by Linda Turner
“I asked Rocky to marry me,” he said quietly, “but she refused. She’s got this crazy idea that I’m going to put a leash on her just because I’m concerned about her safety.” Normally a private man where his feelings are concerned, especially with strangers, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from telling them everything. “She’s the stubbornest woman I’ve ever met in my life. I know she’s trained with some of the best and she’s an excellent pilot, but what she’s doing is dangerous, dammit! She can’t just go flying off around the countryside like she doesn’t have a care in the world. She’s got to quit being so reckless and think of the baby.”
“Caution isn’t a word that’s ever been in my cousin’s vocabulary,” Kyle replied grimly, “but she would never do anything that would put her own baby or anyone else in danger.”
“Not deliberately, no,” Luke agreed. “But I can’t risk losing her, dammit. I love her!”
Her green eyes dark with sympathy, Samantha pointed out softly, “There are no guarantees in life, Lucas. You must know that in your line of work. You could tie her to your side, watch every step she takes, and never let her out of your sight, and she could still get hurt in a car accident or struck by lightning. That’s just fate. You can’t try to make her into something she’s not just because you’re afraid of losing her.”
She would have said more, but Roy MacDonald hurried into the cafeteria then and immediately started toward him. Bracing himself, Lucas rose quickly to his feet and introduced him to Rocky’s cousins before saying grimly, “I missed a bleeder, didn’t I?”
“You didn’t miss anything except a sterile operating room,” Roy retorted. “She’s got a pretty bad infection, which is what you expected, but all things considered, you did a great job. Personally, I don’t know how the hell you did it. There’s no internal bleeding, and the baby’s doing fine.”
Stunned, Lucas could only stare at him. “Are you sure? She was so weak—”
Roy grinned and slapped him on the shoulder. “She’s fine, Luke. I promise. She lost a lot of blood, but we’re pumping her full of fluids and antibiotics, and she should be able to go home in a couple of days. If you don’t believe me, go see her for yourself. She’s in room 301.”
His eyes searching Roy’s, Lucas couldn’t doubt his sincerity. She was going to be okay. And so was the baby. Relief swept through him like a rush of desert air, warming the cold, vulnerable hollows of his heart and lifting what felt like a boulder of worry from his shoulders. God, he loved her! It still stunned him how much. And he wouldn’t, couldn’t, lose her.
On some gut level, he’d known from the first moment his eyes met hers that she was going to turn his life upside down, and he’d been fighting it ever since. She could hurt him, could strip away the barriers he’d built around his heart just by existing. And that scared the hell out of him. He didn’t want to be that vulnerable again, dammit. But he loved her. In spite of the fact that she worried him to death, he loved her gumption, her willingness to go out in a blizzard to help three foolish teenagers in trouble. And he wouldn’t have had her any other way.
Suddenly needing to tell her that more than he had ever needed anything in his life, he started toward the cafeteria doors that led to the elevators. Chuckling, Roy called after him, “Does this mean you don’t believe me?”
“No,” Lucas retorted over his shoulder, grinning. “It means I need to ask the lady’s forgiveness before I ask her to marry me…again.”
Lying in bed in her hospital room, Rocky stared out the window at the foot of new snow that had fallen while she and Lucas were stuck in the mountains overnight. So close, she thought, shuddering. They’d come so close to being killed. If the ice on the rotor blades had been heavier…if the pines that had shattered the windshield had struck her in the abdomen instead…if Lucas hadn’t been with her at all…
God, she didn’t even want to think about it! But she couldn’t bury her head in the sand and pretend the past twenty-four hours hadn’t happened. She—and the baby—were alive because of Lucas. If he hadn’t insisted on going with her, she would have bled to death up there and would have had no one to blame but herself. She’d been so determined to find those hikers that she didn’t think of the danger she was putting herself and the baby in, let alone what she was doing to the people who cared about her.
Pain gripped her heart, remorse bringing the sting of tears to her eyes just at the thought of Lucas operating on her. God, what kind of agony had she put him through? Because of her stubborn recklessness, he’d found himself in the untenable position of once again fighting to save the life of a woman he loved. And all the time he had to have been thinking of Jan and worrying that history was going to repeat itself.
Would he hate her for that? For foolishly putting herself at risk without a thought to what she might be doing to him or the baby? She had to see him, had to explain that this was all new to her. She hadn’t loved anyone before, not the way she loved him. She hadn’t expected to feel his pain as deeply as she felt her own, but just the thought of the torment he must have gone through when he pulled the branch out of her side and stitched her back together tore at her heart. What could she possibly say to make up for that?
Wondering where he was, wishing he was there so that she could explain, she’d never felt so miserable in her life. Sighing, she turned away from the window, leaned her head back against her pillow and closed her eyes. She never heard anyone come into her room, but when she felt familiar fingers wrap around her wrist to take her pulse, she realized she would have known that touch on the dark side of the moon.
“Lucas!” She looked up, found him standing right next to her, looking tired and worried and incredibly wonderful, and suddenly the words she hadn’t been sure she’d be able to find were pouring out. “I’m sorry. You have every reason to be furious with me for being so stu—”
“No, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I’ve been acting like a Neanderthal—”
“I’m a daredevil. What can I say? Kate taught me everything I know. But I never meant to put the baby at risk. Or worry you to death. I just over-reacted to your concern.” She told him then about Greg, about his possessiveness, the hold he’d had on her that had scared her to death. “I was afraid of slipping back into that kind of relationship.”
“I just didn’t want to lose you. But that doesn’t excuse trying to put chains on you. You know what you’re doing—I know that. But just thinking about you getting hurt makes me crazy.”
“All I’ve been able to think about is the hell I put you through. I swear I won’t do it again. Not if it means putting the baby at risk or taking stupid chances that are going to make you gray-headed before you’re forty—”
“I don’t want to change you. I know it must have looked that way, but I love you just the way you are—”
Each suddenly hearing the other, they both stopped in midsentence and simply stared at each other. Under his fingers, Lucas felt the jerk of her pulse. Then she was slipping her wrist free of his grip and grabbing his hand, holding on for dear life. With a groan, he sank down onto the side of the bed and reached for her, pulling her close. “God, I love you so much!”
“I love you, too,” she whispered huskily, burying her face against his neck. “So much that it scares me.”
A rueful grin curled up the corners of his mouth. “I know, honey,” he said with a chuckle, tightening his arms around her. “Believe me, I know. I was so afraid of losing you that all I could think of for the last few weeks was locking you up in my house and throwing away the key so nothing would happen to you. Do you think we could start over?”
She drew back, hope and love sparkling in her eyes like diamonds. “How?”
“By forgetting all the reasons why a marriage between the two of us couldn’t possibly work and concentrating instead on all the reasons why it could. Like that I love your independence and your gumption and the way you don’t let anybody talk you out of what you believe—”
&nb
sp; “And I’m crazy about your protectiveness and the way you care about your patients and how even when you don’t agree with what I’m doing, you’re there for me—”
“I’ll always be there for you,” he promised, kissing her hungrily. “Either as your husband or your lover or both, for whatever you want to do. Whatever the future holds, we’ll work it out together.”
Her eyes searching his, she couldn’t doubt his sincerity. He might not always agree with her, but his love and support were unconditional. Love flooding her heart, she lifted her mouth for another kiss and warned softly, “There’ll be times when we’ll fight. I can be bullheaded.”
“I never noticed,” he retorted, grinning. “I thought I was the one who could be stubborn as a mule.”
“You are. God help this baby. I’ve got a feeling she’s going to teach us both a thing or two about stubbornness.”
Amused, he arched a brow at her. “She?”
She nodded. “The next one can be a boy.”
Heat flashed in his eyes. “You’re planning to have more children with me?”
Her smile was slow and sexy and loving as she slipped her arms around his neck. “I’m planning a lifetime with you, Lucas Greywolf. Didn’t you know that?”
“I knew it the second I laid eyes on you,” he growled, kissing her fiercely. “I just wasn’t sure you did. Now that we’ve got that settled, what were you saying about more kids? I liked the sound of that.”
Epilogue
“Kate, I’m not so sure this is a good idea,” Sterling murmured worriedly in her ear. “The entire family is here! What if someone spots you?”
Her beautiful silver-streaked red hair concealed beneath an awful gray wig and a ill-fitting, deliberately frumpy wool dress that added pounds to her slim figure, Kate laughed merrily. “Don’t be such a worrywart, Sterling. No one’s going to notice me in this getup you insisted I wear. Not when the whole town’s here. Anyway, I couldn’t possibly miss Rocky and Luke’s engagement party. Don’t they look wonderful together? I’ve never seen Rocky so happy.”
Peering through the boisterous crowd that filled the hangar at the airfield to overflowing, his own thick white hair covered with a harsh black rinse, Sterling had to agree. In the month since the accident in the mountains, Rocky had completely recovered from her ordeal and was positively glowing as she and Luke laughed and talked with Allie and Rafe. “She’s beaming, Kate. Pregnancy and falling in love obviously agree with her. Did I tell you the rumor around the hospital is that they’re planning a whole houseful of kids?”
She nodded, her throat tight with emotion. When they heard on the news that Rocky was recovering at the Clear Springs hospital after her helicopter had gone down in the mountains in a blizzard, she’d been worried sick until Sterling made a secret trip to the hospital to see for himself that she was okay. When he came back with the news that Rocky was not only okay, but pregnant and planning to marry Lucas Greywolf, she’d been thrilled. She’d wanted to rush to her side and hug her, to tell her how happy she was about the baby and her upcoming marriage to Luke, but that was out of the question until they discovered who was plotting to destroy the family and Kate in particular.
“They’re going to make wonderful parents. And I plan to be part of their babies’ lives,” she warned Sterling. “I’m missing too much as it is. This standing-on-the-sidelines stuff is for the birds.”
Tall and dignified, even with that terrible color on his hair, Sterling only smiled. “I know, Kate. You never were the type to hang back in the crowd when you could be leading the pack, but you’re going to have to be patient. We’re getting closer to finding out who wants you dead, and in the meantime, it’s not as if you’ve been totally cut off from the family. You haven’t missed a single family event, and you’re still safe. That’s what’s important.”
She knew he was right, but still, it was hard. When she first let him talk her into staying dead until they discovered who her enemy was, she’d never dreamed it would drag on this long. And there was no end in sight. “You’re right.” She sighed. “I know you’re right. I’m just being sentimental.”
“It’s one of your most endearing traits,” he retorted, grinning. “And one of your most frustrating. You’re not going to be content until the whole family’s happy, are you?”
“Of course not. How can I be? And speaking of happy, Adam hasn’t had too much to smile about for a long time now. We’ve got to see what we can do to help him.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Sterling groaned, recognizing the glint in her eye all too easily. “You’ve already interfered in your grandchildren’s lives enough. Adam doesn’t need your help.”
Far from discouraged, she only grinned. “Okay, I won’t help him. We’ll just give him a little nudge in the right direction.
“What do you mean…we?” he asked suspiciously.
“Well, I can’t do it alone,” she said innocently. “I’m dead, remember? You’ll just have to do it for me. Unless, of course, you want me to come out of hiding.”
As he frowned down at her in pretended disapproval, it was all he could do not to grin. “You’re a conniving woman, Kate Fortune.”
Not the least bit offended, she laughed. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“That,” he groaned, getting in the last word, “is what I’m afraid of.”
THE WOLF AND THE DOVE
Copyright © 1996 by Harlequin Books S.A.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7319-5
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Linda Turner for her contribution to the Fortune’s Children series.
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