“You can’t go in there,” Dorothy Werner’s voice could be heard saying. A man’s voice answered, but the reply was unclear.
“Wait a minute, you can’t just—!”
The door swung open, and Rafe burst through it.
Carly’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open in shock.
“Rafe—”
He was breathing hard, as if he’d been running. His glance took in the others, and then, just as quickly, dismissed them. He looked for all the world like a cigarette ad, in his leather chaps and his open-necked workshirt, all hard muscle and intensity. But it was the look in his searing blue eyes that tightened the knot in her belly that had been there since last she saw him.
A buzzing started in her ears and drowned out the shocked gasps of the others. Dan was on his feet, as were Jonathan and Kay. Alarm filtered through the room like a pulse.
“What the hell is this?” Dan asked, starting around the table toward Rafe. “Do you know this guy, Carly?”
She nodded, her throat constricting. She never thought he’d come to her. Never.
Rafe was three feet away from her with the table standing between them. “I need to talk with you, Carly. Alone.”
Carly’s eyes flicked to her partners, who were watching her closely, trying to read the situation. She felt herself blush. “We’re...we’re in a meeting, Rafe.”
“Fine,” he said, digging in and leaning on the table with both hands. “I’ll say it here, then. I’ve been an idiot, okay? A first-rate, flat-footed jerk. Don’t ask me what I was thinking. I obviously wasn’t. Because if I had been, I never would have let you go.”
Dan, Jonathan and Errol shifted nervously in their places, uncertain whether to stay or go. Kay, on the other hand, seemed to be settling back to enjoy the show.
Rafe went on, his eyes only on Carly, as if none of the others were even on the same planet. He dipped his head and looked at her through a thick fringe of dark lashes. “I’m...sorry, Carly. You were right. You were right about all of it. I am stubborn and I’m full of pride and if I had half the sense God gave a flea, I wouldn’t have let you go nine years ago, either.
“I’m not perfect and, dammit, I’m never gonna be. And all I have to offer you is myself and a place to start. I know that’s not enough. Not nearly enough for a woman like you. But you see—” he swallowed back a lump in his throat “—I’m lookin’ for you in crowds and hearing your voice in my head. And the ranch—it’s lonely as hell without you and Evan on it. So I’m askin’ you, Carly, to please come home.”
Dorothy and Kay gave a collective sigh.
Her eyes brimming with tears, Carly slowly stood, her knees shaky and uncertain.
Dan cleared his throat. “Uh, we oughta... Um, I think it would be prudent if we gave them a little...”
Jonathan smiled wryly. “Prudent. Right. Excellent word choice.” He wrapped an arm around Errol’s shoulder as they followed the others from the room. “Ever been to L.A., Halstrom? I hear it’s pretty nice this time of year....”
The door closed behind them.
For ten heart-wrenching seconds, Carly and Rafe stood silent, with the table still between them.
Carly bit her lip, holding back the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks. She shook her head.
“Rafe, I—”
“Don’t say no.”
She closed her eyes. “It’s not that simple.”
“Maybe it is,” he said, stepping around the corner of the table. “Why didn’t you go to Cincinnati, Carly?”
“Who told you?”
“Your former boss, Maynard,” he said, closing the distance between them. “He was real sorry you didn’t show. I wasn’t. Laurie told me the rest.”
She braced her hand against the table and backed up a step. “I never thought you’d call.”
“Why, Carly? Why’d you stay?”
He was close now. So close she could smell the oh-so-familiar masculine scent of him. “Because Evan needs you,” she said, “and I...couldn’t bear for him to lose yet another father.”
“Is that the only reason?”
She hated that he could melt her with a look, sweep all her well-intentioned rationalizations under the carpet with that voice of his that sent shivers up and down her spine. She lifted her chin, refusing to be bent. “If you think I was waiting for you to come barging in here like some...some caveman and—”
He dragged her flush against him and dropped his mouth on hers in a calculated assault on her already dimming senses. His tongue slid insistently against her teeth until she surrendered to the onslaught. His lips, slanting against hers, first one way, then the other, silenced all pretense. She forgot what she’d been about to say as his hands traveled down her spine to cup her buttocks and lift her closer. A sound—a squeak, really—escaped her as she felt her knees give and her body sway against him.
Finally, he lifted his mouth but a heartbeat from hers. “Weren’t you?” He stared down at her. “Waiting?”
“What if I was?” she managed to say. “I never thought you’d come.”
“I’m here. Marry me, Carly.”
“Wh-what?” she stammered, wondering where her wits had gone.
He dragged his thumb across her lips, still damp from his kiss. “Come home with me. I need you.”
For two heartbeats, she could only stare at him. Then, slowly, she shook her head. “No, Rafe. I can’t. I won’t. That’s not enough. Not for me.”
With a frown, he searched her eyes. “Carly—”
Tears slid down her cheeks now as she felt the old nemesis rise between them again. She pulled away, forcing space between them, yet clutching the front of his shirt in a damningly contrary gesture.
“I need food and sunshine and air. I need to see the leaves change in the fall and feel the crisp cold of winter against my skin. But need alone isn’t enough to build a relationship on. And it’s not enough for me.”
He stopped her from pulling completely away and forced her to look at him. “You’re right. It’s not. And that was my mistake nine years ago. I never said it, because I thought maybe if I didn’t say the words, it would hurt less when you left. But it didn’t work. Because it almost killed me anyway. I loved you then, and I love you still.”
Her heart quaked at the words.
“Carly—” He cupped her face between his hands. “You’re my heart, and you own a piece of my soul. You always have. I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my life, but losing you was the worst. And I won’t let it happen again. I was so caught up in trying to be someone for you, I couldn’t see what I had right in front of me.
“I thought I could prove something to you by making the ranch a success,” he went on, “but without you and Evan there, it’s just a piece of land—it means nothing to me.” Brushing a strand of blond hair from her eyes, he came as close as she’d ever seen him come to tears. “I love you, Carly. I swear I’ll never give you cause to regret it again. I want to be a real father to Evan and a husband to you. Marry me. And if I ever get stupid and stubborn and prideful again—kick me.”
“Oh, Rafe—” She kissed him fully, drinking in the taste of him, threading her hands behind his neck. This man she’d loved for so long had finally come home. “Yes.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Yes, you’ll kick me? Or yes, you’ll marry me?”
She laughed. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”
Crushing her to him, he held her tightly, almost as if he didn’t dare let her go. She never wanted him to. But there was one thing she had to know. “What about—” she hesitated.
“What?” he asked.
“What about my job here?”
The certainty in his gaze relieved the worry in hers. “You’ll be great at it.” He grinned. “And I’ll do my best to rehabilitate my image with your partners. Can’t have ’em thinking you’re marrying a caveman, can we?”
“Oh, I dunno. I don’t think Kay and Dorothy minded much. The others? They’ll g
et used to it. Think you can handle being married to an attorney?”
A challenging smile tilted the corners of his mouth. “If you can handle being married to a struggling rancher.”
“An up-and-coming rancher with a big future,” she corrected against his lips as he kissed her again.
“Mmm-mmm...I like the up-and-coming part,” he teased, smiling against her mouth. “And you never know when an attorney in the family just might come in handy.”
“Mmm,” she mused, watching him closely, “all those pesky run-ins with bulls and bareback broncs?”
Sliding his hands downward against her backside, he lifted her against him. “That’s over.” He dropped his mouth heatedly to the curve of her neck and tortured the spot with his tongue.
“You... sure?” Breathless, she dropped her forehead against his, hardly daring to believe him.
Transferring his attention to her mouth, he demonstrated just how certain he was. When he’d left not a trace of a doubt in her mind, he lifted his mouth from hers with a decadent smile.
“There’s only one event that holds any interest for me now, Carly. And it involves you—” he kissed her cheek “—and me—” her temple “—and a ring.” The last kiss he pressed against her forehead, like a vow. “And you can start the clock and keep it runnin’ on that promise, darlin’, ‘cause I have a feelin’ this is gonna be a very long ride.”
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6539-4
TO LOVE A COWBOY
Copyright © 1998 by Barbara Ankrum
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system. is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
When Rafe closed the bedroom door behind him, Carly stared at the ceiling, wond
Letter to Reader
About the Author
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Copyright
To Love A Cowboy Page 23