If Jace offered her just a crumb of warmth, Danielle knew she would fall in love with him all over again.
Letter to Reader
Title Page
Dedication
Books by Cathy Forsythe
About the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Copyright
If Jace offered her just a crumb of warmth, Danielle knew she would fall in love with him all over again.
She remembered the nights she’d spent in this house, snuggled in his big four-poster bed, wrapped in Jace’s arms.
Warm, protected, cared for. All hers simply for the asking when Jace had wanted her.
It was over. All of it. She needed to hang on to that. Love wasn’t possible between her and Jace, at least not mutual love. She needed to remember the purpose of her marriage to him. It was little more than a business arrangement and she needed to keep her distance.
If only Jace would agree....
Dear Reader,
Silhouette Romance novels aren’t just for other women—the wonder of a Silhouette Romance is that it can touch your heart. And this month’s selections are guaranteed to leave you smiling!
In Suzanne McMinn’s engaging BUNDLES OF JOY title. The Billionaire and the Bassinet, a blue blood finds his hardened heart irrevocably tamed. This month’s FABULOUS FATHERS offering by Jodi O’Donnell features an emotional, heartwarming twist you won’t soon forget; in Dr. Dad to the Rescue, a man discovers strength and the healing power of love from one very special lady. Marrying O’Malley the renegade who’d been her childhood nemesis, seemed the perfect way for a bride-to-be to thwart an unwanted betrotha1—until their unlikely alliance stirred an even more incredible passion; don’t miss this latest winner by Elizabeth August!
The Cowboy Proposes...Marriage? Get the charming lowdown as WRANGLERS & LACE continues with this sizzling story by Cathy Forsythe. Cara Colter will make you laugh and cry with A Bride Worth Waiting For, the story of the boy next door who didn’t get the girl, but who’ll stop at nothing to have her now For readers who love powerful. dramatic stones, you won’t want to miss Paternity Lesions, Maris Soule’s uplifting FAMILY MATTERS tale.
Enjoy this month’s titles—and please drop me a line about why you keep coming back to Romance. I want to make sure we continue fulfilling your dreams!
Regards,
Mary-Theresa Hussey
Senior Editor Silhouette Romance
Please address questions and book requests to:
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THE COWBOY PROPOSES...MARRIAGE?
Cathy Forsythe
To Jerimiah and Brandon
Both heroes in their own special way
I’m proud to call you my sons
Books by Cathy Forsythe
Silhouette Romance
The Marriage Contract #1167
The Cowboy Proposes...Marriage? #1387
CATHY FORSYTHE
After dealing with the mountains of mud and a zoo full of pets generated by two growing boys. Cathy is ready to settle down to the much cleaner job of writing. With the continued support of her husband, who is hero material himself, she is constantly searching for interesting characters and new story ideas. Now, if she can just convince her dog not to be jealous of the computer....
Chapter One
“I have an idea of the style I want for my wedding gown, but I haven’t...”
A flash of gray distracted Danielle Simmons from the flow of conversation, but when she turned, it was gone. And suddenly she lost interest in the chatter about her upcoming wedding.
Restless, edgy, she excused herself, hoping to locate the source of the unease prickling her spine. Studying the room carefully, she slowly circled the guests.
Everything was perfect. The food was plentiful and artfully prepared by the caterers, the champagne expensive and abundant, the guests cleverly blended.
She hoped.
The flash of gray appeared in her vision again, but before she could look, Raymond took her arm. “Having fun, darling?”
His touch was gentle, a soft stroke on her arm that should have sent tingles racing across her skin. But it didn’t.
Not the way another man’s touch had, once upon a time.
In spite of the niggling doubts tormenting her, Danielle forced a smile to her carefully painted lips. “Of course. Who wouldn’t with a room full of our nearest and dearest friends?” Half of whom she couldn’t remember the names of.
He nuzzled her ear and she leaned closer to him. And waited. In vain. There was no rush of desire, no flare of warmth. Only a deep affection, a friendly attachment, for the man she was engaged to. Maybe if she’d never experienced the surge of passion, she wouldn’t be disappointed every time Raymond touched her. But she had reveled in her own sexuality—had even involved her heart in the dangerous game of love.
Only to have it thrown back in her face.
Raymond gently pressed his lips to her cheek, his breath brushing her skin as he spoke. “We’ll share a dance at the stroke of midnight—after your father makes a toast to our engagement. Then we’ll run off these freeloaders and have some fun.”
Danielle smiled, certain she was feeling the first twinges of a headache. And just as certain that Raymond would be kind and understanding when she sent him home early.
From behind them, a husky voice interrupted, a voice coated with sarcasm. “Isn’t that sweet?”
The rich baritone slid over her, dancing a kaleidoscope of images across Danielle’s thoughts. Tall. Broad shoulders. A dark-haired man, cowboy hat set at a cocky angle, blue eyes sparkling with a devilish gleam, teasing, laughing—loving.
It had been eleven years since she’d last heard that voice—an eternity—but certainly not long enough.
She turned, mouth dry. He stood, detached from the crowd, out of place in this gathering of sequined formals and black tuxedos. The passing years were etched on his face, but the rugged lines only added to his allure.
Danielle blinked, almost scrubbed at her carefully made-up eyes, but he didn’t disappear.
It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t dare. She wouldn’t let him.
Forcing herself to move, she took a step forward, her lungs beginning to ache from lack of air. She tried to ignore the pain biting into her soul when she looked at him. After all these years, she should be over him.
“I understand congratulations are in order. Let me be the first.” The man leisurely reached out and grasped her fluted glass, taking it from her and raising it in a toast. “To the loving couple.” He nodded to Raymond.
Then the cowboy turned to Danielle. She felt trapped in the blue ice of his eyes—eyes speaking of all the memories that stood between them. Her own anger warred with the dregs of pain she harbored from their shared past
“And here’s to you, darlin’.” He tipped back the glass and drained the fine champagne as if it were water. One dark eyebrow lifted as he thunked the delicate crystal on a nearby table. “A little dry for my taste, but not bad for the exorbitant price I’m sure you paid.”
His eyes challenged her to do something. About him. About his presence at her engagement party. And she’d never been able to resist a challenge.
Especially when Jace Farrell issued it.
Her back teeth snap
ped together, but Danielle managed to paste a smile onto her face. “Jace, how good of you to stop by.” The polite words almost choked her as she turned to Raymond, hoping her smile hadn’t become a snarl. “Sweetheart, I’ll be right back. I need to speak with an old friend,” she said.
Raymond frowned and tightened his hold on her for a brief second. Gently pulling away from him, she walked toward Jace, disconcerted by the discovery that the powerful magnetism between them remained so strong. Not even time and sorrow had managed to fade their attraction.
Danielle grabbed his elbow and tried to urge him toward the patio, but he just stood there—a sardonic grin twisting his lips—and watched her.
“I’d like to talk with you, Jace. Privately. Won’t you join me outside?” The heat from his skin burned through his clothes, singeing her fingers, but she couldn’t pull away. With Jace she had always felt that rush of awareness she’d been looking for. But he had almost destroyed her once, had trampled her heart and her love. She refused to give him that chance again.
“Only if you say please,” he murmured, the words for her ears only. “Pretty please.”
The deep tone of his voice stroked her and she clenched her teeth tighter to suppress her trembling reaction. He’d used her attraction to control her emotions in the past. She wasn’t about to allow it to happen again. No matter how much it hurt.
“Pretty please, Jace?” Danielle asked, amazed the words sounded so clear through clenched teeth.
Pulling her hand through the crook of his arm, he laid his fingers across hers, effectively holding her captive. Without another word, he started for the double French doors on the other side of the room.
The past was repeating itself. The first time she met Jace, he’d stood with her on the same deck. But that time, her rose-colored glasses had been firmly in place. Time and betrayal had changed that, had changed her.
The Wyoming night was cool, a welcome relief to her burning face and bare shoulders. Jace had always managed to raise her temperature, either with anger or with passion. But she’d never been complacent around him—had never been the way she was with Raymond.
Danielle tugged at her hand, needing some distance, but Jace refused to let her go. They walked in silence toward the darkened edge of the porch, the soft glow of the interior lights allowing her to see more than she wanted.
She fingered the gold locket at her throat, drawing strength from its familiar presence, strength she suspected she would need to get through these next few minutes.
When she couldn’t stand the escalating tension another second, she stopped, and Jace finally released her but didn’t step away. Grabbing the wooden railing, she braced herself, needing moral as well as physical support.
“What are you doing here?” She didn’t turn to him when she made her demand, instead she stared into the endless darkness broken only by a scattering of stars in the Wyoming sky, remembering happier times, times when she thought she’d spend the rest of her life in this man’s arms.
She ached for the future that had never happened.
And his lack of response proved he could still manage to irritate her by doing absolutely nothing.
“Damn it, Jace.” She spun, determined to face him when she unleashed her anger. “I asked you—”
His mouth swooped down on hers without warning, without hesitation. Danielle sucked in a breath of surprise, realizing her error when the unmistakable scent of Jace filled her head—a scent that was all natural, all man, and only Jace.
Even that thought melted away as his lips seared her mouth. Without a hint of gentle persuasion, he urged her lips apart. When she resisted, he reached up with his free hand and tugged at her chin with his thumb. The invasion of his tongue was a bitterly welcomed onslaught, one she unconsciously savored as she became reacquainted with his taste.
More memories crashed back, breaking through the door she’d spent years building to suppress them. The loving, the laughing... the fighting. They’d never been able to agree on anything except the fact they’d desired each other. Finally, even that had fallen apart and Danielle had done the only thing possible.
She’d walked away.
And regretted the loss every day since.
But she couldn’t forgive his deception, his lies. Couldn’t forgive the fact that he hadn’t loved her enough.
She moaned deep in her throat as Jace began to stroke her neck. Imprisoning her chin with his long fingers, he broke away, leaving a whisper of air between them.
He stared at her, and even in the semidarkness, she sensed the fire now burning in his eyes. She’d always had the power to put it there, always reveled in her ability to drive a small wedge in his ironclad control.
But it had never been enough. She’d wanted more from him. She’d wanted all of him. And he’d never relinquished the reins he held on his emotions.
Even though he couldn’t give her the words she’d so desperately needed to hear, she’d been willing to stay, to keep trying, to love him. Because what they had shared was special, something she hadn’t wanted to give up. Then he’d turned away, trading her love for a much more seductive mistress... a mistress she couldn’t compete with because it wasn’t even another woman.
Her memories fragmented when Jace leaned back against the railing, planting his legs apart and pulling her against him. The remembered sensation of his hard-muscled thighs burned through her clothing.
“No, Jace.” Her whisper made barely a sound, but she knew he’d heard her.
“Yes, Dani.”
He pressed his lips to hers and her small token of resistance faded away along with the years that had separated them. Heaven help her, she needed this man.
Tipping her chin back, he left a blazing trail of sensation down the side of her neck. His lips sought and received a response from her sensitive skin, a response no other man had ever ignited. Heat shivered over her, leaving her weak.
When he brushed her hair aside to nip at her shoulder, she knew she had to stop this madness... before her fiancé found her here, with another man, doing something that shattered her very soul.
“Jace, please.”
He paused in his explorations and she let out the breath that clogged her lungs, harboring a faint hope that for once he might understand and leave her a small measure of peace. But Jace had never been understanding.
“Please, what?” He smoothed away the hair that had fallen across her eyes. “Please kiss me? Please carry me away? Please make love to me?”
If only it could be that easy for them. Struggling simply to draw an even breath, she couldn’t break through the sensations bombarding her to formulate a response.
“Is your fiancé willing to share, then?”
Her protest became tangled with her conflicting feelings, making it impossible to give him the blistering response he deserved.
When she didn’t answer, he grinned, but sarcasm dripped from his words. “He wouldn’t mind if he came out here right now, is that it? Poor Dani.” He shook his head, managing to pull her closer, close enough that she had no doubt just how aroused he was.
“Jace, stop.” She pushed against his chest, needing to escape, to regain her equilibrium. “He would mind, very much. And so do I.” The lie tasted bitter, but she knew she had to say it.
“You don’t feel like you mind.” Jace cocked his head to study her. “You don’t kiss like you mind. Another lie, Dani?”
“My name is Danielle.”
“To all these high-society fluff balls, maybe. To me, you’ll always be my Dani girl.”
“I’m not your girl anymore, Jace. I haven’t been for years.” She pushed away from him again.
Somehow, he managed to use her efforts against her and wedge her tighter between his legs. Danielle’s cheeks burned and she was thankful for the shadows. There had been a time when she’d relished this position, had loved to play the sexy tease for Jace, couldn’t resist every opportunity to turn him on.
That was over now.<
br />
“So Daddy has picked out the perfect man this time.
Jace traced her lips with his finger, the work-roughened skin stoking her senses even further.
“I’ll bet Raymond has lots of money to share. And what does he get in return?”
She didn’t answer, couldn’t answer, against the ache swelling through her. All she wanted was to be loved, to be cherished for herself and not what she could bring a man. And that had become the impossible dream for her. Instead, she’d become a pawn in a business world she was learning to hate.
“Ah.” Jace took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “Raymond gets you, doesn’t he? A prize society catch. A woman with connections, looks and all the training an important man needs.”
The ache turned into a piercing shaft of pain. She’d hoped Raymond loved her a little bit, but she feared lace was right. Danielle Simmons was trained to be the perfect wife, and in her father’s circle, that was a commodity to be traded for high stakes.
Jace tugged her a little closer as if knowing he’d lost her attention, and she couldn’t stop the heat from rising in her cheeks.
“You never used to blush when you were in my arms.”
“I never used to object to being in your arms, either. It’s over, Jace. So why are you here?”
“I’m here because you’re mine. And I have no intention of sharing you...with Raymond or anyone else.”
She made a fist and pounded it into his chest once. Then she raised her left hand and waved it in his face, desperate to make him understand, to make him go away. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m engaged. To another man, Jace. This ring makes me his, not yours.”
He grabbed her wrist and held her hand immobile. She tried to twist away, afraid of the sudden anger that flared in his eyes. Jace Farrell was capable of anything to get what he wanted and she wouldn’t be surprised if he tore the ring from her finger and threw the glittering diamond over the ledge.
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