Texas Redeemed
Page 33
Valerie sat up, her senses sharpened. There it was again, the faraway sound of her name on a breeze …
No, it came from several feet below.
Grabbing her flashlight, she picked her way down for a better vantage point and moved the beam until she spotted a man’s darkened form.
She nearly dropped the flashlight down the mountainside. “Peyton!”
“Stay there,” he said on a labored grunt. “I’m coming up.”
It didn’t make sense that he could be here, on the Crest of all places, now. In fact, he was supposed to be on assignment in Asia for at least another week.
“Turn around,” she said, nervous to see him ascend the mountain that was a magnificent thing of a thousand dangers to anyone trekking alone at night. “I’ll meet you on the road.”
“No.”
And she waited, her heart drumming fast. His muscles flexed under a tee shirt darkened with sweat; his face was hardened with tenacity and grit. He was rumpled, fatigued. He was hers.
One last steep step brought them together, and she pocketed the flashlight and clutched his shoulders, bunching the fabric of his shirt between her fingers. “This is insane! You told me you didn’t want to die from falling off a mountain, but you do something like this?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t come all this way to stop here.” He peered up, then gave her a smile that arrowed straight to her core. “Come with me to the top.”
They crossed the rise of massive rock, and when they reached the peak, Peyton set down his backpack and moved in a slow circle, his face tipped toward the star-spattered sky. “It’s like this is where heaven and earth meet.” He sank to his knees and raised his fingers, taken in by the mirage that the moon and stars and sky could be touched with just the lift of a hand. “And it’s just you and me, Valerie.”
She came up behind him and bent to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “Kiss me. Then tell me why you’re here instead of on solid ground.”
Peyton turned and she threaded her fingers through his hair as his hot, firm mouth found hers. Rapture swirled, instant, electric. Then he pulled away and she was more than a little sorry.
“My assignment ended early. I went to the ranch first, hoping to surprise you and Lucy, but you were both gone.”
“Luce’s spending the night at the Carews’ farm.” It made her smile to think that both Lucy and Sarah had started to miss the animals they’d traded, and reversing that trade had been the glue that mended their cracked friendship.
“Dinah told me where you were. She gave me a checklist of things to pack, saying if I was going to do a stupid thing I might as well be smart about it.” As he spoke, he unzipped the backpack and retrieved from the interior compartment a sheer pouch secured with a piece of twine. “We’re exclusive. In love. In a relationship.”
“Dating.”
“Then we should make it official.” Peyton untied the twine and carefully extracted a tiny object from the pouch. She aimed the flashlight and could see it was a delicate Oriental ring—a simple silver band with an opaque green stone in its center. “It’s jade. I bought it in China on the way to the airport. Couldn’t stop thinking about how good you’d make it look.”
Valerie set the flashlight down and slipped the ring onto her finger. It was a bit loose, but she didn’t care. “You hiked up a mountain to give me a ring. It’s possibly the craziest thing anyone in this town’s ever done.”
He dragged his lips up her neck to her ear. “Adventurous sounds much better.”
“If there’ll be more adventures like this …” she sank into his solid embrace, laughing softly “… then I should get to work carving our initials into a tree.”
Peyton lowered her onto the sleeping bag, and Valerie grinned up at the expanse of the lustrous night. “From here, I’ve got the best view.”
“Actually—,” his stare swept her like a loving, heated caress, as she pulled him down to her “—I do.”
- THE END -
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thanks to my agent and her assistant,
who stuck by me through it all –
You’re my superheroes!
A shout-out to Eleni Caminis,
whose faith in my story is truly amazing.
A note of appreciation to my editors –
Your guidance is priceless.
And finally,
XOXO to my parents.
Thank you for Nashville—it was a happy time in my life.
And thank you for giving me the space
I needed to figure out who I wanted to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isla Bennet’s first encounter with a smoldering hero was on the junior high school bus—between the pages of a novel. Books have been her constant through growing up in the Midwest, partaking in some wicked travels, and working as a bookseller and nanny while earning two college degrees. She’s studied everything from English to sociology to art, and has figured out that she loves meeting people— particularly the ones she makes up. These days she indulges in her weakness for carpentry and all things retro, and dives into a new love story every day as a writer, freelance editor and RWA member—all while pursuing her wish to become a horseback-riding, volleyball-playing, French-speaking seasoned traveler.
This book was originally released in Episodes as a Kindle Serial. Kindle Serials launched in 2012 as a new way to experience serialized books. Kindle Serials allow readers to enjoy the story as the author creates it, purchasing once and receiving all existing Episodes immediately, followed by future Episodes as they are published. To find out more about Kindle Serials and to see the current selection of Serials titles, visit www.amazon.com/kindleserials.