Julianne abruptly stopped dancing. Shaking off his hand, she spun on her heel and walked away. “We haven’t even gone out on a date and now you want to get married? You’re crazy, you know that?” she threw over her shoulder.
“Yes I am,” he agreed, hurrying after her. She was going for the front door and he was determined to cut her off. She had to hear him out. “Crazy if I let you go.”
His hand on the door, he blocked her way out. She glared at him. “What makes you think you have a choice? Or a say in anything I do?”
“Hope,” he answered simply. He started again, trying to make her understand. “Look, I’ve been out with an awful lot of women.”
“So now you’re bragging?” Was he trying to impress her?
“No, I’m explaining. I’ve been out with an awful lot of women and I never felt about any of them the way I feel about you. I know it’s soon but I know what I want. When I thought that bastard was going to hurt you, I almost lost it.” That had been, by far, the worst twenty minutes of his life. “Riley had to pull me off him.” He’d bolted out of the car and dragged Gifford out of his vehicle, pummeling him. “If she hadn’t been there, I probably would have killed him.”
“So I made you want to kill him?”
“The point is—” Frank took her hands in his “—you bring feelings out of me that I didn’t even know were there. Protective feelings. I love you, Julianne, and I want to spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”
No, she wasn’t going to let him talk her into this. She wasn’t going to let him in. She couldn’t. Julianne shook her head. “Find someone else,” she told him. “I can’t love anybody.”
“Why?” he demanded.
She wanted to leave, to just walk away without a word. Without opening up her wounds again. But he wasn’t going to let her, was he? Not until she gave him an answer.
“Because everyone I’ve ever loved has left me. My mother, my father, Mary. If I don’t love,” she insisted, “I don’t hurt.”
But she had missed the most obvious argument against that. “You don’t feel.”
She raised her chin. “Exactly.”
“I don’t believe you,” he said softly, his fingers skimming along her cheek, tracing a path along her jaw. He saw something flare in her eyes. “You’re lying,” he told her. “You do feel something. Something for me.”
Julianne looked away. “Yeah, well, with any luck, I’ll get over it.”
Taking her chin in his hand, he made her look at him. “I’m not going to let you.”
“What are you going to do about it, Pale Face?” she challenged. Even the nickname she’d used was to emphasize that they came from two different worlds Frank didn’t answer her. Instead, he brought his mouth down to hers.
The kiss was all velvet fire, burning away her barriers, swirling its way to her inner core in lightning speed.
“That’s a start,” she allowed breathlessly.
“Of the rest of our lives,” Frank told her just before he brought his mouth down on hers again. This time for longer.
In the distance, Andrew watched and smiled his approval. It’d been six months since he’d thrown a wedding reception. Zack and Krystle were up next.
But after that…
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3817-0
CAVANAUGH PRIDE
Copyright © 2009 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
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, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
**Capturing the Crown
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
‡The Doctors Pulaski
‡The Doctors Pulaski
‡‡Mission: Impassioned
‡The Doctors Pulaski
*Cavanaugh Justice
‡The Doctors Pulaski
‡The Doctors Pulaski
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
§The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion
†The Cameo
§§Most Likely To…
†The Cameo
†The Cameo
**Capturing the Crown
‡‡‡Talk of the Neighborhood
††The Sons of Lily Moreau
††The Sons of Lily Moreau
††The Sons of Lily Moreau
††The Sons of Lily Moreau
§§§Kate’s Boys
§§§Kate’s Boys
§§§Kate’s Boys
§The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion
§§§Kate’s Boys
***The Alaskans
Table of Contents
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
Chapter 15
Cavanaugh Pride Page 17