Bonnie Gene waved her hand, dismissing his attempt to be vague.
“Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes. “You risked getting yourself killed to save my daughter, then, your shoulder bleeding like a stuck pig, you picked her up in your arms and looked like you were ready to carry her all the way to the next town on foot. Besides—” Bonnie looked up into his face and patted his cheek “—one look into your eyes and anyone would know how you feel.”
“I didn’t,” Susan protested, weakly coming to her hero’s aid.
“That’s because you’re still a little out of your head, my darling. You’re excused.” Taking her container back into her hands, Bonnie Gene removed the lid, then looked up at Duke pointedly. “All right, so when’s the wedding?”
“Mother!”
Susan had used up the last of her available breath to shout the name as if it were a recrimination. It was one thing to kid around. It was completely another to put Duke on the spot like this.
In addition to beginning to really hurt like hell, Susan was now also mortified. Didn’t her mother take any pity on her?
“As soon as she’s well enough to pick out a wedding dress,” Duke replied quietly, answering Bonnie Gene’s question.
“Mother, please, you can’t just—” And then Susan’s brain kicked in, echoing the words that Duke had just uttered. Stunned, Susan attempted to collect herself. She had to ask. “Duke, did you just say something about a wedding dress?”
“He did,” Bonnie Gene gleefully answered the question before Duke could.
“Whose?” Susan all but whispered. They’d established that she wasn’t dead. But maybe she had a concussion.
“Yours,” Duke told her, beating Bonnie Gene to the punch this go-round. And then he looked at the older woman who seemed so bent on being involved in all the facets of their lives. “You are going to stay home when we go on our honeymoon, aren’t you?”
Delighted, Bonnie Gene smiled from ear to ear. “I don’t think you two need any help there.”
Duke breathed a genuine sigh of relief. For a second, he’d had his doubts. “Good.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Susan did her best to call out, feeling completely out of it and ignored. “Haven’t you forgotten something?”
With effort, she pushed the button that raised the back of the bed, allowing her to assume the semblance of a sitting position.
Duke thought for a moment, stumped. And then it came to him. “Oh, right.” Duke reached for her with his free arm, lowering his head to hers in order to kiss her.
Susan put her hand up in front of her mouth, blocking access. “No, wait. I mean you didn’t ask me.”
He pulled his head back, looking at her. “Ask you what?”
Either the man had an incredibly short attention span, or she was just not making herself clear. “To marry you.”
“Oh.”
He had taken her compliance for granted. It hadn’t occurred to him, after what they had just both been through, that she would turn him down. But maybe he was wrong. Maybe she didn’t feel about him the way he did about her. Maybe this life-and-death experience had had a different effect on Susan, making her want to run into life full-bore and sample as much of it as she possibly could.
Because Bonnie Gene was looking at him expectantly, he went through the motions. Part of him was dreading the negative answer he might receive at the end. “Susan Kelley, will you marry me?”
“That’s better.” Pleased, Susan nodded her head in approval. “And yes, I’ll marry you,” she said with a deceptively casual tone, followed up with a weak grin. The grin grew in strength and size as she added, “Now you can kiss me.”
“You going to give me orders all the time?” he asked, amused.
“No, I think you’ll get the hang of all this soon enough.” She glanced at Bonnie Gene. It was time for her mother to retreat. Far away. “Mother?”
“You want me to kiss him for you?” Bonnie Gene offered whimsically.
“Mother,” Susan repeated more firmly this time, using all but the last of her strength.
With a laugh, Bonnie Gene raised her hands in total surrender. “I’m going, I’m going.” But she stopped for a moment, growing a little serious. “Treat my daughter well, Duke Colton, or I will hunt you down and make you sorry you were ever born.”
To his credit, he managed to keep a straight face. “Yes, ma’am.”
Susan pointed toward the door. “Leave, Mother.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Bonnie Gene assured her, backing out of the room.
As the door closed behind her, a broadly grinning Bonnie Gene began to hum to herself.
One down, five to go.
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Marie Ferrarella for her contribution to the Coltons of Montana miniseries.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6046-1
COLTON BY MARRIAGE
Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For questions and comments about the quality of this book please contact us at [email protected].
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
**Capturing the Crown
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
‡The Doctors Pulaski
‡The Doctors Pulaski
‡‡Mission: Impassioned
‡The Doctors Pulaski
*Cavanaugh Justice
‡The Doctors Pulaski
‡The Doctors Pulaski
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
*Cavanaugh Justice
Colton by Marriage Page 17