Read Online Marked for Marriage by Jackie Merritt - Free Book Online

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?”
    â€œI’m taking your blood pressure.”
    â€œI would think a doctor would know enough to let a tired person sleep.”
    â€œYou can sleep all you want to after I check you out.”
    â€œYou’re not my doctor.”
    â€œI 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.”
    â€œMy body is not puny! God, talk about a revolting bedside manner.”
    â€œJust 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.
    â€œHey!” Maddie slapped away the instrument. “Just stop it!”
    Noah was fast losing patience, something that he wasn’toverloaded 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.
    â€œJust 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?”
    â€œ 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.
    â€œYou 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.”
    â€œAll right, you’re a doctor, but why should I believe you’re Mark’s friend?”
    â€œMaybe because I have a key to his house?”
    He was boxing her in, which only made Maddie angrier.
    â€œThere’s no way you could put me in the hospital without my permission,” she said daringly.
    â€œOh, 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