His mother held up one finger. “Like when you were fourteen and you started your own lawn-care business to save money for college because you’d decided you wanted to be a doctor. I found out when the bank needed a legal guardian’s name on your savings account.” She held up a second finger. “Like when you were sixteen and you applied for the volunteer program at the hospital because you wanted it on your resumé. You told me after you’d gotten into the program.” Yet a third finger joined the first two. “And when you applied to med school, no one ever heard a peep about it until you’d been accepted.”
“Okay. Point made.” Kane held up a hand. An unexpected pang of guilt shot through him. He’d never looked at it from his mother’s angle. It was just that he hated to fail, and he preferred not to blab all his hopes and dreams aloud. He’d chosen not to bother his mother with his problems through most of his life, because she’d already been dealing with so much. To him, it made perfect sense not to make a fuss over possibilities until they were realities. That way, no one’s hopes got dashed but his if things fell through.
The truth was, it simply never occurred to him to confide in other people. Except for Allison. He was still amazed at how easily she had fit into his life. He could hardly wait until they were married.
“So tell me about her,” his mother prompted.
“She’s blond. She has green eyes.”
His mother rolled her own eyes. “Honestly, Kane, sometimes I can’t imagine that I raised you! Where did you meet? How long have you known each other?”
“Her name is Allison. Allison Preston. She’s a nurse. I met her four years ago when she started working in the peds unit at County. We’ve been friends since then, but I didn’t get smart enough to stake a claim until recently.” Well, that was true. “She’s quiet, very sweet, sort of shy. You’ll want to mother her.”
“Is she from San Antonio?”
“Yes.” I think.
“Does she have family here?”
“No.” At least, he didn’t think she did. But she’d never really spoken of her family. In fact, when he really thought about it, she’d never told him much at all about herself. Because you’re always too busy talking about yourself, maybe? It was an uncomfortably accurate thought, and a rather disturbing one, when he contrasted it to the way he’d deliberately held on to his privacy with his own family members.
“Look,” he said, anxious to distract his mother, “She gets off work at seven and we’re having dinner at my house. How about if I bring her by for a few minutes around nine so you can meet her?”
Kane stood in his kitchen, a glass of wine in his hand. After the visit with his mother, he’d picked up Allison and brought her straight out here to his home and now she was changing out of her nursing things into casual clothes. He wondered if she’d let down her hair again.
If she didn’t, he was going to have to do it for her.
Ruefully, he shook his head. How in the hell could he have gotten so obsessed about one woman and her sexy hair in the space of less than two days? He’d had a tough time concentrating all day long because every second that he wasn’t busy, he was remembering how it felt to slide into her tight wet depths, the little noises she’d made when she came, the feel of her small, soft hands on his decidedly not small, hard—
The kitchen was definitely not the place for the kind of reaction his body was giving his thoughts.
This would stop. Surely this would stop soon, after the initial flush of sexual intimacy faded. Although right now he couldn’t even imagine being immune to her charm, let alone apathetic about making love to her.
Why did she affect him so strongly? It wasn’t as if she were a raving beauty. But she had a quiet sweetness, he quickly amended. A gentle sparkle of warmth and humor that someone would have to nurture to enjoy. That he would enjoy from now on. Thinking about her, he realized that she did have a quiet kind of beauty that he’d simply overlooked in the past.
It wasn’t just that hair and the sex he’d thought about all day, if he were honest with himself. And it wasn’t even the amazingly pretty body beneath the shapeless uniforms in which he usually saw her. Her profile was delicate, her little nose so straight and cute he hadn’t been able to resist kissing it earlier. Her skin was fine-grained and satiny all over, her eyebrows arched and surprisingly dark for a natural blonde, while equally dark, flirtatiously long lashes often concealed the thoughts going on in her head. Though she was the farthest thing from a flirt he’d ever met and she’d probably die if he told her what one look from beneath those lashes did to him. Aside from her glorious tresses, her eyes were definitely her prettiest feature, though, wide and greener than any he’d ever seen, with a dark rim around the iris that enhanced their color. Then again, when she smiled…
He honestly couldn’t figure out why he’d never noticed her before, even if she wasn’t his usual type.
And then she came into the room, and he knew.
She made herself invisible. Quiet, self-effacing, unassuming, those were the words that sprang to mind, but she carried them to such an extreme that she practically melted into the wallpaper. It was one of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place, because he’d found her presence to be so soothing and restful that after a short break talking to her in the cafeteria, he was almost always less uptight and in a better mood.
And damned if he wasn’t still obsessing about her! This had to stop.
“You look nice,” he said, enjoying the sight of her legs beneath the short white skirt, and the swell of her breasts under the pink top that matched the color that rose in her cheeks. Though the clothing wasn’t too revealing or deliberately provocative, he could immediately feel his interest level revving up. If that were possible.
“So,” he said. “I thought we’d eat dinner first and then I’d like to take you to meet my mother.”
“Your mother!” She wasn’t invisible anymore. His words had rattled her, and she stared at him wide-eyed, shaking her head until her shining curls danced. “I’m not dressed to meet your mother. Do I have to?”
He laughed. She sounded genuinely panicked. “Yes, you have to. Stop worrying, you look fine. I stopped by today and told her I was getting married. She’ll cut off my ear if I don’t introduce you right away.”
“Oh. Well, I guess we can’t have you earless.” She looked around his kitchen, obviously at a loss for words.
“So what do you think of my home? I know there’s not a lot of furniture yet, but that’ll happen eventually. My school loans are finally paid off, and a mortgage was all the debt I was willing to assume when the place was built.” He waited, unwilling to acknowledge his interest in her reaction.
Maybe she wouldn’t like it. It was awfully spartan, and that wasn’t simply due to a lack of funds. It never occurred to him to decorate his living quarters. After all, who would see it but him?
Allison looked around the kitchen, walking over to stand at the French doors that opened onto a patio with a sparkling blue pool at the far end. Then she turned and her eyes were shining. “I love it, Kane. Your whole home is beautiful, furniture or not.”
“Good.” He ignored the rush of relief her words brought. “I worked with the architect, and I’m pleased with the end result. And there are five bedrooms in addition to the master suite so there’s plenty of room for children.”
The mention of children brought that delicate hint of color slipping back up her cheeks. It was absolutely…adorable. Enticing. And he hoped like hell the day never came when he couldn’t make her blush.
“Children,” she said, and he wondered if she knew her voice almost ached with longing and wonder. “I still can’t believe this.”
“You might find it easier to believe in nine months.”
“It would seem funny, holding a full-term healthy baby,” she said. “I’m so used to the preemies.”
“I know.” To distract her from the sober topic of their occupations, he idly asked, “Have you ever thought a
bout how many children you’d like to have?”
Her answering smile was soft and dreamy, and her eyes looked past him to something he couldn’t picture. “One for each bedroom, at least.”
His whole body reacted to the thought of all the time they’d have to spend creating five children. He crossed to her and handed her a glass of wine, then slipped his hand behind her head, threading his fingers through the heavy mass of her hair and tilting her face up to his. “That’s a lot of children.”
Her brow wrinkled and she searched his eyes. “Too many?” Her whole face fell. “You’re right. I—”
He stopped the oncoming rush of words by putting his mouth on hers and thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth. She sagged against him, putting her free arm up around his shoulders. He immediately gathered her hard to him, automatically aligning her soft curves with his body, and they both groaned at the feel of the intimate position.
He lifted his mouth a fraction. “I didn’t say I didn’t want a lot of kids,” he clarified. “I think a houseful would be great.”
Her eyes lit up, glowing emerald with happiness, and he flexed his fingers on her soft hips.
“You don’t have to work tomorrow, do you?”
She shook her head slightly, her eyes focusing on him. “No. I’m off for the next three days.”
“Good.” He kissed her once more, then released her. “You’re staying tonight. Tomorrow we’ll start moving your things in and you can give up your lease.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You don’t believe in rushing things, do you?”
He shrugged. “There’s no reason to wait.”
“And you also don’t believe in asking.” But she was smiling a little.
“Sorry. Comes from years of giving medical orders, I guess.”
“Uh-huh. You can’t fool me. You were born like this.”
He grimaced. “You’re going to get along well with my sister.”
She looked panicked again. “Will she be there tonight, too?” He could almost see her wilting at the thought.
“No, just my mother. We’ll save my sister for another day.”
But she was still looking troubled. “How are you going to explain this?”
“Explain what?” She was looking up at him with wide, sad eyes and he had the strongest urge to simply take her in his arms and cuddle her.
“You know.” She spoke slowly, as if he were missing an important point. “This. This…us.”
He didn’t have a clue. “What are you talking about?”
Her face grew serious. “Kane, are you really that dense?” She sighed. “You’re a handsome charming man, a doctor. A member of the Fortune family. No one will ever believe I’m the kind of woman you would marry. I’m…” She gestured helplessly. “I’m not a model or an actress, or a socialite. Or any kind of special woman.” She tried to turn away from him but he gripped her waist and held her so she had to face him. Still, she turned her head away.
He didn’t know what to say for a minute. “You think just because my last name is Fortune I have to marry some woman who’s…who’s famous in some way?”
She bit her lip. “You know what I mean.”
“No,” he said in a tone that brooked no interruption. “I do not. My mother was an actress wannabe who waitressed for twenty years. My cousin married the daughter of my uncle’s housekeeper. My sister married a cop. Well, a sheriff, it’s almost the same thing.” He took her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him again. “Sounds like you’re a backward sort of snob.”
“I am not!”
He had to chuckle at the vehemence in her tone. “I’ve never seen it before, if you are,” he said quietly. “I see a woman with a glow that lights her up from the inside out. A woman with beautiful eyes and a smile that can make a man feel as if she thinks he’s the most important thing in her universe—”
“You worked with me for four years without really noticing me,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, and now I’m thinking I must have been taking stupid pills,” he muttered, frustrated that he didn’t seem to be getting through.
It was just an offhand comment, but her eyes lit up and her hesitant, pretty smile turned up the drooping corners of her lips as if he’d sung an ode to her beauty.
“This,” Kane announced, as he pulled up in front of a beautifully landscaped villa, “is Melrose Manor.”
“Melrose Manor? You’re kidding. Like the TV show a few years back?”
He nodded. “My mother’s got a weird sense of humor.”
They walked up the wide flagstone path to the door but before Kane could reach for the doorknob, the wide double doors flew open. “It’s about time you got here!”
The speaker was a slim, shapely blonde who looked far too young to be Kane’s mother. But the family resemblance was strong, though their coloring was different.
“Mother, I’d like you to meet Allison Preston. My fiancée.”
Allison held out her hand and it was promptly clasped between two warm palms. “Hello, Allison. It’s wonderful to meet you. I’m Miranda. Please come in.” Miranda Fortune fairly bubbled with energy.
She led the way through a flagstone entry hall into a pretty sitting room, where she promptly turned and embraced Kane. “Thank you for bringing her. Now go away so we can talk.”
“So you can interrogate her, you mean.” He grinned easily. “Not a chance.” He reached out and took Allison’s hand. “She’s twenty-six, she has all her teeth and I’m marrying her before you can scare her off. That’s all you need to know.”
They all laughed and, after they’d sat down, she offered them drinks. Miranda was charming, and so unpretentious Allison could hardly believe she was one of the wealthiest women in the country.
But after a few moments of general getting-to-know-you chat, Kane cleared his throat. When both women paused and looked at him, he addressed his mother. “Have you heard anything more from Carter?”
“I—uh, no.” Miranda looked taken aback and Allison realized it was because Kane was discussing such an intimate family matter in front of a near stranger.
“Could you show me where the powder room is?” She rose but Kane took her hand and pulled her back down onto the loveseat beside him.
“Mother, she knows about your…the phone call.”
Miranda’s eyes widened, then she turned to Allison. “Please, you must understand how important it is to keep this quiet—”
“I wouldn’t have told her if she were a gossip, Mother.” Kane stood, resting his hand on Allison’s shoulder. “We have no secrets, but you don’t have to worry that anyone will learn yours from Allison.”
Allison dropped her eyes. No, they didn’t exactly have secrets. Mentally, she slammed the door on the brief glimpse of her past that peeked through. There was nothing there to remember. Nothing.
“You really must be close to Kane,” Miranda was saying. She shook her finger at him. “I cannot believe you hid this girl away until you were engaged! We could have been getting to know each other.”
Allison shifted uncomfortably as she smiled at Kane’s pretty mother. But before she could speak, Kane said, “You know I’ve never been good at sharing. Our time together is limited because of our schedules, and I like having her all to myself.”
Before he could really get going, Allison placed a restraining hand on his arm and addressed Miranda Fortune. “I’m sorry to hear about your difficulties. Have you decided what you’re going to do?”
Kane’s mother’s face fell. She sighed, twisting her elegant hands together. “I keep hoping that if I ignore the whole thing, it’ll just go away.” She paused and then looked squarely at Allison. “Has Kane told you everything?”
He nodded before she could speak.
A tear slipped down Miranda’s cheek. “I didn’t intend that anyone should ever know.”
“I seriously doubt that ignoring this is going to make it go away.” Kane’s voice was harsh and his fingers grew tight around h
ers. Wincing, Allison laid a soothing hand on his, stroking his knuckles absently with her fingertips as she listened to the exchange.
“Have you told Uncle Ryan yet?”
“No.” Miranda began to cry silently. “I can barely think about it, much less talk about it. And I’m quite sure he knows the twins’ father socially. He’ll be so shocked.”
“You have to,” Kane said firmly though he looked equally disturbed. “And then you have to go to the police. Blackmail is illegal.”
Allison was shaken by the realization that Miranda’s long-ago lover apparently still lived in the area.
“No! We can’t involve the police. I’ve done enough to blacken the Fortune family name in my life; I won’t drag all of you through the kind of publicity that would generate.” She lifted her hands in a helpless, hopeless gesture. “I guess I’m going to have to pay Lloyd. If I refuse, he’ll go straight to…” Her voice started to hitch and Allison moved automatically, putting her arms around the stricken woman. “And I just couldn’t face him. He’d never forgive me.”
Driving home from his mother’s a short time later, Kane said, “If you don’t want my mother to mess in the wedding plans, tell me now.”
“No, no,” she said hastily. “I’d love to have your mother’s help.”
“Will your mother want to be involved?”
The question caught her off guard. “My mother’s dead,” she finally said.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment of silence had passed. “I didn’t realize.”
“It’s all right.” She worked to steady her voice. “She had some health problems, and she caught pneumonia a couple of years ago in the hospital.”
He grimaced. “The disgrace of the medical profession. Send people to the hospital to be healed, and they get pneumonia.”
She nodded. “Exactly.” There was a small silence but she spoke into it before he could ask any more questions about her family. “So I’d welcome your mother’s help.”
“Help.” She heard his sarcastic snort as he repeated the word. “It’ll be more like we’re the asphalt and she’s the steamroller. We’ll be saying ‘I do’ before you know what hit you.”
A Most Desirable M.D. Page 5