The Forbidden Marriage

It had paid off. They had a great relationship as brothers-in-law now.

“Why do you insist on calling him my uncle? There’s no blood tie between us.”

Lynette, Lynette.

Her niece’s bizarre behavior was finally beginning to make sense. The stretch from teen to adult could be a very confusing, painful time.

“Come on, Aunt Michelle. You know it’s true. First his birth parents abandoned him and he lived in foster homes. Then Mom’s parents adopted him and then they got killed. By the time I started kindergarten, Zak was already in high school. I hardly ever saw him.”

“Nevertheless he’s your uncle, and that makes him a member of your family,” Michelle reminded her. “After Graham married your mom, they raised him and me with all the love two people possibly could. Zak and I were so lucky to have an older brother and sister who provided a stable home for us with both of our parents dead.”

Naturally Sherilyn had wanted to bring her brother home to convalesce after his accident at the construction site. Michelle supposed that like anyone just out of the hospital, Zak was probably craving a little TLC about now.

Knowing how fiercely independent he was, this was a good way to avoid the ministrations of a number of women who, according to Sherilyn, hoped to be the one. However Zak hadn’t shown signs of wanting to settle down yet.

No doubt he didn’t want any of them to see him in his weakened condition. Michelle had nursed enough men young and old in her career to understand that part of the male psyche. They wore their pride like a shield. There could be no show of vulnerability.

When Michelle’s husband Rob had fallen fatally ill, he’d been so adept at hiding his fears and emotions, he’d created a wall between them she could never breach.

“How come you aren’t working?”

Lynette’s truculent tone made the situation transparent to Michelle. Now that Zak was home for a while, her niece wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.

Since college he’d made several trips a month from Carlsbad to Riverside to visit the family, but he hadn’t come nearly as often as Sherilyn and Graham would have liked.

Michelle hadn’t seen him in two years because she’d been out of town on one nursing job or another during those times.

Caring for various patients in their own households had been her panacea to get on with her life after losing her husband to Lou Gehrig’s disease. The last contact she’d had with Zak had been at Rob’s funeral.

“I just finished a job in Murrieta.”

She didn’t add that her patient, Mike Francis, the prominent Californian pro golfer on the PGA circuit, now recovered from his severely broken leg because of a car accident, had asked her to fly to Australia with him for an invitational tournament next month.

Beneath the conventionally handsome golfer’s arrogance lived a man with a great deal of charm who could make her laugh. On top of that, she’d never been to Australia. The thought of exploring a little of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef sounded intriguing.

Although she’d applied for a passport in anticipation, Michelle was still trying to make up her mind whether she should go. She suspected he would always love his ex-wife, yet she knew he was trying to make a new beginning with Michelle.

In the course of being his nurse, she’d learned enough about him to know he wasn’t a man who made a commitment lightly. If she didn’t want a new beginning with him just as badly, then she had no business going away with him.

Neither of them needed more pain in their lives.

“As long as we’re on the subject, how grouchy is our patient this morning?” she teased in the hope of putting Lynette in a better mood.

“He’s still asleep and won’t want to be disturbed.”

Her niece was definitely warning her off. At some point this summer Lynette had left her girlhood behind.

“I’m up now,” came a deep masculine voice sounding an octave lower than she’d ever heard it before. Surprised, Michelle wheeled around.

Her breath caught.

“Zak—”

His six-foot-two frame was braced in the doorway at the end of the hall. Alarmed to realize what an effort he was making to remain upright, she started toward him.

“I thought I heard you talking to Lynette,” he said as she drew closer. “It’s been a long time, Michelle.”

She swallowed hard.

Suddenly she had the answer to her niece’s drastic transformation.

The last two years had brought changes. Adult changes. Still and always seven years younger than Michelle, Zak Sadler was a grown man now in every sense of the word. His black hair and strong masculine features made him utterly fascinating.

The aloofness that had characterized him years ago had turned into a compelling sensuality that threw out a male challenge Michelle couldn’t possibly ignore.

He wore the bottom half of a pair of gray sweats and nothing else, unless you counted the bandage wrapped around the ribs of his chest.

Zak was all hard-muscled male with a bronzed tan that came from working in the California sun. At twenty-eight, he was a man in his prime, the head of Sadler Construction Company in Carlsbad, a beach city close to two hours away from Riverside depending on the traffic.

He’d always worked construction and knew how to save his money. Refusing Graham’s financial help, he’d put himself through college to earn his construction engineering degree. According to her brother and Sherilyn, he’d built up an enviable business by bringing many of his former co-workers together. Apparently it was thriving.

Michelle couldn’t help but admire him for knowing what he wanted and going after it with single-minded determination.

But right now all she could think about was Zak’s impact on her. She’d known him for years as Sherilyn’s adopted brother, but she’d never thought of him in a physical way until now.

Struggling to keep her voice steady she said, “It’s good to see you again, Zak, but you shouldn’t be out of bed yet. I was bringing you some fresh ice bags.”

“Just what the doctor ordered.”

Something in his tone produced a quivery sensation in Michelle’s stomach that made no sense at all.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lynette had walked up next to Michelle, her avid gaze fastened on Zak. “I could have gotten some for you.”

He gave a negligent shrug of his broad shoulders, bringing more muscles into play. “I appreciate that, but I didn’t know I was hurting again until I came awake a minute ago.”

The whole time they’d been talking, his unsettling gaze had been narrowed on Michelle. Now it flicked to Lynette.

“Aren’t you going to be late for school? With the high cost of tuition these days, you can’t afford to miss class. That’s no way to start your freshman year.”

Michelle shivered because she already knew how Lynette would react to those remarks.

Her niece’s complexion lost color before she shot Michelle a hostile glance. In the next instant she flung around and headed for the stairs without saying a word.

Zak started for the bed with difficulty.

“Weren’t you a little hard on her?” Michelle asked, hating to have been caught in the cross fire.

“Not hard enough,” came the cryptic reply. “If you’ll play nurse for a while, I’ll tell you a story.”