Free The Merger Mogul by Donna Every

and self conscious.  He was used to
people staring at him but, in the past, that had usually been in admiration,
which he acknowledged without conceit. Now he felt that they were wondering why
he had this stupid cap on his head and why he looked so sick. He just wanted to
get out of here as fast as possible.
    “Miss Taylor,”
said the orderly. A woman in a long white coat and black jeans turned
around.  Daniel’s eyes drank her in like a man deprived of water for a
long time. This was the first spark of life he felt since his surgery. Her
skin, the color of café-au- lait was flawless, her
hazel eyes were beautiful and even with her long, light brown hair pulled back
in a simple pony tail and very little make up on, she was gorgeous. She
reminded him of Vanessa Williams when she became the first Black Miss America
in the ‘80’s. He felt a stirring in his body for the first time in weeks and
almost smiled in relief to know that some things were still working.
    “This is Daniel
Tennant,” continued the orderly.
    “Thanks Pete,”
she said with a smile, walking over to them.
    “Hi, I’m
Kathryn Taylor,” she introduced herself, extending her hand, “but most people
call me KT. I’ll be your physiotherapist.” She didn’t even seem to notice the
cap, but then again he supposed she was used to things like that in her line of
work.
    Her handshake
was surprisingly firm considering how soft her hand felt in Daniel’s. He wanted
to keep holding it. He quickly checked her left hand for a ring and was happy
to see none.
    Kathryn Tennant
sounds even better and you wouldn’t even have to change your initials, thought
Daniel. Where did that come from?  He closed his eyes and tried to clear
his head.  The drugs must be affecting my thinking!’
    “Hi, KT,” he
said sounding surprisingly normal in spite of the thoughts going around in his
head. “Isn’t it too soon to be starting therapy? My head still hurts like the
very devil and I feel dizzy and weak.”
    “I’m afraid
you’re going to feel like that for a little while, Mr. Tennant, so the sooner
we get started the better.”
    “Please call me
Daniel,” he interjected.
    “Daniel then. We’ll take it easy today.  I’ll just let
you do a few exercises to assess your strength and find out which areas need
the most work.  You’ll probably feel tired very quickly but that’s
normal.  Don’t try to overdo it; we’ve got about two months to get you
back to your old self.”
    Daniel suddenly
didn’t mind if it took him two years to get back to his old self if it meant
seeing her every week.  He began to wonder if they took out something else
from his brain apart from the tumor.  What was he thinking? He didn’t
normally see the same woman for two months, far less two years!
    Half an hour
later Daniel felt that he never wanted to see Miss Kathryn Taylor again in his
life!  His head throbbed, his arms and legs felt weak and wobbly and sweat
poured off his body.
    “I wouldn’t
mind feeling this sweaty and weak if it was after a couple of hours of passion,
but this is ridiculous!” Daniel joked trying to cover up how worried he was.
Would he ever feel well again?
    KT didn’t crack
a smile at his attempted humor.  Instead she said: “Please keep your
offensive comments to yourself, Mr. Tennant and let’s focus on getting you on
your feet.”
    Daniel frowned
feeling somewhat chastened.  Offensive comments?  
This was 2008 for heaven’s sake not the Victorian era!  Was she for
real? 
    “My apologies,”
he said. “I didn’t mean to offend you.  That’s just my way of trying to
deal with how weak I feel.  I’m wondering if I’ll ever get back to
normal.”
    Her face
immediately softened in understanding and she squeezed his shoulder in
sympathy. Her touch was strangely comforting to Daniel. In spite of his obvious
weight loss, his shoulder felt strong and very masculine to her.
    “Don’t worry,
you’ll be fine.  Recovery from brain