“Put him down? For a broken leg? Absolutely not! Fix it, or amputate it if you must. I’ll pay.”
I felt a little better about the guy at that point. Yes, he’d been reckless and speeding when he hit the dog, but at least he didn’t want a lovely animal like this Golden to be put to death as a result of his carelessness. Unfortunately for him, I intended to save the leg if I could. It was going to be expensive for him. “All right, then. I’m going to call him Max,” I said, “just for convenience.
Normally I would have asked an owner to step outside while I worked on an injury like this. The process was a little grisly for a layperson to witness. But, I wanted to punish this man for his carelessness. The best way to do it was to make him watch what it was going to make the dog endure.
I put my left hand on Max’s face, both to comfort him and to hide the syringe. With my right, I plunged the sedative into his left flank, causing him to yelp. That he didn’t try to snap at me told me his spirit was still that of a well-socialized Golden. Of all the breeds, I especially loved Goldens, though to tell the truth I loved all animals, even cats, to which I was allergic.
Max’s body gradually relaxed as the sedative kicked in. I grabbed the electric clippers and removed the fur that covered the injured back leg, careful to work around the ends of the shattered bone that had pierced his skin and were poking out.
With the field of injury clear, it was obvious that surgery would be extensive and would take quite some time. Now I didn’t want the distraction of the man in the clinic, so I told him this was going to take a while and that he should go.
I expected him to skedaddle out of there as fast as those long legs would take him, but he hesitated. I had no time for this.
Shooing him out of the room, I checked to be sure Max was unconscious, then followed to take a deposit, which I figured would be the last money we’d see from him. After all, he wasn’t linked to the dog in any paperwork, so how would I find him again if he gave a false name, or refused to give one at all? To my surprise, Megan was still there.
“Megan, this er, gentleman needs to leave a deposit of $1000 dollars for the care of the dog he brought in.” I watched his face as I named the figure, but he revealed no distress or surprise. Instead, he took out his wallet and handed over ten $100 bills, which he counted as he laid each on Megan’s counter.
I didn’t know whether to let my mouth continue to hang open in astonishment that he carried that much cash with him, or laugh at Megan, who seemed similarly conflicted. She’d started to object when I told her he was leaving a deposit. I suspected it was because she’d already closed out the register for the day, and now it would have to be redone. But, as he counted out each bill, her eyes grew wider. I couldn’t imagine that she would embezzle from her own father, but with that much cash on the counter, I’d definitely be checking the day-end report.
Meanwhile, I had surgery to do. Just as I was about to tell Megan to be sure to give him a receipt, the jarring sound of “Sexy and I Know It” in tinny tones split the silence. How cheesy was that? His hand went to his pocket and he took out an iPhone, then turned away from us as he took the call. I started to tell Megan that if he had any questions, he could come back tomorrow, but as soon as he heard my voice, he held up one finger, as if to keep me from leaving. Then, he turned back to the phone.
“I know, Babe, but it’s taking a little longer than I thought. They were closed and…” he stopped talking and listened a moment. “No, I’m coming right now. There’s nothing more I can do here. I need to stop at an ATM and then I’ll be right there. I’m sure they’ll hold our table for us. Okay, love you, too.”
He turned back to me. While he’d been talking to ‘Babe’, I had taken the opportunity to observe the way he was dressed, and the manicured hand that I only now noticed though he’d had it on the dog only a few minutes before.
“Is there anything else Mr., uh,”
“Jon. I just wanted to know if I should come back for him tonight, or what?”
“No, he won’t be ready to leave for several days at least. Since he isn’t yours, you may want us to board him until he’s ready to find a home. If you’d like to see him, we’re open from nine to noon tomorrow.”
I didn’t know why I was so angry with him. Even though he’d been reckless and hit Max in the first place, at least he brought him in. And the $1000 deposit, though it wouldn’t cover everything, would go a long way toward Max’s care until he was recovered enough that we could try to find him a home. All in all, this Jon seemed to be a pretty decent guy. And, did I mention, the guy was seriously, awesomely, unbelievably hot? So my anger was unjustified and even more puzzling because it wouldn’t go away.
Without saying goodbye, I turned and went back to the OR to get ready for Max’s surgery. There had been enough delay that I was going to have to give him more sedative, but carefully regulate it. This was going to be tricky. There was no way I was going to get Megan to come and help, so I didn’t even try. I heard the jingle of the bells on the door as someone left.
A few minutes later, Megan appeared, wearing a lab coat. “Do you need any help?” she asked.
I was so surprised that I almost dropped the tweezers. “Sure, if you’re willing,” I said. “I know it’s long past the time you should have been out of here. Didn’t you have plans?”
“Yeah, I did, but he called me an hour ago and yelled at me for being late, so I told him to fuck off. I might as well earn some overtime,” she said. I was grateful enough for the help that I didn’t even take offense at her inappropriate language.
After carefully cleaning the road debris from Max’s wounds, I x-rayed the leg. Both the tibia and fibula were broken in two places, and the femur had a greenstick fracture.
I reduced the large bone fracture first, then went about piecing and pinning the smaller bones together, making as small an incision as I could. After applying more antibiotic and closing the incisions, I applied a cast that he was going to hate, and told Megan she could go home any time she wanted now.
All I had left to do was get Max comfortably crated and monitor him until the anesthesia wore off, then I could go home, too. I had all but forgotten about my condition under my lab coat. Probably, rather than go home, I’d shower and grab a few hours sleep on the cot in my office. That way I could sleep a little later before Saturday morning hours.
Megan left, and I took the time to check the day-end report before getting my shower, since there were no blinds in the tinted plate glass windows that fronted the clinic. I had a change of clothes, but no pajamas to sleep in, and I wanted to just hit the sack as soon as I was done. Making a mental note to bring in pjs as well as a fresh change of clothes after my next trip to my apartment, I approved the report and went to the bathroom for my long-delayed shower.
CHAPTER THREE
Ashleigh called me again before I even got to the ATM. The girl was beginning to be a serious pain in my ass, though the sex was something of a compensation. I reminded myself once more why I was with her, took a deep breath and answered.
“Babe, I’m on my way.”
“Don’t bother, I’m not hungry anymore. I’m getting my own room. Call me in the morning, and if I’m not still mad at you, I may let you take me to breakfast.”
“Aw, Babe, don’t be that way,” I complained, while mentally pumping my fist with a ‘yeah, off the hook!’ Okay, no sex tonight, but the upside was that I wouldn’t have to listen to her gripe about everything in her miserable, wealthy life. Jesus, there was no pleasing the woman.
“No, my mind’s made up, don’t try to talk me out of it. Maybe next time you won’t make such a fuss about some mangy dog.” She hung up before I could even answer her.
I went ahead and hit the ATM before heading back to the room anyway, and just to indulge in a little pettiness myself, drove down to Boulder for a burger and fries to replace the steak dinner Ashleigh had spurned. No fast food in Sunshine, but that was okay. It was perfect in every other
way. Even more so, now that I’d met the new vet.
Man, she was a feisty one! I wasn’t sure why she’d been so hostile, but it didn’t matter. It made me want to tame her, in the most primal way possible. Even with her hair flying all over the place and in a stained lab coat that frankly didn’t smell all that fresh, she was a knockout. The snarky little brat at the front desk was hostile, too, but she was beneath my notice, just a kid. Was it because I got there after closing time? Too bad—the dog needed to be seen tonight, and at least the vet was willing.
Heh, it would be fun if she really was willing, I thought, amused at my own double entendre. She was taller than average, which suited me fine. I was a little tired of kewpie dolls, especially Ashleigh. The vet had ash blonde hair that I could tell was thick and silky even though it was pulled back into a severe braid, and eyes that were kind of gray-green. And the face of an angel. An angry angel.
As I sailed around the curves in the mountain road, I barely saw the ribbon of asphalt in front of me. Instead, I was visualizing Dr. Erin Timms, DVM, naked and needy under me, my hand holding her wrists pinned above her head, her soft mouth pleading with me to fuck her, and fuck her now, while I teased and denied her the pleasure she sought so desperately.
I imagined the gray-green eyes darkening, tears of gratitude forming as I thrust into her ready and open pussy…whoa, shit! The vision dissipated as I barely dodged a deer that ran across the road in front of me. A dog was one thing, but a deer would cause some serious damage. I decided to save the fantasies for back in the room later.
Even though I had a nice home in Boulder, I had taken Ashleigh up to Sunshine for a ski week. It was the perfect cover for my real reason for being in Sunshine. Now I wished I didn’t have that complication and could pursue the interesting veterinarian.
Not for the first time, I kicked myself for getting involved with Ashleigh. At first, it seemed to play right into my long term plans. As long as we were dating, her dad gave me a pass on what seemed to be the haphazard way I was doing my job.
She was attractive, the sex was okay and the head was great, but it was like dating a blonde bimbo out of some comedy B-movie. Nothing was in her head but clothes, fun and sex, not necessarily in that order. I felt bad about stringing her along, actually. But, my goal was too important, not only to me but to the town of Sunshine, to let that stop me from using her to stay on her dad’s good side. Her desertion on the first night didn’t bode well for the rest of the trip, though.
At least I could think about Dr. Timms and indulge in some more daydreaming about how I’d erase that hostility. Okay, maybe I was being a little arrogant, but I knew my effect on women, and I had no time for false modesty. Some women just melted with no effort on my part at all when I turned on my swagger, but others resisted the alpha male persona. Those were the most fun to break, and they always broke.
Even Ashleigh, when she got over her pique at my insistence on taking the dog to the vet, would come crawling back. I knew it as truly as I knew my own name; it had happened before. Reminding myself that I needed to keep Ashleigh happy, at least superficially, for a few more weeks, I ordered my burger super-sized and ate it in my BMW X5 on the way back up the mountain.
When I got back to the room, the suite actually, Ashleigh was nowhere to be found. She wasn’t bluffing this time, obviously, but then again she had only taken her small bag. The rest of her clothes were still hanging in the closet next to mine, so she obviously meant to come back. I wondered whether it would be in the middle of the night again, like last time, or whether she’d make me wait ‘til morning. The thing was, she needed sex more than I did, or rather more than I did with her. When this was all over, she was going to hate me, and I’d probably have to punish myself for being a jerk.
I stripped and got into the king-sized bed naked, splaying my legs out to occupy the whole bed. If Ashleigh came back in the middle of the night, she’d find me exposed and waiting for her to tease my cock into her plaything. She’d probably start with a blowjob; she liked those, and I had to admit waking up to one wasn’t the worst thing in the world. That was another compensation for being with her, but not enough to put up with her bullshit if I hadn’t had other reasons. Mr. Wonderful twitched at the thought of a blowjob. He had no standards. Well, he’d have to do without for now.
How about that vet, though? Even with her lips pressed together in disapproval of me, I could tell they’d be soft and luscious. Maybe she’d like giving head, too. I started rolling my fantasy in my mind again, this time paying more attention to the way those generous breasts would look. With that coloring, the nipples would probably be pale, pale pink, but darkening to mauve in the center when they tightened up into little buds… Thoughts of seducing the vet carried me off to sleep, sporting a boner that I decided not to deal with for myself. Maybe Ashleigh would be back before long.
CHAPTER FOUR
Once I’d showered, I felt like a new woman. It was true that the clinic was a mess, and without Megan to help the next morning, I was going to have to get up early to clean the OR as well as sterilize those examining rooms. I set an alarm on my cell phone, knowing that I’d never wake up in six hours if I didn’t. During my internship and residency, I was known for being difficult to wake up. Sometimes my alternate on call would have to resort to flicking cold water on my face before I’d awaken. Fortunately, I had a thoroughly obnoxious, retro j-pop ringtone now, that never failed to make me jump out of bed and try to kill the phone. It was pretty effective.
Before I lay down to sleep, though, I went in the panties and bra that I would be sleeping in to check on Max. His vitals had returned to normal before I took my shower, but he went straight from anesthetized to a normal sleep. His paws were twitching, letting me know he was dreaming, when I looked in on him for the last time. An adorable little snore accompanied each indrawn breath.
I knew I was in trouble as I put my hand through the wires of the kennel and touched him. My favorite breed, a stray that desperately needed help; I knew my lame duck rescue gene was going to kick in, and I had no room to keep a Golden in my apartment. It was going to be easy to find him a home when we had him cleaned up, but tough to let him go.
Satisfied that my patient would be okay until morning, I finally took my rest. When I’d had a lot of stimulation like tonight, I often found it difficult to fall asleep, so I would turn over the events in my mind until my brain was convinced all the meaning had been extracted from them. That’s what I did tonight as I let my thoughts drift from the logistics of keeping a dog in the clinic to the man who’d brought Max in.
I couldn’t figure him out. He obviously had money; but the only people I knew of who carried that much cash were drug dealers. Okay, so I was going by a pop culture impression of drug dealers. But I didn’t think they wore high-quality but conservative clothes like that, and I was almost certain they wouldn’t take time out of a busy Friday night to rescue a dog they’d hit with their flashy car. He’d said his name was Jon. Jon what, I wondered, and then wondered if I was mentally spelling it right.
Maybe he meant John, like John Doe. I doubted I’d see him again, which made it safe for me to begin playing what-if in my mind. What-if he were really a nice guy, and the dog was just an accident like he’d said? What-if I had a boyfriend with those looks and that body? He’d had a generous mouth, with well-formed lips, made for kissing, and my fingers still itched to get hold of those dark curls. Damn, he was fine! But arrogant, I could tell that just from the way he’d held up his finger to hold me in check while he talked to his girlfriend.
I had no use for arrogant men, not since Greg. I’d put up with his attitude for a long time—four years, to be exact. We were in our respective medical schools when we met, though he looked down on veterinary school and constantly reminded me I wasn’t a ‘real’ doctor like he was. The last three years we were together, though, he was doing an extended residency while I’d finished mine and found a job that somehow ended up supporting both of us.<
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We had moved in together at the end of our first year as a couple, and it was supposed to be a fifty-fifty split of the living expenses. Whenever it was time to pay the rent, though, his car needed repair, or he had some other excuse for not having it. I always paid, assuming that once he was able to join a medical practice, he’d pay me back in some way.
Like many women who supported their men through medical school, I had a rude awakening shortly after he secured a position in an upscale plastic surgery practice. I was good enough to support him for three years, but not good enough to be his wife, or even his girlfriend now.
He explained it all to me quite logically as he packed his bags and walked out of our apartment for good. He needed someone who ‘complemented his position.’ Someone who might have been giving a dog an enema in the afternoon wasn’t the person to accompany him to a posh evening entertainment at night. Bastard.
I should have known better. I’d watched my father put my mom down for years, before she finally divorced him when my little sister turned eighteen. We were all grown and out of the house when mom grew a backbone, hired a society lawyer, and took dear old dad for half of his net worth. Not that he was extremely wealthy; far from it. In fact, I think the lawyers ended up with more than either of my parents did. But it was heartwarming to see my mom in her element now, looking years younger and even dating younger men, while my father spluttered and told us kids that we couldn’t expect any more financial help from him because of what mom did. I didn’t care, I had my degree and a fledgling career, but I felt bad for my sister. She still needed to get through college.
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