One Night with a Red-Hot Rancher. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ and his nose slid against hers as his mouth poised over her parted lips. “Very pretty mouth.”

      She stood very still, waiting, hoping that he wasn’t going to draw back. She loved the way his body felt, so close to hers. She loved his strength, his height, the spicy scent of his cologne. She hung there, at his lips, her eyes half closed, waiting, waiting…

      “Where’s that cake?” came a plaintive cry from the living room. “I’m starving!”

      They jumped apart so quickly that Cappie almost fell. “Coming right up!” Heavens, was that her voice? It sounded almost artificial!

      “I’ll take the coffeepot into the living room for you,” Bentley said. His own voice was oddly hoarse and deep, and he didn’t look at her as he went out of the room.

      Cappie cut the cake, forcing her mind to ignore what had almost happened. She had so many complications in her life right now that she didn’t really need another one. But she did wonder if it was possible to put this particular genie back in its bottle.

      And, in fact, it wasn’t. When they finished the cake and a few more minutes of conversation, Bentley got a call from his answering service and hung up with a grimace.

      “One of Cy Parks’s purebred heifers is calving for the first time. I’ll have to go. Sorry. I really enjoyed the meal, and the cake.”

      “So did we,” Cappie said.

      “We’ll have to do this again,” Kell added, grinning.

      “Next time, I’ll take the two of you out to a nice restaurant,” Bentley said.

      “Well…” Cappie hesitated.

      “Walk me out,” Bentley told her, and he didn’t smile.

      Cappie looked toward Kell to save her, but he only grinned. She turned and followed Bentley out the door.

      He paused at the steps, looking down at her with a long, unblinking stare in the faint light that shone out from the windows.

      She bit her lower lip and searched for something to say. Her mind wouldn’t cooperate.

      He couldn’t seem to find anything to say, either. They just stared at each other.

      “I hate women,” he bit off.

      She faltered. “I’m sorry,” she said.

      “Oh, what the hell. Come here.”

      He scooped her up against him, bent his head and kissed her with such immediate passion that she couldn’t even think. Her arms went around his neck as she warmed to the hard, insistent pressure of his mouth as it parted her lips and invaded the soft, secret warmth of her mouth. It was too much, too soon, but she couldn’t say that. He didn’t leave her enough breath to say anything, and the pleasure throbbing through her body robbed her mind of the words, anyway.

      Seconds later, he put her back on her feet and moved away. “Well!” he said huskily.

      She stared up at him with her mouth open.

      His eyebrows arched.

      She tried to speak, but she couldn’t manage a single word.

      He let out a rough breath. “I really wish you wouldn’t look at me in that tone of voice,” he said.

      “Wh…what?” she stammered.

      He chuckled softly. “Well, I could say I’m flattered that I leave you speechless, but I won’t embarrass you. See you Monday.”

      She nodded. “Monday.”

      “At the office.”

      She nodded again. “The office.”

      “Cappie?”

      She was still staring at him. She nodded once more. “Cappie.”

      He burst out laughing. He bent and kissed her again. “And they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” he mused. “This is much quicker than food. See you.”

      He turned and went to his car. Cappie stood and watched him until he was all the way to the main highway. It wasn’t until Kell called to her that she realized it was cold and she didn’t even have on a coat.

      After that, it was hard to work in the same office with Bentley without staring at him, starstruck, when she saw him in between patients. He noticed. He couldn’t seem to stop smiling. But when Cappie started running into door facings looking at him, everybody else in the office started grinning, and that did inhibit her.

      She forced herself to keep her mind on the animal patients, and not the tall man who was treating them.

      Just before quitting time, a little boy came careening into the practice just ahead of a man. He was carrying a big dog, wrapped in a blanket, shivering and bleeding.

      “Please, it’s my dog, you have to help him!” the boy sobbed.

      A worried man joined him. “He was hit by a car,” the man said. “The so-and-so didn’t even stop! He just kept going!”

      Dr. Rydel came out of the back and took a quick look at the dog. “Bring him right back,” he told the boy. He managed a smile. “We’ll do everything we can. I promise.”

      “His name’s Ben,” the boy sobbed. “I’ve had him since I was little. He’s my best friend.”

      Dr. Bentley helped the boy lift Ben onto the metal operating table. He didn’t ask the boy to leave while he did the examination. He had Keely help him clean the wound and help restrain the dog while he assessed the damage. “We’re going to need an X-ray. Get Billy to help you carry him,” he told her with a smile.

      “Yes, sir.”

      “Is he going to die?” the boy wailed.

      Dr. Rydel put a kindly hand on his shoulder. “I don’t see any evidence of internal damage or concussion. It looks like a fracture, but before I can reduce it, I’m going to need to do X-rays to see the extent of the damage. Then we’ll do blood work to make sure it’s safe to anesthetize him. I will have to operate. He has some skin and muscle damage in addition to the fracture.”

      The man with the boy looked worried. “Is this going to be expensive?” he asked worriedly.

      The boy wailed.

      “I lost my job last week,” the man said heavily. “We’ve got a new baby.”

      “Don’t worry about it,” Dr. Rydel said in a reassuring tone. “We do some pro bono work here, and I’m overdue. We’ll take care of it.”

      The man bit his lower lip, hard, and averted his eyes. “Thanks,” he gritted.

      “We all have rough patches,” Dr. Rydel told him. “We get through them. It will get better.”

      “Thanks, Doc!” the boy burst out, СКАЧАТЬ