protect her. She knew she wouldn’t be sitting in a hotel suite preparing to celebrate a friend’s birthday if Brandt were a control freak. After all, she was being paid to care for him 24/7.
“I had to, chica. Otherwise I would have ended up as Victor’s punching bag.”
“Esteban still owes him one for hitting you.”
“Well, he would have to stand in line behind Brandt.”
Unfolding her legs, Sofia leaned forward. “So you told Brandt about Victor?” Ciara nodded. “Does this mean you and Brandt are beyond the nurse-patient relationship?”
Whispering like a coconspirator, Ciara told Sofia about her reluctance to become involved with her patient because of her ethics, but how after the first time they’d made love she’d felt as if she was finally able to exorcise all the fears she’d had with Victor.
Sofia clapped her hands like a child. “Good for you, chica. What’s going to happen when he stops being your patient?”
Ciara stared at the framed landscape print that was affixed to thousands of hotel room walls. “We go our separate ways to live our separate lives.”
“Stop playing, Ciara.”
She knew Sofia was serious whenever she called her by her name. “I’m not playing. Brandt Wainwright is a celebrity athlete—”
“Who just happens to like a little chocolate in his milk,” Sofia teased, grinning. “The media will have a field day with the two of you, with Brandt as Ken and you as his black Barbie.”
Ciara shook her head. “You’ve got it wrong, Sofia. It’s not about what we look like, but who he is.”
“He’s ‘the Viking,’ football’s golden boy. The gridiron’s Brad Pitt.”
Running her hands over her face, Ciara wanted to scream at her roommate, but instead counted slowly to ten. “He is a celebrity,” she said between clenched teeth, enunciating each word, “and I don’t want a repeat of what I had with Victor. The tabloids dubbed him Dr. Eye Candy or Dr. Do Good, and he loved the attention.
“When I asked if he ever tired of the cameras and flashbulbs, he said no. He claimed some people lived all their lives without ever having their fifteen minutes of fame. Victor vowed he would make certain he had his fifteen minutes and then some. That’s when I realized he was an egomaniac.”
“Maybe it will be different with Brandt.”
Ciara heard the wistfulness in Sofia’s words, wishing they were true. “I can’t afford to take that chance, Sofia. Maybe if he lived in a small town somewhere in the South or Midwest he would be able to maintain some privacy, but that’s not going to happen in New York.
“Don’t forget Brandt is a native New Yorker who plays for a New York team and New York is the media capital. In my book that’s the trifecta.”
Groaning inwardly, Ciara reached up and began removing the rollers from her hair. Instead of wearing her hair swept up, she’d had the stylist set her hair on rods. When removed it would result in a profusion of spiral curls.
Sofia unfolded her lithe body and walked over to the wet bar. “Hable de hombres suficientemente. Enough man talk. What would you like to drink?”
“White wine.” It was the first thing Ciara could think of. “Shame on you, chica,” Sofia chided. “Wine is when you’re sitting down to a nice dinner. Tonight we’re going to be anything but nice. There’s going to be a live Latin band, comida deliciosa, an open bar and so many men to dance with. You have door-to-door car service, so you don’t have to worry about driving. Let me fix you something that will make you feel as free-spirited as you’re going to look once you slip into your dress and shoes.” Ciara had bought a black off-the-shoulder dress that hugged her body like a second skin and a pair of matching peau de soie pumps.
A rush of heat swept up Ciara’s neck to her hairline. The dress was an impulse buy. But Ciara wasn’t usually impulsive. She attributed it to the fact that she hadn’t gone out dancing since attending a wedding a year before. Once she’d gotten to the dance floor, she hadn’t sat down. When she got home, she’d collapsed from sheer exhaustion. The night had been memorable because it was the first time she’d attended an event without Victor in years. It had been like being paroled after serving time for a crime she hadn’t committed.
“Whatever you concoct, just make certain I’ll be able to walk out of this suite without assistance.”
Sofia perused the bar, selecting a bottle