Rebecca Winters - The Forbidden Marriage

Michelle’s head jerked in her sister-in-law’s direction. She hadn’t heard her in the doorway. If she’d come in the room a minute earlier…

Sherilyn, who’d bequeathed the same brown hair and eyes to her daughter, went around the other side of the bed to feel Zak’s forehead. Her concerned gaze strayed to the tray. “Still not hungry?”

“H-he will be after I ask his doctor to prescribe some antinausea medicine for him,” Michelle’s voice faltered.

The second she’d spoken, she realized she’d committed herself to Zak. In the family’s eyes there was no reason for her to turn down his request.

As for Zak, he needed her cooperation to quash Lynette’s fantasies, among other things.

If by some chance Graham and Sherilyn were to find out what had happened at his condo three weeks ago and asked her about it, Michelle feared that in her niece’s present frame of mind, she’d rebel in some way that could only hurt her in the end.

On the same note, it could turn ugly for everyone if she continued to harass Zak.

“I’m surprised the doctor didn’t write something for nausea in the release orders,” Michelle muttered absently. She couldn’t force fluids if he was too nauseated.

When she looked over and saw the satisfied expression that had entered Zak’s intelligent eyes, she started to feel afraid.

He could never find out she was attracted to him.

“Please tell me you two won’t be leaving before tomorrow,” Sherilyn pled. “Graham and I would like one more day to spoil the brother I hardly ever see.”

“Don’t worry,” Michelle spoke before Zak could. “He’s too weak to travel today. Also, Mike is taking me to dinner tonight.”

Hoping the introduction of the other man’s name into the conversation would somehow neutralize Zak’s power over her, she leaped from the chair and pushed it aside.

“I’m going to bring you some ice chips and Coke. While I’m downstairs I’ll phone Carlsbad Hospital and see if the doctor will do something about your nausea today. Hand me the tray will you, Sherilyn?”

Her sister-in-law gave it to her. “Ask Graham to drop by the pharmacy for the medicine. He’s coming home early.”

Michelle was glad her brother, a successful patent attorney, would be joining them soon. She needed space to sort out her emotions and get a grip on the situation.

The revelation about Lynette had been bad enough. By confiding in Michelle, Zak had made her party to certain private information which at this stage she agreed was better kept from Graham and Sherilyn. But Lynette’s infatuation wasn’t going to go away overnight.

As for Michelle’s awareness of Zak, that had to end right now! On her way out the door she heard him say, “Coke sounds good.”

She continued downstairs to the kitchen where she phoned information for the hospital’s number and made the call. After being put on hold several times, she was able to talk with the doctor who’d released Zak.

She explained she was the nurse hired to take of him. They discussed Zak’s therapy and his nausea. The doctor told her to have the pharmacist in Riverside phone him on his cell, and he’d prescribe something.

Relieved for Zak’s sake, she thanked him, then called her brother who said he’d get in touch with their pharmacist and handle things from there. Once she’d given him the doctor’s phone number, she told him she’d see him later.

With that taken care of, she went back upstairs carrying a tumbler of shaved ice and a cold can of Coke. She found Sherilyn seated on the side of the bed talking with Zak about his latest construction projects. His gaze swerved to Michelle’s and he stopped talking.

She approached the bed. “Graham’s on his way to the pharmacy right now to pick up your medicine.”

“Thank heaven,” Sherilyn exclaimed.

“Until he gets here, try alternating ice chips with sips of Coke. Let me prop you first.” Michelle put the things on the side table before showing him how to grip her arm and sit up using his feet and hips rather than his torso for traction.

Since the age of twenty-two when she’d become a registered nurse, and later after she’d gone on to specialize in orthopedics, she’d worked with dozens of male patients both in the hospital and later, after Rob’s death, at her patients’ homes.

She’d dealt with the broken bodies of old people, teens and athletes in the peak of physical condition. With one exception she’d never felt anything but professional concern for her patients’ welfare.

In Mike’s case, his determination to put their relationship on a personal level had won out.

Nursing Zak was something else again. She didn’t know how long she could keep up a pretense of indifference when everything about him set off her latent hormones.

It wasn’t just that he was a beautiful man according to the male order of beauty. After all, he’d been a very attractive teen. It was more than that. There was something in the way he moved, talked—his unique outlook on life—that aura of confidence and self assurance he’d always possessed—

All of it had combined to make him incredibly appealing to her and undoubtedly to any woman who knew him.

As if they had a will of their own, her eyes met his while he was drinking his Coke.

“You always did know what I needed,” he said between swallows.

Michelle could scarcely breathe. The only thing to do was put distance between them.

“As long as Graham is on his way, and you’ve got your sister to help you, I’m going to leave for my house and come back for you in the morning. There’s a lot I have to do.”

She felt Zak’s penetrating glance. “Don’t forget your swimsuit.”

While the blood was still pounding in her ears she heard a voice ask, “Where are you going?”

To her shock, her niece had come in the bedroom and Michelle hadn’t even been aware of it.

Sherilyn stared in dismay at her daughter. “No hello first?”

Zak rested the can against his powerful thigh. His eyes still held Michelle’s. “I’m taking Florence Nightingale home with me tomorrow. Technically speaking she’ll be driving me, but it amounts to the same thing.”

Michelle was aware that if Lynette could wish her to the other side of the ocean, she’d be there now.

Poor Lynette. No male students her age or any other could possibly compete with her uncle Zak.

“Michelle? When should I take his temperature again?”

Heat swamped her cheeks to realize Sherilyn had been asking her a question.

“This afternoon,” she said. “Hopefully by then the fluids and medicine will have settled his stomach. If it’s still elevated, give him some Ibuprofen. Get him up every hour to use the bathroom or walk around the room for a minute. I’ll be by at nine a.m.”

“In that case you’d better have an early night.” Zak’s unmistakable reference to her date with Mike reached her ears even though she’d disappeared from the bedroom.

“THANK you for dinner, Mike. I’d invite you in, but I still have some packing to do.”

His arm was stretched out across the back of the seat. He toyed with the natural curl of her blond hair that curved beneath her jawline. To her chagrin she felt no accompanying shiver of excitement.

“That’s all right. Carlsbad’s close to my grandparents’ beach house at San Clemente. Before we leave for Australia we’ll have a lot of nights together after your brother-in-law has gone to sleep.”

His words conjured an image of Zak lying on top of the bed this morning. Just remembering how he’d looked, how he’d made her feel, sent a flood of heat through her system.

Desperate for Mike to create that same kind of yearning inside her, she leaned toward him and pressed her mouth to his. It was the first time she’d taken the initiative in their relationship.