by Anya Summers
“At first it was for them and Grandpa, but then I found that I loved medicine and had a knack for it. Not like my parents did, with wanting to save the world, but my own little corner of it, to make a difference.”
“You’re a pretty amazing woman, you know that? Why don’t we find a film to watch before I put you to bed?”
“Put me to bed?”
“That’s right. My own special brand, too, with lots of orgasms for you.”
“Well, with an offer like that, how can I refuse?” she said with a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
He was glad they were building a foundation. Because in his mind, the moment he put that collar around her neck, they would be as good as married. But he’d ease her independent spirit into accepting that little fact at another time.
15
The next morning, Grace hit the ground running. Literally. She had overslept thanks to the man of the hour, week, and night, and made it to her office with ten minutes to spare before opening.
If they were going to be having sleepovers, they were going to need to set some ground rules. She wouldn’t slack off just because he was a slice of heavenly beefcake who could make her the multiple orgasm queen, and even injured seemed to have a veritable load of energy.
Granted, he wasn’t doing any manual labor, or riding a horse all day long as per the norm, so that likely contributed to the surfeit of energy he displayed in the boudoir.
Grace raced around the office, getting everything ready for the day. She had a packed schedule, with back to back appointments. During her lunch break, she was interviewing a nurse’s assistant, and kept her fingers crossed that Miss Dawn Jessup would be the right fit for the job.
When the overhead doorbell clanged at eight thirty with her first patient of the day, Grace set her half empty coffee mug down on the reception desk and opened the door.
“Mister Matthews?” she asked the older gentleman, who was duded up in old-school cowboy finery that made her think of all the old Western films her grandpa had loved to watch.
“Yes, I’m Gregory Matthews. And you must be Joe’s granddaughter. You’ve got the look of him, girl. It’s a bleeding shame that he’s gone. Why, Joe and I spent many a night at the VFW, playing chess.”
“It sounds like you two knew each other well. I’d love to hear your stories. Why don’t you come on back, and we can take a look at what’s been bothering you while you tell me some.”
“Young lady, don’t you know better than to ask an old man for stories? We’re loaded with them.” He laughed and slapped his thigh in delight. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Well, I’d love to hear them just the same.” She ushered him into exam room one. For now, since she was doing everything, she was only scheduling patients every thirty minutes. Once she had some help, she would increase that number. Hell, during flu season alone that amount would likely triple.
She spent her day seeing patients, and entering and updating the patient information in the computer database. She would have to spend some time tonight entering medical insurance claims. Grace interviewed Dawn Jessup and liked the woman. Dawn was on the younger side but had the desire to succeed. They were going to give it a trial run starting next Monday.
Grace was at the front desk, entering claims into the computer system, when there was a knock on the outside door. She glanced at her watch and blanched at the time. It was already eight. She checked the phone she’d had on silent, and swore at the multiple missed calls from Emmett.
“Grace,” his voice filtered through the door.
“Just a second.” She unlatched the front door and opened it for him. “Sorry, I got caught up and didn’t realize the time.”
“Then you answer your damn phone, woman. I’ve been going out of my mind with worry that something happened to you. That you were lying in a ditch somewhere, or worse.”
She leaned up and brushed her lips briefly over his. “I forgot to switch my ringer back over from silencing it this morning. Busy day. Again, I’m sorry. It wasn’t done on purpose. I didn’t even realize how late it was. Let me just finish putting this claim in, and then I can shut everything down.”
Exasperated, he glared at her. “What can I do to help get you out of here more quickly?”
“Just give me five minutes. Did you get your appointments set up?” she asked and sat down at the desk, entering the right billing codes for the insurance company before hitting send. Then she began the process of shutting the computer down for the night. These computers were something that she was going to need to update to bring them into the twenty-first century.
“I did. I have the MRI tomorrow, then see the surgeon on Friday.”
“That’s good. I think you’re progressing nicely, but I would prefer to err on the side of caution to make sure no further damage was done which my X-rays didn’t pick up.”
“Grace, would you stop treating me like a damn patient and instead like the man you’ve been fucking?” he snapped.
She whipped her head around. “Hold up, Emmett. I will remind you that you were my patient first. As for the fact that we are sleeping together, I don’t care who you think you are, I will not be yelled at over a simple mistake. I’m sure you have your reasons that seem very valid but that is no excuse for talking to me with such disrespect.”
“I’m a Dom.”
“And that means you get to be a dick when things don’t work out as perfectly as you planned?”
“It means that I’ve been worried sick about you, and all you have to say is that you’re sorry.”
“I know we don’t know each other well. And maybe that’s part of the problem. You need to understand that my work matters to me. It always has, and I have a tendency to get wrapped up in it. It’s not a slight against you, it’s not meant to make you worry about my safety, but it’s the way I’ve worked all of my adult life. It’s something that I doubt will change, although I will try—note the word try—to be more concerned with your feelings and let you know I’m running behind. You act like we’re this big deal, but we’ve not even been out on a date.”
“Grace, I’ve been laid up with an injury.”
“I’m aware. I think it’s best if you go on home, Emmett. You know I’m safe and not lying in a ditch somewhere. And I will see you later this week.” She was in no mood to deal with him when he was acting this way.
“What are you saying?” His expression shuttered, his gaze went brittle as ice.
“I’m saying not tonight.”
“And tomorrow?”
“That depends on you. It can’t be all your way all the time. In a true relationship, there needs to be give and take on both sides, ground rules established, and a mutual desire to make things easier for the other person, not harder. I like you, Emmett, probably more than is good for me, but I won’t be treated like my life and responsibilities mean less than yours do.”
“Grace, that’s not what I was doing. If our positions were reversed, what would you think?”
“I would trust that you would contact me when you were able to, and I wouldn’t hold the other person’s work against them. What if it hadn’t been me getting carried away with paperwork? What if it had been a medical emergency that I was called to or that showed up on my doorstep? Do you really think that in the middle of helping a critical patient who might be having a heart attack or stroke, I’m going to stop to take your call, or check the time and think: Oh no, I should check in with Emmett? Because if that’s the case, then this relationship is not going to work.”
“So I’m not supposed to worry about you.”
She grimaced. The man had a thick skull. She tried to remember that she was in the business of saving people, not strangling them, and tucked her hands into her pockets. “I didn’t say that, but when you act authoritarian because I don’t fit into that tidy box of yours the way you believe I should, then that’s a problem. It cannot be all one sided. I know you’re sidelined because of the injury
. It’s likely making you stir crazy, which is why I’m not ending things and am giving you the benefit of the doubt. But do you honestly think I would get mad if, say, King Louie was injured and you stayed later at the stables to care for him, didn’t think to check the time and call me? That I would give you the third degree over it like you are doing with me right now?”
Emmett lowered his head and contemplated the floor. He was a proud man, used to getting his own way. That was all well and good, but if they were going to have a relationship then he needed to be willing to bend.
“Grace, this is all new for me. I’m not usually this invested. And you’re right in the fact that I was out of line in the way I spoke to you. My intention was never to make you feel like you are inferior or that your job is not vitally important to you. But you’re wrong if you think taking the night away will work, because it doesn’t for me. I want you with me. It’s a new experience for me. Before you, there wasn’t a woman I was intimate with whom I wanted more of a connection with than a simple screw.”
“And that’s it?”
Chagrined, he slanted her a look. “I have feelings for you, Grace. It’s the first time I’ve had feelings for a woman that run deep.”
“There’s been no one else? No woman you’ve loved?” Her heart squeezed.
“My mother, until she abandoned my dad and me.”
The starch deflated out of her ire. How could she not have seen that she had inadvertently triggered an old, unhealed wound? “How old were you when she left?”
“Six.”
“And you’ve not seen her since?” Grace ached for the little boy he’d been, and wanted to chase away the ghosts full of sorrow.
“No. She told my dad that ranch life and motherhood weren’t working out for her. I’ve not heard from her since she left, and really don’t care to. She left us; why would I want to hear from her?”
Because then he could allow himself to heal from the abandonment, she thought. Although perhaps, if she allowed it, that was what they were supposed to help each other with: healing from earlier life traumas. Going on instinct, she rose from her seat and went to him. Pain and frustration marred his features.
Grace cupped his chin to make him look at her and waited until his gaze connected with hers. “I’m sorry that my absentminded professor moment brought that all to the surface for you, and for not taking your feelings into consideration. I promise to do better on that end. I’m not used to having someone care what time I finish work.”
His arm slid around her waist. “I’m sorry too.” He lowered his forehead to hers, kept his gaze open and said, “I know that you’re a bedroom submissive, and it’s something I’m going to have to work on, letting go of that control outside of it. But don’t send me away tonight.”
No. She decided she wouldn’t, not when she understood that she had poked a raw wound. It had been unintentional, but she had, and for that she felt contrite. “No, I won’t, but we’ll need to stay at my house if that’s all right with you.”
“Thank you. I think I can manage that.”
“And I have feelings for you too. You know that, right? They scare me because of how fast this has moved, but they are there just the same.” Grace leaned forward and rubbed her lips against the satin smoothness of his, thrilling at the way his shadow beard abraded her skin.
On a groan, he deepened the kiss, shifting the sweet embrace into a heady tangle of tongues and lips. She was falling for him, for this untamed, dominant alpha. When he touched her, it was more than her body that felt the effects, because it resonated in her heart.
Grace ended the kiss. “Why don’t we lock up and get out of here? I’ve got the fixings for spaghetti and salad at home if you’ve not eaten yet.”
“Spaghetti sounds great.” He brushed his lips against her forehead. “Let me help you shut the office down.”
And sometimes you realized that if you wanted someone to bend from their stance, that you had to be willing to bend first.
16
The next day, Emmett headed for the imaging center at the local hospital. Grace had given him quite a bit to consider after their argument last night, which had turned into more of a clearing of the air than a fight. He believed it had been a conversation that had been long overdue.
He realized that he’d allowed fear to guide his actions. He wished he could say that his mother leaving like she had, had in no way shaped his life. But that would be a lie. It was part of the reason he needed the control. However, Grace was right, he did have to concede and bend. She was a strong-willed woman—and that was a major part of her appeal—who had a job that could be unpredictable. He couldn’t get bent out of shape like he had last night. Although, he suspected they would continue to butt heads upon occasion.
At the reception desk, he spotted Elizabeth Johnson. They’d dated briefly his senior year of high school. He’d even gotten her out of her panties in his truck one fine spring evening.
He rested his good arm on the counter and leaned forward. “Elizabeth, how are you?”
“Good, Emmett. I heard about your dust up with the stallion. Have a seat, and I will let the nurse know you’re here.”
“Thanks. How’s Ted doing?”
“Oh he’s fine,” she smiled, “proposed on Valentine’s Day.” She waved her hand, with the ring twinkling.
“Well, I guess congratulations are in order. I’d not heard. When’s the wedding?”
“Last weekend in July. We’re doing a small, intimate ceremony so that we can spend a week on Waikiki Beach.”
“That’s great.” It made him think that he’d like to see Grace in a bikini. Spend some time with her on a deserted beach somewhere.
“Yeah, my soon to be in-laws have a timeshare that they’re giving us the use of that week.” Elizabeth beamed as she sat at her desk.
“Well, if I don’t see you before then, congrats. I’m happy for you.”
Then a nurse he was unfamiliar with—older, with streaks of gray in her brunette hair pulled into a bun on her head—was standing at the door to the waiting room in her powder blue scrubs. “Mister Benson.”
Emmett rose and followed her in. He had to admit it was getting easier to take the brace off. The thing could use a good cleaning. But he could tell he was healing. For the short time he had the brace off, he was able to move his arm without gasping at the pain.
When he left the hospital after his MRI, Emmett headed to the ranch. One of the things that Grace had mentioned last night bothered him, and it was something he could fix. Now, he wasn’t able to dress for a fancy restaurant just yet with the stupid sling. Hopefully by next week, he could graduate to a less restrictive one that would allow him to put on a shirt that didn’t have holes cut in the sides almost down to his waist.
But he didn’t like the fact that he had skipped over the wooing portion with Grace. She was a woman who deserved candlelight dinners and afternoon walks by the lake. It was something he planned to rectify this week.
At the ranch, there was a flurry of activity. He spied Mav and Tanner in a distant meadow, rounding up steer with a group of tourists on horseback. Noah was getting a trail ride prepped to leave the stables.
Emmett nodded to the people he passed along the way, and parked near the side entrance to the main building. That way he could bypass registration and head straight to the kitchen and his prime objective: charming Mrs. Gregory into helping him out on Friday.
Inside the side door, at the T juncture with the hall that would take him to the kitchens, he ran into Colt. The man was one of the few cowboys Emmett knew who wasn’t filthy, coated with dust, mud, or manure, or even a combination of all three. Working outdoors—ranch life—was dirty, sweaty work. And yet Colt always wore crisp dress shirts without a speck of dust on them.
“Didn’t expect to see you out and about. How’s the shoulder?” Colt asked, nodding toward the shoulder in question.
“On the mend. I just had an MRI on it and have an appointment with a
surgeon on Friday,” Emmett explained.
“Do you need surgery?” Colt’s brows rose up and almost met his hairline.
“God, I hope not, the inactivity is driving me crazy. No, because of the inflammation, Grace wanted to make sure that there’s not something her X-ray didn’t pick up on. It’s not a big deal, more of a formality, I think.” At least, he hoped that was the case. The last thing he wanted to do was undergo surgery that would push his return to the ranch even further back.
“Well, that’s good news. And how is the new town doc?”
“She’s good. About that bet…”
Colt waved his hand. “Don’t think anything of it. It was clear from the start that she had moon eyes for you. Besides, kissing her was like kissing my sister.” He shook his head with a disgusted grimace.
“Wait, you kissed her?” Emmett wondered if he really would take the guy’s head off. He needed to ask Grace about the kiss she had failed to tell him about.
Colt flashed him a grin. “She didn’t tell you about our hot and heavy tongue session? Interesting.”
No, she did not. Emmett was seething. “Was there anything else the two of you did?”
“A gentleman never—”
He didn’t let the bastard finish, and had Colt up against the wall.
“Did you touch her?” he snarled.
“Jesus Christ, Emmett, get your act together and let me go. I was just yanking your chain. Of course nothing else happened.” Colt shoved him off.
Emmett ran a hand over his face. “Sorry, I just saw red at the thought of you touching her.”
“Oh, this is rich.” Colt tossed his head back and laughed. The man laughed so hard, he had to swipe at tears.
“Have you lost your mind?” Emmett growled.
“Nope, but clearly you have, over the little doctor. I’ve never seen you riled up over a woman before. I must say when you fall, you fall hard. I can’t wait to pass along this juicy tidbit to the rest of the guys. They’ll laugh their heads off at your expense.”