Instant Gratification

The lodge door shut before Emma answered, and Stone looked at Nick. “You both suck, you know that?”

“Ah, don’t be like that.” Nick slung his arm over Stone’s shoulder. “I think she likes you best.”

Stone shoved him away and Nick laughed. “Hey, if you’re worried about what happened in her office, you can always tell her you’d been swimming in some damn cold water before she made you take your pants off. Then she’d at least understand.”

Ignoring him, Stone made his way up the stairs to the lodge.

“Don’t do it, man,” Nick called after him. “That one’s Heartbreak City.”

Like he didn’t know, but when it came to Emma, apparently he was a glutton for punishment.

Stone found Emma sitting at the kitchen table with Dr. Spencer Jenks, both being served breakfast by Annie.

Spencer had an arm around Emma’s shoulders and was grinning at her affectionately as Chuck wound around their ankles, mewing softly, waiting for crumbs to fall. “I’ll get you on a mountain bike yet, babe.”

“Too dangerous.” She flung his arm off, but her body language was easy and comfortable, telling Stone that these two had a history. A long one.

Fine. She was taken. He should have assumed that. So she smelled good enough to eat and had eyes that saw beneath his bullshit, which had been a nice change. So he’d been momentarily distracted by her sharp wit and sweet curves. It didn’t matter, because she wasn’t sweet, at least not to him.

She was probably planning her and Spencer’s reunion sex right now.

“Thanks again for the ride this morning,” Spencer told Stone as he came into the room. “It was nice to have a day off. I don’t get out of the hospital enough, that’s for sure.”

“Glad you enjoyed it.” Stone looked at Emma, who oddly enough wasn’t looking at Spencer with googly eyes, picturing their reunion sex. She was looking right at him.

“You’re stressing your stitches,” she said. “Stop frowning.”

“I’m not frowning.”

“Yeah, you are.” This from Annie, who handed him a plate loaded with scrambled eggs, sausage and sour dough toast, his favorite. Over the plate, she waggled her brow in the direction of Emma. “You aren’t going to catch anything with that scowl.”

“I’m not trying to catch anything.” Irritated now, he grabbed his plate and headed for the door.

“Where are you running off to?” Annie asked.

“I just thought our guest might appreciate some privacy. With his girlfriend.”

Emma grabbed a piece of toast and slathered it with jelly. “Oh, I’m not his girlfriend.”

“Nope.” Spencer shook his head. “I date women who are much nicer.”

Emma rolled her eyes and stole his coffee, while Stone tried not to acknowledge the relief rolling through him.

“See?” Spencer said to Stone, gesturing to Emma, now sipping his coffee. “Not nice.”

Emma ignored him. “So,” she said to Stone, innocently and daintily licking some jelly off her thumb. “Been to the bar lately? Where the three women jumped you? Because I brought you a shot of antibiotics. I wouldn’t want you to catch anything.”

His belly quivered, though he had no idea if it was from sheer lust of watching her tongue lick her thumb, or fear of her needles. “I’m good.”

Annie barked out a laugh.

Spencer had stopped eating and was looking at Stone speculatively, probably wondering how three women had gotten the best of him, since he was by no stretch a small guy.

“Listen,” Emma said. “Three women jumped you in a bar.” She flashed him a look of mock sympathy. “They beat the crap out of you. That’s got to be traumatizing to say the least.”

“It’s not so bad.”

“Come on, Stone. You must feel violated.”

Annie snickered. Stone shot her a look, and she tried to control herself.

“Anyway,” Emma went on. “I’ve been worried about you, so I located a counselor in the area, someone you could talk to.” Her mouth curved gently, only those razor sharp baby blues revealing her sharp wit.

Stone was well used to his brothers f**king with him. That’s what brothers did, f**k with each other’s head. But a woman? This was new for him. And oddly…stimulating. “I think I’m going to be okay.”

She arched a brow. Daring him to admit the truth. “Annie told you,” he said with a sigh.

“That you’re on a volunteer search and rescue team and you were called out to save a guy who’d gone off a cliff on his rock climb? That said guy panicked once you had him halfway up the cliff to safety, knocking you down about fifty feet? Yeah, she told me. You might have told me.”

He looked at Annie, who was suddenly very busy at the stove.

“Oh, and given the redness I see around some of your cuts and bruises, you do need the antibiotics.”

“You said I looked good.”

“That was a few days ago. You don’t look good now.”

She let him start sweating over that one for a beat, before she shook her head. “You fell off a cliff and you’re scared of me?”

“Hell, yes.”

She stood up and headed toward him, and he stumbled back a step, smacking right into the door.

Spencer winced.

Annie cackled.

“Careful,” Emma said, still coming at him. “Your ribs.” She reached her hand into her bag.