The Marriage Prescription

by Debra Webb

  Colleen’s expression closed instantly. “I’m sure you’ll do fine on your own.” As if he’d pushed her personal eject button, she shot straight to her feet. “I should see what cook has on the menu for dinner tonight.”

  He snagged her hand and halted her hasty departure. Zach shook his head. “Let’s talk a little more.” She reluctantly allowed him to draw her back down to the sofa but she wouldn’t look at him. “Come on, Mom, this is ridiculous. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on between you and Helen?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. We simply don’t see eye to eye on a particular issue that I refuse to discuss with you or anyone else. The case is closed.”

  Zach held her hand in his. “That sounds a little final,” he said softly. “Are you sure you want to leave it that way? What if something happened…?”

  Colleen lifted an aristocratic eyebrow and glared at him. “Then it’ll be on her head,” she said sternly. “This is her choice not mine. I never go back on my word.”

  Surprised, a frown pulled his lips downward. He’d never heard his mother speak so strongly against her good friend. “Surely there’s some way to resolve the issue.”

  His mother pulled her hand free of his and stood once more. “There isn’t. Now—” she stepped out of his reach “—if you’ll excuse me, I have things to see to.”

  There was nothing he could do but let her go. She was an Ashton. Unless she decided to change her mind, which wasn’t likely, then the only hope lay with Helen. As soon as Beth came home they would have to talk. There had to be a way to get Helen to come clean on the issue. Frustrated, Zach fell back against the sofa. That, he thought, disconcerted, would mean spending more time with Beth and fighting feelings he didn’t want to feel…fantasizing about things he knew could never be.

  But he had to do it. He would simply find a way to be with her without losing control. He was an Ashton after all.

  BETH STARED at the report lying on her desk. She closed her eyes and shook her head, defeat weighing heavy on her heart. Leukemia. The aggressive, ugly kind. Couldn’t it have been anything else?

  Beth opened her eyes and reread the report once more. Her patient, Laurie Ellroy, would definitely die without proper treatment. There was no two ways about it. Oh, the oncologist would try chemo, but the chances of it working alone were so minimal that they weren’t even worth mentioning. To cure her it would take massive doses of the meanest chemo available, and then Laurie would still die without a bone-marrow transplant. Her mother’s own health problems prevented her from being a donor. Her father was dead and she had no brothers and sisters. They could look for a match elsewhere, but the chances were slim that they would find a suitable one.

  Laurie, twenty-two years old, fresh out of college with a degree in education, was going to die.

  Beth’s lips trembled. She bit her lower one to stop the quivering. She didn’t want Laurie to die. Her life had just begun. She was engaged to her high school sweetheart. God, it just wasn’t fair. Beth scrubbed at a tear that managed to escape her firm hold on her emotions. This was the part she hated about practicing medicine. The cases where her hands were tied. When she’d referred Laurie to the internist, she’d hoped he would find something fixable. But he hadn’t. And the oncologist’s prognosis was less than optimistic.

  Laurie’s mother was devastated. Beth couldn’t even imagine the horror of losing a child. She thought of her own mother. They were so close, how would either of them survive the loss of the other? Losing her father had been agonizing, but she and her mother had clung to each other until the hurt subsided to a tolerable level. And Zach had been there for her, just like she’d been there for him when his father died. They were family. But if Beth lost her mother, she would be completely alone. She couldn’t turn to Zach now like she had back then. It wasn’t the same anymore.

  Last night plowed its way into her mind. Beth tamped down the anger that wanted to well in her chest. Zach Ashton was the most confusing, frustrating man she had ever known. On one hand, he made her want to scream at him, or maybe even hit him. And on the other, she wanted nothing more than to go straight into his arms and stay right there.

  She huffed a breath of frustration. How could she still want him so after what he’d done to her? He’d tossed her aside, seeing nothing but the little girl next door. He’d been too busy with the more sophisticated, older women he’d met in college and then his career. The memory of how naive she’d been at seventeen still infuriated her. She was supposed to forget about him. But she simply couldn’t. And God knows she’d tried.

  Case in point, Matt Daniels. She’d decided the night before med school graduation that she would take him up on his proposal. He’d asked her three times and seemed crazy about her. He was nice-looking, and they shared a love of healing. What did she have to lose? Zach obviously wasn’t interested and she was tired of waiting. She’d certainly mooned over him long enough. Of course Matt wasn’t the first man she’d dated in an effort to erase Zach’s indelible imprint from her memory. There’d been a few others, none of which stuck or made enough of an impact to evict Ashton from her heart.

  Beth pushed away from her desk. It was after five o’clock, she was tired and there was nothing else she could do here. Though the thought of going home held no real appeal considering she would no doubt run into Zach. Then again, how could she avoid him when they had this darned party to coordinate? The theme. She had that stupid theme to come up with. Beth massaged her forehead with her thumb and forefinger. How did one come up with a theme for this sort of thing?

  She dug the telephone book from beneath the mountain of papers on her desk and flipped to the Yellow Pages. “P,” she muttered. “Painters, paneling, parties.” Beth dragged her finger down the listing until she found what she wanted. The Party Store. Surely they would have suggestions either on display or in a book. She grabbed her purse and decided it was definitely time to call it a day. She could stop at The Party Store on the way home. And if she were lucky, she could nail down this theme in one stop.

  Before leaving, Beth called her mom and told her that she was making a couple of stops before coming home. Helen worried if Beth didn’t make it home on time. Beth smiled wryly. At least someone worried. Zach’s image flitted through her weary mind. She doubted he ever worried about anything other than his next case. Knowing that little accusation was completely unfounded, but feeling immensely better at thinking about him in any way other than sexual, she didn’t immediately dismiss it. She needed to concentrate on all the reasons she could not keep up this ridiculous infatuation of the man.

  She was tired of all the Zach worship. He was just a man. She stilled, her hand on the knob of her office door. Why hadn’t she really looked at him and realized that fact all these years? Sure he was good-looking and smart. Built, and probably hung, a wicked little voice added. Beth slipped out, locked her office door and hurried down the corridor as she pondered that line of thinking further. He was just a guy she’d lived next door to her whole life and she’d gotten infatuated with him. If they had ever followed through on her teenage desires, she’d probably have found that there was nothing particularly special about him and moved on. Beth slowed as she exited the hospital. Would getting him out of her system be that simple?

  What had kept her from thinking of this before? A smile spread across her lips. The only thing that made Zach so godlike in her mind was his being just out of her reach. All she had to do was have him just one time and she’d know there was nothing special about him. The mystery would be unveiled. The tension broken. Kind of like Christmas as a kid. All that obsessing for months before it arrived, then—bam—it’s over.

  “Well, hell.” She stood in the middle of the staff parking lot, her hands planted on her hips. All this time she’d thought he was something special when he really wasn’t. He was just a regular guy. She’d built him into some kind of Adonis in her mind because he’d always stood up for her, been kind to her. And she’d never be
free of that long-standing perception unless she proved to herself once and for all that it was just that—a perception.

  Anticipation tingled through her. Could it be that easy?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Now all she had to do was convince Zach to go along with her plan. A scowl tugged her features into a frown. He would never do it. They were friends, he’d insist. She thought of last night’s infuriatingly platonic kiss. She was like a sister to him. The little girl next door. But she was all grown up now. A grin tilted her lips upward. She wouldn’t play by Zach’s rules. She was going to be in control of this game.

  And seduction was its name.

  THE PARTY STORE carried a huge selection of birthday themes—none of which reached out to Beth. None said “Colleen Ashton.” Beth shifted her purse to the other shoulder and retraced her path down the only aisle that even remotely interested her. A vague possibility for the theme was forming in the back of her mind.

  With her elbow propped on one arm she rested her chin in her hand and sighed with disgust. Why the heck did they need a theme anyway? Couldn’t they just do it? All they really needed was a nice cake and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday.” A smile tugged at her lips. And she knew just who could do it.

  “Decisions, decisions,” a decidedly male voice murmured right next to her ear.

  Beth shrieked and jumped away from the sound. Deep, rich laughter sent her fright rushing toward anger. She whipped around to find Zach grinning at her. The urge to stamp her foot was almost overpowering.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded instead.

  He smoothed a hand over his mouth, obviously to hide his infuriating grin, and cocked his head at her. “Your mother said you were here, I thought you might need my help,” he offered, amusement still lingering in his voice.

  Beth adopted an offended expression. “I’m doing quite well on my own, thank you.”

  He stared at her empty hands, then arched a skeptical eyebrow. “I can see that. I suppose that’s why you haven’t picked out anything yet.”

  She struggled to maintain her irritation at a level that would not give him the satisfaction she was certain he would feel at knowing he’d annoyed her. “I’m only looking today. I’ll need more time to consider all the possibilities.”

  That lopsided grin that stole her breath spread across his handsome face again. “You don’t have a clue what you’re going to do. Truth be told, you’d rather eat lemon meringue pie than be responsible for selecting this theme.”

  The fury that welled in her chest made a deep breath impossible. “If you’re not going to offer helpful suggestions, why did you bother coming all the way to Cartersville?”

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “Actually, I needed to leave the car at the shop for maintenance and I thought maybe you’d give me a lift back home.”

  Now she was his chauffeur. Just what she needed, twenty minutes alone in the car with him without proper preparation. “Fine,” she said tightly. “I’m almost finished here.”

  He nodded once. “Great.”

  For the first time since he’d scared the wits out of her by sneaking up behind her she looked at him. Really looked at him. He was wearing criminally faded jeans with white paint splotches on them and a worn black T-shirt with even more paint splatters on it. But the ancient material hugged his muscular body like he’d just walked out of a tailor’s shop. Her pulse reacted. Beth forced her gaze above his awesome chest and looked directly at his face, which only made matters worse. There was even a speck of paint on his left cheek. She blinked, trying to dispel the incredibly sexy image.

  “I was painting the gazebo,” he said as if he’d read her mind and needed to explain his unpolished appearance. He was clearly out of his element without his Armani. “I had to drop everything and rush over here to catch the mechanic otherwise he wouldn’t have any time available while I’m here. He’s the best, you know.”

  The image of Zach on a ladder, his muscles flexing and contracting with every stroke of the brush loomed large in her mind. Her mouth went dry, and her heart did a funny little flip-flop. Now was as good a time as any to put her plan into action, she decided, her body all too ready to begin. And begin she did. She allowed her gaze to linger on his face, relearning every angle…every chiseled masculine feature. And that mouth. Another flip-flop in her chest. His lips were full, but not feminine. The hint of those wicked dimples was present even when he wasn’t smiling…like now. And the eyes…those blue bedroom eyes. So intent…so alluring. She never made it to the hair. She just couldn’t take her gaze from his.

  “I’m…you’re not making this easy,” he murmured hesitantly.

  She watched his lips move when he spoke. He was speaking to her she knew, but at the moment what he said didn’t seem to matter. All that mattered was the heat and desire buzzing between them. It was there. She could feel it. He could feel it, too. She saw it in his eyes, heard it in his voice.

  “Beth, are you all right?”

  She dragged her gaze from that tempting mouth and looked directly into his eyes. “No,” she said in all honesty. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be all right again if I don’t do this.”

  She kissed him. Just reached right up, grabbed him by the ears and pulled his mouth down to hers.

  He resisted at first, his mouth hard, unyielding. But within seconds he’d given in to the kiss. She threaded her fingers into his thick hair and kissed him harder still. She traced the seam of his lips and, without reservation, he opened. Her tongue slid inside his mouth and his taste filled her. Sweet and citrusy, like lemonade, yet hot and demanding.

  His arms went around her waist and pulled her close. She almost moaned at the feel of his lean, muscular body against hers. Oh, how she had wanted this…wanted it for so very long. Her heart stumbled when he took control of the kiss. She could taste his sudden desperation…could sense the yearning for more. And she wanted more, too. She leaned fully into him. He groaned, or maybe she did. The sound was lost between them. She could feel his body hardening with the inferno they were creating one hot, licking flame at a time. The nudge of his arousal made her burn to know him completely, intimately.

  He dragged his mouth from hers, his breathing as unstable as her own. He stared down at her lips as if he might just devour them all over again, then that hooded gaze connected with hers. She saw the confusion that battled with the same fierce need she felt.

  “Well,” he rasped, his voice thick with desire. “That was…interesting.”

  She smiled seductively, her gaze never deviating from his. “That—” she traced his bottom lip with one fingertip, then licked the taste of him from her own lips “—was only the beginning.”

  Chapter Four

  Twenty minutes in the shower under a cool spray of water had washed away all signs of Zach’s afternoon of working up a healthy sweat scraping and painting the gazebo, but it had done nothing at all to alleviate the other kind of heat slowly building inside him. He braced his hands against the tiled wall and turned his face up to the water’s spray. Thoughts of touching…kissing Beth played over and over inside his head. He wanted her. He wanted her desperately. The need twisted inside him, a pleasure-pain.

  Zach pressed his forehead against the cool tile and swore at his own stupidity. He knew better than this. Beth wasn’t some one-night stand. She wasn’t the sort of woman a guy took to bed because he felt the urge to have sex. She was the kind a guy married. And, dammit, he wasn’t the marrying kind anymore. He was past all that.

  Besides, she wouldn’t want him anyway. She’d been married once already. And she’d chosen a guy her age…a guy who shared her professional interests. A guy completely different from him. Zach gritted his teeth and suppressed the urge to hit something…like the fool who’d broken Beth’s heart.

  The other one. The one she’d married.

  He’d been the first to hurt her. Zach straightened and shoved the wet hair from his face. He’d been too full o
f himself to realize just how much he’d hurt her until it was too late. The idea that maybe he had a second chance now flitted through his mind. He pushed that notion away without hesitation. Too much had happened…they were different people now. According to his mother, Beth hadn’t cared for city life. He supposed that was true since she’d chosen to return to her small-town home after her divorce. And Zach couldn’t live anywhere else. The city was his life. Well, that and the Colby Agency. He lived for his work. It defined him. It always had.

  He gave the brass knob a twist, turning off the water, then grabbed a thick white towel and made a half-hearted effort at drying. It was his number one character flaw—extreme ambition. He’d inherited the fierce, undeniable trait from his mother. Nothing got in his way when he focused on a goal. He never, ever failed to achieve what he set out to obtain. Except, he amended as he slung the towel haphazardly around his waist, that once.

  He’d royally screwed up where Beth was concerned. Raking his hair back with his fingers, he stared at his reflection in the mirror and suddenly felt old. He flattened his palms on the cool porcelain of the pedestal sink and steadied himself against the weight of his past. Regret was a waste of time. He rarely allowed himself to experience the emotion. But that didn’t stop him now. He closed his eyes and considered for just one moment what could have been.

  If he’d handled things differently, he and Beth might be married now. Maybe they’d even have kids. That thought made his gut clench. Married…kids. He told himself every day that he didn’t care about those things, but it was a lie. He just didn’t want them with anyone else.

  Zach sighed and opened his eyes to stare at his reflection once more. That time had passed. He accepted that reality. Whatever Beth wanted right now, it wasn’t him…not like that anyway. Maybe it was payback for the way he’d ignored her all those years. Maybe she just needed to prove to herself that she could make him want her. He frowned as he considered that logic for the second time since seeing her.