Dalton's Undoing
Page 20
He had to kiss her in the next twenty seconds but he wasn't going to make her stand out in the cold for it, not in her skimpy cocktail dress. Thinking fast, he bundled her into the GTO, then slid into the driver's seat and started the engine.
The heater churned out blessed heat and at last he pulled her into his arms and kissed her as he'd been dreaming of doing since the moment they left the inn in Jackson.
She returned his kiss with a warmth and enthusiasm that took his breath away and they embraced there like a couple of hot-blooded high-school kids at an overlook. Much more of this, and they would be steaming up those windows, he thought.
"I've never made out in a muscle car before," she said after a long, heated moment. "It's kind of sexy."
"That's the whole idea," he managed, then lost his train of thought when she trailed kisses down his jawline to the curve of his neck, then back up.
"Can I just say, for your first time, honey, you're doing great," he drawled.
He felt her laughter against his skin and wanted to taste all of it. He dipped his mouth and caught hers again. Despite their playfulness, there was a poignant sweetness to her kiss, a gentle healing that seemed to wash away all the hurt of the afternoon and evening.
"I'm sorry about today," she murmured after a long moment, framing his face with her hands. "I'm so sorry I hurt you. It was never about you, Seth. It was me and my own insecurities. I was too afraid to rely on my judgment, to trust that the man I was falling in love with would be willing to catch me on the way down."
He almost couldn't speak, overwhelmed by her words. "What changed?" he finally asked, his voice hoarse.
She was quiet for several moments, the only sound the whirr of the heater and the distant bass throb from the music inside the bar. They would have to leave soon, he thought. They couldn't stay in the Bandito parking lot making out all night, but for now he didn't want to move, more content than he'd ever been in his life.
"Did I tell you about the nightmare I had after Morgan's bad asthma attack, the night my car wouldn't start and you drove us to the clinic to meet Jake?"
He shook his head, shifting so he was leaning into the corner of the seat and her cheek was resting against his chest. He held her close, his hand playing in her incredible hair. It wasn't the most comfortable position but he didn't mind as long as he could hold her.
"I dreamed I couldn't find Morgan," she went on. "She was sick and she needed me and no one would help me look for my child. It was a terrible, helpless feeling. I was just about to hit bottom when someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere and starting shoving away obstacles and pushing people back so I could reach my destination and find my child. I couldn't see his face but I knew even before he turned around who it was."
She touched his face, her eyes soft and a tender smile hovering around that lush mouth. Him? She dreamed of wild and rowdy Seth Dalton coming to her rescue like some kind of hero out of a movie?
"My subconscious has always known what I've been afraid to admit. I need you in my life. I need your strength and your kindness and your laughter."
He pressed his lips to her fingers, wondering if it was possible for a man to burst with joy.
"I love you, Seth. With everything in my heart I love you and I want everyone in the world to know. I want to run ads in the newspaper and send up hot air balloons and climb to the top of a water tower somewhere so I can graffiti it on the side."
He laughed, completely charmed by this side of her.
"Then you would get arrested for vandalism and I'd have to come pay you conjugal visits—which would be hot and all at first but would probably get old after a while. How about you just settle for whispering it in my ear for the rest of your life?"
* * *
Jenny blinked at him. The rest of her life? That certainly sounded…permanent. Was the hellion of Pine Gulch actually proposing?
"I know it's early in the game here," he went on, and she could swear there was a hint of color on his cheekbones in the dim light, "but I just want you to know where I stand. I might just have to put my foot down on this one. I love you and I want everything. The house, the dog, the kids, two cars—three if you count the GTO, which we might have to lock up for a few years until Cole learns to drive a hell of a lot better."
He smiled again and kissed her and all her worries and insecurities seemed to curl up and float away. He loved her. This strong, wonderful man loved her, quiet, boring Jennifer Boyer.
She still didn't quite understand it but she wasn't going to waste any more time doubting it, not when his eyes promised a future of laughter and warmth and joy.
"I love you, Jenny," he repeated. "I want everything."
She smiled and touched his face again, those wild and gorgeous features she loved so dearly.
"You drive a hard bargain, cowboy," she murmured. "But I'll see what I can do."
Epilogue
"Call me crazy, but aren't you supposed to be enjoying yourself?"
Seth swallowed the miserly sip of beer he'd just taken, set his tankard down and aimed a cool look at his older brothers across the table at the Bandito.
"I am enjoying myself," he answered Wade. "Who says I'm not enjoying myself?"
If he sounded a trace defensive, he had to hope neither Wade nor Jake noticed. To his chagrin, his brothers didn't miss much. Wade raised an eyebrow at Jake and they both snickered.
"I'd say the evidence speaks for itself," Jake answered, "considering you've been nursing that same beer all night and by my count, that's the third woman you've turned down for a dance in about ten minutes."
It was the fourth, but he wasn't about to point that out.
"I guess I just don't feel like dancing tonight," he said, wondering why the lights in the tavern seemed so harsh, the music uncomfortably loud. "Since when is that against the law?"
Jake and Wade looked at each other again, then both of them laughed.
"I wouldn't say it's against the law, exactly," Wade said with a particularly annoying smirk. "Just against the natural order of things where you're concerned. This is your last night to solidify your reputation. I can't believe you're not taking advantage of it. You're breaking all those poor girls' hearts."
Friday night at the Bandito was hopping. A live band from Sun Valley rocked the place and the battered dance floor teemed with locals and tourists looking for a good time.
Six months ago, he would have been one of them but it was amazing how a few months could change a man. It had changed this one enough that he suddenly decided he'd had enough of the stuffy tavern, especially when he knew the June night outside would be cool and sweet.
He slid out of the booth and stood up. "I appreciate the thought behind this little party but I think I'm going to head on home now. Thanks for the beer."
His brothers both stared at him like he'd stripped naked and started boot-scootin' across the tabletop.
Jake was the first one to speak. "This is your bachelor party and it's barely nine o'clock! I told Maggie not to expect me to roll in until after closing time."
He waited for some similar comment from Wade but his oldest brother was giving him a careful look. "Your feet feeling a little chill there?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Just because I don't feel much like ripping up the town doesn't mean I've got cold feet about getting married tomorrow."
He'd be lying if he didn't say the whole idea of marriage still scared the heck out of him. But he was crazy-mad for Jenny Boyer—more than he'd ever believed it was possible to love someone—and he couldn't even bear the thought of any kind of future that didn't include her.
The last five months had been as close to paradise as he'd ever imagined and he knew things would only get better.
"I don't have cold feet," he repeated.
Before he could say more, his old friend Dawna McHenry approached their table with a big smile on her face.
"Hey there, Seth!"
"Hey, Dawna." He kissed her cheek, thinking how pr
etty she looked in her pink flowered sundress. Since Christmas, when she'd started dating Roy Gentry, Dawna seemed different. Her hair wasn't so brassy now and she wore it in a softer style.
"Is Roy with you tonight?" he asked.
"Of course. He's over at the bar," Dawna said. Seth followed her gaze and found the quiet cowboy smiling in a bemused, besotted kind of way in their direction. He smiled back, feeling a definite kinship to the man. If Jenny were here, he'd be looking at her with that same expression in his eyes.
Dawna tucked her hand through his arm. "So tomorrow's your big day. I'd ask you to dance but I saw all those other girls who came over here walk away with big old dejected looks on their face."
"Dawna—"
She shook her head and gave his arm a squeeze. "That's all right with me. I just wanted to tell you how happy I am for you and Ms. Boyer. She's one nice lady."
"Thank you. I'll tell her you said so."
"You do that. Good luck tomorrow." She gave his arm another squeeze then kissed him again and turned back to her quiet cowboy.
"Man, I hardly recognize Dawna McHenry these days. I wonder what's gotten into her lately," Wade said.
"She's in love," Jake said. "It changes a person."
He looked at his brothers and thought how those words certainly applied to the Dalton brothers. Wade wasn't the stressed, workaholic widower he'd been before Caroline Montgomery blew into their lives. Since marrying their neighbor Magdalena Cruz, Jake had learned not to be so serious all the time, to find a little enjoyment in life besides his patients.
Seth had probably changed more than either of them. He wanted far different things out of life than he had before Jenny Boyer and her children captured his heart. Where this would have been his idea of a good time six months ago, now he just wanted to go home and wait out the last few hours until their lives merged.
He smiled at his brothers. "Like I said, I do appreciate the effort you boys took to wrench yourself away from your women for the night but I don't think any of us are really enjoying this. I don't really need a bachelor party. Why don't we call it a night?"
He was a little annoyed to see neither brother was paying attention to him. Their gazes were both fixed on the door.
"Uh-oh," Jake said, his voice sounding oddly strangled. "Here comes trouble."
Seth turned around to see what they were both so fascinated by and just about tripped over his boots. Three women had just walked into the Bandito. Like plenty of other women in the tavern, they looked more than a little wild—heavy makeup, teased hair, tight jeans.
His heart seemed churn right out of his chest, especially when the redhead in the middle caught his gaze. She gave him a long, sultry look and sauntered over to their table, her partners in crime right behind her.
Seth suddenly discovered a pressing need to take a long sip of his neglected beer to soothe his parched throat.
"Well, aren't you three a sight?" Wade drawled and the woman on the right gave a pleased grin.
"Aren't we, though?" Caroline said, looking pleased as a little filly with a new fence post. She leaned forward a little and though Seth couldn't seem to wrench his eyes away from the little redhead who owned his heart, he thought he heard Wade swallow hard.
"We decided we were bored with our little bachelorette party, just us girls," Caroline went on. "We thought this might be the place to find us some rowdy cowboys."
"And you got all dressed up and everything," Jake murmured.
"You can blame Marjorie for that," Maggie said, sliding into the booth next to her husband. "We were just playing around with lipstick shades trying to find a good one for Jenny to wear tomorrow and Marjorie seemed to think it was a real hoot to lay it on thick and heavy. We all got a little out of control and before we knew it, here we were looking like we just stepped out of a bad country music video."
"For a pregnant woman, you're pretty hot," Jake said.
"I do what I can," Maggie purred.
Seth continued to stare at Jenny, falling in love with her all over again. It wasn't because she made one heck of a sexy party girl. It was that light in her eyes that hadn't been there five months ago, the joy and the happiness he saw in her face every time she looked at him.
"Hey, cowboy. Feel like dancing?"
The words were barely out of her mouth before he grabbed her arm and hauled her out onto the dance floor. The band obliged them by starting up a slow song—not that it mattered since he would have held her close no matter what they were playing.
He pulled her against him and suddenly he didn't mind the stuffy air or the loud music. With her here, with her soft and sweet in his arms, everything felt right again.
"Sorry we crashed your bachelor party," Jenny said into his ear, her voice pitched just loud enough to be heard over the music. "I thought we should leave you boys alone tonight but I was overruled. I hate to tell you this, but the women in your family are on the formidable side."
"Yeah, you're going to have a real tough time fitting in, aren't you?" he said drily.
She made a face. "Hey, I got all tarted up to come down here. I deserve points for that, at least."
"You can have all the points you want, sweetheart."
He leaned close and whispered in her ear, the way he knew drove her crazy. "I've got a muscle car parked out front. What do you say we drive up to the lake and make out all night?"
She gave that sexy sigh of hers and he was humbled all over again to know this smart, beautiful woman had somehow chosen him.
"That's a tempting offer, cowboy, but I'm afraid I'd better not. I'm getting married in the morning and I'm not sure I could look Father White in the eye with razor burns and love bites."
He grinned, only a little disappointed. They had the rest of their lives and he intended to fill every day of it showing her how much he loved her. "Despite appearances to the contrary right now, I guess I just might make a respectable woman out of you after all, Jenny Boyer."
"Not too respectable, I hope."
He pulled her closer. "That's a promise."
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6284-7
DALTON'S UNDOING
Copyright © 2006 by RaeAnne Thayne
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.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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*Outlaw Hartes
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*Outlaw Hartes
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*Outlaw Hartes
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†The Searchers
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†The Searchers
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Table of Contents
RAEANNE THAYNE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixte
en
Epilogue