Woman of His Heart

by Donna Fasano

  Woman of His Heart

  Black Bear Brothers Series - Book 2

  Donna Fasano

  Woman of His Heart

  Copyright © 2019 by Donna Fasano

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-939000-60-6

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-939000-61-3

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  A Note From The Author

  Other Books By Donna Fasano

  About The Author

  Chapter One

  “Okay, now—” Dr. Dakota Makwa pressed the round diaphragm of his stethoscope against his patient’s upper back “—give me some slow, deep breaths.”

  Although the woman’s pulse was a bit elevated, her blood pressure registered in the normal range. Her temperature was normal. He’d detected no swelling in her thyroid gland or lymph nodes. And now he heard no congestion in her lungs. She showed every sign of being perfectly healthy.

  “Sounds good.” He eased away from her, automatically shifting the stethoscope from his ears to his neck. “Your weight hasn’t changed since you were here—” he darted a glance at her electronic file, surprise straightening his spine “—last week.”

  Red flags waved in his head, warning bells pealed.

  He glanced up at Desiree Washington. “Tell me again what brought you in to see me.”

  “Well…”

  Hesitation wavered in her tone. Her gaze lighted on him, then slid away. Her reluctance to meet his eyes only heightened Dakota’s wariness.

  She continued, “I’ve been feeling… tired. I’ve got no energy.”

  “Hmm. That’s interesting.” He kept his voice unassuming as he read the notes he’d typed in the woman’s medical file just a few days ago. “Last week you complained of feeling antsy. Nervous. Edgy.”

  “That was then.” Her ruby lips rounded into a pretty pout, glistening in the overhead light. “This is now.” Her eyelids batted, once, twice. “Maybe it’s hormonal.”

  Oh, it’s hormonal, all right, a suspicious voice intoned from the back of his brain. But Dakota quieted the warning in his head. He was a doctor. He had an obligation to take every complaint seriously. No matter how dubious he might be of the patient’s intentions.

  “Okay.” He set the small laptop aside, repositioned his stethoscope into his ears. “Let me take a listen to your heart.”

  He’d have had to have been made of stone not to notice that the woman wasn’t wearing a bra beneath the thin blouse she wore. And she’d unfastened every single button rather than just the two or three necessary so he took extra care when slipping the diaphragm between the fabric facings. It wouldn’t take much to completely expose the woman’s breasts. He couldn’t help but think that was probably what she was hoping for.

  Now, now, he silently chided. He tamped down the annoyance threatening to flatten his mouth. No matter what the situation might look like on the surface, he had a job to do. For all he knew, Desiree Washington could very well have a legitimate ailment. Some illness or condition that deserved his undivided attention.

  But the moment the metallic diaphragm made contact with her skin, she closed her eyes, sucking in an audible breath through rounded lips.

  Fearing the woman was experiencing some sort of sharp, flashing pain, Dakota made to withdraw the stethoscope. However, her hand shot out and covered his, her scarlet nails lightly grazing him. She pressed his curled knuckles against her bare skin.

  “Can you feel my heart beating?”

  The bold question was uttered low and husky. The predatory inflection made perspiration break out across Dakota’s forehead, his thoughts splintering into jagged chaos.

  “It’s pounding,” she whispered. “Pounding like a hammer, I tell you.”

  He lifted his gaze to her face. Her eyes were closed, her chin tipped up, her dark hair tumbling down her back, her breasts swaying rhythmically as her chest heaved with deep, almost frantic, breaths. The melodrama of the moment would have been funny had he been in a movie theater, munching popcorn. But this was his profession, his life, not a romantic comedy.

  He made an attempt to free his hand… and she released it, all right. But the next thing that happened? Well, it was so unexpected that Dakota was too shocked to even react for an instant or two. Thankfully, however, some ingrained instinct kicked in and he bolted for the door.

  Any good warrior knows, if you can’t win the battle, the thing to do is retreat and regroup. And there was no way of winning the war being raged in Exam Room One. No way.

  “Lyssa!” he called once he’d burst out into the hallway.

  His new nurse came bounding from the adjacent examining room. Her soft caramel eyes were unruffled, her countenance composed. Lyssa Palmer hadn’t been working for him for very long, but her presence sure lent a bit of calmness the office needed these days. Well… a calmness that Dakota needed, anyway.

  The instant he saw her, his spirit seemed to smile.

  “Doctor?”

  Her perfectly shaped eyebrows rose with her inquiry, and Dakota thought—for what must have been the thousandth time since he’d hired the young woman—that fate had shined on him when he’d found this fully qualified nurse in desperate need of a job.

  Suddenly, all he wanted to do was dive into the tranquil sea that seemed to emanate from her. But the turmoil of the moment rushed at him, once again urging him to escape.

  He closed the laptop that contained Desiree’s medical information and tucked it under his arm. “Help Ms. Washington, ah—” He stumbled over his thoughts. All he wanted to do was get away from the whole awkward situation. “Help her get herself together, would you, please? I’ll be in my office.” He started to turn away. “Oh, and don’t charge her for today’s visit,” he told Lyssa. “The woman’s perfectly healthy.” Nodding, he repeated, “Perfectly healthy. Tell her I said so… okay?”

  He heard the anxiety in his own voice, saw that it caused Lyssa’s golden-brown gaze to light with keen curiosity, but he rushed off without further explanation.

  ~oOo~

  Lyssa busied herself straightening the examination room, readying it for the next patient. As she pulled a fresh sanitary cover over the exam table, she realized that Dr. Dakota Makwa was on her mind. Again.

  She discovered that her thoughts turned to him more than they should.

  Much more than they should.

  When she’d first met him two weeks ago, his sharp, angular Native American features had nearly bowled her over. Yet she remembered being taken aback by his intense green eyes… eyes that were so different from
all the other Kolheeks she’d met at Misty Glen Reservation. The word handsome just didn’t seem to have enough oomph in it to describe Doctor Dakota, as his patients called him. His long, raven hair had shined in the afternoon sunshine, and concern over her employment situation, or lack thereof, had creased his high forehead, making him attractive to her on a whole other level.

  Okay, now. Just stop, a silent voice sternly chastened her as she stood in the middle of the exam room. Knowing her own complicated circumstance, chastening was just what she needed. There were some fearful reasons behind her escape from California. Her whereabouts could be discovered at any moment and she’d be forced to flee this job and even Vermont altogether—

  The reality of her awful situation had her instinctively smoothing her hand over the slight swell of her lower abdomen. Thoughts of her baby usually calmed her. Thoughts of the child she would give birth to in five short months usually filled her with the determination to do whatever it took to protect, to shelter, to shield. And she would, too.

  Whatever it took.

  Lyssa sighed. The condition she was in—the condition of her body and her life—ought to have her realizing that she shouldn’t have allowed herself to notice Dakota Makwa, no matter how handsome the man was, when she’d first met him at the Kolheek craft fair two weeks ago. Her heart shouldn’t have tripped in her chest as it had, as it continued to do whenever she was near him.

  Since ignoring her startling physical reactions to him was impossible, she’d decided to control them. Tamp them down until they were completely snuffed out.

  However, the task wasn’t proving to be simple. Especially since he wasn’t just a pretty face; he was a man of substance. A kind man. A compassionate man. A highly intelligent man who had a streak of honor running through him a mile wide.

  Hadn’t he hired her—on the spot—when he’d discovered that she was in dire need of a job? And hadn’t he gone out of his way to help her find a small house to rent on the Kolheek reservation?

  The questions had her mind roving through her memories of their initial meeting. There had been something she’d noticed about him right away. Something pure. Candid. Something almost primal in that intense moss-green gaze of his. An animal magnetism had emanated from him, plucking and pulling at her from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him… some inscrutable allure that beckoned. That teased. That made a woman wonder what it might be like to—

  Uh-oh. Lyssa rounded her lips and slowly pulled in a deep breath as she absently patted her fingers over the bun at the nape of her neck, checking for stray tendrils and tucking them neatly behind her ear. These thoughts of her boss were becoming dangerously sensual.

  Again.

  She forced her mind off of the sexual and back onto the platonic and friendly aspects of their first meeting.

  The good doctor had gently suggested that she might be more comfortable living in Mountview, the small Vermont town located just a few miles from the reservation. She’d only had to reject that idea once, and she’d been grateful when he’d asked no questions, only quickly promised to do all he could to help her find living quarters on the rez, as he called it. Lyssa didn’t like to think of it as hiding, but she sure didn’t mind the idea that no one would think to look for her on a Native American reservation called Misty Glen.

  Over the two weeks that she’d been in Doctor Dakota’s employ, she had noticed that the man looked to be in a slight quandary. She couldn’t help but smile, even now, as she completed straightening the exam room countertops. Most men would have loved to find themselves in such a dilemma. Being sought out by available women would normally make a man happy. But not Doctor Dakota. For some reason, the situation he found himself in left him frustrated, often annoyed. Lyssa realized he wouldn’t dream of giving his patients anything less than professional treatment. However, his reaction seemed to be triggered by something more, something… deeper. And Lyssa couldn’t deny that she was terribly curious about why he seemed so determined to avoid the women who showed an obvious interest in him.

  She swiped the doorknob with a disinfectant towelette before tossing it into the waste container, grateful in the knowledge that if Doctor Dakota was filling her mind to this extent then there was little room for her own overwhelming problems. The ones she’d left back in California.

  Automatically, her palm slid protectively over her tummy. Her pregnancy had been a catalyst for action—her child had been the reason she’d finally decided to flee from the life she’d been living on the West Coast.

  When the dark storm of her own past threatened to roll into her mind, she shoved the thoughts away and let her gaze rove over the prepared room. Noting that all was in order for the next patient, she went down the hall and knocked on the door of the doctor’s office.

  “You okay?’’ she asked, poking her head around the door.

  The scowl drawing his dark eyebrows together told her he was not.

  She slipped into the room and closed the door softly behind her. “Dr. Dakota,” she began, approaching his desk, “you look like you’ve got something on your mind.”

  He scrubbed his fingers against his temple. His sigh was heavy, then he said, “I don’t know what to do. I just don’t know how to handle this anymore.” He lifted his gaze to hers then. “That woman… Desiree Washington—” He stopped suddenly, and then blurted, “She touched me.”

  Lyssa stood there a moment before responding. She clasped her hands together and gently suggested, “The exam rooms are pretty small. Maybe she didn’t mean it the way you—”

  “Oh, she meant it,” he interrupted, agitation making his head bob. “She grabbed my hand, Lyssa. Gripped it hard. Pressed it against her chest.” His eyes went wide, his brow furrowing at the same time. “She kissed my stethoscope!”

  He offered up the diaphragm with its smear of lipstick as proof positive.

  Lyssa lifted her eyebrows in a high arch and she bit her lip to contain the humor that bubbled up inside her at the sight of him.

  “I’ll be the first to admit that no woman has the right to touch—or kiss—your instruments.” A grin took control of one corner of her mouth. “Without your permission, that is.”

  He cast her a doleful look.

  Why shouldn’t Doctor Dakota’s female patients have the hots for him? He was a very attractive man. She’d come to that conclusion herself, squashed the heart-pounding effects he had on her. What she couldn’t figure out was his reaction to what could be a most opportune situation.

  She felt compelled to point out, “I’m really sorry to tell you this, but most men would love to be wearing your lab coat, getting their stethoscopes kissed.” She was about to chuckle, but curbed it when he scowled at her. “There are worse things that could happen to you than being chased by gorgeous, available women. You’re acting as if this is a terrible dilemma. A problem needing a solution rather than something that should be…” She shrugged. “I don’t know… enjoyed, maybe?”

  His deep frown told her he thought her suggestion was outrageous. Repugnant, even.

  Lyssa didn’t bother to quell the laughter bubbling up from the back of her throat. He needed to be laughed at. He was taking himself and what he saw as a predicament much too seriously.

  “I’m sorry, if you don’t agree with me,” she told him. “But as I see it, you’ve got two options. You can go with the flow… which means taking some of these women out on a date or two to see if something more develops. Or—” she lifted her shoulders again “—you can take yourself off the market.”

  Yes, she’d made light of what he’d obviously perceived to be a problem, but she’d only told him exactly what she felt he needed to hear. As she walked down the hallway toward the waiting room, Lyssa glanced out the nearby window, enjoying the autumn colors that tinged the leaves and she didn’t give her words a second thought. She’d simply helped her boss put things into perspective. However, she hadn’t witnessed the acute interest that lit the doctor’s eyes. She hadn’t observ
ed the thoughtful expression that had overtaken his every feature. She hadn’t seen the way he’d unwittingly begun to tap the pad of his index finger against his chin as he pondered.

  If she’d been the least bit aware of his powerful reactions to the choices she’d offered him—the final one, in particular—she’d have realized that his life was about to change.

  As was hers.

  Forever.

  ~oOo~

  Dakota Makwa’s nerves were a jumbled mess as he reached up and knocked on the door of the small, wood-frame bungalow that Lyssa rented. He hoped he wouldn’t be disturbing her dinner, but he just couldn’t wait any longer to talk to her.

  The suggestion she’d made in his office today had turned into an amazing epiphany for him, and he felt that if he didn’t talk to her about his decisions now, he would bust at the seams with all the thoughts that continued to churn in his head.

  “Doctor Dakota?”

  The pleasant surprise in both her soft brown gaze and in her tone touched the very heart of him. He didn’t know a whole lot about Lyssa Palmer, but he’d discovered she was skilled at her profession. She cared about the patients. She was a good person.

  When she’d taken the job as a nurse in his medical office, she’d made him aware of the basic facts of her life: she was pregnant, newly divorced, and on the run from the man she’d called husband for a year and a half. She’d offered nothing more. He’d have liked for her to be more open about her history, but he had easily understood her reluctance to reveal too much, so he’d decided early on to practice patience in dealing with his new employee.

  He’d been in desperate need of a nurse. And she’d been in desperate need of a job. That had to be enough for the moment. Eventually, he’d hoped, she’d tell him about her past. Once she learned he was worthy of her trust. Until then, he would be satisfied with the information she was willing to offer.

  As he stood there, her beautiful face shadowed with what he took to be concern.