Gently he pulled her in to his chest.
She thought to fight the gesture, but there was no better place to weep than against the security of his hard chest. It was too much to resist when she was exhausted and without hope.
“Baby, don’t cry,” he said against her hair.
“What’s not to cry about?” She sniffed, unable to get control of herself long enough to shrug off his embrace. “You won’t let me leave, and the only thing on your mind is your fiancée.”
He kissed her temple. “She’s not my fiancée any longer. I called it off.”
Maybe the champagne had really gone to her head, but for some crazy reason Kirsten thought he’d said he’d called it off.
“What?” she demanded, looking up at him.
He smiled. “I called it off. The reason she’s on my mind is that I owe her a big apology—maybe even a Lamborghini. I should never have used her like I did, but Hazel said I had to settle down to keep the ranch, and I’m keeping the ranch, Kirsten. I’m not leaving Mystery.”
She tried to absorb what he was saying, but none of it made sense. “I don’t understand any of this. Just keep the darn ranch. What’s it to Hazel or Nikki?”
Pulling her closer, he placed a tender kiss on her lips. “None of this concerns them—just you and me.” His expression softened. “When I met you, Kirsten, I was convinced you were just another gold digger. It didn’t bother me, because I knew all about those kinds of women. My own mother was one. You know that. So when that’s all you know, that’s all you expect and it doesn’t bother you. Hell, I even figured I’d probably marry one of them one day just like my dad.”
Watching the emotion in his eyes go from shielded to yearning, she wondered if she was living a dream.
He continued.
“But everything you said, everything you did, went against my prejudice. Even what James said about you— I wanted to believe you were a conniving social climber, but I couldn’t match up what I was thinking to what I was seeing and feeling.”
Tipping her face upward, he stared down at her, a new kind of hesitation in his eyes. “Don’t leave me, Kirsten. Nothing in this world will be the same if you leave me.”
She let the words sink into her mind and heart. For several long moments she still couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but then a new reality engulfed her, and she knew she had to be cautious.
“Seth,” she whispered, her voice still deep with tears, “I can’t stay here and work for you any longer whether you’re married or not. It just won’t work. I just can’t do it.”
“What’s changed?” he prodded, his tone gentle.
“I—I—” She closed her mouth and refused to say it. If she had any shred of dignity left, she had to leave without confessing her love. To do so and then find herself just another employee in the morning would kill her.
“You love me?” he asked, his stare dark and probing. “I hope so. Because I love you, Kirsten. I love you and I don’t ever want another day to pass where you’re not in my arms and in my bed.”
She locked gazes with him, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“Will you marry me, Kirsten?”
The words lodged in her throat where the tears had once been.
“Will you?”
“Yes,” she gasped, tears springing forth anew, but this time tears of joy. “Yes, I will marry you, Seth Morgan. But not for your ranch, and not for your money.” Her voice shook from the emotion. “I’ll marry you because you kissed me in the cold brook, and made me feel like a woman. And lastly, I’ll marry you because you’re more of a man than anyone else sees. I want kindness and a warm hearth and children. Those things seem so within reach, and yet only you can bring them to me. And it will take much more than a bank account to do it.” She laughed and wept at the same time.
Slowly his mouth crushed down on hers in a long, soul-clawing kiss that tasted of tears and champagne.
Inside she melted. Her heart leaped, but she still worried that it wasn’t real, that in a moment it would all be taken away and she would wake as if in a dream.
“I love you, Kirsten, and I’m going to make you my wife if I have to sell everything and live in a shack with you and our twelve children.”
She suddenly laughed.
After those absurd words, all of a sudden she believed.
Epilogue
Hazel looked out over her beautiful Montana valley through the window of her parlor. Her face was placid, her eyes twinkling with mischief, even though Jenn Meadows’s words were full of anxiety.
“It’s not like her to just call me and say she’s going away for a few days.” Jenn nervously sipped on a hot cup of tea that Hazel had slipped some whiskey into.
“She’s an adult, dear. She has a right to take a few days off.” Hazel sat down next to her. “Besides, maybe that boss of hers sent her on an errand to Paris, or such.”
Jenn shook her head. “No, she’d tell me. Besides—” her face took on a more troubled cast “—I think there’s something going on with that boss of hers. She hasn’t said anything, but I do hope they’re not fooling around with each other.” Her eyes darkened. “I’d hate for her to have to go through what I’ve gone through—”
“And that reminds me, dear. Have you met Jim, Seth’s ranch manager? I know the girls have really enjoyed riding up there. Why don’t we have him plan one of those old-fashioned hayrides for us? We’ll take along a little supper and have a picnic right by the mill.”
Kirsten’s mother rolled her eyes. “I’ve heard all the town gossip on how you like to play matchmaker, and I can’t even begin to imagine you’d be up to those old tricks with me, Hazel. I’m too old and too ugly.”
“You’re a beauty, my dear, and there’s no such thing as too old for romance. Besides, this isn’t some kind of scheme of mine. Jim’s a fine man. Lost his wife to cancer four years ago. Never remarried and never even thought about it, I assure you.”
Jenn sighed. “A hayride sounds like great fun, Hazel, but all of this is beside the point. I just can’t get it out of my head that something’s going on with Kirsten—”
“Who’s coming, Ebby?” Hazel asked, her sixth sense picking up on visitors even before the dust of the vehicle could be seen in the distance.
“I don’t know,” Hazel’s housekeeper mused, going to the window. After a few moments she said, “Looks like a Jeep. I think it might be Seth Morgan’s Jeep. Yep, looks like his, all right.”
“Maybe it’s Kirsten,” Jenn announced, going to the window.
Sure enough, the Jeep came to a halt and Seth jumped out of the vehicle. He went around to the passenger side to help Kirsten out.
“Something’s different. I can see that from here,” Jenn mused, her forehead furrowed—now not with fear, but rather curious expectation.
Ebby went to the front door and opened it.
Quickly the couple was inside, with Jenn admonishing her daughter.
“Kirsten, I know you’re an adult and all, but really, I just want a phone number, anything, if you decide to take off like that. What if something happened?” she said, giving her daughter a hug.
Seth cleared his throat, but didn’t intrude.
“I’ve something to tell you,” Kirsten said, looking at her mother and Hazel.
“Should we sit down?” Jenn asked, caution all over her beautiful face.
“Nonsense,” Hazel huffed. “Can’t you see that sparkler on her finger, Jenn? Your daughter’s gone run off and got herself married.”
Jenn’s gaze fell to Kirsten’s left ring finger. There was a pink-lavender diamond surrounded by two others on a thin platinum band.
“Kirsten?” Jenn gasped. “Oh, Kirsten.” She hugged her laughing daughter.
When they parted, she added, “But you should have told us. Carrie will be beside herself that she missed you getting married.”
Kirsten sat them all down, her hand locked with Seth’s as she took her place next to him. “We w
anted to tell you, but it was very sudden. And when Seth decides something, come hell or high water, it’s going to happen.”
“When did you both decide this? I didn’t even know you had a romance,” Jenn commented. She turned to her new son-in-law. “And I thought you were engaged already to some woman in New York City.”
Seth released a wry grin. “Entirely my mistake. Because when I took one look at Kirsten, I knew she was the one I wanted and no other would do.” He squeezed his bride’s hand. “And once I got her convinced that I loved her and this was forever, we saw no reason to make a circus of it like Nikki’d been doing. We flew to Greece and got married shipboard.”
“But we’re going to have a small ceremony here,” Kirsten added hastily. “Because I do want Carrie to be my maid of honor.” She leaned over and took her mother’s hand. “And I want you to be the second woman at the reception to dance with your new son-in-law, Mom.”
It took a few moments for Jenn to absorb all that was being explained to her.
But finally, when she had regained herself, she stood and gave Seth a big hug. “Welcome to the family, Seth,” Jenn said.
He gave her a big bear hug. “I’m honored, Jenn. You three make the best family I’ve ever seen.”
Jenn smiled. “We all love each other. That’s all a family needs, right, Kirsten?”
“That’s all you need,” Kirsten agreed, looking at her husband with love-filled eyes.
“Now that that’s settled,” Hazel interjected, “when are the babies coming along? No sense in wasting time. You’ve both seen the world. I say settle down and get to doing what God put you in this green valley for.”
Seth laughed. “Hazel, you’re too much.” He looked at his bride and said, “Should you tell them or should I?”
Kirsten shrugged helplessly. She faced the other two women and said, “We don’t have it completely confirmed, but let’s just say don’t be surprised if the baby comes along sooner than later.”
Tears glistened in Jenn’s eyes. “How amazing. All of this. How wonderful,” she uttered, beside herself.
Kirsten went to be by her side.
But Hazel was on to the next challenge.
“We’ve got to have a couple of parties celebrating this here thing,” she announced, mostly to Ebby, who was in the background making notes on all that had transpired.
“We don’t need much, Hazel,” Seth added.
“Not much! You’re talking Mystery people here. We need to pull out all the stops!” Hazel admonished.
Her eyes twinkled. “And the first thing we should do is go on a hayride! Doesn’t that sound like fun? We could pack a nice supper and Jim—he works for you, Seth, I believe—why, he could take the whole family here for a celebration.”
Jenn recovered from her happy shock just long enough to say to Hazel, “Hey, I know what you’re doing—” before Seth and Kirsten and Ebby interrupted, each with their own contributions to the idea of a hayride.
In the ensuing fracas, Hazel returned to look out her parlor window.
Mystery Valley lay like a blanket of emerald moss beneath the majestic snow-covered peaks of the mountains. The sun was sinking, painting Mount Mystery a ruby-red. In the far distance a stag was chasing a doe across the golden fields. The cattle munched peaceably, their fat bodies casting long, lazy shadows across the hay fields.
“You can count another happy couple off your matchmaking list, you sly girl,” Ebby said, standing next to her boss in the window. “So are you resting on your laurels?”
The cattle baroness put that thought to rest. “Certainly not,” she said.
“So what are you thinking now, Hazel?” Ebby asked above the excited din.
Hazel couldn’t repress the twinkle in her Prussian-blue eyes.
The only thing she said was, “Next!”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8616-4
BILLIONAIRE BOSS
Copyright © 2003 by Ruth Goodman
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* Matched in Montana
Billionaire Boss Page 11