by Diane Leyne
John and Jack gave her quick kisses on the cheek. “Scoot. Jack and I know what we are doing. We aren’t going to wreck the sandwiches or your kitchen. You taught us too well for that.”
“And besides, they are just sandwiches. You really have to teach us to make something else. I have a hankering to try my hand at a soufflé!” declared Jack.
“You don’t even know what that is!” accused his brother.
“I don’t need to know what it is to know I want to make it.”
Penelope smiled at her bantering men and didn’t resist when they pushed her toward the door. Oh, well, it was inevitable they’d meet in a town this size, especially given Oliver’s profession. Might as well get it over with.
When she walked out of the restaurant, she saw Oliver lounging comfortably in a chair, laughing at something Ginger had just said, and Penelope felt a sudden surge of jealousy and possessiveness. He was hers!
Damn. Where did that come from?
Pasting a pleasant smile on her face, she walked up to the table and took the free seat, which was, of course, beside Oliver.
When he turned and smiled at her, she found herself melting a bit inside.
“Damn, girl. Where’s my lunch?”
It took Penelope a second to realize that the comment had been directed at her.
“Um, Lena, Jack and John insisted on making the sandwiches. And then they, uh, want to meet Oliver.”
“Oh, they’ll get plenty of chances to do that.”
“How?” Even to Penelope’s own ears, her remark was too abrupt and too sharp. “You said something earlier about Sam’s place. Is Oliver staying there? For vacation or something?
“Oh, you missed the most important part of our chat. Oliver is moving to Harmony. Permanently. He’s an orthopedic surgeon, as you know, but he’s been wanting to move to Washington State to be nearer to his sister, who’s married to a wolf-shifter. Anyway, he just sold his practice in Oregon to another shifter-friendly doctor, and he’s been looking around Washington. He liked Harmony from when he worked on Alex.
“And he’s gotten operating privileges for the county hospital, and he’s been looking to set up his own practice. Harmony meets all of his criteria better than any other place he’s checked out, and I finally persuaded him to pick us. Isn’t that great?”
“Oh, you’re moving here?” What an inane comment, thought Penelope. I sound like a dunce. “I mean, um, that’s great. But I didn’t realize that the hospital…the town…”
“The county hospital has a great ortho department, but they don’t need a full-time doctor and I don’t want a full-time hospital gig. I just need privileges in a hospital in case one of my patients need surgery. What I need is the right place to set up a clinic, and with my knowledge of the shifter-community, it made sense to seek out a place where there’s a number of them, because I think they are a very underserved community, from a medical perspective.”
“I don’t think shifters get sick very often, do they?”
“No, but they do get injured, especially after a night romping in the woods or showing off in human form and pushing their bodies too far. Even though they have superior healing powers, they need a specialist when it comes to their bones. And you know Harmony, a thriving shifter community, and it’s not far from Seattle and Tacoma and only a few hours from Portland, for specialized needs. And ortho patients generally aren’t emergencies, so I can schedule when I need to see patients in other locations or, more frequently, they can come to me. And I do treat humans as well. I don’t discriminate. And I’ve met with the main human ortho specialist in the area, and he said there’s plenty of work for a second doctor, especially since he’s starting to ramp down toward retirement.
“In other words, Harmony’s perfect.”
Chapter Four
“Harmony’s a great town. We’re going to renovate Lena’s clinic. Where I used to work, we found that having a human and animal clinic in the same building with a secret connection between the two was the best way to serve the specialized shifter clientele. No reason that won’t work here as well. The tenants next door to Lena’s clinic are moving at the end of the month. I’ve already signed the lease. Lena and I working with an architect on the plans, and we’ll begin renovations once Lena’s back from vacation and signed off on them.”
“You’re right. No reason at all.”
Oliver looked at Penelope as she said the words. She seemed to be under some sort of stress. She was nervous, tearing her napkin into little pieces without seeming to realize what she was doing. Oliver was concerned. He reached out and placed a hand over hers. Instead of being a soothing gesture, it seemed to startle her. She jumped and pulled her hand away as if burned.
“No, no. I’m fine. I’ll, er, I’ll just check on those sandwiches.”
She jumped up and turned toward the door, but stopped when it swung open. Coming out were two tall, muscular men. Clearly they were closely related, perhaps even twins, but fraternal, not identical, even though they clearly shared DNA and appeared to be about the same age. They both had close-cropped dark hair and bulging biceps. They were wearing Fire Department of Harmony T-shirts and not as a fashion statement, he’d venture to guess. That was probably their profession.
Smiling, they walked in carrying two trays. The man in front carried sandwiches piled so high that they threatened to tumble down.
“I hope you ladies, and the good doctor, of course, are hungry. We didn’t know what you liked, so we made a bit of everything.” He grinned and, after setting down the tray, offered Oliver his hand to shake.
The second man’s tray contained a pot of coffee, hot water and tea bags, and several different types of soft drinks and glasses of water. It seemed they were both prepared for all eventualities. Oliver shook the second brother’s hand as they introduced themselves. As he’d deduced, they were fire fighters.
“Hey, man. We just wanted to say hi. Great work on Alex.” The one named Jack pumped his hand again.
“Yeah, and did we hear right? You are moving to Harmony? That’s terrific. Having a specialized wolf-friendly medical man here will be great. We have Doc Richards who is a GP over in Point Craine who knows about shifters, but no one in town.”
“Excuse me. What about me? Am I chopped liver or something?” Lena was acting offended but ended up giggling. “I mean, even Gabe came to me.”
“Not voluntarily!” They all burst into laughter. Oliver looked around wondering what was so funny about seeing a vet, but they were all laughing too hard to set him straight. Finally, Lena calmed down enough to tell the story.
“When Sam came to town, she and the McAllister brothers knew they were meant to be together, but Gabe, the Alpha, and incidentally the mayor of Harmony, was a bit suspicious of the new human in town and kind of worried about how you broke it to a human woman that five wolf-dog shape-shifters are hot for you, so he decided to spy on her to learn more about her and he made the big mistake of choosing to do it in wolf-dog form.”
“Mistake?”
“Yup, he didn’t know that I already knew about shifters.” Samantha picked up the story. “My grandfather is one, and so are my brothers. But I didn’t tell him I knew it was him. I just played along when he visited me. At first. I treated him like a stray dog, bought him kibble and a collar and leash. And when he kept spying on me, I decided to teach him a lesson.”
“Oh my god, when you led Gabe into my clinic on that leash and started talking about getting him chipped and neutered and then shaved his head with the clippers.” Lena had tears running down her face as she turned to Oliver. “You could see the outrage in every bone in his body, yet he was stuck. Apparently when collared, shifting becomes close to impossible. It was all I could do to not laugh out loud. I thought I was going to wet myself. It was the funniest thing I’d ever seen, at least until I saw his expression once Sam had gone and I’d removed the collar so he could shift back to human.”
“Damn. I wish you’d taken phot
os. I’d love to have seen Gabe walking on a leash and heeling.” Ginger was grinning ear to ear. “My big bad cousin, mayor of Harmony, reduced to a puppy dog by love.”
“His brothers still give him a hard time about it” Sam added. “Especially the part where he peed on their feet, but he claims they deserved it for laughing at him.”
Oliver found himself laughing along with the women and the two buff firefighters, but he had to ask about something. “I didn’t understand one part, though. The collar. You say it caused him problems with shifting?”
“Yeah, I don’t know why, but I learned that at a young age from tormenting my brothers. I’d sneak up on one, get a collar on, and then take them for a walk. My parents would never let me have a dog, so they were the closest I was ever going to get. Sometimes I wondered if they were just playing along with me, but turns out they weren’t.”
“Interesting. That piece of knowledge might come in handy if I am having trouble with a patient. I wonder if it would work the other way and prevent shifting?”
“Well, Doc. Maybe sometime we’ll help you find out, but right now, we have to go. We’re playing basketball with the guys. Would you like to join us?” asked Jack, his hand resting possessively on Penelope’s shoulder.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m headed home shortly. It’s a three-hour drive, and I want to get on the road soon. Some other time?”
Oliver watched them kiss Penelope’s cheeks before heading on their way. “See you at six, babe. And don’t worry, Pen, we’re cooking tonight.”
“And doing the dishes?”
“And doing the dishes.” Jack checked his watch and gave her one more kiss before he and John headed out to their basketball game.
Oliver pasted a pleasant expression on his face even as he realized that he was jealous. It was clear that they were involved, living together, even. Of course they were. Why had he even entertained the thought that a beautiful, accomplished woman like her would be single? And not only that, they were shifters. How could he compete with shifters? Besides the fact that he’d heard they could go all night, there were two of them. How could he compete with that?
But he looked at her closely. Something that he couldn’t even articulate had been niggling at him since the men had joined them. At first he had thought it was just plain jealousy, and part of it was. But there was something else, an undercurrent between Penelope and the two men. John and Jack were definitely shifters. He’d been around them all his life. He wasn’t mistaken about that, and then they’d all but confirmed it during their short conversation. And, living in Harmony, it was likely that Penelope had shifter blood, too, which was fine with him. His brother-in-law was a shifter and one of the greatest people he knew.
But shifters Mated for life. There was an unshakeable bond. He’d seen it with his sister and his parents. Of course, his mom and Sue had only a single Mate, but that was because they’d fallen for unusual wolves who were only children. On the positive side, it had allowed them to have a human wedding. But there was sadness, too. Greg hadn’t always been an only child. His brother had died young, after an accident, and there was no shifter-friendly doctor available to save him.
So Oliver knew what a Mated couple looked like. He saw it with his sister and his parents. He saw it with Lena and her three men. He didn’t see it with Penelope and wondered. The men clearly loved her and she them. When he’d first sat down, he thought he’d detected interest in himself from Penelope. When he met John and Jack he decided he must be mistaken, but there was that gleam in her eye again. It almost looked like discomfort and confusion. She’d shown it clearly when he’d touched her hand earlier and she’d pulled it back like it had been burned. He’d felt the frission between them. It was like a spark of awareness, and he was sure she’d felt it, too.
He sighed. The two men explained why she pulled away. He believed she was attracted to him, but also that she was in an arrangement with the brothers. But what was also clear was that the three were definitely not Mated. If they were, she wouldn’t have even the slightest interest in another man. Hell, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Chris Hemsworth, and Vin Diesel could sit down at a table and there would be zero spark of attraction. The formal mating prevented that on both sides. His father wouldn’t have noticed if the Playmate of the Year had walked in stark naked. He only had eyes for Oliver’s mother, and that would be true for as long as they both lived.
He looked speculatively over at Penelope. She glanced at him and then looked away, a slight flush rising in her cheeks. He could feel a stirring down low as his cock took notice of her interest. He forced himself not to react. He didn’t want to scare her off by coming on too strong, but since she was clearly not Mated, neither was he going to back off. It had been a long time since he’d met anyone who interested him as much as she did, not that he was a monk or anything. But now that he’d met Penelope, he wanted to see where it went.
* * * *
Penelope looked over at Oliver munching happily on a sandwich. Damn. That had either gone even better or worse than she had expected. She just wasn’t sure which. On the plus side, John and Jack didn’t seem to notice anything amiss. On the other hand, she still had this unexplained and unwanted attraction to Oliver and, from his expression, he might be reciprocating it.
Well, it took two to tango, as the saying went, and she was not going to tango with Dr. Hottie. Nope. She definitely was not. She wasn’t going to tango either vertically or horizontally with him. Staring at his strong yet delicate surgeon’s hands as he held the sandwich, she wondered what they would feel like on her body.
Immediately, she dragged her mind away from his cock before she could even begin to wonder how large as it was, if it would be long and slender and so it would touch her deeply or shorter and thick so it would stretch her wide.
She listened to the conversation flowing around her as she ate her own sandwich. It took her a few minutes to realize that Oliver wasn’t talking either. Instead, his eyes were glued to her breasts or, more precisely, her hard and jutting nipples. Looking up, she made eye contact briefly before tearing her gaze away. She had to force herself not to wrap her arms around her torso. That would just call more attention to her breasts and make her friends wonder just what the hell was wrong with her.
“Earth to Penelope. You look like you’re a million miles away.” It took her a few seconds to respond, and Oliver, damn him, chuckled at her discomfort. “What’s has you distracted? Do you have another lead?”
She started to answer and then hesitated. She did have a lead, but she wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable discussing it with Oliver at the table. Luckily he seemed to be sensitive to her mood, and dabbing his mouth with his napkin, he rose.
“Sorry, ladies, but I do have to hit the road. Lena, I’ll be back before you leave on Monday. Don’t worry. Otis will be fine. The clinic will be fine. Moe will do the heavy lifting, and I’ll just be his helper.”
Watching Oliver’s retreating back, Penelope realized that she’d lost track of the conversation again. When she tuned back in, she realized that Lena was talking about a vacation.
“Sorry, I am just having one of those days. Lena, did I hear you correctly? Are you and your guys going on a honeymoon?”
“Honeymoon, matingmoon? Whatever you want to call it, yup. We’re going for a full month, just me and my men at in a private villa on a private Caribbean Island. Alex’s army buddy Luke works for a BDSM club and the owners of the club also own this Libertine Island. There’s a sex club on one end of the island and a bunch of private villas where we won’t be bothered unless we want to be on the other end. The staff is totally discreet. They have to be or they wouldn’t be working at a sex club frequented by some very wealthy people. Luke got us a really good deal.”
“A BDSM sex club on the island? Oh my god. Are you going to check it out?”
“Maybe. According to Alex, Luke told him that ménages with two men and one woman are pretty common there, and there are eve
n some like us with three men and a woman, so no one would even bat and eye. I just don’t know if I want to get naked in public because, if we went, I would have to act like their submissive.”
“That doesn’t seem fair!”
“That’s what I said, but it is a BDSM club. Doms and subs. And could you imagine any of my men pretending to be subs?” After the laughter subsided, she added. “I’ve been doing some reading, and it might be fun to play for an evening. But according to Luke, if we want to keep to ourselves in the villa, the only time we’d ever see anyone besides the maid would be on the boat right to and from St. Maarten.
“We owe Oliver so much. He fixed Alex and now he’s offered to look after the clinic while we are on vacation. Moe’s great, but he’s a vet tech, not a veterinarian. Oliver’s not technically a vet, but with all of his experience with shifters…he’ll be fine. We have another vet coming in twice a week to help with the more challenging cases, and Oliver will help just assist Moe unless there’s a case that requires an orthopedist or a case involving a shifter.”
“Is he single? Does he have a wife or a girlfriend coming to Harmony with him?” Ginger sounded interested. Penelope didn’t know whether to be happy or jealous.
“Do you like him?” she teased, not sure what answer she wanted to hear.
“Are you kidding? He’s a ginger. My name is Ginger. Not going to happen. He seems like a really nice guy, but I don’t have even the slightest amount of interest in him otherwise. Too bad you already have four men because I think he seemed interested in you.”
“You must be mistaken. He met John and Jack. Even if he doesn’t know about Tucker and Kent, he knows I have two men.”
“Since when does someone being involved in a relationship prevent other people from being interested. Either you are hot for someone or you aren’t. Unless…are you interested in him, too? What about the guys?”