His Perfect Woman (Harlequin Superromance) (17 page)

H
AL WAS GETTING
tired of fielding complaints from Taylorsville's citizens and city officials because he and his men had been unable to catch the druggie breaking in and abusing the elderly before stealing their medications.

October had ended with cold temperatures, and now bits of snow flew through the November air and dusted the ground. Maybe they'd have a white Christmas. In this part of southern Ohio, Christmas could be snowy and cold, or balmy and warm.

He spotted a flash of light at the side of a house a ways off the road. Slowing, he waited patiently and sure enough, the light came again. Near a window. Calling for backup, he drove up the grass-spotted asphalt driveway. The moment he opened the door, he heard screams and shouting from inside.

Hal pulled his gun from his holster and ran for the door. “Police, open up!” He paused for a split second when the screams turned into terrified sobs, and it took four kicks to the well-made door before it finally flew inward with a crash.

He moved inside cautiously, listening, trying to stay shielded. Hands grabbed hold of his legs, startling him, and he swore when he realized he'd nearly stepped on the homeowner lying on the floor.

“Help me,” Mrs. McCleary begged. “Please. He hurt Richard. He hurt my Richard.” Sobs ripped through the woman clinging to him. “Don't leave us. Please don't leave.”

Tires squealed from somewhere outside the house, and Hal bit back a curse. So close. He holstered his weapon and bent. “Where's Richard?”

 

“Q
UIT WORRYING
.”

“I
can't,
” Ashley murmured in response to her husband's order. “I'm nervous for her. The fund-raisers have covered the basics, but it's going to take a lot more money to complete the clinic and Melissa's worked hard getting donations to auction. What if people don't bid? She'll be so disappointed if tonight isn't a success. Bryan, too.”

Bryan closed the distance between him and his friends, humbled that Ashley cared so much about him and Melissa, and entertained by Joe's tie-strangled appearance.

“Ashley won, huh?”

Ashley turned with a smile. “Hi, Bryan. Don't get him started again, please? I told Joe I had to see him in a tux at least once, and after discovering there was a band, I insisted it be tonight.”

“Yeah, thanks for doing this,” Joe drawled with sarcasm, but the look in Joe's eyes when he looked at his wife said he didn't mind as much as he let on. Possibly because Ashley wore a bright red, cleavage-baring dress that showed off her lush figure and dark hair to perfection. Melissa's comment about a woman's chest being the first thing men notice rang in his head, and Bryan made a conscious effort not to look.

“Everything looks so romantic.” She tilted her head to one side, her expression thoughtful. “Who are you here with?”

Joe turned his head as though scanning the crowd, murmuring, “Subtle,” near his wife's ear. He couldn't blame her. The past month had been a steady ebb and flow, trying to earn Melissa's trust only to have her shy away.

“I'm not here with a date.”

After months of working with Melissa, teasing her, flirting with her and having her falling asleep on his couch twice only to wake up and bolt for the door, he was starting to believe he
was
losing his touch. He'd become a recluse who rarely left the office except to visit his granddad. Offers he wasn't interested in continued to come his way, but in the mood he'd been in of late, they were fewer and farther between. Not that he minded. Only one woman appealed.

“Looks like someone else is dateless. Imagine that.”

Prodded by Ashley's announcement, Bryan turned. Standing in the doorway of the Baxter Grand Marquis Hotel's ballroom stood Melissa. She wore a shimmery ice-blue gown held in place with thin straps at her shoulders. From there the gown draped over her chest in long layers, a slit dipping low, nearly to her stomach, revealing a kiss-provoking V of skin between her—

Bryan scowled. The draped front was enough to make Melissa's lack of breasts a nonissue, at least where her attire was concerned, but it also made a man want to tug the strap from her shoulder and feel her skin.

“Wow. Doesn't she look wonderful?”

Wow
was right. Melissa turned to say something to a member of the hotel staff, and Bryan fought the urge to remove his jacket and place it over her shoulders. Like the front, the V dipped low in back, this time all the way to the small of her back.

“Where did she get that dress?”

Ashley laughed at his tone. “That little ol' thing? I helped her find it online. Gorgeous, isn't it?”

“Nathan thinks so,” Joe added.

Bryan focused on the officer moving toward Melissa. Uncaring about the gossip it would incite, he crossed the room in hurried strides and reached Melissa first, but only because Nathan had been held up by Melissa's father.

The chief caught his eye and Bryan nodded once in thanks. Then he grasped her arm in a light grip and brushed her mouth with a kiss. Let Nathan, Hal and the rest of the town interpret that. He was staking a public claim for all to see and see it they did. Melissa's wasn't the only gasp he heard.

“Bryan, what are you
doing?
”

He smiled into her upturned face. “Saying hello. You look absolutely amazing.”

“Thank you.” The silvery shadow on her eyelids sparkled when she looked down. “But you've got to stop saying things like that—and doing…
that
.”

“I mean it, why not say it?” He lifted her face with a hand under her chin. “And do it? You're beautiful and I want you.
All
of you. And if you'll let me, I'll take you upstairs and prove it. So…will you?”

“Will she what?” Hal asked from nearby, his voice a low grumble.

Melissa jerked away from him and backed up a step. “Um…nothing. Bryan was just—just…”

“I was just telling Melissa how amazing she looks.”

“The doc's right about that,” her father agreed. “You look great, Mel.”

She kept her attention focused on her father and tried to breathe. “Thank you. You're looking pretty handsome yourself all dressed up.”

Her dad patted Ellen's hand and the two exchanged a look. “Mel, you've got the week off with the groundbreaking coming up, and Ellen and I would like to invite you over for lunch or dinner. Will you come?”

She'd concentrated so hard on getting ready for the auction, scheduling the event so that the gala kicked off Baxter's Winter Festival of Lights, she'd almost forgotten about being off all next week. Bryan closed his practice for a week every spring and summer, and since he'd missed his summer vacation due to the problems at the office, he'd planned a winter break instead to coincide with the groundbreaking.

“Oh…well, thanks, but—”

“Don't say no. Just think about it.”

“We would both like to see you.” Ellen's smile appeared strained. “I'd like to get to know you better, Melissa, and…um—oh, no. Please excuse me!”

Melissa watched as Ellen turned and ran toward the exit behind her, a hand over her mouth. Bryan, her dad and she followed Ellen, but all of them came to an abrupt stop outside the well-marked ladies' room.

Her father began to pace, his expression anxious. “She gets sick when she gets nervous,” he muttered darkly. He looked at her, at Bryan. Glanced at his watch and then at the door once more.

“I'm sure she's fine, Chief.”

“The doc says it's all the hormones, but she gets dizzy sometimes and…” He stared at Melissa, but when she didn't move, her father headed purposefully toward the door.

A woman emerged, her shock at seeing a man about to enter apparent. “That's the ladies' room.”

“I can read.”

The woman sniffed and stuck her nose in the air. “Then you know you
can't
go in there,” she said before tottering away. Every few seconds she looked back to make sure he hadn't budged.

“I'll go,” Melissa murmured reluctantly.

His shoulders sagged with relief. “Thank God. Get in there, and let me know if she's okay.”

Bryan smiled at her. “I'll take the chief and go find Ellen some water. We'll be right back if you need us.”

She nodded and watched their broad shoulders head back toward the ballroom. “Traitors.” Inhaling, she entered the restroom and wrinkled her nose at the unmistakable sound of retching. She spied a stack of paper towels and grabbed a bunch, dampening them with cold water before locating the only closed stall. “Ellen?”

By then the retching had stopped, and she heard a few quiet gasps, sniffles. The toilet flushed, and moments later an extremely pale Ellen opened the stall door. She flushed when she saw Melissa standing there, the color in her cheeks stark against her sickly white skin.

“Here, I thought maybe they'd help.” She waited until Ellen accepted the towels before she put her arm around the woman's shoulders and led her over to the lounge area. She could feel Ellen trembling. “Sit down. Bryan and Dad went to get you some water, but they'll be here soon.”

Ellen's lips lifted up at the corners. “Your father will probably barge in here and scare someone off.”

“Actually, he already tried. Don't be surprised if security is outside when we leave,” she joked.

Ellen's rueful chuckle sounded hoarse and weak. “Melissa—”

“Ellen—”

“Wait. Me, first,” Ellen insisted. “I'm feeling better, but I don't know how long it'll last before…” She waved a hand toward the stalls.

Melissa nodded, praying this talk would go better than their last, and knowing she had to do something to end the tension among all of them. It was time to grow up and face the decision her father had made. Past time. She wasn't a child anymore and she couldn't view her father's marriage from that perspective. She had to face it like an adult, see it like an adult. “Okay.”

“I—I can't
stand
the thought of you hating me or my baby,” Ellen murmured, lowering her eyes when they flooded with tears. “I don't want that at all.”

“Ellen, I don't hate you, or my little brother or sister.” The rush to reassure her father's wife was there, automatic, but not insincere. “It's just been a surprise, the suddenness of it, but I'm—” she sighed “—getting used to it.”

“I understand that.” Ellen's expression turned sheepish. “Believe me, I understand. I'd long ago given up hope of ever having my own family and contented myself with my work. Now I have a—a stepdaughter and a baby on the way. It's very overwhelming.” She folded the unused towels and placed them on the back of her neck.

“Guess Dad hovering around all the time probably isn't helping much, huh? I mean, he's great, but he defines stubborn.”

Ellen laughed softly, nodding. “Oh, most definitely. That man, when he decided we were going to date, I couldn't turn him down. Although I tried at first.” She leaned against the overstuffed cushions with a dreamy smile, her eyes closed. “He made me forget all about my protests.”

“My dad?”

She nodded, raising her lids to look at her. “Your dad. Then I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else, much less alone.”

“What changed your mind?” she asked, thinking of Bryan and the way he looked at her.

Ellen blushed and lowered her lashes again, her expression turning so winsome and revealing, Melissa couldn't look away despite her shock.

“I was in his office one day going over a few things and he kissed me. It was a surprise to say the least. I think for him, too. But he took my breath away, and I knew then and there he—he meant what he said. He didn't look at me like some men view a widow—” she scrunched her face up in a telling grimace “—but like a woman. I couldn't say no and he knew it, the devil. I didn't stand a chance after that.”

A knock sounded at the door followed by her father's urgent, worried call from the other side. Melissa rose and opened the door. Her dad saw Ellen and stalked inside without hesitating. Melissa held the door and watched the tender concern her dad showed Ellen. The way he fussed until he knew she was okay, then teased her about upchucking in a fancy hotel.

“Come on,” Bryan murmured, his lips close to her ear. “Let's leave them alone. The auction is about to start.”

She nodded, not looking at him, her thoughts buffeted by a sea of emotions that threatened to drag her under. Emotions that made her think Bryan could keep her afloat.

Had he meant what he'd said earlier? Would he really take her upstairs and make love to her? More important—did she have the courage to find out?

 

T
HREE HOURS LATER
the local auctioneer left the stage, grinning from ear to ear at a job well done. The man had vol
unteered his services and auctioned off everything from dental visits and landscaping, to restaurant dinners, gift baskets, golf-club memberships and a car from a local dealership. In typical auction style, the per-plate attendees laughed at the auctioneer's not-so-funny jokes and outbid each other with competitive glee.

Before that, Bryan and Melissa had stood onstage and given out awards for the generous donations of some of the businesses. Then, to honor the man of the evening, Melissa had surprised him and his granddad both with a photo presentation using the many pictures displayed throughout his grandfather's home. Only a handful had been used for advertising, but Bryan had watched the show with everyone else, his gut tight, hand clenched on the untouched drink he held because so many of the pictures included him and his granddad together.

And then he realized what Melissa had done. Three hundred of Taylorsville and Baxter's citizens watched him grow up on screen. Most of the pictures had been taken during the three consecutive summers he'd spent there, others from visits made over the years, summers and holidays and special occasions. Melissa had showcased Granddad's travels and adventures during the lack of photos of Bryan's teenaged years, but no one seemed to notice. All they saw was that he was one of them, not an outsider, but the next generation of Taylorsville's family physician.