Royal Trouble (10 page)

Leigh Ann wasn't that woman.  And he needed to stop thinking about her and focus on finding his case notes.

It might not be the most efficient way to do things, but while Wes was out on farm calls, he scribbled treatment notes on scraps of paper and shoved them into his pocket to transfer them to his files when he got back to the office.  That usually didn't happen.  They typically wound up in a cardboard box, and stayed there until he had time to do his charting later.  Later was here now, but he couldn't find that damned box, since the women had cleaned his office within an inch of hospital standards. and
organized
him.

Panic didn't begin to describe how he felt at not being able to find that box.

Leigh Ann took her sweet time coming into his office to help too.  When she finally appeared in the doorway, Wes glanced at her and swallowed hard.

Leigh Ann leaned on the doorframe and crossed her arms over her chest to ask sweetly, "You need something?" Her words were nice, but her tone and cold eyes were not.  She knew he had been avoiding her all week, and was pissed.

Wes needed something all right, needed it badly.  More every day he spent with the curvaceous blonde.  As usual, her soft southern drawl sent his blood pressure and libido skyrocketing.  Her getting out of his house couldn't come soon enough.  Wes was about at his limit. 

Finding her pink thong and matching bra draped over the shower curtain rod in the hall bathroom this morning had pushed him over that limit.  He had been thinking about that damned underwear all day, picturing her wearing it, and him taking it off of her.

He knew Leigh Ann was looking for another place to live.  He had seen her milling through the ads in the newspaper daily.  But she was still in his house, because she hadn't found a place she could afford yet.

When he got some money from the collection calls he had made, he would pay for her a hotel, or give her a deposit on an apartment in town.  Anything to get her out of here.  But he knew collecting that money from his delinquent clients wasn't going to be any easier than it had been for the last year.  Besides, he had bills to pay.  Her living with him wasn't costing him anything except his sanity.  He would probably be stuck with her for a while.

Backing out of the closet, Wes whacked his skull hard on a pair of skis leaning against the back wall and cursed.  Rubbing his head he pushed up to his feet and met her cold blue eyes.

"Wes?" she prompted with a tight curl of her full lips.  His name caressed between those soft wet lips sent heat shooting through him, as his mind conjured images of her uttering it while he shoved inside of her warm body.  Containing the growl that pushed up into his throat, Wes shook his head.  "Yeah, where did you and Rocky put my box of field notes?  I'm trying to do my charting and can't find them."

"What did they look like?" she asked with uncertainty in her voice

His eyes left hers to slide back down to her breasts.  Pink, full, round and firm, he thought and his mouth watered, but he said, "Brown cardboard box with scraps of multi-colored sticky notes and scraps of paper in it.  It was over there," he told her pointing to the far corner of the room.

A soft whimper came out of her and his eyes flew back to hers.  She gnawed her lower lip, and his dick jerked in his jeans.  Irritation shot through him.  "What?"

"Rocky didn't say that box was important," she said.  "It just looked like a bunch of trash to me, so I put it in the barrel out back."

Panic shot through him like a splash of cold water in the face, as he screeched, "The
burning
barrel?"

"Um, yeah," she confirmed.

"Good God, don't tell me..." Sickness settled in the pit of his stomach as Wes strode across the room to grab her shoulders.  "Please tell me you didn't burn that box!"

Her blue eyes turned into watery pools, and her voice shook as she admitted, "I didn't burn it yet, but I was just about to go out there."

If she had destroyed that box, he would never finish the charting.  Wes would be screwed, because with all he had going on, there was no way he could rely on his memory alone.  His hands tightened on her shoulders and she trembled. 

"We have to find that box," he told her forcing calm into his voice, while his heart beat a dull thud in his chest.

"I dumped the paper into the barrel with the other trash," she explained, but offered quickly, "I'll just go out there and pick through it." Turning, Leigh Ann glided off toward the front door.  Wes followed behind her, intending to help, because he couldn't lose those notes.  At the door though, she turned to him and put her hand on his chest.  Her palms on his chest felt like the paddles emergency workers used on a heart patient, and Wes staggered back, as she told him, "This is my fault, I'm going to fix it.  You go do something else." 

The something else Wes wanted to do right then wasn't dig through a barrel with her.  He turned away to ask gruffly as he walked back toward his office, "Where's my appointment calendar?" That was something else he hadn't been able to locate yet.

"It's all on the computer now," she informed following him.  At his office door, Wes stopped and turned to face her, because he did not want her in the small confines of his office with him.  "Rocky installed some new scheduling software that integrates with your billing.  That'll make it easier for you to keep up.  You can keep your notes on there now too.  It will all tie into your cell phone, so no more scraps of paper."

"Really?" he asked surprised and she nodded. 

Bless Roxanne Baker for her efficiency, but learning how to operate a new computer program was going to take him even longer than doing it manually.  "Thank you," he said, but he really wanted to demand that she produce the paper calendar he had operated from for years.

"Don't thank me, it was all Annie's idea.  She talked to another vet and found out how they had their office organized, then bought the software."

"Smart idea," he said, but mentally calculated how much that efficiency had cost him.

"Yeah, it was.  I wish--" Leigh Ann started, but blood rushed up to her cheeks and she looked up at him with insecurity gripping her. 

I wish I was as capable as my sister,
she finished in her mind.  Wes respected Roxanne, that was evident in the smiles he gave her sister.  How he interacted with her.  Leigh Ann wondered how long it would be before he felt like that about her.  Or if he ever would. With his stand-offish attitude since their dinner, she got the message that he didn't want to be anything other than friends with her.  That was something she was just going to have to accept, and move on.  But she at least wanted his respect and maybe a little admiration.  She really was trying to do a good job for him.

Leigh Ann knew that would probably be a long time in coming though.  And she could understand why Roxanne had earned this man's respect.  After watching her sister organize this office, and work with him while he treated his animal patients, with Leigh Ann's biggest contribution being throwing away his important notes, she knew she was just a pretender. 

As hard as she was trying to reinvent herself, Leigh Ann had a feeling she was a woman destined to be nothing more than an ornament in society.  She was a pretender. At life.  Emotion surged up into her throat, she sucked in a shuddering breath then turned her back to walk over to the closet.

"Um, I'll go dig the notes out of the trash." Leigh Ann picked up the cardboard box and headed to the door. 

"I'll try and figure out the new scheduling system." Wes said shortly.

Just thinking about digging through that barrel had bile seesawing in her stomach.  The notes were not the only thing she'd thrown in there.  Several days of household trash, along with used veterinary supplies and office trash was in that can too.  Picking through that nasty stew to find those tiny scraps of paper would be disgusting. 

But whatever it took, she was going to do it.  She had to fix this situation.  Leigh Ann did not want to disappoint Wes or her sister.  Mostly she didn't want to disappoint herself. 

Maybe she could do something to make the task a little cleaner though.  Leigh Ann walked to the supply cabinet to pull out a pair of latex gloves, and a paper mask.  After putting on both, she grabbed the cardboard box and headed outside.

After two hours of digging and gagging, Leigh Ann felt relatively certain she had found all of the miscellaneous scraps of paper.  She got up from the ground and righted the barrel, before loading all the trash back inside.  When she finished, she looked down at her clothes and gagged again.  She was covered from head to toe in sweat and smelly goop from the trash.  But a sense of victory filled her as she picked up the box and walked back to the office to tell Wes.  She hoped he would be as excited as she was.

Leigh Ann made her way to Wes's office and elbowed the door open.  "I found them!" she announced happily, holding the box in her arms up like a trophy. 

He glanced up, but went right back to staring at his computer screen. 

"Good," he replied nonchalantly, as he clicked a few keys on the keyboard then squinted at the screen again.

Good
?  That was the best he could do after she'd dug around in the garbage for two hours?  Frustration, then a spark of anger shot through her.  Leigh Ann dropped the box on the floor near his desk.  It was obvious he was engrossed in the computer system, and wasn't paying her the slightest bit of attention.

"Yeah, and a herd of elephants is out in your waiting room.  I put your first patient in exam room one," she informed sarcastically with her hands on her hips.

"Okay, thanks," he grumbled, clicking a few more keys, but not looking up.

"I scheduled the dancing bear for three o'clock, so you need to put that into your calendar too," she informed him with a devil riding her shoulder.  She wondered what it would take to get him to actually
hear
what she was telling him.

"Fine, I'll do that."  He still didn't look up from the computer screen.

"Oh and the pregnant raccoon I met out at the trash bin said to tell you that the pills you gave her for morning sickness helped a lot."

He shook his head, a puzzled look came over his handsome face, then his eyes flew to hers.  "
What
?"

Leigh Ann raised a brow, then giggled at his comical expression, before laughter consumed her.  Bent at the waist, clutching her stomach, she told him in between gasping breaths, "She's going to name her firstborn after you."

On the verge of hysteria, Leigh Ann took deep heaving breaths trying to get control of herself.  She couldn't remember the last time she'd laughed so hard.  And it felt darned good, so she embraced it, reveled in it, instead of fighting the laughter that consumed her.

A pained groan was followed by his chair scraping back, then his hands clamped firmly on her shoulders and she was dragged up.  Sucking in a surprised breath, Leigh Ann looked up into Wes's heated eyes.  His jaw tightened, and his fingers cut into her shoulders as if he were waging some internal battle.  After another groan, his head lowered toward hers and she held her breath anticipating the feel of his lips on hers. 

When his clean masculine scent hit her senses, she remembered where she had been and what she had been doing.  She must smell just like that trash can out back.  Leigh Ann put her hands on his chest and pushed back from him.

"I smell."  That had to be the understatement of the year.  Leigh Ann reeked and needed a shower.  As much as she wanted him to kiss her again, she was too embarrassed.

At her words, Wes shook his head and stumbled back against the desk, looking like he just woken up from a bad dream.  He shook his head. "I'm sorry, it shouldn't have happened."

"It didn't happen," Leigh Ann corrected sullenly.  Because Leigh Ann had stopped it.  Wes looked relieved, but she felt like a dummy.  Another taste of his kiss was all she had been able to think about all week.  He had been about to give her an instant replay that her body was begging for, but all she could think about was how bad she must smell.  Her nose had become immune to it after the first hour, but she knew he had to notice.

"It
did
happen at the restaurant the other night, and it shouldn't have.  It was a mistake, Leigh Ann.  One I'm not going to repeat."  His eyes were cold and serious, and the look in them froze her heart.  Regret.  He regretted kissing her the other night.

"Okay, it won't happen again, then."

Leigh Ann's chin dropped to her chest, so he couldn't see how upset that thought made her.  She didn't regret kissing him, that was for sure.  Well, maybe now she did.  All week long he had sent her signals that should have prepared her for hearing this, but she had held out hope that he was just busy, and that was the explanation for his indifference toward her.  Hearing him say the words hurt.

"It was inappropriate, Leigh Ann.  You work here, and I'm your boss," he explained gruffly.  His tone almost made it seem like he blamed her for the kiss. 

She bristled and fought the unfamiliar urge to lay into him and remind him he was the one who had kissed
her
.  That wouldn't accomplish anything though, except maybe getting her fired...again.  She was close enough to that happening as it was, so it was better to keep her mouth shut.  If there was one thing Leigh Ann knew how to do, it was that. 

She had repressed her emotions so long, it was second nature now.

"Yes, I understand," she replied, lifting her chin a notch to finish, "I'm going up to the house and take a shower and change clothes."

Wes swallowed down the desire to join her in the house for that shower, to finally put out the fire that had been burning inside of him since he met Leigh Ann Baker. 

"Fine, take the rest of the day off then," he offered.  It was nearly three o'clock anyway, and he needed some space to get his head right.  "I'll probably be out here late catching up, so grab a sandwich for supper and I'll see you in the morning."

And sleep out here if I have to
, he added mentally.  Trey had left last night to go on a vacation with his parents for a few days, so that meant if Wes went up to the house, he would be alone with her tonight, and all weekend.