Jackie Merritt - Marked For Marriage

“My body is not puny! God, talk about a revolting bedside manner.”

“Just shut the hell up!”

Maddie clamped her lips together. Good-looking or not, this guy—what had he said his name was?—was a total jerk, certainly not the kind of man she would ever give a second glance.

Noah removed the blood pressure cuff from her arm, then placed the little round sound receiver segment of the stethoscope on her chest.

“Hey!” Maddie slapped away the instrument. “Just stop it!”

Noah was fast losing patience, something that he wasn’t overloaded with, in any case. He gave his friend Mark’s mouthy little sister a look that was colder than the outside temperature and then asked with equal frostiness, “How many doctors do you know in Whitehorn who would make a house call? Either you let me examine you properly or I swear I’ll call an ambulance and put your butt in the hospital. It’s up to you. Take your pick.”

Maddie tried to scoff away her immediate misgivings with a snappy comeback but it came off pretty weak. “You wouldn’t dare,” she said, and actually felt a chill go up her spine from the icy expression in his eyes.

“Just try me.” He focused the icy glare onto her eyes.

She absolutely, positively would not look away first. “I’m not afraid of you, you know,” she said, realizing at the same time that she was getting angry. She knew that anger without the physical strength to back it up wasn’t very formidable, but common sense wasn’t controlling her at the moment. What ticked her off so much was that this…this cretin doctor thought he was.

Noah was in no mood for foolish bickering, and he spoke flatly, without a dram of warmth. “There’s no reason you should be afraid of me.” Then he added, sounding angry himself, “Good Lord, woman, don’t you know when someone’s trying to help you? What kind of doctors have you been seeing? What kind of people have you been associating with?”

“My friends and doctors are at least recognizable. I haven’t the foggiest notion of what or who you are.” Maddie was literally gritting her teeth. No one told her what to do, no one, and this…this pompous know-it-all wasn’t going to get away with it, either.

“You most certainly do know. I told you my name before and showed you my medical ID, as well.” He could see confusion in her eyes and added, “My name is Noah Martin…Dr. Noah Martin…and I’m Mark’s friend.”

“All right, you’re a doctor, but why should I believe you’re Mark’s friend?”

“Maybe because I have a key to his house?”

He was boxing her in, which only made Maddie angrier.

“There’s no way you could put me in the hospital without my permission,” she said daringly.

“Oh, but there is. If a person is mentally unbalanced because of fever or other symptoms of illness, I have every right to hospitalize her…or him.”

Maddie’s jaw dropped. “I am not mentally unbalanced, you…you retard!”

Noah glared right back at her. “You want me to think you’re a tough little nut, don’t you? Well, you’re not, and I don’t, and what’s more, you are going to get a medical exam today. Now, are you going to let me do what’s necessary or should I phone for an ambulance?”

She was livid, or as livid as she could be under the circumstances. Looking horrible and feeling almost as horrible all but destroyed her normal ability to hold her own in just about any situation. Maddie never looked for a fight—or even a mild disagreement—with anyone, but she’d been a self-sufficient grownup for too long to take orders that went against her grain. It really galled her when Noah Martin folded his arms across his chest and then sat there waiting for her to give in.

“I really hate you,” she said, meaning it heart and soul.

“No, you don’t. You just hate being told what to do.” Maddie couldn’t help being startled, and her wide-eyed expression made Noah grin. “You’ll get over it.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” she snapped. “And don’t you dare laugh at me one more time!”

Noah’s grin vanished. “Fine, I won’t laugh or even smile for the rest of this perfectly delightful day. So, what’s your decision about that examination?”

Maddie hadn’t missed the sarcasm in his voice when he’d called the day “perfectly delightful.” Oddly, the fact that he wasn’t enjoying this fiasco any more than she was made her feel a little less like throttling him, if she had the strength to throttle anything, that is.

“What kind of examination are you talking about?” she asked.

“Let me ask you a question before I answer that. Besides the injuries to your hand and face, were you hurt in any other way? Any other area of your body?”

“If you think for one minute that I’m undressing for you, think again! Now I’m on to your game, buster!”

“Oh, good Lord,” Noah muttered. “I don’t know what kind of accident caused all of this, but to have such screwy ideas you must have landed on your head. Listen to me. I couldn’t care less about seeing you undressed. I’m a doctor, and, speaking professionally, the human body, clothed or unclothed, does not affect me. What I know about your condition so far is just enough to warrant further examination. You’re taking painkillers and running a low-grade temperature. It’s possible that your blood pressure is elevated, but without prior records I can’t be positive of that. At any rate, I need to know…and see…the extent of your injuries, and if that means undressing, then you will undress. I brought a gown from the hospital to make an exam easier for both of us.”

Noah reached into his medical bag for the gown and laid it on the comforter. “Can you get up and change into this by yourself?”

Maddie had become stiff with fury. “This is not a doctor’s office! This is a house, my brother’s house!”

“It’s here or the hospital, Maddie. Take your pick.” Noah spoke quietly, impersonally, firmly. Even though patience had all but vanished from his system—not a new experience for him—he managed to convey professional concern to his patient, which he considered Maddie Kincaid to be at this point. Yes, that ludicrous tingle was still nudging his libido, but he’d go down in flames before doing anything about it.

She crooked her good left arm over her eyes so he wouldn’t see how degraded and defeated she felt.

“Maddie?”

He would phone for an ambulance, the wretch. She knew it as surely as she knew anything, and she was going to have to look him in the eye and admit defeat.

“I’m not getting up with you watching. Wait in the kitchen. I’ll change in the bathroom,” she said dully.

“You do have more injuries than what I can see on your face and hand, don’t you?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, damn you!”

Noah got to his feet. “I’ll wait in the kitchen.” He started to walk away, then stopped for one more thing. “I’d like you to be lying down for the exam. A bed would be better than this sofa.”

“I’m sure it would be much better,” she retorted with a venomous glare.

“Don’t get any silly ideas. This is strictly impersonal for me.”

“Are you married?”

“Uh, no. Why?”

“Because I’d feel better about this…this fiasco if you were!”

Noah was getting very close to giving up on Maddie Kincaid. Not that he’d drive off and just forget about her, but he could probably find another doctor among his peers that would take her case.

He considered doing exactly that, but only for a few moments. No way was Maddie Kincaid going to best him in this. Who was the doctor here, anyhow, certainly not her! Besides, it wasn’t merely an examination of all of her injuries that mattered to him. She mattered, and he could question why she did until doomsday and maybe never know the answer. But he wasn’t leaving her alone in a blizzard that he could hear growling and snarling outside, getting fiercer by the minute. He couldn’t see the storm, however, because the drapes and blinds on every window in the room were tightly closed, which suddenly annoyed the ever-loving hell out of him.