Almost Twilight (10 page)

“Oh,
and another thing,” he said offhandedly, pushing his face against the screen.

“What
is it now?” she huffed.

“Be
careful of snakes. They like to skirt along the house for warmth.”

“Snakes?”
she squeaked.

“Yeah,
you know those animals that don’t have any legs.” 

He
could almost hear her gasp for breath.

Whistling
the song,
Oh, My Darling Clementine,
he left her and strolled to his
bedroom located on the first floor.

Tomorrow,
he would get her a hotel on Paradise Island, and then his vacation would be his
alone.

He
smiled as he glanced up at the guest bedroom on the second floor. He’d take a
quick shower and give her ten more minutes at most.

Twenty
minutes later, Rafe bit back a laugh when he heard the screen door close and
the thump, thump, thump of a suitcase rattling up the stairs.

Candy
threw herself on the bed and smothered a sob.

Her
head hurt, her stomach was queasy, and she was stuck in The Bahamas with Dr.
Jerk.

After
a few minutes of drowning her sorrows with a good muffled cry, she sat up and
threw a blue-checkered pillow across the room. She had never been so humiliated
in her whole life, except for that time when Roger had left her.

First,
to be tricked by Fritz, a man she would trust with her life! Then to get an
anxiety attack on the plane, with the added fact of being fed drinks from some
stranger who said she was only sipping soda after the first alcoholic drink,
when in fact all her drinks had been laced with alcohol!

She
was too naive, but she should have known better. The man beside her had
insisted on buying. He could have put anything into her drink when she wasn’t
looking.

But
then on top of being stupid, she had to be placed in Dr. Clearbrook’s care? Well,
that was too much for any woman to bear, let alone someone who worked with him.

How
could Fritz have deceived her into going to The Bahamas? She should have known
that a free trip was too good to be true. Why, when she got her hands on
Fritz...she didn’t know what she was going to do, but she would do something!

She
flinched when there was a knock at her door.

“What?”
she snapped, wiping the tears from her eyes.

She didn’t
want to face that man again. He hated her. She knew that now. She had only heard
the last of his conversation with Fritz.
All right, Dad. You won this round.
But if you ever try to pass a woman off on me again, let alone a woman who has
claustrophobia and can’t handle her liquor...

Frowning,
she wondered what other words had passed between the two.

“Are
you all right in there?” The doctor’s cool voice held the tiniest trace of
laughter, infuriating Candy. At that moment, she wanted to whip open that door
and clobber him.

She
pulled herself off the bed and straightened out her skirt. “Oh, do you mean,
did I run into any snakes out there? No need to worry. I only ran into one, but
I took care of him fast enough.”

There
was a cough, a short pause, then the doorknob jiggled. “My cook Selena comes in
about nine in the morning and starts breakfast. Is there anything you’d like?”

Candy
searched for something witty to say. It wasn’t as if she had planned to buy
every meal. Fritz had said that the place she would be staying would serve her
food for free. Oooooh!

She
picked up the pillow she’d thrown on the floor and squeezed it with all her
might, recalling the itinerary Fritz had given her. It included her flight times
and an address for a Bed and Breakfast. That was it.

She
should have known something was up. The Bed and Breakfast was Rafe’s cottage!

“Nurse
Richards?” 

The
doctor’s voice sounded concerned, and it suddenly struck her. After his brother’s
wedding, whenever she encountered him, if he was not angry with her, he was
cool and calm, with almost no emotion whatsoever. What had changed him?

“Would
you stop calling me Nurse Richards. I do have a name.”

“Candy,”
he said in a voice that could melt an iceberg in three seconds flat.

“Candace.
My name is Candace to you.”

“But
I like Candy. You told me I could call you Candy on the plane.” He sounded like
a little boy.

Candy
caught herself smiling, grateful that he couldn’t see her, because if Rafe Clearbrook
ever thought she liked him, she would be as sunk as the buried treasures Jeremy
talked about before she left.

“I’ll
take black coffee and toast, if that isn’t too much to ask. I certainly
wouldn’t want to take advantage of your hospitality while I’m here.”

The
door wiggled again, and she was glad she’d locked it. “Listen, could I talk to
you face to face?”

“No.”

“I’m
not asking, I’m telling you to open this door. I need to speak to you. This is
silly talking through an inch of wood. For your information, I don’t’ have a
key, so, if you’re up to moving, you’re going to have to open it by yourself.”

Candy
glared at the door. She had about all she could take from Rafe Clearbrook. “Go
away.”

To
her surprise, his gentle laugh shot through her like a ball of fire. She was
glad she was on the other side of the door, because sometimes that man could
make her pulse quicken faster than his Porsche could hightail it to one hundred
miles per hour.

He
knocked again. “Go away? You could at least say, pretty please,
Candy
.”

“I
want to go to sleep, so would you
please
be kind enough to leave me
alone.”

“I’m
not leaving here until you open the door, and I’ll keep knocking until you do.”

“For
goodness sakes,” she snapped, thoroughly irritated by the man’s ego. No wonder
the entire hospital jumped to his tune. “Go away.”

“NO!”

Clenching
her teeth, she marched across the room and flung open the door. “There! Are you
satisfied now? Can I go to sleep?”

She
stood, frozen in the doorway as two steely gray eyes burned into hers.

“For
your information,” he finally said, “I never planned any of this. My father
did.” 

She
lifted her trembling chin and looked over his shoulder, avoiding anything to do
with those mesmerizing eyes that made her heart turn every time she looked at
him.

“I
know. Tomorrow, I’ll look for another place. You don’t have to worry.”

“Is
there a bug on the wall?”

“No,”
she said almost too quickly, shifting her gaze back to him.

“I
have a friend who owns a hotel down the strip. I’ll set you up there. He’ll
take care of you.”

“I
believe I can find a hotel by myself, Dr. Clearbrook. But thank you anyway.”
She started to close the door, but he threw his foot over the threshold,
blocking her.

He
wedged himself further into the room and held the door open, his eyes sweeping
over her like a hawk.

“First
of all. Let me set you straight. As long as you’re here in the islands, you can
call me Rafe.”

“Ah,
I’ve been given permission to call you Rafe. How quaint.”

His
eyes narrowed. “And second of all, you will not be searching for a hotel
without me tagging along. Is that clear?”

“Is
that an order?”

He
raised two black brows in a stern expression. “Whatever you want to call it. You’re
my guest, and as my guest, I take it upon myself to look after you until you
are settled somewhere else. The hotel bill will be on my father, so don’t worry
your pretty head about that.”

“I
will not take charity, Rafe. I mean, Dr. Clearbrook. I’m a big girl. I can
handle my own life.” 

She
stepped aside to usher him out, but when she reached for the door, her hand
accidentally gripped his fingers.

Without
warning, he locked his hand in hers. She was barely able to control her gasp of
amazement.

“You
are the most stubborn, willful woman I have ever met, Candy Richards.”

“Well,
hip hip hooray!” 

He
leaned closer, and she cleared her throat, avoiding those two pools of liquid
silver reflecting back at her. His overwhelming presence frightened her. He was
too close. His face looked too concerned.

He
must have taken a quick shower while she was mulling over her sorry
predicament, because she could still smell the hint of almond soap. His
nearness was unsettling in more ways then one, and she tried to pull away.

His
free hand cupped her chin as he held it in a gentle embrace. “You were crying.”
His thumb traced her eye makeup that had streaked down her face.

“It
was supposed to be waterproof,” she said without thinking.

He
smiled then, a smile so sweet, so mystifying, but so manly, that her knees
weakened, and it was all she could do to stay standing.

“Ah,
but you’re not waterproof, are you, Candy? I’ll bet you’re just as sweet as
your name.”

Their
eyes met, and her breath caught. The fire in his gaze startled her.

Then
he did the most unthinkable thing. He kissed her.

Dr.
Rafe Clearbrook, the Wolf of Clearbrook Valley’s only hospital, kissed little
old Candy Richards.

A
few seconds later, he pulled away with a groan. She swayed and leaned against
the door, her senses still spinning.

Suddenly,
his lips thinned into a disapproving line.

Candy
frowned, and her head started to ache.

“We’ll
get you a hotel room as soon as possible,” he said, his voice cool.

Before
she knew it, he was down the hall and gone from view.

Candy
stood there, stunned, trying to figure out what had just happened. Her face
began to burn with embarrassment.

Telling
herself she was a fool, she slammed the door, rattling the frame, then turned
the lock.

Her
stomach cramped with pain. Probably too much alcohol and too much stress, she
thought grimly.

In five
angry strides, she was across the room, staring out the window. The moon glowed
like a huge yellow ball over the water in one of the most beautiful sights she
had ever seen.

But
tonight was anything but beautiful. It was awful.

“So,
Candy Richards isn’t as sweet as you thought Dr. Clearbrook. Well, we’ll see
about that. By the time I leave this place, you’ll be licking out of my hands
like the wolf you are.”

Her
stomach suddenly twisted with another blinding pain. Biting her lip, she
hurried to the attached bathroom.

Whatever
she ate on the plane between her naps was not settling in her stomach like it
should have. Well, why should it? The entire day had been one fiasco after
another, and the drinks on the plane hadn’t helped a bit.

She
could ask the doctor for an antacid or something, but she would rather go
through the night as miserable as a skewered pig than ask Dr. Rafe Clearbrook
for any help at all.

The
cramps came again. This time harder than before. Sweat broke out on her brow,
and she lost everything and anything she had in her stomach.

Shivering,
she took a quick shower and slipped into her shorts and T-shirt.

The
night was a horror she would never want to repeat.

The
following morning at nine o’clock Rafe grabbed a cup of coffee in the kitchen. He
was tired and cranky. That kiss had kept him up almost all night.

He
wondered how Candy had slept.

He
had no idea why he had kissed her when she’d been so vulnerable. He must have
had jungle fever or something, because nothing else could explain the way that
woman affected his senses. He had to get her out off his condo as soon as
possible before anything else happened. There was a reason he had taken so long
to ask her out on a date. She was in his blood. When they had danced at his
brother’s wedding last year, it had scared the hell out of him.

“Doctor
Rafe,” a female voice rang out from the screen door. “You have company, yes?”

Rafe
turned to see his cook and housekeeper, Selena, in her purple turban and
flowery dress coming through the front door.

The
lady was about forty-five years old, give or take a year or so, he’d never been
sure. He had known Selena since he was a small child. She had been a teenager
when he’d first come to the islands with his family. In fact, she was like one
of the family. Almost like a second mother to him.

“Morning,
Selena, and yes, I have company. She’s still sleeping. Yesterday was a long
day.”

Selena’s
dark brows narrowed. “You don’t have a sister or wife.” 

Rafe
chuckled as he walked past his housekeeper and onto the beach. Selena was a
strict going-to-church lady. She attended Mass every Sunday, and if she could
manage it, she went to Mass weekday mornings.