Can't Touch This by Pepper Winters, Tess Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

bloody bones had decided to become rattlesnakes and hiss with pain.
    I needed to go to bed. Which I couldn’t because I was on emergency call tonight.
    I hate my life.
    “You know that saying ‘no matter how bad things get, it can always get worse?’” I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand, squinting through stinging eyes.
    “Yes, your point?” Polly looked up from the computer, clicking supply orders for Tales of Tails.
    “Well, it sucks…that’s what.”
    “That doesn’t even make sense.”
    It does.
    Ryder was bad.
    But being sick is worse.
    I’d take Ryder over the flu, even if he did make me itchy and moody and wet.
    Whoa, did I really just admit that?
    Polly said softly, “Go home, Vessie. You’ve been working too hard.” Her gaze tracked to the clock hanging on the wall. “You’ve been at it for thirteen hours straight. No wonder you’re ill. Go home. Get better.”
    “But I’m on call tonight.”
    “Don’t worry about it. Amanda can field the calls from home and if it’s a true emergency and not a simple ‘help, my dog is coughing what shall I do’ kind of phone call, I’ll deal with it.”
    The thought of letting Polly do it was far too appealing. But I didn’t want to be that partner. I didn’t want to shuck my responsibilities just because I was sick.
    I’m not sick.
    Positive thinking and all that.
    I hesitated. “I don’t know—”
    Buzzzzzz.
    The reception door announcer when someone walked in ripped through the space.
    Polly and I looked at each other.
    I sank into my sore body. “Oh, no. I thought we didn’t have any more appointments today.”
    “We didn’t.” She shook her head. “Bloody hell, Amanda must’ve forgotten to lock the door on her way out.”
    “Dangnamit, that girl really needs a refresher on how to run a well-oiled business around here.”
    Polly sighed, “I know, but she’s cheap, and right now, we need to keep our spending under wraps.”
    My head stuffed up with cotton wool as the tell-tale tickle in my nose told me I was going sneeze.
    Explosively.
    I pinched my nostrils and held my breath.
    I’m. Not. Sick!
    I couldn’t do that to Polly. I couldn’t do that to the dogs and cats and rabbits depending on me.
    Ignoring the urge to sneeze, I sniffed back my self-pity and overwhelming desire for sleep. “I’ll go deal with whoever it is. You finish ordering supplies. Then we can get out of here.”
    Polly eyed me dubiously. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay? You look like shit.”
    I stuck my tongue out at her. “Gee, thanks. Just what I want to hear before dealing with a customer.”
    “Not just any customer. Me.” The masculine voice made me jump as Ryder Carson opened the surgery door and stuck his head inside. “I don’t care if you look like shit; your bedside manner is second to none.”
    His smile fell as he fully took me in—the rumpled grubbiness of my scrubs, the flyaway curls around my face, and dark circles beneath my eyes.
    “Whoa, you really do look like shit.”
    I threw up my hands. “Oh my God, don’t you start.” Dropping my eyes, I searched his arms for whatever new creature brought him in but couldn’t see as he kept his body angled behind the door. This man was a magnet to homeless and hurting animals. Did he serenade them like the pied piper? Why did people find him so irresistible?
    Because I don’t see the allure.
    I don’t.
    He said you can touch it.
    Even with my sick addled brain, the thought made me flush as my gaze zeroed on the door where his crotch would be.
    Crap, look up.
    Look up!
    Polly cleared her throat. “I think I’ll finish supply ordering in the other office.” Scooping up her notes and scattered post-its, she gave me a not-so-secretive smile that clearly sad ‘bang him, you pussy’ and let herself out.
    Damn her.
    Did she have no kindness left?
    I’m sick and now I have to deal with this terrible situation.
    The moment she’d gone, Ryder ducked through the door and revealed