Noah knew that his grin surprised his nurse, because she didn’t usually stop speaking in the middle of a sentence with a rather stunned, inquisitive expression on her face.
“I know Miss Kincaid, Norma. Please bring her to my office and tell her that I’ll be in shortly.”
He was still grinning when Norma hurried away to impart the information she’d just collected to Belva, the receptionist.
“And that’s how a seed of gossip is planted,” Noah murmured under his breath.
Chapter Thirteen
The door had no more than closed behind Nurse Norma— Maddie had noticed her name tag—than the steam driving Maddie to do something so totally outlandish began draining away. Noah would think she’d lost her mind, walking in as though she owned the place and then demanding to see him.
Groaning quietly, Maddie perched herself on the edge of the chair situated at the front of an impressive mahogany desk. Noah’s office was tastefully appointed, and Maddie’s nervously darting eyes took it all in. Framed documents adorned the wall behind the desk, and a marvelous landscape painting hung over a long, hunter-green sofa with a decorative pillow at one end and a green and gray afghan folded along its back. Finally there were several attractive brass lamps and, of course, the various items that one would expect to see in any office.
All of that was fine. Any doctor worth his salt should have a decent office, but what in God’s name was she doing in Noah’s? Her bravado and bluster were completely gone, and she truly felt like a naughty child who was very soon to be nabbed and chastised.
Maddie rose from the chair with one intention—getting out of there before Noah came in. She was almost to the door when it opened, and when she saw him, her insides turned to mush and she stopped in her tracks. He was so handsome, so tall and straight and clean, and so professional looking in his white coat that any doubts still cluttering her mind about whether or not she had fallen in love with him began vanishing like puffs of smoke.
He smiled. “Hello. This is a nice surprise.” He put his arms around her and tried to draw her into a close embrace.
“No…wait…please,” she stammered, and escaped his hug.
Noah frowned slightly. She had to be there for a reason, but if it wasn’t to nurture the development of their personal relationship, what was it?
“Go ahead and sit down,” he said, gesturing toward the chair she had just vacated. He walked around the desk and took his own chair. “I sense that all is not well,” he said quietly. “Did you see Dr. Herrera?”
And that one bit of kindness was all it took to break the dam holding back her emotions. Covering her face with her hands, Maddie moaned, “Oh, Noah. I’ve had the most horrible day.”
Noah got up for a box of tissues, which he placed on her lap. Instead of returning to his chair, he sat on the edge of the desk, not more than a foot away from her.
She humiliated herself by crying like a baby, using the tissues to sop up her flow of tears. “I’m…so sorry,” she finally got out.
“Don’t apologize for being human,” Noah said gently. “Tell me about today.”
Maddie sighed, wiped her eyes one more time and shook her head. “I didn’t come here to cry on your shoulder.” She tried very hard to laugh. “Actually, I don’t know why I’m here.”
“Could it be because you needed to talk to someone?”
“Not, uh, entirely. I mean, when I turned around to come here, I was horribly angry and wanted to lash out at something…or someone.”
“Hmm. It’s interesting that you would think of me when you felt the need to climb someone’s frame.”
“I’m miserably sorry.”
“Yes, I can see that. Hey, how about you and me having some dinner together?”
Maddie blinked her sodden eyes at him. “After this you still want to be friends?”
“Since I don’t think you’re in the mood to hear anything else right now, let me say, yes, Maddie, I still want to be friends, and leave it at that, okay?”
“You’re perplexing me again.”
“Ditto, sweetheart. Let’s go have a good dinner and see if we can relax and straighten out the snarl we’ve made of what should have been a perfectly normal relationship all along.” Noah took off his white coat, went into a small closet for his outside jacket and put it on. Returning to where Maddie was sitting, he held out his hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
Was this the real reason that destiny or fate had brought her here today? she wondered uneasily. To take Noah’s strong, warm hand, eat dinner with him and then undoubtedly end up in bed together again? To her dismay, just thinking of his kisses and of his hard body controlling and pleasuring hers made her breathless.
Oh, this had to be love, she thought as her last niggling doubt on that point vanished, never to return. She knew it with every fiber of her being. If by some miracle both she and Fanny were given a clean bill of health tomorrow, she would not pack up and leave Whitehorn and Noah. She had found her true love, her true mate, and she knew it in her heart, just as Aunt June had said she would.
She took his hand and let him help her up. Something told her this was going to be a very special evening, and the adoring smile she gave him as thanks made Noah question his eyesight. She looked like…my Lord, she looked like a woman in love!
He couldn’t stop himself from pulling her close and kissing her lips with all of the love and desire he felt for her. She kissed him back, moving her mouth on his so seductively that he never wanted the kiss to end. Breathing hard, he ran his hands up and down the female curves of her back and hips. He had completely overturned his previous opinion on what features made a woman beautiful, and Maddie, with her small stature and big green eyes was without a doubt the most beautiful, the sexiest and the most delightfully entertaining woman he’d ever known.
He whispered, “I want you so much I hurt.”
She felt the same. “Right now? Here?”
“Everyone’s gone home. We’re alone.”
“You’re positive?”
“I’ll check and make sure.” He let go of her and hurried out.
Maddie looked at that long green sofa against the wall and felt the flames grow hotter in the pit of her stomach. Oh, yes, she needed Noah, needed what only he could make her feel. He’d brought her to life. He’d made her a real woman, and how could she not love him?
Quickly she undressed, taking off her stylish taupe trench coat, then her boots, her slacks and her sweater. Two seconds later her panties and bra were on the chair with her other things and she shook out the afghan, lay down on the sofa and covered herself with the afghan. It was very soft—cashmere, probably—and snuggly warm. With the pillow under her head she was wonderfully comfortable, but it was an external comfort. Only one thing would ease her internal aches, and there he was now!
Noah walked in and laughed when he saw her. “You are a doll.” He took off his jacket and laid it on his desk. “Do you realize that I hadn’t really laughed from the time I left San Francisco until the day you decided that murder by paperweight made perfect sense?” He took off his shirt, feverishly aware of Maddie’s unwavering gaze. She wanted to see him naked, the little imp.
“Since you’re usually very stingy with your smiles, I don’t doubt it,” she said drily. “You know, I thought you were there to burgle the house, and I simply was not going to lie on that couch and watch you steal Mark and Darcy’s things. Then, when you laughed so hard that you got hysterical, I wondered if you weren’t a mental case.”
“Anyone would have laughed that day, sweetheart.” Noah unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. “That was the funniest thing I’d ever seen.”
“I was the funniest thing you’d ever seen?” She pretended to be deeply offended, but that act lasted only a second because he’d pushed down his shorts and there he was, in all of his masculine splendor. “Has anyone ever called you Dr. Big?” she asked innocently.
Noah roared with laughter. She laughed, too, but in a very fe
w minutes no one was laughing. He was on top of her and the afghan was gone. Neither noticed its absence, for a chill wasn’t possible with so much heat between them.
“Noah…Noah…there’s nothing else like this,” she moaned as he thrust in and out of her hot body.
“I know, babe. Believe me, I know.”
“But you don’t know…I mean, I never…not with either—” She stopped and started over. “You must know I wasn’t a virgin, but there were only two men…one time with each…and I never felt…I never had…oh, damn.”
“Don’t be embarrassed. Are you trying to tell me you never had an orgasm before making love with me?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “You know things other men don’t. Things about a woman’s body.”
“Sweetheart, it’s not knowledge you and I have together, it’s chemistry.”
Chemistry, Maddie thought to herself, and love.
“I can tell you that I’m scared to death you’re going to load your horse in that trailer and leave town without telling me,” he whispered.
She touched his face. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“In other words you’ll tell me about it and then leave town.” He began kissing her roughly, passionately, possessively, and moving faster and going deeper.
His explosive ardor completely disarmed Maddie. She lost all sight of herself and became an extension of him, and their final rush to completion was powerful and overwhelming for both of them.
Lying with her eyes closed and gradually catching her breath, Maddie became aware of Noah staring at her. She opened her eyes and saw tears in his. Tenderly she laid her hand on his cheek.
Noah was physically satisfied and strangely unnerved. He knew they had a lot of talking to do, but he probably shouldn’t have mentioned her leaving Montana during lovemaking. It wasn’t that he wanted to hurt her at all; at least he didn’t think about what he said in that way. But the second he quipped, “How was that for chemistry, baby?” he could tell by the stunned expression on her face that he’d said the wrong thing.
She replied in kind, drawling sarcastically, “Are you going to feed me now or bore me to tears with typical ego-building, macho questions?”
It was not a good moment. They got off the sofa and dressed with their backs to each other, with Maddie seriously considering just going home and letting the big jerk eat dinner alone.
But she loved that big jerk, and maybe love wasn’t always sweet and kind. After all, how would she know what people in love felt or did? Besides, everything else in life was a play-it-by-ear guessing game, and why would love be any different?
Noah’s thoughts were so heavy, so distressing that he was frankly miserable. Looking at Maddie alleviated some of his discomfort. He’d behaved like an ass, but surely he could turn things around with a little diplomacy.
When they were both fully dressed, he picked up Maddie’s coat and held it up for her to slip into. Then he put his hands on her shoulders—her back was to him—his cheek next to hers and whispered raggedly, “Tell me you don’t hate me. Or tell me if you do.” Whether that was diplomacy or desperation was an arguable subject, but Noah knew he was too jarred at the moment to recognize the difference.
Maddie’s breath caught. Discussing feelings in their present down-in-the-mouth moods was a frightening prospect. There was no peace or contentment in the room, as maybe there should have been. She wanted very much to believe that a couple in love became softer, gentler people after they made love and the fires of urgency had been quenched. But it was difficult to cling to romantic notions that might be nothing more than hopeful delusions when each step she took with Noah was her first.
She truly could not give him an honest answer at the moment, and maybe she wouldn’t if it was tickling the tip of her tongue. “May we talk later?” she asked rather coolly.
“We can do anything you want to do.” He was so relieved that “later” was an option for her that he went to the door and opened it. “Shall we go?”
They left the building, and Noah led her to his vehicle.
Maddie hesitated at the passenger door. “Maybe I should take my truck.”
“Please ride with me. I’ll bring you back here anytime you say the word.”
“But if I had my truck I could go directly home from the restaurant.”
You could also go directly home from here. Right now! He could actually visualize her getting into her truck, changing her mind about having dinner with him and then veering off in another direction once they were both under way.
But he couldn’t insist that she ride with him and undoubtedly bring about another argument. In truth he didn’t want another disagreement with Maddie over anything. She was an independent, outspoken, self-sufficient young woman, and deep down he knew that he wouldn’t change her if he could. Besides, relationships between people who lacked respect for each other’s differences didn’t stand much of a chance of surviving.
“Suit yourself,” he said quietly.
His acquiescence startled Maddie, but it also pleased her. So much, in fact, that she reversed herself and said, “My truck will be fine in the parking lot. I’ll ride with you.”
Acting as though she hadn’t just surprised the breath out of him, Noah helped her into his SUV, then walked around the front of it to get into the driver’s seat. His heart raced with a sudden burst of knowledge: Maddie hated being told what to do! And damned if he hadn’t started issuing orders the very day they’d met! Was it any wonder they constantly crossed swords?
Noah felt so good over discovering something so crucial about the two of them that he completely changed his plans for the evening. A restaurant was out. They needed time alone together, not a meal with conversation that might be stilted because the next table was occupied and people could hear.
Maddie noticed that they had entered Whitehorn’s most upscale residential area, but she decided that Noah could be taking a shortcut to a part of town that had several restaurants, so she said nothing about it.
Neither did Noah, not until he pulled into a circular driveway and turned off the engine. “This is my home.”
Maddie gawked at the beautiful, sprawling ranch-style house. It had a three-car garage, and even in the dead of winter she could tell that the yard had been professionally landscaped. It occurred to her that she had never once wondered about Noah’s financial status. Obviously, he worked steadily, and everyone knew that most doctors made a good living. But this was easily a half-million-dollar house, and in Whitehorn, a small town with only a handful of truly imposing homes, that meant something.
Thinking of Noah as wealthy made Maddie very nervous. And now there was another factor—money—in the already convoluted equation of their relationship. If she could never compete again, either because of Fanny’s injury or her own, and she and Noah actually made a go of…of…what? Their affair? Their lusty sexual appetite for each other? Dear God, she had actually decided that she could not leave Noah behind, even if both she and Fanny were fine and she could compete! But no one would ever get the story right, and people would think she had quit rodeo and married Noah for the financial security she could no longer provide for herself!
“No-o-o-o,” she moaned, and lowered her head to cover her eyes with her hand.
Noah was afraid to ask what was wrong now, so he hurriedly got out and rushed around his car to open Maddie’s door.
“Come on, darlin’,” he said while offering her his hand. “I’m going to pour you a nice glass of wine, turn on the gas fireplace to warm your toes and then order the best pizza in town. How does that sound?”
It sounded wonderful and…dangerous! But she simply didn’t have the heart or the strength for another rebellion, so she gave him her hand and got out of the vehicle. He kept hold of her hand until they’d reached the front door, at which time he kissed her full on the lips—startling her again—then backed off, smiled and unlocked the door.
Inside, Noah pushed what was obviously some sort of mai
n switch, because lights came on all over the place. Maddie tried very hard to not look girlishly impressed, but she was. From the foyer she could see into the living room. This was definitely a bachelor’s home, decorated with leather couches and chairs, heavy wood and glass tables, brass lamps and wildlife paintings and statuary, but it was still absolutely beautiful.
Noah took her coat, hung it along with his own in the foyer closet, then brought her to the living room, where he immediately turned on the gas and ignited the masonry logs in the fireplace.
“Sit anywhere,” he told her. “I’m going to phone for the pizza and open a bottle of wine. Oh, you’re not taking any pain medication, are you?”
“Hardly,” she said drily. “Have you forgotten that you destroyed my only supply?”
“Well, I gave you a few pills.”
“Very few. They’re long gone, believe me.”
“Fine. Mixing alcohol and pills is bad business. I’ll be back in a flash. Sit where you want.” He walked out.
Sighing, Maddie sat on a chair that was near the fireplace. The dancing flames and the bit of warmth they threw were soothing to her troubled mind, but not so soothing as to eradicate her many worries. For one thing, it couldn’t be more obvious that she hadn’t yet reached the end of her run of bad luck. Oh, sure, she could toss her head and say to hell with gossip, but what if sometime in the future Noah got angry for whatever reason—everyone did once in a while, after all—and he accused her of only marrying him because she couldn’t compete anymore? She would defend herself with the truth, of course, but angry people didn’t always recognize and accept the truth.
Sighing heavily, Maddie put her head back and asked herself why she kept thinking about marriage. Had Noah ever said the word? No, he had not.
Had she held out for marriage? You couldn’t have been easier!
Life was the pits, and it had been since she’d taken that fall in the arena. Self-pitying or not, she’d gone through hell after that.
Noah returned with an uncorked bottle of red wine and two glasses. Pouring the wine, he said, “You’re looking very pensive. Penny for your thoughts.”
Marked for Marriage Page 21