Marked for Marriage

by Jackie Merritt

  Noah

  Maddie put down the note and picked up her cup. Sipping coffee, she frowned, pondered Noah’s apology for kissing her and obviously expecting more than a kiss, and realized that she wasn’t all that thrilled with his contrition. True, she was the one who’d called a halt to the whole thing, but why did he feel that he had to apologize for something that was no more his fault than hers? And he certainly hadn’t seemed apologetic during those tender little good-night kisses, had he? Plus, no one had forced him to sit on the bed and instigate conversation. Obviously, curiosity had gotten the best of him and he’d had to ask her a few questions, but why would a man who kept his inner self in a lock-box be that curious about someone else in the first place?

  So, what happened in the night? Had he lain awake and worried that she might read too much into an unexpected interlude that could only be described as passion-gone-wild? Had he then decided at some point that he could eradicate the entire episode with an apology and a half-baked promise about it not happening again?

  He’s a lowdown coward, that’s what he is, writing this…this insulting message instead of telling me to my face that he really doesn’t want a personal association with me. Guess I was just too damned handy last night!

  Seared by humiliation and anger, Maddie finished her coffee, then forced herself to read what Noah had written on each of the little packets. One contained an antibiotic, the other a painkiller and each bore instructions that she should take one after breakfast and one after dinner.

  Sullenly Maddie tossed the packets back on the table. She’d take his damn pills because he was right about her overall improvement yesterday, plus the fact that she felt so much better this morning than she had on any other morning since the accident.

  Well, there was little to be gained by sitting there fuming and fussing over something she could do nothing about, so she might as well busy herself with making some breakfast. After that she would find something else to do. She wasn’t used to being cooped up like this, and now that she was feeling human again she was also feeling imprisoned. She needed fresh air and a hearty walk, and she needed to see Fanny.

  A glance outside dashed those thoughts. Her truck was stuck miles from town, and she was stuck in this house! She might as well face facts, frustrating though they were—she wasn’t going anywhere today!

  With a heavily weighted, put-upon sigh, Maddie rose and left the table to scare up some breakfast.

  Noah’s work schedule had huge gaps. His patients were not braving the elements to keep their appointments, and could he blame them? His drive from Mark’s house had been precarious and just plain dangerous. Without four-wheel drive, a vehicle stood no chance at all of getting around, and even with it Noah hadn’t felt completely in control of his SUV. He’d been grateful for the exceptionally light traffic, for he’d skidded around more than one corner during that short trip.

  With so much spare time on his hands, he drank too much coffee and stared out windows at the ongoing snowfall too often. He walked through the hospital twice, talked briefly with other physicians about nothing important, and then, on his second tour, ran into Dr. Herrera, the orthopedic specialist he’d mentioned to Maddie.

  After explaining Maddie’s hand injury, he said, “But I’m more concerned with her knee, which she claims was not impaired by her fall but only recently began bothering her. I want her to see you.”

  “Fine,” Dr. Herrera agreed. “With so many people staying home in this weather, as the highway patrol suggested they do, I have free time today. Does she have a way to get to my office?”

  Noah frowned. Maddie didn’t have a way to get anywhere! Without her truck, she was left high and dry, which was a good thing considering her tendency to act on impulse. Hopefully she was calm and resting, but somehow Noah doubted it.

  “Yes, she has a way,” he told Dr. Herrera. “Any particular time?”

  “Anytime after four. I know for a fact that my appointment book is clear after four.”

  “Thanks. She’ll be there.”

  Noah returned to his own office and tried the phone again. No luck, the line was still dead. His receptionist hadn’t come in, and Noah didn’t need to be told why she hadn’t. She and her husband lived five miles out of town on an isolated dirt road that would be one of the last to be plowed, and without phone service there was no way she could have let him know. It was the same story all over Whitehorn, Noah knew, because he’d heard complaints on that score from everyone with whom he’d come in contact.

  He still hadn’t found his cell phone, but it wouldn’t have done much good, anyhow. Some area residents carried cell phones, but that form of telecommunication was still spotty in Whitehorn. Besides, with so much turbulence in the air from the seemingly never-ending snowfall, Noah suspected that reception between two cell phones would be clogged with static.

  Checking his appointment schedule once again, Noah saw that he was booked all afternoon. He’d been booked all morning, too, and one person had made it in. He decided that he would hang around until three, just in case a patient did keep his appointment, then he would put a Closed sign on his door and hope no one did come in.

  The day dragged for Maddie. With her mind clear and her aches and pains minimized to practically nothing by Noah’s miracle pain pill—which she’d taken after breakfast, as instructed—she felt much too good to sit and do nothing. For a while she walked around with a soft cloth and dusted the furniture. She thought of running the vacuum over the carpets, but it was a heavy old thing and she didn’t want to test her newly found and much appreciated strength quite that much. Besides, the carpets weren’t soiled. Before leaving on their honeymoon, Darcy and Mark had made sure that everything had been thoroughly cleaned.

  Making her bed with one hand wasn’t easy, but Maddie managed to put it in a reasonable semblance of good order. She looked in on Mark and Darcy’s room, the one Noah had used last night, and saw the bed neatly made. Apparently Noah Martin understood household duties, because he could cook and make a bed as well as any woman. Oddly, that smooth, perfectly made bed annoyed Maddie, and she walked back down the hall toward the living room with her lips drawn into a peeved line.

  Finally she switched on the TV, sat in a comfortable chair and began flipping channels. Nothing looked good and in mere minutes, she turned it off again. Sighing from utter misery, as though the weight of the world rested on her shoulders, Maddie reflected on last night’s events.

  She’d behaved so uncharacteristically—feverishly kissing and cuddling with Noah—and the memories caused her to wince. But the memories also delivered a sensual wallop to those areas of her body that had actually quivered with passion last night, and her imagination took flight without a dram of conscious effort from her brain.

  If she’d waited breathlessly for Noah instead of getting all rueful and righteous… If she’d welcomed him back with opened arms… If she wasn’t such a damned prude about personal relationships… If…if…if. Closing her eyes, Maddie licked her dry lips and visualized the wonders she might have experienced last night.

  “Darn,” she whispered, not exactly wishing things had turned out differently last night but certainly wishing for something. Yearning for something was more like it, she realized. There was a deep pocket of yearning in the pit of her stomach that certainly had not nagged at her before Noah Martin barged into her life!

  It dawned on her then that she could have an affair with Dr. Sweet-Lips Martin. Regardless of his nonsensical apology and promise that he wouldn’t make another pass—or words to that effect—she could easily lead him down the garden path, should she choose to do so.

  Maddie stirred uneasily in her chair. She’d never knowingly led a man on. Why was she even contemplating something so shocking? As surely as grass was green, her imagination was creating the perfect setting for heartbreak, and since her libido responded so hungrily to Noah’s call of the wild, so to speak, she was the most likely candidate to suffer that awful torment. In tr
uth, she couldn’t picture Noah in the throes of broken-heart syndrome at all, and it was very easy for her to see herself with that particular malady.

  No, she most definitely would not lead Noah anywhere, or flirtatiously if subtly coax him into an affair. All she wanted was to get through her healing process, load Fanny into the trailer and get the heck out of Montana. Get far away from bad weather and…and yes, she might as well admit it—getting away from a man who could kiss her breathless and still give her absolutely nothing of his inner self only made good sense.

  And thus Maddie whiled away the long, dreary day.

  Noah scowled at the snow that had again piled up in Mark’s driveway. Parking in the street, he went into the garage for the snow shovel and set to work. He flung snow right and left, moving fast and eventually breathing hard from the exertion. But he cleared the driveway in about ten minutes, then put away the shovel and drove his SUV off the street.

  Inside the house, Maddie thought she heard something going on outside and she went to the kitchen window to see what it was. She sucked in a big breath when she saw Noah, and she had absolutely no control over the totally female palpitations of her heart and pulse. Nor could she stop herself from being overwhelmingly impressed by his size and strength. He was dressed in a woolen sheepskin-lined jacket, dark pants and boots. There was a forest-green scarf wound around his neck and black gloves on his hands, and he was so handsome and so graceful with that shovel that Maddie just stood there and stared at him as though she’d lost all of her normal connections with reality.

  The bottom line, she knew in her soul, was that she was glad he’d come back. The long day alone had been horrible. If Noah had come to spend the night again and if something happened between them—no, she wasn’t going to cause something to happen—but if it did, all on its own as it had last night, maybe, just maybe she wouldn’t allow her common sense to interfere this time.

  Oh, you silly fool! The voice in Maddie’s head was smarter than the rest of her, and she knew it, too, but still she couldn’t help the rush of elation she felt over Noah’s return.

  He finally finished up outside and headed for the kitchen door to go in. Maddie’s heart skipped a beat, and she twisted around to make a dash for the living room so he wouldn’t know she’d been watching him. Her left knee gave out, and she moaned in pain as she plopped down on the floor, seat first.

  Noah walked in at that exact moment and, with a look of alarm on his face, ran over to her. Kneeling, he asked rather anxiously, “What happened?”

  Maddie could hardly look into his vivid-blue eyes, which seemed even bluer than usual, probably because he’d been working outdoors. There were snowflakes in his hair and on his clothing, and he even smelled of snow.

  “I guess I turned around wrong…or something,” she mumbled. “My knee gave out.”

  “Your left knee?”

  “Yes.”

  Noah took off his gloves and laid his hand on her knee, which brought him even closer to her, and she dizzily inhaled the scent of his shaving lotion or cologne or whatever that deliciously masculine smell was.

  “It…it’s all right now,” she said, the worry over how strongly he affected her—even the way he smelled, for heaven’s sake—showing in the unsteadiness of her voice.

  Noah noticed something amiss with the way she was speaking, but he thought it was due to her knee.

  “Are you in pain?” he asked.

  “It did hurt…my knee, I mean…but it’s not hurting now. Not very much, anyway.”

  Noah took back his hand and looked into Maddie’s eyes. “I have an appointment with Dr. Herrera for you. He’s the orthopedic specialist I mentioned yesterday. We have to leave right away.”

  “This minute? Are you sure I need a bone specialist? My hand feels fine.”

  “I’m sure you’re hand is fine, but that knee isn’t.” Noah got to his feet and offered his hand to help her up. “Come on, Maddie. We have to get going.”

  She looked at his hand, realized how truly beautiful it was—wide in the palm with long fingers—and then remembered how it had felt on her body last night.

  Stop thinking about it! What’s wrong with you? Clearing her throat, Maddie extended her good hand and laid it in his.

  Noah frowned because her hand was so small compared to his. Small and warm. She was small and warm…all of her…every inch of her. The potency of last night’s collision and very hot aftermath suddenly gripped his senses again, and he wondered uneasily what in the devil was going on with him these days.

  And, pray tell, why was he standing there holding hands with her instead of getting them both out of this house and on their way to Dr. Herrera’s office?

  “Hold on,” he said gruffly. “You shouldn’t be pulled up until we find out a little more about that knee. Stay put and let me do the work.” Noah released her hand, then bent down and lifted her by her waist. “Try putting your weight on your left foot,” he instructed.

  Maddie did as told for she could do nothing else. She was all tingly inside and knew now that eventually it was going to happen between them, however often she told herself differently. There was too much electricity or chemistry or whatever it was that drew two people together for it not to happen. Unless, of course, Noah realized the same thing, fervently decided against any such liaison and then stayed completely away from this house and her.

  But he was here now, Maddie thought, and he’d be here again and again until either Maddie was fully recovered or Mark and Darcy were back.

  “My knee feels fine,” she said softly, standing on both feet and looking up into Noah’s eyes. His hands were still on her waist, and there was a gap of mere inches separating them. “As I said before, I probably just twisted it when I turned around.”

  “It shouldn’t hurt to turn around, Maddie,” Noah said quietly, though his heart was pounding from this incredibly intimate moment. But he didn’t want any intimate moments with any woman! He abruptly stepped back and dropped his hands from Maddie’s waist.

  She saw it happen with her own eyes…the very first time since meeting this very private, very guarded man…she saw through his behavior. He’d just gotten deliciously ensnared in an extremely tender moment with her, realized it, became alarmed and then deliberately broken the spell.

  “I’ll get my jacket…and things. They’re in my bedroom,” Maddie said, and walked away nursing her left knee only a little. Her mind raced as she went. Noah had a reason for backing off today. Was it because she’d turned off on him last night, or was his passion last night a fluke that he really did regret because…because he was involved with someone else?

  It was a startling idea for Maddie. Until that moment she hadn’t placed Dr. Noah Martin with a woman, and it had been a foolish oversight because a man with his extraordinary good looks would have more women than he could possibly juggle hot on his heels. Then there was his profession. Doctors, especially good-looking doctors, were always in high demand. Cowboys, the men with whom Maddie normally associated, were idolized by cowgirls, or sometimes by girls who were merely attracted to a bull-or bronc-rider’s undeniable masculinity.

  Maddie understood that world—her own world—but she was a fish out of water in Noah Martin’s world. Any way she looked at it, thought Maddie with a sinking sensation, to let herself do anything but admire from a safe distance Noah Martin’s looks, profession, intelligence and sex appeal was just asking for trouble.

  That kind of trouble she didn’t need! Wasn’t she already in the biggest mess of her adult life? God, some thief or vandal could be out there stripping her truck and trailer even as she got into her jacket and wound a warm scarf around her neck. Her heart leaped in fear. She shouldn’t be thinking of something like that when she couldn’t do one darned thing about rescuing two of her three most valuable possessions.

  Or could she? Maddie’s narrowed her eyes to think. Maybe she couldn’t convince anyone to pull her truck and trailer to safety until the storm had passed. Bu
t wouldn’t seeing for herself that her things were still intact greatly relieve her mind? Yes, it most certainly would, she decided, and since there was only one way to get out there, she would have to be especially nice and cooperative with Noah.

  Not that she’d been anything else since he got there, she thought wryly. He was the one who’d made it pretty clear—though she doubted he knew how easily she’d read him today, surprising even herself—that he’d just as soon keep things cool between them. Thinking that it was time to test her acting skills again, she left her bedroom and walked into the kitchen with a blank but not unfriendly expression. “I’m ready.”

  Noah opened the outside door for her and when she stepped through it, he said gruffly, “Don’t move.”

  She could tell he was making sure the door was locked, and she smiled sweetly when she would just as soon have pushed him into the deep pile of snow next to the stoop for issuing orders in that sort of overbearing voice.

  He is one mixed up guy, for some reason, and now he’s got you just as confused as he is. He wants you, he doesn’t want you, and you could alternately kiss and kick him. Mighty strange goings on, if you ask me!

  Noah took her good arm in his hand. “Oh, you wanted me to stand still until you could lead me to your car,” Maddie said in the very nicest voice she could muster. “How gallant.”

  Noah shot her a suspicious look. “I don’t want you falling again. It’s slippery as hell in some spots, which you can’t see because they’re under too much snow.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly how I would describe all this white stuff. Too much snow.”

  Noah pulled open the passenger door of his SUV. “You’re playing with me and it’s not fair because I don’t know the game.”

  She settled onto the seat, then turned her head and gave him a dazzling smile. “Oh, I doubt there are very many games at which you’re not only extremely adept but range in the expert category,” she purred.