Page 9 of Rough

“Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Actually, forget that. Do everything I wouldn’t do and then some.”

She ended the call as I rolled my eyes. I leaned forward and looked up at the arch.Wolf Ranch.I had no idea what I was doing, driving all the way out here. Boyd Wolf was fine. Marina was right. I’d been wrong about how seriously he’d been injured. There was no other explanation. Yet…

Fine, I wanted to see him again, to believe he really was healed. Or not hurt. He couldn’t have healed if he hadn’t really been hurt. Gah!

I dropped my forehead to the top of the steering wheel. I was fooling myself if it was only my need for answers that had me idling in front of his ranch. I was interested in knowing more about Boyd than as a doctor. I wanted to know why his abs were like a washboard. Why his skin was hot and smooth. If the chest hair I’d felt disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans.

If his cocky attitude meant he was cocky in bed. If he’d be bossy and stern…

Yeah, I was totally screwed.

5

AUDREY

I’d madeit all the way down the long drive and to the main house but hadn’t gotten out of the car. My pep talk had gotten me this far but had fizzled out just shy of the front door. I sat in my idling car when a rap sounded on my window.

I shrieked a little and nearly wrenched my neck looking out at the… wow. Those were some broad shoulders under that cowboy hat. It was anotherverygood-looking cowboy. He didn’t look happy. Where the hell had he come from? I’d been staring at the house—a full on farmhouse of epic proportions—but not too focused to have missed someone of his size approaching.

I quickly shut off the car and opened my door. The man stepped back, still frowning. He resembled Boyd, except a little older, and everywhere Boyd radiated happy go lucky, this guy radiated grumpy. I took a guess at him being an older brother.

“Hi! I’m Dr. Ames.” I reached back into the car, fumbled with my purse and medical kit and pulled them out, spun back around to face the guy, then stuck out my hand. Yeah, I was flustered. “I’m here to check in on Boyd.”

He looked down at his own hands, dusting them on his jeans, then held them up. “I’m not fit to shake,” he said, although I suspected he just didn’t want to touch me. Which was stupid, and I was certainly reading way too much into it. “You’re… what did you say? Adoctor? Why would you need to come all the way out here to check on Boyd?”

I didn’t know why, but his skepticism or confusion offended me. I frowned, stared him down, then squared my shoulders. “Yes. I attended Boyd when he was injured at the rodeo the other night. He left the hospital without completing the proper discharge papers.”

Shock and disbelief flickered over the man’s face, then his scowl deepened. “I see. I’m sorry, my little brother does have a habit of operating outside the rules.”

Okay. It seemed there was a little family tension here. I gave a bland shrug to make light of it all. “It’s fine. I just wanted to check on his wound. Is he here?”

I looked away from the gorgeous grumpy guy. The long dirt drive where I’d parked sloped down to a giant barn, a stable and corral. In front of me stood a large ranch house with plenty of windows and a wrap-around porch. A beautiful place to raise a huge family. Lots of rooms, lots of places for kids to run and play while the parents sat in rocking chairs on the front porch and watched. A pang of envy filled me. I couldn’t imagine growing up in a place as idyllic as this, and I was… jealous.

I’d been raised by a single mom with depression. It hadn’t been a Norman Rockwell painting like this place probably was.

To the left, a long two-story building stood with a similar porch on the ground floor and a balcony running all along the top floor. Doors opened to the top balcony, almost like the ranch version of a dorm or apartment building. A bunkhouse, perhaps? How many people lived and worked here? On a piece of land this size, I assumed a fair amount.

“I’m right here, Doc.”

A deep voice had me spinning on my heel in the direction of the road that led to the barn. Boyd came jogging up in a pair of ripped jeans and fitted t-shirt in hunter green, a few flecks of straw on the shoulder. There wasn’t a hint of effort in his gait as if he was injured. The relaxed smile on his face didn’t indicate pain or discomfort. The snug shirt couldn’t hide any kind of bandage.

He tugged off a pair of work gloves as he came up, his smile as wide and charming as I remembered it. For one moment, I forgot everything under the glare of that magnetic white-toothed grin. Heat blossomed between my legs, my nipples tightened in my bra.Thisfeeling was why I was standing here, why I’d driven all this way. I felt likeI’dbeen hit by a charging bull, and I’d never, ever felt like this before.

Not over a man. Not over a man I didn’t even know. Gah.

But then reality came crashing back.

What in the hell was happening? How was it possible?

I’d have sworn on a stack of Bibles this man had been a bloody mess just two days ago. Now it looked like he’d been throwing hay bales out in the barn. No way could a guy with a sucking chest wound be able to twist his body, let alone throw hay.

As if he was suddenly reminded of his injury, he sagged a bit, bracing his ribs with his forearm with one hand, then took off his hat with the other. His light hair was damp with sweat and had a crease from his hat. I wanted to ruffle it with my fingers.

“Awful nice of you to come check up on me.”

Again, that devastating grin.

Again, the ruined panties.