Page 115 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

THEO

“Did Verna tell you about Saturday?”

“Dr. Jeffries,” I said, turning at the question. I just came from one of the exam rooms and a woman with eczema.

The older man cocked his head and gave me a look. “I’ve told you more than once to call me Jeff.”

“I can’t believe your mother named you Jeffrey Jeffries,” I said, tucking the work laptop I’d had with me in the patient visit under my arm.

He laughed. I was coming to learn he was just as upbeat and warm as his wife. It took me less than an hour to know that while he and I were the practicing physicians, Verna ran the place.

I learned he was sixty; Verna told me all about his surprise birthday party last November. He had hair as white as his big smile, both a sharp contrast to his dark skin.

“Well, it makes nicknames easy,” he replied. He had the laid-back attitude of a Hunter Valley local where rush hour didn’t exist, and no one was a stranger. Nothing seemed to faze him, and he was always smiling, which I found somewhat annoying. How could anyone be that happy all the time?

“What’s Saturday… Jeff?” I asked.

“I told you about it this morning,” Verna called down the hall. She was at the front desk but had all-hearing ears. They were probably honed from wrangling their four now-grown children. No doubt she had an eye in the back of her head, too. “You just hadn’t had your coffee yet.”

“Probably true.” Not probably, definitely.

I hadn’t slept very well after tucking Mallory into her car after I made her come all over my hand.

Why? Because I had a hard-on that wouldn’t quit.

I jerked off not once, but twice in the shower and my dick still wouldn’t go down.

I thought of that bold, reckless woman. She’d actually wanted me to get her off in the parking lot.

I should’ve expected it, knowing her personality, but after I learned she didn’t have any sexual experience, I figured she’d want a bed to kick things off.

But no.

Fuck, she’d felt amazing beneath my hands. Now I knew how she looked when she came. How she sounded when she tried to stifle her pleasure. It was almost a shame she had to keep quiet. I didn’t think she’d be a quiet lover. Hell, she wasn’t a quiet person.

“Didn’t help,” Verna called again. This was my fourth day on the job, and she seemed to know my moods. Although to her, there only seemed to be one.

Her husband fought a smile but didn’t win. “You are surly.”

Surly? Try horny.

Okay, so I had two moods.

I arched a brow and didn’t argue because I was cranky today. More than usual because I was never quite this agitated. Turned on. Needy.

Coffee from Steaming Hotties wasn’t going to solve the problem. Mallory would. Getting her alone. With a bed. A couch could work in a pinch. Her naked. Or partially naked. Definitely her on her knees.

Fuck, I was obsessed with her kneeling before me.

I dropped my arms and set the laptop–again–in front of my poorly timed hard-on.

I’d been in town less than a week and had more free time than I knew what to do with. So far, I’d worked, slept, hung out with Mav and Bridget, and finger fucked Mallory in a restaurant parking lot.

My mission in life for the past fourteen years had been medicine and saving lives. Now my mission was how many different ways could I get Mallory off.

“Maybe I’m average on being surly. You and your wife could be too upbeat for your health. Ever get tested for it?”

If Mallory gave me that sass, I’d–Fuck… knees again.

He laughed because he thought I was joking. I was serious, and that made me officially surly. There had to be something wrong with serially perky and cheerful people. Like Mallory.

She was a fucking ray of sunshine. Who came like a dream. Who boldly put my hand on her pussy and pretty much called me out for being all talk and no action.

Oh, I took action. Her pussy had been so fucking tight.

And dripping. If–no, when–I got my dick in there, I wasn’t sure if I would last longer than the teenage one-pump chump who got there first and ruined her.

Why she hadn’t tried again in all those years was something I needed to figure out.

There was no trauma there, not with the way she initiated and then came so quickly.

There was more to her than she let on and it seemed I could see through the cracks in her rainbow and unicorn facade. I was going to find out what made that woman tick, and scream.

Soon. Very soon, if my dick was in charge.

“—monthly volunteer fire department training.”

I blinked.

“Sorry. What?”

He repeated himself. “One of us goes and participates at the volunteer fire department training.”

“Meaning me.”

He nodded. “Our granddaughter has a softball tournament in Missoula so it’s your turn.

It’s important to work closely with the rescue crew and other resources.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy using your emergency skills and they’ll be thrilled to have someone with your background.

Besides, you need to meet people, make new friends. ”

Make friends? I wasn’t nine going off to a new school or summer camp. I steered clear of that and said, “I dealt more in gunshots and multi-car pile ups than avalanches and bear attacks.”

He tapped his chin, in deep thought. “Hasn’t been a bear attack around here in… oh, eight years.”

“Ten,” Verna shouted.

“As for an avalanche, I’ll tell the ski patrol leader that you’re eager to take their first class this winter.”

I shrugged. “I’ll take snow over bears.”