Guarding His Heart by Serena Pettus Page A

slowly spread throughout her body, giving her a pleasantly relaxed feeling. “I’ll see you in the morning. I want to go chat with Kitty for a few. Have a good night, Paula.”
    “Don’t worry about being in right at eight tomorrow. You don’t have any patients in the morning. . I know you made a huge dent in your charts this afternoon, so just rest up.”
    “All right, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Plopping down on a barstool, Lynn waited patiently for Kitty to gain a few spare minutes to chat. As long as Lynn kept telling herself she just wanted to catch up with a good friend, she could avoid thoughts of Jag and the talk awaiting her at home.
    Perhaps, Kitty would let her bunk down with her for the night. Nah, that wasn’t fair to Jag. He’d been nothing but good to her over the last few weeks, and she couldn’t avoid him any longer, especially when Liam had already told her how nervous Jag was.
    “Hey there.” A masculine voice cut into her thoughts, and Lynn turned to see an attractive cowboy sitting next to her, tipping his hat her way. “Can I get you a refill?”
    Glancing down, Lynn noticed she’d finished her drink. No wonder she wasn’t feeling as anxious as she had been. Maybe, if she had a few more shots, the conversation with Jag would end up a lot easier to start. “Sure, why not?”
    “So, what’ll you have?” he drawled, leaning a little closer.
    “Um, Fireball.”
    Slapping his knee, he called out, “We’ve got a live one here! I do love a woman who can handle her whiskey.”
    “Yeah, well, after a while I think it’s the whiskey that does the handling, but whatever,” she replied, not liking the way he kept coming into her space.
    “Well, I could always handle things instead,” he drawled.
    Lynn chuckled. “No thanks. I already have one asshole in my pants. Two would be a crowd.”
    The man on the other side of the cowboy guffawed while her would-be Romeo gawked. “Well, now, this kitten has some claws.” His fingers ran up her arm as he spoke, making her skin crawl as if her body was physically rejecting his touch. Odd, but her mind was right there and in agreement. Lynn didn’t want him or anyone else in this bar touching her.
    “You’ll be feeling those claws firsthand if you don’t get your paws off of me,” she growled.
    “Now, now, that’s no way to be. Come on, kitten, I bet I could have you purring in no time.”
    A fist suddenly connected with the side of his jaw and sent him flying off the stool to sprawl on the floor. It seemed Kitty had been paying more attention to their end of the bar than Lynn had originally thought.
    “So, where’d all your buddies go?” Leave it to Kitty to act as if nothing had happened.
    “We’ve all got to work tomorrow, so they headed out. I’m just not ready to go yet.”
    Fixing a knowing look on Lynn, Kitty clucked her tongue. “So, who is he, and what did he do?”
    “Pardon?” Was it that obvious?
    “I know the look of a woman with man troubles, so spill.” The cowboy on the ground began to rise, and Kitty plastered a concerned look on her face before asking sweetly, “Honey, have you had too much to drink? You fell right off that stool, and I’m pretty sure you hit your face on the bar.”
    Looking dazed, he lightly probed his jaw, wincing when he hit the area that was already beginning to bruise. Lynn jerked her eyes to Kitty’s hand, fully expecting to find it red and possibly split after hitting the man so hard, but it appeared perfectly fine, without even a hint of pink showing.
    Retrieving his worn Stetson from the floor, the douche made his way out of the bar with his head ducked. Lynn wasn’t sure if he actually believed he’d fallen or if he knew he’d been laid low by a woman. Either way, he clearly found it embarrassing.
    “Now, where were we?” Kitty asked, sliding another beer down the bar to a waiting customer.
    “Well, there’s this guy, but it’s complicated and I can’t explain all of it,”