Tempted by the Outback Vet
Author
Becky Wicks
Reads
16.1K
Chapters
18
Opposites sure do attract in this latest medical romance! At a remote outback clinic, two vets can't agree on anything. Except the intoxicating chemistry between them… RESISTING…THE IRRESISTIBLE! Haunted by the loss of her family and beloved dog, Dr. Sage devotes herself to saving animals in her remote clinic. She has no time for distractions! Particularly not a charismatic, arrogant TV horse whisperer from the outback. Hired by an owner to help treat a troubled animal in her care, they disagree on sight. Yet even when forced to admit that Dr. Ethan is an excellent vet, Sage is determined to resist developing feelings for a man who's clearly afraid of loving again. He'll only break her heart when he leaves, but taking the risk is oh-so-tempting…
CHAPTER ONE
SAGE STEPPED CLOSER to the paddock gate cautiously, the scraps bucket held tight in her hands. Storm was all action and nervous energy, rearing up and bucking violently at the sight of her.
‘Steady, boy!’ She flinched as the horse’s hooves slammed to the sandy ground, his eyes wild with distress. This was the third week in a row that Storm had been inconsolable, refusing to let anyone near him. Ellie shuffled just behind her, twirling a strand of her sun-bleached blonde hair around one finger, as her young veterinary assistant often did when she was thinking.
‘I just don’t know what to do, Ells.’ Sage’s voice came out strained. ‘I mean, look at him. I can’t even get close enough to examine him! If anything he’s getting worse. The mayor is going to want answers soon and, right now, I don’t have any. Zero.’
Sage’s heart ached. Feeling helpless never had sat well with her, especially where animals were involved—it brought back too many bad memories—and Abigail’s husband, Amber Creek’s beloved Mayor Jarrah Warragul, had brought Storm to her, convinced she could apply her years of veterinary expertise to help convert the wild animal into the doting pet his eleven-year-old wanted. Lucie, Sage’s favourite of her best friend’s three crazy kids, was beyond excited for rides through the outback on her very first horse, and at this rate Sage was going to have to let the whole family down, hard.
Ellie gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, still quite understandably hesitant to step her petite frame much closer. ‘Did you think any more about what the mayor said, about that vet we saw on TV last month? The one who calmed that uncontrollable racehorse?’
Sage nodded slowly as the image of the equine vet’s face flashed back into her brain, throwing her off track for a moment. Rugged, handsome, built like a soldier in a sunhat...the kind of man who lived a life outdoors and could wrestle a croc with one arm. The mayor had suggested she call him; in fact, when she hadn’t taken his advice, he had told her just today that he would go ahead and arrange things, which she hadn’t told Ellie yet. It was more than humiliating, knowing she hadn’t been good enough for the job.
‘Ethan Matthews. Yes,’ she said on a sigh. ‘He used some kind of pressure-point massage to relax that horse.’ She frowned as his features grew clearer in her mind’s eye. The equine vet was bordering on being the sexiest man alive and not just because of the way his muscles rippled beneath his shirt like a sculpted masterpiece. He radiated the kind of magnetism that could stir something primal in a corpse, even through the TV screen. There should have been nothing more attractive to her than a guy who’d devoted his entire life to caring for animals, the same as she had, but this was her territory. She’d never had anyone else come in and take over before.
‘Yes, him,’ Ellie said with a dreamy sigh. ‘I kind of wanted to be that horse.’
Ellie giggled into her hair and Sage rolled her eyes. The two of them had watched the vet in action intently for about ten minutes before realising they were both admiring a lot more than his horsemanship.
‘He’s supposed to be the best you can get when it comes to problematic horses. And Storm is definitely problematic. Look at poor Karma!’ Ellie pointed out.
Sage looked at her newest gelding, Karma, who snorted obstinately from the corner of the paddock. He was doing better after his surgery, but she had her suspicions the healing horse just didn’t want to provoke Storm in the same space.
Sage finally told Ellie that Ethan was flying in tomorrow, and Ellie pretended she wasn’t excited about it, even though her eyes practically bugged out of her head. Ethan lived in Queensland, and he was known for some pretty weird holistic practices, which felt more infuriating the more Sage thought about it. She’d been used to handling things her own way for the best part of six long years, and now they were just supposed to let some TV celebrity come in and take over?
‘Maybe some of his methods might actually work?’ Ellie suggested cautiously, eyeing Sage’s fierce scowl.
Sage crossed to Karma, careful not to spook the wide-eyed Storm, who watched her every move suspiciously. ‘Don’t mind us, buddy,’ Ellie told him, keeping close behind her.
She didn’t have a choice about Ethan’s so-called methods, she thought gloomily. Jarrah wanted him here, and, besides, the horse was too dangerous and unpredictable to have around his growing family. Abigail was five months pregnant with their fourth child and what if this unruly beast got a little too wild, a little too close to her? It didn’t bear thinking about! Everyone here adored the mayor and his family, Sage most of all. She would be eternally grateful for the soft cushion they’d given her to land on six years ago when she’d driven into town, looking for work. Abigail knew everything about her past, too: the bushfire that had rendered her an orphaned child at ten years old, the fact that she might have prevented it if she hadn’t been such a silly, disobedient kid, and that weird, sudden break-up with Bryce too, just weeks before she’d rocked up here.
Abigail had unbottled Sage years ago, along with the wine they had taken to sharing most Friday nights, and Sage was incredibly thankful that she’d been able to talk to someone about it all. It wasn’t as though she went around telling just anyone why she’d grown up in the care of a foster family in Perth. Just the thought of all the animals that must have died that night when the fire had spread and killed her family, and Juni too—the best dog who’d ever lived—devastated her.
Keep on moving, keep busy, be a good vet, be good to your community, help the animals.
That was her strategy for life. It seemed to be working most of the time, except for when she saw a dog in distress. That always brought all the trauma rushing back, along with the overwhelming guilt.
Sage squinted against the sun. Why exactly was the thought of Ethan Matthews coming here unsettling her like this? He might well be an arrogant showbiz equine expert, but so what?
Maybe it was something about the look on his face when the camera had panned in, she thought. As if he was carrying some kind of close-held secret he only ever shared with his horses. Something that reminded her of herself.
The morning sun warmed her tense shoulders as Sage stood with her arms folded over the fence, chewing her lip distractedly under the wide-brimmed hat. She called out to Storm, who ignored her. He’d been restless all night again, snorting and pacing as if an invisible phantom were on his tail. It had taken even longer than usual to coerce him between the stall and the paddock with a broom handle.
The rumble of a truck caught her ears. Turning around, she felt her breath catch as the door of the red pickup swung open and then she was watching Ethan Matthews jump to the dusty ground. All six-foot-something of him.
The sunlight streamed across his broad shoulders, forcing her gaze to the contours of his biceps and the dark, almost jet-black thickness of his hair. He wore it scraped back into a rough, manly ponytail at the nape of his neck and he moved with a quiet confidence that made Sage’s pulse quicken. She took him all in as he strode towards her in jeans. A forest-green T-shirt moulded to his sculpted torso, muscular thighs visible through every stretch of denim.
Holy hell...
‘Dr Dawson?’ He was in front of her, extending a big hand, fixing her with the most piercing blue eyes she’d ever seen. They were striking, rimmed with a deep green, and were more bewitching the longer she looked at them. She was suddenly aware they were roaming her face inquisitively, turning her cheeks into beetroots. ‘Great to finally meet you.’
Finally? She bit back a grimace. So, he’d been anticipating showing up here for a while, then. Knowing the mayor as she did, he’d have waited at least two weeks out of the three before making the call. It wasn’t as if he didn’t trust her. He’d probably just realised she clearly didn’t have the right experience for this task.
Sage adjusted her hat, willing her heart to calm down. She wanted to stay annoyed, but Ethan Matthews was so good-looking it was almost too much to take in—how were they not constantly doing close-ups of his eyes on TV? He was brooding from a distance, but this close the effect was devastating. Maybe they were afraid of hypnotising the nation. At any rate, nope. Such charm and charisma would not work on her.
‘Dr Matthews, thanks for coming on such short notice,’ she said after a rather awkward silence.
His grip was strong. That green shirt was doing strange things to her insides too; he either hit the gym every single day for an hour or so, or he’d honed his physique purely from wrestling wayward horses. Either way, he was likely all style over substance; he probably had a huge ego too, having everyone telling him how great he was all the time. Why was she feeling considerably hotter than she had been five minutes ago?
‘Ethan, please,’ he said, catching her eyes and holding them in a way that made her feel as though she’d forgotten to put on clothes this morning. This was nothing like when she’d first seen Bryce with his shaggy hair and oversized backpack, she thought, agitated all over again.
Wait...why was she comparing Ethan to Bryce?
‘Ethan. I appreciate you being here. It’s a long way from Queensland,’ she said, forcing herself to be polite.
‘I go where I’m needed,’ he replied with a trace of a smirk. ‘I’m sure I can help the mayor get this horse into shape in no time.’
‘Well, good luck with that,’ she said, more snippily than she intended. Oh, to be that confident and self-assured! ‘Three weeks in and I’ve barely been able to meet his eyes. The only way I can get him to move anywhere is by waving the broom at him. I feel like an evil witch.’
At that, Ethan stifled a laugh, which annoyingly, rather pleased her to hear. Then his eyes trailed the whole length of her body from her boots right up to her face. Sage had never felt so exposed in her life. Even more than before, she certainly did not want this cocky man all up in her business for longer than he had to be. But still, the way he was looking at her made her swallow hard...
‘I’ll take you to Storm,’ she said, flustered.
