by Cat Schield
“Well, yes. I do.”
“And you may recall that I told you at your house that I had fallen in love with you, as well.”
“You meant that?”
“Of course I did. Do you think I run around telling women that I’m in love with them when I’m not?”
“Have you been in love with a lot of women?”
Keaton snorted. “Only you. Which is why...” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small burgundy box. “Lark Marie Taylor.” He popped the top on the box and watched her eyes widen at its contents. “Will you marry me? I want to build our dream house on this spot and live happily ever after with you.”
Her eyes glowed like twin emeralds as she answered, “Absolutely.”
He slipped the ring from the box and onto her trembling finger. As they sealed their pledge with a long, deep kiss, the rest of the world faded. Much, much later he felt the cool breeze against his hot skin and realized they’d been lost in each other for a quite a while.
“We should probably continue this at home,” he said, setting his forehead against hers. “I’m sure Julie wasn’t expecting you to be gone this long and may be worried.”
“I sent her a quick text before getting out of the car and let her know we’d been delayed.”
And that was one of the things he loved about Lark. Always considering others and acting with efficiency. Opposites might attract, but what had drawn Keaton to Lark was all the ways she understood and accepted him.
“You know what this means,” Lark said, laughing with joy. “We’ve officially ended the Holt/Taylor feud. After us there will be no more generations of your family and my family. It will all be our family.”
“I think that sounds pretty great,” he said. “And speaking of our family, how eager are you to start one?”
“Very,” she admitted. “Having Grace around this last month has made me anxious for children of my own. How do you feel?”
“The same.”
Her smile grew wicked. “Then what are we doing standing around here?”
Chuckling, he drew Lark back to where they’d left their vehicles. The afternoon sun was fading toward the horizon, painting the lake and surrounding trees with a golden light. He gave the scene a final look as he opened Lark’s car door, picturing a big house by this lake with children running in the yard. It was going to be a perfect place to build a life with her. He imagined their sons and daughters growing up on the land that had kept their families at odds for decades, their happiness banishing old resentment.
“What do you see?” she asked, noticing his distraction.
“Our future.” He brushed his lips against hers. “And it looks absolutely wonderful.”
* * * * *
TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: AFTER THE STORM
Don’t miss a single story!
STRANDED WITH THE RANCHER
by Janice Maynard
SHELTERED BY THE MILLIONAIRE
by Catherine Mann
PREGNANT BY THE TEXAN
by Sara Orwig
BECAUSE OF THE BABY...
by Cat Schield
HIS LOST AND FOUND FAMILY
by Sarah M. Anderson
MORE THAN A CONVENIENT BRIDE
by Michelle Celmer
FOR HIS BROTHER’S WIFE
by Kathie DeNosky
Keep reading for a special excerpt from HIS LOST AND FOUND FAMILY by Sarah M. Anderson.
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Desire story.
You want to leave behind the everyday! Harlequin Desire stories feature sexy, romantic heroes who have it all: wealth, status, incredible good looks…everything but the right woman. Add some secrets, maybe a scandal, and start turning pages!
Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Desire 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
SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
Here’s a sneak peek of the next
TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: AFTER THE STORM installment,
HIS LOST AND FOUND FAMILY by Sarah M. Anderson
Separated and on the verge of divorce, Jake Holt is determined to confront his wife. But when he arrives in Royal, Texas, he finds that Skye has been keeping secrets…
Jake had spent the past four years pointedly not caring about what his family was doing. They’d wanted him to put the family above his wife. Nothing had been more important to him than Skye.
He was not staying in Royal long. Just enough to get Skye back on her feet and figure out where they stood.
Just then, the baby made a little hiccup-sigh noise that pulled at his heartstrings.
Jake’s brother picked the baby up so smoothly that Jake was jealous.
“Grace, honey—this is your daddy,” Keaton said as he rubbed her back. Then, to Jake, he added, “You ready?”
Not really—but Jake wasn’t going to admit that to Keaton. He tried to cradle his arms in the right way. Then Keaton laid the baby in them.
The world seemed to tilt off its axis as Jake looked down into his daughter’s eyes. They were a pale blue—just like her mother’s. Up close now, he could see that Grace had wispy hairs on her head that were so white and fine they were almost see-through.
She didn’t start bawling, which he took as a good sign. Instead, she waved her tiny hands around, so of course he had to offer her one of his fingers. When she latched on to it, he felt lost and yet not lost at the same time.
He was responsible for this little girl from this moment until the day he drew his last breath. The weight of it hit him so hard that if he hadn’t already been sitting, his knees would have buckled.
This was his daughter. He and Skye had created this little person.
God, he wished Skye was here with him. That things between them had been different. That he’d been different.
But he couldn’t change the past, not when his present—and his future—was gripping his little finger with surprising strength.
Don’t miss what happens next in
HIS LOST AND FOUND FAMILY
by Sarah M. Anderson
Available February 2015 from Harlequin® Desire
Copyright © 2015 by Sarah M. Anderson
ISBN-13: 9781460344637
Because of the Baby…
Copyright © 2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Cat Schield for her contribution to the Texas Cattleman’s Club: After the Storm miniseries.
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.
www.Harlequin.com
for reading books on Archive.