Marked For Marriage

“I rang the front doorbell and knocked on the side door before using the key,” he said. “I promised Mark that I’d take care of you while he’s away, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” In his own mind Noah realized how he had just expanded his promise to keep an eye on Maddie into taking care of Maddie, which gave him a start.

But someone should be caring for her. She certainly didn’t appear strong enough to be doing everything for herself. Her weakened condition explained the messy kitchen, of course. What Noah could not comprehend was how Mark could have gone off and left his frail little sister alone in the house. Didn’t he realize how badly off Maddie really was?

Noah shed his winter scarf and jacket and laid them on the back of a chair, aware that Maddie Kincaid’s eyes had grown wary and suspicious.

“Don’t get paranoid just because I took off my jacket,” he told her. “It happens to be hot as Hades in here. What temperature do you have the furnace set on?” He looked around. “Where’s the thermostat?”

“It’s in the kitchen, but don’t you dare lower that dial!”

“Maddie, you can’t be cold. You’re dressed in thermal underwear…” He couldn’t help coughing out another laugh over the image that comment conjured up but he managed to stifle it before it got out of hand. After clearing his throat, he continued, “And you’re wrapped in a goose down comforter.”

“So?”

Noah frowned as the physician in him took over. “You really are cold? Are you having chills?”

“If I am it’s none of your affair,” Maddie retorted, hoping she sounded in keen command of her senses and authoritative. After all, what could she really do to defend herself against anything this guy might do? Regardless of her physical ineptitude, though, her mouth and don’t-tread-on-my-space attitude were working just fine, and she demanded haughtily, “What do you think you are, a doctor?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” He approached the sofa and sat on the sturdy wood coffee table, which had been in the way when he’d carried Maddie back to her bed but was handy as all get-out now. “Let me take your pulse.”

Maddie was gawking at him with her mouth open. He was a doctor? Yeah, right. “Oh, like I should believe you?”

Noah reached into the back pocket of his jeans for his wallet, which he flipped open right in front of Maddie’s face so she could see his medical ID card. “What does that say?” he asked a bit smugly.

She studied the photo on the card and then Noah’s face and realized with a sinking sensation that he was almost unbelievably handsome. He was, in fact, the kind of man that idiot women the world over—of which she was not one, thank you very much—chased after like a dog on the scent of a bone. This guy had thick black hair, eyebrows and lashes, vivid blue eyes, a sensual, kissable mouth if she’d ever seen one, and a strong masculine chin that announced a massive stubborn streak. With his height and build, he was one drop-dead package, which was unnerving for a woman whose few romantic relationships had been with your everyday, average-looking men.

But his stunning good looks and normally noble profession didn’t make him trustworthy, and she didn’t trust him. Why would she? Doctor or not, he had walked into this house without an invitation from her, which, in her estimation, was an invasion of privacy, whatever he might call it. Well, he was going to find out that she was no pansy, however he made his living. Instead of giving him the satisfaction of a straightforward answer to his irritating question about his ID, she drew her left hand from under the comforter and held it out. “So, go ahead and take my pulse, if that’s what turns you on.”

“Turns me on?” Noah chuckled. “You’re quite the little comic, aren’t you?” He took her wrist and counted pulse beats while looking at his watch. “Apparently you think so,” she said with heavy sarcasm. “You got positively hysterical when you first saw me.”

Noah tucked her hand and wrist back under the comforter. Her pulse was a little too fast; he needed a temperature and blood pressure check.

“You’d have gotten hysterical, too, if you could have seen yourself. What did you think you were going to do with that paperweight? Wait, I know, you thought you’d laugh me to death.”

“You’re so corny you should be ashamed to open your mouth and say one word.”

“Yep, that’s me, old cornball himself.” Noah stood up. “I want to take you to the hospital.”

Maddie scoffed. “Just try it and you’ll think you got hold of a wildcat, buster. Oh, excuse me, that’s Dr. Buster.”

“Maddie, I need to run some tests. You could have an infection.”

“Read my lips. I am not going to the hospital. Besides, I’m taking antibiotics so I do not have an infection.”

“Where are they? I want to see what it is that you’re taking.”

Maddie had to think a minute. “They’re probably on the kitchen table.”

Noah found them and returned. “Okay, these aren’t too bad, but you might need something stronger. Maddie, do you have a doctor in Whitehorn?”

“No…not yet.” She closed her eyes because she was getting very tired again. Being brave and courageous with very little strength as she’d been doing since “Dr. Buster” had intruded upon her rest was rapidly depleting her already low energy level.

“Go away,” she mumbled. “I need to sleep.”

Noah did go away; he headed for Mark’s bathrooms. Searching the medicine cabinets, he finally found what he was looking for—a thermometer. Dousing it in alcohol, which was also in the same cabinet, he hurried back to Maddie.

“Open your mouth,” he told her. “I’m going to take your temperature.”

“No, leave me alone,” she mumbled thickly.

“Maddie, open your mouth!” Noah worked the tip of the thermometer between her lips, and she finally stopped fighting him. In a couple of minutes he had his answer. Her temp was 101.6 degrees, not dangerously high but too high to ignore. He could force her to go to the hospital by calling an ambulance and giving her a knockout shot, but that seemed pretty drastic at this point. But to do anything at all for her, he needed his medical bag, some supplies and a different antibiotic.

“Maddie, listen to me. I’m going to leave for a few minutes. I won’t be long. You stay covered up and rest, all right?” He didn’t wait for a reply. Grabbing his jacket, he put it on as he strode through the house to the kitchen door and went outside. Using Mark’s key, he turned the inside dead bolt, giving Maddie the security she’d obviously thought she’d had all along. One of two things had happened, Noah reasoned: Mark hadn’t locked the door before leaving, which Noah couldn’t quite believe, as Mark Kincaid was a very dependable sort, or Maddie, for some reason, had unlocked it and then forgot to relock it. In her present state, she could do almost anything and then forget it. How in God’s name had Mark not noticed?

During the cross-town drive to the hospital, Noah thought about Maddie’s medications. Besides the antibiotic pills, she also had a bottle of painkillers, and Noah had to wonder exactly how much pain she was in. From the soft cast on her hand, her accident hadn’t caused too much damage as far as injured bones went, but then there were the discolored bruises and healing abrasions on her face to consider. Even so, were a few scrapes that were well on the way to full recovery causing enough pain for Maddie to be taking strong pain-blocking medication? He didn’t like her slurred words and the hard time she seemed to have focusing her eyes.

There was one other possibility, though. She could have further bruising—possibly quite severe—under her clothes. He would have to check that out when he got back to the house.

And then, just before reaching the physician’s parking area at the hospital, Noah finally let his thoughts go to that tingle deep in his belly that any man in his right mind would recognize. He hadn’t felt it in a very long time, and why he should feel it now because of a little bit of a woman with the attitude of a guard dog was a total mystery. In the first place Maddie Kincaid was not the type of female he’d ever been attracted to. When he’d been in the market for affaires d’amour he’d liked his women tall, long-legged and sophisticated. Maddie hardly fit the bill.

And yet that tingle was unmistakably present. Not that he would ever do anything about it. Along with his possessing a distinct distaste for the complications of a romantic liaison, Maddie was Mark’s sister. A man with any self-respect and dignity did not lure a friend’s sister into bed just to satisfy a ridiculous tingling in his system.

Besides, Maddie needed medical attention far more than she needed anything personal from him, or any other man.

Still puzzling over Mark and Darcy leaving Maddie alone as they’d done, Noah walked into the hospital. He was ready to leave again in about twenty minutes, this time with his medical bag. It was packed full of items he thought he might need in caring for Maddie, and he was going to care for her. He suspected she’d yell—or try to yell—and that her objections to his even being in the house might make a very long list, but he was not going to let her chase him off. Not only because he’d given his word to Mark to keep an eye on her, but because in his professional opinion Maddie needed more than just a casual now-and-again glance.

Even before actually leaving the hospital, Noah saw the falling snow through some windows. Setting down his bag, he took the gloves from his jacket pocket, pulled them on and then continued his trek to the outside door nearest the physician’s parking area. Outdoors it seemed to be a little warmer than it had earlier and the snow was not yet a heavy downfall. The flakes, which were small and feathery, fluttered to the earth from a pale-gray sky that appeared smooth and almost satiny.

Noah frowned over that upward view. He’d seen that deceptively innocent sky once before since moving to Montana, and it had buried the town in two-to five-foot snowdrifts before blowing itself out. He usually listened to morning radio while showering and dressing, and the snowstorm that had been predicted for several days now had obviously arrived.

Before he reached his vehicle, a powerful gust of wind blew snow in his face, which was one more sign that the encroaching storm might be a true blizzard. Once settled in his SUV with the engine running, Noah checked his bag to make sure he had his cell phone with him. It was a safety precaution that probably wasn’t necessary; electricity and telephone service weren’t always disrupted during a storm.

But he drove away from the hospital feeling better knowing that if the storm got really bad and he happened to get stuck or stranded somewhere he could always call for assistance.

By the time Noah got back to Mark’s house—a ten-minute drive in good weather, about twenty minutes this trip—he was positive that the storm had already turned meaner. If that was really the case, this storm could be one for the books, he thought as he pulled into Mark’s driveway. Carrying his medical bag, he kept his head down and quick-stepped to the house.

Inside he felt as though he’d just stepped into an oven. Setting his bag on a chair, he shed his outdoor gear and found the wall thermostat, which he turned down. Then he hurried to the living room to check on Maddie.

The small lump in the comforter looked as though it hadn’t budged at all in his absence, so Noah cautiously pulled back the top of the blanket to see Maddie’s face. She appeared to be in a deep sleep, but he had to make sure that a nurturing sleep was all that was happening with her. Gently touching her neck just below her jaw with the tips of his fingers, he felt her pulse and took note of the temperature and moisture of her skin. She wasn’t sweating, nor was her skin hot and feverish to the touch. He would let her sleep for the time being.

Carefully returning the blanket to its former position, Noah returned to the kitchen, rolling up the long sleeves of his shirt as he went. He knew he was a neat freak, but he couldn’t help despising dirty dishes. Of course, Maddie had an excuse, he reminded himself while stacking the dishwasher and then wiping down flat surfaces with a clean, slightly soapy dishcloth.

When the kitchen was cleaned and tidy, Noah took his bag and returned to the living room. This time he approached Maddie without caution. Taking out his blood pressure gauge and stethoscope, he sat on the coffee table again, pulled back the comforter and wrapped the pressure cuff around Maddie’s left arm.

Her eyes fluttered opened. “Wha-what’s going on? Oh, it’s you. What are you up to now?”

“I’m taking your blood pressure.”

“I would think a doctor would know enough to let a tired person sleep.”

“You can sleep all you want to after I check you out.”

“You’re not my doctor.”

“I am now. Stay silent for a minute, okay? I can’t hear myself think, let alone what’s going on in that puny little body of yours.”

“My body is not puny! God, talk about a revolting bedside manner.”

“Just shut the hell up!”

Maddie clamped her lips together. Good-looking or not, this guy—what had he said his name was?—was a total jerk, certainly not the kind of man she would ever give a second glance.

Noah removed the blood pressure cuff from her arm, then placed the little round sound receiver segment of the stethoscope on her chest.

“Hey!” Maddie slapped away the instrument. “Just stop it!”

Noah was fast losing patience, something that he wasn’t overloaded with, in any case. He gave his friend Mark’s mouthy little sister a look that was colder than the outside temperature and then asked with equal frostiness, “How many doctors do you know in Whitehorn who would make a house call? Either you let me examine you properly or I swear I’ll call an ambulance and put your butt in the hospital. It’s up to you. Take your pick.”

Maddie tried to scoff away her immediate misgivings with a snappy comeback but it came off pretty weak. “You wouldn’t dare,” she said, and actually felt a chill go up her spine from the icy expression in his eyes.

“Just try me.” He focused the icy glare onto her eyes.

She absolutely, positively would not look away first. “I’m not afraid of you, you know,” she said, realizing at the same time that she was getting angry. She knew that anger without the physical strength to back it up wasn’t very formidable, but common sense wasn’t controlling her at the moment. What ticked her off so much was that this…this cretin doctor thought he was.

Noah was in no mood for foolish bickering, and he spoke flatly, without a dram of warmth. “There’s no reason you should be afraid of me.” Then he added, sounding angry himself, “Good Lord, woman, don’t you know when someone’s trying to help you? What kind of doctors have you been seeing? What kind of people have you been associating with?”

“My friends and doctors are at least recognizable. I haven’t the foggiest notion of what or who you are.” Maddie was literally gritting her teeth. No one told her what to do, no one, and this…this pompous know-it-all wasn’t going to get away with it, either.

“You most certainly do know. I told you my name before and showed you my medical ID, as well.” He could see confusion in her eyes and added, “My name is Noah Martin…Dr. Noah Martin…and I’m Mark’s friend.”

“All right, you’re a doctor, but why should I believe you’re Mark’s friend?”

“Maybe because I have a key to his house?”

He was boxing her in, which only made Maddie angrier.

“There’s no way you could put me in the hospital without my permission,” she said daringly.

“Oh, but there is. If a person is mentally unbalanced because of fever or other symptoms of illness, I have every right to hospitalize her…or him.”

Maddie’s jaw dropped. “I am not mentally unbalanced, you…you retard!”

Noah glared right back at her. “You want me to think you’re a tough little nut, don’t you? Well, you’re not, and I don’t, and what’s more, you are going to get a medical exam today. Now, are you going to let me do what’s necessary or should I phone for an ambulance?”

She was livid, or as livid as she could be under the circumstances. Looking horrible and feeling almost as horrible all but destroyed her normal ability to hold her own in just about any situation. Maddie never looked for a fight—or even a mild disagreement—with anyone, but she’d been a self-sufficient grownup for too long to take orders that went against her grain. It really galled her when Noah Martin folded his arms across his chest and then sat there waiting for her to give in.

“I really hate you,” she said, meaning it heart and soul.

“No, you don’t. You just hate being told what to do.” Maddie couldn’t help being startled, and her wide-eyed expression made Noah grin. “You’ll get over it.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” she snapped. “And don’t you dare laugh at me one more time!”

Noah’s grin vanished. “Fine, I won’t laugh or even smile for the rest of this perfectly delightful day. So, what’s your decision about that examination?”

Maddie hadn’t missed the sarcasm in his voice when he’d called the day “perfectly delightful.” Oddly, the fact that he wasn’t enjoying this fiasco any more than she was made her feel a little less like throttling him, if she had the strength to throttle anything, that is.

“What kind of examination are you talking about?” she asked.

“Let me ask you a question before I answer that. Besides the injuries to your hand and face, were you hurt in any other way? Any other area of your body?”

“If you think for one minute that I’m undressing for you, think again! Now I’m on to your game, buster!”

“Oh, good Lord,” Noah muttered. “I don’t know what kind of accident caused all of this, but to have such screwy ideas you must have landed on your head. Listen to me. I couldn’t care less about seeing you undressed. I’m a doctor, and, speaking professionally, the human body, clothed or unclothed, does not affect me. What I know about your condition so far is just enough to warrant further examination. You’re taking painkillers and running a low-grade temperature. It’s possible that your blood pressure is elevated, but without prior records I can’t be positive of that. At any rate, I need to know…and see…the extent of your injuries, and if that means undressing, then you will undress. I brought a gown from the hospital to make an exam easier for both of us.”

Noah reached into his medical bag for the gown and laid it on the comforter. “Can you get up and change into this by yourself?”

Maddie had become stiff with fury. “This is not a doctor’s office! This is a house, my brother’s house!”

“It’s here or the hospital, Maddie. Take your pick.” Noah spoke quietly, impersonally, firmly. Even though patience had all but vanished from his system—not a new experience for him—he managed to convey professional concern to his patient, which he considered Maddie Kincaid to be at this point. Yes, that ludicrous tingle was still nudging his libido, but he’d go down in flames before doing anything about it.

She crooked her good left arm over her eyes so he wouldn’t see how degraded and defeated she felt.

“Maddie?”

He would phone for an ambulance, the wretch. She knew it as surely as she knew anything, and she was going to have to look him in the eye and admit defeat.

“I’m not getting up with you watching. Wait in the kitchen. I’ll change in the bathroom,” she said dully.

“You do have more injuries than what I can see on your face and hand, don’t you?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, damn you!”

Noah got to his feet. “I’ll wait in the kitchen.” He started to walk away, then stopped for one more thing. “I’d like you to be lying down for the exam. A bed would be better than this sofa.”

“I’m sure it would be much better,” she retorted with a venomous glare.

“Don’t get any silly ideas. This is strictly impersonal for me.”

“Are you married?”

“Uh, no. Why?”

“Because I’d feel better about this…this fiasco if you were!”

Noah was getting very close to giving up on Maddie Kincaid. Not that he’d drive off and just forget about her, but he could probably find another doctor among his peers that would take her case.

He considered doing exactly that, but only for a few moments. No way was Maddie Kincaid going to best him in this. Who was the doctor here, anyhow, certainly not her! Besides, it wasn’t merely an examination of all of her injuries that mattered to him. She mattered, and he could question why she did until doomsday and maybe never know the answer. But he wasn’t leaving her alone in a blizzard that he could hear growling and snarling outside, getting fiercer by the minute. He couldn’t see the storm, however, because the drapes and blinds on every window in the room were tightly closed, which suddenly annoyed the ever-loving hell out of him.

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.