Everything You've Got: Anything & Everything, Book 2 (35 page)

“By Dr. Brickham?” Kat knew the answer even before the other woman nodded.

“Yes. He insisted it was the correct procedure. Just like he insisted we sign paperwork for AMP to launch an investigation.”

Kat was really trying not to be defensive but it was damned hard. “In many ways I’m glad they did the investigation. They found no wrongdoing which means everyone can sleep better at night.”

Julie nodded but she still looked upset. “I remember being so surprised by how adamant Dr. Brickham was about all of it.”

Kat shrugged. “Your husband is a longtime patient of his. He felt that he was doing what was right for all of you.”

Julie crossed her arms tighter. “That’s what I thought at first. But when we got back from Denver I found out…”

She trailed off and took a deep breath.

“What did you find out?” Kat asked.

“That you’d been asked to leave the Justice clinic and that Marty Davidson was taking it over.”

“Dr. Davidson is a good doctor, with more experience than I have. It’s a good decision.”

Julie frowned. “Maybe that’s all true, but Dr. Brickham didn’t ask him to move to Justice for those reasons.”

“What reasons did he have?” Kat asked, feeling her heartrate pick up.

“He wanted to get Marty out of Alliance. He was having an affair with Dr. Brickham’s daughter, Ashley. Ashley’s married with two little girls, Marty’s married with kids too—Dr. Brickham wanted to avoid any scandal or problems, so he moved Marty away.”

Kat took in the information with a strange combination of surprise, confusion and interest. “Wow. I had no idea.”

“I’m just so sorry we were the excuse to get you moved out of Justice. And now you’ve moved away completely,” Julie said. “We know it was a mistake, Kat. We don’t blame you.”

“Thank you, Julie.” Kat took the other woman’s hand. “I can’t tell you what that means to me.”

“Well, I also wanted to tell you that if you want to pursue getting your job back in Justice, I’d be very happy to tell what I know to…whoever needs to know it. You weren’t really moved out because of Tom.”

More surprise vibrated through Kat. She could get her job back? She probably could. If it became public that her reassignment actually had nothing to do with her professional skills, then it wouldn’t be hard to get the town of Justice to rally behind her and strongly encourage AMP to put her back in the clinic.

She could move back to Justice.

Luke could move back to Justice.

They could have that life back.

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

Julie nodded. “Of course. I don’t know if I’d go to the Board for AMP or…”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Kat swung around at the sound of Luke’s voice behind her. He came to stand next to her, pulling her up against his side. He smiled down at Julie. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Did you hear?” Kat asked.

“The whole thing,” he confirmed.

“We can move back home,” she said.

He shook his head. “Going home doesn’t require a move. We’re home in Rolland.”

“But…” Kat started. Then she stopped. She didn’t want to leave Rolland either. Justice was their hometown, where they visited, where they had a million fond memories.

But Rolland was home. Where they were going to make two million new memories.

She looked at Julie. “Never mind. It’s not necessary.”

Julie looked skeptical but she nodded. “Well, let me know if you ever change your mind.”

They watched Julie get on the elevator with a final wave, then Kat sighed and hugged Luke.

“Let’s get married here before we go back to Rolland,” she said.

She knew he was going to say,
But what about our new friends?

“But—”

She grinned. “Then,” she interrupted, “we’ll get married again in Rolland.”

They started back for Sabrina and Abby’s room. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. You might scare the nice folks of Rolland if you showed up in the black wedding dress, veil and boots you have planned for Justice.”

She laughed and watched Luke head straight for the bassinette as soon as they stepped into the room.

But she wasn’t so sure about the black dress and veil for Justice either. Because some days a girl needed kick-ass boots…but some days she didn’t.

Some days turned out just fine in white tennis shoes.

About the Author

Erin Nicholas has been reading and writing romantic fiction since her mother gave her a romance novel in high school and she discovered happily-ever-after suddenly went a little beyond glass slippers and fairy godmothers! She lives in the Midwest with her husband who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books, her kids who will
never
read the sex scenes in her books, and family and friends who say they’re shocked by the sex scenes in her books (yeah, right!).

For more information about Erin and her books, visit:

www.ErinNicholas.com

ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/ErinNicholas

www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ErinNicholas

Look for these titles by Erin Nicholas

Now Available:

No Matter What

Hotblooded

The Bradfords

Just Right

Just Like That

Just My Type

Anything & Everything

Anything You Want

Coming Soon:

Just the Way I Like It

Just for Fun

Just a Kiss

Her mama always said the women in their family were hotblooded…

Hotblooded

© 2011 Erin Nicholas

And it’s been causing Brooke Donovan trouble her whole life.
 
But it wasn’t until her mother took on the most powerful man in Honey Creek, Texas, that Brooke truly realized the daughter of the town whore didn’t stand a chance.
 
When she left, it was supposed to be for good.
 
But now, thanks to her late husband’s deal with their hometown, she’s back in the last place on earth she wants to be. Temporarily. As soon as her debts are paid off, she’s outta here. Until in walks the one man who can make her rethink everything.

Dr. Jack Silver fixes things. So, when he learns his uncle is responsible for Brooke losing her husband, his sense of honor drives him across Texas to make amends. Instead of a broken woman, though, he finds a gorgeous, feisty physician’s assistant trying to survive in a town that wants her gone. She also has a mile-high fence built out of pride—and a clinic that’s at risk of going belly up. She may not want his money, but the clinic? He can fix that. He just never expects that in setting Brooke back on her feet, he’ll be swept right off his own.

Warning: Contains a hot-blooded woman, a man who really likes that about her, a town with a long memory, and a cappuccino machine that makes it all worthwhile.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Hotblooded:

She stared at the big hand holding ice against her knee.

He didn’t know who she was. He was a complete stranger. Not from here.

And she wanted to kiss him.

It was a thought completely contrary to what she was used to allowing herself to think. It wasn’t that she never had crazy, it’s-a-really-bad-idea-but-wouldn’t-it-be-great thoughts and impulses. But she was very good at resisting them. She’d had years of practice.

At the moment, however, it was very, very tempting to give in to it and worry about the consequences later.

It had been so long since she’d been spontaneous. So long since she’d had a chance to be. And it would be a long time before she had another chance. That fact reared its ugly head almost daily as she manned the clinic that her late husband had stuck her with in the last place on earth she wanted to be.

The moments were rare when she could crank up the music, put on her comfy clothes and let go. She always did so at the risk of someone finding out and disapproving.

But this guy was a salesman, passing through, on to the next town and the next potential sale by dinnertime. No one would know if she kissed him. Sure, he might talk about it to his buddies at the gym tomorrow or the next day, but no one in Honey Creek would know.

It gave her a little adrenaline rush just thinking about it.

She could French kiss the big, good-looking stranger right here in the clinic, right at the front desk. Just imagining the shocked look on the faces of people in town made her want to do it. She knew the rebellious streak she’d inherited from her mother was some of her trouble here in Honey Creek, but just like telling a dieter they had to avoid cheesecake at all costs, the more forbidden it was, the more tempting she found it.

Just to test the waters, Brooke put her hands behind her on the seat of the chair and leaned back slightly, keeping her elbows straight.

“My boss won’t be back for a while,” she said. And it was true. The level-headed, do-the-right-thing Brooke she’d turned into over the past few years seemed to have stepped out for the time being.

He glanced up, and she was gratified to see that his eyes didn’t immediately make it past her breasts, which were thrust forward against the soft cotton of her tank top. And, in the spirit of really letting go, she wasn’t wearing a bra.

She watched him swallow hard and noticed that the hand on her knee seemed to have forgotten its job as the ice pack slipped to one side.

This was exactly the kind of thing she usually worked so hard to avoid. She’d inherited her mama’s looks, body and love of men. She could only assume that her self-control came from her father. She’d never met any of the three men that could have supplied the other half of her DNA, but Brooke sure as hell hadn’t gotten any modesty or sense of appropriateness from Dixie. Still, it did do a woman’s ego some good to have a man—especially one like Jack Silver, who no doubt had women clamoring and strutting for his attention all the time—give her some good old fashioned lookin’-good-honey attention.

“My knee is feeling a lot better. You have the touch,” she said, her voice a little throaty without even trying. Flirting and teasing were natural for her—another Donovan trait. It was resisting it that had always been the challenge.

His eyes found her face and he gave her a half grin. “So I’ve been told.”

Oh, I just bet you have, she thought, as a little tingle in her stomach responded to that cocky grin. “Are you married?” she asked. If he’d been around as many blocks as she was guessing, he’d know where that question came from.

He definitely didn’t react as if the question was odd. “Nope.” His hand remembered her knee then, but he let the ice pack slip to the floor and let his palm begin warming the skin as he kneaded the joint gently.

She didn’t ask about a girlfriend. She wasn’t planning on keeping him, after all, or even compromising him too much. It was just a little kissing. But she most definitely drew the line at married men, no matter how they made her knee feel.

Her skin was quickly regaining its ability to sense heat.

She pulled her foot from where it rested on his thigh, sitting forward on the chair seat.

He seemed reluctant to stop touching her and his hand slid down and around to the back of her calf where it began a slow, seductive stroking up and down.

“Gay?” she asked. Not that she cared. She was going to kiss him anyway. He just might not enjoy it as much as she would.

He laughed and stroked his fingers into the dip behind her bent knee, pressing gently and making heat zing through her.

“No.”

She leaned forward until her elbows rested on her knees and her face was less than an inch from his. “You do this kind of thing a lot?” she whispered.

His eyes dropped to her lips and she felt anticipation and awareness shimmy through her. He knew exactly what kind of thing she was talking about.

His breath was hot on her mouth as he whispered back, “Does it really matter?”

Then
he
kissed
her
.

And it wasn’t like he was asking permission or testing the waters. It was an all-out assault on her senses. She responded by pressing forward eagerly and wrapping her arms around his neck. There was no reason to hem and haw and waste a bunch of time after all.

His arms went around her waist and he gathered her against him, pressing breasts to chest, pelvis to abdomen. He opened his lips and she followed his lead, straight into the most erotic kiss of her life.

The heat was all-consuming, the desire for more was a pressure she couldn’t relieve, and the urge to take her clothes off was unprecedented.

He stroked her tongue with his and her body with his hands. Just the right spots, with just the right amount of pressure, for just the right amount of time to make her limp with wanting and tense with need at the same time. Then his hands went under her, cupped her buttocks and brought her more fully against him as he shifted to fit her against his erection, tipping her pelvis back and forth as he rocked her up and down.