Sultry

by Mary Lynn Baxter

  He was too old for her, in years and in experience.

  As far as the world was concerned, he’d lived a lifetime compared to her.

  He had to stop thinking of her in such a personal way. More than that, he had to get her out of his place now, before he did something he would regret for a long time to come.

  He didn’t want to lose his job. He liked working here. He had hoped to remain here as long as he wanted. When he got bored he would move on. That was the way he liked it—no ties that bound, no one to worry about but himself.

  Until he’d seen Lindsay, that is.

  He wanted her. No use denying that any longer. But he wanted a lot of things he couldn’t have. Lindsay was just another in a long list.

  “Good dialog, provocative chapter endings that literally force a page turn, and a streamlined writing style…”

  —Library Journal on One Summer Evening

  Also available from MIRA Books and

  MARY LYNN BAXTER

  HARD CANDY

  LONE STAR HEAT

  A DAY IN APRIL

  AUTUMN AWAKENING

  TEARS OF YESTERDAY

  ONE SUMMER EVENING

  MARY LYNN

  BAXTER

  SULTRY

  ACKNOWLEDGMENT

  Special thanks to my friend Dr. Laura Horne

  for coming to my rescue with her medical expertise.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  One

  Summer 2000

  “Okay, how badly is he really hurt?”

  Lindsay Newman tried to keep the tremor out of her voice, but she couldn’t. Her father, a retired heart surgeon, had been injured in an automobile accident. She was afraid the truth concerning his condition had been kept from her.

  “Like Tim told you on the phone, it’s not serious.” Peter Ballinger frowned, knitting his thick, dark brows together. “Cooper’s not serious. He’s going to be all right.”

  Lindsay peered at her friend Peter long and hard, trying to pick up on any hint that he was lying to her. Her efforts proved futile. Underneath his bland but handsome facade, his conviction didn’t appear to waver. It was then that her insides seemed to turn loose. Before they had been tied in tiny knots. Now she could breathe and function like a human.

  “Ah, here are your bags.”

  Lindsay looked on as Peter motioned for a bellman to tackle the three pieces of large luggage, all the while continuing to breathe deeply. She couldn’t believe her trip to London with a couple of friends had ended on such a frantic note.

  She had been gone almost four weeks when her brother Timothy called and told her about their father’s accident. She had taken the first plane out. Yet it seemed like an interminable amount of time had passed since she’d boarded that jet at Heathrow and arrived in Garnet, Mississippi.

  It wouldn’t be long now before she actually saw for herself that Cooper was not in jeopardy; the limo was waiting to take them straight to the family estate.

  “So were you having a good time?” Peter asked once the luggage was loaded and they were on their way.

  Lindsay didn’t answer for a moment, still irritated at having seen Peter at the airport instead of her brother. However, she knew why Tim hadn’t come. A doctor himself, he was most likely by Cooper’s side, which was where he belonged.

  Still, seeing Peter hadn’t been to her liking. Although he professed to love her, she knew better. He wanted her; she wouldn’t deny that—although she suspected it was the family money he wanted more.

  Peter was from a family rich in lineage, but short on cash. She thought that a rather ironic situation, since he was a banker, banking being considered a “suitable” position for a Southern gentleman.

  And Cooper was urging her to marry this stuffed shirt. She had met Peter at a charity function and ended up dancing with him several times. He’d asked her out the following week, and she’d gone.

  Even though she saw him quite often after that, she never considered him anything other than a friend, someone to go out with, no strings attached. He’d been fun, harmless and at loose ends.

  Peter, however, had other ideas, especially after he met Cooper. They formed an instant rapport, and Cooper saw him as the perfect match for his daughter.

  From then on, Peter turned into a man with a mission, becoming more of an aggravation than an asset. Unfortunately, that hadn’t changed, and she was getting fed up.

  “Lindsay?”

  Shaking her head to clear it, she faced Peter once again and gave him an aloof smile. “Sorry, I’m having trouble concentrating.”

  “I understand,” he said in his smooth voice. “Now that you’re back, what are your plans?”

  “I think that should be obvious,” Lindsay said with a slight sting in her tone. “First of all, I’m going to see to Daddy.”

  His perfectly shaped mouth stretched into a thin smile. “Of course.”

  His words were not without their own sting, and she knew why. While Peter respected Cooper and saw him as an ally, he also resented her father because of her attachment to him.

  “I gather you don’t want to talk about us.”

  There is no us, she was tempted to say, but didn’t. “No, Peter, I don’t.”

  “Dammit, when are you going to think of yourself? Do something for yourself?”

  Lindsay’s irritation burgeoned into anger. Nonetheless, she managed to hang on to her control, though her voice was cold as icicles. “I’m happy with my life the way it is, thank you.”

  Once she’d said that, Lindsay turned away, hoping he wouldn’t see the flush that covered her features, a tell-all that she hadn’t exactly told the truth. But the demons she was wrestling with weren’t any of his business.

  Other than clenching his jaw a bit tighter, Peter showed no emotion. But he dropped the subject and didn’t try to break the silence that fell between them. Finally the driver braked the limo inside the gates of the mansion grounds.

  For a second Lindsay didn’t move. It was good to be here. She loved this old home. Her gaze roamed over the huge flower garden set amidst the perfectly manicured grounds of this fine old Mississippi mansion, one that had been in the family for generations. However old it might be, it was in mint condition, having been refurbished and redecorated on several occasions.

  One day this estate would be hers. Tim didn’t want it, she knew, having been given several acres of adjoining land where he and Eve had built a lovely home of their own.

  “Thanks for meeting me,” Lindsay
said, once they were standing outside the vehicle.

  Peter nodded, then leaned and grazed her cheek with his lips. “Any time.”

  Before Peter made it to his car, Lindsay was inside and dashing up the stairs.

  “Lordy, child, is that you?”

  Lindsay stopped for a second at the top of the circular stairway and whipped around. “Oh, hi, Dolly. I was wondering where you were.”

  The housekeeper’s round face broke into a huge grin. “I was comin’ to the door as fast as I could get there. Only you were faster.” Dolly’s grin fled as she placed her hands on her equally rounded hips. “You don’t look so good. You’ve lost weight.”

  “Don’t hover, Dolly. I’m okay. After I see Daddy, I’ll give you a hug.”

  “The tea cakes will be coming out of the oven about then. Meanwhile, you skedaddle. He’s waitin’.”

  The instant Lindsay entered the master suite, her brother rose to his feet, met her halfway and gave her a brief hug, which she returned. Then her eyes sought the man who was in the bed, propped against massive pillows.

  “Oh, Daddy—” Her voice broke as she crossed to his bedside, grasped his hand, then bent and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

  “Ah, hell, I’m fine. Don’t fuss so.” Cooper cut his eyes over at Tim. “If I had my way, I’d be on the golf course right now.”

  “Dream on,” Lindsay muttered, looking toward her brother, then back to Cooper. “I have to say, you don’t look like you’ve been run over by a truck.”

  “I don’t feel like it, either.”

  Lindsay scrutinized him. If not for the brutal-looking circles under his eyes, circles that heretofore hadn’t been there, and the purplish spot on his right cheekbone, no one would have known he’d just experienced a life-threatening trauma. Dr. Cooper Newman was still a striking figure.

  Blessed with deep-set, piercing green eyes, a thick head of silver hair, and a tall lean frame, he was downright good-looking. When he was dressed for success, no one would guess he was in his middle sixties.

  “Well, he has a concussion to prove it,” Tim said in a firm tone.

  Lindsay’s gaze shifted back to her brother, who did not have anywhere near the commanding presence Cooper had. Yet in all fairness, Tim, who looked like their mother, Emily, had no trouble holding his own.

  Perhaps if he didn’t wear glasses and have a mustache, there might be more of a resemblance between father and son, Lindsay had always thought. At thirty—four years her senior—Tim was tall and fine-looking in his own right, with light brown hair and dark brown eyes, the same as hers—eyes they had inherited from their mother.

  “What about his heart?” she asked into the silence, her voice anxious.

  “My ticker’s ticking right along,” Cooper snapped before Tim could answer.

  Lindsay raised her eyebrows at her brother. “Is it?”

  “So far, so good. Other than what’s visible, and the fact that his muscles have to feel like he’s been in a war zone, he came out of the fiasco relatively unscathed.”

  “Thank God for that.”

  Cooper made a strange noise. “Would you two stop talking about me as if I’m not here?”

  Lindsay cut her gaze back to Cooper and smiled. “You haven’t even said you were glad to see me.”

  “There was no need for you to come home,” he muttered darkly.

  “I disagree. That’s precisely what I should’ve done.”

  “Dad’s right, you know,” Tim said. “You could’ve remained in London. I had everything under control.”

  “I know you did, but I had to see for myself. Anyhow, I was ready to jump ship, so to speak.”

  “Bored, huh?” Tim asked.

  Lindsay ignored the mocking smile that seemed itching to break across his thin lips. “A little.” She shrugged, unsure of what else to say. She hadn’t sorted through all the emotions that were warring inside her as yet, so she couldn’t share them with anyone.

  “Now that’s a problem I could love,” Tim said.

  Cooper snorted, then glared at his first-born. “That is your problem. You don’t want to work.”

  “That’s not true,” Tim countered mildly.

  So mildly that Lindsay picked up on the insincerity behind his tone. It was obvious Cooper had, too, for he snorted again, this time with more disgust.

  Tim’s face flooded with color, but he didn’t say anything.

  In order to fill the growing and uncomfortable silence, Lindsay asked, “How long do you have to stay in bed?”

  “Through today only,” Cooper said fiercely.

  Tim merely looked at him. “We’ll see.”

  “No, you’re the one who will—”

  “Hey, time out!” Lindsay exclaimed. Then, turning back to Tim, she added, “Now that I’m home, I’ll see that he behaves.”

  Cooper’s eyes shone with disapproval. “I’m not at all happy you cut short your trip and deserted your friends.”

  Tim held up his hands. “I’ll let you two duke that out. I’m gone.”

  “Don’t go. Not yet, anyway,” Lindsay said quickly. “Dolly’s making some tea cakes.”

  Tim halted with a smile. “In that case, I’ll meet you on the porch.”

  Once her brother had left, another silence descended over the room. Finally Cooper broke it. “You’re a good daughter, Lindsay.”

  “I try,” she said, not sure where this conversation was leading. His out-of-the-blue statement took her aback. Rarely did Cooper compliment her on anything. Yet there were moments when he was warm and appreciative of her and what she did for him. These moments she treasured.

  But by and large, he made more demands than anything and expected them to be carried out. Within the confines of the house and grounds, one soon learned that Cooper ruled and didn’t like to be crossed.

  “Sometimes you try too hard.”

  Lindsay almost shivered, thinking how difficult he was to love, and how much he tried to make both Tim and her bend to his strong will.

  “How’s that?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.

  “You know. It’s time you married and had children. You’re certainly not getting any younger.”

  How well she knew. At twenty-six, she had never even lived away from home. She had remained here, occupying her own suite. When she wasn’t busy raising money and heading her favorite charity, she acted as Cooper’s hostess when he entertained, which was often.

  To the outside world looking in, she had everything money could buy.

  “I want you to stop dallying and set a wedding date.”

  Lindsay rubbed her forehead. “You know I don’t want to marry Peter.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “You know that, too. I don’t love him.”

  “So what?”

  “Daddy!”

  “You’ll learn to love him. It’s that simple.”

  Lindsay felt as if she were beating her head against a rock. He was one stubbornly opinionated man. “Simple? I don’t think so.”

  Cooper’s features turned cold. “I’m counting on this marriage. Please don’t disappoint me. Do it.”

  Two

  When Lindsay walked out onto the porch, she paused for a moment, feeling a sudden but added sense of homecoming, thinking that houses without porches were like diamonds without the sparkle. They were missing something truly special.

  “Hey, your tea’s waiting.”

  Lindsay forced her limbs to move, reaching for the glass of iced tea her brother held out to her. After nodding her thanks, she gazed at the beauty that surrounded her, drawing the sweet smell of roses into her lungs.

  Summer.

  This was her favorite time of the year, especially on a day when the sun was about to call it quits.

  “You look beat,” Tim said, his head cocked to one side, eyeing her carefully.

  “I am. Actually, I feel like someone beat me.”

  Tim almost smiled. “Not someone, but something—jet la
g.”

  “That and worry about Daddy.”

  “You should feel better about him now.”

  Lindsay made her way to the white wooden railing and leaned against it, feeling the gentle breeze ruffle her hair. “I do, but I’m still concerned about his heart.”

  Tim sipped his tea, then shrugged. “That’ll always be a concern, that’s for sure. But at least the wreck didn’t seem to put any extra stress on it.”

  “I hope that continues to hold true,” Lindsay said in a slightly unsteady voice.

  “We both know there are no guarantees in this world.”

  Lindsay’s own heart skipped a beat. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

  “Nope. At least, nothing you don’t already know. Accident or no accident, Dad’s heart could stop at any time.”

  Although Lindsay hated to face that brutal fact, she had no choice. Admitting that, however, hadn’t been easy. Even though Cooper had had several attacks already, caused by a defect that couldn’t be fixed with bypass surgery, she had refused to acknowledge that he wasn’t immortal. He’d always been so big, so full of life, so larger than life, that she couldn’t imagine him not being alive.

  “On the bright side of all this,” Tim added, “Dad could live to the ripe old age of ninety-five, going full steam ahead.”

  Lindsay sipped on her tea. “He’s definitely in that mode now.”

  Tim’s lips twisted. “What’s he on your case about this time?”

  “Same old thing, only he came right out and gave me an ultimatum for setting a wedding date.”

  “Why the hell don’t you just tell him you’re not going to marry Ballinger, and be done with it?”

  Lindsay’s eyes flared. “I already have, but he still refuses to take no for an answer.”

  “Well, I’ll admit you have a problem. When the old man digs his heels in, it’s his way or the highway.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Lindsay said.

  Tim merely shrugged.

  Lindsay crossed to the antique swing, which was comfortably cushioned in a floral pattern. Once she was seated, she held her silence, setting the swing in soft motion.

  “Would you be willing to help me out?” she asked at last, feeling her insides unwind.