.  And you’re
not
going anywhere until you get them.”

“Unfortunate.  If I do?”

“You develop a very serious infection that could end up killing you.”

He gave a short nod.  “Very well… I can be patient… and I do believe there will be no danger for at least a few days.”

The word caught her like a fish hook.  “Danger?  Why would there be danger, Erik?  What the hell is going on?”

He sighed.  “I do not wish to trouble you more than I already have, Evie…”

“Well, seeing as how I’ve put you back together and you can’t go anywhere I’d say that I’m in it now, aren’t I?”

He was silent for a moment, but nodded.  Whatever it was that had happened to him she knew that he was in it up to his eyeballs.  And whatever it was, it wasn’t good considering that he’d gotten shot over the whole thing.  And somehow she had the distinct feeling that if he was up to his eyeballs in shit then she was up to her forehead.  That gave her some leverage to at least demand some answers.

“Then perhaps you can answer my questions.”

She could see that he understood his position without needing to be compelled into it and that she wasn’t asking a question and given their circumstances he had no choice but to comply.  Still, there was something that resembled a thread of resistance within him.

“Evie… you may not wish to know.”

“You came to me, remember?  You needed by help because you said you couldn’t trust anyone.  If I’m going to take this risk, I have a right to know what you dropped me into, don’t you think?”

He was silent, his eyes glossy with contemplation for a moment before he looked as though he were officially resigned to disclosure.  “Very well,” he said with a sigh, “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you
how
I received this injury.  But
why
I got it is far more troubling.”  He licked his lips.  “I am afraid I have been… betrayed.”

“Betrayed?” she asked quizzically, though that brought more questions to her mind and in no particular order.

“Yes,” Erik said before she could organize her thoughts.  “As for why I didn’t go to the hospital… well, the ones who betrayed me know that I escaped and they also know that I was injured.  They would be looking for me at the hospitals and would find a way to finish what they started.  One of the oldest rules of warfare is that if your enemies know where you are then it is best not to be there when they come.”

“Warfare…?” she asked incredulously.

“It is a long story.”  He adjusted himself on the counter to make himself more comfortable, though he didn’t damage her dressing.  “As to when this happened… I’m sure you’ve also concluded that this had to have occurred last night.  Not long after I left the party… almost as soon as I walked in my front door, as a matter of fact.”

She bit her lip.  She didn’t like the picture that was forming in her mind.  “Wait a minute… this happened last night?   How long have you been out there and bleeding like this, Erik?”

“Ever since I was shot, Evie.  I didn’t have access to a car, nor could I travel by means of cab or bus where someone was certain to see me.  And a bleeding man would certainly rouse suspicion, don’t you think.  So… I walked here.”

“You
walked
?” she asked, her mind beginning to understand why he looked so pale.  If he’d walked a great distance with that hole in his side he would have lost a considerable amount of blood.  But considering how badly he
hadn’t
been bleeding when he’d come to her, he’d done a good job keeping his fluids internal.  It also explained why his appearance was a tad more tarnished than she remembered.

“As to why I came to you… well, I knew that you are a doctor.  And I know that you did not have to go in to work today.  This was the only place I could think of that I knew no one would be looking for me.  At least, not for a long time yet… and I do imagine that sooner or later that someone will get around to it.  I’m sorry for that.”

That someone toting guns could be coming to her door later if not sooner put a chill down her back and it brought to mind another question.  “How did you know where I live?”

He chuckled, like the answer was the punchline to a simple joke, “Phone book.”

She held her breath for a moment.  Her heart thrummed inside of her chest, warring with panic and fear until the completeness of his response washed over her.  The simplicity of it made her chuckle a little as well.  But the brief moment of glee was short lived.  She felt another pair of questions rise up inside of her and she wasn’t looking forward to asking either one of them and she felt a degree of certainty that she wasn’t going to like the answers that she got.

“Who shot you?”

Erik looked hesitant for a moment and shut his eyes as he drew in a sharp breath as if the answer would pain him.  “My fiancé.”

Evie felt a tickle of fear run down her back and she was barely able to keep enough of her finer senses together to ask her final question.  “Erik… why would your fiancé want to shoot you?”

He rolled his head towards her and there was a look of concern on his face.  Not concern for himself or fear that he was about to divulge some great secret.  But it was the look of a person who held some information that was… dangerous.

But he looked resigned to being committed to a path of complete honesty.  He gave a final sigh.  “Because my family name is Kyrov… and if I die, she inherits my family’s entire empire.”

She froze, unable to move.  The name slammed into her like an invisible fist against her solar plexus, robbing her of the ability to breathe.  She smacked her lips, feeling that her throat had suddenly gone dry.  For an instant she considered calling Erik’s bluff on this… that he was doing nothing more than lying and playing a cruel joke.  But the hole in his side was evidence enough that he was not lying and it was far too much effort to go through for something as simple as a prank. 

“Kyrov… as in… the Russian crime family?”

Erik nodded, looking full of what was undeniably regret.

Evie reached for the bottle of scotch, uncapped it, and took a long enthusiastic drink.