by Fiona Lowe
Her mouth flattened into a mulish line but she stayed still. ‘The moment the first-aiders arrive we can go in.’
Seconds ticked by, lengthened by the impotence of not being able to act until the scene was safe and secured. Finally, the bull disappeared into the pen, the gate closing firmly behind it.
‘Now.’ Emily shook off Linton’s hand and jumped down, a plume of red dust rising behind her.
He hurdled the railing and quickly followed.
They crossed the wide arena, arriving at the cowboy just as the first-aid workers arrived.
‘Good to see you, Doc.’ Ash, one of the first-aiders, immediately handed over his kit, relief clear on his face.
‘Troy, where does it hurt?’ Emily’s hands started to open the cowboy’s shirt, looking for injury.
‘I thought I was free, I thought I was clear, but then he tossed me and caught me on the leg.’ Troy struggled, trying to sit up, but fell back in pain.
‘I need the scissors.’
Ash handed her a pair of shears and with precision born of experience she quickly cut the cowboy’s jeans straight up the front.
Linton’s gut heaved as he registered the extent of the injury on Troy’s leg. The bull’s horn had entered his leg, piercing the skin, with an entry and an exit wound. The leg lay at a strange angle to its partner, a sure sign of a fracture. ‘Did it trample you?’
‘Nah, I managed to roll away.’
‘You’re damn lucky.’
He caught Emily’s relieved expression and nodded. If the hoof or horn of a five-hundred-kilogram bull had connected with Troy’s chest or abdomen, there was every chance the cowboy would now be dead.
He turned his attention back to the leg while Emily wrapped a tourniquet around Troy’s arm. ‘The anterior tibia artery and the peroneal artery run pretty close to this puncture wound. What’s his BP like?’
‘One hundred on sixty.’ Emily chewed her bottom lip. ‘Is he bleeding into his leg?’
Linton pressed his fingers on the top of Troy’s foot, feeling for the pedal pulse, which was weak and thready. ‘He’s lucky Warragurra Base is only a ten-minute ambulance ride away or I would have to make a fasciotomy incision to release the trapped blood and relieve the pressure.’
‘Will my leg be OK?’ Troy’s voice wobbled.
Linton sighed. ‘I’m pretty certain you’ve fractured your fibula, one of the bones in your lower leg. I’m worried about nerve damage and infection so the sooner we get you to Warragurra Base and under the care of Jeremy Fallon, the better.’
‘Em, I’m really thirsty.’ The young man’s face was covered in dirt.
Emily swiftly inserted the IV. ‘Troy, you’ll be going to the operating theatre so I can’t give you anything to drink, but you can rinse your mouth.’
Ash handed her a water bottle and together they helped Troy rinse and spit.
Using sterile gauze and saline, Linton cleaned and covered the puncture wounds before sliding an inflatable splint onto Troy’s lower leg. ‘As soon as you’re at the hospital we’ll give you a tetanus shot and a huge amount of antibiotics.’
The dazed cowboy nodded vaguely, shock starting to catch up with him.
The piercing siren of the ambulance heralded its arrival. Andrew and fellow paramedic Pete jumped out and opened the back door.
Emily jogged over to assist.
Linton looked up just as Andrew’s arm slid around her waist for an instant as he leaned in to greet her.
Green rage stabbed him in the chest so hard he gasped. His legs tensed as if to propel him up from his squatting position like a runner in the blocks, to project him over to place himself firmly between Andrew and Emily.
His hands shook on the splint. He breathed deeply, focusing on the job like it was a lifeline. None of this made any sense. If he’d learned one thing in the last two weeks it was that he wouldn’t let anything compromise his friendship with Emily.
Especially lust. He’d almost messed things up once and he wouldn’t risk that happening again. Emily was his nurse, his friend and his good mate.
Besides, Emily was a country girl who deserved to marry a guy who wanted a rural life and a tribe of kids. He didn’t want any of that.
Friendship was what they both wanted, what they had agreed on.
She called his name and he looked up into silver-grey eyes full of concern for their patient but backlit with a simmering heat. A heat he instantly recognised. A heat he knew he matched.
A fireball of lust exploded in his chest, matching the heat of desire and naked need in her eyes.
A need they had for each other. A need their friendship hadn’t diminished one tiny bit. If anything, it had increased it, ramping it up to a raging inferno.
Emily cleared her throat and tossed her head, forcing down the thunderous wave of molten craving for Linton that had suddenly exploded inside her when he’d caught her gaze. He’d stared so deeply into her eyes she could have sworn he’d seen her soul. ‘Um, Andrew and Pete want to know if you’re riding back to the hospital with Troy?’
Linton stood up. ‘If Jeremy can meet the ambulance at the hospital, I won’t have to go back. Troy’s vital signs are stable for travel, Pete and Andrew are the most experienced paramedics and Daniel is more than capable of doing the pre-op stuff. I’ll talk to Jeremy now.’ He punched a number into his phone and then hailed Andrew to bring the stretcher.
Andrew dropped down next to their patient. ‘Right, Troy, we’re going to transfer you now. Can you lift yourself up on your arms? Pete and I will help you.’ He put his arms under Troy’s.
Emily controlled Troy’s legs.
‘On my count. One, two, three…’ Andrew grunted.
A moment later Troy was lying on the stretcher, his face pale and sweaty. ‘I’d rather be riding the bull.’
‘You’ll be feeling a lot better in a few hours.’ Emily patted his arm.
Troy grabbed her hand. ‘Eric’s kept pretty quiet about his stunning sister. How about a date?’
‘Get in line,’ Andrew quipped, but his expression stayed serious.
Emily laughed and extricated her hand from Troy’s. ‘Ask me when you can dance on both legs, cowboy.’ She waved, floating on the compliments as Andrew and Pete started to push the stretcher toward the rig.
‘Ask you what?’ Linton’s breath caressed her ear, his brown hair brushing hers as he leaned in close.
She gave a self-conscious laugh to cover her hammering heart. ‘Troy’s high on painkillers and wants to ask me out on a date.’
Linton grunted as his arm snaked around her waist. ‘Come on, we have to get out of the arena.’ He ushered her across to the nearest gate.
She fully expected his arm to drop away the moment they were on the spectators’ side of the gate but he left it there, the touch casually light but, oh, so wonderful. ‘I gather Jeremy is at the hospital.’
‘Yep, which means you can continue with showing me the rodeo.’
A crazy feeling of relief ricocheted through her. She shouldn’t care so much that he was staying, but she did.
‘Emmie! Emmie!’
Emily looked around but couldn’t see who was calling her name. Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her knees. ‘Tyler.’ She tousled his hair. ‘Where’s Mummy?’
Linton moved away and Emily saw him relieve Nadine of the pram.
Her sister-in-law gave a weary smile. ‘I hear you’ve both had a bit of excitement.’
‘I saw the ambulance’s red flashing lights,’ Tyler announced proudly. ‘Now I’m going to watch Daddy get the heifer to run around like the number eight.’
‘If we can ever get close enough.’ Nadine sighed as the crowd surged around them.
‘I think I can help with that.’ Linton bent down to Tyler’s height. ‘Would you like a ride on my shoulders so you can see?’
Tyler glanced at Nadine, who nodded.
‘Yes, please!’
Linton hoisted the almost four-year-old up onto his shoulders.
Tyler yelled out, ‘Yee-hah’ and pretended to crack a whip.
Linton attempted to whinny.
Emily bit her lip as she caught the enthusiastic grins on both the big boy’s and the little boy’s faces. Yet this was the man who didn’t want to marry and have children. Did he have any clue what he was going to miss out on by not being a father?
‘Having fun?’ Nadine asked softly, her brown eyes seeing far too much.
‘More fun than Troy.’ She quickly followed Linton, making way for the pram and avoiding a conversation she didn’t want to have with her sister-in-law.
Nadine found a place to sit so she could feed Alby, and Emily and Linton safely flanked the enthusiastic Tyler on the rails. Cheering, they watched closely as all the Tippett men manoeuvred their horses through their paces.
‘They’re so fast.’ Admiration vibrated through Linton’s voice.
She smiled at his interest. ‘They need to be. I know a lot of mustering gets done by helicopter these days but a good stockman and his horse are invaluable. There are plenty of times when you have to cut a beast out from the mob and send it into the stockyard.’
‘They don’t seem to like being separated.’ Linton pointed to Hayden as he wielded his horse around to drive the heifer away from the mob.
‘It’s a natural instinct to return to the safety of the mob. Bit like humans really. What you know seems safest, but it’s not what is necessarily best for you.’
He tilted his head and studied her for a moment. ‘Like how for the last few years you’ve been trying to be the person you think people want you to be rather than being true to yourself?’ His gaze shot precise darts. ‘Like dyeing your hair when everything gets too much for you?’
Air whooshed out of her lungs as if they’d been punctured. She gripped the railing, her head spinning. He’d worked it out—the connection between how she was feeling and her hair. His intuition scared her. It was like being stripped naked in front of him and being completely on show.
She defiantly lifted her chin, grappling to regain her composure. ‘Actually, I was thinking more of you. How you’re scared of letting yourself get close to anyone again so you date and move on. It sounds lonely to me, and doesn’t it get tiring?’
‘I’m close to plenty of people.’ Emerald eyes flashed angrily and deep furrows creased his brow. ‘I know what works for me and relationships don’t. I have the right to make that choice.’
‘Look!’ Tyler pulled on Linton’s sleeve, breaking the moment as Eric rode in on his new horse, rider and beast moving almost in unison. He jumped on the rails in excitement. ‘Uncle Eric said he’s going to win.’
Emily studied the horse’s reactions to her brother’s touch, part of her thankful, part of her frustrated, that the difficult conversation had just been cut short. ‘I think he needs a bit more time to get to know his horse and then he could be unbeatable.’
Linton slid his hand on the little boy’s back, pushing him gently against the rails to keep him safe. ‘I think it would be great if a Tippett won. Maybe one day you’ll be out there.’
‘Of course I will be.’
Linton grinned. ‘Good to see a man who knows his mind.’
They watched the rest of the competition and then all the Tippett men joined them, Hayden victorious with the winner’s cup and Eric agreeably accepting second place.
‘But watch your back, bro. Next year that cup is mine.’
Laughter and banter carried in the air as dusk fell quickly. The stars rose and twinkled in the night sky and the carnival part of the rodeo kicked off. Country and western music floated across the showgrounds; squeals and screams rent the air as heart-stopping, body-jolting, adrenaline-rushing rides spun and twirled, their lights merging into bright lines of red, green and blue.
The sideshow alley quickly filled with strolling couples and excited children. Cowboys showed off their skill with popguns, mowing down the moving metal ducks and claiming prizes for their girls. Children, sticky with fairy floss, fell asleep on their fathers’ shoulders, the wonder of the day catching up with them. Nadine and Hayden gathered their children and headed off to the babysitter’s, planning to return and enjoy an evening of grown-up fun, while the other Tippett men drifted off to the band tent.
Suddenly Linton’s hand caught Emily’s. ‘Come on. Stuart tells me that if I want to be a cowboy, apart from being able to rope and tie, sit on a horse for twelve hours a day and wrestle a steer, I need to take a girl line-dancing.’ He winked at her. ‘And those pink boots of yours look like they can teach my boring brown ones to dance.’
Laughter threatened to tumble from her lips. Urbane Linton line-dancing was an impossible image. But she glimpsed the same sense of purpose in his eyes that he always wore at work, whether it was in the middle of an emergency or teaching the medical students.
Luxurious warmth flooded her. He was offering to go line-dancing because he thought it was what she wanted to do. He was a sincere, caring man, the polar opposite of Nathan. She didn’t even want to compare the two of them because it was no contest at all.
When she’d lashed out at him after the ball it had been because she’d wanted him to see her for who she truly was, and today on the railings he’d told her with pinpoint accuracy that had seen and knew the real Emily. He was a great friend.
Sure, but he still wants you.
The heat and lust that had passed between them in the arena had left her in no doubt that he still desired her. Only this time it was different. This time she knew she meant more to him than just a curvaceous body.
And you want him.
She accepted the words without argument. Her defences against the overwhelming attraction she had for him had now crumbled to dust. Every time he stood near her she quivered with need. She wanted to be in his arms, she wanted his touch on every part of her body, she wanted…him. All of him.
And for the first time in her life she really knew what she wanted. She wanted what he was prepared to give—one night.
The acknowledgement of that truth sent a glorious sense of freedom through her. She was finally being true to herself. She didn’t care what people would think, she didn’t have to hide behind clothes or other people’s opinions. She was no longer scared of disappointing someone, and if she did, well, it didn’t matter.
Linton had looked at her today like no man had ever looked at her—with naked and consuming need.
And she wanted him with every part of herself.
He doesn’t want a wife or family. You can’t have sex and still be friends. The rational thoughts tried valiantly to implant themselves into her euphoria.
But she closed her mind to them. She was done with being sensible and cautious. She’d worry about all of that tomorrow. Right now she wanted to see that look in his eyes again. The look that said, ‘I want you now.’
But she knew he wouldn’t act on it because of the way she’d rejected his last attempt at seduction.
No, this time she would have to be the one to ask.
The idea thrilled and terrified her all at the same time.
CHAPTER TEN
‘UM, ISN’T the line-dancing tent in the opposite direction?’ Linton glanced around as Emily firmly dragged him away from sideshow alley, the sounds of the night receding into the distance.
Her left hand rested on her hip, her expression cheeky. ‘No self-respecting cowboy learns to dance in public.’ She turned toward the stables. ‘I’ll run you through the basic steps first, before unleashing you on an unsuspecting crowd.’
‘Hey, I’m not that uncoordinated.’ But his comment was lost in the noise of the old wooden door sliding open.
The sweet smell of hay wafted out to meet them, the aroma released by cool air meeting warm. Emily flicked on a light. The naked bulb struggled to emit a weak yellow glow. A horse neighed.
‘Hey, Blossom, it’s just me.’
She moved inside and stroked the horse’s head as three other familiar-looking horses
stirred from their rest, inquisitively looking to see who had entered their domain.
Linton followed, his eyes quickly adjusting to the gloom. ‘Isn’t that Eric’s horse?’ He recognised the distinctive patterned coat.
Emily smiled. ‘Well spotted, Doctor. We might just make a cowboy out of you yet. Welcome to the Tippett barn. We use this stable at rodeo time and during the agricultural show. During the show, we basically live here for a week.’
He took in the fairly primitive surroundings. ‘Where do you sleep?’
‘There’s a loft upstairs.’ She pointed to a ladder. ‘It’s luxury compared to a swag on hard ground.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘Right, let’s see what you’re made of, and if you can impress the girls.’ She circled her arm, indicating the interested horses.
He growled in indignation. ‘I always impress the girls.’
She arched her brows and wrinkled her button nose. ‘Is that so?’
The challenge fizzed in her eyes, socking him in the chest. It was the first sign of blatant flirting he’d ever seen from her.
‘So, you stand legs apart.’ She adopted a wide stance. ‘Put your weight on your left foot and then step your right diagonally forward like this.’
He copied her actions.
‘Then you lock your left foot behind and step your right foot to the right. This is called wizard or Dorothy steps.’
‘As in the Wizard of Oz?’ He executed the basic steps.
‘I suppose so. Now we do it all to the left and then again to the right.’
He danced the steps both left and right. ‘This is pretty simple, and it’s all to the count of eight?’
‘You catch on fast, cowboy.’ She flashed a wide smile, her white teeth gleaming in the low light.
His gut kicked over. ‘What about the promenade?’
She quickly moved in front of him, her back pressing firmly against his front as she placed his right hand on her waist and held his left hand up above her shoulder.
Her heat instantly invaded his body, darting in deep and rippling out, before settling in his groin. He swallowed a groan.
She moved forward and he moved with her, and together they walked in a circle between the horse stalls. ‘This is a square dancing position.’ She twirled in his arms and came to face him, her hands resting palms down on his chest, her fingers splayed in proprietorial firmness.