The Lady Who Lived Again. Thomasine Rappold
She stared stunned through her hazy arousal before he turned her toward the door and sent her through it. Maddie stepped outside into the sunlight and wandered along Main Street, her brain still encased in a velvet fog. People passed, trailing whispers, but she paid them no heed. She’d had a productive day. She’d return home with a new job, a fiancé to escort her to Amelia’s wedding, and the greatest kiss of her life.
Chapter 5
Jace closed the door behind Maddie, whistling a breath through his teeth. Damn. He’d kissed her as punishment for implicating him in her ridiculous lie, and instead, he was the one feeling flogged. Her passion had taken him by surprise. Shaking his head, he smiled at the way she’d come flouncing into his home with the intention of seducing him. Madeline Sutter had flirted her way out of trouble before. That much was clear.
He shook his head to reclaim his senses. He had his hands full with house repairs and preparing the office for patients. The last thing he had time for was playing make believe with the most infamous woman in town. Acting as her fiancé would do nothing to enhance his professional reputation either, but it would take him an age to open the business without additional help. After paying Henry to patch up the roof, Jace hadn’t the funds in his budget to hire anyone else.
Still, he almost felt guilty for turning Madeline’s ploy to his advantage. Any charms she’d used in the past to beguile men senseless wouldn’t work on him. Not entirely, anyway. While he’d agreed to play along with her charade, he would set the rules. Or so he’d thought until that kiss. He licked his lips at the memory of her taste, the feel of her supple body pressing against his.
The jolting pleasure had rocked his control. She was alluring as hell with those simmering eyes and lush mouth, and his accelerated response proved he’d been too long without. The one thing he missed about Pittsburgh Hospital: its ample supply of willing nurses with whom to sate his body’s carnal demands.
Maddie was no nurse, but she certainly seemed willing. He couldn’t help wondering about her relationship with Daniel Hogle and whether they’d indulged a few urges of their own together. This was not quite the sleepy little town he’d originally judged it to be, and Jace was eager to learn more about its residents and their histories. Nothing intrigued him more, though, than Maddie.
He took a long breath to shake off his lust and strode to his desk. He couldn’t dwell on this now. He had too much to do, and he needed to focus. Fortunately, aside from a few minor emergencies, business had been quiet.
Already he felt the perpetual strain of hospital work easing from his bones. Like a tightly wound clock, his body had run on that coil of steady tension—that incessant pressure he’d often released in the company of a woman.
He had definitely been too long without.
He bent over the ledger he’d abandoned for Maddie’s visit, and tried to concentrate. The only thing that came close to exciting him more than the all-too-brief interlude with his pretend fiancée was the opportunity to study her case. From the misidentified coma, to her full recovery from an injury Doctor Filmore had diagnosed as permanent, Jace would get a first-person account of everything Maddie had experienced.
Although she wasn’t technically a patient, it struck him now that it would be best to treat her as such. Jace was nothing if not ethical. In this particular instance, maintaining his ethics would deny him a repeat taste of the delectable Miss Sutter. But he’d do what was right. Beneath Maddie’s provocative façade, he’d glimpsed her fragility. The ordeal she’d survived would leave anyone vulnerable and he knew that, despite their mutual attraction, it would be better for her if he maintained a professional distance.
If he could glean from her just one shred of insight into how to help others suffering from the after-effects of trauma, his restraint would be worth it. His deficiencies in this area of medicine kept him awake at night. No matter how many patients he saved, he could not forget the ones he had lost. He had to know why. Why some physically sound patients failed to get past the mental blockades of their ordeal, while others, like Maddie, moved on with their lives.
He thought about Kathy, and how miserably he’d failed her. His throat constricted with guilt. If only he had understood the depths of her despair, he might have saved her from herself.
More and more Jace found himself treading in his father’s shoes. Inch by inch he moved closer to understanding what had led to the once-respected physician’s undignified demise. He shook away the icy fear that he might repeat the dead man’s mistakes, too. Shrugging on his coat, he stalked outside for some much-needed air. He stood on the porch, letting the crisp breeze fill his lungs. The scent of lilacs drifted from the overgrown shrubs dominating the small yard.
Henry Whalen rounded the corner of the house. Hammer in hand, he wiped his forehead with the back of his fist. Tufts of red hair pointed north as he waved. “Morning, Doc.”
Jace tossed him a nod. “How’s the roof coming along?”
“Good as new.” Henry tossed the hammer to the ground, then headed to join him. The gate that enclosed the front yard creaked open as the gangly young man slipped through it. Sweat beaded on his freckled face, which was blotchy and sun burned. “Was that Madeline Sutter I saw earlier?” he asked, jogging up to the porch.
Now was the moment to put Maddie’s plan in motion, so Jace took a breath and smiled suggestively.
“Yes, it was. Daily house calls come with the job, of course—but some are much more pleasant than others.”
Henry frowned, shoving his hands into the pockets of his denim overalls. “So what was she doing here?” His nettled tone took Jace aback.
“Well, Henry, that’s not any of your business, now is it?”
“No, sir, I suppose not. Just curious, is all.” He averted his eyes, glancing out toward the street. “She doesn’t come to town often.”
“Judging from your reaction, I can understand why.”
Henry shrugged. “There’s nothing saying she has to stay in Misty Lake.” The harsh words lacked any trace of civility.
Jace could hardly believe the difference in the man from only moments before. Why did these decent people simply accept all the rubbish piled around Maddie’s feet? “So that’s your defense?” Jace asked. “That she should leave town?”
“It would sure be easier on folks if she did.” Henry lifted his chin against Jace’s stern frown. “That girl was dead.”
“She was in a coma. An extended state of unconsciousness.”
Henry was shaking his head before Jace had finished, rejecting the explanation like a stubborn child. He may as well have slapped his hands over his ears and chanted la-la-la.
“A coma,” Jace repeated.
“Maybe,” Henry said. “But either way she was gone.” He toed a loose floorboard. “She came back from somewhere,” he muttered.
Jace stared, baffled and exasperated. “And where do you suppose that was?”
Henry glanced away.
“Unlike some folks, I don’t claim to know. I just know it’s strange.” He turned back, fixing his eyes on Jace. “She died on her birthday, you know. May twelfth. She came back on Friday the thirteenth.”
Jace stiffened against a surge of surprise. Talk about adding fuel to the fire.
“Coincidence.”
“You can call it what you want.” Henry swatted at a fly. “I’ll keep my distance, just the same.”
The idea that this homely fellow found Maddie unappealing was so absurd it was laughable. Jace couldn’t resist.
“She’s pretty, though, huh?”
Henry smiled, looking more like himself. At least his sense of humor was untouched. “Yes, sir,