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“That’s him. Anyway, according to Lou Ann, they’re currently off, but Junior showed up tonight with his drink most definitely on, and a slightly different recollection of where they’d left things.”
“So he shot you? I can’t believe you haven’t already called the cops.” Despite her agitation, she added another small, tidy stitch to the meticulous line. It would be a travesty to scar such perfection.
“No need to get all worked up. He went after me with the coon chaser he keeps in the gun rack of his pickup. He wasn’t aiming to kill me, just stake his claim.”
“Stake his… Oh my God, you’re all hopeless.” She tied off the final suture, cut the thread, and tossed the scissors on the table.
“Not my way of thinking, Doc. I’m just trying to explain what was going through Junior’s half-rocked mind. He’s going to feel real bad about this once he sleeps off the booze.”
“He can sleep it off in a cell,” she said firmly.
Tyler made a negative sound. “Junior’s a damn good builder, plus he’s got a four-year-old boy with a baby mama over in Ashland. If he’s in jail, it’s going to be real tough for him to make child-support payments. Then the kid suffers for Junior’s bourbon-fueled bad judgment.”
“He shot you. I’m obligated to notify the authorities. It’s nonnegotiable.” Considering the matter settled, she affixed a bandage over the stitches. “You’re done.”
He craned his neck to look at his bandaged cheek, then hauled up his jeans and turned around. Those hypnotic green eyes captured hers. His lips curved up in a slow, simmering smile. “Everything’s negotiable.”
Melody’s words from the diner floated through Ellie’s mind. Roger’s ideal woman has a whole lot of experience and very few boundaries.
Practicing medicine wasn’t a gig for the easily shocked, so she didn’t see boundaries as an issue. But experience? That was another matter. Maybe the answer stood before her, in the form of a walking, talking wealth of sexual know-how? Medically speaking, he also qualified as a walking, talking female libido enhancer.
“C’mon Doc, what would I have to do to persuade you to keep this between us?”
Chapter Two
Tyler listened to the silence while his question hung in the air between them. Ellie stared for a moment and then gave him such a measuring look he actually felt heat crawl up his neck. What the hell was going through her mind?
“Since you were, shall we say, chatting up Lou Ann this evening, I take it you’re currently unattached?”
Lou Ann had done all the chatting, in truth. He’d been looking for a polite way to shut her down even before her lips started blazing a trail along his throat, because Junior was one of his best friends and, contrary to what everyone seemed to think, he didn’t make a habit of hitting on his best friend’s girl. He crossed his arms over his chest and started to rest his hip against the table before remembering that probably wasn’t a good idea. “Yeah, Doc. I’m still waiting for that special someone to come along.”
“But you like to stay busy while you wait.”
Her words held no hint of judgment. Rather, his own recent but steadily growing dissatisfaction with his revolving door of a love life caused the comment to stick in his craw. Or maybe taking a bullet in the ass for being stupid or just plain bored enough to hang around when Lou Ann had flirted served as a wake-up call. Either way, seemed like time to make a change.
“Some might say,” he answered, eyeing her. This was an odd conversation to be having with anyone, let alone Sparky Swann. What in the hell did his relationship status have to do with convincing her not to report Junior to the authorities?
The belt of her short, pink robe claimed her full attention. “You’re very experienced in a particular area where I’d like to increase my…um…competency.”
She glanced at him, absently worrying her lower lip between her teeth. The gesture caused an uncomfortable tightening in his groin. “You want to learn how to build a house?”
“I’m talking about sex,” she said, setting her lip free, so now it was just her deep, brown gaze grabbing him by the balls. “You’ve been honing your talents since you were a teenager. If the gossip can be believed, you enjoy a sex life most guys only dream about.”
“Hey, now, you can’t believe everything you hear.” But a highly ambitious part of him begged to disagree. It begged him to part her slippery pink robe and show her things she’d only dreamed about.
This is Sparky Swann, he reminded himself, a bookish, awkward little girl, ’cept she didn’t appear to be any of those things anymore.
“I only have to believe a quarter of it. Tyler…” She trailed off and dragged a h
and through her long, dark hair, unconsciously telegraphing nerves. “Promise to teach me how to be a wild woman in bed and I’ll leave it to some other concerned citizen to report Junior to the cops.”
Maybe he’d been shot in the head tonight too, because something was definitely wrong with his hearing. “Sorry, what did you say?”
Her chin came up. “You heard me. I want hands-on, real-life instruction.”
“Okay, let’s back up a minute. Mind if I ask why you think you need to be ‘wilder’ between the sheets?”
Those bourbon-and-Coke eyes skidded away from his again.
