12: Protect Her, Greg

Greg finally got the door unlocked to see a man striking at the figure on the bed whom he didn’t have to assume was Donna.

By the time Donna’s attacker heard the person behind him, it was too late for him. The Scandinavian felt himself flying off the bed and onto the floor. Winded, he couldn’t even scramble to his feet before a big man seized his collar and carried him into the nearest wall.

“I thought I recognised you,” Greg said lethally. “From the party, right? Didn’t your mother ever tell you to never, never, never hit a woman, you weasel?”

The European couldn’t have possibly answered the question punctuated by punches to the gut. One to the face and he was out like Donna.

Donna.

Greg dropped her assailant and rushed to her side. She hadn’t stirred yet. Turning on the bedside light, she still didn’t move. He saw angry red marks on her throat, cheek and wrists. Greg swore. He tried shaking her but she didn’t move. She still had a pulse but he figured it must have been quite a blow for her to still be unconscious.

He stood up and called switchboard, asking for a doctor, the manager and the head of security. He returned to Donna’s side just as she began to stir.

Her eyes flickered open and gave an alarmed cry, thinking her attacker was still on her. She raised her arm and immediately started to fight.

“Hey easy kid, it’s just me.”

When she realised it was Greg, her body sagged back onto the bed.

Tears of relief filled her eyes. Putting his arms around her, he tried to establish facts.

“Tell me what happened. Did he-?”

She shook her head, her throat painful. “He was strangling me,” she croaked. “He wanted my engagement ring.”

“Silly D,” Greg said softly. He wiped tears from her eyes, “You should’ve given it to him instead of letting him hurt you like this.”

She shook her head, unable to speak so Greg just held her close, knowing that’s what she needed.

He turned one of her wrists over in his hand and winced when she tensed against the pain it caused. It made his blood boil and he turned his eye murderously toward the man who had done this to his fiancé.

Donna saw the fury on Greg’s face and opened her mouth to calm him down.

That was when management, the doctor and security announced themselves.

Gently, he settled Donna against the pillows and covered her nakedness with the bed covers.

After opening the door, the first thing Greg had them do was remove the man slumped against the bar. “Get him out of this room before I fulfil the urge to rip his hands off.”

The head of security directed his men to do just that.

While a female physician attended to Donna in her room, Greg took the two gentlemen into his room momentarily. He told them what little he knew and the doctor popped her head in to say the patient was decent.

The doctor gave Greg the prescription for Donna and left the hotel suite. The people remaining gathered on the sofa set. Greg sat, an arm around Donna for support. The head of security spoke first.

“Would you mind telling me what happened?”

“I woke up just after drifting to sleep to find someone leaning over me when I realised Hendrik was trying to steal my ring.”

“Hendrik?” the manager interrupted.

“My attacker,” Donna explained, her voice going hoarse.

“You know him?” the security man asked.

“Not really,” she said, her voice fading.

“I don’t understand. Donna, how did he get in?” the manager asked.

“I let him-” her voice went altogether.

“You let him in? Did you come here with him?”

Donna nodded. The two hotel people exchanged glances. Donna looked to Greg.

“Let me explain,” he said. “D and I had a fight yesterday afternoon and we went to a party in the evening. She danced with a couple of men and I pretended not to care but when she said she was leaving with that man, I was so angry I saw red and I let her go.”

The hotel personnel gave him stern looks and he sighed, looking down at his lap briefly. He knew this wasn’t going to look good for him whether he acted like the caring fiancé or the careless playboy. He was responsible for Donna’s safety and he had failed to keep her one hundred per cent safe.

“I blame myself for what happened. If I had just apologised she’d not have tried to make me jealous and this wouldn’t have happened.”

The first part was entirely true. Everyone could see it on his face.

The manager nodded and the security man cleared his throat.

“Em, excuse me Miss Quinton. Did you and your assailant do anything together here in this room?”

What business is it of yours? she thought.

As if reading her mind, the man ventured carefully into an explanation. “It would be harder to press charges against the thief if you were familiar with him.”

She shook her head and pointed to the floor. “He slept on the floor- I couldn’t go through with it,” she whispered, bending the truth. Although she really couldn’t have gone through with it, him having fallen asleep.

Thinking of that, she wanted to laugh, despite the bizarre circumstances and the pain she was feeling at the present moment. Knowing the hotel people wouldn’t understand she turned her face into Greg’s chest, hoping she would look like a woman seeking comfort in her man. While of course, she tried to stifle giggles. Greg’s arm tightened around her, his hand rubbing her back.

The manager nodded, satisfied that they were reconciling quickly and learning from their blunder that could have cost Donna her life. He stood up to have a side discussion with the head of the hotel’s security unit.

“Are you laughing or crying?” Greg murmured, his face bent over her neck, looking very much like the sorry lover.

Donna looked up and he saw humour in her eyes. With a chuckle he said, “Well sober up, the manager’s coming back for what looks like a lecture on behalf of our parents.”

Her face was composed by the time the manager- an old acquaintance of both Donna and Greg’s parents- began speaking.

“Now, I hope you both learned a lesson here,” he said rather sternly. “Pride and anger and reckless impulse can all be dangerous for a relationship. I’m only glad you seem to realise that. Gregory, I hope you start taking better care of her, son. Protect her.” Pause. “She’s been through a lot in her life and she deserves to be treated with some TLC. And Donna, you need to be patient with him. I can see the two of you are close so I suppose you’ll make it through this, but you have to work at it- it isn’t going to come easy, I assure you.”

He stood up and ended his stay by promising to send up a breakfast tray. Shaking Greg’s hand he smiled as if to soften the import of his reprimands. Then when he clasped both of Donna’s she winced and he was instantly contrite.

“Oh, poor lamb put some ice on that, love. Greg, take care of her,” he said again. “I know you’re leaving this morning so I’ll bid you farewell now, but do take care.”

After he left, Greg got an ice pack and told her to hold that while he sent for her prescription. Breakfast came with her medicine but Donna could hardly swallow without pain.

She took a shower and gingerly applied cream to her bruising face and throat. Greg redid the bandage the physician had put on Donna’s sprained wrist.

“Given your choice of bed partner, I should lecture you too,” he said as he put the last clip on the bandage. “I know Clive Winters went over the top with his concern for our relationship but you could’ve been seriously hurt. I’m sorry I didn’t get in sooner, D.”

“It’s ok,” she mumbled.

Greg searched her pouting face and told her gently, “You can cry if you want to. You were attacked, Donna. It’s understandable.”

Tears pricked her eyelids and her nose was a little pink but she shook her head, wincing.

“Do you have a headache?”

She nodded. “I’ll just take one of those pain killers,” she said.

“On an empty stomach, it’ll knock you out.”

She shrugged and took it anyway. Greg showered, packed his stuff and they left the hotel. A car was waiting to take them to the nearest helipad.

They boarded the aircraft and on the way to the beach house, Donna fell asleep. Despite the noise she remained asleep upon landing. Greg carried her into the house while the house keeper and her husband carried the luggage in.

She woke up disoriented. The room was full of sunshine and the view outside was spectacular. The window housing glass doors was enormous and gave a panoramic display of the grand untamed outdoors.

Hers and Greg’s luggage was on the floor. He had left a note by the bedside. ‘Out for a swim. Come down if you feel up to it’.

She wouldn’t swim, she decided, but the fresh air would do her good. She slipped into a monokini, which happened to be the most decent swimwear she owned and put a windbreaker over her arm. Placing a towel on the same arm, she left from the bedroom’s sliding French doors.

She slowly descended the weathered wooden steps to the beach. It took her a moment but she spotted Greg, his strokes cutting powerfully through the water. She put her towel down on the sand and lay down. Soon after she closed her eyes, she drifted off again.

She didn’t know how long she slept for but she was rudely awakened by several cold droplets of water. Greg was standing over her. Opening her eyes she scowled at him.

“I’m up.”

He reached down to help her up, indicating that they were heading back to the house.

“How’s your throat?” he asked casually on the way back to the bungalow.

“It doesn’t hurt when I don’t talk,” she smiled.

Greg laughed. “Great. Just when I was ready to listen to you tell me about all your favourite things.”

She chuckled. “What took you so long anyway?”

“It took a while to register the screams, throw on shorts, find my pass card and open the doors. But it wasn’t that long.”

“How did your night go?”

He snorted. “My cute blondes were partners trying to spice up their love life. Dropped them on the way back to the hotel.”

“Oh well,” she hugged his arm. “We still have each other.”

He laughed again. “Was that a joke or are you really interested in me?”

“Both. I think I truly looked at you as a non-brother figure for the first time yesterday.” He looked a bit shocked and she conceded, “Well, except on a subconscious level to admit you’re hot stuff but-” her voice vanished before she could finish.

“Shut up, then,” Greg laughed some more. “I know what you mean, though. It’s been impersonal right- just a guy checking out a hot chick. Not Greg checking out Little D.”

She trailed a finger on his arm. “I’m not so little anymore.”

“But you’re still being playful,” he chuckled.

And she laughed. “I suppose I am. It’s weird! Why do we have to date anyway?”

“We’re not dating per se. I called it a first date back at the hotel because we have to re-acquaint ourselves to one another on a different, kind of intimate level. I can kiss you and not think much about it because that is a social act to me. But if you are to have my child, I have to- you know actually turn on my sexuality, which I haven’t done with you before.” She gave him a look and he burst out laughing. “Well not really!” He sobered up. “Somehow I can’t just lay you down like I can with other women!”

“Lay me down?” she whispered in shocked tones before she said seriously, “I know what you mean, too.”

“So how are we going to overcome this? I can’t have sex with my little sister,” he said wryly.

Donna tripped.

“Now I’m playing. Guess it’s not that bad, but this get away is supposed to get me out of that mindset entirely. I suppose I’ll get over it. Especially if you spend your days in swimwear.”

“Ha!”

They had lunch and Donna took yet another nap.

When she woke up, Greg tossed her a pair of shorts and a jacket from the closet. Sometime between her trip down to the beach and their late lunch, someone had packed away all their belongings.

“Where are we going?”

“Nowhere, just a barbecue in our backyard, darling. There’s a bit of a breeze so you might need the jacket.”

She followed him out and saw the pit in the ground. “You know how to cook things like that?”

“Watch and learn my dear fiancé.”

He lined the pit with large leaves, then placed the fresh fillet with pineapple rings then another three layers of leaves before piling more heat onto the leaves to seal the pit. Then he wrapped lemon wedges and oiled raw potatoes in foil and put them in the grill and closed it.

“Now mademoiselle, I’ll take you on a tour of the beach bungalow and our surrounding grounds.”

He took her through the single storey structure which was furnished in a contemporary fashion, with warm earth tones and hues. The roomy kitchen was full of state of the art appliances. The living room with complete home entertainment system and fire place was adjacent to the dining nook. Then there was the solitary bedroom with its large bed, glass wall and en suite bathroom.

A porch went around three sides of the bungalow and led them parallel to the ocean side, twenty feet below. They passed their barbecue pit and took a stone path to a piece of land jutting out as if suspended over the sea.

“And this is our gazebo-enclosed Jacuzzi.”

“Ah! Lovely.”

“Yeah, it works.”

“I bet you a hundred dollars you’d freeze at night the minute you step out of it,” she said hoarsely to herself.

“What did you just say?”

“Oops.”

He stared at her in wonder. “I can’t believe you still do that!” he shook his head. “How much money did you make last month?”

“About half a thousand.”

Greg shook his head again. He remembered when she used to bet herself sums of money to amuse herself as a child. Then her father had suggested she put her money where her mouth was. So she had and had begun to make donations to the soup kitchen at a church near their home every month.

As the years passed, her hundreds had increased and she hadn’t stopped making bets with herself no matter what.

“What are the most painful bets you’ve lost?”

Donna’s mouth twisted and she turned back towards the house. “I bet myself that Diana was going to come back.”

Silence.

“What else?”

A shadow crossed her bruised face then another wry comment passed her lips. “I bet myself three hundred dollars that he wouldn’t really hit me this morning.”

There a moment’s silence before Greg spoke. “I’m sorry, D. I really am.”

“It’s ok. I’ll survive... or you can kiss all the pain away.

“I’d be glad to be of service.”

They entered the house momentarily to get glasses for the wine. Greg uncorked the bottle and poured some for Donna.

Taking her first sip, “Oh that goes down,” she said, grateful for the smooth liquid. “If I get drunk, I will not be held responsible for my actions. I am on heavy medication and imbibing.”

Greg began to unbutton his shirt, eyeing her silently. Seductively.

Donna’s demeanour became uncomfortable and uneasy as Greg discarded his shirt and took three lithe steps towards her.

She was about to feign a headache and escape indoors when Greg burst out laughing.

“Relax D. I’m not going to seduce you for the first time in the grass! I’m just going to dig up our fish.”

She settled back in her chair and shook her head slowly. “You sure turned that on and off quickly.”

He just laughed and grabbed the shovel.