Instant Gratification
Jesus, he needed his head examined. “Tell Emma I’ll be there in five minutes and to be ready for a birth.” He pushed the button on his Nextel as he moved fast enough that his still healing ribs protested. “On my way, TJ. Over.”
“Hurry.”
TJ sounded panicked, and hell, Stone couldn’t blame him. He’d have said over the years that they’d seen and done it all, but this was new.
A baby on the trail.
Yeah, it was new, and not a good idea. He had basic medical training from working volunteer Search and Rescue, but none of them had delivered a baby. Just the thought left him a little wobbly.
Or maybe that was leftover from his own body recovering, but he was at the Urgent Care’s driveway in seven minutes flat. It was a duplex, with the living quarters above the medical facility. He was relieved to see Emma running down the stairs toward him without him having to take the time to go get her.
So far so good.
She was wearing another pair of her fancy trousers, black this time, and a pale peach silky number on top that defined her very definable br**sts.
Yeah, he was noticing. He’d have to be a hell of a lot more tired not to. She had real br**sts and real hips and they drew him in like a magnet. Just last night, in his most excellent fantasy, she’d been straddling him with those hips, and—
She hopped up into his truck, dropped her medical bag into her lap and looked at him. “A baby on the trail? Are you kidding me?”
He liked that she didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “It’s a new one to me, too.”
“People just can’t go having babies out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest hospital is thirty miles away.”
As he knew all too well.
“Did you call and put them on alert?” she asked.
“Yes, they’re standing by if we need a heli.”
“So no one is coming but you?”
“And you.”
She just gave him a banal look. “Speaking of that, why me?”
“Well I thought maybe it was the only way to get you to go out with me.”
When she narrowed her eyes, he offered a smile.
She didn’t return it. “Is there really a baby or not?”
“There’s really a baby. Well, not yet, but soon.”
“On the trail,” she clarified. “Where there are bears and dirt and bugs and oh, I don’t know, a thousand different germs and bugs, not to mention things that could go wrong?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
Stone out and out grinned. She might be edgy and bossy and seriously tense, not to mention bad-tempered, but she wasn’t boring. “I hope you weren’t too busy.”
“Are you kidding?” She was going through her bag. “The people here look at me like I’m an alien. I was considering cutting off my own finger for something to treat.”
Ah, there it was. His opening, which he unabashedly took. “So you should be thanking me for bringing you something exciting.”
“A baby,” she murmured, definitely not thanking him. “On the trail. Good Lord.” She sighed. “Definitely not in New York anymore, Dorothy.”
He laughed, something he’d done far too little of lately—which meant Dr. Emma wasn’t just good for erotic dreams, but maybe…just maybe something more as well.
Chapter 4
Stone drove with a controlled speed and intensity that rivaled any cabbie Emma had ever met. In the city, crazy driving had never bothered her for some reason, but here in the remote wild, wild west, with nothing but trees, trees and more trees surrounding them, it seemed more than a little terrifying.
Stone took a hard turn and she slid in her seat against the constraints of the seatbelt. Not her driver. Nope, Stone leaned with the car—though he did wince, probably his ribs—and continued driving without missing a beat.
She watched him. Actually, she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him. His jeans were clearly beloved old friends, soft-looking and faded. There was a rip over one knee and the opposite thigh, which brought her attention to his long legs folded even in the large cab of his truck. His long-sleeved performance jersey was shoved up to his elbows and read Wilder Adventures over one hard pec. His arms, tanned and sinewy, flexing as he worked the wheel over the roads, still had medical wrap covering the worst of his cuts and scrapes.
Luckily the dirt roads, narrow and curvy as they were, were at least in fairly decent condition. They’d had a lot of precipitation lately. She’d caught the tail end of an unreal spring firsthand, which had caused all the thick, impenetrable growth on either side of the road.
A little too Twilight Zone for her taste, even in the middle of the day. The air smelled like fresh pine and dirt, and at this altitude, felt hotter than hell as it blew in the opened windows. Stone glanced at her and caught her looking at him.
“You’re tough to read,” he said.
“What are you trying to figure out?”
“The last time I saw you, you saw a whole hell of a lot of me.”
“True.”
“I was just thinking that you must have some reaction to seeing me naked before we’ve even shared a coffee…”
Yes. Yes, she’d had a reaction. A very private one. “That was my job.”
He nodded. “And sharing a coffee—”
“Would be a major mistake.”
“Why?”
Because I keep picturing you naked. “Because I don’t mix business and pleasure.”