CHAPTER ONE

      OF COURSE. It had to be him.

      Dr. Sandra Fraser stood in the ambulance bay of Rolling Creek General Hospital and watched as the most annoying paramedic she’d ever encountered in her years as a trauma surgeon, albeit the sexiest, climbed out of the back of the ambulance, helping his partner bring the gurney down.

      Kody Davis was a damn fine paramedic. He was good-looking, and everyone loved him.

      Too bad she hated him.

      Hate is a strong word. You don’t hate him.

      No, she didn’t hate him. He might grate on her nerves and she hated the fact that she was so drawn to him. He wasn’t the typical type of man that she’d dated in the past. He was a charmer, everyone loved him, and she made assumptions that he was a playboy.

      Of course, that was only an assumption. She didn’t know if he was or not, but all the guys that she’d known like him in high school and college, the ones with that same playful, charming, carefree demeanor, had been players. Which was why she steered clear of men like Kody, even if secretly she really was attracted to his type.

      She chose men who were sedate and serious.

       Yeah, and look where that got you. Divorced and heartbroken.

      Still, Kody would be the type to be a playboy. What woman wouldn’t be attracted to him? He was tall, at least six foot, and in good shape. He had to be, to be a paramedic. His black hair was always kept neat and he had a gorgeous smile, with a twinkle in his eyes that always made her heart beat just a bit faster.

      And then there was his drawl. There was a hint of Southern when he spoke, but she couldn’t place what state. He was definitely not from Texas. She couldn’t place his accent and it made her wonder where he was from. What his pastimes were. What his favorite food was.

      Whether he had a significant other.

      She groaned.

       Focus.

      She wasn’t looking for a romantic entanglement. She’d moved to Austin to get away from her heartache. The last thing she needed was some kind of illicit, hot one-night stand with a sexy paramedic who made her heart beat just a little bit faster.

       Don’t you? Maybe that’s exactly what you need.

      Sandra shook that thought away. She didn’t have time to get annoyed by her thoughts about Kody; she had to put her focus on her patient. She was just annoyed that it was Kody again. That when he was around it made her think about other things. Things she had no wish to think about again.

      And since she’d started here at Rolling Hills, she constantly ran into Kody. Didn’t he ever take time off?

      Why did he always have to be the paramedic that she was assigned to meet?

      If she believed in karma or fate or anything like that, she was pretty positive that it was messing with her and really that wasn’t fair. She’d already dealt with enough, hadn’t she?

      “What do we have here, Mr. Davis?” she asked, trying to keep cool and stay impersonal around him.

      Kody glanced at her briefly and she saw the small flash of annoyance when she called him Mr. Davis.

      He didn’t like that formality, she knew that, but it was what Sandra preferred. It kept people out, kept them safely on the other side of her carefully constructed walls.

      The last time she’d let someone in, it had broken her heart completely.

      It had destroyed her.

      She was not going to make that mistake again, even if it meant she didn’t really have many friends here in Austin.

      “Luke McIver, forty. Passenger in a head-on collision with a cow. Wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was ejected through the windshield.”

      Sandra’s eyes widened. “Did you say a cow?”

      Kody nodded quickly and then shrugged. “I guess not a cow.”

      “You guess not a cow?” Sandra asked, confused as she leaned over and examined the patient.

      “Well, a longhorn type of cow, but I’m not sure if they’re actually a traditional cow.”

      Sandra shook her head. “They’re cows. Texas longhorns.”

      “Ah. Good to know. I’ve been wondering. Anyway, the car collided with the longhorn and Mr. McIver wasn’t wearing a seat belt. The driver sustained minimum injuries, but Mr. McIver here was eighty over sixty.”

      Sandra frowned. That was not a good blood pressure reading.

       That’s low.

      And just from looking at the patient, she suspected he had a head trauma, especially since Kody had said the patient was ejected from his seat and went through the windshield. She continued her stabilization of her patient, although Kody had done a good job.

      He might try to be too familiar with her, she hated the fact she couldn’t stop thinking about him, that she found him interesting and sexy, but she couldn’t deny his skills as a paramedic.

      Kody Davis went above and beyond in an emergency situation. He could think on his feet, assess and, more importantly, save lives. So she shouldn’t complain about having to deal with him. She was lucky he was so good at his work. It made her job that much easier.

      “Let’s get him into trauma pod three.”

      “Right, boss lady.”

      She cringed when he called her boss lady.

      She hated that.

      She knew that Kody wasn’t using it in a derogatory fashion, but in her experience it was usually used that way. And she detested when people called her that. It reminded her of her shattered life in San Diego.

      It reminded her of broken promises and heartache and she knew the only reason he was calling her boss lady was because she called him Mr. Davis. Since they’d met four months ago they were always goading each other.

      He always had a smile for her. Always called her boss lady.

       That’s because he doesn’t know you don’t like it.

      And she didn’t tell him because she didn’t want any kind of familiarity with him.

      Just a professional relationship.

       Are you sure?

      There was a part of her that wanted more, just to see what it would be like, but she’d been burned by love before. She wasn’t going to let that happen again. No matter how much she wanted it to.

       Focus.