you must be Linc.”
Dear God, what had Victoria done to him, he wondered. This woman wasn’t a nurse. She couldn’t be. She was very young and looked more like a sexy siren than a caregiver. Her petite body had more curves than the mountain road leading up to the house and her face was full of dimples, sparkling brown eyes and lips the color of a ripe cherry. This was not the sort of woman he needed sleeping across the hall from him.
“That would be me,” he replied, while wondering how he could tell her to go home and still be polite about it.
She walked up to him and smiled. “I’d offer you my hand. But since you can’t take it, I’ll just say I’m glad to be here.”
Topping her jeans was a red jersey shirt that had slipped down on one shoulder. On her small feet were wedge sandals tall enough to break her ankles. Linc couldn’t prevent his gaze from climbing up from her painted toenails to the top of her head and back down again. “Where did Victoria find you?” he asked rudely.
The blunt question lifted Victoria’s delicate black brows. “Well, not out of a hole if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m her nurse. I figured you knew that. Haven’t you ever been to Victoria’s clinic?”
He shook his head while hating the fact that she was making him feel downright stupid. “I don’t ever need to be doctored.” He frowned as his gaze focused on his bandaged hands. “At least, not until the fire.”
“Well, you must be very lucky,” Nevada said while her eyes took in the sight of Victoria’s cousin.
He practically glowered at her and lifted the thick white bandages directly in front of her face.
“Lucky? You call this lucky?”
Unaffected by his sarcasm, she nodded. “If you’ve lived all these years without needing a doctor’s care, you’re a very fortunate man, Linc Ketchum. And as for those—” she inclined her head toward his burns, “better your hands than your whole body being toasted.”
She was right and he knew it, but that didn’t make him feel any better. Still, he thanked God that he’d gotten out of the fire before it had consumed him.
“Yeah,” he said, then walking around her, he peered into the car’s back seat. It was piled with enough luggage to fill two closets. His jaw tightened. “It looks like you’ve come to stay.”
Turning slightly toward him, Nevada frowned. “Of course I’ve come to stay. You need someone here with you at all times.”
He drew in a bracing breath then blew it out. “Well, I don’t want to sound rude, but I don’t think you’re gonna be that person.”
She whirled completely around to stare at him. “What?”
He shrugged as a sheepish expression stole over his lean face. Normally he went to great lengths to handle people gently, the same way he handled his horses. But this firebrand standing in front of him was scratching his hackles in the wrong direction.
“I said I don’t think you’re the right person to stay with me.”
Nevada’s eyes narrowed as her hands came to rest on either side of her waist. “You don’t, huh? Well, just what sort of person would you like to have staying with you?” she asked in a voice that dripped sweetness.
“None! Damn it. I can get along without anybody’s help. And I have no idea why Victoria sent you up here! I don’t even believe you’re a nurse!”
Nevada folded her arms against her breasts. This outburst from her patient wasn’t too big a surprise. Victoria had already warned her that since the fire Linc had been on a rampage. And she’d heard a long time ago that the man was a recluse. She’d asked Victoria about the hearsay and the doctor had confirmed it as true, saying she couldn’t remember the last time Linc Ketchum had ever stepped foot off the T Bar K. Poor man, Nevada thought. He really needed her help.
“Why not?” she asked simply.
He stepped closer and it was then that Nevada allowed herself to really look at him. When she’d first driven up, she’d gotten the impression of long legs, muscles and shoulders broad enough to carry her weight twice over. Now she could study his face close up and as far as she was concerned it was a work of pure art.
A Roman nose, square jaw and chin, and dark-green eyes set beneath a pair of black brows. At the moment he was wearing a cowboy hat the color of creamed coffee, but she could see the hair next to it was slightly darker and curled against his head in a touch-me-please way. Victoria had told her that Linc was thirty-eight and all Nevada could think at the moment was what a hunk of a man Linc Ketchum had grown into in those thirty-eight years.
“Because you don’t look like a nurse. Or sound like one, either,” he answered.
Nevada couldn’t help but laugh. “Really? I guess you must be an expert on nurses?”
He grimaced. “No. But—”
Nevada stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder. It was warm, rock-hard and caused her skin to sizzle.
“Listen, Linc. Victoria tried to find a nurse other than me. She couldn’t. No one was willing to come all the way out here and stay for two weeks.”
“That’s not surprising,” Linc muttered. “If a woman has to go without electricity for one hour, she thinks she’s been traumatized.”
“Hmm. Is that so? I had to go without electricity for two days last winter. Ice did something to the lines going to my apartment. But you know, I made it okay. Didn’t feel a bit traumatized.”
Glowering, he looked away from her. “I guess you’re trying to say that I should be grateful that you were willing to take care of me?”
Her hand felt as though it was vibrating on his shoulder and she pulled it away, hoping it would put an end to the odd sensation. “Well, you don’t have to go so far as to be grateful. Just civil will be enough for me.”
His head twisted back around and Nevada felt something jerk in her chest as his dark-green gaze landed on her face. “You’re doing this for Victoria’s sake, aren’t you?” he asked, then quickly added, “No. Don’t answer that. I already know that you are.”
“Well, well. You not only think you’re an expert on nurses, you also think you’re a mind reader. You must have many talents, Mr. Ketchum.”
Ignoring her sarcasm, he said, “See, you’re not even bothering to deny it.”
Nevada smiled at him. “Why should I bother? You seem to know the answer already.”
He heaved out a heavy breath. “Well, I guess that part of it doesn’t matter. I just don’t like feeling beholden to anybody.”
Nevada’s expression turned serious. “Look, Linc, I’m here because I chose to be here. I’m a nurse and when it all boils down, I can’t turn away from someone who needs my help. No matter who they’re related to. Now if you don’t mind, I need to unload my things from the car.”
She stepped around him and jerked the car door open. Linc watched with helpless frustration as she pulled out several pieces of luggage and
