Chapter 21

21

Her second day off since Chantal and Gene had been abducted couldn’t come soon enough. After the hell of a shift she’d had in the ED the night before, she was ready for the next two days to go as slowly as they possibly could.

Gene had taken Calvin, and they were hunting for Chantal now. Genny hadn’t gotten a clear idea why Gene had asked if she knew where Chantal would be, but he had. She was going to have to investigate the why later.

And rendezvous with Chantal, so they could strategize again. They had virtues to protect, after all. Chantal was about ready to run for the hills. Genny was thinking of running with her. At least until she figured out the next step.

Gene Hiller was smart; very, very smart. Relentless. And remarkably persistent when he was prowling. About half as relentless as one Chad-wicked Leopold Fields.

Chantal wasn’t being very forthcoming about how she felt about Gene during Genny’s interrogations. But there was always tomorrow for interrogating best friends.

Today…she was doing nothing. Beautifully, absolutely, wonderfully…doing nothing.

The twins, Grady and Gunn, were out checking fences between their place and Chantal’s dad’s.

She had the house all to herself.

Entirely, completely, beautifully, wonderfully, all to herself.

And after a long soak in her bathtub, and slipping into super girly pink silk pajamas, she was ready to do absolutely nothing. The absolutely nothing part of her day.

Until someone knocked on the door.

Genny answered it reluctantly, sure one of her doofus brothers was back and had their hands full or something. She’d deal with them, all right. And get rid of them.

Today was her day.

Instead, there was a gorgeous blue-eyed man, with auburn hair and shoulders that were too broad to be real staring back at her.

“Dr. Fields…is there something I can do for you now?”

“Good morning, you gorgeous, far too tempting creature.” Just like that… hot male hands were wrapped around her waist, and she found herself scooped right off her feet. Again.

He had to stop doing that.

Then hot male lips were pressing to her own.

His hands were tight on her, but she didn’t care. She could smell him all around her, hot, spicy male and outdoors. Somehow he was guiding her legs around his hips.

Genny was letting him. Why was she letting him again? And why did it feel like they were fused together, like she just sort of fit right there against the dratted man?

His hands slipped down, and cupped her bum through the thin pajama shorts she’d slipped on after her steaming hot bath.

Dr. Chad-wicked had really good hands. She’d heard that before, too. Several places, actually.

That thought, more than anything, had her pulling back. Well, as much as a woman could when her legs were barnacled around a man’s waist. “What’s the matter? Date last night not go too well?”

“What date? The woman I want to spend eternity with had to work a late shift in the ED last night. I hung out…with her brothers, painting their sister-in-law’s new nurseries baby yellow and mint green.”

“Ronnie finally picked the colors?” She’d just ignore that bit about her being the woman he wanted. The man was such a charmer, after all. Practiced. The man had practically invented the game. Even though he said it—it didn’t mean he was sincere. She wouldn’t forget that.

“Yep. Finally. Although, that house of George’s already has a nursery, Genny. It has two. The room for this kid just wasn’t the way George’s queen wanted it for Baby Five. So she decided she needed two nurseries, all of a sudden. She can be a bit exacting in her exalted age.”

“She’s only thirty-two, you dork.” But he was right in that. Ronnie got a bit more lunatic with each pregnancy. George just gave her whatever she wanted, with that slightly idiotic besotted look on his face he’d always had whenever Ronnie was near that was both terrifying and totally adorable. He was thrilled with the surprise number five—he’d had a vasectomy after their fourth was a bit more difficult than the obstetricians had liked.

The vasectomy hadn’t taken.

Obviously.

The ribbing he’d gotten from their brothers for that… George was very proud of himself right now.

Ronnie had just said he was super-potent, and all Hiller brothers should definitely come with a warning label.

Genny was revising that to include Fields brothers, too. Chad’s brother Charlie had fathered twins at almost forty-nine—with a woman who had thought she couldn’t get pregnant.

Dangerous men in these parts. Dangerous, dangerous men.

It was probably something in the water.

“She’s gorgeous pregnant. I think that’s why they have so many kids,” Chad had to add.

He still had his hands on her rear end. Just holding her there. And…kneading.

He had to stop doing that. “You can put me down now. Take your wicked hands off my bum. And explain just why you came here to blitz attack me, Chad-wicked Leopold.”

Chad winced, like she knew he would. Neither one of them exactly liked their full names much. When she had kids, she was giving them nice, normal names. Like Haley, and Henry. Or Bob. Something plain. Classic. Ordinary.

“I did not blitz attack you. You just opened the door wearing pink skimpy silk and no bra, and I just—red alert, Genny. I am only a mortal man.”

“I’m home alone! Do you know how often that actually happens around here?”

“Probably not often. Your brothers are on their way in, anyway.” But his fingers were toying with the first few buttons on her top. Just like that, he popped two buttons. She didn’t have much there—Giavonna had gotten Genny’s share of the boobs and the height—but what Genny had was about to be exposed. “You have about five minutes.”

“Great. There goes my day.” She scowled up at him. “I was going to do absolutely nothing today, Chad. Absolutely nothing. I was looking forward to it. I was planning it.”

He swore. “I just can’t help myself. The sexy grumpy in pink silk is just too much.”

He swooped.

Then she was up on the kitchen island, of all places, and the man with the exceptionally wonderful hands was practically devouring her.

Genny didn’t think to protest—in fact, she didn’t think again for a long, long moment—and she just let him. When his hands slipped beneath the silk next, well, she let him do that, too.

It was the hands. They were hard to resist.

If he kept kissing her, she would probably let him put his hands everywhere he so obviously wanted.

She had just slipped her hands under his shirt to touch all that hard, hot male skin herself—maybe what she was doing was crazy, but…she was only human, after all—when someone cleared their throat behind Chad.

Loudly.

Chad pulled back, one hand immediately going to the silk between them—holding the two sides together to cover her, as it was now fully unbuttoned.

The man had to have eight very clever hands to have done what he had without her noticing. Genny grabbed the silk and buttoned it quickly, face flaming. And looked.

Oh, no … not…

Of course it would be this brother who would catch her making out with the boy next door right there on the kitchen island. “Gunn Kendrick Hiller, what are you doing here? I thought you guys were going to be up in the north pasture. All day. For hours.”

“Fencing is down all over between here and there. We’re going to have to fix that, and round up the cattle. They’ve made it over to Chad’s parents’ place.” Her brother—a pastor , for Pete’s sake—just looked at her, a mildly curious expression on his beautiful face. Then he turned to Chad. “Can I ask what your intentions are toward my little sister, Dr. Fields? Or should I get my father or George over here to handle that part? I think Gene has that old shotgun around here somewhere, but I may need to clean it first. Or give it to one of the brothers, so I can do the marrying part of things…? Whenever you are ready, of course. By dinner, perhaps?”

“Don’t be ridicul—“ Genny started.

“Entirely honorable. She just doesn’t believe me yet. I’m still convincing her.” Chad looked over his shoulder at her. And grinned. Wicked, wicked man. “And…let’s keep this between us, okay? The rest of your brothers don’t need to know that I am a weak, weak man where your sister’s concerned. At least not yet. I just can’t help my wicked ways. I’m afraid they won’t respect me in the morning if they know the things I want to do to her.”

“Chad! Don’t say that to him! Gunn’s completely innocent of all of those kinds of things.” Well, maybe. He hadn’t always been a pastor, after all. But she wanted to preserve her illusions about at least one of her big brothers. Just for sanity’s sake. “Now, both of you, go away.”

“Can’t. We came to get food, drinks, and call in Guthrie and George to get off their lazy butts and help us,” Gunn said, still giving her that look that said she had known better than to be doing what she was… doing. “You…are lucky I got here first. The other boys are pulling in right now. You might want to go put on real clothes, though. Charlie is with them—and he’s brought a few friends from the TSP to help. I don’t want them seeing my baby sister in pajamas she ought not own. I think I have socks that have more material than those pajamas, Genesis Isabella Hiller.”

Genny heard the trucks pulling in at that very moment. She yelped.

Chad lifted her off the counter, kissed her on the forehead, and nudged her toward the stairs. “We… will have that discussion later.”

Yeah, she kind of got the feeling he wanted to do more than just discuss .

Genny did the safe thing—she ran. All the way.