Chapter 6

6

Okay, so she wasn’t completely naive where men were concerned. Nor was she a virgin. Maybe she’d only been with two guys—the first when she was twenty, the last a year ago in a relationship that had lasted six more months—but this was Chad.

And that stuff just didn’t happen with him.

Well, it did with other women, on a rather frequent basis. Casually, or so she’d observed. Genny had never really been into those kinds of games. Men like him were to be avoided.

Danger, Genny Hiller, Danger. Move Away. Move Away.

He was such a pain in the ass she would never even consider it anyway.

That look of hunger in his eyes—well, that was just a figment of her imagination. She’d been dreaming… of someone… of finding that someone, actually… And then he had popped into her dream.

Subconsciously she had probably known he’d entered the room, or something. That was all it was. He’d been in and out all night.

Of the room, anyway. Not her dreams.

“I need something to eat.” She checked on the woman in the bed. Chantal was sleeping, and it seemed like she was okay. Genny would never forget the fear of knowing one of her two closest friends in the world had been out there with monsters who hadn’t cared if she lived or died. “Should I leave her? I don’t want her to wake alone.”

“I didn’t realize you two were that close. I thought she was mostly friends with Gia.”

Wow, he really had been out of touch, hadn’t he?

“She is friends with Gia. But… I don’t know. The last few years, Gia got really busy and moved to town, and then I moved back in with my brothers. Gene needed a lot of help with Calvin, and… Chantal and I just got closer.” Chantal had been there when Genny had felt more adrift than she ever had in her life. “And she got me through a seriously tough time. We needed each other. So here I am.”

His fingers were still tugging on her hair. Running through her ponytail, like she was one of Chantal’s rabbits, or something.

Why on earth was he playing with her hair? Genny reached up and freed her hair quickly.

He was just right there.

She didn’t think she had ever realized just how big and strong Chad Fields was before.

How had she missed it?

Well, for one thing, she didn’t think she had ever been this close to him before. Not as an adult. Definitely not like this. He dwarfed mere mortal men, that was for sure.

Genny somehow ended up with both hands on that chest of his. Her fingers spread. Wow. He had some nice pecs there. “You… feel a little more toned than I would have expected, Dr. Fields. But is there some reason you are in my bubble?”

“Shhh. I don’t want to wake my sister.” Then his fingers were wrapped around hers and he was hustling her out into the hall.

Then, before she could even react, Genny found her back pressed against the wall, and Dr. Chadwick Fields, head of pediatrics at this very hospital, practically squished her right into the wall. Pressing her close.

Oh, boy.

He did feel good . Smelled good, too. This was crazy.

That chest was right there again. Her hand was the only thing between him and her. Of course she had to check it out, right? Make sure it was real. A chest like that made a woman want to pet him. Yikes. “Yeah, I’m not quite understanding how this happened. I’ve seen you without a shirt, remember? Granted that was a long time ago, but you were a little short and scrawny, if I recall correctly.”

“What in the hell are you talking about?” And there his fingers were, right back in the ends of her ponytail.

“When we went swimming at the reservoir all those years ago. You were very scrawny.” He definitely wasn’t scrawny now. Far, far, far from it.

“I was sixteen the last time I swam in the reservoir. And you were just a little kid back then.”

“I still noticed things. You got sunburned and my mom had to put aloe on you. Because you were so pasty and pale. And very scrawny compared to my brothers. I remember thinking that if you were a fish your dad and Charlie would have just thrown you back.”

“It’s the red hair. Makes a man burn easily. And I was a late bloomer.”

No kidding. He had a good thirteen or fourteen inches on her five-one. And those shoulders were at least fifty feet wide. And those chest muscles… no way.

This was not the Chad Fields that she knew.

Far, far from it.

His hair had darkened to a burnished reddish-brown that was very attractive. All the nurses on her shift talked about the hot-as-fire Dr. Chad . Well, Genny had thought they were all crazy.

Until this very moment, when her world went completely sideways.

Yes, he was rather attractive—physically.

But she’d seen him be a real butthead far too many times before.

Usually to his little sister, of course. When they were younger. She’d known him all of her life. There was nothing that said hot man about Chad to her. That was just crazy.

There just wasn’t and she wasn’t going to let there be, either.

“Need some personal space here, Chad. Personal space. Fast.”