CHAPTER ONE
NICOLETTE ASHTON’S FATHER was always trying to get her to go out on dates. She loved rocks. Men, not so much. She was an introvert, shy and quiet with people she didn’t know. She had a lovely face, a complexion like peaches and cream with long, soft, platinum-blond hair and eyes the color of a foggy September morning. Her figure was equally pretty. But she refused dates right and left. There was a man in her life. He just didn’t know it. He thought she was too young. Sadly, that didn’t keep her from longing for him.
Because of that, she kept to herself. She’d avoided dating all through college by going out with her girlfriends. But her friends said she needed involvement. They insisted that she needed to get out in the world and date somebody. They meant well. Perhaps she did need to get out more. It wasn’t as if the object of her affections was ever going to reciprocate them.
So as the end of the semester neared, they set her up with this man. She didn’t know him. He wasn’t from Catelow, Wyoming, where she lived on her father’s cattle ranch. Her date was from Billings, Montana, where she went to college. At the moment, she wished she’d never agreed to the blind date.
He was inconsiderate and frankly rude, especially when she insisted on being brought home to the family ranch, instead of going to her date’s apartment. The ranch wasn’t so far away, just about a twenty-minute drive. But Niki knew what was likely to happen if she agreed to go home with the man. However out of fashion it might be among her fellow college students in Billings, she didn’t go with the crowd. Harvey, her date, refused to believe that any girl would refuse his advances. After all, he was a football star at the college both he and Niki attended, and he was very good-looking. He was used to women falling all over him. But Niki wouldn’t.
“You have to be out of your mind,” the young man, Harvey, muttered as he pulled into her driveway and raced up to the front steps of the grand Victorian mansion. “There aren’t any women left in the country who don’t sleep around these days, for God’s sake!”
“There are some. I’m one,” she said. “I agreed to go to dinner with you, Harvey. Only to dinner.”
He made an angry sound in his throat. He pulled up at her door. He studied her in the light from the front porch.
“Your old man home?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she said without thinking. “He had a business meeting. But a friend of his is coming to stay with us for a few days. He should be here any minute.” It was a calculated lie. There was a friend, named Blair Coleman, who owned a multinational oil corporation. Niki had seen him infrequently when he came home with her father. In fact, she’d had a flaming crush on him since she was seventeen, but he treated her like a child. So Blair Coleman was coming to stay. She just wasn’t sure when. “I have to go in,” she added.
“I’ll walk you to the door,” he said. He even went around the car to open her door for her. There was a calculating look on his face, but Niki was too relieved to notice it. She’d unlock the door, go inside and she’d be free.
“Thanks,” she said.
“No problem,” he said, with an odd, smug little smile.
She put her key into the lock, noticing with a frown that it wasn’t needed. The door was unlocked. Maybe her father was home after all.
She turned to tell Harvey good-night and found herself pushed inside the house. He closed the door behind them.
“Now,” he said menacingly, “you frigid little tease! Girls who date me always give out. Always!”
He grabbed her and wrestled her into the living room, down onto the sofa.
Niki was frail from a hospital visit that had left her weak and breathless. Even though she wasn’t a tiny girl, she was slender, and she had no martial arts skills at all. Harvey was a football player, with the muscle that came with the game. He had her on her back on the sofa, her long blond hair fanned around her oval face with its delicate complexion and pale gray eyes. She was flushed from the illness, and breathless from the aftereffects of it. She did fight him, but she knew she’d never get away in time. He was trying to take something from her that should be her right to give. She was furious. Being helpless made her even more angry.
“Let go of me!” she raged. “You idiot! I am not going to let you...!”
“You can’t stop me,” he panted, ripping the bodice of her dress as he held her down with his formidable weight. “And there’s nobody home who can.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t bet good money on that,” a deep, gravelly voice mused from the doorway.
Niki glanced toward the voice. And there he was, larger than life. The reason she never dated. Blair Coleman.
Harvey was just tipsy enough not to realize how much trouble he was in. At least, not until a man the size of a wrestler jerked him off Niki by his collar and slammed him down onto the floor.
“You can’t do that to me! I play football! I’ll put you through the wall!” Harvey raged as he jumped to his feet and went for the big man.
There was a deep chuckle. Harvey’s rush was met with a fist the size of a ham. It inserted itself into Harvey’s diaphragm and sent him to his knees.
While he was trying to recuperate from that, the big man jerked him up by his collar, drew back his fist and knocked the younger man over the back of the sofa that a shocked Niki was still lying on.
“I’ll tell my dad!” the football star raged. “He’s got all sorts of lawyers.”
“I have a few of my own. Get your butt back here and apologize to this girl for what you tried to do,” he added in a voice like a grater.
“I...will not,” the boy faltered.
“Your choice. I don’t really mind involving the sheriff’s department.” He was pulling out his cell phone as he spoke.
“Nicolette, I’m very sorry,” the boy said at once, his face red as he stared at Niki.
She was on her feet by now, clutching her torn bodice together. Her pale eyes were blazing with outraged modesty. “Not as sorry as you’re going to be when I tell my father what you tried to do, Harvey,” she promised. “He has some good lawyers, too.”
“I was drunk!” Harvey exclaimed. He glared at her. “And you can read about yourself on my Facebook page,” he added with a sarcastic smile.
The big man moved closer. Harvey backed up a step.
“Let me give you some advice,” Blair said quietly. “Don’t think about getting even with her online. I’ll have my people checking, just in case. The first time I see anything posted about her, you’d better be on your way out of the country before any of my security people can find you. Are we clear?” he added, his stance as threatening as his deep voice.
“Y-yes. Very clear. Very.”
Blair jerked his head toward the door.
Harvey took the hint. He didn’t quite run for his car. But he got down the driveway in a hurry.
Niki got a better look at her rescuer when he came back from the window, making sure Harvey left.
He was dressed casually, but in designer slacks that clung to his broad, muscular thighs, and an expensive green knit shirt that outlined formidable muscles. He had a broad face with a big nose and a beautiful, wide, chiseled mouth. His complexion was olive. His hair was wavy and jet-black, with a few strands of silver. His eyes were large and black as jet. They were deep set, under thick eyebrows. His feet looked as oversize as his hands. He was very fit for a man his size. There wasn’t an ounce of fat showing anywhere on him. Niki had adored him from the day her father brought him home to visit, years ago. But since she’d been seventeen, there had been no man in her life at all. This one colored her dreams, made her ache for things she couldn’t quite grasp.
“Thanks,” Niki said in her soft voice. “I couldn’t stop him.” Her breathing was jerky and shallow.
He scowled. “You have asthma, don’t you?”
She nodded. “And I’m just getting over pneumonia.” She smiled at him. “Thanks, Mr. Coleman.”
He smiled gently, and the fierce look left his face. “Just Blair,” he corrected. “It’s nice to see you again, Niki,” he added. “Well, I would have preferred different circumstances,” he amended as he looked at her.
She managed a breathy laugh. “Me, too. I’m just glad you were here when I got home.” She was still clutching her dress.
“Did he hurt you?” he asked gently.
“I don’t...think so.”
“Let’s see.” He drew her down on the couch and his big hands moved gently to the torn fabric. “None of that,” he chided when she flushed, mistaking her reaction for shyness when it was actually excitement at the touch of his fingers instead. “I’m way too old to make a pass at a girl your age. Besides, I’m engaged.”
“Oh.” Story of my life, she told herself, that the only man I’m even interested in thinks of me as a child. And he was getting married. She felt her heart break right in two. But she didn’t let it show. She relaxed her death grip on the fabric. “Sorry. I’ve had a bad night.”
“I noticed.” He drew the fabric away from her lacy little bra. But it wasn’t the undergarment he was looking at. It was the bruises on what he could see of her pretty little firm breasts just above the cup of the bra. She had beautiful little breasts. He clamped down hard on feelings he shouldn’t even entertain, especially now. There were more bruises on her thin shoulders. He winced.
“I wish I’d hit him harder,” he said in a cold, biting tone.
“He was so shocked when you showed up,” she recalled with a laugh like tiny bells. “He’s a football star, you know.” She grimaced. “Goodness, I must be an idiot. I didn’t even realize that he felt entitled to anything he wanted in life.”
“Sadly, some men think that way. Turn around, honey.” He moved her so that he could draw the dress down and look at her back. There were more bruises there.
“Is it bad?” she asked.
He drew in a breath and turned her back to him. His black eyes were glittery. “I think we need to take you to the emergency room, and then talk to the sheriff. These bruises are an outrage.”
“It would be my word against his,” she said quietly, searching this big man’s eyes.
“I saw most of it,” he reminded her.
“Yes, but you weren’t with us in the car. He could say I promised him whatever he wanted and then got cold feet.”
He cursed under his breath. “I don’t like letting him get away with this.”
“He’ll be much too busy explaining his bruises,” she said with a flare of humor. “And when I go back to school, I’ll swear to everyone I know that I gave them to him!” she said with a little laugh.
He chuckled. “He’ll be a legend in his own time.”
“Yes, he will,” she promised. She cocked her head and looked at him curiously. “You don’t look like a man who gets into many fights,” she said.
He shrugged and smiled at her. “My...father—” odd how he hesitated on the word, Niki thought “—founded an oil company. He built it into a multinational corporation and groomed me to run it. But his idea of management was to teach me the job from the bottom up. I started out as a roughneck, working on oil rigs.” He pursed his lips. “The boss’s son wasn’t the most popular guy around. Plenty of other men thought I’d be a pushover.”
“I imagine it didn’t take them long to learn the lesson,” she said, smiling up at him.
“Not long, no,” he agreed. “You’ll have bruises, Niki. I’m really sorry.”
“It would have been much worse if you hadn’t been here,” she said. It began to catch up with her and she shivered. “I’ve been on blind dates before, in high school, but nobody ever tried to...” A sob broke from her throat. “Sorry,” she faltered.
He bent and scooped her up in his big arms. He sat down in an armchair and cuddled her in his lap. “Get it out of your system, Niki. I’m not afraid of tears,” he said softly, brushing his mouth over her hair.
She bawled. It was a rare thing, comfort. Her father had never been a physical sort of man. He loved her, but he never kissed bruises or offered much comfort. Like Blair, he was an oilman, and he’d worked on oil rigs in his youth, too. Her mother had died when she was in grammar school, so it had just been her and Daddy, most of her life, here on the enormous cattle ranch he’d inherited from his father. She was nineteen, almost twenty, and this was the first time she’d ever had anybody offer her a shoulder to cry on. Well, except for Edna Hanes, the housekeeper.
She pressed close to Blair’s broad chest and mourned the loss of him. He was going to get married. She’d had this stupid idea that one day she’d grow up enough for him to finally notice her. That was a pipe dream, and it had gone up in ashes tonight. At least, she thought, he’d saved her from that overly muscled brute.
“Poor little thing,” he murmured against her forehead. “I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t know men could be like that,” she said brokenly. “I don’t date much. I like to live in the past. I’d have been right at home in the Victorian age. I don’t...fit in in the modern world.”
“Neither do I,” he confessed. He lifted his head and searched her wet eyes. “Still a virgin?”
She nodded. Oddly, it wasn’t at all embarrassing to talk to him like this. She felt as if she’d always known him. Well, she had, for several years, if distantly. “Daddy took me to church every Sunday until I went off to college,” she confessed. “Some of the other girls at school say I’m stupid to think any man would want to marry an innocent woman. They say I need experience, so I’ll appeal to a man.” She looked at him like a curious little bird. “Is that right?”
He smoothed the damp hair away from her cheeks. She was almost otherworldly. He ached in inconvenient places and chided himself for that reaction to her. She was a child, compared to him, even if she was in college. “I think innocence is a rare and beautiful thing,” he said after a minute. “And that your husband will be a very lucky man.”
She smiled shyly. “Thanks.” She pursed her lips.
“A question?” he teased. “Ask away.”
“Will your wife be a very lucky woman?” she asked outrageously.
He burst out laughing. “No. Emphatically, no.” He searched her shimmering eyes. “You really are a pain, aren’t you?”
She linked her arms around his strong neck. “I truly am.” She smiled at him. “What’s she like, your fiancée?”
“Black hair, blue eyes, beautiful, sophisticated, very artistic,” he summed her up.
“And you love her very much.”
He smiled back. “She’s the first woman I ever asked to marry me. I’ve been too busy making money to think about a private life. Well, about a permanent one, at least.”
“Is she nice?”
He frowned. “What a question.”
“I mean, will she take care of you if you get sick, and stay home and take care of the babies when they come along?” she asked, because she realized if she couldn’t have him, she wanted happiness for him, above all things.
The questions made him uncomfortable. Elise was uncomfortable with illness. She avoided it like the plague. And she’d already said that if she agreed to have a child, there would be a price, and it would be years from now. Why hadn’t he considered that before? In fact, he’d been so busy that he’d fallen into the engagement without much consideration about compatibility or children. He was so hungry for her that he’d have done anything to get her, including getting married. She kept him at fever pitch, always backing away just in time...
“Do you want children?” she asked.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes,” he said, but he sounded troubled.
“Did I put my foot in my mouth?” she prodded when he scowled.
“No. Of course not.” He smiled faintly. “I’d never considered those things. I’m sure she’ll take care of me when I’m sick, though.”
“That’s good, then.” She smiled up at him. “You’ll be a good husband, I think.”
He looked down at the torn dress and winced. “You poor little creature,” he said softly. “I’m sorry you had such a bad night.”
“It ended better than it began,” she replied.
The front door opened and Todd Ashton, Niki’s father, walked in. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his friend and his daughter in the big armchair. Niki was sitting in Blair’s lap. Her dress was torn. And she looked...
“My friend Laura set me up on a blind date with Harvey the Horror,” she told her father, not budging out of Blair’s lap. “He dragged me in here, after I refused to go to his apartment with him, and if Mr. Coleman hadn’t been here to stop him, he’d have...” She stopped, swallowing hard.
“I’ll have my lawyers contact his parents,” Todd said icily.
“I offered to take her to the emergency room and call the sheriff,” Blair sighed. “She wouldn’t.”
“My poor girl,” Todd said, grimacing. “I’m sorry. I should have been home, but this damned budget crunch drew me into an emergency meeting at work.”
“I know how that feels,” Blair agreed. He looked down at the girl in his lap. “Better now?” he asked softly, and he smiled.
“Much better. Thank you for what you did,” she added as she got reluctantly to her feet. It was nice, being held.
He chuckled. “I’m glad to know I haven’t forgotten how to punch a man,” he said.
“You hit him? Good for you!” Todd said shortly.
“I’m going on up,” Niki said wearily. “I really am tired.”
“You shouldn’t have gone back to classes so soon,” Todd said.
“I couldn’t afford to miss finals,” she protested. “I did the last one today. Just before Laura hooked me up with Harvey for a dinner celebration.” She sighed. “Some celebration.”
“When you graduate, Elise and I will take you out for champagne and lobster,” Blair promised.
She forced a smile and tried to pretend that her heart wasn’t breaking. “That won’t be for another year or two, but thanks. That would be nice.”
“Elise?”
“My fiancée,” Blair said with a chuckle. “We’re getting married in two months, in Paris. I’ll make sure you two get an invitation.”
“I doubt we can make it. But I’ll send a present,” Todd said, grinning. “Something tasteful, I promise.”
“Good night,” Niki said.
They echoed the words.
“Damned bounder,” Blair muttered when he and Todd shared snifters of cognac. “I brought him to his knees and made him apologize. She was pretty shaken.”
“I haven’t been much of a father,” the older man confessed. “She’s been on her own a lot. Too much, probably.”
“How old is she?” Blair asked.
“Nineteen. Almost twenty.”
“I remember being nineteen.” The other man chuckled. He put aside the brief hunger he’d felt while Niki was in his arms. She was years too young. And besides, he was getting married. “Back in the Dark Ages. She’s a nice girl. You’ve done a good job raising her.”
“Thanks. And thanks for saving her from the football hero.”
He shrugged. “What are friends for?” he asked, with twinkling black eyes.
* * *
IT WAS A year later when Blair came back to the ranch to spend a few days. He and Todd had seen each other socially on occasion, but he hadn’t come to the ranch since the night Niki had her bad encounter.
He and Elise were having problems. Big problems. He was broody and wouldn’t talk to Todd. But he talked to Niki. It was the Christmas holidays, and the tree was glorious. Despite a few sick days, Niki had managed to do all the decorating herself. The tree was nine feet tall, decked out in red beaded strands and red velvet bows, with every sort of ornament imaginable, especially mechanical ones. There were trains that ran, dancers who danced and starships that made blast-off noises. It was glorious.
“I’ve never had a Christmas tree,” Blair had to confess. “But I’m tempted, after seeing this one.”
Niki laughed softly. “You should have Elise decorate one for you.”
His face closed up. “She’s not much for the holidays.”
She cocked her head and looked up at him with warm, curious eyes. “Aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “I like Christmas. It was my mother’s favorite holiday. She was forever buying decorations. I still have them, in storage.”
“You sound sad,” she said.
“She died over a year ago. It’s been lonely.”
“No brothers or sisters?”
He shook his head. “My...father died ten years ago.” Again, that odd hesitation. “It was just my mother and me.”
“Now it’s Elise and you,” she said, lowering her eyes. “So you still have family.”
“Yes.”
His tone wasn’t pleasant. She wondered why. He’d been so happy the last time they’d seen each other, talking about his upcoming marriage, bragging about his fiancée. And now he was somber, quiet.
“They say marriages sometimes start rocky and end happy,” she blurted out.
He glanced down at her, his black eyes twinkling. “Do they, now?”
“Okay, I’m no authority on couples. You might remember my first and last attempt at that,” she added with a little laugh.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t been out with anyone since,” he said, surprised.
She grimaced. “Well, I was sort of afraid to try again,” she confessed. “I wasn’t sure you’d be around to rescue me when my date brought me home,” she added with a smile. She couldn’t confess that no man in the world could compare to Blair, in her mind or her heart.
He stuck his hands in his pockets. “How did the football hero fare?” he asked.
“He went back East rather suddenly after my father’s attorney had a talk with his father,” she said. “Strange, isn’t it?”
“Very.”
“If he tries it again, I hope the girl’s father belongs to the mob and they find him floating down some river in an oil drum,” she said firmly.
He laughed under his breath. “Vicious girl.”
“You’re right. That wasn’t nice at all. Can you put this on for me? I can’t quite reach.” She indicated a spot high on the tree where she wanted one last red velvet bow.
“You can reach.” He caught her small waist and lifted her easily within reach of the branch. She was so slight, it was like lifting a feather. The feel of her, the scent of her, was disturbing.
She laughed. “You’re awfully strong,” she remarked when he set her down again.
He moved away from her rather quickly. “It comes from wrestling with my board of directors,” he replied drily.
She moved back and looked at the tree. “Will it do, you think?”
“It’s lovely.” He frowned. “Do you and your father have any other family?”
“Not really. He has an aunt, but she lives overseas. He didn’t have brothers and sisters. My mother did, but her only brother died when I was in grammar school.” She looked up at him. “Didn’t Elise want to come with you?” she asked. “I’d love to meet her. I’m sure Daddy would, too.” She was lying through her teeth. She never wanted to meet Elise, if she could help it.
“She’s in Europe with some friends,” he said.
“Oh.” She didn’t really know what else to say. She went back to her decorating.
His voice sounded raspy.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
He drew in a breath and grimaced. “My chest feels a bit tight. I think it’s allergies. I get them this time of year.”
“Me, too,” Niki confessed. “But mine usually lead to pneumonia. I had it in my early teens. I guess it repeats. It’s so unfair. I don’t even smoke.”
“Neither do I,” Blair replied. “People around me do, however. I came here by way of Saudi Arabia. I was coughing before I got on the plane. It’s probably just the allergy.”
She nodded. But he sounded the way she did when she was coming down with a chest infection. Men never seemed to want to admit to illness. Perhaps they thought of it as a weakness.
* * *
BLAIR DIDN’T GET up for breakfast the next morning. Niki was worried, so she asked her father to look in on their guest. She wasn’t at all sure if he wore pajamas, and she didn’t want to walk in on him if he didn’t.
Her father was back in a minute, looking concerned. “I think I’d better ask Doctor Fred to come out and check him. He’s got a fever, and he’s breathing rough. I think it’s bronchitis. Maybe something more.”
Niki didn’t have to ask how he knew. He’d seen her through pneumonia too many times to mistake the symptoms.
“That might be a good idea,” she agreed.
* * *
DR. FRED MORRIS came out and examined Blair, prescribing a heavy cough syrup along with an antibiotic.
“If he isn’t better in three days, you call me,” Fred told Niki’s father.
“I will.”
“And you stay out of his room until the antibiotic takes hold,” Fred told Niki firmly. “You don’t need to catch this again.”
“It might not be contagious,” she protested.
“But it might be. Humor me.”
She managed a faint smile. “Okay, Dr. Fred.”
“Good girl. I’ll be in my office until late, if you need me,” he told her father as they shook hands.
“Okay. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
* * *
NIKI INSISTED THAT her father call Elise and tell her that Blair was sick and needed her. Todd was reluctant, but he badgered Blair until he got the number. He called her.
Niki never knew what was said, but her father came out of his office cold-eyed and angry.
“Is she coming?” she asked.
Her father made a rough sound in his throat. “She said that’s what doctors are for, getting people well. She doesn’t do illness, and she doesn’t want to be exposed to what he’s got anyway. There’s a ball tomorrow night in Vienna. A friend is taking her.”
Niki felt sick to her stomach. What sort of woman had Blair married, for heaven’s sake?
“It’s not our business,” her father reminded her.
“He was so kind to me, when Harvey attacked me,” she recalled. “I thought he’d found a nice woman who’d want to have children and take care of him.”
“Fat chance, that woman ever having a child,” her father scoffed. “It might interfere with her social plans!”
She sighed. “Well, we’ll take care of him.”
“Mrs. Hanes and I will do that, until he’s no longer contagious,” her father emphasized. “I’m not risking you. Don’t even ask.”
She smiled and hugged him. “Okay, Daddy.”
“That’s my girl.” He kissed the top of her head. “Poor guy. If it’s this bad and they’ve only been married a year or so...” He let the rest of the sentence taper off.
“Things might get better,” she said. But she didn’t really believe it.
“They might. Let’s have Mrs. Hanes fix us something to eat.”
“I’ll ask her.”
* * *
EDNA HANES HAD been the Ashtons’ housekeeper for over twelve years. She was as much a mother as a housekeeper to Niki, who adored her. When Niki had her sick spells, Mrs. Hanes was the one who nursed her, even when her father was home. He was a kind man, but he was out of place in a sick room. Not that he’d ever been unkind to his daughter. Quite the opposite.
“She’s not coming, then?” Edna asked Niki about Blair’s wife.
“No. There’s a dance. In Vienna,” she replied with a speaking glance.
Edna made a face. “He’s a good man, Mr. Coleman,” she said, pulling out pans to start supper. “I hate to see him married to someone like that. Wants his money, maybe, and not him, as well, but had to take the one to get the other.”
“He said she was beautiful.”
“Beautiful isn’t as important as kind,” Edna replied.
“That’s what I think, too.”
“Pity you aren’t older, my girl,” Edna said with a sigh.
“Why?” Niki asked, smiling.
Edna forgot sometimes how unworldly the younger woman was. “Nothing,” she said quickly. “I was just talking to myself. How about mincing some onion for me, and I’ll get this casserole going!”
“I’d be happy to help.”
* * *
BLAIR WASN’T DOING WELL. Niki managed to get into his room the next day while her father was out talking to his foreman and Edna went shopping.
His chest was bare, although the covers were pulled up to his diaphragm. He had a magnificent chest, she thought with helpless longing, broad and covered with thick, curling hair. Muscular and manly.
He opened bloodshot, feverish eyes to look at her as she touched his forehead. “You shouldn’t be in here,” he said in a gentle tone. “I might be contagious.”
“I’m not worried. Well, not about me. You should be better by now. When an antibiotic starts working, you can feel the difference.”
He drew in a raspy breath and grimaced. “He gave me penicillin. It usually does the trick.”
“Maybe not this time. I’m calling him right now.”
She went out the door and phoned the doctor.
He was perturbed that she was trying to nurse Blair. “Listen, if you get it again, it might go into pleurisy,” he argued.
“Now, Doctor Fred,” she teased softly, “you know I’ve just finished a course of antibiotics. I’m not likely to pick anything up. Besides, there’s nobody else to do this. Edna has her hands full just with meals, and Daddy’s in the middle of a business deal. Not that he’s a nursely sort of person,” she laughed.
He sighed. “I see your point. Isn’t Coleman married? Where’s his wife? Did you call her?”
“There’s a ball someplace in Europe where she has to go dancing,” she said, the contempt in her voice unmistakable.
“I see.” His tone was noncommittal. “Well, I’ll phone in another prescription, something stronger, and a stronger cough syrup, as well. Try to get some fluids into him. And I don’t want to have you wind up in my office...”
“I’ll be very careful, Doctor,” she promised, thanked him quickly and hung up.
* * *
LATER, SHE SENT one of the ranch’s cowboys into town to get the new medicines, which she’d coaxed out of the poor, harried pharmacist, a friend from high school.
Blair grumbled when she came in with more medicine. “Niki, you’re going to come down with this damned stuff,” he complained.
“Just be quiet and take the nice tablet,” she interrupted, handing him a glass of orange juice with crushed ice.
He frowned. “How did you know I like this?” he wondered.
She laughed. “I didn’t. But I do now. Come on, Blair. Take the pill.” She coaxed his mouth open and dropped the large tablet in.
“Bully,” he muttered in his deep voice.
She only grinned.
He sipped the juice and swallowed. He winced.
“Oh, gosh, it’s acidic. I’m sorry. I’ll get you something less abrasive. Gatorade?” she suggested.
“I’d rather have the juice, honestly. I do wish I had—”
“Some cough drops?” she finished, digging in the prescription bag. “How fortunate that I asked Tex to bring some. And you can have the cough syrup, too.”
She pulled a spoon from her pocket and poured out a dose of the powerful cough syrup the doctor had prescribed.
He took it, his dark eyes amused and affectionate as they met hers. “Your father’s going to raise hell if he catches you in here.”
She made a face at him. “Edna asked me earlier if you’d like something light for dinner. An omelet? She makes them with fresh herbs.”
He hesitated. “I’m not really hungry,” he said, not wanting to hurt Edna’s feelings. He hated eggs.
“I like eggs. We have fresh ones most of the year, when our hens aren’t molting.” She paused, her eyes narrow on his broad, handsome face. “You don’t like eggs, but you don’t want to trouble anyone,” she blurted out. “How about chicken noodle soup instead?”
He laughed. “Damn. How did you figure that out?”
“I don’t know,” she said honestly.
“I’d really rather have the soup, if it’s not too much trouble,” he confessed. “I hate eggs.”
She grinned. “I’ll tell Edna.”
He studied her soft face with narrow, thoughtful eyes. “When do you start classes again?”
“January,” she replied. “I’ve already decided what I’ll take.”
“How do you get back and forth when the snows come?” he wondered.
She laughed. “Dad has one of the boys drive me back and forth. We have a cowboy who grew up in northern Montana. He can drive through anything.”
“It might be more sensible to get you an apartment near campus,” he said.
“I don’t like being on my own,” she said quietly.
He reached out a big hand and tangled her fingers in it. “All men aren’t animals, Niki.”
She shrugged. “I suppose not. I keep thinking what would have happened if you hadn’t been here that night.”
His face tensed. So did he. She was so fragile. Like a hothouse orchid. It bothered him that she was in here risking her own health to nurse him while his wife was off having a wild time in Europe and couldn’t be bothered to call him, let alone look in on him.
He’d never told Niki why he’d really married Elise. It had less to do with who she was than who she resembled. He’d just lost his mother, whom he’d adored, and Elise looked just like her. She’d come up to him at a party while he was grieving, and he’d fallen for her at first sight. Elise looked like his mother, but without her compassion and soul. Niki, oddly, reminded him more of her even than Elise, although Niki’s coloring was very different. Elise had the compassion of a hungry shark.
“You’re very quiet,” she commented.
He smiled gently. “You’re a nice child,” he said softly.
“I’m almost twenty-one,” she protested.
“Honey, I’m almost thirty-seven,” he said, his voice deep with tenderness.
“Really?” She was studying him with those wide, soft gray eyes that were silvery in the soft light of the bedside lamp. She smiled. “You don’t look it. You don’t even have gray hair. Don’t tell me,” she mused wickedly. “You have it colored, don’t you?”
He burst out laughing and then coughed.
“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry,” she said at once, wincing. “I shouldn’t have opened my mouth!”
He caught his breath. “Niki, you’re a breath of spring,” he said. “No, I don’t color it,” he added. “My father was from Greece. His hair was still black when he died, and he was in his sixties.” He didn’t tell her that his real father was from Greece. He didn’t know or care where his stepfather, the man who’d raised him, came from.
“I remember my grandfather...”
“What in the blazes are you doing in here?” Todd ground out when he saw Niki sitting on the bed beside Blair.
“Well, darn, caught in the act,” Niki groaned.