The Divine Creek Ranch Collection Volume 4 Read online

  She wrapped her doctor’s coat around her to block the chill of the wind that gusted off the lake and wondered why she hadn’t thought to change before she left the office. The coat was a part of who she was.

  She sat on a tree stump by the water and pulled her knees up to her chest. The sun was nearing the horizon, and she still hadn’t started her supper preparations. Had she been on the phone that long? Time had a way of speeding up when Jane called.

  “Doctor Guthrie! Doctor Guthrie!”

  Emma turned at the sound of her name being hollered. A doctor’s instincts took over, and her hunger was forgotten. She rose and ran toward the woman sprinting to her. She recognized her as Anita Webber, the wife and mother of a family she cared for.

  “Thank goodness you’re here! I’m glad I recognized your vehicle. A man has been injured in one of the campsites.”

  Emma caught up with her, reaching unconsciously for the stethoscope that was not around her neck but in her car with her medical kit. “What happened, Anita?”

  “He’s been shot.”

  “Shot? With what?” She hadn’t heard a firearm being discharged.

  Anita replied, “An arrow.”

  Holy crap! Once at her vehicle, she grabbed the large utility box from the front seat where she’d placed it when converting the rear of the vehicle into sleeping quarters. “Can you tell me where he was shot?”

  “His…derriere,” Anita said as a profuse blush spread over her cheeks. “It doesn’t look deep, but he seems like he’s in an awful lot of pain.”

  Anita led the way to the picnic table where a crowd had gathered. Emma could just as easily have followed the noise and hubbub to his exact location.

  A man and woman stood over a sniveling, crying preteen boy, who must have been the perpetrator, judging by the bow in his hand. Both parents yelled and fussed at the same time. Other campers had gathered around to take in the drama.

  “Pardon me! Pardon me. I’m a doctor.”

  Another older man stood with a group near the picnic table and seemed to be trying to establish order. “Let the doctor through! Y’all go back to your campsites. There’s nothing more to see.”

  “What happened?” Emma asked as she placed the medical kit on the picnic bench next to the injured party. Whoever he was, he took up nearly the length of the long table.

  “What does it look like happened?” a deep voice growled back. “Duke, let me up. It’s not that bad.” Turbulent green eyes looked up at her from a ruggedly handsome face. Before his collar-length, dark-blond hair flopped in his eyes, she saw his brows knit together in what seemed like shock or surprise before he looked away and swore under his breath. It must hurt more than he let on.

  His friend Duke replied, “No. Not until the doctor looks at you. I’ve seen wounds like this get badly infected because they weren’t treated properly. If I have to sit on you, you’re staying put.”

  Duke looked up at her, and a smile flashed across his face. His hair was longish and appeared either dark brown or black in the fading light. He was every bit as handsome as his friend but in a different way. His dark eyebrows arched over expressive eyes, and his lips were neither too full nor too thin. A short, scruffy beard darkened his jaw. His smile was almost sensual as he gazed at her. He seemed vaguely familiar, but she met so many people every day there was no telling how she knew him.

  The onlookers began to wander off, some still looking back curiously. The irate father pulled his son over to the picnic table. “My son has something he’d like to say, sir.”

  The handsome blond looked over at the crying boy who appeared ready to wet his pants. “What is it?” he asked softly. He seemed bent on not scaring the boy further, which Emma appreciated, considering the reaming the boy had just gotten from his parents.

  She went to work examining the wound, which didn’t appear to be bleeding profusely at the moment. The arrow had punctured the denim of his jeans and penetrated the gluteal muscle, but she wasn’t sure how deep. Emma asked the mother to bring her one of the arrows while she continued to inspect the wound. He flinched when she accidentally jostled the arrow but said nothing. She tried to ignore how firm and lean his buttock was under her fingertips.

  The boy stuttered and snorted as tears and snot ran down his face. “I–I–I’m re–ee–eally sor–sorry about shooting you, mister. Um—I’ll work to pay for all your medical bills and…damages.” He pointed at the arrow jutting from the blond man’s ass and added, “I–I–I swear I wasn’t aiming for you.” He punctuated his statement with a loud hiccup.

  The mother silently handed Emma an arrow, which she held up in comparison, guessing the arrow was embedded about two inches. The blunt tip on the arrow was barely pointed enough to puncture and was probably meant only for target practice. It probably hadn’t done any major damage, but it must have hurt like hell. She verified with the mother that all the arrows had been tipped the same.

  The blond man grunted and said, “It’s okay, kid. Accidents happen.”

  The father insisted on getting his name and address so they could take financial responsibility for their son’s actions. Duke gave his phone number to the anxious father as Emma sorted through her kit, looking for what she’d need to treat him.

  “What are you doing?” the blond man asked her.

  “What’s your name?” Emma asked as she took a seat at the picnic table by his head to talk to him and set him at ease. His tone was cautious, and she could see the anxiety in his green eyes.

  “Gage. Gage Randall. What are you doing?”

  Emma placed her hand on his firm back. “Gage, I’m Emma Guthrie. I’m a doctor and I’m setting up my supplies so I can treat you. I’m going to remove the arrow and clean out the wound. Your friend is right. If it’s not treated properly, the resulting infection will not be fun for you.” Or for your lovely tush.

  It surprised Emma to think such inappropriate thoughts over a nervous patient so obviously in pain. For the first time in a long time she felt her cheeks heat up over dealing with someone’s private areas. She thought that response had been trained right out of her in medical school. As a family practitioner, she’d seen just about everything.

  Quietly, in a deep, earnest voice the man said, “Not here.” He sounded very serious.

  Emma looked around. “Where then? I’m not kneeling in your tent if I don’t have to. Wait.” The light was better inside the customized tent attached to the back of her Pontiac Aztek. She could sit on her folding chair, and he could lie on the bedding on the tailgate. He was tall, so it wouldn’t be comfortable for him, but it would be better than being out in the open. She looked up at Gage’s dark-haired and equally handsome friend. “Duke, right?”

  He nodded and replied, “Duke Rivers.”

  “Can you bring him to my vehicle? We’ll set up there.”

  “Okay.”

  Gage grimaced as Duke helped him rise stiffly from the picnic table, and they made their way to her campsite. She unzipped the tent and directed him to the opened cargo hatch. Emma was surprised that he made little noise as he settled. He must have a high pain tolerance level. She’d seen grown men cry over much less.

  Duke made himself handy with the lantern while she reached around Gage to unbutton his jeans. He grasped her hand and stilled it. “What are you doing?” His hand was strong, impeding her progress, but not forceful.

  “Gage, I just need to loosen the zipper so I can pull them down once the arrow is out. I need to give myself some room to work and I’ll have to clean the wound properly after the arrow is removed.”

  Gage seemed to debate with himself for a few seconds then gently removed her hand from his fly and unbuttoned and unzipped his pants himself then settled back down.

  “So, did you just get here?” she asked, making small talk as she sanitized her hands and prepared to remove the arrow.

  “Yeah. We’d just set up the tent,” Duke said. “We were enjoying the view when it happened.” She glanced over at Du
ke and saw his crooked smile curl up on one side, and mischief twinkled in his eyes. There seemed to be more he wanted to say but didn’t. “This is a pretty cool setup you have.”

  “I got a great deal on it. The customized tent was ideal for me because I love to camp.” The tent that came with the vehicle had been altered and another larger tent attached to it so that she not only had the enclosure for the back of the vehicle, but in addition, she also had a small private space at the end of the vehicle.

  “We do a lot of camping, too,” Duke replied as he came close and watched her work. The combined scents of the two men in the small enclosure caused her to inhale slowly and appreciatively. A ripple of awareness quivered through her at his proximity. Her nipples hardened to tingling points, and warmth spread through her core. Glancing up, she caught Duke watching her curiously, and her cheeks tingled with heat.

  “I feel like I know you from somewhere, Duke,” she said.

  “Our work takes us all over. We’re IT consultants.”

  She gloved up and wrapped her hand around the arrow close to the wound. To Gage she murmured, “Ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Count to three.” She tightened her hand around the arrow and prepared to remove it.

  “One—” With one fast but careful tug, she pulled the arrow straight out. “Ow! You said—”

  “I was distracting you,” she replied with a chuckle as she handed Duke the arrow. “I couldn’t have you clenching, now could I? Lift for just a second while I pull down your underwear and jeans.”

  He hesitated, and that trace of unease returned to his handsome features. He seemed more bothered by her exposing his ass than the pain of the arrow removal.

  To reassure him, she said, “I’m just a doctor, Gage. I see asses all the time. Young asses, old asses, tight asses, and saggy asses. I’ve seen the asses of half the people in Divine at one point or another.”

  Duke chuckled softly at her attempt to put Gage at ease.

  Gage looked up at her. “Maybe so, but I’m not used to showing my ass off. And you’re not just a…”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. Do your thing,” he muttered as he allowed her to tug his jeans and underwear down. He flinched, hissed, and cursed softly. “Stop.”

  She let go and watched the muscles in his triceps ripple with strength as he lifted his upper body on one arm and carefully pulled the waistband of his underwear over his groin area. Although it was dim in the enclosure, as she observed him she realized what the problem was. His cock was standing up stiff and must’ve gotten caught by the waistband when she’d tugged.

  “Sorry.” She bit her lower lip and hummed softly to herself, a habit she’d developed when she was nervous. There is no need to be anxious. You’re a doctor for crying out loud. She propped her rimless eyeglasses a bit higher on her nose with the back of her hand and assisted him as he lowered the jeans and underwear and then lay back down.

  Her inner turmoil because he had an erection in her presence was replaced by professional instinct as she doctored the bleeding wound. She directed Duke to bring the light closer when he inched away from her. She caught an almost imperceptible nod from Gage as he looked at Duke, and he came closer with the light again.

  Gage’s ass was firm and muscular under her hand as she held his butt cheek steady to clean the puncture wound. “Duke, you’re going to have to come closer. I can’t see what I’m—”

  Scars. There were scars all over his otherwise perfectly formed ass.

  Gage’s voice was rough like gravel when he said, “Sorry, Doc. Duke was trying to spare you that sight.”

  From the look of them, the scars were old, pale, and shiny. They were round, about the size of a pencil eraser, some larger, some smaller. Some were darker and seemed like they went deeper. There were also several thin, faded slash marks against the outside of his left cheek.

  Volunteering at the women’s shelter in Dallas while she was in medical school, she’d seen wounds like this, only fresher, on the bottom of a little toddler who had stayed there with his mother.

  Finding her voice, she asked, “How old were you?”

  Gage’s answer was so soft, it was impossible to determine his emotional state. “Toddler.”

  “I’m sorry.” It wasn’t her business to intrude into his personal life, but she wished she could offer some kind of comfort. She pulled her hand away when she realized she was stroking his bare ass. He let out his breath in a soft whoosh. His green eyes were shuttered by his long, thick eyelashes, and she couldn’t tell if he’d reacted to her words or her touch.

  “It’s okay, Doc. It’s in the past.”

  “You can call me Emma.”

  “Thanks, Emma, for taking care me.”

  “You’re welcome, Gage. Have you had a tetanus shot recently?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. You’ll need to see your doctor about this when you get home. I’m going to clean it and bandage it. The puncture goes deep so you’ll want to watch carefully for infection. You may have some lingering pain until it heals completely.”

  “Sure. Can I come see you to have it checked out?”

  She caught movement in her peripheral vision. Duke frowned and shook his head. She pretended she didn’t see it, but she got the gist of what he was trying to communicate. They needn’t have bothered because she never dated patients anyway. Duke probably didn’t want her to get her hopes up that she would see them again.

  Focusing on her work, Emma cleaned the wound thoroughly, wondering what it must’ve been like for Gage as a little boy, unable to defend himself against his abuser. It made her sad. She glanced up at Duke as she worked and found him watching her again. She suddenly felt like a bug under a microscope.

  After the job was done, she gave Gage an over-the-counter pain medication. Her stomach growled as they thanked her and said good night after she refused any form of payment for her services. They departed, and she made herself something to eat and perched on her bedding with her knees drawn up to her chest.

  She listened to the noises of family activities beyond her campsite. Adults were chatting, and children were running off their excess energy before settling down for the night, and here she sat inside her tent, eating alone.

  She wrapped her arms around her knees, and many emotions crowded her thoughts. She was troubled by the scars on Gage’s gorgeous ass, curious at the way Duke had watched her as she worked, and painfully aware of her own lonely state as she looked around her tent. Being in such close proximity to two handsome men had unsettled her.

  For some reason, as she turned out her lantern and settled down for the night, the “Instant Threesome” she’d purchased at Discretion came to mind. It was inside her locked cedar chest, along with the rest of her sex toys, in the walk-in closet of the apartment she’d just moved in to. She wondered what a threesome would feel like, and an image of her sandwiched between Duke and Gage came to mind.

  Emma throbbed with need and wished that she’d brought it with her on this trip, even though it was totally impractical. Her thoughts returned to Gage with his turbulent green eyes and to Duke as well. In the lantern light, she’d been able to make out his slate-gray eye color. It didn’t matter though. Judging by Duke’s subtle reaction, she obviously wasn’t their type. Their type? She put her hand over her eyes and wanted to kick herself for imagining a ménage. She wasn’t that lucky.

  Maybe someday she’d see them again, not that it would make much difference. She didn’t date patients, and she didn’t kid herself about guys who were clearly out of her league. They were nice to her because she’d done a good thing for them, but that was all there was to it. Duke had been so disinterested, he hadn’t even wanted Gage to come by her clinic to be checked out later. She was used to people coming and going like that. It was a fact of life for a doctor. The difference this time was that the subtle rejection hurt her feelings.

  Chapter Two

  Tuesday evening, Duke grinned as he
walked in the front door of the apartment he shared with Gage and dropped the mail on the coffee table.

  “Gage, you’re never going to believe who our new downstairs neighbor is,” he said, fighting the urge to do a fist pump. A pair of sparkling green eyes and soft-looking, kissable lips came to mind. This was the perfect opportunity to get to know the beautiful doctor better.

  Gage craned his neck to see the address label on the top envelope. “Whoever it is, I hope they don’t bitch and moan like that lady with the cats did. We could hardly take a step while she lived downstairs. And I swear I can still smell her cat litter box.” Gage shifted uncomfortably on the couch, removing all doubt about the cause of his ill humor.

  “Nope. I think you’ll consider this good news, actually.” Duke lifted the envelope from the stack and showed it to him. “Recognize that name?” he asked. It had only been a few days since the disastrous camping trip. They’d come to be at that particular campground because Duke had asked Summer about her doctor friend and she had mentioned that Emma favored that particular campground.

  Duke had seen the interest in Gage’s eyes as they’d both watched her pacing the shoreline right before Gage had gotten tagged in the ass with the arrow.

  When she’d shown up with her medical kit and treated Gage so soothingly, Duke had imagined what life would be like with her around. She’d spoken to Gage in the reassuring tones of a doctor, but her voice had a sexy, low-pitched, musical quality to it that made Duke want to just sit and listen to her talk. Neither he nor Gage had been able to resist her winsome smile when she’d explained why she’d preemptively yanked the arrow out.

  He hadn’t missed the fact that Gage had been hard for her while she’d treated him, and had stayed hard despite the fact that he was in pain and she’d discovered his scars. Duke knew Gage was self-conscious about them and had been surprised they hadn’t dampened his libido.

  They’d become intrigued by Emma that day in July when she’d visited Summer at Discretion and made her unusual sex toy purchase. Emma blushed very easily, and he’d fantasized many a time about what she would look like riding the “Instant Threesome” to a moaning orgasm before climbing onto him or his cousin and doing the same with them. He stiffened now just thinking about it.