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

bathroom,” she said dully.
    â€œYou do have more injuries than what I can see on your face and hand, don’t you?” he asked quietly.
    â€œYes, 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.”
    â€œI’m sure it would be much better,” she retorted with a venomous glare.
    â€œDon’t get any silly ideas. This is strictly impersonal for me.”
    â€œAre you married?”
    â€œUh, no. Why?”
    â€œBecause 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 shedid 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