Harlequin Historical May 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Notorious in the WestYield to the HighlanderReturn of the Viking Warrior

by Lisa Plumley

  Unfortunately, as soon as Griffin got close enough for her to glimpse the heartbreak in his eyes and the regret in his face, Olivia felt her entire carefully crafted speech melt from her mind. Her eloquence vanished, replaced by simple need.

  She needed Griffin. That was the beginning and the end.

  With the last shred of her intellect, Olivia transferred her gaze from Griffin’s face to his head. His long dark hair lifted in the territorial breeze, making him seem wilder than ever. He hadn’t replaced his hat, but she liked him this way.

  “I’d like a proposal,” she blurted. Her voice broke on the words, so she tried again. Knowing that her demand was likely being carried by the wind toward the onlookers behind her, Olivia added extra starchiness. “I deserve a proposal. I—”

  Before she could say more, Griffin stunned her by dropping to his knees. His fine black trousers hit the dirt. His long black coat puddled there, too. Not caring, he grabbed her hands.

  His grasp was every ounce as urgent as his expression was.

  “Please forgive me, Olivia,” Griffin said. “I’m sorry.”

  His hoarse, needful tone shocked her. “Get up!” She gave a jerky upward gesture, stifling an impulse to see if people were laughing. “Your suit! Your coat! They’ll be ruined.” She glanced backward. “Half the town is here, Griffin. People will talk.”

  “Let them talk. I don’t care.” With unabashed sincerity, Griffin looked up at her. Ludicrously, he kneed his way closer. “All I care about is you,” he said. “I need you, Olivia. I need you like darkness needs dawn. Like whiskey needs a glass. Like flowers need creek water. I can’t stand it without you.”

  “So...I’m bright and encircling and prone to flooding?” she couldn’t help asking, unable to fathom his plan. If it was to make her look a fool, it was succeeding. Her knees wobbled. Her heart pounded. In Griffin’s grasp, her hands trembled. Olivia doubted she could hold out much longer. “Is that it? Griffin, you’ve scarcely been without me for a single morning, so—”

  “It felt like a lifetime,” he swore. “I didn’t know—I couldn’t see—” He broke off, groaning in dismay. “You have to believe me, Olivia. I’ve been without love for so long—”

  At that, her heart broke a little bit.

  “—that I guess I didn’t trust it when it found me.” He gave her hand a passionate squeeze. “I didn’t trust it when you found me. I didn’t think it could be true—that you would want me for yourself. For your own.” He gave a pleading gesture from her to himself. “Look at us. You’re fine and sweet and brave, and I’m—”

  “You’re wonderful!” Helplessly, Olivia dropped to her knees, too, right along with him. Not caring about the onlookers who gasped at her movement or the dirt that smudged her skirts, she ardently stroked his cheek. “You’re kind, Griffin, and you’re brilliant and generous, too, and I can’t bear to think what would have become of me if you hadn’t come to town.”

  A glimmer of hope brightened his eyes. “You’d have spent a lot more time embroidering things?”

  Horrified by the notion, Olivia shuddered. “Maybe!” she agreed. She couldn’t help smiling at the raspy mischief in his voice. “Or maybe I would have just spent my days not knowing who I really was...not knowing who I really wanted.”

  “Well...” He quirked a grin—one that reminded her of his teasing ways. “You have quite an assembly here to choose from.”

  “It’s you!” Exasperated, Olivia choked back a sentimental sob. “It’s you, Griffin. It’s only you.” Once more, she caressed him. Once more, she drank in the sight of him. She’d only been mostly sure that she’d catch up with him in time after all. “Without you, all my days lose their thrill. All my nights—”

  Hastily, he cut her off before anyone could hear her discuss all the very private, very sensual things they’d shared.

  “Without you, I have no reason to be,” Griffin said simply. “Without you, I wouldn’t know what it means to be loved at all.”

  At that, tears leaped to her eyes. “You are loved, Griffin! Haven’t I said so?”

  Wordlessly, he shook his head. Her heart broke anew.

  “I love you!” Olivia shouted, not caring who heard. “I love you so much, Griffin, that I can’t believe the breadth and shape and size of it. My love for you—”

  “Is bigger than a bread box and more crooked than a shoehorn?” Griffin joked. “Well—”

  “—is big enough to hold you and me together forever,” Olivia finished resolutely. “It’s big enough to hold the moon and the stars and everything in between. I don’t know how I got along without you, but if I have my way—”

  “You’ll never have to try,” Griffin said, pulling her close to him. On their knees together in the dirt, they gazed at one another. Very softly, he kissed her. “I swear, Olivia, if you let me, I’ll do everything it takes to give you the love you deserve. I’ll fight every battle. I’ll give you all I have and more.” His face took on a shining countenance, as though Griffin had just remembered something especially excellent. “I have mansions and money!” he assured her. “I have social connections. I have a box at the opera house and prizewinning horses. I—”

  With a kiss of her own, Olivia stopped him. She breathed in deeply, loving the sight of him. The feel of him. The nearness of him. She shook her head. “I don’t care about any of those things. I don’t care where we live or who we see. I only want you. I want you forever, Griffin. I’m sorry I didn’t say so before.” Olivia sighed. “We might have avoided all this.”

  “Maybe.” Griffin cast a dubious glance at the crowd. They’d kept a respectful distance, but Olivia knew there was still a chance they’d run riot. There was a lot of money at stake in those wagers. “But somehow,” Griffin went on, “this feels exactly right to me. Because you’re with me. And I’m with you.”

  He held her hands, then drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can say it right. I’ve never tried before.” His dark-eyed gaze swept over her, solemn and meaningful. “But I love you, Olivia. I do. I love you in ways I’d never imagined. When I’m with you, I feel as though I could do anything. I feel as though my heart is too big for my chest and my arms are too short to hold you for as long as I’d like to.”

  “Well,” Olivia inserted pertly, “that could be remedied with enough practice, I’d say. So just keep trying.”

  Griffin appeared to love that idea. Tenderly, he kissed her again. He nudged his knees a little closer to hers. He inhaled, then rested his forehead against hers, gazing into her eyes.

  “When I look in your eyes,” he said, “I can see the man I want to be. I can see the man I hope to be. And I know I almost wrecked that today, Olivia—” Griffin’s voice broke, then strengthened “—but I swear, if it takes my whole life, I promise I’ll love you the way no one else ever could.” Lovingly, he stroked her cheek. “I promise I’ll be there for you. No matter what it takes. I can do it! I’m strong and I’m smart—”

  “He is both of those things,” Palmer Grant interjected from the side, cradling a jubilant-looking Annie next to him. “I can vouch for the grumpy, bossy, hard-drinking son of a—”

  “—and I’m equipped with more pigheaded stubbornness than any single man ought to have been endowed with,” Griffin continued with self-evident intractability. “So you can count on me. I promise, you can. Just give me another chance. Please.”

  At that, Olivia gave him a cockeyed look. “What do you think this is?” she asked reasonably. “Do you think I fall down and plant myself in the dirt at the railway station for just any man?”

  “I hope not,” Griffin avowed. “Because if you do, I just got a damn sight less special, didn’t I?”

  “Never,” Olivia pledged, smiling as she kissed him. “You’ll be special to me always. No matter what.”

  For a long, blissful moment, they only gaze
d into each other’s eyes, forehead to forehead, breathing the same fresh Morrow Creek air, not wanting to move—not wanting to change.

  They were both, Olivia realized belatedly, savoring the moment.

  Then the crowd began to stir. Someone stepped forward.

  “None of this mush,” Jimmy the bellman observed loudly, “sounds like a proposal of marriage to me. How ’bout you boys?”

  “No!” As one, the assembled men roared out. “No!”

  “Hold on!” Grace Murphy yelled back, speaking for the collected ladies. She motioned for the men’s catcalls to quit. Her husband, the saloonkeeper, helped with that endeavor. Then, with that accomplished, Grace looked at Olivia and Griffin. “Please continue,” she suggested with a courteous gesture. “Here in Morrow Creek, most of us have faith in true love.”

  Her sisters, Molly and Sarah, stepped up to agree.

  “Nah! It ain’t happenin’!” one of the menfolk said.

  Someone chuckled. “She ain’t sayin’ yes, if it does!”

  “Pshaw,” added a woman. “She practically proposed to him!”

  At that, Olivia looked at Griffin. He looked at her.

  They both smiled. They both drew in deep, happy breaths.

  “Please marry me,” they said in unison.

  A confused, collective groan came from the crowd.

  “What in Sam Hill does that mean?” Gus the stableman shouted from the back. “Did anybody hear a yes or a no?”

  Amid all the turmoil, Griffin smiled at Olivia.

  Olivia smiled back. “Yes,” they said together. “I will.”

  A stunned silence fell over the crowd. The banjo quit playing. Even the town’s children, who’d wandered there with their parents, stopped frolicking near the station platform.

  “Tarnation!” someone cried. “Does that mean we all lose?”

  “On the contrary,” Mrs. Murphy demurred. “I believe you’ll find that means the ladies win their bets. And so, after a fashion, at least, do Miss Mouton and Mr. Turner.”

  “We men lost our wagerin’ money?” Jimmy asked, looking astonished. “But...we were gonna add it to the kitty for the big faro tournament. It was gonna draw in heaps of high rollers!”

  “Mmm. I don’t think so,” the town’s most-known suffragist told him. “Not anymore, at least. But I do believe it will be a fine addition to the Temperance League’s coffers.”

  “Temperance League?” the men groaned. “Ain’t that a kick in the pants?” A pause. Then... “Sure you ain’t gonna reconsider, Miss Mouton? It still ain’t too late!”

  Olivia laughed, shaking her head.

  And with that, the people of Morrow Creek were off, doing several of their most favorite things at once—gambling, arguing, coming together, laughing...and most of all, cooking up a brand-new addition to the town’s burgeoning supply of folklore.

  This tale, Olivia heard as Griffin gallantly helped her to her feet and then kissed her, seemed to involve a misunderstood beauty, an enigmatic beast and a whole passel of suspiciously “essential” town matchmakers who’d paved the way for their love and happiness. But even if the folklorists didn’t quite get all the details perfectly and accurately right, Olivia didn’t care.

  Because against all the odds and beyond all her hopes, she’d found the one man who could see into her heart and love what he glimpsed there. She’d found the one man who could soak up every bit of the love she had to give him—and it was a lot of love, she assured Griffin as they sneaked their way past the increasingly frolicsome crowd and headed back to The Lorndorff together—and then give it right back to her.

  Only somehow, Olivia realized, Griffin had managed to double the love she’d given him. He’d managed to make it as big and as strong as befit a seven-foot-tall giant who could turn around trains with his will alone...and emerge from the darkness to find a girl with a light, just waiting there for him.

  From now till forever, Olivia meant to be that light for Griffin. She meant to love him and care for him and trust him.

  At the bottom of The Lorndorff’s stairs, Griffin turned to her. He smiled, patently hers in that moment and happy for it.

  He held out his hand. “Are you ready for this?” he asked.

  “I’m ready for everything,” Olivia promised him.

  Then she took his hand, assembled all the inborn curiosity that had separated her from everyone else for so long...and used it to send her straight into her future with Griffin.

  * * *

  “Have I ever told you,” Olivia remarked as she and Griffin reached the top of the hotel stairs after leaving the railway station, “about the time I discovered the universe?”

  Still holding her hand, Griffin smiled. “I don’t think so. I guess I should have known there was more?”

  “Of course there’s more!” She laughed. “With me, there always is.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he assured her.

  “Good.” Olivia nodded. “So...?”

  “So...?”

  “So aren’t you going to ask me?”

  “Oh. Of course.” Griffin delivered her his most inquisitive look, determined not to disappoint her. He felt far too grateful for the second chance he’d been given. “Tell me,” he said obligingly. “What about the time you discovered the universe?”

  Joyfully, Olivia squeezed his hand. “It happened when you kissed me,” she told him. “It was right there in your eyes.”

  “Aha.” Nodding, Griffin recollected that moment. “I think that was a dust mote,” he teased. “Just a bit of fluff.”

  “It was not!” she protested. “We were at the creek!”

  “I remember.” For a moment, Griffin did just that. Then he smiled at her. Rakishly. “If you’re fond of what my eyes can do,” he said, “wait until you learn more about the rest of me.”

  Olivia looked as though she could hardly wait. Except...

  “After we’re married, you mean?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Griffin agreed staunchly. “After we’re married.”

  For an uncertain, rueful moment, they looked at each other.

  Then, “Let’s head to Reverend Benson’s right now!”

  Their unified exclamation made them both laugh.

  “We’ve got to stop doing that,” Olivia said, looking giddy and full of daring. “It’s going to begin annoying people.”

  But Griffin only shrugged. “I don’t think we can stop. It’s not as though we’re doing it on purpose.”

  “That’s true. Maybe it’ll stop on its own. Eventually.”

  They contemplated that for a moment.

  Then, “Probably not,” they said in unison.

  Laughing, they headed back downstairs again, hand in hand.

  In the lobby below, Griffin stopped. He looked around the bustling hotel, soaking in the furnishings and the chandeliers.

  “You know,” he mused, “I think I’ve found a home here.”

  Olivia smiled mischievously. “Really? At The Lorndorff?”

  “No.” At her overtly cheeky tone, Griffin smiled. He deserved that, he guessed, for joking about dust motes. Very discreetly, he touched her dress’s lace-trimmed bodice, making his meaning more than plain. “Right here. In your heart.”

  Olivia melted. “And here I had such a humdrum answer.”

  “You had the perfect answer,” Griffin disagreed cheerfully. “Between the two of us, we have every territory covered. That right there, Miss Mouton, is the true meaning of partnership.”

  “That’s true.” With a newly assessing glance, Olivia looked him over. Lovingly. “You know,” she said, “I think we’re going to have a very interesting and thrilling life together.”

  “I know we are,” Griffin promised. “I guarantee it.”<
br />
  Then he took Olivia’s hand, and they both got started. On today, on tomorrow...and on every single fun-loving, philosophy-filled, sunshine-sparkled day that would come after that.

  * * * * *

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Historical.

  You dream of wicked rakes, gorgeous Highlanders, muscled Viking warriors and rugged Wild West cowboys from another era. Harlequin Historical has them all! Emotionally intense stories set across many time periods.

  Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Historical every month!

  Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

  Other ways to keep in touch:

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  HarlequinBlog.com

  ISBN-13: 9781460331637

  NOTORIOUS IN THE WEST

  Copyright © 2014 by Lisa G. Plumley

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  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.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.