Terms of a Texas Marriage

by Lauren Canan

  Beneath it...letters. Dozens of letters. Really old, yellowed with age. What are these? Picking up the one on top, she began to read.

  April 12, 1814

  My Dearest Alyssa, My Beloved...

  They all were signed William Morreston. Alec’s great-great-grandfather.

  Glancing over the words, she quickly saw they were love letters. Another look inside the trunk and Shea saw an old photo among the letters. The tin-plated picture had two images: a young woman standing beside a tall, handsome man.

  Suddenly, she knew what these were, the pieces falling together like parts of a puzzle. William Morreston had courted Alyssa Hardin, daughter of the widow, Mary Hardin. He’d courted her, fallen in love with her and they had planned to marry. Photographs were rare and costly back in those days. It had to have been taken for a very special occasion. Such as a wedding. The quilts, the linens...this trunk had been Alyssa’s hope chest. And it was Alyssa who had perished in the fire at the old homestead. Before she could become William’s wife.

  One thought exploded inside her head: it had never been about the land. The contract written two hundred years ago, the clause that forced her and Alec to marry, all of it had been intended to bring two ancestors of William and Alyssa together.

  It had been about Alec. All along, it had been about him.

  An invisible hand gripped her heart. She couldn’t breathe. Her body began to tremble as she tried to blink back the tears. But they fell down her face, dropping onto the letters clutched in her hand. Even though she’d left Alec with the best intentions, she’d walked out nonetheless. And even though he’d called to check on her, he wouldn’t be back. That truth slammed into her like an airbag deploying in an unforeseen crash. He was gone. Forever. The pain in her heart was unbearable, the sadness so deep, so piercing she knew she would never recover.

  Through eyes blurred with tears, she looked at the sparkling wedding ring on her left hand. It seemed like a lifetime ago, the night Alec had slipped it back on her finger and told her to never take it off. At the time, she’d counted the days until her twelve-month sentence would be over, when she would be free of him and could happily throw the ring in his face. But it had become a part of her, as had the man who’d given it to her. Subconsciously she’d never let go of the hope she and Alec could work things out. Now, she faced the grim truth.

  She’d failed to keep the greatest gift that fate could bestow from slipping through her fingers. She’d lost the greatest man—the only man she had ever loved and would ever love as long as she lived. A man who but for a ridiculous clause in a two-hundred-year-old contract, never would have entered her life.

  The tears streamed unchecked down her face and she had no will to hold them back as another wave of misery overwhelmed her. The tears blurred the image of the beautiful ring as she began to slide it from her hand. If only...

  “I told you to leave that ring where it is,” said a deep familiar voice from behind her.

  With a gasp, Shea whirled around. Alec stood just inside the barn, looking big and rugged and entirely too handsome. Dressed in jeans and a white cotton T-shirt, he stood with one hand resting on a stall door, the other on his hip.

  It took her a few seconds to find her voice. “Alec? What...what are you doing here? What do you...?”

  “What do I want?” he asked, stepping away from the stall, his arms falling to his side. “I want to go back in time where the past few weeks never happened. I want to hold my wife in my arms every night and see her face when I wake up the next morning. Emphasis on seeing her the next morning.”

  She knew he was referring to the hotel in Dallas when she’d snuck out to come home.

  “And I want to see her belly grow with my son or daughter.” She noted a flare in his golden eyes at those words. His mouth then pulled into a serious line. “I’ve shelved the entire project, Shea. My stipulation to continue is it will be built completely across the river in Oklahoma. I don’t intend for one rock, one blade of grass, one single drop of water to be disturbed on this ranch. I’ve spent the last week making damn sure that doesn’t happen. If the investors go for it, good enough. If not—” he shrugged his broad shoulders “—I really don’t give a damn. Nothing is worth losing you.”

  A frown crossed his face, his eyes conveying the seriousness of his words, and for countless moments, neither moved. “Why did you leave the hotel? Have I lost you, Shea?”

  Shaking her head, she rose to her feet. “You could never lose me, Alec. I love you too much.”

  Then she was in his arms—strong, powerful arms that were gentle as he held her tightly against him. She gazed into eyes the color of topaz as he cupped her face and wiped away the tears with his thumbs. His lips, hot and oh so incredible, covered hers and she surrendered to the overwhelming love that had grown for this man in spite of all the reasons it shouldn’t. The warmth and the feel and the taste of him filled her. The wonderful musky male scent of his skin surrounded her as his hard body pressed against hers. She kissed him back with all the love she had, the tears of misery changing to those of pure joy.

  Finally, Alec raised his head, but stayed a mere breath away. She touched his face, amazed that she had a chance to love and be loved by such a man.

  “Just so we’re clear this time, I’ve been in love with you since the day you walked into Ben’s office,” Alec admitted as she looked into his eyes. “I admit I fought it, even after we were married. I told myself I was slitting my own throat, setting myself up for a hell of a fall because someone like you just didn’t happen to someone like me. I can handle cutthroat tactics, lying, backstabbing from my adversaries, sometimes even my supporters. My world hasn’t left much room for honesty and innocence. Trust is something new to me.” His gaze traveled over her face. “But you’ve shown me I can trust again. I can love. And I love you, Mrs. Morreston, with everything I have inside me.”

  A glint of amusement flickered in his eyes, making Shea smile.

  “You know, I think I might get used to that name.”

  “You’d better,” Alec said, in a teasingly threatening tone. “Because you’re stuck with it for the rest of your life.”

  She knew he was telling the truth. This man, this incredible man, truly loved her. He was her husband. Scotty was her son. And it didn’t matter whether they lived in New York or Texas or someplace in between as long as they were together. That realization was sealed when Alec’s lips again came down over hers in a deep, passionate embrace that left no doubts whatsoever.

  His lips left hers, kissing his way to her ear. “Mmm.” He growled and nuzzled her neck. “We need to be on our way back to Dallas.”

  “Back to Dallas?”

  “Mmm. To the hotel. To the bedroom...”

  Shea grinned, caught her bottom lip, and shook her head as she backed him through the open door of the tack room and toward the stack of blankets in the corner.

  “That hotel is much too far away.”

  Alec’s eyebrows rose, then a smile turned up the corners of his lips as he realized her intent and kicked the door closed behind them.

  And there was no further talking for a very long time.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THIRTY DAYS TO WIN HIS WIFE by Andrea Laurence.

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  Prologue

  “Do you want to get out of here?”

  Amelia Kennedy turned and looked up into the cool blue eyes of her best friend, Tyler Dixon. Of course he would be the one to save her. “Yes, please.” She got up from the banquet table and accepted his hand, happily following him out of the ballroom, through the casino and out to the glittering lights of the Las Vegas Strip.

  Just breathing in the cool desert air made her feel better. Why had she thought her high school reunion would be fun? It was just a room filled with people she never liked, gloating about how great their lives were. Even though she couldn’t care less about what Tammy Richardson—cheerleader and all-around stuck-up brat—had done with her life, hearing Tammy brag had somehow made Amelia feel less enthusiastic about her own achievements.

  It was ridiculous, really. She co-owned her own company and was very successful, but the lack of a ring on her hand and toddler photos on her phone made her the odd girl out tonight. This entire trip was a waste of her precious vacation time.

  Well, not the whole thing. It was worth it to see Tyler. They had been best friends since the ninth grade, but recently they had both gotten so busy they were lucky to see each other once a year. The reunion was a good excuse.

  They stumbled down the sidewalk hand in hand with no destination in mind. It didn’t matter where they ended up. Every step they put between them and the reunion improved Amelia’s mood. That, or—if her softening knees were any indication—the tequila was finally kicking in. A low rumble caught their attention, and they stopped outside the Mirage to watch the periodic eruption of the volcano out front.

  They leaned against the railing, Amelia resting her head on Tyler’s shoulder and sighing with contentment. She really missed spending time with him. There was just something about being with Tyler that made the world seem better. There was a comfort and ease in his arms that she’d never found in another man. Although they’d never dated, Tyler had set the bar high for her future relationships. Maybe too high, considering she was still single.

  “Feel better?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you. I just couldn’t look at any more pictures of weddings and babies.”

  Tyler wrapped his arm around her, chasing away the January desert chill. “That’s what happens at reunions, you know.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t expect it to make me feel like such a...”

  “Successful, talented businesswoman in control of her own destiny?”

  Amelia sighed. “I was thinking more along the lines of a relationship failure on the fast track to a house with too many cats.”

  “Quit it,” he said in a stern voice. He turned toward her and tipped her chin up so she had to look him in the eye. “You are amazing. You’re beautiful, talented, successful... Any man would be lucky to have you in his life. You just haven’t found one worthy of you yet.”

  That was a nice thought, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d been on a fruitless quest for Mr. Right since she’d come of age. “Thanks, Ty,” she said anyway, as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in the lapel of his suit.

  He held her tight, resting his chin on the top of her head. It was a simple hug. One they’d shared a hundred times before. But tonight, somehow, it was different. She was suddenly very aware of the movement of his hard muscles beneath his shirt. His cologne tickled her nose, so familiar and yet so enticing in the moment. It made her want to bury her face in his neck and inhale the warm scent of his skin. Run her palms across the rough stubble of his jaw...

  A wave of heat licked at Amelia’s cheeks, and she realized it had nothing to do with the flames shooting across the water beside them. There was a warmth curling in her belly, a need building inside her. It was a familiar arousal, but one she’d never associated with Tyler. He was her best friend. Nothing more.

  But in that moment, she wanted more. She wanted him to show her how beautiful and talented he thought she was with his hands and his mouth instead of his words. It was a dangerous thought, but she couldn’t shake it.

  “Do you remember graduation night?”

  “Of course,” she said, pulling away to put an end to the physical contact stirring the blood in her veins. She couldn’t forget that night. They had suffered through family parties, and then they’d snuck off together to camp in the desert. Amelia had driven them out to the edge of town, where they could finally see the stars. “We drank wine coolers and stayed up all night watching for shooting stars.”

  “Do you remember the pact we made?”

  Amelia thought back to that night, the details blurred by a combination of time and fuzzy navels. She remembered them pinky swearing something. “What was it about? I don’t remember.”

  “We agreed that if we weren’t married by our ten-year reunion, we would marry each other.”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, the moment flooding back into her mind. In their eighteen-year-old brains, twenty-eight was nearly ancient. If they weren’t married by then, all hope was obviously lost. They’d sworn they would save each other from a lonely middle-aged existence. “Twenty-eight sure doesn’t feel the way I expected it to. I still feel young, and yet sometimes I feel like the oldest, most boring person I know. All I do is work. I never have adventures like we used to have together.”

  Tyler studied her face, his light brown eyebrows drawing together in thought. “Do you feel up for an adventure tonight? I guarantee it will cheer you up.”

  That was exactly what she needed—the kind of night that would make for a great story. “I am definitely up for an adventure. What did you have in mind?”

  Tyler smiled and took her hand in his. The touch sent a surge down her spine, and she knew she’d agree to anything when he smiled at her that way. Then he dropped to one knee, and she realized she was in for more than she’d bargained for.

  “Amelia, will you marry me?”

  Copyright © 2015 by Andrea Laurence

  ISBN-13: 9781460349977

  Terms of a Texas Marriage

  Copyright © 2015 by Sarah Cannon

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