The Doctor Wore Spurs (11 page)

She bared her teeth at Tyler and mouthed, "Stop looking at me."

When he still didn't look away, Jill focused on the rest of the wedding. The setup was simple but lovely. Chairs were lined up, the center aisle edged with colorful pots of flowers. At the front stood an archway dripping with greenery and flowers, and off to the side a classical guitarist played.

Dressed in their Sunday best, Bree and Jacob walked down the aisle, followed by Martina who cast a wink at Jill.

Felicity was radiant in a simple but exquisite white tea-length dress Grace Kelly could have worn. As Felicity walked down the aisle to meet Brock, Jill saw the way his gaze fastened on hers with so much love it almost hurt to watch.

The minister began the sweet ceremony. When he asked if there was any reason the two shouldn't join, Jacob tugged at his collar and piped up, "Sure ain't. We got her. Now we want to keep her."

A ripple of laughter swept over the guests, and Jill was surprised to feel tears form in her eyes. After all, she didn't know these people very well. Why should she be so moved? she wondered, and looked at Tyler. Perhaps it was her love for him that extended to anyone important to him. Yes, she'd realized she loved him, she just hadn't burdened him with that fact.

Aside from Tyler, though, Jill felt drawn to the Logans. She appreciated the fact that things hadn't always been easy for them, but they'd always hung together and done the hard work necessary to turn the bad times into good times. The love among them was so strong she envied it because she knew she would never truly be a part of them.

With strong voices, Felicity and Brock made their promises. The minister pronounced them man and wife, and Felicity appeared to reach up and tenderly wipe a tear from Brock's face.

The gesture brought more tears to Jill's eyes, and she watched Brock give his bride a long, soul-stirring kiss that had the whole crowd applauding.

At the reception a country music band played and guests dined at tables loaded with food. Tyler appeared by her side and put his arm around her. "We could do some two-stepping now."

His gaze held the same intent, sensual quality that always made her heart jump. "It'll be a little different from last time," she said, referring to the first night they'd made love.

His eyes darkened as he guided her to the dancing area and took her into his arms. "Unfortunately," he said. "I guess folks might get a little upset if I took off your dress."

She smiled at him and gave a little shake of her head as she followed his sliding steps. "You look very nice today. I haven't seen you in a suit since the very first time I met you."

"You were so impressed with me you decided to come down to Fort Worth," Tyler said.

"I thought you were cocky and pushy, and I still think you are," she said, feeling a sudden attack of longing. "I just wish I knew all the other things that you are."

"You will," he said, "in time."

"We don't have a lot of time." The words escaped her lips before she could stop them.

"What do you mean?"

Jill felt the weight of her discussion with Clarence heavy on her mind and conscience. "Just that my work is almost done," she told him. "And it will be time for me to go."

Tyler frowned. "I'm not ready for you to go."

The sting of tears in her eyes shocked her.

Tyler cupped her cheek and stopped dancing. "You're crying. What's going on?"

She blinked furiously. "This isn't the place or occasion," she told him, upset that she hadn't been able to hold her emotions in check. "We can talk about it another time."

"We can talk about it now," Tyler insisted.

Jill glanced around at the people regarding them curiously, then back at Tyler. "Later, after the reception. You need to focus on your brother. It's his wedding day."

"My brother's fine. If I know him, he'd just as soon leave the public party and start the private one right now. C'mon," he said, his gaze turbulent. "I know where to go."

In silence he guided her past the crowd of wedding guests, away from the music, down the lane to a barn. It was cool and dim inside. He urged her to sit on a bale of hay and stood in front of her, his hands on his hips.

Jill thought he must be the most incredible man she'd ever met and she could very well be leaving him within the week. The prospect cut at her.

"What is it?"

There was no use not telling him. He would get it out of her soon enough. She hated to spoil the happy occasion with her news. "It's a good news, bad news situation. The good news," she told him, "is that we've already raised more than enough money for your wing."

"That's great," he said, a grin splitting his face. "What could be bad about that?"

"Well, Clarence came to see me in my office Friday afternoon. I thought I was going to be here another month, but he said since we accomplished everything ahead of schedule, I could go ahead and leave."

Tyler's grin fell.

Feeling her throat tighten with emotion, she swallowed hard. "We always knew I would be leaving. We both talked about it, and I knew I would leave, but I just didn't expect—" Her voice broke, not allowing her to finish. She found little comfort in the pained expression on his face.

He shook his head. "I'm going to kill Clarence."

Jill laughed through her tears. "It's not his fault. He's doing his job. He's just trying to save the hospital some money."

He set his jaw. "I'm going to fix this."

"You can't fix this. We both know I have to leave sometime."

"It doesn't have to be now."

Jill didn't want to argue about it. She didn't want to think about it anymore. She wouldn't be able to be a part of many of Tyler's dreams and wishes, but she could feel good about helping make the wing a reality. Out of the blue she suddenly remembered what Tyler had said about wanting to make love in a barn. Maybe she could make another wish come true.

He frowned. "Why are you surprised? You didn't think I'd be pleased to hear you're leaving, did you?"

"No," she said, standing and looking at him with a smile full of feminine invitation. "I'm just surprised at you." She slowly skimmed her finger down his chest to the top of his slacks. "You've been waiting for this opportunity for over ten years and you're not doing a thing about it."

"What opportunity?" he asked, allowing her to distract him just for the moment.

She shrugged, and the movement of her breasts distracted him further. "I thought you told me you'd been wanting to sneak a girl into the barn for years. Is talking all you wanted to do?" she asked in a sexual taunt that might as well have been an intimate caress.

It took two seconds for her implication to sink in. It took no time for him to decide to take her up on her offer. Maybe the wedding had made him a little crazy, but he'd felt extraordinarily possessive of Jill the entire day. He wanted to take her, to make her his, in an unmistakable, basic way. "You never cease to amaze me," he muttered and pulled her against him and slid her zipper down.

Her dress fell to her feet in a pool of silk. Her breasts were small ivory mounds jutting from her bra of lace. Tyler knew her body well enough to see the sexy sign of arousal, her stiff nipples. He lowered his mouth to nudge her bra down and roll his tongue over the sensitive tip. He knew her soft intake of breath and the restless rubbing of her thighs together meant she was wet and wanting him.

He could imagine taking her a hundred different ways, and he wanted to do each one all at once. With his fingers, he sought the sweet secret between her thighs at the same time he kissed her. Her hands wandered restlessly over his shoulders and down his back. She felt a little wild in his arms, as if she, too, couldn't get enough of him. The knowledge made him want to plunge inside her immediately.

She pulled her mouth from his, her lips already swollen from his kiss, her eyes already hazy with passion. "You always make me so crazy I forget what I want to do," she accused him.

"Is that bad?" he asked, reaching for her again.

She shook her head. "No, but this time it's my turn to lead the two-step." She unfastened his slacks, slid down his zipper and enveloped him with her hand.

He groaned. "What do you have in mind?"

She gave him a French kiss that blew his mind, then flowed down his body like a warm, sultry breeze. Her breath drifted over his aching hardness. She looked up at him and kissed him intimately.

Tyler swore. The sight was too erotic for words. Jill, with her bare breasts brushing his thighs and her gorgeous, sassy lips on him. She tasted and taunted him with her tongue, then enveloped him with her soft velvet mouth milking his response. He couldn't last. Between her bold seduction and his need, emotional and sexual, for her, he felt as if he were going to explode.

He cupped his hand under her jaw and massaged her cheeks. "You're pushing me out of control. I want inside," he told her in a voice dark and husky to his own ears.

Grabbing a blanket, he sat on the ground and pulled her on top. She gazed at him in sensual surprise, then straddling him, she eased down on him. Guiding her, he thrust, and she rode him stroke by incredible stroke until she clenched around him and he went straight over the edge.

She sank down on him, tucking her face in his shoulder. "When you think of sneaking a girl into the barn," she told him, "I hope you'll always think of me." She took a deep breath and whispered, "I love you."

His heart twisted. For one moment he wanted to know how forever with her might feel. For one moment he thought about having a family with Jill. He thought of babies and laughter and love. And loss. He frowned, wondering why he always paired marriage with loss in his mind. It couldn't be the curse, he thought. After all his denying and rationalizing, he didn't really believe in that foolishness, did he?

He couldn't, he thought, and held her tightly.

"We should get back to the reception," Jill said. "Your brother will wonder where you are."

"He may wonder, but he'll never dream what you've been doing to me," Tyler said and grinned.

"What
I've
been doing to
you,
" she said, her hair tousled and her eyes still blurry with her passion for him. "How about what
you
have been doing to
me?
"

He kissed her protests away. "How about what we've been doing to each other? Better?"

She nodded, and he helped pull her and himself together. Just as they were leaving the barn, she said, "I meant what I said. When you think of taking a girl to a barn, think of me and smile."

I'll think of you whenever I think of the woman who fills me up and makes me crazy,
he thought.

"I will," he simply promised, and resolved to speak to Clarence Gilmore.

As they returned to the reception, he squeezed her arm. "I'll get your punch and check in with Brock," he told her. "That's what I'd been about to do before we left."

"Thanks," she said.

Tyler grabbed some punch and nodded to Brock who was watching an elderly neighbor dance with Felicity. "You've done it now," Tyler said. "How does it feel to be completely tied up?"

"I want her tied to me," Brock said. "I'll be glad when this reception is over. Seems to me the men are using it as an excuse to dance with Felicity. A few more minutes, and I'm calling a halt to it. Enough's enough," he said emphatically. He glanced at Tyler. "Where'd you go for so long?"

Tyler shrugged. "Just needed to talk with Jill in private."

Brock gave a slow smile. "Did you ask her to marry you?"

Tyler felt the claw of panic. "Hell, no! We were talking about when she's scheduled to finish the project at the hospital and leave Fort Worth." Speaking the words wrenched at him.

Brock looked at him in disbelief. "You're gonna let her go?"

Tyler shrugged. "She has to go back sometime, but it won't be soon," he said. "I'll make sure of that."

Brock raised an eyebrow. "Don't let the Logan Curse keep you from the right woman," he said.

Tyler's eye twitched. "I don't believe in the Logan Curse, remember?" he asked rhetorically, but he didn't sound convinced to his own ears.

"It takes finding the right woman to break—"

Just then, a man on horseback thundered across a field toward the wedding reception. "What the hell—" Tyler began, squinting his eyes to identify the man.

"Horse looks like a Coltrane's," Brock muttered. "They always did have an eye for nice horseflesh."

"It's Noah," Tyler said.

"How can you tell from here?" Brock asked.

"We beat each other up so much I'd know him if I ran into him in the dark in Canada." He gestured for Jill to join him. He wanted her next to him. No telling what a Coltrane would do.

Brock swore and went after Felicity.

Jill quickly joined Tyler. "Who is it?"

"Noah Coltrane."

Her eyes widened. "Oh."

Noah slowed the stallion and guided the impressive animal right up to the dance area, which had been vacated as the guests watched in amazement. He appeared to scan the area.

Tyler spoke up. "What do you want, Noah?"

Noah, a man with coal-black eyes, met his gaze. "I'm here to see Martina."

A collective gasp swept over the guests.

Click, click, click. Tyler quickly added up his sister's pregnancy and Noah Coltrane's presence, and rage rolled through him. "I'm gonna kill him."

Jill grabbed his suit coat. "No, you're not."

Tyler watched Felicity step in front of Brock.

"She doesn't want to see you," Tyler called to him, shaking loose from Jill's grasp. "Get off the property. Can't you see we're having a wedding?"

"That means she's here," Noah said, surveying the crowd once again.

"Buy a vowel," Tyler said. "She doesn't want to see you."

He saw a hint of desperation come and go in the man's eyes and felt a startling identification with it. He'd seen that same expression in Brock's eyes and felt it in his own gut. About Jill. He swore under his breath, fighting a multitude of strange emotions.

Noah's face hardened. "I will see her," he said. "Give her that message."

With that he thundered off. Tyler exchanged a glance with Brock. He couldn't believe what his sister had done. There had to be a terrific explanation for this, he thought, and he was going to hear it shortly.

The wedding guests soon left, probably to share the tale with their neighbors. Good gossip was sometimes difficult to find in this part of West Texas.

Tyler took Jill's hand and joined Brock and Felicity on the quick trek back to the house to find Martina. The housekeeper watched over Bree and Jacob while the catering crew began the cleanup.

After an excruciating three minutes of silence, Jill broke it. "You look beautiful, Felicity. I don't think I've seen a more radiant bride."

Felicity gave a small smile. "Thank you. I'm truly glad you could come."

Jill detected a mile-wide note of concern in the bride's voice. "She must really feel stuck between a rock and a hard place."

"Who?" Tyler asked, but everyone knew who— Martina.

"Your sister," she said. "She obviously loves you two and is devoted to her family, but she's carrying the baby of someone you hate."

"When do you think it happened?" Brock asked Tyler.

"Chicago," Tyler said decisively.

"Maybe she got hit on the head."

"Or fell in love," Felicity and Jill said at the same time.

"Never," Brock said.

"When hell freezes over," Tyler said.

Jill just sighed as they climbed the stairs to the house. "Watch out for icicles."

Martina was carrying her suitcase downstairs. Despite Martina's fire, Jill felt a great deal of sympathy for her.

Martina caught sight of her brothers and gave a sigh. "Well, I guess you figured out the stork didn't do it."

"How did it happen?" Brock demanded.

She winced. "That's a little personal."

Tyler shook his head. "How could you?"

Vulnerability shadowed her eyes. "I didn't plan to get pregnant," she said. "I didn't plan to get involved."

"But with a Coltrane?" Brock said in distaste.

"In the beginning he wasn't what I'd thought he would be," she said, her gaze growing sad. "I made a mistake, but the baby won't be one," she said with determination. "If you can't accept it, tell me now and I'll never come around again."

Another awful silence followed where Brock and Tyler clearly tried to digest the news. Jill tensed at the expressions on their faces.

Felicity stepped forward and embraced Martina. "Of course we'll accept your baby. Your brothers love you. How could they not love your child?"

"Be angry and yell later," Jill whispered to Tyler. "She needs you now."

Tyler stepped forward and took his sister in his arms. "I may never understand this," he told her. "But there's nothing you could do to keep me from loving you and worrying about you. I'd protect you with my life," he said. "We'll do the same for your baby."

Martina's eyes filled with tears. "I was so afraid you would hate me."

"Never," Brock said, taking his turn at holding her.

Jill watched Tyler struggle with his own emotions. He crammed his hands in his pockets. "What are you going to do?"

"Leave," Martina said simply.

"I told him you didn't want to see him."

"You told him right."

"If he's the father," Brock warned, "you'll have to deal with his rights sometime."

"Not now," Martina said, her face closed.

Tyler sighed. "I'll carry your bag to the car," he said, and Brock joined him.