Twin of Fire Read online

  Lee was standing a foot away from her, but the heat in his eyes was drawing her closer. “So I passed your tests, did I? Rather like Hercules and his tasks.”

  “It wasn’t quite that bad.”

  “No? People are still asking me if I’d like to go rowing. And, of course, there was that last-minute switch at the altar, and everyone wants to know if I know which twin I did marry.”

  “But there are no more snakes in your lunch pail,” she said solemnly.

  Leander put his wineglass, then hers, down on the edge of the sink and stepped toward her. “You have a lot to make up to me.”

  “I shall always keep your scalpels sharp,” she said, stepping back.

  Leander just stood there, not saying a word, as he watched her. It was nearly dark outside and very dim in the surgery of the hospital. With his eyes locked on hers, Lee began to remove his clothing, inch by inch exposing warm, dark skin, long muscles playing, moving.

  Blair stood transfixed where she was, her eyes hypnotized by him, watching his fingers on buttons, watching him as he exposed himself bit by delicious bit. His legs were long and thick-thighed, big muscles about his knees, calves strong and heavy. Her breath deepened and her throat dried as she saw him standing before her nude, his desire for her rampant.

  Still watching her, he sat down on a long, low bench, his legs apart, his body ready for her.

  “Come to me,” he whispered in a voice that came from somewhere inside him.

  Blair didn’t bother to remove any outer clothing but released the drawstring of her pantalets and stepped out of them as she walked. Her full cord skirt covered them as she straddled him, slipping down on his manhood easily. She wrapped her leather encased feet about his calves for a moment, pulling herself down, closer and closer to him, feeling him against her skin.

  Then, on tiptoe, she began to move up and down, slowly at first, watching. His face was expressionless, devoid of lines, angelic almost, as the pleasure began to dissolve over him. A moment later, she arched against him, bringing her knees up to the bench. Lee’s hands slid under the skirt, began to move up and down her thighs, clutching her, helping her to move.

  Lee’s eyes closed for a second, opened, then he leaned his head back and slid downward. Blair moved her hands from his shoulders to his neck and began to move harder and faster, her thighs straining, tightening, as Lee caught her buttocks in his hands and helped her move.

  She arched once, hard, backbreakingly hard, holding onto Lee as her body tightened and froze for a moment in a final ecstasy.

  Lee held her, even though she almost fought him, not allowing her to fall, himself shuddering with the grip of his passion.

  For a moment, Blair didn’t know where she was, as she came out of her powerful arch and clung to Lee.

  After a moment, he pulled back and smiled at her. “It’s nice to have mutual interests.”

  “Hello. Is anyone here?”

  “It’s your father,” Blair said in horror.

  Lee lifted her off him. “Go out there and stall him while I get dressed.”

  “But I can’t—,” she began, thinking that he’d know from the look of her what she’d been doing.

  “Go!” Lee commanded and gave her a small shove toward the doorway.

  “There you are,” Reed greeted her, then took one look at Blair’s flushed face and began to smile. “I guess Lee’s here, too.”

  “Yes,” she said, and her voice cracked. “He’ll…a, be out in a minute. Could I offer you some refreshment?” She stopped as she remembered that the only thing they had was champagne.

  Reed’s eyes sparkled. “Come outside. I have something I want to show you.”

  With a glance over her shoulder, she saw that Lee wasn’t ready yet, so she followed Reed outside. Standing in front of the clinic was a pretty little carriage, black exterior, black leather seats, a black box in the back to hold supplies. Blair touched the brass rail that held up the canopy. “It’s lovely.” She thought it was odd that Reed would buy such a carriage for himself, as it had a decidedly feminine air about it.

  “Look at the front of it,” Reed said, his ugly little bulldog face still beaming at her.

  She looked up to see Leander coming out of the door, and he seemed to be as puzzled by the carriage as she was.

  Blair bent over to see that there was a brass nameplate just under the single seat. Dr. Blair Chandler Westfield, it read.

  It took Blair a moment to understand. “For me? The carriage is for me?”

  “I can’t have my new daughter running about the streets of Chandler on foot, and I know this son of mine won’t let that old buggy of his out of his sight, so I thought you’d better have one of your own. Do you like it?”

  Blair stood back for a moment and looked at the buggy. It seemed that this was what she needed to finish establishing that she was really a doctor. “Yes,” she cried. “Oh, yes!” And the next moment, she ran to hug Reed and kiss his cheek, and before he could get embarrassed, she was climbing into the carriage and looking at every nook and cranny. She opened the box in the back. “It’s not nearly as big as yours, Lee. Maybe we can have it enlarged. I’m sure that I’ll need to carry lots of things.”

  “Such as rifles, maybe? Look, if you think I’m going to allow you to run around the country all alone in your new carriage, you’re deeply mistaken. Dad, I wish you’d asked me about this. Giving her freedom is like letting a self-destructive tornado loose. She’ll run off on one case after another and end up getting herself killed.”

  “And I guess you’re so much better,” she said, looking down at him from the seat. “You walk into range wars. At least, I went into the thing not knowing what it was.”

  “That’s worse,” Lee said. “All someone has to say is that he needs help, and you’re off. You have no sense of taking care of yourself. Look at what happened with the gang that kidnapped you. You jumped on the horse with the man and didn’t even ask where he was taking you.”

  “Wait a minute,” Reed said, and there was laughter in his voice. “I guess I didn’t think of any of that. Maybe I learned with you, Lee, that I couldn’t stop you from doing whatever you wanted to do. Maybe Blair’s like you.”

  “She has no sense about what’s safe for her to do,” Lee said sullenly.

  “And you do?” Reed’s eyes bored into his son’s.

  Blair watched them, and she was further convinced that Lee was doing something dangerous, but she was sure that it was something that would eventually help other people.

  Reed glanced at the brown horse that was hitched to the buggy. “I’ve sent for an appaloosa like Lee’s, but the horse hasn’t come yet. I thought you’d want to be recognized like Lee is.”

  “They’re going to recognize her because I will be beside her,” Lee said with determination.

  Blair didn’t answer that, but merely gave him a little smile with lifted eyebrows that made her think he was going to jump into the seat with her—and she didn’t like to think what he was going to do to her.

  Reed let out a loud laugh and hit his son roughly on the shoulder. “I hope she leads you a chase as hard as the one you led your mother and me. Maybe you’ll understand some of what we went through.” He put his hand up to help Blair down. “Did I ever tell you about the time Lee exchanged the rat poison in the attic for bread crumbs? We had every rat in my wife’s hometown in our house before we found out what was going on.”

  “No, you didn’t,” she said, looking up at Lee’s back as they entered the clinic. “And I certainly would like to hear more.”

  Chapter 28

  Blair and Leander had been married only a couple of weeks when the Westfield Clinic was officially opened. Of course, she hadn’t finished her internship, but both she and Lee knew it was only a formality. Blair’d had years of practice in hospitals.

  The day the clinic opened, Blair was so nervous she spilled her coffee and dropped her corn muffin on the dining room floor. Guiltily, she grabbed the muff