Mommy Heiress (Accidental Dads #2)

by Linda Randall Wisdom

  “I’d say it’s better than anything you’d read in a supermarket tabloid,” he teased, turning his head briefly to drop a quick kiss on the top of her head.

  “Dan did say I’m better than television,” she said with a soft sigh. “I guess he’s right.”

  “You’re what?”

  She explained to him about her four followers during her afternoon walks and their revelation that day.

  Ben chuckled. “No wonder you feel off-balance if you’re dealing with those four. It’s said that the only reason they’re out and about is because their wives won’t put up with them during the day. Dan’s wife said when he retired from the county she didn’t expect him to sit home all day and do crossword puzzles. When Zeke retired the following year, the two started hanging out by city hall. Their numbers have steadily grown. Now, word has it they, along with the mayor, get together in the city hall basement one night a week for a poker game.”

  “Sounds exciting.”

  “They think it is because they believe their wives have no idea they’re doing this.”

  She chuckled. “But the wives know.”

  Ben tipped his head to the side just enough to catch a whiff of her perfume. The image of Cori lying in a bed of brilliantly colored spring flowers instantly came to mind. Just as quickly, the image of Cori lying in a bed, his bed, countermanded the first mental picture. He instantly felt his body tighten and his respiration labored.

  “Ben,” Cori said in a small voice. “I don’t want to end up like a soap opera. Those people are either deliriously happy or viciously unhappy. I’d like to find a happy medium. Especially for the baby’s sake. As long as he or she doesn’t expect me to turn into June Cleaver, because I don’t think it’s possible. But do you think it’s possible to find that happy medium?”

  “I’d say it’s possible for you to have anything you want,” he told her. “Hey—” his voice lightened “—I see a side road up there.”

  She got his meaning instantly. “Oh, no! Not after the last time! If that sheriff caught us again, I know this time I would die of embarrassment.”

  “What if I could show you a place he doesn’t know about?”

  She paused. “Really?”

  He grinned. He could tell he was tempting her. And, oh, how much he wanted to tempt her. “Yeah.”

  She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Are you sure he doesn’t know about it?”

  “That’s what all the kids say. And if anyone knows where to go for privacy, they do,” he told her. One thing he wanted to share with the lovely woman was privacy. A lot of it.

  Ben made a U-turn and drove a few miles before pulling onto a dirt road. He didn’t stop until they reached the edge of a small lake.

  Cori looked at the moonlight—dappled water with faint awe. “I can’t believe teenagers willingly told you about this place,” she commented, feeling more than a little suspicious.

  “Not exactly,” he admitted. “I was called out here a year ago when a couple of teenagers high on hormones got a little too adventurous and ended up needing some help.”

  Cori’s eyes widened as her imagination took a fanciful leap. “I don’t think I even want to know what happened.”

  “I know their parents weren’t too happy with them.” He switched off the engine and turned, unbuckling his seat belt. “C’mere, lady.” He curved an arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward him after he unfastened her seat belt. She leaned willingly into his embrace as his mouth covered hers in a heated openmouthed kiss.

  Cori’s head was spinning as Ben’s mouth seduced hers. His taste was just as wild as the feelings coursing through her veins. She knew if he hadn’t been holding on to her she would have melted right into the seat. Instead, she let herself go and responded to his kisses with honest emotion.

  How could she have ever thought Rufus was sexy? Or briefly thought her somewhat lack of response to Rufus was her fault? There certainly wasn’t any problem with her response to Ben. She slid her fingers between his shirt buttons, feeling the heat from his skin against her fingertips. Eager for more, she unfastened two buttons. Warm skin covered with springy hair met her touch. He murmured encouraging words as she gently raked her nails across the slightly rough skin.

  “I like you touching me, Cori,” he whispered in her ear the same time his teeth gently tugged on the lobe. “I want you touching me more,” he murmured as one hand covered her breast with a feather-light touch as if aware she was now extrasensitive there. Her nipple immediately stiffened in reaction, pushing insistently against his palm.

  For the moment, she preferred to forget he was a doctor who knew more what was going on in her body than she knew. Especially when he touched her with knowing fingers and ignited wild sensations within her body. She closed her eyes, wanting to fully feel the small explosions already going off within her. Her weskit had been unbuttoned and her bra unclasped before she realized what was going on.

  She threw her head back to take some air and felt his eyes on her. He looked at her with an intensity she sensed was mirrored in her own: sensuality mingled with stark desire. Her fingers trembled as she placed them over his mouth. His lips opened, inviting them inside. When they closed around her fingers, she felt an incredible shock of desire travel up her arm, but center in the middle of her body where it liquefied.

  “Ben.” She could only murmur his name.

  He smiled. “Cori.”

  Unable to stop herself, Cori framed his face with her hands. She felt the slight roughness of stubble against her palms, the warmth of his breath as he turned his head to press a kiss in the center. She raked her fingers through his hair, feeling the silky strands curve around her fingers. She had never felt the need, the compulsion, to touch a man before. To imprint the feel of his skin on hers. To brand him with her touch. She wanted to do it all with Ben.

  “My, my, Doctor,” she whispered, pressing light kisses across his jaw. “Is this your idea of a physical examination?”

  For a moment, he tensed as he pulled her onto his lap. “I’m not a doctor here, Cori. I’m only a man.”

  Her smile, even in the dark, was dazzling with its brightness. “Don’t worry, that’s something I’m not likely to overlook.” The crowded confines of the truck didn’t allow for much movement, but somehow Cori found a way to wrap her legs around his hips as she kissed him deeply.

  She knew, deep in her soul, that she wanted this man. She was about to tell him so when a rap on the window shattered the moment. Ben turned his head and looked out the window. The pithy curse he uttered echoed in Cori’s mind. She slid off his lap and turned away as she fumbled with her buttons.

  “I don’t believe this,” she muttered between clenched teeth. “It’s him again.”

  Ben started up the engine and hit the window button with more force than was necessary.

  “Hi, Andy.” He greeted the grinning sheriff with the same civility he would have offered the black plague.

  “Doc.” The older man nodded. His gaze briefly rested on Cori’s back before returning to Ben. “Having trouble with your truck?”

  “No.”

  The sheriff nodded again. “The kids think I don’t know about this place.”

  “I guess they do tend to underestimate you,” Ben agreed, wondering what was coming next.

  “You know, as a medical man, you should realize better than anyone that the little lady here needs her rest,” Andy said conversationally. “It is getting late.”

  “You got it.”

  As the sheriff headed back to his truck, Cori slid across the seat until she was almost hugging the passenger door.

  Ben turned the truck around and started back up the road with the sheriff’s truck’s headlights reflected in his rearview mirror.

  Cori sat upright, her back ramrod stiff as she stared straight ahead.

  “I told you before that Andy doesn’t talk,” Ben said more to break the charged silence. “Even his wife can’t get anything out of hi
m.”

  “That is not a comforting thought,” she snapped.

  “Cori—”

  “I must be crazy! This is a test and I’m failing miserably. Twice I’ve let my emotions take over where you’re concerned and twice we’ve gotten caught!” The moment she spoke the words, she clamped her lips shut and remained silent for the balance of the drive.

  As Ben drove, his mind worked at an incredible speed. He thought fate was on his side. His pager hadn’t gone off. It was as if all medical emergencies had been put on hold for the evening. For a moment back there by the lake, he’d fantasized about making love to her in the lush grass at the water’s edge. Boy, Andy sure had a knack of showing up when he was least wanted.

  When they reached the outskirts of town, he opened his mouth to say anything to break the silence when his pager did it for him.

  “You really should have a cellular phone,” Cori commented, still refusing to look at him.

  “I do have one. It’s being repaired.” He parked the truck along the side of the cottage. By the expression on Cori’s face, she knew, as he did, his truck wouldn’t be seen from the street there. She didn’t wait for him to walk around and open her door. She pushed it open herself and hopped out.

  “May I use the phone?” he followed her to the door.

  “Of course. After all, it is yours.” She opened the door and walked through the tiny living room and into the kitchen. She filled a glass with water and listened unashamedly to his half of the conversation.

  “No, I can’t imagine it’s anything to worry about,” he said in a soothing voice. “What? Oh, I had dinner at my mother’s.”

  “How rude he is in not mentioning me,” she murmured, sipping her water. She looked down and plucked an invisible speck of lint from her pants.

  Luckily, Ben hadn’t heard her. “No, Val, as I said, it’s nothing for you to worry about, but if you’re still uncomfortable in the morning, call Ella and have her schedule you in. No, you weren’t disturbing me. Good night, Val.”

  “Maybe not him, but you’re disturbing me a hell of a lot,” Cori muttered, setting her glass down with a dangerous thump. She had regained her composure by the time he walked into the kitchen and was able to present him with a bland smile. “No emergency?”

  “No.”

  She kept her smile firmly pasted on her lips as she walked toward him. “Good.”

  Cori grabbed Ben’s arms and pulled him toward her. Her kiss was swift and hot: seduction personified. She wove a sensual spell around him with the kind of kiss that curled a man’s toes. A spell she was going to make very sure wouldn’t be easily broken, she decided as she seduced his lips into parting for her questing tongue. She had already discovered she enjoyed the way he tasted and was greedy for more.

  This kiss was different from the one they shared by the lake. This one was pure sin. She aligned her body against Ben’s, wrapping her arms around him so he could feel every inch of her. By the time she drew back, Ben’s ragged breath matched her own.

  He cleared his throat. “Is that your way of saying good-night?”

  She smiled as she sauntered to the front door with a deliberate sway of her hips. “No, that’s my way of thanking you for a lovely evening.”

  Ben remained standing by the phone. “Lady, you have a bit of the tease in you.”

  Cori curled her fingers around the doorknob, but didn’t twist it to open. “It hasn’t taken me long to realize that small towns thrive on gossip. And after what your mother told us, I can see you and I are the main topic. I’m sorry to have dragged you into my mess.” A flash of regret momentarily darkened her features.

  “You could argue from now until doomsday that I’m not the father of your baby and they’d never believe you,” he said quietly.

  “Because they want to see you have a family and settle down?”

  He nodded. “I think they’re afraid someone will come along and lure me from the town.”

  “Why would they think that?”

  “Because this town isn’t exactly a mecca. When a town’s population decreases, so does the number of a doctor’s patients.”

  “It sounds as if something needs to be done to shore up the town,” she replied.

  “Interesting revelation coming from the only person who’s been fired from ninety percent of the businesses here.” Ben walked to the door and covered her hand with his. “Sleep well,” he said, but his eyes asked a silent question. One she had no trouble understanding.

  “You were the one who told me there was no privacy in this town,” she replied. “And I’d hate to think I’d tarnish your reputation even more.”

  “Something tells me that’s one tarnished reputation I wouldn’t mind having.” He dropped a light kiss on her cheek and opened the door.

  “Ben.” Her soft voice halted him as he stepped onto the walkway leading to the clinic. “I would like nothing more than for you to stay, but I’m just not sure it’s right for us.”

  He turned his head and smiled. “I know. But I’m glad to see I’m wearing you down.”

  It wasn’t until Cori closed the door that she expelled the deep breath she’d been holding. She slumped back against the door and inhaled Ben’s scent that lingered on her blouse.

  “Oh, you’re wearing me down all right, Ben. If you only knew how much.”

  *

  BEN COULDN’T BELIEVE the number of summer colds that hit Farrington overnight. By day, his clinic was overflowing. By night, he was out on emergencies. Just the way he liked it. When he worked himself into a stupor, he had no difficulty in sleeping at night. He needed the sleep—but not the dreams about Cori. He rubbed his eyes. They felt as if sandpaper had been rubbed against them.

  “Do you realize we haven’t seen Cori in the past two days?” Ella commented, staring out the window that overlooked the cottage.

  “Hm?” He wondered if he could sneak upstairs for a quick nap. Last night, he’d traveled out to the Hendersons’. Ida Henderson had a habit of overreacting any time her husband ate something he shouldn’t. She visualized him having a heart attack when it was actually heartburn and never failed to call Ben. And Ben never failed to go out there. He always had the fear the one time he might convince Ida it was gas or heartburn, Richard could be suffering a heart attack.

  “Wake up, Benjamin!” Ella gave him a little nudge. He looked up and scowled. “I asked if you had seen Cori lately.”

  He frowned as he thought about it. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her since the night we had dinner at my mother’s.” He pushed himself out of his chair. “Do I have anyone waiting?”

  She shook her head. “You’re finished for the day.”

  “Okay, then will you close up while I go over and see how she’s doing?” He shrugged off his lab coat. “At least we haven’t heard of anyone else firing her.”

  “You just go over and make sure she’s all right,” she ordered. “I don’t feel right about this.”

  Ben smothered a yawn. “All right, I’m going!”

  He walked over to the cottage and knocked on the door.

  “Cori? Cori, are you all right?” He felt uneasy when no one came to the door. “Cori!”

  “Ben!” Ella stood in the rear doorway. “I made a few calls. No one’s seen her.”

  Ben tried the door and found it locked. It took him a moment to dig in his pocket for his key ring. He was grateful he’d kept a spare key in case of emergency. As far as he was concerned, this was most definitely an emergency. He stepped inside and looked around. What he first noticed was the silence.

  “Cori?” he called out.

  He started to think she wasn’t there when he heard a faint moan. Not wasting any time, he hurried into the bedroom.

  Cori lay in bed with her knees drawn up.

  “Cori.” Ben ran around to the other side of the bed and dropped onto one knee.

  “Go ‘way,” she moaned between cracked lips. She closed her eyes as if not looking at him would make him
go away.

  “Are you in pain?” He wanted to check her, but he had a pretty good idea she wasn’t going to let him near her just now.

  A tear trickled down her cheek. “Look at me. I’m already a bad mother. I can’t keep anything down,” she whispered. “I can’t even drink water without it coming back up.”

  “Why didn’t you call me and tell me you were experiencing such bad nausea?” he chided gently. He reached out, brushing a lock of hair from her forehead.

  “Because just thinking about throwing up made me throw up.” She seemed to curl up in an even tighter ball against the pain in her abdomen. “I thought pregnancy only meant morning sickness. I never heard of all-day sickness.”

  “Sometimes it means morning, afternoon and evening sickness.” He laid the backs of his fingers against her cheek, finding the skin warm and dry to the touch. “I’m going back to the clinic and get you something for the nausea.”

  “But they say you’re not supposed to take drugs,” she whimpered. Another tear trailed after the first.

  “I’m your doctor and what I’m going to give you won’t hurt you,” he assured her. “You won’t feel like running any marathons when it kicks in, but your stomach won’t feel as if it’s waging war against you, either.” He started to stand, then hesitated. The last thing he wanted to do was leave her alone, even for a moment. He settled for walking around to the other side of the bed and picking up the phone. Luckily, Ella was still at the clinic. He quickly relayed what he needed. After hanging up the phone, he went into the bathroom and wet a washcloth. As he wiped her face, Cori managed a heartfelt thank-you.

  “The poor baby,” Ella commiserated as she bustled in within three minutes. She carried a drug bottle and syringe. “She had been doing so well, I guess we didn’t think she could still end up with nausea.”

  Ben quickly filled the hypodermic.

  Cori stared at him through pain-filled eyes. “I hate shots.”

  “Even ones that will make you feel better?” he asked lightly, tapping the syringe to make sure there were no air bubbles.