Читать книгу The Coyote's Cry - Jackie Merritt - Страница 12

The chiming of the doorbell startled Jenna, who’d been so involved with Bram and his watchful dog that she hadn’t heard the arrival of another vehicle. But all afternoon the visiting Coltons had merely rapped once and walked in, some of them not even bothering to announce their arrival with that cursory knock. Thus Jenna was pretty certain that whoever had rung the doorbell was not a Colton. She glanced toward the master bedroom to see if Bram had heard the chimes, but it appeared that either he hadn’t or he was ignoring the caller.

Giving Nellie a warning look that Jenna hoped the dog would interpret to mean, “Don’t you dare move from that spot,” Jenna went to the door herself. Opening it, she could hardly believe her eyes.

“Dad!”

Carl Elliot’s face was dark red with anger. “What in hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. “Staying in a damn Indian’s house. Don’t you have any pride?”

“I’m working! I’m taking care of Mrs. Colton.”

“You’re living with an Indian man! This is his house!”

“I am not living with anyone, not in the way you’re inferring. I explained my job assignment in the note I left for you, which you must have read or you wouldn’t have known where I was. I’m very upset over this…this intrusion, Dad.”

“And I’m so embarrassed by your behavior I can’t hold my head up or look friends in the eye! Get your things and come home with me this instant.”

“I most certainly will not!”

“Jenna, I’m warning you…”

Jenna felt Bram’s presence behind her before he said a word. He stepped so close that her whole body became tense.

“What’s going on?” he asked, using that lethally quiet tone that never failed to deliver a thrill to every erogenous area of Jenna’s body. She took a quick, nervous breath and tried to ignore his overwhelming sexual magnetism so she could concentrate on minimizing the situation.

“I don’t want my daughter staying here,” Carl Elliot said coldly, proving that he was unafraid of Black Arrow’s sheriff, or any other man, for that matter.

“Well, I’m not all that keen on your daughter staying here, either,” Bram drawled, shocking the breath out of Jenna and possibly doing the same to Carl, who suddenly looked confused. “But Dr. Hall assigned her to care for my grandmother, and until another nurse appears on this doorstep to take her place, your daughter is working for me. Take it or leave it, but don’t come here looking for trouble or you just might find it.” Bram strode away with Nellie on his heels, heading, Jenna saw, for his bedroom.

“This is not the end of this,” Carl said angrily, shaking his finger at his daughter. But to Jenna’s immense relief, he left the front porch and walked—obviously in a huff—to his car.

“Dad,” she called, having second thoughts. She ran after him.

Carl stopped as he reached his car. “Did you change your mind?”

“No, but there’s no reason for anger between us. Try to understand. I’m only doing my job.”

“Your wonderful job embarrasses me, shames me. Thank God your mother isn’t alive to see how you’ve disgraced the Elliot name.”

Jenna gasped. “How can you stand there and say something like that? Mother didn’t have a biased or prejudiced bone in her body and you know it.”

“Yeah, well, she wasn’t always right, either. I’m not going to forget this, Jenna. How long are you planning to live with that big breed?”

Jenna’s spine stiffened. “I won’t listen to that kind of talk another second. Good night.” Spinning, she walked back to the house with her head held high, went in and closed the door.

But her courage was mostly bluff. Shaking all over, she leaned back against the door and fought tears.

Bram walked in. He had changed from his uniform to jeans, a blue cotton shirt and soft leather cowboy boots, and he looked so handsome to Jenna that her heart actually ached. If there had been the slimmest chance of him liking her before this, her father’s angry appearance just now had destroyed it.

“Why did Dr. Hall assign you to this job?” Bram asked brusquely.

Jenna’s anger, normally so controlled, flared up. Right at the moment she didn’t much care for Bram Colton or her father. “Because I’m the best nurse in town,” she snapped, and ducked around Bram to go to the kitchen.

Frowning, he pondered her answer and decided to believe her. In the first place, why would she make up something like that? In the second, she had no idea of his feelings for her, so why wouldn’t she take the assignment? As for Carl Elliot, he could go take a flying leap at the moon, for all Bram cared.

“Moronic jackass,” he muttered as he headed back to Gran’s room.

In the kitchen Jenna heated up a bowl of stew for her dinner and then could hardly get a bite down her tightly constricted throat, even though it was a delicious concoction of lean beef and vegetables. When was her father going to realize that she was a grown woman? she wondered. She was thirty years old and certainly intelligent enough to make her own career decisions.

This was really the final straw, she thought, exhaling a sorrowful sigh. She would start looking for her own place, and when she left this house she would also leave her father’s. He had gone too far this time. As for Bram, he had made it clear as glass what he thought of her, the big jerk. He didn’t like her and wasn’t at all happy that she was the nurse sent by Dr. Hall. What was the word he’d used so insultingly? Oh, yes—keen. He wasn’t keen on her staying in his house.

Well, she wasn’t particularly keen on Bram Colton anymore, either.

They moved as shadows around each other, never eating together, barely speaking, and when they did, only about Gloria. Jenna felt empty, as though something crucial to life itself had vanished. At the same time she knew that reaction was utterly ridiculous. She’d never had Bram, so how could she not have him now?

On Thursday morning, after Bram left for work, Roberta Shane arrived. She was the relief nurse and would care for Mrs. Colton on Thursdays so Jenna could have a day off. Roberta was around fifty, Jenna estimated, and had been in nursing all of her adult life. Rumor had it that Roberta had been very attractive when she married Jake Shane in her early twenties, but Jake had been a lazy good-for-nothing, and after supporting the bum for over twenty years, Roberta had kicked him out. She’d come out of the divorce a bitter, unsmiling, overweight woman with grown kids who had moved away and rarely came back to Black Arrow to see her. She was an excellent nurse, as far as the mechanics of the profession went, but she didn’t even try to hide her contempt for the human race, and very few patients warmed to her.

Jenna turned over Gloria’s chart to Roberta with a worried frown. Roberta would not have been her choice of relief nurses. Gloria wasn’t responding to much of anything, and Jenna did everything with kindness and smiles. The small gains Jenna had made—whether real or in her imagination—could be wiped out by one unsympathetic person. Jenna sighed quietly; she had to rely on Dr. Hall’s judgment.

Dr. Hall had phoned yesterday, and Jenna had given him a verbal report on Gloria’s progress—or in this case, lack of progress. The doctor had told her he would be out to see Gloria and check her over sometime during the coming weekend.

At any rate, Jenna hated leaving her patient in anyone else’s care, but especially Roberta’s. But there were things Jenna needed to do, and a day off was necessary. She’d had friends bring her car to Bram’s place within a day of her own arrival, so she had transportation. But when she got in her bright red sedan today and drove away, that frown of worry over Roberta Shane being the relief nurse was still furrowing her brow.

Jenna had to be back by eight that evening. Roberta never took home-care cases that entailed twenty-four-hour duty, and she’d made it clear that twelve hours was her limit. Jenna had told her to relax, that she would definitely be back by eight, if not sooner.

“Make sure you are,” Roberta had said coolly.

Truth was, Jenna didn’t like leaving Gloria for long, anyway. She had started trying to teach Gloria simple facial exercises that would strengthen the muscles needed for speech, though most of the time Gloria simply looked away and closed her eyes.

Every evening after work Bram sat in Gloria’s room and talked to her. Jenna wondered if he got more response from his grandmother than she did, but since she and Bram were hardly speaking themselves, and certainly avoiding all eye contact, she hadn’t intruded on his time with Gloria to see what went on during those sessions.

The other Coltons were in and out all the time, at least during the day, and Jenna did hover and listen and watch for signs that Gloria even cared that they were there. Willow seemed to spark something in Gloria’s eyes, Jenna noticed, and instinct—or practical experience—told her that Bram probably did the same. But there was no question in Jenna’s mind that Gloria could not be more despondent. Jenna had seen it before, where the victim of stroke or some other destructive malady had lost his or her will to live. No matter how often Jenna or some other nurse or doctor explained the power of proper diet, rest and exercise, the patient simply faded away. Jenna could see it happening with Gloria, and she planned to visit Dr. Hall today and talk to him about it.

Bram got home around six that afternoon and was surprised to see Jenna’s red sedan gone and a dark green one parked in his driveway. Concerned and curious, he didn’t stop to pet Nellie, but hurriedly walked to the house. He let Nellie come in with him, then told her to stay. The collie obeyed and lay down near the door while Bram strode directly to the master bedroom.

At once he saw the strange woman sitting in the rocking chair and knitting. “Where’s Jenna?” he asked.

“It’s her day off. I’m Roberta Shane. I’ll be working relief while she’s here.”

“You’re a nurse, too?”

Roberta looked indignant. “Of course I’m a nurse.”

“Sorry, but why didn’t Dr. Hall send you here instead of Jenna in the first place?”

Roberta put down her knitting. “Because I don’t take full-time cases like this. Not many nurses do.”

“Oh.” Wondering why Jenna Elliot, golden girl, would take a demanding case like this, Bram went over to the bed and smiled down at his grandmother. “Hello, Gran. How’re you doing?”

“Sheriff, she’s never going to answer you, you know,” Roberta said.

The cruel comment angered Bram, and he turned hard eyes on the relief nurse. “Don’t you ever say something like that in her presence again.”

Roberta looked affronted, but she didn’t say another word. Bram didn’t care if she was affronted or not. Thank God that Dr. Hall hadn’t sent a cold woman like her to care for Gran, he thought as he headed to his own room.

“Come on, Nellie,” he said as he passed the pretty collie, who happily got up to follow her master. In his bedroom, Bram felt the sting of anger, and he almost went back to Gran’s room to tell Roberta Shane to never set foot in his house again.

But Jenna had to have time off, and maybe Roberta was the only nurse available to take her place.

“Damn, damn, damn,” Bram mumbled thickly as he removed his badge from his shirt and then took off his leathers, including his holstered gun, and put everything in a dresser drawer. He hated what had happened to Gran and he didn’t like how out of control his life was now. Out of his control. He was a man with a penchant for routine and organization, great traits for a law enforcement officer to have. But those same traits made unexpected bumps in one’s personal life tough to take.

He wondered when Jenna would be back. Tonight? Tomorrow morning? Clenching his teeth, he sat on the edge of his bed and thought about her. No man deserved to suffer the way he did over Jenna. Just her image in his mind made him so saturated with longing that even his bones hurt. He hadn’t been sleeping well, just because she was in the house. He never ate at home anymore because he might have to eat with her, and he couldn’t bear the thought. How much more of this torment could he take?

Jenna arrived at seven-thirty. She walked into the master suite, immediately went into the bathroom to wash her hands and then returned to say hello to Bram and Roberta. The relief nurse had already gathered her knitting bag and her purse.

She left after saying, “See you next Thursday.”

Jenna let her find her own way out, and picked up Gloria’s chart to make sure Roberta had done everything that was necessary that day.

Bram had gotten to his feet and he stood there wishing Jenna would look at him.

She finally did. “May we speak in another room?” she asked.

Surprised, and wondering what was going on now, Bram nodded, then followed Jenna to the living room. She turned and faced him.

“I talked to Dr. Hall today. We are both concerned with Gloria’s lack of progress. I’m rarely blunt when discussing a patient with a family member, but in this case I feel I must be. She’s not trying to help herself, Bram. She has given up.”

Bram flinched as though struck. “How dare you—”

Jenna cut him off harshly. “Don’t start something you can’t finish! Are you trained to recognize dangerous symptoms? Well, I am, and if we can’t change her attitude she will die.”

Bram’s voice was unsteady when he spoke. “How…how do we change her attitude?”

Jenna turned away and began pacing the carpet. “I’ve racked my brain trying to think of something to do that isn’t already being done. She has a loving family, and some of them visit her every single day. I’m doing everything medically possible—everything Dr. Hall told me to do—and I’m sure she must appreciate all the time you spend with her every evening. Bram, she’s never alone, except for brief moments like this. She can’t possibly feel neglected. Her diet is restricted, of course. There are many things she might never be able to eat again, but are certain foods really that important? Plus, she absolutely will not concentrate on the exercises I’ve been trying to teach her. She just turns her head and shuts her eyes whenever I even mention exercise. I’ve been massaging the muscles of her arms and legs to keep them supple, but…”

“In other words, you’re doing everything you can and nothing is working,” Bram said dully.

Jenna’s eyes misted and she could only nod. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered huskily. She wasn’t looking at Bram, so she didn’t see him walk away. But she heard his footsteps, and when she turned around, he was gone.

A few minutes later she returned to Gloria’s room, and there was Bram, telling corny jokes to his grandmother and chuckling over them himself.

All Jenna could think was that maybe laughter was the only medicine they hadn’t yet tried, and maybe it would work. She mentally patted Bram on the back for his willingness to do anything to save Gloria from herself.

Jenna deliberately slept lightly, keeping attuned to her patient’s slightest movement or sound. Even in a semi-slumber, though, she dreamed, and she had a nightmare around midnight that was so frightening that she jumped out of bed. Grabbing her robe, and taking a quick peek at Gloria to make sure she was asleep, Jenna left the bedroom and went to the kitchen.

Still shaken by the nightmare, she switched on lights and made a cup of cocoa, using a mix and the microwave. She was about to sit at the table to drink the cocoa when Bram walked in.

He stopped cold. The kitchen light had been on and he’d thought nothing of it, but seeing Jenna at the table was a shock he had trouble concealing. His mind grew fuzzy for a moment; he should turn around and get out of there while he could, he realized vaguely. But then he recovered some dignity. This was his house, after all, and Jenna was the intruder in this room, not him. He managed to say, albeit a bit thickly, “I can’t sleep, either.” He began preparing a cup of cocoa for himself.

Jenna watched his every movement with a heated sensation in the pit of her stomach. He had been so diligent about avoiding being alone with her that this unplanned midnight meeting felt like a tryst. Probably not to him, she told herself, but then he wasn’t burdened with bittersweet longings the way she was.

She drank in the sight of him. He had pulled on his jeans, but that was the only clothing on his marvelously masculine body. His chest was smooth and hairless, his shoulders wide and muscular. He hadn’t buttoned the waistband of his jeans, merely zipped the fly, and he was barefoot. His thick black hair, normally so neatly brushed, was tousled and looked so sexy to Jenna that she could barely swallow small sips of her cocoa.

With his cup in the microwave, Bram clenched his jaw and looked at Jenna. He could hardly pretend she wasn’t there, after all. “I know why I’m having trouble sleeping, but she’s my grandmother. Does every patient in your care cause you insomnia?”

My God, is he actually going to talk to me? Jenna was so surprised she nearly choked on a swallow of cocoa. She managed to answer him, though. “I was sleeping. A nightmare woke me.”

The microwave went off and Bram took his cup to the table and sat across from her. Bram Colton joining her for midnight cocoa surprised Jenna so much that she wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

“Tell me about your nightmare,” Bram said after taking a cautious swallow of his hot drink. That was an innocent enough topic, he thought, even though he knew that he should have taken his cocoa back to his bedroom rather than risk even a few minutes in Jenna’s company.

Jenna tried not to stare at this half-naked man whom she’d so often fantasized about having in her bed. But he was seated only a few feet away—all that darkly tanned skin, and that handsome face.

She dropped her eyes to her cup. “It’s not worth talking about.”

“But it scared you awake.”

“Well, yes. That’s what nightmares usually do. Don’t you have nightmares?”

“Everyone does.” Bram raised his cup to his lips and took in the truly glorious sight of Jenna Elliot sitting across from him at his very own table, with her golden hair loose and disarrayed around her beautiful face. Her robe was blue and he could see the neckline of a white gown beneath that. But it was very easy to envision her lush body under the gown. That’s the real reason you stayed in here instead of running back to your room the second you saw her—just to soak up the sight of her. Admit it!

“Were monsters chasing you?” he asked as nonchalantly as he could manage.

“Monsters?” Jenna couldn’t help smiling, and decided that he really must be curious about her nightmare, which was curious in itself. So why not tell him about it? At least they were talking, which just might qualify as a small miracle. “I guess there could have been monsters, but I don’t recall seeing any. I was in a strange place—a rural setting—and I was walking down a dirt road. There were a few trees and I was wearing a red dress. Now, that’s odd,” she interjected thoughtfully. “I hardly ever wear red, and I don’t even own a red dress.” She paused for a swallow of cocoa.

“Anyhow, I could see a hill ahead of me and I began walking up it. It became steeper and steeper until I was clutching at the ground with my hands to keep from falling.” She looked at Bram. “That’s it.”

“What scared you about that?”

“The fear of falling, I guess.”

“Sounds to me like you might be afraid of reaching the pinnacle of something you’ve been trying to attain.”

Jenna felt a wave of heat wash through her. He was the pinnacle, if there was any accuracy in his interpretation.

“When did you become an interpreter of dreams?” she asked pertly.

He grinned, surprising Jenna and melting her bones at the same time. Lord, he was handsome when he wasn’t scowling! “Learned it at my great-granddaddy’s knee,” he said.

“George WhiteBear taught you how to read dreams?”

“Did you ever meet him?”

“No, but Willow’s talked about him. His age is incredible.”

“Ninety-seven is pretty incredible, all right. He says he will live to be a hundred and five. I can’t doubt it.”

“Does he still live alone and take care of himself?”

“He does.” Bram frowned suddenly. “I expected Gran to have a long and healthy life, too. That stroke was a shock.”

“For the whole family, apparently.” Jenna couldn’t believe it. They were actually having a normal conversation.

“I’ve got to drive out to George’s place and tell him about Gran,” Bram said, sounding as though he were talking more to himself than to Jenna.

“He doesn’t know?”

“I didn’t want to alarm him without cause. After what you told me earlier tonight, I think I’d better go out there very soon. I’m sure he’ll want to see Gran.”

Jenna’s heart sank. “And what I said to you tonight is the reason you’re not able to sleep. Do you understand that I only said what was necessary?”

“I don’t understand a damn thing. She was always a live wire. What causes a stroke, anyhow? Why was she struck down like that?”

“Would you like me to explain the medical causes of strokes?”

“No.” Bram turned his head, reminding Jenna of Gloria both from the action and from their physical similarities. “Hearing a bunch of medical terms I probably wouldn’t comprehend isn’t going to make me accept Gran’s affliction. She doesn’t deserve what she’s going through, Jenna.”

“I know she doesn’t,” Jenna said quietly, although a part of her rejoiced that her name had rolled off his tongue as though he said it all the time. She lifted her eyes and met his, and for the first time ever she thought she saw something personal gleaming in their black depths. Her pulse rate quickened, and when he suddenly looked away again her breath stopped as though trapped in her throat.

To alleviate the sensation she got up and brought her cup to the sink. She heard Bram getting up, too, and then felt him behind her.

“Just forming a line to rinse my cup,” he said.

But he was standing a lot closer to her than he had to, and again Jenna couldn’t breathe normally. “I—I’ll only…be a minute,” she stammered. “Give me your cup. I can take care of it and you can go back to, uh, bed.”

He reached around her and put his cup in the sink in front of her, and she felt his long muscular body against her back.

“Jenna,” he whispered, and placed his hands on the counter on each side of her. Her mind could hardly digest what was happening. He had never, ever touched her, not once, and now his entire body was pressed against hers and his arms were virtually enclosing her within a very sensual circle.

She didn’t think, just reacted. Dropping her cup in the sink, she swung around, at the same moment raising her arms to his neck. She leaned into him and his arms tightened around her. She turned her face up and silently begged for his kiss, and he didn’t disappoint her. His lips touched hers gingerly, then, in the next heartbeat, almost roughly. It was her fantasy come true, or at least the beginning of it.

She opened her mouth under his and kissed him back with all the desire she’d kept bottled up for so long. She knew she would do anything he wanted; all he had to do to get everything he could possibly want from a woman was to keep on holding her and kissing her.

She moved against him, an involuntary action caused by total surrender to Bram’s will. She felt his hands moving on her back, up and down, and finally stopping on her bottom. The groan she heard deep in his throat as he cupped her buttocks excited her further, and she brought her hands down from his neck to explore his chest. More than his chest was hard, though, and that was the most exciting thing of all. He wanted her. He couldn’t hide his desire or pretend it didn’t exist, not when the proof of his feelings pressed into her abdomen. She was so thrilled and elated that she mumbled between kisses, “Wait…wait. Let me get out of some of these clothes.”

He inched away from her and watched her shed the robe and let it drop to the floor around her feet. His black eyes devoured the sight of her in a rather sheer white nightgown with tiny straps, standing in front of him with all that long, golden hair draped over her shoulders.

“You are the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said raggedly.

“Oh, Bram, do you have any idea how beautiful you are?” she whispered. And then fear gripped her, for something in what she’d said caused him to begin withdrawing before her very eyes.

He touched her cheek gently. “We can’t do this.”

She had no shame, not now, not when they’d been so close to something meaningful. “Why not?” she whispered.

“I think you know why not.”

Jenna cleared her throat. She couldn’t let this happen. Bram had crossed the line tonight and she couldn’t stand the thought of him retreating behind it again.

“Because of my dad’s attitude?” she said in a stronger voice. “Bram, you must ignore him. Prove you’re the bigger and better man by overlooking his ignorance.”

“How does anyone in Black Arrow overlook Carl Elliot?” Bram took a backward step, and Jenna quickly moved forward, wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her cheek on his chest. “Don’t do this, Jenna,” he said huskily. “I was afraid of this happening the second I saw you getting out of the ambulance. I want you to stay and care for Gran…you are the best nurse in town…but you and I can never be anything but speaking acquaintances.” He grasped her arms and moved away from her. After one more yearning look at her beautiful face, he spun on his heel and walked out.

Jenna was devastated. He’d broken her heart, this time for real, for he’d given her just enough of himself to also give her a glimpse of paradise. Then he’d yanked it all away and told her it would never happen again. With tears burning her eyes, she pulled on her robe and dragged herself back to her lonely twin bed in Gloria’s room.

Jenna thought she would cry her eyes red, but instead she stared at the ceiling and accepted the painful knowledge that she’d responded to Bram with the same fervor with which a starving person devoured food. She felt like a fool, a woman with no will of her own. She would never forgive herself for behaving like a tart, nor would she forgive Bram for treating her as one. He’d kissed and touched her intimately, and she would feel his hands on her body for the rest of her life. Damn him! She turned to her side and the tears finally came, and she wept quietly into her pillow until she finally fell asleep.

Bram never did go back to sleep. An immutable fact nearly drove him crazy: he could have made love to Jenna, his beautiful golden girl, in his own kitchen, and he’d turned her down. Dear God, he could have brought her to his bed and made love with her. The many places in his house where they could have made love haunted him, until he finally gave up on sleep and threw back the covers.

He was dressed and on his way to his great-grandfather’s place before dawn broke.