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  Nick dragged his hand across his face—he was too tired for this discussion. “Neither. My big boss demanded a face-to-face meeting in San Antonio today to clear up the loose ends on the Honey Case and to go over my next assignment.”

  “But we haven’t had a chance to talk.” Hurt glistened in her eyes. “Were you going to leave without telling me?”

  “Of course not. And I’ll be back.” He crossed the room, took her in his arms and kissed her temple. If he kissed her the way he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to leave.

  “And then what?”

  “We’ll decide that, together.”

  ****

  In a fast gallop, with white mane flying, Vision rounded the barrel carrying both Monica and Erik. Aching to get back in the saddle herself, Sara Jane coached them from her spot atop the split-rail corral. Erik took direction well and displayed the kind of patience needed to work with a blind woman and a spirited quarter horse. Even though Erik worked as trainer on a temporary basis, he was giving it his all. Yesterday, half-joking and half-serious, he’d said he loved working with horses so much that if she ever decided to give up her business, he’d be glad to take over permanently.

  The possibility that she might be forced to give up her business for Nick made agreeing to let Erik do the actual riding for six whole weeks even more torturous. She wanted to spend as much time with her horses as possible in case she actually had to leave. Her only solace was the day to day grooming which kept her in close contact with them. Days had stretched into a week and all she had to hold onto was Nick’s promise that he would be back.

  “Did Nick call, yet?” Alicia asked, climbing up on the railing next to Sara Jane.

  “Twice, but he didn’t say much. He said we’d talk when he got here.”

  “So? When is that?”

  Sara Jane sighed. “Maybe by the end of the week.”

  “I couldn’t stand all this waiting. Why didn’t you tell him that you love him and want to be with him?”

  “His suitcase was packed, and he was heading out the door.”

  Alicia slid off the fence and walked away, shaking her head. “Grab love when you can, kiddo,” she said over her shoulder. “You never know when fate will take a hand and yank it away from you.”

  With Lloyd’s funeral over only two days ago, Sara Jane understood her cousin’s feelings. And they were valid. She wished now that she had said something to Nick. It was hard to function with things so up in the air. Especially when she couldn’t get back to work, it gave her too much time to miss him. She knew he loved her, but she also knew he didn’t want to be a rancher. What would he say when she told him she was ready to give up everything to be with him? What if he didn’t want that kind of commitment?

  Would she take whatever he offered just to be with him? Crazy as it seemed, she just might do that. She had no idea what a future with him would be like, but she refused to be afraid ever again, of love or anything. All she needed now was to face Nick with determination and courage. It was unbelievable how much she’d changed since meeting him. She’d learned that love didn’t always come in a neat little package

  She laughed to herself. She had changed, really changed—in more ways than she ever dreamed possible. She no longer felt compelled to prove anything to anybody, except that she loved them. Facing death had made her realize that life was about loving someone more than your own dreams and accepting that in the end, without love she had nothing.

  ****

  After dinner Sara Jane went to the barn to be with Demon. While stroking his sleek, black coat with the grooming brush, she told him all the things disturbing her. He nodded and whinnied, as though sympathizing with her. She might give up her business, but never Demon.

  She checked on all of the horses in her care, gave them their treats, grabbed a clean blanket and then climbed up to the hayloft. Silvery light from the full moon and guitar music from the bunkhouse drifted in through the open hay door. She spread out the blanket and lay down on it. She inhaled the scent of sweet straw and thought how sad it was to be alone on a night like this. Was Nick too busy to notice the full moon—too busy to think of her?

  Sara Jane was so deep in thought that she had closed out the stirrings and occasional whinnies of the horses below. The soft music filtering in filled her with longing. Thinking she heard footsteps on the ladder, she sat up and looked toward the sound. Her heart skipped a beat.

  “Nick!”

  For an eternity of seconds, she feasted on his intense green eyes, the curly lock of dark hair dusting his brow, his muscled body.

  She jumped to her feet, thrust herself into his arms and hugged him fiercely around the neck. “I’m glad you’re finally here. I have these words burning inside of me, and if I don’t get them said—”

  “They can wait another minute. I’ve been dreaming of this for seven days,” he said. He put his hand under her chin, tilted her head upward and kissed her gently on the mouth.

  She’d been dreaming of it too and right now, with his lips gliding warmly and possessively against hers, as if tasting, memorizing, talk seemed greatly overrated. The fact that she fit so well in his arms and the longing rising within her limbs convinced her that they were meant to be together.

  He stopped kissing her. “I talked to your father.”

  She stiffened. “What about?”

  Nick dropped to the blanket and drew her down beside him. “I asked him to release me from my promise.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promised him when I accepted the job to protect you that I wouldn’t make love to you.”

  Heat burned her face. “That should be my decision, not his.”

  Nick’s eyes twinkled. “That’s what he said. And then he released me.”

  “So, what am I supposed to do with that information, spread my legs and say ‘welcome, pardner’?”

  His jaw tightened. “I’m going to ignore you said that. You know that’s not what this is about.”

  “I just don’t like it that you and my father conspired behind my back—that the two of you thought you had the right to decide what’s best for me.”

  “We know that, that’s why you’re the one to call the shots on any decisions you and I make today.”

  “Okay then. I don’t want just a one-night stand. I thought that might be enough, but I want more than that.”

  “Agreed.”

  She wasn’t sure just what he’d agreed to. But she was on a roll and let her words spill out in a rush. “I’m willing to give up the ranch and my business for you, but I have to keep Demon. We’ll have to board him somewhere nearby.”

  “Hey, slow down…”

  “I can’t, my courage might turn to mush.”

  He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. “Sweetheart, don’t look so sad, you don’t have to give up anything. I’d never take you away from the ranch.”

  “You don’t want me to go with you?” Oh, no. She’d misinterpreted his intentions. What did he have in mind, a long-distance romance where he popped in and out of her life between jobs?

  “What I’m trying to get through to you is that I’m giving up my job to live here with you, if you’ll have me.”

  “But it’ll kill you to be a rancher. You’re all about protecting people…”

  “Somehow, I’ll find a way to do that here. Even if I can’t, living with you on the ranch will be so much more than anything I’ve ever had before. And I’ve changed enough to know that having a real family is what’s been missing in my life.”

  “But, but,” she sputtered. His speech had totally undone her, and she groped for the right thing to say.

  He touched her lips, silencing her. “I know you love me, and I sure as hell love you. The rest is just working it out.” He took a breath and continued. “Never having had a real family, I don’t know how good marriages are supposed to work, but there’s nothing we can’t overcome together.” He took her face between his hands. “Knowing you, my high-spir
ited darling, I imagine it will be a juggling act of finding middle ground. And I look forward to the challenge.”

  Sara Jane buried her face against his chest a moment, and he held her in silence, barely breathing, as though giving her time to consider her answer.

  “Well?” he asked finally.

  “Oh, didn’t I answer out loud?” Her voice rang with mischief. “Man, you urban cowboys are hard to convince—I already told you I was ready to follow you to the ends of the earth.”

  He lowered her to the blanket and traced her face, his eyes full of love. Then he kissed her lightly and murmured, “You have the softest lips in the world.”

  She laughed and peppered his face with tiny kisses. “And I’ll bet you’ve sampled enough to know.”

  He chuckled low in his throat. “A man has to be careful what he says around you. You weigh every word.”

  The hoarse passion in his voice rolled through her like a range fire fanned by hot winds. “Then don’t talk.”

  She clasped his face in her hands and drew his mouth back to hers. He kissed her softly at first, his mouth warm and gentle. Then the kiss intensified, demanding more, taking more. Soon his mouth was ravaging hers. She met his passion with equal fervor, unable to get enough of him.

  He drew her tighter against his muscled body. She reveled in the lean hardness of him, unable to tell where her body began and his left off. He feathered kisses down her throat. Everything inside her stilled, gripping her in an unyielding hold. The stirring deep within her slipped lower. How lucky she was: he was the only man who’d ever made her desperate to have him—and the only one who had touched her heart.

  He throbbed against her belly. He rolled with her and she felt the weight of his body on hers, crushing her breasts against his firm chest, felt his groin nestle into the tender apex between her thighs. His aroused male scent rose and drifted to her nostrils. She felt their hearts pounding as one in a wild erratic beat. A tingle of anticipation of the unknown shivered through her and she held onto him for dear life.

  His warm fingers pressed into her skin as he unbuttoned her shirt and unhooked her bra. He managed, with her help, to strip away the restrictive clothing. He trailed a finger down her cheek, traced the scar on her throat. “I almost lost you.” His deep voice choked.

  If she hadn’t already loved him, she would have fallen for him in that moment.

  He touched her lips with his fingers, following with his mouth, descending lower and lower, until she could barely stand waiting for whatever he had in store for her. He covered her breasts with kisses. She felt adored, cherished. She arched, inviting him to heighten her pleasure.

  Nick blew out a ragged breath. “Are we really going to do this here…now?”

  She laughed a little hysterically. “What do you want, a written invitation?”

  A moan escaped him as he tightened his arms around her as if he never wanted to let go and, in the silvery moonlight, his mouth sought hers. Ravaged it, possessed it…

  Chapter Thirteen

  With her senses whipped into a whirlwind of desire, Sara Jane helped Nick shrug his shirt from wide shoulders glistening with sweat. Then, laughing, they yanked off boots, sent socks flying and unbuckled one another’s belts, kicked off jeans.

  When they were nude beside each other, he stared at her for a moment. “Beautiful,” he whispered, “take-my-breath-away beautiful.”

  His mouth claimed hers again, and he eased his hot muscled body onto her. He was touching her everywhere, owning all of her, sending tingling sensations to her moist and heated center. He guided her hand, and with a need that soared from the depths of her soul, she stroked him as he stroked her, wanting all of him…forever.

  She gasped when he penetrated her. He backed off and entered again, so slowly and gently that tears of love flooded her eyes. Joined as one, she heard distant guitar music and then only the wild beating of their hearts as he swept her along with him, higher and higher. Her body quivered and arched. Her pulsing core and every nerve ending, every fiber, begging for glorious release.…

  “Nick, Nick, I love you so,” she whispered.

  “Me, too, you.” His words escaped in two ragged gasps as they conquered the pinnacle, crashed over and shattered together.

  Breathing heavily and trembling, they plummeted back to the blanket. Nick rested against her heaving breasts. Once he had caught his breath, he covered her face with kisses, then pushed up on muscular arms and shifted to lie beside her. She traced his jaw and the lean line of his face, touching gingerly the beginning of stubble.

  He laughed deep in his throat. “I still don’t know,” he said. “Were you?”

  She had led him to believe she was a virgin without actually saying so, and it amused her that he couldn’t tell. One more benefit of riding horses all of her life. Warmed by the glints of love and playfulness in his eyes, she lowered her voice and teased him back in a throaty drawl, “Not anymore.”

  He laughed again and drew her close.

  They rested a while and then made love again—this time slower and more leisurely with Nick proving that there was no limit to the pleasure he could give her. Now, even as they held each other thoroughly spent and completely satisfied. Her face buried in the curve of his neck, their legs entwined, she looked forward to the next time…and a lifetime of next times.

  ****

  Nick opened his eyes to a silvery dawn creeping into the darkness, followed by a burst of sun streaking the sky and the walls of the hayloft with the golden hues of a new day and the beginning of what he knew would be the best part of his life. He stared at Sara Jane still asleep beside him, her hair a spill of light auburn waves cascading over his shoulder, his chest. He moved his stiff arm carefully so as not to disturb her and eased from beneath the long, slender leg thrown across him. Sitting up, he took his hand across his face, stunned that they had spent the whole night together in the hayloft. He covered Sara Jane, gathered her clothes and placed them within easy reach. Then he yanked on his jeans and pulled on his boots. He stuffed the used condoms in a handkerchief and tucked them and the empty wrappers into his pocket out of sight. He wanted to try to avoid impregnating her until they were married, and after he had time to figure out exactly how he would fit into ranch life.

  Nick looked out the hay window. The ranch compound already bustled with activity. He watched a vaquero lasso a calf who kicked its rear hooves in protest. Clouds of dust swirled, polluting the air. Strange, how familiar this isolated ranch with its dusty, manure tinged air had begun to feel, as if he’d become a part of it and had finally come home.

  On the floor below, horses snorted and whinnied. Men’s voices filtered upward and Nick hoped that no one would decide to climb up here. He heard Sara Jane stir and he turned. She opened her big blue eyes and smiled at him, making his day.

  “Hi,” she said in that throaty drawl that he loved.

  He grinned back at her. “You’d better get dressed.”

  She nodded, then stood bare as the day she was born and stretched, her curves as smooth and graceful as a Greek goddess.

  “I hate like hell to hurry this show,” he whispered huskily, “but I wouldn’t want some curious cowpoke climbing up here and looking at you like that.”

  Laughing softly, she gathered up her clothes and did a reverse strip tease for him that was almost as sexy as when he’d helped her yank them off. Still, he sighed in relief when she pulled on her boots and faced him.

  She pirouetted saucily. “Satisfied?”

  He laughed. “For now.” He would never get enough of her. God, she was spirited. Life would never be dull with Sara Jane as his wife.

  ****

  Six months later

  Sara Jane watched Nick get sworn in as sheriff, her heart overflowing. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. The sight of him, square-shouldered and earnest, filled her with boundless pride. As he took his vows, his deep voice caught with emotion. With every word, her love deepened and became rooted in her hear
t so solidly that nothing could ever shake it. She was in awe as she realized that she and Nick had the same kind of love that her mother and father shared in their secret glances, the kind of love she’d always craved and never thought possible.

  A word from the author…

  I hold a Master’s Degree from the University of California, a lifetime teaching credential, and I’m a full time writer and a member of RWA.

  Publishing credits include eighteen E-books, four anthologies, and a romantic intrigue cowboy trilogy.

  I’m a charter member the Aloha Chapter of the RWA and have appeared often on local writer panels and alone. I’m the author of eighteen novels and several novellas.

  My novels are romantic intrigues, with several paranormal and fantasy intrigues. I’m on Facebook and Twitter and would love to connect with other Wild Rose authors.

  My passions are family, writing, teaching, and travel. I’m an avid dancer, skater, and walker.

  http://www.lyndelakes.com

  ~*~

  Other Lynde Lakes titles

  available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.:

  BILLBOARD COP

  COWBOY LIES

  LASSO THAT COWBOY

  Thank you for purchasing

  this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.