A Rancher's Bride

by Vivian Arend

  “I don’t know that I have anything that would be proof. And I don’t know where my mom is now. It’s been a lot of years since I last saw her, and I like it that way. When I left, I didn’t take anything of hers.” The money was not going to be mentioned. Kelli pushed the picture back across the table. “I can tell you inside that locket was a bit of purple glass. It was polished—”

  Timothy Carlyn’s face went absolutely white.

  Luke rose halfway to his feet. “Sir? Are you okay?”

  Mr. Carlyn waved him down, pressing his hands to the table and taking a few steadying breaths. “I’m sorry. Please continue.”

  Kelli glanced at Luke. He nodded. “The glass was polished, not to a shine but rough, like winter frost. It was heart-shaped, and when the locket was closed, the stone was small enough to shift and move. I used to shake the locket sometimes, and Mom would laugh and say that it was her heartbeat.”

  It was one of the few sweet memories that had remained.

  The serious-faced man in the suit swore softly, the stern unforgiving expression on his face changed to one of incredulousness.

  Dean turned to Mr. Carlyn. “I would still insist on a DNA test, just for legal purposes, but that’s pretty convincing.”

  “I don’t think she said it to try and be convincing,” Timothy Carlyn drawled. He reached across the table, and Kelli leaned in to accept a third picture. “My wife. She passed away unexpectedly last year.”

  Kelli was pretty sure this was what she would look like in another forty or fifty years. “Wow. It’s probably a little self-serving if I say she was beautiful.”

  “She was beautiful,” Mr. Carlyn said.

  “You are beautiful,” Luke announced at the same moment.

  Mr. Carlyn reached into his pocket and pulled out something, laying it on the table.

  It was a locket. The same as she remembered from her youth, and something tightened in Kelli’s throat as she glanced at him for permission to pick it up.

  When he indicated it was okay, she slipped the locket into her hand, the smooth metal an echo of a childhood memory. She closed her eyes and held it to her ear, shaking her wrist in a side-to-side motion.

  In the palm of her hand, a gentle knock, knock, knock sounded—like a heartbeat.

  She took a breath, shocked to discover her hands shook as she pulled the locket from her ear, automatically hitting the clasp to undo the two sides. She looked down to discover, not a purple heart, but one that was robin-egg blue, like the Alberta sky on a cloudless summer day.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “It was your grandmother’s.” There was no doubt in Mr. Carlyn’s voice as he said the phrase. “I gave my girls matching necklaces one Christmas. They picked the colour for the stone. Danielle said she wanted purple to match the Virginia Bluebells that came up in early spring. And my Toni wanted blue because she said that was the colour of joy.”

  Kelli’s throat tightened further, but Luke’s arms were around her and she was safe in his embrace. “She sounds like a wonderful woman. I’m sorry I never got to meet her.”

  “I’m sorry too,” Mr. Carlyn said. “We had no idea you even existed. When Danielle first ran away, I managed to locate her a couple of times. She told me forcefully to leave her alone. I tried to keep in touch in case she ever changed her mind…” He let out a long, slow breath. “I was sick for a while, and lost track. I never thought she’d come to Canada. I wish I’d tried harder.”

  The regret in his voice was real, and the emotion just messed Kelli up even further.

  She shot to her feet. All the men around the table rushed to join her, but she was pushing back from the table, suddenly desperate to escape.

  “I need some time,” she said. “I mean, this is very exciting, and I’m very glad to meet you. Even you, I suppose.” She indicated Dean before tucking herself tighter against Luke’s side. “But I need to go.”

  “Of course, sweetie.” Luke nodded at Timothy Carlyn. “Talk tomorrow?”

  “Call when you’re ready. I’d love to come out to Silver Stone if that works for you. I am interested in what you’re doing there, beyond tracking down Kelli.”

  Luke gave her a quick squeeze as he peeked out the window. “It’s snowing heavy. Stay here for a minute, and I’ll warm the truck up and clear the windshield.”

  Luke waited until she nodded her approval, but when he left, Dean disappeared and she ended up alone with her grandfather.

  “I’m not going to make any demands.” Mr. Carlyn spoke softly. “But I want you to know how much I want you to come home.”

  Not Mr. Carlyn— Her grandfather, she supposed, although it was going to take some work to think of him that way.

  Kelli stared at him, seeing the truth in his eyes, and the hopefulness. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me, so why would you say something like that?”

  “Because when I look at you I see Toni. I see Danielle before she got rebellious and decided that whatever we said, she would do the exact opposite. I see a young woman full of life and energy and who is simply delightful to be around, and I would love very much to have family back in my home. So think about it, Kelli. It’s an option for you. You and Luke, of course. There’s a home waiting for you.”

  Kelli nodded slowly. But she had to tell the truth, and this she didn’t need to think about even a minute longer. “I already have a home, and I have a family. So I’m not saying no, but I am saying I’m not willing to give up what I’ve already got.”

  “Fair enough.” He looked a little disappointed but nodded in approval. “You might have been raised a world away from us, but you’d be shocked to know how much you remind me of your grandmother.”

  The door opened behind her, and Luke was there, escorting her away.

  A blur of snowflakes mixed with the blur in her brain. Kelli leaned her head on Luke’s shoulder and didn’t even try to think. She was numb inside, which seemed odd.

  Luke sat quietly beside her, his body a rock of comfort. When they arrived at his house after the slow trip home through the falling snow, she followed him meekly into the mudroom.

  Her coat vanished, and her boots, and she ended up on the couch, sitting in his lap before she truly knew what was going on.

  “Thank you,” she started before having to break off.

  “Nothing to thank me for, darling. Now hush. You’re all but quivering. Let me hold you.”

  She snuggled in and didn’t fight it. His strong body became a cage of protection around her. Like a wall guarding her from the things that would have hurt her, things that would have challenged her too much at this moment.

  “I don’t know why I’m acting like such a baby,” she complained a few minutes later. “It’s a good thing, I guess. Finding family. Only—I didn’t expect it. And I didn’t really want it—I mean, I wasn’t looking for it.”

  “All of those are good reasons for not being sure which end is up,” Luke assured her. He stroked his fingers through her hair. “On the good side of the ledger, Carlyn’s a solid man. I’ve never heard anything negative.”

  “Me either. I liked him at the gala, although I guess this explains why he was staring at me so much.” She breathed deep, curling against Luke harder. “I don’t want to think right now,” she complained.

  A soft chuckle escaped him. “Really? Did you have something else to do that’s higher on your list?”

  Kelli slid her fingers along the placard of his shirt, circling each button one by one. “Possibly. If you’ve got some time to kill.”

  Luke hummed as she popped the top button loose, and then the next. “Time? I have a few minutes.”

  “That all? Too bad…” She let her fingers drift downward until her fingertips trailed over the button of his jeans. She would have rubbed his cock, but she was sitting against it. Which was obvious, because with each passing moment it grew thicker and harder beneath her hip.

  “Maybe a bit more than minutes,” Luke growled, tuckin
g his arms under her legs and picking her up. She draped her arms around his neck and nuzzled in tight, kissing him and teasing with her tongue as he carried her to his bedroom.

  Luke stripped away her blouse, pushing the fabric from her shoulders and stopping to kiss the skin he’d bared. “I need to see you naked,” he told her. “Need you under me, need to feel you surround me.”

  “Need you too,” she whispered back.

  She closed her eyes and felt.

  With every inch he exposed, Luke took the time to explore with his lips. With his tongue. He kissed and licked and teased and nibbled until every inch of her felt alive and so sensitive she was near to spontaneous combustion.

  Something was different. Something trembled at the edge of cracking. Like a too-warm spring day when the sunshine on the ice by the falls would make it creak and moan in the seconds before a fissure would open, and the whole thing would come tumbling down. Shards flying, breaking apart—coming undone. A complete reversal of only moments before.

  Only, was it breaking, or renewing? Springtime always meant growth, and as Luke touched her, Kelli felt the change coming in every bit of her.

  He’d laid her out, bare to his gaze as he stripped the last of his own clothes away then joined her. Stretching at her side and holding her close as he stroked. A gentle touch that was possessive and perfect.

  Fingers dipping between her legs, mouth on her breasts, easing away so he could cover her with his weight and kiss her senseless.

  She’d already flown once, Luke sending her soaring into an orgasm before he wrapped himself around her and slid inside. His thick length opened her as she let her legs fall apart to welcome him in. Bodies rubbing, lips kissing.

  Luke murmured gentle words against her mouth as he rocked, slow and deep. Each motion deliberate and needy as if he was—

  As if he was coming home.

  Kelli fought to keep the tears from rising, but it was too perfect, too beautiful.

  He slowed. Paused, deep inside her, his fingers brushing moisture from her cheek.

  “Kelli? You okay?”

  She nodded, catching his fingers in hers and pressing them to her lips. “I’m perfect. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

  He adjusted their grip, placing their joined hands on the mattress at head level then returning to the slow, gentle strokes that made her feel as if he was loving every inch of her, connected beyond the physical.

  Tears still fell, but Kelli was willing to admit they were good tears. They were about family and having a home, and while she couldn’t say the words yet, they were about being in love.

  Because she loved Luke. She probably always had, and it had taken finding a surprise grandfather to know that no matter what happened at Silver Stone, Luke was home.

  She was going to have to find a way to tell him that.

  “Kelli,” Luke whispered. “You feel so right. You’re just—”

  She opened her eyes and stared into his face.

  “Love me,” she ordered, pretending it wasn’t demand and wish and a dream and a promise all at that same time.

  His fingers tightened on hers, and he stroked harder, a little quicker. Then he slid a hand between their bodies and touched her just right, and she broke. Like the frozen waterfall, she came apart, falling into pieces, held in his arms.

  Ready for the spring to make her world new. No matter what that looked like, she could make it through this. She knew she could.

  Especially if Luke was holding her.

  He dealt with the condom quickly, then gathered her against him. Their naked bodies ended up twined together as if they were trees that had been planted in the same spot.

  She fell asleep in his arms, tears still marring her face.

  How was it possible for everything to change so completely and yet feel as if this was the way his life was always meant to be?

  Luke adjusted position so he could stroke wisps of hair off Kelli’s face, staring down at her with that bigger-than-life sensation in his chest.

  All his life, he remembered simply doing the next thing. He’d done that as a young man, growing up under the firm tutelage of his father. He’d learned all the tasks required to keep the machinery running and how to care for the animals at Silver Stone ranch.

  Between his father and Ashton, Luke knew he’d had strong masculine examples during his growing-up years. He’d seen his oldest brother deal with heartbreak until finally falling in love with the perfect woman. He’d seen Walker push through fear and worry to end up rock solid with Ivy, the years they’d been apart erased as if they’d never happened.

  During all that time, Luke had done the next thing. Gotten up in the morning, done his work. Trained the horses, dealt with customers. He’d enjoyed himself, even had a sense of pride, but there’d always been that edge of following by rote.

  It wasn’t that he couldn’t wait to get up in the morning, he just did. It wasn’t that he couldn’t wait to work with the horses. Although he enjoyed his tasks, he didn’t have any urgent desire that made him eager to start. Even his relationship with his ex-fiancée had been more about expectations than a true desire for connection.

  The only thing—the only common thread of joy over the past years—was the woman lying in his arms. A woman who, when he’d surprised her at the falls with momentous news, had been more concerned about his comfort than her own.

  Kelli was the one perfect element in his life, and now that he truly thought it through, she was the only irreplaceable part as well.

  It had taken him until now to figure that out.

  She was the reason he was eager to get up and head out to train the horses, because her unending enthusiasm and excitement spilled over into his life with joy. Her jokes and her crazy habits, like leaping from high surfaces, or eavesdropping at the most awkward times—he knew what to expect from her, but never when to expect it.

  She brought spontaneity into his world, whether they were working together, fighting with each other, or now during this brief time, driving each other wild with sexual antics.

  There was nothing habit-like when it came to Kelli. She was so much more than that.

  As he stared down at her, long lashes resting against her cheeks, it hit him as solidly as the ground had smacked him when he’d been bucked off Chili Pepper—

  He loved her. Completely and utterly. It was the most wonderful thing to realize while simultaneously shooting ice along his spine.

  Because all of those men in his life? His father, his brothers, his friends? They’d all taught him how important it was to be able to choose what he wanted.

  There was no way Kelli could do that now. Choose him, that is.

  She had a whole new world open before her, and it wouldn’t be right to force her to stay. Not right now. Not until she’d had the chance to spread her wings and step into Timothy Carlyn’s world.

  Did he want her to go away? Hell, no. And in spite of the pain inside him as he struggled to do the right thing, he knew there was no way he could let her go. Not forever.

  But right now? She was so overwhelmed, she probably had no idea exactly what it meant to be linked with Timothy Carlyn. To be able to have the resources and connections he did.

  Luke needed to let her go temporarily to experience that. To let her show off her talents in a place other than Silver Stone if she wanted. He had no right to keep her by his side where he’d finally—finally—figured out he wanted her.

  Their breathing had slowed. Once again she surprised him, eyes sliding open to stare into his face. “You’re thinking so loudly I can hear it.”

  Her fingers rose to his face then past, stroking through his hair then down his neck, over and over in a smooth circle.

  “It’s been a big day. Lots to think about,” he admitted.

  Her lips curled upward. “It’s late enough we can give it a rest until tomorrow. Go to sleep, Luke.”

  “Bossy,” he complained, although that was exactly what he wanted. Kelli in h
is life, bossing and teasing and tormenting him.

  She placed a hand to his chest and pushed, sending him to his back. Even as she moved she was waking up, mischief sliding across her features. “Seeing as we’re very conveniently naked, maybe what you need is a little help relaxing.”

  Certain parts of his anatomy were fully on board with that suggestion, tightening and hardening as she undulated her hips over him. “If you’re tired—”

  Kelli raised one brow. “You’re not seriously turning down sex, are you? That’s not the Luke I’ve gotten to know over the past weeks.”

  He didn’t like her relegating their time together to simply sex. “You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to,” he admitted. “It’s been a difficult day.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “It has been, and I was definitely thrown for a loop earlier. But something about coming back here helped center me. I appreciate that. I appreciate you.”

  Kelli pressed her lips to his, the front of her body making contact with his naked chest. There was no denying what she wanted. It was clear in her kiss, in her touch, and the motion of her body.

  Luke couldn’t say no. And he wasn’t missing a moment of now, since he didn’t know what would come tomorrow. Maybe he was going to have to say goodbye to her temporarily while she headed out to experience new things.

  But as he sat up to join her, body and spirit, he committed again that if she did go, it would only be for a short while. While she branched out, he was going to build them roots. He’d make a place for her to come back to, and he was going to do his damnedest to convince her Silver Stone was where she belonged.

  He would have to give her room so she’d feel she could leave.

  But now? He was going to love her with everything in him. The way he’d always been meant to.

  22

  Kelli wandered the barn on Sunday, still puzzling through the right thing to do with Timothy Carlyn’s astonishing proposition.