Last Year's Bride (Montana Born Brides) Read Online Free PDF Page B

“At least not tomorrow. We’ve got site to visit tomorrow. Go upstairs and get some rest.” He already had hold of her arm and was marching her back in through the air lock toward the warmth of the lobby. “We need to get an early start. Can you drive in this?” He scowled out at the snow, as if it had been put here to annoy him.
    “ Yes.”
    “ Fine. Then get some sleep and be ready to go by eight.”
    “ Er, yes.” Nell gave him a grateful smile and started toward the elevator when he caught her arm, spinning her back so he could peer down into her face. “Are you all right on your own? Really?” Super-sensitive Grant was back, his laser gaze dissecting her.
    Nell lifted her chin under his gaze. “Of course.”
    “ You still look awful.”
    “ Thanks very much. Really, I’ll be fine. “ She shook his arm off and started toward the elevators.
    “ You think. Maybe we should get that Jane person to call a doctor. They do have doctors here, don’t they? You’re as white as Ahab’s whale.” Grant continued dogging her like a Border Collie all the way to the elevators.
    When they reached them, she turned and pasted a bright smile on her face. “What a lovely thing to say. I’ll be all right. And I won’t mess up your day tomorrow. I promise. I just ... need to lie down.” She turned around again and pressed the button for the elevator.
    “ I’ll see that she gets to her room.” The rough masculine voice sent a shiver straight down her spine.
    Nell whirled around. Cole was right behind her, so close she could feel him breathing down her neck.
    “ Who’re you?” Grant’s gaze raked Cole but Cole didn’t even glance his way. His eyes were locked on Nell’s. Grant nudged her. “Who the hell is he?”
    “ My—” Nell began, then stopped. Who was he? Her husband? Yes, he was that. But she’d never told Grant she was married. He had offered her the job only a few weeks after their hasty nuptials, and Cole’s dad was still in serious condition after his second heart attack. There was no way he could spring an unexpected bride on the family then, Cole had told her. So she might as well take the job for a few months—until things got sorted.
    Being married, in theory, shouldn ’t have prevented Grant from hiring her. But being married to a man who lived in Montana would certainly have been a drawback. Grant never would have hired her for a Los Angeles-based job if he’d thought she was going to leave for Montana before the end of the year.
    So she ’d kept her mouth shut about her marriage and had taken the job.
    Cole, of course, hadn ’t told anyone, either. They’d married before she’d finished her Master’s, so of course she’d had to go back to San Francisco. That had gone without saying. It would give him time, Cole had told her, to break the news to his family—essentially to his dad.
    “ Don’t want to give the old man a heart attack,” he’d joked.
    But by the time he ’d got home, it hadn’t been a joking matter. Sam had had one while Cole was gone.
    And now? Well, that was the point of her being here, wasn’t it? To discover whether they had a marriage or not.
    “ My boss,” she said at last. “This is my boss, Grant Merrick,” she told Cole. Then to Grant, she said, “This is Cole McCullough.” A name was the only thing she offered.
    Grant scowled at the man who was scowling right back. “You know him?” Grant said doubtfully.
    “ Nell knows me,” Cole ground out, his jaw hard.
    Nell had never seen Cole dressed up. At their impromptu wedding he’d worn his ‘best jeans’ and a powder blue long-sleeved shirt with the collar button open. No tie.
    “ Why would I bring a tie to buy a bull?” he’d asked logically, because that’s what he’d really come to Reno for—not to marry Nell.
    When they had married, though, he ’d been clean and neat, but decidedly casual.
    Tonight he was anything but. His sharply tailored black suit emphasized the breadth of his