She kneaded her hands together, another visible sign of her anxiety. “At least I would have the assurance that someone I once knew lived close by. I wouldn’t feel so alone…”
The haunting tremor in her voice just now revealed a vulnerability Gabe would never have imagined was there. In the setting where she’d been raised, Stefanie had always appeared to be in charge. Confident. But that woman was no longer in evidence.
“Before you say no to everything, please be assured you have my word I won’t retaliate by going home or revealing your secrets. It’s just that I don’t know where to turn.”
A huge sigh escaped her lips.
“I realize everything’s my fault. I should have told you I didn’t want to go on that trip. But I was afraid to bother you when you were involved with your own plans. I’m so sorry, Gabe,” she whispered shakily. “A-are you very angry?”
His dark head reared. Hell, yes, he was angry. And frustrated. And tied up in so many knots he couldn’t think straight. Her last words to him before he’d left the house kept resounding in his head.
You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I took care of myself before we met, and shall do so again.
What was that all about? Which woman was the real Stefanie? Was it possible she’d come because she missed him? Or did she have some ulterior motive that would turn him inside out if he knew the answer?
Just then her stomach rumbled. Hadn’t she been eating?
The sound brought him back to a cognizance of their surroundings. It had grown darker outside. Colder.
His first instinct was to send her to an opposite corner of the world. But he’d already tried that and it hadn’t worked. She would have no choice if he decided to drive her to Marion and settle her in the Branding Iron for the night.
But when he considered she’d been on the road for the better part of a week, and had run into a ditch during the blizzard, he didn’t like the idea of her spending another night alone in a tiny, sparsely furnished motel room way off the beaten track.
The coffee shop served as a local hangout for the cowboys in the area. On any given night things got a little wild in the bar. One look at Stefanie and…
Gabe started the engine and turned the Explorer around. In the semidarkness he felt her questioning gaze as if she’d touched him.
“It’s late, Stafanie. You sound like you’re ready to drop.” He could tell she was exhausted. Even if nothing else added up, that much was true. “I’m taking you to the ranch.”
“Thank you, Gabe,” she murmured emotionally.
He didn’t want her thanks. He didn’t want her anywhere near him.
“You’d better reserve judgment. I’m afraid all the bedrooms in the main house are occupied by the school staff. But there’s a small, semiempty room next to Marva’s behind the kitchen that once served as a nursery.”
“Who’s Marva?”
“I hired her to be the cook, but she’s also in charge of the main house.”
“I see. Do you live in the main house?”
His jaw hardened. “Yes. Provided I can find a spare cot, you’ll stay by her tonight and share her bathroom. Tomorrow morning will be soon enough to figure out what to do with you.”
Her body shifted on the seat. “Please don’t go to a lot of trouble for me. I don’t take up much room and would be h-happy to sleep anywhere,” she stammered.
He knew she wasn’t being intentionally provocative, yet the word “anywhere” disturbed him. Under normal circumstances Gabe would offer her his king-size bed and take the couch downstairs in front of the fireplace. But the way he was feeling right now, he’d probably join her before morning without her permission.
To add to his guilt, she’d come begging to him like a homeless person in need of food and shelter. For all intents and purposes she was homeless, given the terms of their contract and his desire for both of them to remain out of touch with their old lives.
Six months.
He’d decreed it himself.
“Gabe?” She said his name hesitantly.
“What is it?”
He heard her pained little gasp before she said, “I know I’m a horrible inconvenience.”
You’ve got that right.
“How do you want me to address you when we’re not alone?”
After a year of marriage the question was so ludicrous, it went beyond the absurd.
“Like you would anyone else you’d just met.”
More silence ensued, then, “Are you going to keep my identity a secret from everyone?”
With that searching question he flashed her an oblique glance. “If you’re including Clay in your question, then yes. On the drive out from the East Coast, he mentioned that he’d seen a picture of you in the Newport paper. For the time being, it might be best if you stayed in disguise.”
The troubled boys in his charge had been sent to this ranch to get away from worldly distractions. They, along with the staff, would do better not knowing that Gabe’s beautiful socialite ex-wife was on the premises.
“Of course.” Her head lowered. “He must be thrilled to have you around all the time. A boy needs his dad.” Her voice shook.
“I agree. It’s a shame Clay’s father is dead.”
CHAPTER THREE
STEFANIE was convinced she hadn’t heard him right. “But I thoug—”
“You jumped to a wrong conclusion,” he cut in on her. “Two years ago he got into serious drugs and did a lot of vandalizing. When the law caught up with him, his mother retained me. Since then I’ve been working with her to try to help him.”
For two years Gabe had been seeing Clay’s mother on a regular basis?
Any euphoria Stefanie had experienced over the news that he didn’t have a son evaporated in light of that revelation.
“Does she live in Providence?”
“That’s right. But I’ve arranged for her to fly out for regular visits.”
Another dagger to her heart. “Why didn’t she come all the way to the ranch this time?”
He sucked in his breath. “Because she wasn’t feeling well.”
“I see. Does she have other children?”
“No.”
Stefanie stifled a moan. Now that Gabe was a divorced man, he didn’t have to hide his relationship with the other woman who was closer to his age than Stefanie.
Naturally they’d been sleeping together from the outset. With Providence so close to Newport, it would explain his contentment while he’d been married to Stefanie.
The P.I. had said she was attractive.
Afraid one more question would give away her uncontrollable jealousy, Stefanie forced herself to look out the window and remain quiet for the rest of the drive to his ranch.
Clouds moved through the nighttime sky, obscuring the moon. Beyond the fences that lined the road, all she could make out were fields of snow and pines. The scene looked lonely and desolate.
More than ever she wondered why Gabe had turned his back on his former life. Something earthshaking must have driven him to leave, but why come all the way out to this inhospitable place? How did he even find it?
No doubt he was hoping Clay’s mother would like it. Even if she didn’t, she would never let him know. No woman fortunate enough to be loved by Gabe would consider letting him go.
Was it her maturity and experience, her worldliness that had kept him interested all this time?
Stefanie had never slept with a man so she could hardly compete. By the time she’d reached the age where kissing boys helped her understand the meaning of physical desire, she’d met Gabe out sailing.
Of course he’d only looked upon her as one of the teenage girls in her flirtatious group of friends. But for Stefanie, those hours she spent as a guest on the Wainwright yacht had proved to be the defining moment of her life.
Surrounded by his brothers and extended family, Stefanie noted that he held himself somewhat aloof. While everyone else played around, he appeared more serious and
reflective.
Through covert glances she studied his bronzed, powerful physique, the way the wind tousled his black hair with its hint of curl. Just once she glimpsed the whiteness of his smile when he spotted some dolphins and pointed them out to her.
Though only a brief flash in time, they shared a private, wondrous moment. By the time it was over, she’d laid her heart at his feet.
Gabe personified manhood. As a result, no boy ever appealed to her again.
After thanking him personally for the wonderful day, she left the yacht with an indelible memory of black-fringed eyes, green as the ocean swells. By the time she waved to him from the deck of her family’s sailboat, she’d made up her mind that when she grew up, she was going to marry him.
An expert sailor herself, she set a steady course toward him with all the genius of the Admiral of the Fleet.
Her best friend, Louise, told her she was crazy.
Honestly, Steffie, by the time you reach the age where a gorgeous male like Gabriel Wainwright will bother to look at you as a woman, he’ll be a senator himself, married to someone else equally gorgeous and they’ll probably have several children. Give it up!
But Stefanie ignored her friend’s advice. Gabe was the crème de la crème. After high school came university where she received a degree in economics, her father’s passion.
Wanting some hands-on experience after four years of theory, her mother suggested she apply for a fund-raising job. Why not go to work for Senator Wainwright’s reelection campaign?
The idea appealed for several reasons one of which was that it would throw her in Gabriel Wainwright’s arena. He was still Rhode Island’s most eligible bachelor.
In time she became good friends with the senator and his wife. More and more their families mingled on a social as well as political level. She began to see Gabe coming and going.
They would smile. Sometimes he would stop to discuss an aspect of his father’s campaign with her before talking to someone else. She always kept things friendly and upbeat, never allowing him a glimpse of the torrid storm of desire raging inside her.
Then came the kind of day she’d been praying for. The senator wanted to run a speech by his youngest son before he spoke at an important press conference on the environment. Unfortunately no one could locate Gabe. Since the senator was set to go on the air at 8:30 p.m., that left a small window of three hours in which to find him.
Stefanie, along with other staff people, volunteered to look for him. Armed with a copy of the speech, she rushed home. Obeying a hunch, she took out her dad’s launch and headed for an area near the Wainwright estate where she knew he often sailed after being in court all day.
It was a slightly chilly afternoon. When she couldn’t see his sailboat, she got out the binoculars. All she spotted was a small fishing trawler pulled up to shore where someone had made a fire. Upon closer investigation she discovered it was Gabe.
He was by himself, cleaning fish.
Not at any time since she’d first met him had she ever found herself alone with him.
She made her approach and cut the motor, but her heart was hammering so hard, she was afraid he would hear it. As the launch slid to a stop on the sand, Gabe got up from his haunches to assist her.
Before she jumped to shore, there was that split second when she encountered a look of such sensual male appraisal, her bones turned to liquid. It was the look she’d been waiting years to evoke.
She’d proved Louise wrong. He wasn’t a senator yet, nor was he married with a couple of children…
“Your father’s been looking for you. He’d like you to go over this before the press conference tonight.” She held out the envelope containing his speech, but Gabe didn’t take it.
His eyes narrowed on her upturned face. She could no longer read their expression. “My father’s very fortunate to have someone as loyal and devoted to him as you are. I hope he tells you that on occasion.”
Gabe’s unexpected remarks baffled her. They weren’t a criticism exactly, but for some odd reason she sensed his displeasure. Whether of her or his father, or both, she couldn’t tell.
“Would you like me to open the envelope and read it to you?”
“No.”
She swallowed hard at the terse reply.
“Shall I leave it then?”
“No,” he said again.
The tension coming from him was palpable. Stefanie stared into the dying flames. Something else was on his mind. She prayed it had to do with her. Something personal and intimate.
Seconds passed. She waited to hear him ask her to stay with him. When the words didn’t come she finally said, “Your father needs feedback before he goes on the air at eight-thirty.”
After a debilitating silence he murmured, “I wonder if you would be as faithful to me if I asked you a favor.”
The brooding side of his nature was in full evidence. She darted him another questioning glance. “I don’t understand.”
“Would you dare return to my father and admit you couldn’t find me?”
If this was some kind of a test, she knew exactly where her loyalty lay. Where it had always lain. Only then did she realize she’d intruded on a very private moment. It was possible she’d committed the unpardonable. If that was true, then her dreams had been in vain.
Feeling desolate, she started for the launch. “I never saw you,” she called over her shoulder before pushing off.
Though he made no answering comment, he helped steady her boat against the incoming surf. Thigh deep in the water, he remained there until she started the motor and took off.
Three weeks later came the call from out of the blue. It was Gabe asking her to dinner. By the time he’d brought her home, she’d agreed to become his wife. But never his lover.
“Stefanie?”
The deep male voice she loved so well jerked her back to the present. “Yes?” she whispered.
“Are you all right? Did you hurt yourself when your car went into the ditch?”
“I—I wasn’t injured, but I can feel a headache coming on.”
“You need food. We’re almost home.”
He said the word “home” so easily. Why not? He’d been coming here for well over a year. To him, the house in Newport complete with cardboard wife had represented little more than a luxury hotel with maid service between romantic stopovers to Providence.
Stefanie had no right to feel betrayed or jealous, but those emotions were there just the same, embittering her to the point she didn’t like herself anymore.
She was so tired of the struggle. She loved him so terribly.
What would she do if he told her she had to leave as soon as her car was ready?
What would she do?
The Explorer pulled to a stop near a medium-size ranch house whose roof was hidden under a layer of snow. There were other buildings in the periphery, but in the dark it was difficult to make them out.
“Let’s get you inside.”
She seemed to be moving in slow motion. Before she could open the door, Gabe had come around to her side of the car to help her out. It felt wonderful to be under his protection again.
On their way to the house he cupped her elbow to steady her footsteps through the slush. She could hear barking inside. Soon a petite, middle-aged woman with light brown hair appeared in the doorway.
“Marva?” he called to her. “We’ve got a visitor for the night.”
“Clover figured that out before I did.” At the mention of its name, a large collie rushed past the cook to greet Gabe in delight. Soon it was running circles around Stefanie, sniffing at her hands.
The woman chuckled. “You must be Teri. Welcome to the Larch Tree Ranch. I’m glad to see you’re all right.”
“Thank you, Marva. Believe me, I’m very grateful to be here in one piece.”
“Let’s hope the car Ms. Jones was driving fared as well,” Gabe muttered in a dry tone. He started to usher her inside, but Stefanie held back.
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br /> When she looked up, he was staring into her eyes. “Don’t be nervous of Clover. Pat her head and she’ll know you’re a friend.”
Stefanie wasn’t frightened of the dog. She’d grown up in a loving home with several dogs and had adored them.
If her marriage to Gabe had been normal, she would have talked to him about getting one. But since he was never home except to sleep, and had never brought up the subject, she’d decided he didn’t want an animal around, fearing he didn’t like them. Clover’s presence put that concern to rest.
No. Stefanie’s hesitation had more to do with Gabe calling her Ms. Jones. It made this charade far too real. They were both playing a role in a ghastly variation of an old game started a long time ago. She hated it! Beneath the surface she knew Gabe was impatiently counting the hours until he could send her on her way in the morning.
Like a restive child waiting to be recognized, Clover made several moaning sounds. Stefanie quickly averted her eyes from Gabe’s and reached out to scratch the dog’s head.
“With those intelligent eyes, you’re a real beauty, aren’t you girl,” she murmured, running a hand along the collie’s back to her tail.
“It looks like you’ve made a friend for life,” Marva observed. “When you’re ready, I’ve got lamb stew and corn bread waiting for you.”
Suddenly Gabe wheeled away from Stefanie. “Hold my dinner, Marva. Before it gets any later, I’m going to pull that car out of the ditch. Then I’ll find a cot for Ms. Jones. She can sleep in the nursery tonight.”
Stefanie would have felt abandoned except for the dog who looked back at her with pleading eyes, apparently waiting for her to join Gabe.
“Clover!”
The dog bounded off, obeying her master’s voice. A little shiver chased across Stefanie’s skin. She hurried into the house.
“There’s a guest bathroom behind the stairs where you can freshen up first. Follow me.” If Marva had felt the tension just now, she didn’t show any sign of it.
The old ranch house was a rustic affair built entirely of logs. Laid out in a simple design, various rooms led off from a central hallway. On her left Stefanie noted an office. To her right was a small, cozy-looking living room with a stone fireplace at one end.
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