The Gift of Love

by Lori Foster

  Good question. She was naked in a cave with the only man she had ever loved still buried deeply inside her. It was wanton, shameful, and well-past sinful, and to make matters worse, he didn’t feel the same. She had dreamed of him for years, yet at Leo’s wedding, Brodie didn’t even know who she was. He had no idea how long she’d loved him, and it wouldn’t matter to him if he did know. What had she done? She’d made a fool of herself. That’s what she’d done.

  “I’m fine,” she said, forcing a smile, but a tear spilled down her cheek despite her efforts.

  Brodie frowned and immediately pulled out of her. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No,” she said, suddenly feeling cold. “I’m just tired. I need to get some sleep.”

  He nodded, but she didn’t think he believed her lie. He quickly adjusted their blankets before wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her back against his chest to keep her warm.

  He kissed the shell of her ear. “Good night,” he whispered.

  Within moments, his even breathing told Maggie that he was asleep. His body curved behind hers like a husband would spoon his wife, with her hips cradled in his lap and his arm wrapped protectively around her. She had imagined this moment a thousand times before, but now it felt empty.

  She’d made love.

  He’d had sex.

  And even though both acts occurred in the same embrace, they were millions of miles apart.

  four

  “Get your hands off my daughter, you son of a bitch!”

  Maggie’s eyes flew open in the morning light of the cave. It took a few seconds for her to remember where she was, but her father’s voice she recognized instantly. Clutching the blanket to her chest, she sat up and searched the cave for Brodie. She spotted him jerking on his pants on the other side of the overhang.

  Her father pointed at him and said, “I’m going to kill you for raping my daughter.”

  “Pa!” Maggie yelled. “Brodie didn’t rape me. He saved my life.” She wrapped the blanket around her and scrambled to her feet, but her sore ankle stopped her from running to Brodie’s side.

  “Where are your clothes, Maggie?” Her father’s voice dripped with anger and disgust.

  “I fell into the river and Brodie pulled me out.” She clutched the blanket closer, suddenly feeling tawdry. “Our clothes were wet and we had to take them off to get warm.”

  “So you repaid him by lying with him like a whore?”

  Brodie took a step toward her father, pointing at his face. “If you ever call Maggie a whore again, I swear, I’ll kill you.”

  “Stop it.!” She hobbled over to them, determined to end this before it got any uglier. Lowering her voice, she repeated, “Brodie saved my life, Pa.”

  Her father glared at Brodie then looked at Maggie with a shake of his head. “Get your clothes on, Maggie,” he said as he left the cave.

  She limped back to her clothing.

  “Don’t go with him,” Brodie said.

  “Why wouldn’t I?” She waited, silently begging him to ask her to stay with him. But he didn’t, of course. He had no reason to. She wasn’t a virgin. She’d lain with him of her own free will, and he owed her nothing in return.

  Brodie dropped his head and muttered, “No reason that I can think of.”

  She pulled on her cold, wet clothing and left Brodie, the cave, and a good part of her dignity behind.

  ENOUGH was enough. Brodie spurred his horse, hurrying her to close the distance between him and Maggie. In the three days since they’d made love in the cave, he’d been unable to think of anything else. When she’d asked him why she shouldn’t go with her father, the only reason he could think of was because he didn’t want her to. But he knew that wouldn’t be enough. Maggie’s family hated him, and if he truly was guilty of what they thought he’d done, he would hate himself, too. What kind of man would maliciously set fire to his neighbor’s property? Unfortunately, he was so drunk that night, he couldn’t remember for sure what had happened—only that if he did burn the barn, it was an accident.

  At first, he didn’t care what they thought. He knew he wouldn’t do something like that intentionally, and their opinions didn’t matter. But things changed. They changed when his ma needed him to come home. They changed more when his sister married Leo, and the change became complete when he made love to Maggie.

  It was time to set things straight once and for all, then maybe, just maybe, he could convince Maggie that they belonged together. He pulled his horse up to stop in front of John Stover’s ranch house, but he didn’t have his feet on the ground before John stepped onto his porch, with a rifle pointed at Brodie’s chest.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” John said, his jaw clenched in anger.

  Brodie raised his hands away from his gun belt to show he meant peace. “I’ve come for Maggie.”

  “You’ve wasted your time. My daughter’s too good for the likes of you.”

  Brodie deliberately calmed his voice. “I did not set fire to your barn.”

  “Leo said he saw you leave, and the barn was in flames behind you. Why would he lie?”

  Brodie shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe he saw someone who looked like me or maybe he was still drunk. I don’t know, but I do know that when I left the barn that night, there was no fire.”

  John raised his rifle to look down the sight, focusing his aim on Brodie. “You’re a lying bastard.”

  “No, he isn’t.” Leo stepped onto the porch with Maggie and Sara close behind. “He’s telling the truth.”

  John frowned and lowered his rifle. “What are you saying?”

  Leo stepped forward, leaving the porch to stand in front of Brodie. “I took Brodie to see the bull that night. We’d been drinking, and we had a bet on who had the best bull in the area. I set a lantern down in the barn and forgot it when I left.” Leo dropped his head for a moment, then took a deep breath before continuing. He glanced at Brodie. “When I remembered, I ran back to the barn, but by then it was in flames, and Pa was screaming and cussing and saying he thought your pa had done it to kill the bull.”

  It took all Brodie had not to smash his fist into Leo’s face. “So you told him you’d seen me down there.”

  Leo nodded. “I would have told him the truth after he calmed down, but you left town the next day, and I couldn’t see any reason to tell him since you were gone anyway.”

  “You son of a bitch. For the last ten years, you let everyone think I’d done something like that.”

  Leo raised his chin. “If you want to whip me right now, you got every right, and I won’t stop you.”

  “If he don’t, I will.” John Stover laid his rifle to the side and stormed off the porch toward Leo. He cocked back his fist and took a swing, but Leo caught his hand in midair.

  “No, sir. You won’t,” Leo said.

  Brodie stepped up beside Leo and folded his arms across his chest. If anyone was going to whip Leo’s ass, it was going to be Brodie. However, it took a lot of guts for Leo to come clean like that, and if old man Stover wanted a fight, he was going to have to take on the two of them.

  Leo glanced toward Brodie and nodded once in thanks. “I’m done taking your whippin’s,” Leo said, releasing his father’s fist. “It was ten years ago, Pa. I done something stupid and I’m sorry. But it’s over.”

  Stover looked at Leo then back at Brodie before he threw his hands up and headed back to his porch. “You’re both idiots,” he said, going into his house.

  Maggie and Sara stood silently on the porch. Each staring at the men as though they didn’t know what to say. Sara was the first to move, stepping slowly off the porch to Leo’s side.

  He dropped his head and said, “I’m sorry, Sara. Will you forgive me?”

  She took his hand. “I always knew Brodie wouldn’t have done that on purpose. I suspected you’d lied for some reason. I just didn’t know what it was.” She looked at Brodie. “Do you forgive him, Brodie?”

  B
rodie glanced at Leo then shrugged. “I’ll work on it, but I might still whip your ass if it suits me.”

  Leo grinned. “I’d like to see you try.”

  It was at that moment Brodie realized why the lies had hurt so deeply. Leo had been the best friend he’d ever had, and as hard as it was to admit, he’d missed the son of a bitch. The bitterness would need a little more time to go away, but Brodie suspected it probably would eventually.

  Sara led Leo back into the house as Brodie stood in the yard, still facing Maggie. “I came here for you, Maggie.”

  Maggie’s heart pounded wildly in her chest. “Why?”

  “I came here to do right by you and marry you.”

  She swallowed and asked again, “Why?”

  He lifted his brows in surprise. “Because of what happened in the cave.”

  His words hit her like a slap in the face. “You want to marry me because we slept together?”

  He nodded. “It’s the proper thing to do.”

  “You can go to the devil, Brodie Grant.” She spun away from him and darted into the house.

  “Maggie, wait!” he yelled, but she had no intentions of waiting. No man was going to marry her because it was the “proper thing to do.” She’d already had one loveless marriage, and she’d die old and shriveled before she had another.

  She stormed through the house to her room and slammed the door, but not before she heard Brodie explaining to her father that he’d rip his head off if he tried to stop him from following her.

  Evidently, her father believed him. In a matter of seconds, Brodie jerked open her door and entered her room. He didn’t slam it behind him, but he closed it with certainty, then wedged a chair under the knob.

  “Why did you do that?” she asked, watching him cross the room to her.

  “Because no one gets out or comes in until we sort this out.”

  She turned away from him to stare out the window. “We have nothing to sort out.”

  His hands gripped her shoulders. “Maggie,” he said, turning her to face him, “I don’t know what I did or said that made you so mad, but I’m sorry.”

  “Why do you want to marry me?”

  “Because a gentleman would do no less.” He smiled, obviously pleased with his ridiculous answer.

  She wasn’t pleased in the least. She kicked him in the shin as hard as she could. Maybe that would knock some sense into him.

  “Damn it to hell, Maggie!” He grabbed his leg and hopped over to sit on the bed. “Would you stop doing that?” Rubbing his shin, he said, “That’s the same leg you kicked last time.”

  She would feel bad about hurting him, if she was sorry. But she wasn’t. “Get out before I kick the other one.”

  “No.”

  Did he say “No”?

  “Not until you tell me why you won’t marry me. You owe me that much.”

  She crossed the room to remove the chair from under the doorknob. She needed to get away from him before she kicked more than his shins. “I don’t owe you anything.”

  “I saved your life.”

  Well, shoot. He had her there. She paused for a moment to calm her anger, then turned slowly to face him. He wanted the truth. She’d give him the truth. “I won’t marry a man who doesn’t love me.”

  Brodie stood and walked over to her. “Is that all?”

  “Is that all?”

  The corner of his mouth turned up in the lopsided grin that always made her insides melt as he laid his hand against her cheek. “I think I’ve always loved you, Maggie. I just had to wait until you grew up.”

  Her eyes clouded with tears. “Really?”

  He chuckled. “Really.”

  “You’re not just saying that because you think I want to hear it?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “When you were a kid and you got into trouble, who always came to your rescue?”

  She chewed on her lower lip for a moment as she thought. “You.”

  “And when you were upset and needed someone to talk to, who did you come to?”

  She frowned. “You.”

  “There was always something special between us, Maggie. You’ve got to admit that.”

  Admit it? She’d lived on it for years, but he didn’t need to know that just yet. “Well,” she said, in an attempt to act nonchalant, “I suppose you could be on to something there. But do you think it’s enough for marriage?”

  “I love you, Maggie. If you don’t agree to marry me, I’m going to pester the hell out of you until you do.”

  Her excitement bubbled to the surface in a giggle, despite her best efforts to control it. “In that case, I guess I’d better marry you.”

  “Good, ’cause I’d hate to have to drag you back to that cave until you gave in.”

  She thought of the delicious ways Brodie could make her give in while he wrapped her into his arms for a lingering kiss. Then he pulled back and said, “There is one condition. Promise you won’t kick me in the shins again. That last one hurt like hell.”

  She raised her brow and wound her arms around his neck. “No promises.”

  “How did I know you were going to say that?” His eyes twinkled as he leaned in for another kiss, and Maggie decided she probably wouldn’t kick him again.

  At least, not unless he really needed it.

  the wolf watcher’s diet

  PAIGE CUCCARO

  one

  You’d think after having a head-on collision with a tree in the middle of nowhere at half past one in the morning, my night couldn’t get any worse.

  Right? You’d be wrong.

  Hot fudge topping and rainbow jimmies were everywhere. It was like an ice cream massacre. Soft-serve swirl had smeared all over the driver’s side airbag, the dashboard, the cracked windshield, and pretty much every square inch of my face.

  Gross, I had ice cream in my hair, too, which was worse than you think considering my hair is curly and coppery red. With the chocolate and vanilla swirl lacing through the kinky strands combined with the colored jimmies dangling off the ends, my head felt like a homemade Christmas ornament. I stopped thinking about it.

  The door was stuck, and I had to jam my shoulder against it twice before it creaked open, letting loose a rain of chocolate-covered raisins from the floorboard. “Perfect.”

  I swung my feet from under the dashboard and rocked out of the seat into the high weeds. Ice cream drizzled down the side of my face, and I wiped at it with the back of my hand. I looked. It wasn’t just ice cream. My hand and the sleeve of my white blouse were smeared with blood. I felt for the wound under my hair, and a jolt of pain pierced through my skull when my fingers touched the gash. Yeah, I know. What’d I think would happen?

  “Just… perfect.” The dark woods around me started to spin, but I took a few deep breaths and managed to clear my head, focus. I glanced around for the dog I’d swerved to avoid. No sign of him. Of course not. The fleabag was probably off somewhere licking parts of his body he had no business licking. “Stupid dog.”

  Next time, the mutt was toast.

  Okay, it wasn’t all the dog’s fault. I may have been a little distracted. I’d dropped my plastic spoon and was trying to feel for it under my feet without dropping the sundae cup in my other hand. I’d almost had it.

  Yeah, that sounds bad in retrospect. Anyhoo, I had to get help. My phone was in my purse, but glancing around at the bits of stuff that had once been inside my car and were now spread all over the woods, there was no way I’d find it.

  “Okay, plan B.” Get my butt up the embankment to the road and flag someone down. I started climbing. By the time I reached the top, blisters stung the palms of my hands from clawing at roots and weeds, and my lungs burned like I’d inhaled acid. Dirty, achy, and exhausted, I just wanted to go to sleep… or maybe I was starting to pass out. Focus.

  The wooded road was just as desolate as it’d been when I wrecked. Cutting alongside a mountain, the other side of the road was an uphill grade into the night, covere
d with dense woods.

  The moon was little more than a slit hiding behind rolling clouds. And if that wasn’t enough, the hairs on the back of my neck kept tingling with the sensation someone was watching me. Paranoia is not my friend.

  But then a low rumble crept up my spine from behind me and I turned. I didn’t want to, but I’m a sucker for my curiosity. The forest was like a wall of black with only the closest trees visible to add contrast. Whatever made the creepy sound was down the hill past the blinking lights of my car.

  I could hear something moving down there, dried leaves shuffling under its feet, the snap of a twig, the rustle of underbrush. And then I realized there was more than one. My heart shot into overdrive, and my body went still as stone. I thought about screaming, making noise to scare it off, but I couldn’t get past the scared rabbit reflex to stand so still I’d become invisible. Yeah, doesn’t work well for rabbits either.

  Out of nowhere, headlights washed over me. I looked but had to close my eyes against the brightness. I’d been so scared I hadn’t even heard the truck coming. I didn’t care who was behind the wheel, I just ran to the driver’s side door. He looked normal—thank God—forty something, short sandy hair, polo style shirt, and jeans.

  I grabbed the side mirror and practically crawled through the window. “You gotta help me.”

  “Where’d you come from, little lady? Is that blood?” He turned off the engine.

  “Yeah. I … I had an accident.” I couldn’t get a good breath. I’d been holding it too long without even realizing it. I swallowed. “My car’s stuck down there against a tree and I think … I think there’s something in the woods.”

  He opened his door, and I had to shuffle back so he could get out. My brain was starting to haze again. I couldn’t figure out why the guy was getting out of the truck instead of letting me get in. Whatever.

  “Where’s your car, honey?”

  Wasn’t he listening? I pointed. “Down there, but—”

  “Show me. C’mon,” he said, shooing me ahead of him. Warning alarms blared in my head, but then they’d been blaring since I’d slammed into that tree. I ignored good sense and led the way to the edge of the embankment.