Chasing Trouble (Texas Trouble) (4 page)

"Well, I hardly think that Chase Rhodes will fit that bill.  He's too pretty, he probably has to beat women off with a stick.  I think he might be a player...any man with a smile like that..."

"You'll never know, unless you get to know him."

"What about you?  You've been divorced what--five years?  I don't see you getting back in the saddle..." Jenny deflected trying to change the subject.

"I didn't just get thrown out of the saddle, honey, my husband was a serial cheater, and damned good at hiding it...that's kind of hard to recover from."

"Excuses...like you said, until you can find another one to trust, you'll stay broken."

"You sure know how to shut me up, huh?  Feed me my own bullshit and make me choke on it," Terri laughed then took a sip of her beer.

"
Turnabout is fair play, right?" Jenny said.

"I reckon it is..."
Terri agreed.  "Let's go get something to eat, since we're the only ones who can stand us."

"Sounds good," Jenny agreed and huffed out a relieved sigh that the inquisition appeared to be
over for now.

***

The next morning Jenny was paying for her unusual indulgence in five glasses of wine the night before.  A dull ache throbbed behind her eyes, and her brain was pretty sluggish even after two cups of strong black coffee.  And of course, since there was going to be a full moon tonight, it would turn out to be one of her busiest days. 

The Emergency Room was packed to the rafters with
migraines, ear infections and runny noses, a toddler who felt like his nostril was the perfect place to shove a peanut, along with a couple of their regular hypochondriacs with various complaints, and one real emergency, a guy who got in a fight with a chainsaw while trimming his trees and lost.  She was working on the last guy trying to get his bleeding under control, so they could take him into surgery and reattach his hand.

"
Terri, put more pressure on that artery," she told her nurse.  "Did you call the surgeon?"

"Yes, he's on standby upstairs,"
Terri replied.

"Someone call and let him know we're on the way
up," Jenny said.

"You sure you can't just sew me up, Doc?" the man on the table asked
her fearfully.

Jenny smiled tightly at him.  She knew her patient was scared, but surely he could see from the amount of blood all over her and him
, and his dangling appendage, that he needed surgery.  And if she didn't get him up there soon, he could lose that hand. 

"Wish I could, Mr. Carter, but this needs to be cleaned out in surgery
and reattached.  They'll get the neurosurgeon to help reattach the severed nerves, so you can regain some mobility in it.  Dr. Sims is a great surgeon, he's going to take good care of you," she reassured him as she pushed the bed toward the door with her trauma team surrounding the bed.

The
y moved quickly to the staff elevator then up to the surgery floor, where they passed him off to the team waiting by the double doors to the operating room.  Jenny took a moment to get herself together and corral the adrenaline pumping through her. 

Terri
put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.  "You okay?"

"Yeah, it's just been a heck of a morning, so far," Jenny said and looked up at the clock on the wall.  The morning was gone, it was almost
noon, and it didn't look like she was going to make it to say goodbye to Chase Rhodes after all. 

Oh well, she'd take that as a sign.  The crazy
decision to agree to go to dinner with him was steeped in alcohol anyway, never a good way to make decisions.  Terri had finally convinced her after glass of wine number five to give him a chance. 

She'd been like a dog with a bone, until Jenny had agreed to it last night.
  In turn, Jenny had made Terri agree to accept the next time someone asked her out too.  They'd made a pact, a pinkie swear, and it looked like her end of the bargain was already doomed.

"Let's get back to the zoo...that kid with the peanut is next," she told
Terri with a chuckle and they made their way back downstairs.  "I think I need a decon shower though...ugh," Jenny told her looking down through the protective plastic shield over her face at her scrub gown.  Yanking off the shield, she pushed into the biohazard room and threw it in the trash and took off her gown and gloves then disposed of them too.

"Unless more
patients came in while we were upstairs, most of the ones left are non-critical...I can put them off for a few, if you want to do that," Terri offered.

"Nah, I'll just change real quick," Jenny told her
then stripped off her scrubs and put on a clean pair.  When she was dressed, they exited the room and walked to the elevator to head back to the Emergency Department. 

When they rounded the corner by the check-in desk, Jenny saw a massive bouquet of red roses.  There had to be at least three dozen stuffed into a huge vase.  Someone had been a good girl, Jenny thought and grinned at the
triage nurse who was almost obscured by the flowers. 

When they passed the desk, and headed down the hall the nurse called out.  "Um, Doc Anderson, these were delivered for you."

"Me?" Jenny said and her heart skipped a beat, fluttered around in her chest before righting itself. 
What the hell?
 

Jenny turned and walked back to the desk and saw a white envelope on a stick poking out from the middle of the buds and snatched it out.  Why her hand shook as she pushed back the flap and pulled out the card, Jenny
did not know, but it did.

Terri
walked up behind her and craned her neck to peer around Jenny to see what the card said.  Jenny moved to the side and held it closer to her chest, then looked down at it. 

Doc, thanks for
patching me up.  I was sorry you didn't make it up to my room today, before they cut me loose.  Please have dinner with me?  No pressure for anything else, I just want to get to know you better and thank you.

The card was signed simply Chase, and his cell phone number was
scribbled beneath his signature.  Jenny sighed and Terri did too.  Her friend had a dreamy expression on her face, even though Jenny knew she hadn't read what was on the card.

"Don't forget our deal,"
Terri reminded in a low voice and reached up to squeeze Jenny's arm.

"You're not going to let me forget it are you?" Jenny chuckled.  "When the time comes, remember this,
Terri...payback is hell."

Terri
grinned and hooked her arm through Jenny's and led her back to the E.R. "Oh, I have no doubt you're going to get your pound of flesh when the time comes, but right now, it's my turn."

Jenny finished her shift
, seeing patients nonstop for the rest of the day.  When she finally grabbed the huge rose-filled vase from the admitting desk and walked out the front door, her legs were sore and tired, and she just wanted a long soak in her tub and a good book to take her mind off the day.  Her fifteen-minute walk home seemed to take her fifteen hours, and her legs felt numb by the time she stuck her key in the door and opened it.  Chloe, her cat, waited for her by the door and rubbed against her ankles. 

"Hey, baby girl, you miss me?" she cooed, and
Chloe meowed petulantly.  Jenny walked inside and shut the door then kicked off her shoes and curled her toes into the thick carpet. 

With a relieved sigh, she made her way to the
kitchen table and put the roses in the middle.  It really was sweet of Chase to send her flowers, but the magnitude of his gesture, three dozen, was way over the top.  That was probably more flowers than she'd ever received from a man in her life, let alone at one time.

Jenny grabbed a glass of wine and headed to the bathroom.  On her way to her bedroom, Jenny unbuttoned her blouse and unhooked her bra.  By the time she got to the bathroom, there was a trail of clothes behind her and she was naked.
  Sitting on the side of the tub, she turned on the faucet and stuck her hand underneath adjusting the temperature until it was just right.

After pouring a healthy amount of lavender bath gel into the tub, she eased herself down into the frothy water and moaned.  Her tired muscles finally relaxed a little, and she took a sip of her wine then sat it on the edge of the tub and sank farther down in the water.
  Using her toe, she turned off the faucet when the tub was full and closed her eyes.

A little while later, the doorbell rang and she jumped then opened her eyes looking around disoriented. 
It rang again and she groaned, then pushed up to stand in the now cool water, and wondered who the heck could be at her door.  Her only friend was Terri and she was going to a movie tonight.  Jenny's family was all in Amarillo, so she knew it wasn't them either. 

Terri
had tried to talk Jenny into going to the movie with her, but she told her she was too tired.  Jenny was too tired, and she certainly wasn't in the mood for company either.  Maybe it was a salesman, and she could give him the brush off.  Maybe she could just ignore it and whoever it was would go away.

When the bell didn't work, the person on her doorstep started knocking...loudly.
  With a tired sigh, Jenny reached into her linen closet and pulled out a towel then wrapped it around herself before she sprinted for the door.  Water from her wet hair ran in rivulets down her spine and she shivered.  Skidding to a stop at the door, she peered through the peephole and her heart flatlined then started racing.  How the hell had he found out where she lived?

Without remembering that she was dressed in only a towel, Jenny flung open the door and gave Chase Rhodes the evil eye.  "What the hell are you doing here?"

His gorgeous blue eyes flickered down her body and tingles kept pace with them over her skin.  The hair on her arms stood up and she willed it to lay back down.  He had no right to be here, she hadn't invited him here.  It was awfully presumptuous of him to assume he could just show up on her doorstep.

"Your friend
Terri called me and told me that you invited me to dinner here at seven.  She said you were too busy in the E.R. to call me and you asked her to call," he told her in that sexy rich drawl of his then gave her his Pepsodent smile.

"I'm going to kill her," Jenny said under her breath
and stepped back opening the door wider.  Her friend had just crossed the line with her, and she was going to tell her so, as soon as she could get rid of the handsome as sin man on her doorstep. 

But it wasn't his fault, so sh
e wasn't going to be rude.  With a tight smile, she waved him in.  "Come in...I'll get dressed."

"Don't do that on my account," he teased and showed her that panty-melting smile of his
again.  His whole face lit up with it and she swallowed down the instant heat that bubbled up inside of her.

"Just have a seat on the sofa, and I'll be right back," she told him and turned to walk back to her bedroom, stopping to pick up the clothes she'd left on the floor earlier. 

Terri was a dead woman.

CHAPTER FOUR

Chase closed the door then looked around at the
apartment.  It was much smaller than he expected.  When he pulled up in the parking lot, he wasn't impressed.  This wasn't a good place for a woman alone to be living.  Not that it was the ghetto, but it wasn't secure enough for his peace of mind, and she was a doctor for christsake, surely she could afford better?

From the surprised look on her face when she'd opened the door, he figured she'd either forgot she'd invited him over, or her friend
Terri had invited him without her consent.  Either way, it didn't bode well for a nice evening of 'getting to know you'. 

Jenny looked tense, tired and wrung out...definitely not in the mood for a chat
, or to go out to dinner.  He didn't smell anything cooking, so dinner here wasn't in her plans either.

If his arm
wasn't in a sling, he would give her a massage to help her relax and cook her dinner.  Chase flexed his fingers and tested out the soreness in his shoulder, then flinched.  Nah, that wouldn't be happening tonight, unfortunately.  If he put pressure on it, he'd probably end up doubled over on the floor, and she'd wind up patching him up again.

S
omething pink sticking out from under the sofa caught his eye, as he walked around to sit down.  He reached down to pick it up, and delicate lace tickled his palm.  Holding it up, he discovered what he'd found was a very sexy bra that she'd obviously missed on her way back to the bedroom. 

Heat poured through him, and he rubbed his fingers over the
fragile material, then brought it to his nose and sniffed.  It smelled a little like lavender and a lot like hot woman and desire spiked inside of him.

Feeling like a voyeur,
his face heated and Chase gently laid the garment over the back of the sofa then walked around to sit down.  Before he sat, he shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone.  Pizza would do the trick for dinner, he thought, and quickly dialed information for a delivery place.

When
Jenny came out of her bedroom, he looked up from his phone and his mouth watered for more than food.  She'd changed into a pair of form-fitting black yoga pants and a sports bra that accentuated every curve of her tall lithe body.  Her hair was in a ponytail and her neck looked a mile long.  His tongue tingled to lick her there.

His eyes traveled across her chest and up the length of her throat then met her gaze. 
When he finally unglued his tongue from the roof of his mouth, he asked, "Pizza okay with you?  Or would you prefer Chinese?"

"Pizza is fine with me...I have to warn you though, ham and pineapple
pizza is my favorite," she told him with a wry grin.

"Sounds delicious," he told her thinking she looked delicious.  Chase appreciated women.  He loved looking at them,
talking to them, all shapes and sizes, every one of them was beautiful in some way or another.  Most of his close friends in high school and college had been women.  Sure, he had male friends too to do male things with, like going to football games, but if he needed to talk, he preferred to talk to women.  This woman was the total package, beauty, brains and a body that had him in launch sequence before the countdown even began.

He didn't realize he was staring until she stopped beside the arm of the couch and her eyebrow lifted along with one side of her full lips
.  "You gonna call, or should I?"

Chase shook his head to break the magic spell she'd woven around him and realized he was sitting there with his phone in his hand.  He grinned and said, "I'll call," then dialed the number he'd gotten from directory assistance and ordered their pie.

"What would you like to drink?" she asked him.  "I have beer or wine, and a couple of Cokes."

"Beer would be fantastic..." he said and swallowed hard when she turned away from him to walk to the kitchen.  Her tight butt swaying under those snug pants drew his eyes like steel to a magnet.
  It was world class, Emmy award winning, if butts could get awards.

His phone rang
and he glanced at the caller ID and saw it was Katie Tucker, so he figured he'd better answer it.  Something might be wrong and she might need his help.  He knew her husband Tommy was away on a horse-buying trip.  He hesitated and glanced toward the kitchen, then answered it. 

"Hey, sugar, what's up?"
  He flinched as her frantic worried words tripped into his ear.  Jazzie must've called her. 

"No, I'm fine, calm down," he assured her.  "I was at the lake with Jazzie, and some trouble found us...it's handled now," he assured her.

"No, my boat didn't sink and I didn't drown, but Jazzie almost did.  Katie, I'm fine, and no I really don't need you to come take care of me."  Chase felt eyes heating the side of his face and looked up into Jenny's curious teal gaze.  She shoved a beer toward him, and he reached for it and mouthed thanks.  "Jazzie is fine too...be sure and tell Jess, because I'm sure she'll be calling me next."

After
he and Katie talked a minute or so more, Chase felt like a rude butthead for being on the phone, when he was supposed to be getting to know Jenny. 

"I've got to go, baby...take care and I'll call you tomorrow," he told her then disconnected the call.   Sheepishly, he looked up at Jenny, who was still standing beside the arm of the sofa holding her beer.

"I'm sorry about that," he told her.

"No, problem," she said with her mouth, but he could tell that
she didn't like it much from the icy air that brushed over him when she carefully passed by and sat at the other end of the sofa from him.

"So, tell me about yourself...how long have you been in Henrietta?" Chase asked her and relaxed back against the arm of the sofa to face her.

"A little over a year.  I came here to finish my residency and they offered me a staff position and I took it."

"Where are you from originally?" he asked her.

"Amarillo," she said shortly and took a swig of her beer.  Chase noticed her hand shook as she raised the bottle to her full lips.

"That's where I'm from too...where I live," he said with a lifted brow.

"So what do you do, Chase Rhodes?" she asked him and her gaze raked over him intensely, as if he were a puzzle she was trying to piece together.

"I'm a vice president in my dad's drilling
and exploration company...oil and gas."

"Sounds interesting..." she told him, not really sounding interested at all.

"Not really, but it pays the bills.  I like it well enough," he said with a wry grin.  "Definitely not as interesting as being a physician.  I'll bet you have some stories that would curl my hair."

"I do have those, but unfortunately I can't talk about them," she replied.
  "So if you're from Amarillo, why did you stick around Henrietta when you got released?"

"I wanted to see you," he told her bluntly.  "My sister headed back to school, and my mom and dad headed back home, but I stayed.  M
ama left me her car," he said ruefully thinking about the big black Cadillac sitting outside.

"Thank you for the flowers," Jenny told him grudgingly and dragged her eyes from his
to look at the vase he'd seen sitting on the kitchen table. 

"You didn't have to do that,
" she told him, then added with a frustrated sigh, "And you don't owe me anything for treating you at the hospital. I told you that."

"I'm not here because I think I owe you anything, I'm here because I want to get to know you personally.  It has nothing to do with you being a doctor, and everything to do with you being a fascinating
, beautiful woman," Chase told her sincerely.  "And you're welcome."

Chase watched her face flush a charming shade of pink and she fiddled with the label on her beer.  It was obvious to him that Jenny Anderson didn't date much, and she didn't feel comfortable around men, especially him. 

"Lay back on the sofa and give me your foot," he told her.

Her gaze flew up to his and her expression told him he'd shocked her.  "That is the worst come on line I've ever heard," she told him with a
disbelieving chuckle and wide eyes.

"It's not a come on, sugar.  Just do it," he said firmly
then leaned over to set his beer down on a coaster on the coffee table.

Jenny studied him for a minute trying to decide if she wanted to d
o as he suggested or not.  She had no idea what he was up to, but he only had one arm, the other was in a sling, so if he tried anything she would kick his ass. 

She leaned over and sat her beer beside his on the table then eased down on the couch and held her
right foot up to him.  He scooted closer to her then rested the back of her calf on his leg and closed his fingers around her foot.  He put his left hand under her heel and squeezed the arch of her foot with his right hand, before massaging her instep with his thumb. 

Jenny couldn't help but close her eyes, and she couldn't prevent the moan that escaped her lips, as his magic fingers worked miracles on her foot.  The magic didn't stop there though, it traveled up her leg and
tingles spread throughout her body.  He squeezed her heel, then the back of her calf and when her tense muscles loosened up, she moaned again.

"Feel good?" he asked in that sexy rumble of his.

"Orgasmic," she breathed then realized what she'd said and her eyes flew open in horror.  "Sorry, yeah, it feels great...thanks," she corrected and felt blood rush to her face.

He was grinning from ear to ear and his beautiful light blue eyes sparkled with humor. 
"Tell me about your family," he asked sliding his hand back to the arch of her foot and increasing the pressure of his thumb there.  His technique was outstanding, and worked better than truth serum.

"My dad is disabled, he was a roughneck and got hurt on the job.  My brother is a speculator, he speculates he'll get rich quick if he just keeps trying
new schemes, and my mom's full time job is trying to keep them both out of trouble.  Dad gets pretty depressed over his disability."

"Wow, sounds like she has her hands full
," Chase said with sympathy in his tone.

"As long as she keeps enabling them,
Nick won't grow up and my dad won't get up and do something with his life again." 

Jenny had no idea why she was telling him this.  It wasn't something she ever talked about with anyone...she hadn't even told Beau all that, or how she felt about it.  He'd never bothered to ask.

"So how did you do so well for yourself?" Chase asked curiously and squeezed her toes.

"Determination that I wasn't going to stay in that cesspool of family love any longer than I had to."

"You don't talk to your parents?"

"No more than I have to, but we get along okay.  They acknowledge me as their child, and pretend that I'm important to them, but I know their main focus is my brother.  It's always been that way.  The squeaky wheel gets greased, and he's always squeaking and taking them to the cleaners with his next great scheme."

"Give me your other foot," Chase told her and gently eased her right foot down to rest on his thigh.  This time she didn't hesitate and raised her left foot from the floor, so he could grab it.

"You're pretty damned good at that, you know?
  Even with one arm," she said with a snort.

"You're wound pretty tightly, do you know
that
?" he volleyed with a panty-melting smile.  If she had any on, hers would be on the verge of spontaneous combustion.

"I'm always wound tight...comes with my profession," she said tiredly and put her forearm over her eyes
, taking slow deep breaths to fight off the desire ratcheting up inside of her.

"
Well, you need to learn to relax more," he said seriously and his thumb hit a spot that made her want to groan with pleasure.  "Have you always wanted to be a doctor?" he asked her like he was truly interested.  That was a switch for Jenny.  Her family hadn't ever been interested, and her former fiancé certainly hadn't either.

"Not really, I wanted to be a ballerina growing up," she snorted then told him, "But then my dad got hurt when I was thirteen and I had to help take care of him.  That's why I decided to become a doctor.  I liked hanging out at the hospital, and respected the doctors that helped him."

The doorbell buzzed and he eased her foot down, then pushed up off of the sofa to go answer it. 

"Here let me get my purse," she said and started to get up, but he held up a hand to still her.

Chase reached for his wallet and pulled out some bills, then opened the door.  After he paid for the pizza and the delivery man left, he brought it back to the sofa and sat it down on the coffee table.  "Smells wonderful," he said and lifted the lid to take a peek. 

Jenny's stomach rumbled, and she reached for a slice.  He helped separate one for her piling the stringy cheese up on top, then handed it to her.  "I'll go get some plates and paper towels," Chase told her then walked to the kitchen. 

Involuntarily, her eyes followed his progress appreciating how spectacular his firm butt looked in the low slung jeans he was wearing.  The man was put together like a male model, broad shoulders, trim waist, lean muscles...spectacular ass, she thought and swallowed down the bite of pizza along with the surge of desire that punched her in the gut.