by Laurie Paige
He left the roan in the little glen with the horse she’d ridden. He found her where he thought she’d be, sitting near the mouth of the cave, her back against a rock. Her hat lay on the ground beside her. Her eyes were closed.
“I knew I’d find you here,” he said.
Her eyes flew open, startled at first, then hooded. But not before he saw the wounded depths of her.
“Your grieving place.”
“I’m not…”
She let the denial dangle in midair between them as she leaned against the boulder once more, her eyes on the land that stretched to the far horizon. She shifted closer to the ledge and sat with one leg drawn up, her hands folded over her knee.
He took a seat beside her, both legs hanging over the edge. “Can’t put my boots on yet. It’s too hard to tug them off. I need someone to help.”
She cast a glance his way and said nothing. It hurt to see her quiet and withdrawn. He thought of that first meeting, her fiery brilliance perched on top of the roan, both of them blazing in the sun. Life. She was everything bright and good in life.
“Your dad told me about the baby carrier. If we could find out what store it came from, we might trace it to the person who bought it.”
She was silent. He waited.
A frown nicked two little lines above the bridge of her nose. “Do you think so?” she asked hesitantly, worry invading her eyes.
The tension eased a tiny bit in his shoulders. He had her attention now. “Yes. I’ll need assistance—”
She looked away.
“Someone to drive me to town or wherever we needed to go to check out this new clue, someone with a sharp analytical mind.”
She swallowed and appeared minutely interested. But not convinced. Not yet. He had a long way to go to claim his love. He was willing to go however far it took.
“It would be something we could do while I’m recovering and you’re working on your dissertation.”
“Why should I want to work with you?” She laughed briefly, cynically. “Or more to the point, why should you want to work with me?”
“You know.”
Her breasts moved as she took a deep breath. She wore a blue work shirt and jeans. Her hair was braided at the back of her neck, a blue bandanna wrapped across her forehead. She was indescribably beautiful.
She looked straight at him. “No. I don’t know.”
He touched her cheek, let his fingers wander over her temple and the tiny curls that wafted in the slight breeze rising from the gorge. “I want to start over.”
“Start what over? Our casual affair? The fling?”
“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?” He dragged one finger around the rim of her ear and marveled at how wonderfully she was formed, perfect in every way.
The frown smoothed out, but there was no glow, either. She simply watched him, as poker-faced as a cowboy in a bunkhouse game.
“I want…” He licked his lips. This was harder going than he’d bargained for. If he’d thought that by appearing she would leap into his arms and all would be fine, he had another think coming, as his old partner and friend would have told him.
Women, Stan had said, were funny little critters. They knew what was what. A man would be wise to listen.
“I’m asking for another chance,” he finally admitted. He exhaled loudly, relieved to have gotten the words out. “I think I can get it right this time.”
He waited.
The rusty door that had hidden hope from his distrust all these years opened a crack. He tried not to think of the boy who had been afraid to enter that room. He’d learned the hard way that letting hope in was opening the door to disaster. But for her, he had to take the chance…if she would let him.
He waited.
Vanessa tried to ignore the warmth that spread down her side and all the way through her at his closeness.
“Did my father put you up to this?” she finally asked.
Surprise darted through the heavenly blue eyes. “Hardly. Well, he suggested you might be at the stables. Cruz said you were probably up here.”
She nodded jerkily. “It’s embarrassing that everyone on the ranch is concerned about my love life.” Her laugh was forced and more than a little cynical. “Or lack of same.”
“They care about you. As I do.”
“I don’t know what you’re asking…what you want from me.”
Pain flickered in his eyes, but he smiled at her oh, so gently. “I want what we had and I threw away. I love you, Beauty. I can’t get away from that.”
Her heart stopped, then pounded furiously. The warmth blazed, died down, blazed anew. “But you want to?”
“Not anymore.”
“You told me to leave.”
“I know.” He waited, letting her sort through his words and her emotions until she knew whether she could trust either. Trusting was hard. He knew that, too.
He touched her cheek, then hooked his finger under her chin and turned her to face him. He gazed deeply into her eyes, willing her to believe, needing that from her.
“I was wrong,” he confessed. “Life can be uncertain—”
“But it can also be good,” she murmured. “Someone I trusted once told me that the bad always passes.”
“Trust him again,” he requested.
She gazed at the cattle grazing in the meadows. She took in the clear, cloudless sky and the lengthening shadows of late afternoon. She watched a leaf tremble on a branch of an old oak. At last she looked at him.
“All right.” She heard the uncertainty in her voice and knew he did, too.
“Okay, that’s all I’m asking for now.” He leaned back on an elbow. “You hungry? Cruz sent some hardtack.”
She shook her head. “It’s getting late.”
“I don’t think I’m up to sleeping on the ground tonight,” he told her with a wry glance at the shallow cave. “Unless it’s your most fervent desire.”
She had to laugh. “Watch it, Mr. FBI man. A humble agent is a scary thing.”
Standing, she held out her hand to him. He let her help him up. She led the way to the horses. Glancing at the roan, then him, she shook her head. Like Cruz, she bent and put her hands together and braced them on her knees.
“Okay,” she said.
He stepped up, then swung onto the horse. She was aware of his gaze on her as she mounted and started down the trail at a careful walk. They spoke of the weather, how dry the grass was getting, when the rains would come, on the trip to the house.
Cruz met them at the stables. “I’ll take care of the horses,” he volunteered. He glanced at Dev. “You still her fiancé?”
Dev shrugged. “It’s touch and go,” he admitted.
Vanessa dropped the reins and stared at her nemesis. “Did you introduce yourself as my fiancé?” she demanded.
“Yes.”
She was speechless. “Well, you have to ask first.” With that, she walked off, not sure if she was angry, insulted or elated. After a couple of steps, elation won out. She couldn’t believe she was being so foolish. She looked back at Dev. Her love. She smiled tentatively. He gave her a solemn smile in return. Her heart bounced a little.
Dev took her elbow and led her to his truck. He drove back to the main house and parked in his usual spot, then turned off the engine and rested his hands on the steering wheel.
“Wait,” he requested when she started to get out. He cleared his throat. “I want the future. With you.”
She pressed a hand against her heart, which beat like a drummer gone mad. “What kind of future?”
“Marriage. Will you marry this Beast and save him from a life of loneliness?”
She studied him. Did he feel guilty? No, his eyes held no guilt. A slightly anxious patience, perhaps, but not guilt. He was waiting for the word from her.
He touched one finger to her temple beside her eye. “I want the glow, Beauty. I want to wake up every morning and see those green eyes sparkling and teasing and full of
life. I want a woman determined to give me hell…and heaven…and all the things in between. I want the woman who has haunted me for every hour of every day since I met her. That woman is you. Marry me.”
His words were simple and beautiful. They fell into her heart like teardrops into a crystal pool, rippling through her soul the way a perfect phrase of music could.
She touched his cheek, his jaw, slid her fingers into his thick strands of hair. He was not perfect, but he was her love. A smile started inside her. It bubbled and frothed and welled until it burst out on her face.
“Yes,” she said. It was a promise.
For a second he didn’t move, then his arms closed around her. He pulled her against him in a fierce embrace, then he groaned.
She laughed and gave him a knowing look.
He gave her a disgruntled frown. “I’m not completely incapacitated,” he warned her.
“I hope not,” she murmured wickedly.
They climbed out of the truck and ambled arm in arm toward the house.
She basked in the heat of his gaze. “I suppose we had better go in and face my father. He’ll be glad. He thinks I should have whatever I want.” She glanced at her love to see how he took this outright fib.
To her delight, he laughed aloud. “He probably thinks you’re making a mistake, but he’s willing to let you learn from your own foolishness.”
She put a finger over his lips. “Love may not always be wise, but it’s never a mistake.”
He stopped and gave her a solemn look. “It was foolish of me to deny the best thing to come along in my life. That day at the hospital and again at my house, I’m sorry for hurting you.”
“You did it for me. I knew that…later, when I could think about it.”
He kissed her then, a pledge to their future. His arms felt secure around her, his embrace big enough for her and their children, his heart strong enough for whatever came. They had found something good out of the tragedy of the kidnapping. They would build on that, a broad, brave foundation of love and trust and faith. Sometimes the darkness might knock at his soul, but love would drive it off. She could live with that.
He ended the kiss and smiled into her eyes.
“I think, my love, that the glow has invaded you,” she observed softly, happily. She thought of all the things that needed to be done. “I have to call Victoria, oh, and Savannah. I’ll need them for the wedding…”
Dev took her hand and started for the house once more. There was relief inside him. And yes, a glow. No matter how a person might mess up, some things did turn out right. And maybe, just maybe, a dream didn’t always have to be beyond reach.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Laurie Paige for her contribution to THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS series.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-1136-3
THE BABY PURSUIT
Copyright © 1999 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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Table of Contents
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