Free Where There's Smoke by Sandra Brown

name, and I didn't learn yours until seconds before you left."
     
    "Well, you know it now."
     
    "Yes, I know it now, and I'm not at all surprised to discover that you're a Tackett.   Arrogance is a family trait."
     
    "This isn't about the Tacketts.   This is about you.   What the hell are you doing in our town?"
     
    "Your town?   That's a curious choice of words for someone who spends very little time residing here.   Clark told me that you're rarely in Eden Pass.   To what do we owe the honor of this visit?"
     
    He came a menacing step closer.   "I told you before to cut the bullshit.   I didn't come here to play word games with you, Doc, so don't try to divert me from the point."
     
    "Which is?"
     
    "What the hell you're doing here!"   he shouted.
     
    Suddenly the door swung open and Nancy poked her head around.
     
    "Dr.   Mallory?   Want me to .   . . do something?"
     
    He didn't move a muscle, didn't indicate in any way that he had even heard her or noticed the interruption.
     
    Subconsciously Lara had been preparing herself for this clash, so she wasn't that surprised at his angry appearance.   Since it seemed inevitable that they have a showdown, she decided just to get it over with.
     
    She glanced at the nurse.   "No, thank you, Nancy.   Try to keep the patients pacified until I can get to them."   Then, looking up into Key's enraged face, she added, "I'll try to keep Mr. Tackett's unreasonable temper under control."
     
    Nancy obviously had misgivings about Lara's decision, but she left them alone.   Lara gestured toward a chair.   "Please sit down, Mr. Tackett.
     
    You're ashen."
     
    "I'm fine."
     
    "Hardly.   You're swaying."
     
    "I said I'm fine," he repeated testily, raising his voice again.
     
    "All right, have it your way.   But I don't think either of us wants repeated what we say to each other.   Will you kindly keep your voice lowered?"
     
    Leaning on his crutches, he bent forward until his face was within inches of hers.   "You don't want what we say repeated because you're afraid that the few people who don't already know will find out that your husband caught you butt naked in the sack with my brother."
     
    She had heard the accusation many times before, and there seemed to be no antidote for its vicious sting.   Time hadn't diminished its effect.
     
    Turning her back to him, she moved to the window, which offered a view of the gravel parking lot.   One of the patients who'd been waiting in the reception area was getting into her car.   She couldn't have looked more sheepish if she were leaving an adult bookstore with a brown paper bag full of dirty magazines.   Her retreating car raised a cloud of dust.
     
    Watching her had given Lara time to form a response.   "I'm trying very hard to put the incident with your brother behind me and get on with my life."
     
    She turned to face him again and felt much more comfortable with space between them, although, even from a distance, his presence was potent.
     
    He still hadn't shaved and he looked more disreputable than he had the night before.   Most disquieting was the raw sexuality he emanated.   She sensed it.   Keenly.   Doing so seemed to give credence to his low opinion of her, and that bothered her tremendously.
     
    Lowering her gaze, she said, "Don't I deserve a second chance, Mr.
    Tackett?   It happened a long time ago."
     
    "I know how long it's been.   Five years.   Everybody in the nation knows exactly when it happened, because the morning you were caught in bed with my brother marked the beginning of the end for him.   His life was never the same."
     
    "Neither was mine!"
     
    "I guess not," he snorted sarcastically.   "Not after you became the nation's most celebrated femme fatale."
     
    "I didn't want to be."
     
    "You should have thought of that before you sneaked into Clark's bedroom.   Jesus," he said, shaking his head in bafflement.   "Didn't you have any better sense than to