“You’re a case, O’Rourke,” he muttered under his breath as he leaned on the door at the top of the stairs. It opened easily, and a brass bell jangled as he crossed the threshold.
Chandra was inside. Alone. She was seated at a makeshift desk, and glanced in his direction. Her fingers froze above the keyboard of a calculator, and surprise and anxiety registered in her even features. “Dr. O’Rourke,” she said quietly. Standing, she yanked her glasses from her face and folded them into a case. As she approached the counter separating them, she asked. “Is…is anything wrong? The baby—is he—”
“He’s fine,” Dallas said, cutting in, and noticed relief ease the tension from her shoulders.
“Thank God. When I saw you here…well, I assumed the worst.”
She blew her bangs from her eyes in a sigh of relief, and Dallas couldn’t take his eyes from her face as he crossed the room and slapped his coupon onto the desk. “Actually, I’m here to cash this in.”
Chandra picked up the voucher and eyed it carefully. “You want a white-water trip?”
“Overnight campout, I think it says.”
“When?” She seemed ill at ease, drumming her fingers as she read the damned coupon again.
“As soon as possible. I’ve got three days off and thought we could get started whenever your schedule allows.” He watched her and wondered if she’d try to beg out, try to palm him off on someone else—a man probably. He didn’t blame her and, considering his fantasies of late, she would probably be right. Nonetheless, more than anything, Dallas wanted to spend the next couple of days alone with her.
“This coupon has my name on it,” she said, glancing up at him with assessing hazel eyes. “Did you request me?”
“It was a gift. From my brother.”
“Your brother?” She pulled her eyebrows together, and a deep line formed on her forehead.
“Half brother really. Brian McGee.”
“McGee? Oh!” A smile of recognition lighted her eyes. “Mr. Macho.”
“Was he?” Dallas wasn’t certain he liked this twist in the conversation. Obviously Chandra had noticed Brian’s dubious charms, and Dallas had hoped that she would be a little more selective. He saw her as a cut above the women Brian usually dated.
“He wasn’t too thrilled to have a woman guide,” she explained with a soft chuckle that struck a chord deep within Dallas. “But he changed his mind.”
“Whatever you did, he sang your praises for two hours.”
She laughed, and the sound was deep and throaty. “I scared him.”
“You what?” Dallas couldn’t help the grin that tugged at his lips. The thought of this little woman besting his brother was music to his ears.
“I scared the living tar right out of him.” She glanced to the coupon and back to Dallas, and the laughter died in her eyes. “Am I supposed to do the same for you?”
“Do you think you can?”
“Without a doubt,” she said, arching one fine eyebrow.
Was she teasing him? Women rarely had the nerve to joke with him; he’d heard his nickname, Dr. Ice, muttered angrily behind his back more than once. The name and the reputation suited him just fine. Kept things simple.
“Well, Ms. Hill, you’re on.”
“In that case, call me Chandra—I’ll try to forget that you’re a doctor.” She flashed him a cool smile of even, white teeth that made him want to return her grin.
“Will that be possible?”
“Absolutely. But I think we should get some things clear before we set out—in case you want to back out.” She leaned over the counter that separated them. “When we’re in the boat, Dallas, I’m in charge. And that goes for the rest of the trip, as well. It was hard enough to convince your brother of that fact, so I hope I don’t get any guff from you. Understood?”
For a little thing, he thought, she certainly could lay down the law. He couldn’t help feeling slightly amused. “What time?”
“Let’s see what we’ve got available.” She turned, picked up a clipboard with several charts attached to it and ran her fingers along the top page. Scowling, as if she was disappointed to find she wasn’t booked up, she said, “Be back here at ten-thirty today. I’ll have everything ready by then.”
“What do I need to bring?”
“Besides your nerve?” she asked, and slid a list of supplies across the desk. One column listed the equipment and food that would be provided, the other suggested items he might bring along. “Just remember we travel light.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” he said mockingly, and started for the door.
“One more thing,” she called. He stopped short, turning to catch a glimpse of what—worry?—on her small features. “Will you be coming alone—the coupon is only for one. Or is anyone from your family…your wife, anyone, coming along?”
At that he snorted. “My wife?” he asked, and thought of Jennifer. Though they’d been divorced for years, she was the only woman who had become missus to his mister. “Nope. Just me.” With that, he strode through the door.
Chandra let out her breath. If Rick was here right now, she’d personally strangle him. What did he mean to do, hooking her up with O’Rourke? And what about the cryptic comment from O’Rourke about his wife? Was he married or not? Already, Chandra was getting mixed signals from the man, and not knowing his marital status made things difficult. Not that his marital status mattered, of course. Dallas O’Rourke was nothing more than the doctor who had admitted the baby.
Nonetheless, Rick Benson had a lot of explaining to do! Putting her name down on the form!
Within ten minutes, her boss waltzed through the door. “What’s gotten into you?” she demanded.
“Hey—what’s wrong?”
“Everything.” She threw up her hands in disgust. “You signed me up for an overnight with Dr. O’Rourke. Remember him? The guy who’s about as friendly as a starving lion and as calm as a raftload of TNT going over the falls!”
“Hey, slow down. What’s all this about?” Rick asked before spying the coupon on the desk. “Oh.”
“‘Oh’ is right.”
“Don’t blame me. That college kid insisted that you give his brother the ride of his life.”
Chandra’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“The kid even paid for an overnight, but if you don’t want to do it, I’m sure that Randy would—”
“No!” Chandra cut in, feeling cornered. “I already said I’d meet him today. I can’t back down now.”
“Sure you could. Get a headache or claim you have P.M.S. or—”
“Just like a man!” she said, throwing up her hands and glaring at him. “I swear, Rick, sometimes I think you’re on their side.”
“On whose side? Men’s? No way, Chan, I’m just walking a thin line between the sexes.” He looked up, trying to swallow a smile. “I hired you, didn’t I? You should have heard all the flack I took about that.”
“I know, I know,” Chandra said, though she still felt betrayed. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be with Dr. O’Rourke, she told herself; the man was interesting, even if his temper was a little on the rough side. But the thought of spending a day and a night with him…
“Hey—isn’t he the guy who took care of the baby at the hospital?” Rick asked as he walked into the back room. He returned with a gross of pocket knives, which he put on display in the glass case near the door.
“Just the admitting doctor.”
“Well, he works at the hospital, doesn’t he? Maybe you could get a little more information on the kid. I know that you’ve been eatin’ yourself up over it.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“And then some.” Rick opened one pocket knife to display the blades, then locked the case. He moved back to the desk, where Chandra had tried to resume tallying yesterday’s receipts. “If you ask me, you’re getting yourself too caught up with that little tyke.”
“I don’t remember asking.” She took her glasses out of their cas
e, then slid them onto her nose.
Rick pushed the sale button on the cash register and withdrew a five-dollar bill. A small smile played upon his lips. “This trip with the doc might be the best thing that happened to you in a long time.”
* * *
O’ROURKE WAS PROMPT, she’d give him that. At ten-thirty, his truck rounded the corner and pulled into the lot. He guided his pickup into the empty slot next to Chandra’s Suburban. “Ready?” he asked as he hopped down from his truck.
“As I’ll ever be,” Chandra muttered under her breath, forcing a smile. “You bet.” Dr. O’Rourke—no, Dallas—was as intimidating outside the hospital as he was in. Though he was dressed down in faded jeans, beat-up running shoes, a T-shirt and worn leather jacket, he still stood erect, his shoulders wide, his head cocked at an angle of authority. What am I doing? Chandra wondered as she, balancing on the running board of the Suburban, tightened a strap holding the inflated raft onto the top of her rig.
“Need help?”
“Not yet.” She yanked hard, tied off the strap quickly and hopped to the ground. Dusting her hands, she said, “Just give me a hand with your gear and we’ll get going. You follow me in your truck. You can park at the camp. We’ll take my rig up the river.”
“Sounds fair enough,” he said, though he couldn’t hide the skepticism in his voice.
Within minutes, they were ready—or as ready as Chandra would ever be—and the Suburban was breezing along the country road, which wound upward through the surrounding hills. Behind her, Dallas drove his truck, and she couldn’t help glancing in the rearview to watch him. There was something about the man that was damned unsettling, and though she told herself differently, she knew her attraction to him—for that’s what it was, whether she wanted to admit to it or not—had nothing to do with Baby J.D.
The drive took nearly two hours, and in that time the smooth asphalt of the country road deteriorated as they turned onto a gravel lane that twisted and turned up the mountains.
Tall pines and aspen grew in abundance along the roadside, their branches dancing in the wind and casting galloping shadows across the twin ruts of the sharp rock. Through the forest, flashes of silver water, the Rattlesnake River, glinted and sparkled in the trees.
Chandra pulled off at a widening in the road, just to the south of Grizzly Loop. Dust was still billowing from beneath her tires as Dallas’s rig ground to a stop. Through the surrounding stands of trees, the river rushed in a deafening roar and the dank smell of water permeated the air.
Dallas cut the engine and shoved open the door of his truck. “I must be out of my mind,” he said as he hopped to the ground. “Why I ever let Brian talk me into this…” He shook his head, and sunlight danced in his jet-black hair.
“So it wasn’t your idea?”
“No way.”
Chandra opened the back door of the Suburban and started pulling out crates of supplies. “Let me guess. You didn’t really want to come today but your male pride got in your way, right? Since your brother—”
“Half brother,” Dallas clarified gruffly.
“Whatever. Since he made the trip, your ego was on the line. You had to prove you were man enough to challenge the river.” She smiled as she said the words, but Dallas got the distinct impression that she wasn’t just teasing him. No, she was testing his mettle.
“Maybe I couldn’t resist spending time with you,” he said smoothly, then cringed at the sound of his own words. Good Lord, that corny line could’ve come straight out of an old black-and-white movie.
“I figured as much,” she tossed back, but a dimple in her cheeks creased, and her hazel eyes seemed to catch the rays of the sun. Her eyes sparkled the same gray-green as the river that he glimpsed through the trees. “Well, are you going to give me a hand or what?”
“I thought you were the guide.”
“On my trips, everyone pitches in.” She reached into the truck again, withdrew some tent poles and tossed them to him. “I think we should set up camp at the edge of the forest.”
“Whatever you say. You’re the boss,” he mocked, carrying tent poles, tarp and a heavy crate down a dusty path through the trees. Branches from the surrounding brush slapped at his thighs, and a bird, squawking at his intrusion, soared upward past the leafy branches to the blue sky.
For the first time, Dallas didn’t doubt the wisdom of this little adventure. Though he hated to admit it, he decided that Brian might have been right about one thing—he did need a break from his sterile routine. For the past three years, he’d had no social life, contenting himself with work and sleep. He swam daily in the pool of a local athletic club, taking out his frustrations by swimming lap after tiring lap, and he skied in the winter…. Well, he hadn’t last winter or the winter before that. He’d been too busy….
“This should do.”
He hadn’t even been aware that Chandra had joined him or that the path had ended at a solitary stretch of sand and rock. Chandra strapped on a tool belt and took the tent stakes from his hands. “Put the rest of the equipment right there and unload the back of the Suburban. But don’t bring down the first-aid kit, life preservers or anything else you think we might need on the trip—including the small cooler.” When he didn’t move, she smiled sweetly and added, “Please.”
Dallas wasn’t used to taking orders. Especially not from some tiny woman puffed up on her own authority. And yet, she’d been straight with him from the beginning, so despite his natural tendency to rebel, he dropped the things he was carrying and, turning, started back up the path.
When he returned, Chandra was bent over her work. The stakes were driven into the earth, and the ropes were strung tight. She leaned her back into her efforts as she stretched the nylon tarp over the poles.
She’d tied a handkerchief around her forehead and had begun to sweat; shiny drops beaded over her eyebrows and along the gentle ridge of her spine where her blouse separated from her shorts. He wondered about the texture of her skin, so firm and supple, then closed his mind to that particular topic. What was coming over him? Since he’d moved to Ranger, more than his share of women had shown interest in him. Patients, nurses, even fellow doctors had been bold enough to try to get to know him, but he’d held firm. No woman, no matter how beautiful, no matter how interesting, was allowed past a certain point. He had made the mistake of putting his faith in a gorgeous woman once before, and he wasn’t about to suffer that fate again.
Even if, as he was beginning to suspect, Chandra Hill was the most exciting female he’d met since stepping foot on Colorado soil.
Ignoring the obvious curve of her behind, he dropped the rest of their supplies. “Here, let me give you a hand with that.”
“You know how?” she asked skeptically.
“Mmm.”
“Don’t tell me, you’re an Eagle Scout in disguise,” she joked sarcastically, but took the sting off her words by offering him that sexy smile again.
“Nope. The military.”
“You were in the service?” she asked, turning all her attention his way. Her face, touched by the sunlight, seemed younger and more innocent than he’d first thought, and yet there was a trace of sadness in her eyes, a flickering shadow that darkened her gaze momentarily.
“My father was,” he clarified, wondering why he was giving her any information about himself. “Career military doctor.”
She rocked back on her heels and wiped her palms on her shorts. “And you decided to follow in his footsteps?”
“Something like that,” he admitted, though the subject, as far as he was concerned, was closed. He’d come on this trip with the firm intention of gaining some insight on Ms. Hill, not the other way around.
They finished setting up camp, and Chandra, swinging a rope over a tall tree branch, hoisted a nylon bag of food twenty feet into the air. “Bears,” she explained when she caught his questioning gaze. “They’re as hungry as Yogi and twice as clever. So let’s not leave any ‘pic-i-nic baskets’ a
round. Even this—” she hooked a thumb toward the tree “—might not be effective.”
“No one mentioned bears on this trip.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” she said, and laughed. That husky sound continually surprised him. Checking her watch, she said, “Come on, let’s go. We want to get back here before dark.”
He had no choice but to follow her back up the path, and though he tried to train his eyes on the steep curving trail, his gaze wandered continually to the movement of her tanned legs and the sway of her hips beneath khaki-colored shorts.
Her clothing, an aqua T-shirt and shorts, wasn’t innately sexy, but there was something about her, some emotions simmering just beneath the surface of her calm smile, that hinted at a slumbering sexuality ready to awaken. His thoughts leapt ahead to a vivid picture of her lying naked on that sandy beach, hair wild and free, water from the river still clinging to her skin. Her arms were outstretched, her legs, beneath an apex of blond curls, demurely crossed, but her dark-tipped breasts pointing upward, beckoning—
“Ready?”
His heart slammed against his chest as he started from his fantasy and found her staring up at him. They had emerged from the forest, and the sunlight seemed harsh after the filtered shadows of the woods.
“Anytime you are,” Dallas replied, his voice lower than usual as he shook the inviting image of her bare body from his mind with difficulty.
“Good.” Crawling into the cab of her truck, Chandra added, “Hop in.” She fired the engine and threw the big rig into gear. Dallas had barely settled into his seat and closed the door when she tromped on the accelerator and they were off to God-only-knew-where.
Dr. O’Rourke wasn’t exactly as Chandra had expected him to be. He was quiet—too damned quiet. She never knew what he was thinking, and now, bumping over the lane to the start of Grizzly Loop, she wished she’d never agreed to be his guide. His brooding silence made her nervous, and the directness of his gaze made it impossible for her to relax. And that didn’t even begin to touch his sexuality, which, now that she was alone with him in the wilderness, seemed more potent than ever.