North of Heartbreak (11 page)

“We have a problem.”

She glanced at Susan’s face and stopped moving at her lack of expression.

Now what?

Chapter Eleven

“What kind of a problem?” Willa finished threading an IV needle into a vein on her latest patient’s hand.

“Lucy Tuktiak and Sheila Kesuk are trying to talk your new pilot into dating one of their daughters.” She paused. “Maybe more than dating.”

Willa’s head came up at that. “Good Lord. Okay, I’ll be right out.” She quickly finished getting the IV running then went out front.

Lucy and Sheila had Liam trapped in a corner, the mop and bucket the only things between him and two determined husband-hunting mommas.

“I’m sorry,” he said, the whites of his eyes clearly visible. “But I can’t marry either of your daughters.”

“Why not?” Lucy asked. “My Tammy is a good cook and nice-looking.”

“Not as pretty as Carrie,” Sheila said.

“Ladies, I’m flattered, but I’m not interested in settling down.”

“You’re the perfect husband,” Sheila added. “You won’t even be home half the time.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Lucy asked him. “You don’t like girls?”

“Liam isn’t available,” Willa said, with a regretful sigh. “He works for me.”

Liam stared at her as if she were a life preserver, his hands white-knuckled around the mop handle. He mouthed the word
help.

She had to hide a smile.

“Just works for you?” Sheila asked.

“Well no. We’re, ah, dating,” Willa said, her face warming.

“Why didn’t you say so at the start?” Lucy shook her head at Liam then turned to Willa. “How long until you can see my nephew? I’ve got more sick ones at home.”

Willa checked the appointment book. “He’s got two people ahead of him, Lucy. But it won’t be long.”

“Okay.” Lucy and Sheila glanced at Liam, still standing in the corner.

“You can come out now,” Sheila said.

Liam pushed the mop and bucket past them and kept walking.

“Okay?” Willa asked as he reached the safe area behind the desk.

“Those women are dangerous,” he whispered.

“You’re twice their size. You could have gotten by them anytime you wanted.” She headed toward her toolbox for another IV set.

“No way.” Liam followed her. “They had me boxed in. If either one of them had gotten her hands on me, I would’ve been in front of an altar and impregnating one of their daughters before the sun went down today.”

“Ah yes,” Willa said with a snort. “Every man’s worst nightmare. Sex.”

“They weren’t suggesting sex. They wanted me to procreate. They don’t even want me around after that.”

“So it’s the idea of kids that turned you off?”

“That and being expected to come home every other week or so for another round of baby making but otherwise making myself scarce. When I marry it’ll be to someone I can have a real conversation with. Someone who wants more out of life than just 2:00 a.m. feedings and a wham, smack, thank you, Jack.”

“No one would have said anything if you’d just pushed past them.”

Both his eyebrows leaped up and he lifted his chin. “Just because I’m bigger doesn’t give me permission to be rude.” He pulled the mop into the bathroom and closed the door.

“You are a lot more complicated than you look.”

The remainder of the afternoon was spent hydrating flu victims. By the time Willa was finished she felt like an IV factory. “If this flu outbreak keeps up I’m going to run out of saline,” she said to Liam.

“This might be a good time to bring up your manpower shortages with the town council again.”

She looked at him, surprised at his diffident suggestion, and nodded. “Good idea. Thanks.”

“Do you want to fly home tonight?”

“I think so. No one here needs overnight care. Once they’ve had their pint and some Dramamine for the vomiting I can let them go home.”

“How long will that take?”

“About an hour.”

“I’m going to check on the plane, if you don’t need me for anything. I’ll come back in an hour to see if you’re ready.”

“That’s fine.”

“Great.” He leaned close, and for a heart-pounding second Willa thought he was going to kiss her in front of everyone. Instead he took her hand, squeezed and brushed his cheek past hers whispering, “Later.”

She stared after him for several long seconds, her body quivering in delicious reaction to his touch.

“He’s nice,” Susan said, smiling at her.

“Yeah,” Willa agreed. “He is.”

An hour later, she shut the lights off and locked the clinic doors. Susan had left already along with the last of the patients.

“These boxes are a lot lighter,” Liam said, hoisting them into the rear of the plane.

“Yeah. Any more cases of flu and I would’ve had to call in extra help.”

She opened the passenger door and clambered in, securing her seat belt before he had a chance to tell her to put it on.

He glanced down at her hands and laughed. “I’ve got you trained.”

“Ha, no you don’t. I just know you.”

“Do you?”

She looked at him, head cocked to one side. “I think so.” She smiled and patted the back of his hand. “You’re predictable about some things.”

His fingers grabbed hers before they could get far, tugged her hand back to his and wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Predictable, huh?”

“No, I will not make out with you in the plane. Fly, flyboy.”

“Party pooper.” He grinned and released her hand to rev the engines.

She watched him, his hands moving over the controls with confidence. She wanted those hands on her.

Really, really wanted them on her.

But how to go about it? She’d never seduced anyone before.

She could offer him a massage and take matters into her own hands, so to speak.

She could offer to cook him a meal and serve it naked. That idea had merit.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Liam asked, looking at her with a frown.

Willa glanced at him, blinking. She’d forgotten where she was. “Sorry. I was thinking about…uh…how we had to use the nails to hang bags today. This sort of situation could come up again and we should be better prepared.”

“Why don’t you install hooks in the walls?”

“You mean something permanent?”

“Yeah.”

A simple solution to a big problem. “That’s a good idea. There are wall mounts that fold up…I like it. I can use them in all my clinics and suggest others do the same.” She reached out and grasped his arm with both hands. “Thank you,” she said, unable to hide her smile. Handsome, kind and smart, he just never stopped surprising her.

“You’re welcome.” Liam shifted in his seat and smiled back at her. His gaze dropped to her breasts and lingered for a long couple of seconds before he jerked it away.

She bit her bottom lip. Maybe her seduction scheme wouldn’t be so difficult after all.

They landed and unloaded her equipment at the clinic. It didn’t take long since she’d used up so much of her supplies.

“Can I walk you home?” he asked when they were done.

“Please.”

Her apartment was just a few minutes’ walk away. Liam held her hand the whole distance.

“Would you like to come in?” she asked, her gaze darting everywhere but his face.

He answered by following her through the door and closing it behind him.

“I have to thank you again for your idea to hang the bags. Great thinking. Having permanent wall mounts installed was inspired.”

“Willa.”

“I really appreciated your help today with the cleaning and stuff. It was great of you to—”

“Willa,” Liam interrupted. He stepped close and took hold of her shoulders as if she were someone precious. “You don’t have to keep thanking me. Once was enough.”

“I’m sorry. I just—” she smiled and ignored the heat in her cheeks, “—want you to know how much everything you did meant to me.”

“I know.”

“Okay. Good.”

He looked into her eyes. “Did you mean it?”

“Mean…what?”

“What you said to Lucy.”

“Oh.
Oh.
About you and me?”

“Yeah.”

Willa dropped her gaze and nodded. “I apologize if I embarrassed you.”

“You didn’t embarrass me. I’d already done a good job of that myself. Trying to fend off a couple of women with a mop. I doubt I’ll ever live that down.”

“It was kind of funny.”

He tilted her chin up so she had to look at him. “What
you
said made me feel like I could leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

“It did?”

He nodded. “Did you mean it?” he asked again.

“What will you do if I say no?”

Liam froze for a moment then said, “I’ll say good-night and walk out that door with no hard feelings.”

“If I say yes?”

“I’m going to do more than just kiss you.”

Willa considered him silently for a moment. “I meant every word.”

A smile spread across his face.

He lowered his head, his lips ghosting over hers. “Just fun, right?” he breathed.

“Yeah.” She was becoming addicted to his brand of fun. The touch of his hands, lips, tongue. “Lots of fun?”

He chuckled. “Like it do you?”

“I do.” She met his gaze. “You’ve never lied to me, never promised something you didn’t deliver.” She stopped for a moment, unsure if she should continue. No, he’d earned the right to hear how he made her feel. “I feel free when I’m with you.”

He stared at her for a long moment then hugged her hard, burrowing his head against her neck. “You can’t know how happy I am to hear you say all that.” His voice rumbled out from deep in his chest. “I feel free with you too.” He sighed. “For the first time since my ex-best friend stabbed me in the gut.”

“Literally or figuratively?”

“Figuratively.”

“Not your back?”

“No. He was looking me in the face when he did it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry your ex-husband was an idiot.”

“Liam.” She put her lips to his neck and stroked her tongue across his skin. “I don’t want to talk about them anymore.”

He didn’t answer her with words. He pulled away far enough so he could kiss her, and started walking her backward toward the bedroom. After a couple of stumbling steps, he groaned and picked her up.

She grabbed at his neck. “You don’t have to carry me.”

“Not getting there fast enough,” he mumbled, nipping at her lips with his teeth.

“Oh. Yeah. Right.” She nipped back.

He laid her on the bed and followed her down, tangling his legs with hers as his hands pushed up her shirt. He cupped her breast with one hand while the other pillowed her head.

“Let me up,” she said. “We’re wearing too many clothes.”

“There’s no rush, darling.” His smile made her think of naughty things.

“Call me impatient,” she said, stroking his erection through his jeans. “But I need you. Now.”

His response was to scrape his teeth over the sensitive skin of her neck. “Have I told you how much I love it when you give orders? So serious…and sexy.” He sat up, bringing her with him, then pulled his shirt over his head.

Willa unbuttoned hers and shrugged it off then reached behind her back to undo her bra. She tossed it away and smiled at Liam’s expression. “See something you like?”

“Yeah.” His gaze lifted from her breasts to her face. “Everywhere I look.” He kissed her while he worked on stripping her pants and panties off.

She teased his nipples with her fingers, laughing when he fumbled with his jeans. Her laugh turned into a groan when he ran his tongue round and round one of her nipples, arching her back as he sucked it into his mouth.

Then they were both naked and he was pushing inside her, his whole body shaking. “God, you feel good.”

She held on to him tight, pleasure licking its way through her body. “More, please.”

He groaned, his head falling to her shoulder. “Yes, ma’am.”

She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tight as he began to move. His thrusts sent her over a precipice she hadn’t known was so close. Or so high. Her climax seemed to last forever, but eventually she came down only to find him watching her face with a smile she could look at forever.

“Ready for another one?”

“You,” she said, grinning, “are completely unsafe.”

He laughed at that. “Only when I’m not flying.”

“Speak for yourself. I’m in the stratosphere. Come on, flyboy,” she said, squeezing him with her inner muscles. “Join me.”

He groaned and sent them both soaring.

She held on to him, her arms wrapped around his neck, smiling like a loon.

He turned his head and kissed her neck, her ear and whispered, “Don’t let go.”

She smiled, happy for the first time in years. “I won’t.”

Chapter Twelve

“Your blood sugars are looking good, Jason,” Willa said, glancing up from his latest lab report. She sat at the main reception desk of the Stony Creek clinic, the summer sun blazing through the windows despite the fact that it was only 7:00 a.m. Four weeks had passed since she and Liam made love for the first time. The best four weeks of her life. Liam hadn’t turned into a monster. He was just as much fun to be with as before. No demands, no jealousy and no violence.

And the sex was fantastic.

Jason grinned and raised his eyebrows. “Good enough for you to sign off on my license for another six months?”

“If you flew with a copilot there wouldn’t be any problems with your license.”

“I don’t have a copilot.”

“Exactly. I thought you said you were working on some kind of plan to fix the situation. What happened?”

“It’s still in the works.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“I don’t want to talk about it before it’s a done deal. That way, if it doesn’t work out, the only person disappointed will be me.”

She bent to write in his chart. “Fine, be like that then. Yes, I think you’re good to fly. Today.”

“You’re worse than a wife.”

She raised her head to smile at him. “Thank you.”

“I hear your budget went up.”

“It did. Too bad it wasn’t sooner. I nearly ran out of IV sets and saline.”

“Flu is hard to predict.”

“Yeah, so is the emergency that’s going to result in someone needing a doctor here when there isn’t one.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Politicians. It doesn’t matter if they’re in Washington or in a fishing village on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, they’re all the same.” He shifted from foot to foot. “I hear you and Liam are seeing a lot of each other.”

“Hard to keep a secret in a community this small.”

“The talk is that you two are getting hitched.”

“Worried?” she asked straight-faced, then smiled. “Funny, I don’t know anything about it. Perhaps Liam is marrying someone else?”

“Not bloody likely. He hasn’t so much as looked at another woman since he met you. It’s been weeks now and he’s still making calf eyes at you.”

A swell of happiness rose within her and she tried to hide the blush heating her face by busying herself with Jason’s file. “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a people person. He looks at everyone.”

“Not the way he looks at you. You’re good for him, you know.”

She stopped writing but didn’t look up. “Oh?”

“You’re not a bimbo or a social climber or a debutant.”

She snorted. “I’m sure I’m not the first woman he’s spent time with who wasn’t independently wealthy.”

“Maybe not, but you’re the first one who wasn’t after him for something.”

She looked up at that. “I imagine it’s a nice change of pace for him, not to have to worry about me sinking my claws into him.”

“
You
don’t have claws. He knows that.” Jason stared at her with narrowed eyes and his arms crossed over his chest. “Everyone needs to be needed, especially by the people they care for.”

“I care enough not to tie him down or hold him back.”

“Are you sure that’s what he wants?”

“Yes. We talked about it.”

Jason pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “People do change their minds, and sometimes even manage to use them.” He dropped his arms and headed for the door. “Think about it.”

Willa shook her head and stood to put his file away, but a wave of dizziness rolled over her and she had to sit down or throw up her breakfast. She frowned. This was the second morning in a row she’d felt like this. Queasy, light-headed, yet the symptoms vanished by lunchtime.

Maybe she’d finally caught the flu.

Her day progressed slowly. Some of her patients asked if she was feeling okay. Willa waved them off with a shrug. By the time she saw her last patient she was exhausted, but her appetite was back, in fact she was ravenous, and the nausea was gone.

She went home and virtually inhaled two ham-and-cheese sandwiches and two glasses of milk. She stared at the contents of her fridge, wondering if she should make a third sandwich, when she glanced at her calendar. It was almost the end of the month and she’d need to get some groceries soon. What she wouldn’t give for some ripe peaches. She could eat a whole bag full.

She looked at the calendar again. It was almost the end of the month and she hadn’t had her period yet.

She closed the fridge and pulled the calendar off the wall, counting backward.

She was nine days late.

“I couldn’t be,” Willa whispered to herself. “It’s not possible.”

Her doctor had assured her several times that the scarring from the physical abuse suffered at the hands of her husband was too extensive. Two other physicians concurred. She’d read the reports herself. Her chances were almost nil that she’d ever conceive.

But
almost
wasn’t zero.

Willa grabbed her keys and ran back to the clinic. She took a pregnancy test kit and hurried to her apartment, locking the door then sprinting to the bathroom. Three minutes later she stared at the dot of blue on the test well confirming the impossible.

She was pregnant.

A baby.

Willa put one shaking hand protectively over her lower abdomen, barely able to breathe. The doctors had been wrong. She’d conceived a child.

She managed to stumble over to the couch and sit down as tears formed and rolled down her face. She’d thought motherhood forever denied her, but here she was pregnant. A sob escaped her constricted throat and she covered her mouth with one hand. The miracle of it, the absolute wonder made the tears fall faster.

She’d gotten her second chance. If she hadn’t trusted Liam enough to… Oh God,
Liam.

He didn’t want children. He’d made that perfectly clear. Fun, no commitments and definitely no babies.

“It’s too late to prevent a baby now. You’re already on your way,” she said to her belly.

Would Liam understand? Would he see this miracle for what it was or would he perceive it as a trap?

That woman had tried to use her child as a bargaining chip, tried to insinuate herself into his life using the baby as her carte blanche. Liam had been hurt so badly. More than even he probably realized.

No. She couldn’t do that to him, couldn’t hurt the father of her child that way. The man she loved. She couldn’t…
Loved?

Willa sat up abruptly. She could pretend, she could lie, but nothing could change the truth. She loved Liam. Which only served to make her situation even more hopeless, because he didn’t want her love. He wanted freedom, the opportunity to live his life his way without ties.

That’s just what she’d give him. She’d promised him nothing more or less than that.

A baby was a whole lot more, and not something easy to hide.

He’d figure it out at some point, when she started to show. What was she going to say then?

He was a good man, he deserved to know, but telling him would destroy him and any trust he had in her. She couldn’t stand to see him look at her the way she used to look when she saw herself in the mirror. Injured all the way to her soul. The way she looked before she met him.

What was she going to do?

No bolt of lightning with an answer struck. She needed time to think, time to figure out how to tell Liam he was going to be a father without him hating her when she was done.

She breathed deep.
Okay, no need to panic.
She was in the very early days of pregnancy. She wouldn’t even start to show for two, maybe three months. She had plenty of time.

Her stomach rolled again.

If only she could keep some food down in the mornings. No one was going to believe she had the flu for only part of the day for the next ten weeks or so.

She raised a shaking hand to her head. She’d get through this; she had to. She had more than herself to worry about now.

Thank God Liam was gone for a couple of days. Hopefully she’d regain her composure and energy by the time he got back.

Maybe she was underestimating him.

Willa went to her computer and searched the internet for news stories about Liam. Perhaps the case with that other woman wasn’t as bad as she assumed. Maybe she was overreacting.

Punching in his name and the words
paternity suit
brought up several news stories. She read them all, her heart in her throat. The woman had not only accused him of fathering her child, she’d also claimed he refused to support the baby in any way, making him appear completely heartless. She asserted that he even violently threw her out of his house, though Willa could find no report of her seeing a doctor or seeking medical attention for the injuries she claimed to have suffered. The woman also said his father threatened her life.

As much as Willa didn’t like Edward Reynolds, she couldn’t see him making threats of that nature. His predilection would be to embarrass the woman in public, not play Godfather.

She found articles ranging in dates covering several months. No wonder Liam shied away from commitment of any kind. The woman had effectively stalked him, stripping him of his dignity, pride and reputation.

No wonder he’d come to Alaska. And now his nightmare was about to start all over again.

She shut down her computer. There was no way she’d put him through that. No way. She loved him too much. Loved him enough to let him go.

Three days passed with the same morning sickness affecting her eating habits. Elizabeth noticed right away and suggested she take a few days off to recover from the flu. But Willa waved away her objections. Nine months was a long time to wait.

After a quiet morning when the worst medical problem she saw was an ear infection, Willa looked up from signing a chart to see Liam walk in the clinic door with a large paper bag in his hand.

He strode past Elizabeth without looking at her or even acknowledging her hello.

Willa watched him come toward her, her heart in her shoes, as he approached wearing the sexiest grin she’d ever seen.

He stopped in front of her, and despite the fact that the receptionist was watching, he leaned down to say, “Hi, beautiful.”

Then he kissed her. Not ravenously, with the lust that time apart can inspire, but gently with a tenderness that brought tears to her eyes.

He pulled back and wiped one tear from her cheek. “Hey, what’s this?”

Willa sniffed and wiped her face with the backs of her hands. “Nothing.” She tried to smile but knew it was a poor effort. “How was your trip?”

“Great.” He frowned, his eyes examining her face. “Jason said you looked tired and he’s right.”

“She’s been sick for three or four days now,” Elizabeth put in with a shake of her head. “Finally got the flu.”

Liam pinned Willa in place with a stare. “Is that true?”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“She won’t take any time off either,” Elizabeth added.

“Willa, that’s not right. You can’t take care of anyone else if you’re sick. Elizabeth, cancel her afternoon appointments.”

“Wait a second,” Willa protested. “You can’t do that.”

“Too late, already done.” He put a hand under her elbow and urged her to her feet. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

“But—”

“Don’t argue with me.”

“I’ll reschedule your patients,” Elizabeth said. “You didn’t have a full roster today anyway.”

Willa couldn’t fight the two of them, and she was really tired. Pregnancy took all the energy out of a woman. “Oh, all right.”

Liam urged her out the door with one hand, his paper bag clutched in the other. He walked her to her apartment and followed her inside.

“Staying awhile?” she asked.

“I want to make sure you get some rest.”

“Liam, I’m quite capable of taking care of myself.”

“Huh-uh. Here, have a seat while I dish out some lunch.”

The thought of food made her stomach flip over. It was still a bit early for her. “Uh, I’m really not hungry.”

“You need something in your belly.”

“But—”

“Sit,” he ordered, pointing at the couch.

The abrupt command hit her hard, driving the air from her lungs, and fear rose up to choke her airway. Willa fought through it and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not a dog.”

He raised a brow. “Sorry, but I’m worried about you.” He stepped closer. “You’re as white as a sheet.”

“That doesn’t make it okay for you to order me around.” Tears threatened to overflow and she had to blink them away.

He searched her face, a slight frown pulling his brows down. “You’re right, I stepped out of bounds. I’m sorry.”

Willa stared at him for a moment then slowly sank onto the couch.

Liam held up the bag. “I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared into the kitchen and she rubbed a hand over her belly. It was killing her not telling him, pretending everything was okay.

“Here you go,” he said, coming out of the kitchen a few minutes later with a plate loaded with Chinese food and a cup of tea.

She took them. “I’ll never eat all this.”

“I’ll finish what you don’t eat.”

Her father used to do that for her when she was a child.

A sob welled up and broke through. Willa put down her plate and cup and covered her face with her hands.

Liam grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands from her face. “What’s wrong? Did I make the wrong kind of tea?”

She shook her head. “I can’t do this.”

“Do what?”

“I just can’t.” Willa jerked her hands away from him and covered her face again.

“Willa, what—”

“Please sit down.” She waved at him to sit in the chair opposite her.

“Why?”

“Please.”

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

“Sort of…not really…I…” She struggled to find the words. “I’m…pregnant.”

He didn’t speak for several long seconds.

Willa finally lifted her head to look at him.

“What?” he asked, his expression blank.

“I’m pregnant.” She rubbed her eyes again. “I can hardly believe it. Three different doctors told me there was virtually no chance. I had too much scar tissue.”

He said nothing for a long moment. “They were wrong.” His voice sounded odd, divorced of all emotion.