by Ann Major
A sharp pain pierced her. She missed him so much, especially at night. And because he was suddenly on her mind, she decided to venture inside the oak motte that held so many memories.
Silently, she walked through the trees until she came to the tree where Luke had carved their names. She’d lied to him when she’d told him their tree had been cut down. Placing her hand on the bark, she traced the rude letters, remembering too well how she’d stood behind him, watching breathlessly as he’d carved. Back then she’d thought he would love her forever.
“Luke,” she whispered. “Oh, Luke…?.”
Behind her, a boot crunched heavily on dry leaves.
She whirled as a tall, broad-shouldered man stepped out of the shadows. His long, easy gait was achingly familiar. So was his jet dark hair. Her heart raced. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Luke? What are you doing here?”
“You told me our tree was gone.”
“I wasn’t entirely truthful.”
“No. You weren’t.”
“What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“I’m here because I love you. Because I’ve always loved you. In the past. Now. Because I never stopped loving you.”
“But you left me six years ago without even saying goodbye.”
“Only because I thought you preferred Robert and didn’t want me.”
“I didn’t prefer Robert! And I don’t believe you ever thought I did! Why would you think that when I was always chasing after you? I was wild about you. Besides, I told you I had something important to tell you. I asked you to meet me here. But you didn’t come.”
“I got here early. Your mother was here waiting for me. Not you. She was standing right by this tree.”
“My mother? How could she possibly have known to come here at that exact hour?”
“Apparently, she’d been watching us for some time. She said you were with Robert.”
“Only because there had been an accident at his university. A college friend of his had died. She’d sent me over there earlier in the day to console him.”
“Well, that’s not what she told me. She said you were with him because you loved him, because you’d always loved him.”
“But why would she lie?”
“She explained how his father had bought your ranch after the Wakefield bank foreclosed on you, how your marriage to Robert was the family’s only chance to get the ranch back and make things right. She said I was standing in the way of all that, that he could give you everything and that I could give you nothing. She fired me on the spot and told me to take my things and clear out.”
“She said you stole money, and she had to fire you.”
“She told you that? I never stole anything in my life.”
“She said you were worthless and worse than irresponsible to steal from a man who’d trusted you.”
“If I’d done what she accused me of, she would have been right. I guess that’s the only way she could be sure she’d be rid of me without your dad trying to track me down. She knew you and I made love in that barn. She said she watched us go in together, and she saw you later when you came out. She said it made her sick that you were wasting yourself on me. She told me if I stayed, I’d ruin your life, the same as my father ruined my mother’s.”
“Robert and I were good friends. Always. But nothing more.”
“You married him.”
“It’s not like you think.”
“I knew how much you loved your parents. I knew your mother was harder on you than your father was, way harder, but I believed that in time she’d convince you Robert was the right man for you. From that moment, I vowed to prove myself as good as any man. I became ruthlessly ambitious and I got richer beyond anything I’d ever imagined. But by then it was too late. I’d lost you.”
“How could you leave without talking to me? Without calling to at least say goodbye?”
“I did call! And I wrote! I left messages.”
“Well, I never got any of them. Not a single one.”
“That’s not what your mother told me. The last time I called she answered and ordered me to stop harassing you. She said that if you wanted to talk to me, you’d call. That you’d gotten all my messages and you had my number. I said, ‘Put her on the phone.’ She replied, ‘She’s married—to Robert Wakefield. Happily married.’ Then she asked if I still wanted to talk to you. I slammed the phone down. I’ll never forgive myself for not coming back, even then, to ask what you felt. All these years I thought you didn’t love me, I was in hell.”
A crushing pain for what he’d suffered and for what she’d suffered suffused her chest. Her dominating mother could have done everything he accused her of. She would have justified it, thinking it was the best thing for the family and the ranch.
Caitlyn sighed. “I was in a hell of my own, too. When I found out I was pregnant and you were gone, I didn’t know what to do. That’s why, in the end, I married Robert. I wanted Daniel to have a name.”
“Not to get the ranch back?”
“That was part of it, but I thought mostly of Daniel. Of course, I knew the marriage made my mother and father happy. I won’t lie about that. I liked pleasing them. In the end, since you were gone, I just saw it as the best solution for all concerned.”
“I shouldn’t have left without talking to you, without hearing your side. I should have come back. I will never forgive myself for abandoning you the way I did. You were right to hate me.”
“Well, I forgive you,” she said softly. “My mother could be very determined. Now that I know the truth, I feel betrayed…by her. I can’t believe she made those decisions for me so high-handedly. And yet I can. She would definitely choose you now. She’d probably give herself total credit for you turning so well.”
He laughed, but there was a bitter edge to his humor.
“I’ve been grieving for her so fiercely. This twist is going to take some getting used to. I can’t help feeling very angry at her.”
“She did what she did because she loved you.”
“No, she saw me as a child, and she wanted to control me as one controls a child. She didn’t know that I was grown, with a woman’s heart. She had no idea the torture she put me through. She misjudged you and Robert. His friend, the one who died…?.”
“What about him?”
“They were lovers. Robert was gay. His family didn’t know. Nobody knew. Nobody except me. He’d come out to me when we were kids. When I told Robert I was pregnant, he told me about Joel. Robert married me because he couldn’t imagine he’d ever love anybody else. But I think maybe he did. I think the marriage became an unendurable trap for him. I never told anybody until now…because in this county if you tell one person…”
Luke chuckled. “The whole county will know by dinnertime.”
“And Teresa? What about Teresa?” she whispered.
“I love you.”
“Why did you buy that house?”
“For you. For us. I bought it right after we got married. I couldn’t see you running a horse farm in London, and I couldn’t imagine you being happy for long without something more to do. Little boys need more space than my flat.”
“What?”
“I know you’d rather live in Texas…?.”
“One thing I’ve learned since coming back is that I want to be with you and Daniel, all of us together, more than anything…especially if I have my precious horses, too.”
He kissed her. “I bought Mullsley Abbey for us, sweetheart. We can spend our vacations here at your beloved ranch, but when we’re in the U.K., Mullsley Abbey is a short commute to London by helicopter or limo for me. We’ll have plenty of room for more children. Out there, the pace of life is a bit slower, more like life here. We won’t have to go to so many parties. And I intend to make some changes in my work schedule so we can have more time to be together. In short, it was to be a surprise wedding gift for you.”
“And I thought…”
<
br /> “The worst of me…as usual.”
“Never again.”
“Let us hope. But the tendency does run in the family. Your mother definitely saw only the worst in me. Occasionally, you have been known to do the same.”
“Don’t tease.”
He laughed. Reaching for her hands, he pulled her closer.
“You really don’t love Teresa?” she whispered.
“I love you. Only you.” He wrapped her in his arms and held her tightly. “If you want the truth, I think she was mainly after my money.”
Staring into his eyes, Caitlyn circled his neck with her arms, ran her fingers through his silky black hair. Then she framed his face with her hands. “I’m so glad you came back for me.”
Bending down, he pressed his mouth to hers.
“So am I.”
He kissed her slowly as if to savor her taste and the silky texture of her lips. Warmth flooded her until she felt like she was overflowing with passion and happiness.
He loved her. He always had. Finally, she believed this miraculous truth.
Hand in hand they walked back to the house in the starlit darkness, Angel trailing them.
When they climbed the stairs to the porch, Luke pulled her into the shadows and kissed her again.
A chain squeaked noisily. “Does this mean I won’t have to choose who to live with?” piped a treble voice from the swing at the end of the porch.
“Why, Daniel, honey!” she cried. “It’s so good to see you! Where did you come from?”
“Daddy brought me. He told me to wait here at the house. Does this mean I can live with both of you? All the time?” he cried.
She went to him and touched his face just to make sure he was real.
“I’m sorry I went away.” Threading her fingers through his dark bangs, she brushed them out of his eyes. “I missed you so much.”
“But are you going to live with Daddy and me?”
“She sure is,” Luke said, scooping him up into his arms.
“So, are we a real family now?” Daniel asked.
“You bet! I think this calls for a group hug just to prove it,” Luke said.
“But no more kissing!” Daniel ordered sternly.
Luke made no promise. Curving his hand around Caitlyn’s nape, he brought her close enough so he could whisper into her ear. “Later. We’ll kiss later. We have the whole night.
“No, we have the rest of our lives.”
Epilogue
Three years later
The rotor blades made a thunderous clap-clapping clamor as the helicopter whirred downward toward the lush, green countryside.
Luke loved coming home to Caitlyn and their children, but today, because of Caitlyn’s news, his enthusiasm knew no bounds.
Another baby….
Lisa, their daughter, was two, so maybe it was time.
He leaned to one side and peered out of the helicopter. Usually he felt great pride when viewing Mullsley Abbey from the air. Up here he could see the ancient house in all its glory, its stately gardens, orchards, deer park and maze. But today his gaze was glued to the track where Caitlyn usually worked the horses she was training.
Strange. The track was empty. No sooner had the helicopter landed than he sprang out of it and ran toward the stables.
He thrust open a door and was about to enter the shadowy building when he heard her soft voice in the arena. Backtracking, he headed in that direction. All too soon he caught the pungent smell of sand flying from hooves.
Keeping to the shadows, so as not to interrupt the session, he watched her. Sasha, a temperamental stallion, had thrown back his head and was prancing sideways. Caitlyn was speaking to him calmly, waiting out his burst of temper. Finally, her stillness brought him to his senses, and they began to canter, moving like one.
She was magic on horseback. She was magic, period. The luckiest day of his life was the day he’d returned to Wild Horse Ranch.
All the pain of the past came screaming back through him, the years without Caitlyn and Daniel, his anguish and the fury that had fueled his fierce ambition.
He didn’t regret any of it.
For better or for worse….
He loved it all, the good and the bad. Loved her. Loved every minute of their lives together.
When Sasha whirled, and Caitlyn saw him, she gave a cry of pure joy that made the sun burn brighter and the trees sparkle with a fierceness that nearly blinded him. Quickly, she dismounted and handed the reins to a groom before turning and flying into his arms.
Wrapping her hands around his neck, she clung—just as she had when she’d been a girl and he’d kissed her for the first time.
He remembered everything, every moment they’d ever shared.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were taking off early? I would have stopped working, showered…. Maybe even put on some lipstick.”
“I wanted to surprise you. I like you just as you are.”
She smiled, longing to believe him, but being female, she didn’t quite.
He kissed her long and hard in a manner that left no doubt about the truth of his statement, or his intentions. “After you told me about the baby, I wanted to be with you. Only with you. I resented my business associates. If I’d stayed at the office, I would have abused everyone.”
“Shame on you, darling.”
“What do you say we make the most of my playing hooky?”
“What exactly do you have in mind?”
“I think you know, but just in case…” He whispered hot and provocative words into her ear that made her flush and laugh merrily. Then he grabbed her hand and tugged her in the direction of the stables.
“But not in…a stall,” she said under her breath, giggling. “I’m afraid I really do have to draw a line…since someone might catch us.”
“All right. If you refuse to indulge my darkest fantasies, inspired by our first time in the barn…”
Inside the tack room behind Sasha’s stall, which smelled of leather and soap, he bolted the door and shoved her against the rough wall.
“Is this any way to treat a pregnant lady?” she teased as she began to unthread his tie. Using the silken ends, she reeled him closer.
“Just say the word, and I’ll stop.”
“Kiss me,” she begged. “And then do all those wild, dirty things you just promised me you’d do.”
Closing her eyes, she lifted her lips to his and abandoned herself to the wild exultation of their passion that fused not only their mouths and their bodies but their souls.
He stripped her slowly, garment by garment. When she was naked, he fell to his knees before her and paid homage with his lips and tongue to this woman he’d always adored.
“I love you,” he murmured huskily afterward.
She closed her eyes and took a long, shuddering breath. “I love it when you say it like that.”
For three years his joy in this woman had grown. No longer did he feel that some vital piece of himself was missing. With her by his side and in his bed, he was complete.
Tugging her close, he whispered against her ear, “I love you. More than anything.” Then he began to make love to her slowly as if they had all the time in the world. For once she didn’t rush him.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0924-4
MARRIAGE AT THE COWBOY’S COMMAND
Copyright © 2011 by Ann Major
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