Page 1 of The Chance

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Dr. Guthrie Hillerdidn’t like the woman in front of him.

Until this very moment, he had been one hundred percent certain of that.

The cool, blue-eyed, standoffish blonde had reminded him far too much of his ex at first, then… over time… the enmity between them had just grown. He’d freely admit it—most of that was his fault. At first.

But now… he would admit it, he watched the woman—in his family’s living room. With that ice-blonde hair and those china-blue eyes and a face that looked absolutely sculpted from perfection, every single guy in the hospital—and half the married ones—watched her.

Talked about her. Speculated.

She would just stick that perfectly shaped little nose of hers in the air and give a man a withering stare while going about doing her job.

He would admit the womandidher job. Very, very well.

She had a growing reputation as a damned fine family practitioner. She worked as assistant chief of medicine, as well as serving as the official head of the Barratt County GeneralHospital Emergency Department, even though she was a bit too young for that position. He thought she was a few years younger than his own thirty-seven, though she looked ageless. Hell, for all he knew, she was a five-thousand-year-old vampire there at Barratt County to suck men’s souls dry. He could believe it—only an immortal being could look that… perfect.

She did the job very, very well. Efficiently. Some said coldly so.

Her name was at the top of the hospital rumor mill, saying she’d seduced a good dozen men at the top to get to where she was. Guthrie didn’t buy into the rumor mill, and never had. If he hadn’t seen things, he wouldn’t believe things. Period.

Guthrie had never seen her with a man at all.

He’d thought she’d lived alone, too. Everyone said she had a fancy condo in Finley Creek paid for by a married lover and commuted. That she partied with her older, wealthy, long-married lover on the weekends. That he had paved the way to where she was now.

That was apparently another lie.

Dr. Aubrey Fisher most certainly didn’t live alone. He never would have imagined why. Or who. There was a fresh-faced blonde next to her that looked like a younger—and far more fragile—version of Aubrey, watching him curiously. She couldn’t be more than twenty-two or twenty-three, and had that sweet, innocent kind of appeal that made a man want to smile. And protect. She was patting her sister on the hand, telling her she’d be okay. And thatshegot to take care of Aubrey for once, and now it was Aubrey who had to do what she was told.

But it was the fear in Aubrey Fisher’s voice when she had explained what had happened, and who had done it, that Guthrie couldn’t get out of his head. He battled back the fury again.

She’d been assaulted. No denying that. Had she been alone with the man, she probably would have been hurt worse.

Guthrie’s own baby sisters had helped her fight him off.

Guthrie’s anger boiled just imagining it.

There were five deep lacerations, from a big man’s fingernails, on her upper arm. Deep enough to require medical attention. Over scars. Scars Guthrie recognized for what they were immediately. Scars that made him sick and angry to see.

Scars that filled him with questions.

He finished with the last suture and turned her over to his own hovering little sister. Genesis was a damned fine nurse. She thrived in the Barratt County General Emergency Department—and she and Aubrey were extremely close friends.

Genesis was hopping mad.

Literally.

His little sister was limping on one foot, hissing a bit. “Your ankle?”

“I’m good. Just a minor sprain, at the most.”

Before Guthrie could make her sit down so he could check it out to be on the safe side, his closest friend was there.

Chad was just there, scooping the monster that was Genesis right off her feet and carrying her to their living room couch—despite her protests. How Chad had managed it with one hand bandaged from the accident at his parents’ ranch that afternoon Guthrie wasn’t entirely sure, but he had. Of course, Genesis was a very small woman, so it was probably pretty easy to do.

Chad was hovering over Genesis.

It made sense. Chad’s own baby sister was one of the women squawking around them now. There were women everywhere.

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