Promises Part 1 (Bounty Hunters 1)

“Dr. Chauncey, what a pleasant surprise,” Vaughan said, shutting the door to his father’s office behind him. The smile he gave the good doctor was genuine and Duke finally realized that they’d probably built quite a relationship while Duke was laid up.

“It’s okay,” Vaughan spoke up again when the doctor looked back and forth between them quizzically. “He knows now.”

“I figured as much since he was over here.” The doctor came further into the living room casually looking around before he sat down.

Duke couldn’t help but wonder why Dr. Chauncey was there, but that was clarified as soon as the man spoke. “Why aren’t you in bed Duke? I was told you had a slight fever yesterday. How come I wasn’t notified of that until this morning?”

Duke turned and scowled at Vaughan, who quickly threw his hands up, signaling his innocence. “Don’t look at me I only told—”

“Quick,” Duke grumbled, finishing his man’s sentence. If anyone would rat him out to the doc—good intentions aside—it’d be his best friend.

“Yes. He called my nurse today asking some questions about what to pay attention to. He sounded very concerned, so I thought I’d take it upon myself and come check on my patients.”

“I’m fine,” Duke muttered under his breath. “I had a stressful day yesterday. It happens to everyone.”

“Actually. No. People don’t get fevers from stress unless they have a condition called psychogenic fever. Then a person—”

“Okay, okay. I got it. My temperature did spike, but it was temporary.”

“You should’ve called last night,” Dr. Chauncey argued.

“You told me what to call about. Why would I disturb you in the middle of the night? My temperature never got to one hundred, did it babe?” Duke argued in his defense, looking to Vaughan to back him up.

“No it didn’t. And I took his temperature every couple hours.”

“Aww. Look at you two.” The doctor chuckled. “It sounds like everything worked out for you guys, huh?”

Vaughan smiled so charmingly that neither of them needed to reply. Yeah. Things were awesome.

Duke calmed down as Vaughan came and sat down so close to him he was practically on his lap. The doctor didn’t go right into examining Duke, instead they talked about their last couple of weeks recovering and what plans they had coming up. It seemed like they’d been friends forever. The doctor was cool and rather funny. His sense of humor bordered on raunchy, especially when Vaughan mentioned them being allowed to get back to some physical activity in the bedroom.

Dr. Chauncey rolled his eyes. “Young people and their sex drives.”

“Tell me about it,” Duke chimed in, grinning coyly when Vaughan glanced at him in disbelief.

“You weren’t complaining about my sex drive last night.”

“TMI!” the doctor yelled, and all of them laughed loudly. They were still laughing when Quick came through the front door looking like an escapee from Renegade.

Duke noticed Quick was in his chasing gear—so he called it. His large frame was encased in head to toe leather except for the black t-shirt that had BOUNTY HUNTER printed in bold letters across his broad chest. His gold star was suspended from a long chain and rested between his thick pecs. Duke was ready to start cursing about Quick going on a bounty alone when he noticed that Dr. Chauncey was gaping at his friend. His sharp blue eyes were traveling hungrily up and down Quick’s body as he made his way into the living room.

Duke covered his laugh with a mock cough, breaking Dr. Chauncey out of his trance. “Um. Dr. Chauncey.”

The man startled at the sound of his name like Duke had smacked him. “Yes. Um. Yeah, Duke. D-did you call me?”

Vaughan stared oddly at the doctor’s sudden fluster but Duke couldn’t wait to tell his man his new theory about Quick and Dr. Chauncey. He hadn’t been sure he’d actually seen attraction in the men’s eyes when they were in his hospital room. But now. He was more than sure.

“I didn’t know you made house calls, Doc,” Quick said casually. Everyone watched as Quick pulled off his mid-thigh leather coat and hung it on the rack by the stairs, now revealing his two holstered chrome nine millimeter handguns. Duke had to admit, they always did look like hot thugs when they were dressed for a chase.

Dr. Chauncey shook his head like he was trying to organize his thoughts. “I don’t. I mean, I do. Well, sometimes… only when.” The doctor took a calming breath and slowly made his way through his sentence. “I don’t typically, but my nurse told me about your call and we’d been trying to reach Duke all morning, so I went to check on him.”

Quick grunted something and kept walking.

“Coming to your house isn’t a crime is it, Roman?” Dr. Chauncey inquired seductively, although Duke didn’t think that’s the tone he was going for. It looked like his friend brought out the fire in the conservative doctor.