Cassie had blonde hair, but this woman was far too short to be her, and her facial features were nothing like Cassie’s either. So this had to be Sophie, Rourke’s wife.
Becca easily recognized Logan because he was Rourke’s identical twin. The woman seated on his lap had silky red hair and green eyes.
The eye color was right, but again, this woman was too short to be Cassie. Which meant she was August.
The big guy with the long dark hair pulled back in a messy man bun—Atticus?—and seated in one of the armchairs, had one arm wrapped around the shoulders of another fiery redhead.
Again, she was too short to be Cassie. So this had to be Jenna.
Becca’s gaze moved to the next couple. Another dark-haired Steele brother with a dark-haired and blue-eyed woman tucked under his arm and pulled tightly against him. Possibly Bryce?
Certainly, the woman bore no resemblance whatsoever to the sister Becca remembered. Making her Bella.
She drew in a deep breath as she slowly turned to look at the couple standing in front of the window. The man—Haydn—had blond hair and gray eyes, and standing beside him was an almost six-foot-tall red-haired woman with eyes the color of the deepest emeralds in a pale face that wasn’t completely as Becca remembered it. The nose was slightly shorter and the jaw more pointed. Just enough really to slightly alter the facial features.
But those emerald eyes were totally familiar to Becca because they were so much like her own.
Sudden tears blurred her vision as she stared at the sister she’d believed dead for the past seven years.
Cassie really was alive!
She had always been alive.
Becca blinked back the tears before releasing Lucan’s hand and then marching determinedly across the room. She didn’t falter or hesitate once she stood in front of Cassie, holding her sister’s gaze as she very slowly and just as deliberately lifted her hand and slapped Cassie across one of her pale cheeks.
Haydn drew in a sharp breath and would have stepped forward if Cassie hadn’t lifted a cautionary hand to stop him. “Quick to anger but still equally as quick to forgive, I hope,” Cassie murmured pleadingly.
Everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath as the two sisters stared at each other for long and searching minutes.
Becca could see the longing in her sister’s eyes, along with the knowledge of the ache of separation that had been as painful for Cassie as it had for Becca. Worse, in fact, because Cassie knew Becca was within touching distance but she’d stayed away in order to protect her.
That was a truth that Becca believed absolutely.
She might not have spoken on the drive back to London, but her thoughts had raced as she sifted through the facts and realized exactly why Cassie had done what she had.
The only conclusion that made any sense was that Cassie had stayed out of Becca’s life so that she could remain safe within her new identity.
Considering how close the sisters had been, no other explanation made any sense.
“Don’t ever try to protect me like that again,” Becca warned.
“I won’t,” her sister promised.
“Do I call you Cassie or Hailey?”
“You call me whatever you want,” her sister assured emotionally.
“You’ll always be Cassie to me, but I think your future husband,” she glanced at Haydn, “and family,” her gaze encompassed everyone else in the room, “all know you as Hailey. So that’s what I’ll call you in future too. New beginnings,” she said firmly.
“And are you Rachel or Rebecca?”
“I’m Becca,” she stated huskily, giving the briefest glance at Lucan before launching herself into her sister’s waiting arms.
A collective sigh was released about the room followed by silence as the two sisters hugged and cried and laughed, and caught up with the last seven years of each other lives, until they were both snotty and red-eyed, red-nosed messes.
“Lucan, huh?” Cassie/Hailey finally raised her head to glance over to where he still stood alert and ready to come to Becca’s aid if necessary.
Becca kept her gaze down as she felt the warmth of a blush in her cheeks. “Haydn, hmm?”
“Yes,” her sister acknowledged emotionally.
Becca chuckled. “These Steele brothers are pretty lethal, aren’t they.”
“Very,” Hailey agreed.
Lucan didn’t think he’d ever felt as proud of anyone or anything in the way that he now was of Becca. She could so easily have reacted differently to being deceived in this way and for so long. But, like the brave woman she was, she’d faced it head-on and, after administering the deserved slap to Hailey’s cheek, had forgiven the sister she’d always loved so very much.
More wondrously, Becca had told him she loved him too.
Lucan couldn’t understand how he’d come to deserve having such a strong and beautiful woman fall in love with him.
Not that he doubted what Becca said. He knew her well enough to know that Becca never did or said anything she didn’t mean.
Which meant she really did love him.
Didn’t it?
The thought of any women loving him, with his messed-up head and scarred body, let alone someone as gorgeous and wonderful as Becca, still seemed unreal to him.
“I think, from how pale Lucan just went, that he might need a little reassurance about the loving him bit,” Hailey murmured ruefully.
Becca turned to look at him too, the two sisters keeping their arms wrapped about each other’s waist. “Do you?” she prompted him huskily.
Lucan knew he’d gone pale. He felt a little lightheaded too. Beads of sweat were popping up on his forehead, and his hands felt clammy. Just from the hope that Becca really could be in love with him. “Yes.”
Becca nodded. “In that case… I’m thinking a double wedding, next month?” She glanced at her sister and Haydn, who both grinned and nodded. She turned back to Lucan. “A Christmas wedding would be lovely, don’t you think— Someone catch him so he doesn’t hurt himself on anything when he falls!”
Lucan was aware of strong arms encircling him before he blacked out completely.
Chapter Fifteen
“Well, that was an excitement I can happily live without ever happening again.”
Lucan opened one eyelid to look up at the woman he loved with every particle of his being. Looked up because he seemed to be lying on a bed. After fainting.
He had fainted, for fuck’s sake.
He gave a pained groan, knowing his brothers would never let him live that one down.
“Did you hurt yourself when you fell?” Becca prompted worriedly. “I thought Rourke caught you in time, but—”
“I’m not hurt,” Lucan assured her as he pushed up against the pillows. “Except for my pride.”
She gave a husky chuckle. “It will recover, same as you will.” She sobered. “Did I overstep earlier?” Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. “Everything was just so emotional, having Cassie back in my life, and knowing I’d fallen in love with you, and having realized you had to feel the same way about me, that I just… I shouldn’t have assumed you would want to marry me.” She grimaced.
“You absolutely should,” he assured instantly, grasping her hands in his. “I just can’t believe that someone as beautiful, intelligent, and lovely as you would want to be with someone like me.” He winced. “I’m thirteen years older than you and not a good bet. I’m battle damaged and war-torn. I didn’t have a nightmare when the two of us slept together, but that doesn’t mean I won’t have them again. I get claustrophobic in small or dark spaces. My back is covered in scars—”
“You’re protective, kind, and totally loyal—”
“So is a golden Labrador!” he muttered disgustedly.
Becca chuckled. “You also treat me with respect as a woman and an art historian. You make total love with me. And you received those scars on your back because you were a soldier and protecting people who were unable or i
ncapable of protecting themselves.”
“I overreacted and behaved like a jealous arsehole in the bar yesterday,” he reminded.
“That was…memorable,” she admitted with a chuckle. “But you did that because you’ve fallen in love me, even if you didn’t know it at the time. Lucan, I’m in love with you too. All of you, including your scars, inside and out,” she told him earnestly. “I know myself well enough to know that these aren’t shallow or fleeting feelings. It’s the way I’m made. I love you, and I always will.”
Lucan looked at her searchingly for several long seconds. He could see only love shining in her eyes. A deep, unshakeable love. “Quick to temper, but quick to forgive,” he softly quoted Hailey from earlier.
“There’s nothing to forgive.” She touched the hardness of one of his cheeks. “When you took me away to the New Forest, you were protecting me and your family, Hailey as well as Haydn. I know with absolutely certainty that, when the time comes, you’ll protect our children in exactly the same way.”
His throat moved as he swallowed. “You want to have children with me?”
“Well, not right away.” She laughed. “I’d like a couple of years of it just being the two of us, doing whatever we want, when we want. Like making love in the back of an SUV in broad daylight,” she teased.
He shook his head. “That was so irresponsible.”
“But fun!”
“Yes,” Lucan agreed slowly.
He still wasn’t sure how someone as young and gregarious as Becca could actually love him. He had believed he would spend the rest of his life alone, uncle to the many nieces and nephews his brothers and sisters-in-law would no doubt give him over the years.
Becca was offering him not only her heart and a future together, but a family of their own.
“Yes,” he said more fervently. “Yes!” He wrapped his arms about her and held her tightly in his arms.
She pulled back to eye him uncertainty. “What are you saying yes to?”
“Your marriage proposal.”
“But I didn’t—”
“I distinctly heard you tell all of my family, and your sister, that you were going to marry me.”
“It wasn’t a marriage proposal as such—”
“It was a fait accompli,” he acknowledged. “Which I have no problem with at all.” He chuckled as Becca continued to frown at him. “No?”
She scowled. “No.”
Lucan sobered to look deeply into her eyes. “Will you marry me, Becca Snow?”
Her face lit up with an ecstatic smile. “Forever and always.”
Lucan intended to ensure that Becca always had exactly what she wanted.
Him.
Their children.
A long and happy future together, surrounded by all of their family, including the sister she believed she’d lost but had now been returned to her.
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LOGAN (Steele Protectors 1)
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ATTICUS (Steele Protectors 2)
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BRYCE (Steele Protectors 3)
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ROURKE (Steele Protectors 4)
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HADYN (Steele Protectors 5)
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About the Author
Carole Mortimer is a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2015, RT Career Achievement Award 2017, RT Pioneer for Romance Award 2014. She was also recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for her ‘outstanding service to literature’. Carole has written 250 contemporary, Regency and paranormal romance novels.
She is happily married to Peter. They have 6 sons, and live on the beautiful Isle of Man. She also loves to hear from Readers!
Other books by Carole Mortimer
NEW Series Coming Soon – Dance with the Devil
MATTEO (Dance with the Devil 1)
Steele Protectors Series:
LOGAN (Steele Protectors 1)
ATTICUS (Steele Protectors 2)
BRYCE (Steele Protectors 3)
ROURKE (Steele Protectors 4)
HAYDN (Steele Protectors 5) Author’s 250th Book
LUCAN (Steele Protectors 6)
Series now complete
Regency Club Venus:
Bastian’s Surrender (Regency Club Venus 1)
Gabriel’s Torment (Regency Club Venus 2)
Benedict’s Challenge (Regency Club Venus 3)
Julius’s Passion (Regency Club Venus 4)
Regency Men in Love:
Hidden Lover (Regency Men in Love 1)
Hidden Desire (Regency Men in Love 2)
More books to come in this series
Regency Lovers Series:
INDECENT (Regency Lovers 1)
OBSESSION (Regency Lovers 2)
CRAVING (Regency Lovers 3)
FORBIDDEN (Regency Lovers 4)
SURRENDER (Regency Lovers 5)
SCANDAL (Regency Lovers 6)
This series is now complete
Regency Sinners Series:
Wicked Torment (Regency Sinners 1)
Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners 2)
Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)
Wicked Deception (Regency Sinners 4)
Wicked Captive (Regency Sinners 5)
Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)
Wicked Sinner (Regency Sinners 7)
Wicked Christmas (Regency Sinners 8)
Series complete
Dragon Hearts – Contemporary paranormal
Nathaniel (Dragon Hearts 1)
Deryk (Dragon Hearts 2)
Bryn (Dragon Hearts 3)
Dylan (Dragon Hearts 4)
Grigor (Dragon Hearts 5)
Garrett (Dragon Hearts 6)
Aeran & Rhys (Dragon Hearts 7)
Dragon Reunion (Dragon Hearts 8)
Series now complete
Regency Unlaced Series:
The Duke’s Mistress (Book 1)
Claimed by the Marquis (Book 2)
Taken by the Earl (Book 3)
Pursued by the Viscount (Book 4)
Desired by a Lord (Book 5)
Captured by a Gentleman (Book 6)
Pleasured by a Duke (Book 7)
Seduced by a Marquis (Book 8)
Tamed by the Earl (Book 9)
Series is now complete
Knight Security Series: Spin-off to ALPHA series
Resisting Alexandre (Knight Security 0.5)
Defying Asher (Knight Security 1)
Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2)
Capturing Caleb (Knight Security 3)
Tempting Zander (Knight Security 4)
Enticing Ian (Knight Security 5)
Seducing Ethan (Knight Security 6)
Series now complete
ALPHA Series:
Christmas Alpha (Alpha 1)
Dark Alpha (Alpha 2)
Shadow Alpha (Alpha 3) Author’s 200th Book
Midnight Alpha (Alpha 4)
Renegade Alpha (Alpha 5)
Warrior Alpha (Alpha 6)
Rogue Alpha (Alpha 7)
Savage Alpha (Alpha 8)
Series is now complete
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Lucan (Steele Protectors 6) Page 12