Just Can't Get Enough by Cheris Hodges Page B

desire. Stop it! she thought. This isn’t why you’re in South Carolina and since you’ve laid down the just sex edict, you’re going to have to avoid that man at all costs.
    Groaning, she turned the shower on and regretted every word that she’d said to Darius. How was she going to handle it when he came to collect on what she’d offered?
    You’re an adult and you want him just as much as he wants you. It doesn’t have to go any further than the bedroom. Sex, Celina could handle, but she wasn’t trying to fall in love. Love, as her mother said twenty years ago, wasn’t enough. Besides, she had no plans to stay in Elmore once her father was on the road to recovery.
    Celina shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. As she dried her body, she decided that her best course of action would be to avoid Darius all together.
    â€œThis is lust. What we have here is sexual heat and when and if we give in to it, things will change,” she said to her reflection.

CHAPTER 6
    By Monday, Celina had traded her thoughts of Darius for concern about her father as they made the one-hour drive to Columbia for an appointment at the Palmetto Health Cancer Center, one of the premiere cancer treatment agencies in the southeast. The center, which pooled its resources with other major health centers in the state, had recently added former St. John’s University cancer expert, Dr. Lewis Russell, to its staff.
    Dr. Russell had a reputation for “curing cancer.” He used the latest in cancer treatments to treat lung and throat cancer and he also adapted eastern medical tactics like using herbs and acupuncture. Celina was excited that her father was to see Dr. Russell and prayed that he would recover from his cancer or that the disease would go into remission.
    Celina and Thomas walked into the doctor’s office. She glanced over at her father, who didn’t look as frail in his khaki pants and lime-green golf shirt, but he did seem nervous. “Are you all right?” she asked.
    He nodded. “I don’t like doctors, that’s all. Every time I come to see one, I seem to get sicker.”
    The door to the office opened and Celina and Thomas whirled around and looked at the man walking through the door. He didn’t look like much of a doctor, with his Albert Einstein afro, colorful Hawaiian-style shirt, and a pair of lavender slacks. Celina thought his outfit was better suited for a Halloween costume or he at least deserved a citation from the fashion police.
    â€œGood morning, folks,” he said with a huge smile plastered on his face. “Mr. Hart, I just finished reading your file. I believe I can help you.”
    Thomas grunted. “I’ve heard that before.”
    Celina shot him a cautioning look. She wanted her father to keep an open mind about this treatment. Dr. Russell ran his hand through his wooly hair. His olive skin seemed to glow as he turned on his desk lamp. He continued laying out a course of treatment for Thomas.
    â€œThere’s one thing,” he said as he cleared his throat. “I want to admit you for at least a week. Your right lung has a number of cancer cells and before we suggest surgery, I want to try a different course of action.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Thomas asked. “Surgery?”
    Dr. Russell opened a manila folder sitting on his desk and pulled out a sheet of white paper. “This is the course of treatment that I would like to start you on.”
    Thomas ignored it, but Celina took the paper from the doctor. “Acupuncture?” she asked. “What will this do to the cancer?”
    Dr. Russell explained how acupuncture treats the entire patient, not just the illness. “The acupuncture relieves pain without the use of drugs, although, because Thomas’s cancer is so advanced, we will probably have to use drugs and radiation as a part of his treatment.”
    â€œWhat are the risks with