Jackie Merritt - Marked For Marriage

Going to a window he yanked open the drapes. The density of the blowing, swirling snow outside actually shocked him. He couldn’t see across the street. He couldn’t even see the big trees in Mark’s front yard! Craning his neck he tried to spot his SUV in the driveway and failed. All there was beyond the window glass was an angrily moving sea of white. This was the worst storm he’d ever seen, and it was scary, damned scary.

Cursing under his breath, Noah shut the drapes again and left the room, telling Maddie over his shoulder to get up and into that gown. He’d find whichever room she was waiting in, he told her, and added that he’d give her ten minutes before leaving the kitchen. “And put on the gown so that it opens in front.”

Maddie wanted to bawl. Better yet she’d like to scream Noah Martin’s ears off! “Big man,” she sneered, despising him for backing her into a corner the way he had. People rarely got around her deeply ingrained sense of self, and she had always taken pride in her strength and independence. Well, she wasn’t strong now, was she? Or independent?

Admitting weakness in the face of adversity nearly killed her, but there was little question that Dr. Noah Martin, first-class jerk and hometown yokel, was holding all the cards. When exactly had he descended upon poor unsuspecting Whitehorn? The town’s citizenry, as Maddie remembered it, was accustomed to kindly doctors, such as old Dr. Slater, who’d taken such good care of Aunt June.

Memories of June’s last years, especially her final months, gave Maddie a chill. For the first time ever she admitted possessing a fear of invalidism, of having to rely on others for the simplest task. She had taken very good care of Aunt June and had never resented a moment of the responsibility she’d undertaken, but by the same token she couldn’t bear the thought of herself being in Aunt June’s shoes.

And wasn’t she there right now, far sooner and at a much younger age than even her dread of the possibility had ever placed her? Noah Martin was treating her as though she was his responsibility, and she wasn’t, damn it, she wasn’t! Maddie gritted her teeth. Dr. Noah Martin was not going to examine her, and that was final! She’d playacted her way out of the hospital in Austin a day early and then convinced her brother and sister-in-law that she was doing just fine when she could just barely move without gasping out loud. But Mark and Darcy would not have gone on their honeymoon if she hadn’t convinced them, and she’d suffered in silence until they had finally walked out the door with their suitcases. How could she possibly have guessed that Mark would bring a strange doctor into the picture? One who’d gotten all concerned and determined to heal, damn his hide!

Obviously, she was going to have to endure another game of pretense, Maddie thought with a sigh of premeditated distress. What’s more, time was rushing by and she probably only had another few minutes before that nosy-Nellie friend of Mark’s came looking for her, expecting her to be in that awful gown and lying on a bed awaiting his examination.

“That’ll be the day,” Maddie mumbled, and pushed away the comforter. Gritting her teeth again because it hurt like hell to move, even though groggy from painkillers, she swung her feet to the floor, forced herself up and then hobbled her way to her bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, she immediately began undressing. Mark…or someone…she wasn’t clear on that point…had brought a lot of her clothes in from her trailer. She pulled on a long skirt and her biggest, baggiest sweater.

Her next stop was the bathroom, and she washed her face, applied moisturizer and makeup and then brushed her hair until it looked almost respectable. For good measure she gave herself a small squirt of cologne, then wasted no time in exiting the bathroom and heading for the kitchen.

Noah jumped a foot when she walked in. “What in God’s name are you doing?” he asked, sounding a lot like a bear with a thorn in its paw.

“Grump and complain all you wish,” she said in a saccharine tone that didn’t sound remotely genuine. “But I’m not getting into that gown, and you are not going to examine even one small part of me. Oh, I guess I wouldn’t mind if you checked my cast. Would that satisfy your craving to play doctor today?”

“You little idiot,” Noah said. His lips were thin and disapproving, and he looked as though he really did think of her as an idiot.

She frankly didn’t care what he thought. “Whether you like it or not, you are not going to be my doctor. I’ll check the phone book and make an appointment with one without your help.” Maddie suddenly saw the storm through the window above the sink. “Oh, my God!” she cried. “When did that start?”

“About an hour ago. It’s a serious storm, which isn’t nearly as crucial as your seeing a doctor today. So, if it’s not going to be me, I’m going to phone for that ambulance.”

Maddie turned toward him with blazing eyes. “You go right ahead and do that, and the second you’re off the phone, I’ll call the police department and file a complaint against you for home invasion and…and—” she lifted her chin in a defiant gesture “—and I might even include sexual harassment in that charge.”

“Which would be a damn lie,” Noah snarled. “Is that what you are, a liar?”

“Not usually, but your pushy attitude just might drive me to do a lot of things I wouldn’t ordinarily do. Now, let’s get to the bottom line, all right? I believe you’ve accomplished quite enough in this house for one day. Your uncooperative patient is out of bed and dressed. As any fool could see, if there were more than one in this kitchen with me, I’m fine and functioning under my own steam. In other words, I don’t want you hanging around any longer. Are you getting the message?”

Noah was just about to growl an appropriately nasty comeback when Maddie suddenly shrieked, “Fanny! My God, where’s Fanny?”

He thought she’d lost the last of her marbles, which he’d been suspecting were already dangerously low in quantity, especially when she hung over the sink to get her face closer to the icy window to see outside. “She’ll die in this,” Maddie moaned. “What did Mark do with her? Fanny, Fanny, where are you?”

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