The Marriage Prescription

by Debra Webb

  “And you can’t be sure I don’t have a lady waiting in the car for me.”

  Her gaze zeroed in on his lips as he spoke, but his words jerked her attention back to his eyes. “Then I’d suggest that you don’t keep her waiting any longer.” It was probably Wanda the waitress, Beth seethed. She remembered the way the woman had flirted with Zach and how he’d poured on the charm.

  “We have to talk first,” he returned as if he had all night and not another care in the world.

  Beth presented a caustic smile. “Talk to the wall, Zach, because I’m not listening.” Before he could cut her off she’d slipped into the stall and slid the tiny lock into place.

  “I’m not playing games with you, Beth. Now come out here so we can talk.”

  “When hell freezes over,” she retorted sweetly. She closed the lid on the toilet seat and sat down. She wasn’t going anywhere until she was good and ready and that wouldn’t be until he’d left the ladies’ room. She crossed one leg over the other and smoothed a hand over the hem of her dress. Surely Lane would come looking for her eventually and then Zach would have to leave.

  Zach glowered at the locked stall door before him. He wasn’t going anywhere until they settled this once and for all. So what if he was checking up on her. It was a funny thing to him that he’d been in town all week and she’d hadn’t once gone out on a date or even mentioned a boyfriend and suddenly she’s out with Wiseman. Zach knew exactly what she was up to. She was trying to make him jealous. If Wiseman was really her boyfriend, she wouldn’t have been on the verge of making love with Zach just the other night.

  His groin tightened to the point of pain at the memory of touching her as he’d dreamed of doing for so long. He clenched his jaw and reminded himself that he wasn’t supposed to be thinking that way anymore. He was supposed to be protecting Beth. And that was exactly what he intended to do. She sure as hell didn’t need a guy like Wiseman. If she couldn’t see that then he’d just have to show her.

  He might as well start by telling her what a mistake she was making. What kind of friend would he be if he looked the other way? “I hope you’re not serious about this guy,” he said bluntly.

  Silence.

  “Think about it,” Zach went on when she didn’t respond. “He might be the hospital administrator’s nephew, which could, I suppose, be good for you career-wise, but do you really want to spend the rest of your life with a guy named Lane?” Zach shook his head at the thought. “Personally, I think it would be another huge mistake.”

  The stall door opened.

  Beth glared at him with a mixture of fury and disbelief. “You’re giving me advice on my love life when you’ve never even been involved in a long-term relationship?”

  The same outrage he heard in her voice lit inside him. “Who says I’ve never been in a long-term relationship?”

  She hitched a thumb at her chest. “I do. You’re too busy with your career to take time to do anything more than charm them into the sack.”

  “Charm them into the sack?” Absolute fury mushroomed inside him. “If you’re talking about the other night, I seem to recall you asked me to take you to bed.”

  She poked him in the chest with her index finger. “You didn’t appear to have a problem with it,” she snapped right back.

  He leaned slightly closer, going for intimidation. “I didn’t have a problem. I just don’t like being used.”

  “Used? I’m not even going to try to figure that one out. Maybe you stayed in the sun too long or inhaled too many paint fumes the other day when you were working on the gazebo. Because I can tell you right now that you’re definitely not thinking straight.”

  “Why’d you need me if you had Lane?”

  She blinked. Uncertainty flashed in her eyes. Dammit. He hadn’t meant for it to come out that way. Now she would know.

  “You think I wanted to have an affair with you because things weren’t working out between Lane and me?” Her tone sounded every bit as incredulous as the expression on her face looked.

  Zach swore silently. “What do you expect me to think?”

  The uncertainty in her eyes turned to amusement. “You think Lane can’t…so I…” Laughter overtook her ability to speak.

  Fury whipped through Zach all over again. There wasn’t a damned thing funny about any of this. “It isn’t that funny,” he growled when she continued laughing.

  She wiped her eyes and pressed her fingers to her lips to try and hold back her mirth. “I’m sorry,” she finally blurted. “I just can’t stop laughing.”

  Zach silenced her with his mouth. The taste of her sweet lips beneath his undid him completely. His arms went around her waist and pulled her against him. He wanted to feel the heat of her soft body. He wanted to touch all of her…to kiss her until neither of them could think straight. Her arms wound around his neck and she returned his kiss with abandon. Her tongue darted into his mouth tempting him beyond all reason.

  A cloak of heat and desire enveloped them, cocooning them in pure sensations. His hands trailed down her back and molded to her shapely buttocks. He lifted her against his hips, his body already rigid with need. She moaned softly, sending his protective instincts soaring. He wanted to know her completely. He worked his fingers beneath the hem of her short dress and lifted her hips against his once more. She wrapped those lush thighs around his waist and time and place deserted him. She undid button after button, then spread open his shirt so that she could touch him. He groaned his approval, the feel of her fingers searing his chest.

  Still devouring her mouth, he pressed her against the wall and ground the part of him that ached so fiercely into her feminine heat. She cried out, the sound lost to their kiss. Her hands found their way to the waist of his jeans and she struggled to unfasten them.

  “Wait,” he murmured against her lips.

  “Can’t,” she whispered back, her fingers still tugging.

  Helpless to do otherwise, he held her in place with one hand and wrenched his jeans open with the other. She eased one small hand inside, her soft, warm fingers molding around him. He groaned. She caressed the length of him and he shuddered with anticipation.

  “Hurry,” she breathed.

  He nodded, his mouth hovering only centimeters above hers. He pulled aside the silky panel of her panties and sank into the tight, wet, heat of her. He didn’t stop until he was buried completely inside her. The sensation was so powerful he couldn’t move for one long moment, he could only savor the feel of mating with Beth.

  Her fingers dug into his shoulders.

  He moved, just once. She cried out, the sound echoing around them. His body jerked in response to the unbearably sweet tightening of hers.

  “More,” she demanded, bracing her feet against the opposite wall to give her purchase. She arched against him, urging him into action.

  Things were moving too fast for him to maintain control. She arched again.

  She pulled his head back down to hers. “More,” she murmured again then crushed her mouth onto his.

  He obeyed, helpless to do otherwise. He thrust deeply, drew back, then thrust again. Every part of him was focused on pleasing her…touching her…tasting her. Learning this part of Beth he’d never known before. She climaxed, the throbbing, contracting of her feminine muscles drawing on the release he wanted to hold back just a little while longer. She kissed him harder, sucked on his tongue, forcing him over the edge. His movements quickened, shallow at first, then so deeply that she screamed his name. He surrendered, coming hard and fast.

  He pressed his forehead to hers and commanded his body to stop trembling. He’d never lost it like this before. Their ragged breathing was the only sound in the room. “Beth, I—”

  “Don’t say anything.”

  He could already feel her body tensing in his arms as the reality of their frantic act filtered through the lingering aftermath. He wanted to kick himself. He’d just made love to Beth. Instead of making the moment special, he’d taken her
like…like this, not even taking time to protect her from any possible consequences of their impulsiveness. He swore softly. How would he ever make this up to her?

  “I have to get out of here.” She scrambled out of his arms and pushed him away.

  She slipped out of the stall before he’d pulled himself together.

  “Beth, wait.”

  She rushed away without looking back.

  He slammed a fist into the wall. What the hell had he been thinking following her in here like this? He swore again as he jerked the door open and started out.

  A feminine shriek brought him up short.

  The woman had apparently started into the bathroom when he opened the door. “Excuse me,” he muttered. The woman flattened against the wall, giving him ample room to pass and only stared, wide-eyed, at him.

  Too consumed with Beth to take the time to placate the woman further, he rushed through the crowd still lined up around the counter, searching every face for Beth’s. She’d gone back to Wiseman’s car already. Ire twisted in Zach’s gut at the thought. He hurried outside and double-timed it to where the guy had parked. Zach only got a glimpse of his taillights as Wiseman drove away.

  Zach blew out a weary breath.

  He’d royally screwed up this time. Though his body still hummed with the pleasure of having Beth, his brain knew he’d done it all wrong. And she, most likely, would never forgive him. Not that he’d blame her.

  Disgusted with himself, Zach made his way back to his car. He opened the driver’s side door and dropped behind the wheel.

  “Where’s my popcorn and soda?”

  He smacked himself on the forehead with the heel of his hand and swore yet again.

  “You’ve been gone all this time and you didn’t get what you went after,” his mother demanded. “Heavens to Betsy, son, where’s your head?”

  If she only knew.

  He opened the car door and looked at his mother before getting out. “Sorry. I’ll get it now.”

  She stared at him, her face registering disapproval. “Well, before you do, take a moment to pull yourself together, would you?”

  She looked him up and down, noting the button he’d missed on his shirt and the hasty manner in which he’d tucked it into his jeans. Details he’d failed to notice before.

  “My God, son, you look like you’ve just had sex.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Beth paced the living room Sunday morning. Her mother had gone to early mass and to do her usual Sunday visits. Unable to risk her mother’s too perceptive eyes, Beth had remained in her room until she was sure she was gone. Now she had only her own self-deprecating thoughts with which to contend.

  How could she have allowed things to get so out of control last night? She should never have approached Zach in the first place. The idea that Lane had waited, unknowing, in the car for her just as Zach’s unknown lady friend—Beth clenched her jaw—had waited for him made Beth feel ill. She’d never done anything so underhanded in her life. What was worse, she’d run back to Lane’s car, Zach’s essence still clinging to her skin, and demanded that Lane take her home. The man surely thought she was one card shy of a full deck.

  She had to be! She’d had sex with Zach in the ladies’ room at the drive-in. She flung her arms out in exasperation and plopped down on the sofa. She dropped her face into her hands and groaned. How could she have allowed this to happen?

  How would she ever face Zach again?

  He’d…everything inside her stilled as she replayed last night’s desperate act. The memory of the way he’d kissed her sent butterflies into flight in her stomach. He kissed her as if she were the one and only woman on Earth he wanted. She could feel the longing in him…could taste his yearning. He’d been as desperate as she had been. He hadn’t wanted it to be that way, she knew. He’d hesitated, but she’d urged him on and he’d complied. Her heart swelled to near bursting as her mind relived the pleasure of his touch…his possession.

  She couldn’t find the proper words to describe how he made her feel—desperate, out of control, yet complete. That was it. Beth rose from the sofa. He made her feel complete. A kind of calm settled over her with the realization. Her entire adult life the only time she felt that way was when he was near. No matter how she tried to deny it, it was true. She prayed that somehow she made him feel that way, too. But she couldn’t be sure. How much of his feelings were protective versus amorous? Just because he wanted her happy and safe didn’t mean he loved her the way she loved him.

  Beth sighed mightily. Why was she berating herself about this? The whole issue was moot. Zach was leaving in just one week. The day after his mother’s party. Beth froze. Next Saturday was Colleen’s birthday which made yesterday…she did the math.

  “Oh, God.”

  They hadn’t…

  “Oh, God,” she repeated, collapsing onto the sofa once more.

  This was the very worst time of the month that she could have had unprotected sex. Her cycles were as regular as clockwork. Beth felt suddenly cold and just a little afraid. Though she trusted Zach implicitly not to risk her safety in any way…neither of them had stopped to consider the other consequences of what they were doing.

  She could be pregnant.

  Beth reminded herself to breathe. She inhaled, exhaled, then lost her breath all over again at the thought of having Zach’s child.

  But he wouldn’t want this. He’d already told her that he wasn’t the marrying kind…he was too busy for a wife and a family. A new wave of fear swept over her. She had her mother. She wouldn’t be alone if…

  She stood and started pacing again. She was worrying for nothing. As a doctor she knew that there was just as good a chance that if she were ovulating, which she probably was, that she wouldn’t conceive as there was that she would. It was ridiculous to worry about it anyway. She’d drop by the lab next week and have her friend Cindy run a blood test just to put her mind at ease. For the moment she would simply put it out of her mind. No point in borrowing trouble.

  A soft rap on the front door startled her. Surely no one from the town council would stop by on a Sunday morning to discuss Colleen’s celebration. Beth frowned. She did recall Colleen mentioning that she wanted to talk to her. The woman was every bit as perceptive as Beth’s own mother. She’d have to watch her p’s and q’s. Taking a moment to catch her breath before she opened the door, Beth reminded herself that she was probably worrying for nothing. Everything would be fine. She most likely was not pregnant and a frantic quickie with Zach didn’t constitute a lifetime commitment. There was no reason, she told herself once more, to borrow trouble.

  Beth opened her front door and looked up into Zach’s handsome face.

  Nope. She didn’t need to borrow trouble, it was at her door. Her heart kicked into warp speed the moment their gazes locked.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it when no words were forthcoming. He ran a hand through his hair and over his neck and peered down at her with such pain and regret that she felt moved to reach out to him.

  “Has something happened?” Her fingers tightened around his arm and she pulled him inside. “Is your mother all right?”

  “She’s fine,” he finally said, his gaze still so solemn that it made Beth’s chest ache.

  In spite of all her anxiety, she couldn’t deny how good he looked and the fact that she noticed. She let go of his arm for fear of clinging foolishly or rushing into those strong arms. The dark gray trousers lent elegance while the matching polo shirt molded to his muscular torso in a way that spelled danger. To her heart anyway.

  He exhaled a big breath and flared his hands, his beautiful blue eyes searching hers. “I’m sorry, Beth.” He looked away a moment. “I didn’t want it to be that way, but things went a little crazy and…” His voice trailed off.

  He was apologizing for last night. Beth’s heart sank. He hadn’t meant for it to happen…he hadn’t really wanted to make love with her. She’d been the one forcing the issue all alon
g. Now he was sorry.

  She summoned her bravest tone. “There’s no need to apologize. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I started this whole thing. As you said before, yours was simply a typical male reaction.”

  He didn’t look at her for a long moment, when he finally did, something had changed in his eyes. The regret looked a lot more like impatience. The pain had vanished. “Is that what you think?”

  She didn’t know what she thought, but if she wasn’t confused before she was now. “What should I think?”

  The determination and heat she remembered from last night was suddenly back, only stronger. “That we made love and it wasn’t how I wanted our first time together to be.”

  Their first time? Beth told herself to take a breath. “And how did you want it to be?” she asked, her voice small and uncertain.

  He moved closer to her, but didn’t touch her. She could feel his need to do just that, but he held back. She watched the battle taking place in his eyes, desire and denial. He wanted her again. And, dammit, she wanted him. But both feared the consequences.

  “I wanted it to be special…like you,” he said softly. “A moment you’d never forget. I wanted it to be worth the risk.”

  “The risk?” Could he know her other concern already?

  “Of where we go from here.” He did touch her then, the gentlest caress along her cheek. “I know you’ve worried about that, too.”

  Relieved nearly beyond words, she offered him a smile. “I have. So what do we do?”

  His gaze turned solemn again. “I don’t want to hurt you, Beth.”

  She firmed her courage. She was tired of being protected. “I’m well aware of when you’re leaving if that’s what concerns you.” She was a grown woman. She’d wanted this affair and now it had begun, in a manner of speaking. Why not enjoy it to the fullest? She would know the consequences soon enough…and she would pay the price.

  For the first time in her life, Beth understood what she really wanted. She wanted whatever she and Zach could have right now. She didn’t want to think about tomorrow or next week or next year. She wanted to enjoy him…the way she’d dreamed of doing for so very long. She was an adult, she could handle the side effects.