Authors: Gigi Moore
Doctor Malloy seemed to perk up himself, blue eyes noticeably widening just a tad beneath his lush black eyebrows as he looked at Maia. Desiree could almost see an arc of energy flowing out between her sister and the doctor.
Wow. She’d heard of love and lust at first sight and instant attraction, but she’d never seen it in action before, if that’s what this was.
“You can follow me this way and I’ll take a look at that wound.”
Maia gave Desiree one more poke in the ribs with her elbow before she sprang to her feet to follow Doctor Malloy out of the waiting area.
Desiree turned her attention from them, as they disappeared into one of the treatment rooms, to Carson sitting beside her, and her heartbeat stuttered at the dark look in his green eyes. She actually raised a hand to her throat as if to defend herself. “What?”
Carson just made a sound in his throat that sounded strangely like a growl and shook his head as he turned his attention to the TV overhead.
What was that about?
“You didn’t have to drool over the guy,” Carson muttered.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The doctor. Granted, I suppose he’s good looking in an Ivy League, city slicker kind of way, but you didn’t have to
drool
.”
“I wasn’t drooling!” Desiree realized she had raised her voice and glanced around the waiting area to see who paid attention to them, which was almost no one, thank goodness. She turned in her seat to face Carson, who kept his stony profile to her as he seemed to follow the action on the TV screen as if his life depended on it. There was no mistaking the muscles working along his clenched jaw like he chomped a bit, though. “What is your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem, but if a slick pretty boy is more your style than Sam and me, then why’d you bother…being with us in the first place?”
What pretty boy? Doctor Malloy? Okay, sure she had thought it when he’d first come into the waiting area, but who could be any more pretty than Carson and his brother? Both were so gorgeous and rugged that they made her wonder why
they
had been with
her
earlier.
Carson was jealous? Why? He had no reason in the world to be! The only man who had been crowding her thoughts as much as him since she had been on the ranch was his brother, and there was no competition there since she wanted them both equally.
Want? Why don’t you just admit you love them?
Desiree struggled with whether or not she should tell Carson how she felt but didn’t want to sound like she was patronizing him or trying to stroke his ego. She had to admit she was horrible at it, not used to catering to anyone’s ego outside of business. This was different. Carson and Sam constituted a personal relationship, a rare one she wanted to nurture and enjoy—against her better judgment.
“Is he?” Carson turned from the TV to face her.
“Is who what?”
“Is Doctor Malloy more your style?”
“As opposed to what?”
“Two…cowboys.”
Desiree couldn’t help thinking he’d been about to say something else entirely, the pause between words was so profound.
“If the two cowboys are you and Sam, then no, Doctor Malloy is not my
style
. I don’t have a style.”
At least before Carson brought it up, she wasn’t aware she had a
style
or a preference except for someone decent and considerate. Looks counted, she supposed, but they had never been a priority to her. Besides, if she went by her experiences with Jeremy, then she couldn’t trust her judgment in these matters anyway. No one had been more considerate, decent, and good looking than him. He had been what her coworkers and Maia thought of as a “catch,” and look how that had turned out.
“Oh, you’ve got a style,” Carson said, looking her up and down as if measuring her worth and finding her wanting.
Could he have been any more disapproving? She felt like she was right back where she had started with him when he looked at her with nothing but annoyance and contempt.
At Desiree’s confused silence, Carson frowned and shook his head.
“You really have no idea, do you?”
Desiree sighed, tired of the mind games. “Idea about what?”
“How beautiful you are.”
She spluttered. “I am not!”
Carson chuckled, his first moment of lightness since they had arrived at the hospital. He nodded his head and reached for her, curving an arm around her back and drawing her close to his side. “Beautiful and desirable and so fucking naïve it borders on adorable.”
“Watch your language, sweet talker.”
“Get used to it, city slicker. This is who I am—a simple, tough-talking, wild, and rugged country boy.”
Desiree thought she understood where his mind was going—that
he
thought he wasn’t good enough for
her—
when nothing could have been further from the truth. Besides which, she didn’t think there was anything “simple” about Carson Quarry. He remained too mysterious, with too many secrets she couldn’t even begin to unravel, to be considered simple by any stretch of the imagination. Both he and Sam proved the most complex and enigmatic men she knew next to Remy Bastien. “Who are you trying to convince?”
“I just want you to know who and what you’re dealing with.”
Desiree looked at him from the corner of her eye. “I know who I’m dealing with.”
“Not yet, little Desi. Not yet.”
Chapter 13
Desiree saw Maia’s face when Doctor Malloy escorted her out of the treatment room under an hour later and had to admit her younger sister looked about as shaken as she felt.
Those cryptic words Carson delivered before settling down to watch television with his arm around her as if nothing untoward had occurred between them set all her nerves on edge with foreboding. When she considered them, they really just solidified what she already knew to be true about the man. He had secrets.
Of course everyone had a past and skeletons in their closets, Desiree told herself, but she wondered even more about the ones that Carson and Sam harbored. She wondered about their elusive pasts.
Carson rose from his seat as Maia made her way over to them after Doctor Malloy gave her some last-minute instructions and a prescription. “So, what’s the verdict?”
“I’m sure you know better than me, Wildlife boy.”
Carson grimly nodded. “Hopefully Sam caught the critter so we can get him tested and have the results back lickety-split. Maybe you won’t have to get the rest of those shots.”
Desiree knew as well as Maia what testing meant, and the idea of it still sat heavy in her stomach. She didn’t wish ill of anyone or anything, but when it came down to her sister and a possibly rabid wild animal, she’d take her sister’s well-being over the animal, of course.
Carson seemed to sense their melancholy and put an arm around each of their shoulders as Desiree stood to join them. “It’s going to be all right.”
“I know.” Maia suddenly brightened. “Especially since I have to come back in three days to get my second shot.”
“You’re looking forward to it?” Desiree asked then realized who she was questioning. Hot doctor plus Maia meant devilment, at least and especially on Maia’s part.
“If I have to get rabies shots, looking at a hunky doctor while I do it isn’t a bad deal.”
Carson chuckled. “I guess not.”
He seemed in much better spirits since their little disagreement, Desiree thought. Maybe she had said just the right thing to calm him down and reassure him that he and Sam were the only men in her life right now, which remained true.
“So, you got everything you need? We ready to hit the road?”
Maia nodded her head. “Yep, I’m all set. Doctor Malloy gave me some pain pills to tide me over until I can fill my prescription.”
Carson looked from Desiree to Maia, sensing as Desiree did that Maia wanted some alone time with her older sister. He stepped from between them and said, “I’ll go ahead and get the truck started while you two girls talk.”
Maia laughed as he left then turned to her sister. “So did you two behave yourselves while I was indisposed?”
“Question is did you behave yourself with the good doctor?”
“You know me.”
“I know. That’s why I asked.”
“Of course I didn’t behave myself, and I was hoping you hadn’t, either.”
“In a hospital waiting room?”
Maia just smiled.
Desiree shook her head. Her sister was just hopeless. She knew Maia wouldn’t let a little thing like inappropriate surroundings stop her from getting a little action going. Although she had to admit the thought of stealing a few kisses from Carson had crossed her own mind. She just didn’t go in for public displays of affection, never had. However, she’d never had a reason to, never had someone she wanted to show how she felt as much as she wanted to show Carson and Sam, regardless of where they all happened to be. Heck, she had started getting busy in the woods with Carson earlier, though she’d managed to let her fear override her lust and stopped.
This was bad. They both made her drop her guard, act like someone else besides her levelheaded, sedate self. Was that such a bad thing, though?
Desiree wondered just how far Maia had gone with the good doctor, if they had gone beyond the doctor-patient bounds at all in the treatment room. She had to admit the man was attractive and right up Maia’s alley. The thought gave Desiree hope that maybe her sister would give her a break once she had her own love life to focus on. One could dream.
Had she passed up a crucial opportunity to get closer to Carson while Maia had been in with the doctor? It wasn’t like the hospital was an optimal place for a romantic interlude, but at this point Desiree was ready to take what she could get, as she didn’t think she would get many more opportunities. She didn’t know how she knew or why she was being so pessimistic, but something told her that the moments of bliss she’d found in Carson and Sam’s arms earlier were not only short lived but would be few and far between.
When they made it out to the truck, true to his word, Carson sat in the driver’s seat idling the engine. He got out and ran around front to open the passenger door for them, closing it behind Maia before he got back into the driver’s seat beside Desiree.
He gave her one meaningful look before he started the truck, a look that said so much without saying anything at all, telling her that they were nowhere near through or at the end but only beginning their relationship.
Carson’s look plainly said she wasn’t getting rid of him or his brother any time soon.
* * * *
By the time Carson pulled into the driveway of the main house, it was well after midnight, and the lights were on in most of the house, indicating that several people were up, probably waiting for some news of Maia’s well-being.
Usually he and Sam would be in the woods hiking, soaking in the stream, or running and fighting in their wolf forms, burning off excess steam. Now that that schedule had been blown all off-kilter, Carson’s thoughts wandered ahead to saying good-bye to Desiree for the evening when he wasn’t quite ready to let her go. He hadn’t been ready earlier when he’d left. He had wanted to wake up next to her, his brother on the other side of her as they squeezed her into a nice breakfast sandwich.
Carson got hard just thinking about holding Desiree close to him again, exploring her mouth and pussy with the same fervor, sharing a taste of her luscious breasts with his brother.