скачать книгу бесплатно
A wave of heat rolled through him and brought him back to reality with a thud. Damn! What was the matter with him? He was behaving more like a lusty teenager than an analytical physician who knew exactly what he did and didn’t want in his life.
He definitely did not want Kirsten Reinhold! She would be a surefire impediment to his peace of mind.
Coralie and Jim were describing their wedding to Kirsten, and Sam jumped into the conversation at the first opportunity. “Coralie was so disappointed when you were unable to be maid of honor,” he told Kirsten. “She said you were ill.”
Kirsten nodded. “Yes, I was. It started with flulike symptoms that I couldn’t seem to shake. I kept on working until one day I could hardly crawl out of bed, and then I went to the doctor. By that time it had gone into pneumonia, complicated by attacks of asthma. I was in and out of the hospital for more than a month.”
Concern and impatience warred in Sam as she talked. “Good Lord, woman,” he growled. “You’re a nurse. You must have known better than to ignore an illness that severe.”
He saw an answering impatience in her snapping brown eyes. “You’re right, Doctor, but tell me something. How long does it take you to seek medical advice when you’re sick?”
She had him there. “It doesn’t apply to me. I’m a physician,” he said evasively. “I can diagnose my own illnesses. Besides, I’m never sick.”
“Neither am I,” she drawled, “and as a nurse I recognized the symptoms of viral influenza, but in the beginning they are also symptoms of a bad cold, and that’s what I thought I had. By the time I realized it was more serious, I had pneumonia along with it.”
He frowned. “And the asthma? Is it chronic?”
She shook her head. “I never had it before in my life. At least, not that I know of. My doctor says I probably did, but like this time always thought it was a cold. Anyway, I had to take two courses of antibiotics to clear up the pneumonia, and steroids for the asthma.”
He wished she wouldn’t bait him to anger and then make him feel like a brute when he responded. “And did they clear up the pneumonia and the asthma? Are you well now?”
She nodded, but still kept her eyes downcast. “Yes.”
He had an overwhelming desire to put his fingers under her chin and lift her face so she would have to look at him, but he didn’t trust himself to touch her. “Then your doctor has given you a clean bill of health?”
Apparently she was going to make him pull the information out of her a word or sentence at a time.
“Not quite.” She spoke in little more than a whisper. “My immune system has been weakened, and he won’t give me an okay to go back to work until next month.”
Relief washed through Sam, and he tried for a lighter tone. “You have a smart physician. No doubt he told you to get plenty of rest and not to exert yourself?”
She did look up at him then and smiled. “Well, not exactly. What he said was to absorb plenty of sunshine and fresh air, but Eureka is on the ocean and the climate is damp and chilly most of the time—even in the summer. Coralie and Jim offered me the use of Jim’s dad’s house while he’s gone, so I’m looking forward to breaking some horses and plowing the back forty.”
She laughed and everyone laughed with her, but Sam wasn’t altogether sure she was teasing.
Although the company was great and the conversation stimulating, by ten o’clock Sam was bone weary. It had been a long, busy, emotion-filled day, and if by some miracle he wasn’t wakened during the night by a phone call he still had early appointments in the morning.
Besides, he could see that Kirsten was as exhausted as he. She’d only arrived this morning from California, which meant that she must have been on the road for the better part of three days. He would bet his practice her doctor hadn’t approved that trip!
At the next break in the conversation he stifled a yawn and stood up. “I hate to break up the evening,” he said with real regret, “but if you’ll excuse me I’m going home to try for a couple of hours’ sleep before someone else’s cow has an obstetrical emergency.”
They all laughed and stood up, too. “It’s past my bedtime, also,” Kirsten said. She was standing next to him, so close that the back of his hand brushed her skirt and sent tingles up his spine. “I’ll help you with the dishes,” she said to Coralie, “and then I’m going to the cottage.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Coralie admonished. “The girls have already cleared the table. All I have to do is stack the dishwasher, but since you left your car at Buck’s and walked over, I’ll drive you back to his house first. You do look tired.”
“I’ll drop her off,” Sam offered. After all, it was the polite thing to do, so why did his instinct warn him to shut up and leave? Let someone else take this cuddly kitten to her bedroom. He didn’t want her sharp, little claws digging into him.
“That’s not necessary,” Kirsten protested. “It’s only about a block away. I can walk—”
“No you can’t, city girl,” Sam said, totally ignoring his better sense. “You’re not in town now. There are no street-lights, and you can’t wander around a strange rural area in the dark.” He eyed her feet. “Especially not in those high heels.”
She knew he was right and didn’t resist when he took her arm and turned them toward the door. “I’ll deliver you to your house. I don’t want to be called out in the middle of the night to set your broken bones after a fall on this rough terrain.”
After friendly good-nights and thank-yous, Sam put Kirsten in his damaged car and within seconds they arrived at her destination. He shut off the motor and escorted her up to the house in the dark.
Kirsten was having second thoughts about her earlier attitude toward him. They’d both been rattled by the collision and had lashed out at each other in anger, without either giving the other the benefit of the doubt.
Since Sam and Jim were almost as close as brothers, she knew it would cause a lot of tension and dissension if she and Sam spent the next month sniping at each other. It was time for them to have a private talk and try to banish their animosity toward one another.
“Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?” she asked as she inserted her key in the lock.
Sam was surprised by the invitation. Her voice was low and husky, and the wave of heat he’d felt earlier returned in force.
Would he? Damn right he would! And so would any other hot-blooded man she issued the invitation to. Was she coming on to him? Had she decided to play along with Coralie’s matchmaking scheme for them after all?
No, he couldn’t believe that. She seemed rather naive. She probably didn’t realize what a late-night invitation like that so often implied. “Thank you, but may I take a rain check? You need your rest, and so do I.”
That was a laugh. She’d just blown any thoughts of sleep out of the water for him.
The moon was bright enough that he could see her expression. She looked neither surprised nor disappointed as she opened the door. Instead she cleared her throat and said, “I noticed that Mr. Buckley’s well-stocked cupboards include coffee, tea and cookies,” she said flirtatiously.
Damn it, she was coming on to him. His stomach muscles clenched in a combination of interest and anger. He hadn’t been so wrong about her this morning after all. Apparently she was going to play Coralie’s game and look for a husband while she was here.
Well, he wasn’t going to be titillated into marriage by any woman. “Kirsten, we have to talk.” He tried to keep the anger out of his tone, but he wasn’t succeeding.
He could see that she looked pleased. “All right, but let’s go inside. We’d be more comfortable in the house than standing out here on the doorstep.”
He sighed. She obviously wasn’t going to make this easy for him. She must know that she had the power to convince him she was innocent of any wrongdoing even as she seduced him, and apparently she intended to use it. Fortunately, he wasn’t as gullible as she thought.
“I’m sure we would be,” he grated. “It would also make it easier for you to entice me into believing anything you wanted me to, but you might as well give up. I have no interest in getting married, either now or in the future.”
This time she did react, and he had to give her credit for being a skilled actress. She truly looked dismayed and uncomprehending. “I don’t—” she exclaimed, but he cut her off.
“Please, Kirsten, I know all about Coralie’s plan to get you and me together. She thinks everyone has to be married to be truly happy, and since she found her true love through a personal ad she’s decided to help you in your quest for a husband by being your matrimonial agent. What I can’t figure out is why you’d go along with it. It’s hard to believe that you can’t find a husband on your own.”
She gasped and blinked those expressive brown eyes. “I’m not looking for a husband,” she protested vehemently. “And if I were I wouldn’t need anyone’s help finding one. I’m aware of what she’s up to, and I’ve told her I’m not interested, but if you knew Coralie as well as you think you do you’d know that she’s not easily dissuaded. She has only the best of intentions and I don’t like to be rude, so I just let her prattle on and ignore all her well-meant advice.”
She sounded so indignantly sincere that his first impulse was to back down and apologize, but that was exactly what she wanted. She even fluttered her long, thick eyelashes to make him think she was blinking back tears.
He drew a deep breath and hardened his resolve. “You’re good. You really are,” he said. “For a while there tonight you actually had me believing that you were as resistant to the interference as I am, but then you made the mistake of trying to seduce me.”
He saw the flush of heat that turned her face red, but he was too late to deflect the full cutting force of her rage. “Why you arrogant bastard!” Her voice was low and filled with scorn. “Since when does an invitation to come in for coffee after a pleasant evening translate into a roll between the sheets? If that’s been your experience, then the women around here must be awfully hard up for a man.”
Sam winced. It was obvious that he’d made another horrendous mistake in judgment, but she wasn’t about to let him explain and apologize.
She turned toward the open door. “I won’t tell Jim about this because I don’t want to cause any trouble between you, but I’m going to tell Coralie in no uncertain terms that I don’t like you and do not want her to pair us together again. I’ll make every effort to see to it that we don’t run into each other for the duration of my stay here, and I expect you to do the same.”
She walked into the house and slammed the door behind her.
Chapter Three (#ulink_19a46349-da91-5c99-8e4c-a3b879176be8)
Kirsten was wakened the following morning by a loud, piercing noise that brought her to a sitting position before she even had her eyes open.
What on earth was that? She blinked to chase away the sleep-induced fog and looked at her watch. Five o’clock! What was waking her up so early? It was barely light out.
The combination screech and yodel sounded again, but this time she recognized it as the crow of a rooster. She ran her fingers through her hair and snuggled back down into the comfortable double bed in the guest room of Buck Buckley’s house.
It was a nice room, small but clean and starkly furnished in strictly male decor. A brass lamp and a serviceable alarm clock sat on the bedside chest, and a large framed print of a Remington cowboy scene hung on the dark wood wall above the bed. Directly across the room was a double chest of drawers with a wide mirror.
Kirsten sighed and closed her eyes again as the rooster continued to crow. She’d been exhausted when she went to bed the night before, but also too wrought up to sleep.
Damn Sam Lawford anyway! He’d had her totally off balance ever since their cars had collided. He’d made her feel alternately scared, guilty, anxious, angry, sorry and incompetent, and that was just in the half hour they’d spent together right after the accident.
She’d managed to calm down after arriving at the Buckley home, seeing her dear friend, Coralie, again and being welcomed into the bosom of her family. It had been so exciting that she’d even forgotten to report the accident to her insurance company, but then Dr. Sam had shown up and set her off again.
The man seemed to know exactly which buttons to push to scramble her wits! They’d finally gotten that confrontation untangled and were making friendly conversation and getting acquainted when he’d delivered her to her door and dropped that final bombshell.
Kirsten groaned and turned on her stomach to bury her face in the pillow and try to shut out the memory. Never had she been so mortified, or so furious, all at the same time. She wouldn’t have believed there was room in her 125-pound body to contain such a storm of emotion.
How could he have misunderstood her friendly overture so completely? All she’d intended was to have a quiet chat over a cup of coffee, so they could iron out any remaining wrinkles in their ill-fated friendship. She’d figured she owed him that much since she was guilty of damaging his expensive car. What had she said or done to make him think she was trying to seduce him?
Either he was an egomaniac or an idiot, and she suspected it was both!
Rolling onto her back again she stretched both arms over her head. She’d been so upset when she went to bed the previous night that she hadn’t been able to sleep. Instead she’d tossed and turned for an hour or so, then got up and rummaged through Buck’s bookcase for something to read. She’d had a choice of mystery or western, and since she’d already read all the mysteries on Buck’s shelves she settled for a shoot-’em-up western novel and read until one o’clock before her eyelids got heavy and began to close.
Now that pesky rooster was letting her know that it was time for any self-respecting farmer to be up and about. That apparently also included his wife, his children and any guests who might be lurking about. With a sigh she pushed aside the covers and more or less tumbled out of bed.
She had to have a private chat with Coralie, ASAP.
At about the same time six miles away in Copper Canyon, Sam rolled over in bed and shut off the blaring alarm clock. He was sorely tempted to lie back down and rest for just a few minutes before he got up, but he knew better than to do that.
After making a jackass of himself the previous night and insulting Kirsten, he’d tossed and turned for hours before finally falling asleep. Now he felt like a horse who’d been “rode hard and put away wet.” If he dozed off he would oversleep, and then he would be running to catch up with his schedule all day and into the night.
With a moan he forced himself out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. Years earlier when he was an intern he’d learned to brush his teeth, shave and dress while still half-asleep, and now it was more or less routine.
As he guided the electric razor over his bristly face his mind returned to the debacle with Kirsten the night before. He felt like a fool, which wasn’t surprising because he was a fool. Why else would he have been so quick to jump to the conclusion that she was trying to get him into bed when all she’d offered was coffee and cookies?
The question was rhetorical because he already knew the answer. It was her voice. That low, sexy pitch that sent shivers down his spine. That was a come-on. It had to be.
Then again she’d cleared her throat directly after she’d spoken, and she’d recently been dangerously ill with a viral infection that could easily have affected her pharynx. Her voice could have been husky because the night air still impaired her vocal quality.
He slapped the heel of his hand against his forehead and glared at himself in the mirror.
Idiot! How come that thought just occurred to you? You’re a doctor. You’re supposed to be the expert on such things. Why didn’t you figure that out last night before you opened your mouth and stuffed your foot in it?
His shoulders slumped and he turned off the razor as he muttered a barnyard oath. What was the matter with him? Why did he talk like a braying ass every time he tried to carry on a conversation with her? Nobody liked to be embarrassed by a slip of the tongue, but his tongue didn’t just slip when he talked to Kirsten. It pitched and bucked and landed him flat on his backside.
Even more important, why did it matter so much to him? He didn’t even know her. All told they’d only been together four and a half or five hours at the most. She was nothing to him but a damn nuisance, and still he felt sick when he remembered the pain and contempt in her tone as she’d delivered that last scathing and well-deserved tonguelashing to him.
No woman since Belinda had been able to hurt and upset him so deeply, and that terrified him more than anything else that had happened. He’d vowed never to set himself up for that much agony again, and up to now he’d never allowed a woman to get close enough to try. It was obvious to him that he couldn’t handle a busy medical practice and a deeply committed love affair at the same time. It had to be one or the other, and he had to make a living. Besides, his medical practice could never betray him the way a lover could.
Still, he had to apologize to Kirsten. He could never square it with his conscience if he didn’t. As soon as he had a few minutes free he would call her, tell her how sorry he was for insulting her and try to persuade her to have dinner with him as a parting gesture. A way to try to soften some of the justifiable contempt she felt for him.
For some reason it was important to him that she not always remember him as an insensitive clod.
By eight o’clock breakfast had been served at the Buckley farm, and Jim and the hired man who was replacing Buck while he was gone had left to do whatever it was they did in the fields. Amber and Gloria were still asleep, and Coralie and Kirsten were taking a breather and having a second cup of coffee at the table in the kitchen.
Kirsten wanted to talk to Coralie about Sam, but she hoped to lead up to it gradually, instead of tackling the thorny subject head-on. The problem was she couldn’t think of a way to do that, so she just asked the first question that came to mind. “What time do your stepdaughters wake up?”
Coralie chuckled. “During the school year they have to get up when Jim and I do, so we negotiated a compromise for the summer vacation. I’ve assigned each of them chores around the house that must be completed every day, but as long as they keep up with them I let them sleep as late as they want to in the mornings. So far it’s working out beautifully.”
Kirsten was surprised. “How did you get so knowledgeable about handling teenagers? As I remember from your letters, they were pretty undisciplined when you first came here.”
Coralie shuddered. “That’s an understatement, but I just think back to when I was their age and remember how I felt. Besides, they’re at a time in life when their bodies are growing and changing so fast that they need a lot of sleep.
“Jim’s daughters are very bright and mature. They’re always open to suggestions, it’s only orders they resist. But, hey, we’ve got much more exciting things to talk about than adolescent discipline.” Her eyes twinkled, and a happy smile lit her face. “I’m dying to know how you liked Sam. Did you let him kiss you good-night when he took you home?”
Kirsten sighed and took a big swallow of her coffee. She’d known Coralie would be hoping to hear that Kirsten and Sam had fallen in love at first sight, and preferably that they’d already started making wedding plans.
She hated to dash Coralie’s dream of negotiating a match made in heaven. Actually, now that there was no longer even the remotest possibility of such a thing happening, Kirsten realized that deep down she’d been more open to the idea than she’d been willing to admit, even to herself. It could have been great to live in a small country village as the wife of the town’s handsome doctor.
But not this town’s doctor! No way! Obviously Coralie didn’t know that Jim’s friend was a self-centered egotist who assumed that every woman he dated was panting to get him into bed.
Just thinking about it started her adrenaline pumping and gave her the energy to tackle the sensitive subject. “Coralie, we need to talk,” she said carefully.
“I know. So talk,” Coralie answered eagerly. “What did you think of him? Isn’t he a hunk?”
“Oh, he’s a hunk, all right,” Kirsten agreed.
“Did he ask you to go out with him?” Coralie obviously hadn’t caught the sarcasm in Kirsten’s tone.
“No, he didn’t, and if he had I’d have said no,” she answered starkly. Apparently there was no polite way she could make Coralie understand that her matchmaking was unwelcome, and Kirsten was through pussyfooting around.
Coralie’s eyes widened. “But why? Are you two still upset over that accident? Surely you can put that behind you—”
“No, it’s not that,” Kirsten interrupted. “I’m sorry but I just don’t like the man and he doesn’t like me, either.”
Coralie looked stunned. “But I don’t understand. You’re both such nice people. How could you not like each other? What happened—”
Kirsten watched as her friend stopped in midsentence and her expression turned from puzzlement to shock. “Kirsten, he didn’t try to—”
“No!” Oh Lord, this conversation was getting totally out of hand. She couldn’t let Coralie think Sam had gotten rough or physical with her. “No, Coralie, he didn’t try anything. He never laid a hand on me. Actually, sex is the last thing he’d want of me. I don’t turn him on, that’s for sure.”
Coralie shook her head in disbelief, but Kirsten hurried on. “We did quarrel, but it was strictly verbal. Like I told you, we’re just not compatible, and I’m afraid I have to insist that you forget about the matchmaking. Not only with Sam but with any man. I came here to visit you and your new family, not to find a husband. Please, honor my wishes.”
“Well, of…of course I will if that’s what you want.” Coralie sounded dazed. “I’m so sorry—” Her sentence was cut short by the sound of feet clopping down the stairs just before Amber bounded into the room.
“Good morning,” she said cheerfully. “Any chance of getting some breakfast?”