Million Dollar Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

he’d ever seen.
     “Maybe it’s time I make an appointment. I must be overdue for a physical…or something.”
     He was only half kidding.
    “Hey, I’m offended! I thought I was your favorite doctor. Besides, you’d never get
     in to see Lucinda…you don’t have the right equipment.” Matthew grinned at Holden’s
     puzzled expression. “She’s an OB-GYN.” Matthew said. “She delivered Bryan. And she
     and Claudia sort of…bonded.”
    “That’s the Dr. Brightwater Claudia was always talking about,” Holden said as a lightbulb
     finally flashed on in his mind. He hadn’t made the connection until now.
    “The one and only,” Matthew said, echoing Lucinda’s earlier words. “And she’s not
     the kind of woman who would enjoy being judged on the basis of her looks.”
    “Then she shouldn’t go around looking like that,” Holden said.
    “Give it up, cousin. You don’t stand a chance with her. Go find some bimbo to charm
     into your love nest. That woman is out of your league.”
    Holden finished his drink in a gulp and set downthe empty glass. “Yeah. That’s pretty much what I always thought, too. But that doesn’t
     mean I can’t talk to her, does it?”
    Mistake, his mind cautioned him. Big, big mistake.
    “I’m sorry, Claudia.” Lucinda Brightwater was still a bit shaky. She hadn’t wanted
     to come to this party. No, that wasn’t true. She had wanted to come. For Claudia and Matthew. For little Bryan. What she hadn’t wanted was to run into Holden Fortune. The man who had taken her virginity one drunken
     night so long ago she should have been over it long before now. A night that had meant
     everything to her. A night with repercussions that were still resonating through her
     life.
    A night that had obviously meant less than nothing to him.
    She was not an awkward teenager anymore. She was not the too smart, too tall, too
     skinny girl who didn’t quite fit in. And she certainly wasn’t the same girl who’d
     been heart-and-soul in love with the most popular boy in school. A boy who hadn’t
     so much as returned her shy hello when they’d passed in the halls. She was a doctor
     now. She’d grown into her body and become comfortable, even confident, with her looks.
    So how could a brief encounter with Holden Fortune reduce her once again to a quivering
     mass of nerve endings, all of which seemed to be standing on end? She’d told herself
     that if she ran into him she would feel nothing but coldness—and a bit of her long-time
     resentment for the mess he’d made of her life so long ago.
    Instead, she felt so many emotions she couldn’tname them all. Anger, shame…and still a hint of that old attraction to a man who was
     never anything but bad for her. Poison.
    “You have nothing to apologize for,” Claudia said softly. “My husband’s cousin puts
     on a good show, Lucinda, but he’s truly not as bad as he seems.”
    “You’re forgetting,” Lucinda said with a slightly wry look, “I knew him in high school.”
    Claudia tilted her head. “Did…something happen between you and Holden back then?”
    “What a crazy question!” Lucinda averted her gaze. “Why on earth would you ask me
     something like that?”
    “Well, you seem awfully…angry with him over something. And it has been a long time….”
    Lucinda nodded. “You’re right, it has, and my mood really doesn’t have a thing to
     do with Holden.” It was a lie, but not entirely. She’d been feeling like hell for
     weeks now. She’d get the results of her ultrasound test tomorrow, and she was dreading
     what she’d hear. She had a pretty fair idea about what was going on with her body.
    “I probably shouldn’t have taken it out on him,” she said, but she didn’t mean it.
    “What is bothering you, Lucinda?”
    She shook her head. “Oh, the usual. You know, with every baby I deliver it seems I
     hear my biological clock ticking louder than before.”
    Claudia smiled. “Got that urge,