He nodded, watching her carefully. She leaned against the door as if barring his exit. He puzzled over the strange gleam in her eyes.
“Once before, in this very hotel, I made a confession to you. I need to make another.”
“Only if you want to tell me, Erin. I don’t need—”
“But I need to tell you. You’ve given me so much, Mace. I have nothing to offer you but myself and little Maddie.”
The sudden lack of spirit in her voice alarmed him, but he made no move toward her. Erin had to find her own way back to his side. But nothing would stop him from answering her.
“The offer of you and the baby are more than enough for me, Erin. The two of you come with love. What man wants for more?”
“And what about truth? You want that, too, in a wife, don’t you?” she asked, trying to understand why he was so calm. Or was he?
“If you want. Only if you want.”
Gripping the doorknob behind her, Erin buried her fear. She couldn’t look at him as she began to talk. “You know that I grew up in an orphanage, Mace. I don’t know who my parents are. I don’t even know if my name is really Erin. I was left there. The woman who worked at the orphanage told me my infant gown was trimmed with handmade Irish lace. Since I was a few months old and had the coloring of an Irish lass, she called me Erin. When I was able to read I stole the last name of Dunmore from a book. Once I was old enough, I was sent out to work as a maid. You know what happened with Silas.”
Mace found he wasn’t very strong. He couldn’t keep his resolution to let Erin come to him when she was ready. He had to hold her. When he had her in his arms, Mace knew what she needed to hear from him, and more important, what he needed to say.
“Erin, there’s no reason for you to drag all this up.”
“Yes,” she insisted, arching her head away from his lips. “I was out on the street, trying to get away from two men, when Maddie found me. She took me with her to Jaffery’s but I only worked as a maid there.” It was hard to talk with Mace nibbling on her ear. She tried to move, but his body gently pressed her against the door. “Are you listening to me?”
“Always,” he said, tracing the whorls of her ear, then smiled when he felt her shiver.
“Mace, I want to tell you everything. I sang at night in the parlor. I served whiskey…Mace…” The tiny love bite on her lobe was more than distracting; she couldn’t get her thoughts together. “I never went upstairs with any of the men. Jaffery tried to threaten me. He said—”
“Shall I find him for you?”
He was slipping the pins from her hair and for a moment Erin didn’t know what he said until he repeated it.
“No. That’s all over with. He’s—”
“I’m so glad,” he whispered, trailing kisses down her cheek to the corner of her mouth.
Erin began to sag against the door. “You’ve got to stop. I was desperate when Maddie came up with the idea—”
“Ah, more thanks to Maddie,” he murmured, deft fingers unbuttoning the back of her gown. “Erin, oh, love, your skin’s so sweet and—”
“And you’re not…really…listening,” she managed to say brokenly, passion rising with the light way he cupped her shoulders and arched her into his body.
“I’m listening to every word. You’re desperate. To kiss me? Love me? What, Erin?” He tilted her face up toward his. “Do you think I care? It’s the past, Erin. I swear that to you. It doesn’t matter to me where you came from, or what you’ve done.” Her chin needed a kiss, then her temple. He held her close, waiting for the tremor to pass.
“I never sold myself, Mace.”
“I never thought you did.”
“But—”
“Don’t you know that what matters to me is what you are now? My wife, Erin. The mother of my children. The woman who looks at me and makes me feel loved.”
Erin felt dizzy. She grabbed his upper arms to steady herself. She no longer was puzzled by the look in his dark eyes.
“It’s taken me a long time to say this, but I love you, Erin. Love all that you are, all that you’ve come to mean to me.”
He kissed her slowly, telling her how much he cherished her in the best way he knew. He kissed her deeply, with hunger, to show her how much he needed her. He drank the hot glide of her tears and heard her broken whisper of love. He swept her up into his arms and brought her to the bed. In her arms and with her love, he knew the shadows of the past were truly gone. As he told Erin, what man could ask for more?
Erin silently echoed his words. She had no choice. With Mace’s unquestioning acceptance of her gifts of love, he had given her his own in return. What woman could ask for more?
More from Raine Cantrell
Novellas
A Time For Giving
Jacob DeWitt, a widower on Christmas leave during the Civil War, returns to his New York home determined to get Ellie Winifred to marry him. She has taken in his two motherless children and his younger brother while he is off at war. It makes perfect sense to him that they marry, but Ellie resists. It will take every bit of help Jacob, a proud, stubborn man, can get if he is going to convince Ellie that he is worthy of her love.
Apache Fire
Widowed and childless, Angie is named The Woman of Sorrow by Niko, a noble warrior of the Apache. But as passion ignites between them, Angie must weather the storm of prejudice and injustice for another chance at true happiness—and true love.
Miss Delwin’s Delights
Kit Sidell, Texas’s most eligible bachelor, has an insatiable sweet tooth. But when the challenge of a wager brings him to the kitchen of Birdie Delwin, Kit finds himself tempted by much more than her dessert menu.
More Than a Miracle
Maureen O’Rourke made a home for herself and her children in an abandoned cabin in the Colorado mountains. While searching for his lost child, Gabriel Channing stumbles upon the cabin, and finds a whole new family instead. But it will take more than a Christmas wish to make these two broken families one—it will take more than a miracle.
The Bride’s Gift
Nicholas Dowling’s mail-order bride is not what he’d hoped for—she’s too young, too delicate, and far too superstitious for a pragmatic man like himself. But not even Brianna’s untamable spirit can’t cast a shadow over her luminous beauty, and before long the blaze of their attraction grows into something neither one of them was expecting.
The Secret Ingredient
Hallie Pruitt has a habit of taking in strays—both unwanted animals and captivating cowboys. When handsome Cade McAllister seeks shelter in her home while his broken leg heals, it’s her homemade candies that keep him sober, but it’s the piping hot fantasies she describes in her diary that provides the secret ingredient to Cade’s heart.
Novels
A Corner of Heaven
When Colonel Colter Saxton finds his long lost love Elizabeth hiding amidst the tumult and danger of Confederate Richmond, his mission has one aim: he’s determined to figure out why she’d abandoned their love years ago to marry another. Then he meets Nicole, Elizabeth’s young daughter, and realizes a single night of passion yielded more than the undying yearning in his heart.
Thrust into fatherhood and set on making up for lost time, Colter will stop at nothing to keep his family safe from the perils of war and reclaim the heart of the woman he loves.
Calico
An Irish spitfire meets her match in a western romp.
Maggie O’Roark knows how to walk, talk, and fight like a man. When Maggie inherits her uncle’s profitable silver and gold mines, she’s determined to prove she can operate them on her own, even as her wedding date approaches. When Maggie’s groom is kidnapped just before the wedding, Maggie is convinced saloon owner C.V. McCready is responsible, in a desperate bid to keep her from re-opening the mines.
McCready is a silver-tongued con man, but when he sees Maggie in her wedding finery, he becomes obsessed with protecting her from less savory men who would do anything
to get their hands on her mines. McCready kidnaps Maggie and claims her in a marriage by proxy, setting the stage for the fiercest and funniest battle of the sexes in the West.
Darling Annie
Acts of charity quickly lead to a flirtation with the deadliest of sins for DARLING ANNIE.
Kellian York has big plans for the brothel he’s inherited in Loving, Texas. Too bad that just days after his arrival the Legion for Decency has burned it to the ground, citing their mission to rid the town of drinking, gambling, and “loose women.” Set on vengeance, Kellian targets the spinster leader, Annie Muldoon, never expecting that the beautiful young woman would let Kellian and his girls move into her boarding house.
Believing she has a responsibility to protect and redeem the women formerly in Kellian’s employ, Annie soon realizes she’s made a terrible mistake inviting them, and especially Kellian, into her home. Unsure whether he’s trying to torture her or seduce her, Kellian’s striking presence is beginning to rouse the passionate nature she’s tried to hide. Annie decides to take her fate, and Kellian’s, into her own hands, and learns a few tricks of the trade from her boarders, before turning the tables on Kellian. Will the saint redeem the sinner? Or the sinner seduce the saint?
Desert Sunrise
A desperate woman meets her destiny on the Arizona frontier.
After her husband is murdered on their wedding night, Faith Beckett is on the run, with her father and siblings in tow. They have a land stake on the far side of the Arizona Territory, a perilous journey for even seasoned travelers, and are in need of a guide as determined as Faith.
Delaney Carmichael was raised by the Apache, and a man as hard and dangerous as the land he loves. On a mission to restore his family’s honor, he has no time to help Faith and knows he’ll be better off if he ignores her beauty. But when Faith walks head on into danger, he’s moved to save her despite his best judgment. Ensnared by Faith’s turquoise eyes and a mystical connection to ancient Apache legends, the hardness of Delaney’s heart is softened as mutual passion is revealed in the wild lands of Arizona.
Silver Mist
In a race to strike it rich, a naïve woman discovers how precious a man’s love can be.
Dara Owens has been sheltered by her brothers in quiet Rainly, Florida, unaware of the rough nature of the rest of the world. That is, until “white gold” fever takes over Rainly, and prospectors overrun the town in the search for phosphate rock. With the miners comes gambling and robbery, and suddenly quiet Rainly isn’t a safe haven for an innocent beauty anymore, especially once the rugged Silver McQuade arrives on the scene. But once Dara meets Silver, no warnings about this charming seducer can keep them apart. As the small community becomes divided over the presence of the miners, Dara is torn between loyalty to her home, and her newly awakened desire.
Tarnished Hearts
Not even a war between the states can keep apart a Southern aristocrat and the love of his life.
Tormented by his past and denied his dream of becoming a doctor, Southern aristocrat Trevor Shelby has little in his life to live for, until he meets the beautiful overseer’s daughter, Leah Reese. Unused to the warmth and kindness Leah shows him, Trevor learns to love from the young woman, while his intensity teaches her about passion. Despite the difference in their social classes, they dared to dream of a future together, a fantasy that is shattered by lies, betrayal, and the outbreak of war.
The Homecoming
In the aftermath of the Civil War, one man’s vow to stand alone is shaken by the return of the love of his life. A new novel from national bestselling romance author Raine Cantrell.
For most Texans, Reconstruction stood as a second declaration of war. Returning to his Texas farm at the end of the War Between the States, Matt Coltrane finds his land ravaged by scavengers as part of a greedy Reconstruction land grab. Turned bitter by the war, Matt attempts to avoid others, until Laine Ellis, the only woman he ever loved, is threatened. Despite the odds against him, Matt swears to protect her, as well as his land.
Born to be a Southern lady, Laine Ellis grew up in a lonely cabin on the edge of the bayou. Stubborn and courageous, she is raising her brother and sister after raiders killed her parents and destroyed her home. Laine doesn’t entertain any man’s attention, until Matt’s return. She loved him with a girl’s starry-eyed innocence and now wants him with a woman’s passion. She and Matt struggle in the face of old enemies and new challenges to bring their dreams to life as an entire country strives to put itself back together.
Western Winds
A headstrong woman more than meets her match in an unexpected inheritance.
When she inherits her father’s sprawling Texas ranch, the Reina, Lacey Garrett is determined to run it on her own. With a long line of men waiting to wrestle control of the land away from the willful young woman, many with dreams of winning her hand as well, Lacey has her work cut out for her. But of all the difficulties Lacey foresaw, never could she imagine a last minute change in her father’s will that leaves part of the Reina to another heir.
Rafe Parrish is a loner with a dark past, and no happier to be sharing control of the homestead with Lacey than she is. Angered by her arrogance, Rafe is determined to have it all: the Reina and Lacey herself. Lacey will have to fight for what is hers, or risk surrendering to Rafe’s dominance, losing control of her heart in order to stay on the land she loves.
Whisper My Name
A young woman is tempted from her path by a handsome cowboy as mysteries about her past are revealed.
Before taking her vows at a convent to become a young novice, Dominica Kirkland is summoned to an isolated Idaho ranch by Toma Colfax, a friend of her deceased father. Alone and naïve as to the ways of the world, Dominica soon finds herself overwhelmed, and reluctantly accepts the help of Luke, a ruggedly handsome cowboy. Drawn in by her beauty and her innocence, Luke makes it clear that he’s interested in Dominica, no matter what vows she’s considering.
But at Toma Colfax’s ranch await more questions than answers for Dominica. Toma claims no knowledge of the letter that called Dominica to the untamed wilderness. Slowly long-kept secrets are revealed, about Dominica’s family, about Toma Colfax, and about Luke. Dominica must make painful choices, to return to the safety of the convent and live a life of solitude, or risk everything, including her heart, to stay with Luke.
Wildflower
In the idyllic mountains of Colorado, a woman will risk her life to save the ones she loves.
For two years Jenny Latham has lived alone with her young son in the Colorado mountains, trying to manage her guilt over letting an abusive husband control her for too long. Her beauty makes her the object of many men’s desires, but with a broken heart and an independent streak as strong as the mountains themselves, Jenny refuses them all. But when she accidentally shoots a stranger and takes it upon herself to nurse him back to health, she finds all of her defenses wavering.
The stranger is a handsome man named Charmas, but he claims to remember little else, having lost his memory after the accident that led him to be in Jenny’s care. Overcome by Charmas’ allure, Jenny begins to succumb to her feelings of passion, until her world is shattered by the reappearance of her violent husband. Jenny will gamble with her very life in order to protect her son and Charmas from harm.
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Gifts of Love Page 26