Marked For Marriage. Jackie Merritt

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