Free The Doctor Wears A Stetson (Contemporary Western Romance) by Anne Marie Novark Page B

a good time and really enjoying himself. No feeling of
restlessness, only the pleasant hum of anticipation.
    Jessie shook her head, trying to frown, but
couldn't. Her hair whipped across her face and her eyes danced with
pleasure.
    Before long, the roadside park came into
view. She pulled up beside the awning-covered tables and handed the
keys to Cameron. "Thank you. It was everything I dreamed it would
be and more."
    Cameron crammed the keys into his pocket,
then snagged the picnic basket from the floorboard. Jessie's husky
voice, the words she'd spoken, sparked erotic images in his
overheated brain. Silently, he counted to ten. Slow down,
McCade .
    Setting the basket on one of the concrete
tables, he walked toward the lookout point, where Jessie stood
gazing at the view. The park was located on the edge of a deep
rocky gorge stretching and twisting as far as the eye could see.
Striations of red rock and white gypsum contrasted with the green
of mesquite trees and sagebrush. The Double Mountains stood on the
horizon, majestic in their height and splendor.
    Jessie sighed and held out her hand to
Cameron. He hesitated. The gesture invited an intimacy, a closeness
he had avoided all his life. He took hold of it gingerly.
    She squeezed his hand. "Isn't it
beautiful?"
    "Breathtaking," he said, staring at Jessie's
profile, admiring the perfection of her features.
    Glancing at him, she blushed and tried to
remove her hand from his grasp, but he wouldn't let her.
    "I meant the gorge and the mountains," she
said.
    "I'd rather look at you." He lifted her
fingers to his lips and kissed each one in turn. Her breath hitched
and his body tightened.
    She allowed him to finish, before pulling
her hands away, dropping them to her sides and knotting them into
fists. Clearing her throat, she turned and walked to the picnic
table. "What did your mother pack for us? I'm starved." Her voice
trembled slightly.
    Cameron followed and stood behind her, close
enough to feel the heat from her body.
    Something about Jessie drew him like a
magnet. He didn't want to analyze it; he just wanted to enjoy it.
Inhaling her fresh clean fragrance, he touched his lips to her
hair. "There's fried chicken, fresh biscuits, and a thermos of hot
coffee," he said softly in her ear.
    Jessie jerked away and retreated to the
other side of the table and lifted her chin. "Look, Cameron. This
might be your idea of taking it slow and easy, but it sure isn't
mine. Maybe you don't have a problem going to bed with me, knowing
we won't be seeing each other again, but I can't do it."
    She stood across the table from him, her
eyes asking questions he was unable to answer. He knew he felt
different about Jessie, but he wasn't ready to explore those
differences right now. Seeing her again was having a weird effect
on him. The years seemed to have melted away, making him behave
like an eighteen-year-old with raging hormones. Ever since he'd
pulled into her service station the other night, he'd been acting
on raw feelings and impulses.
    Definitely not his style. He needed to think
things through. Not only about Jessie and what he was feeling for
her, but also about what he was going to do about the promotion and
his future.
    "Jess, I'm sorry--"
    "You better take me back to the garage," she
said.
    "What about the clinic? You said you'd give
me a tour. I'd really like to see it."
    Jessie stood beside the picnic table,
indecision warring inside. She suddenly realized the only thing
Cameron felt for her was plain old lust. She'd been fantasizing
about forever after, a happy ending to her Cinderella fairy-tale
night at the prom, and all he wanted was sex.
    So much for old dreams, she thought with a
sigh. But he could help make one of her new dreams come true--the
Salt Fork Medical Clinic.
    She'd never planned anything in so much
detail as she had in making the clinic in Salt Fork a reality.
There had always been setbacks in most of her plans in the past.
She'd been walking on eggshells every