by Norah Wilson
“What about it?”
She plucked at the sheet. “I think Garrett was afraid I could read his mind or something.”
He snorted. “Now there’s something I’m not worried about.”
She glanced up, her eyes fear-filled. “No?”
He smiled. “Sweetheart, if you could read my mind, you’d have given up on me.”
“I could have another vision. In fact, I’ll probably have lots of them. I usually have a new one every year or two.”
“Then we’ll deal with it,” he said, “just, please God, not the way we dealt with this one.”
She drew herself up on one elbow to examine his face. “You’re really okay with this stuff?”
“Of course. It’s part of you and I love you.”
She leapt on him. Again. He could get used to this.
“Cal Taggart, I love you.”
“Mmmm, say it again,” he murmured against her mouth.
“As often as you want to hear it,” she promised.
“What if I want to hear it every day?”
“That could be arranged.”
He felt himself stir. She felt it too, seeing as she was now straddling him on the narrow bed. They’d have to get a queen.
“Marry me? And before you answer, bear in mind that’s the second time I’ve asked you today.”
She grinned, raking his chest with the tips of her nails. “Okay. You wore me down.”
He ran his hands lightly up the outsides of her arms. “Could we maybe look for a little fixer-upper farmhouse outside of town? I saw quite a bit of arable land from the plane.”
“What?”
“I’ll need to do something. I can hardly let you keep me,” he said mildly. “I’ve been thinking for a while about getting into breeding bucking bulls. It’s something I know, and nothing says they can’t be bred here on the East Coast. I could buy a couple of good heifers, drop some money on a few straws of semen from a premium bucking bull or two, and we’d be in business.”
“But what about the ranch?”
“Dad and Jim can handle it between them. Dad’s taken to the guest ranch part like a duck to water, by the way.”
She stilled again, that hushing of soul and body. “You’d do that for me? Move here?”
He cupped her face, his eyes as earnest now as hers. “Sweetheart, I’d wear a suit and sell used cars if I had to. Of course, I’d rather do this other thing, if it’s all the same.”
She poked him in the ribs. “Sorry, I can’t let you do that. There just isn’t enough wide-open space here for a man like you. You’d suffocate without your big prairie sky.”
His body tensed. “You’re not getting rid of me.”
“I should hope not!” she exclaimed. “There’s a very good chance you just impregnated me.”
Oh. Oh!
“I meant I’ll go back with you. We can live at Foothills.”
He shook his head to dislodge the pregnant thing. “But your practice…”
“Can be sold in about a minute. I just sold half of it to Peter Markham last week. He’ll be delighted to relieve me of my share.”
Cal’s heart felt as if it had gotten too big inside his chest. “You’d do that for me?”
She kissed him, once, very sweetly, then straightened her spine again. “Sweetheart, I’d wear a uniform and say, ‘Would you like fries with that?’ if I have to, but I’d rather put my skills to work with your herd and in your stables, if it’s all the same.”
Cal pulled her back down so she was cradled against his body, the urge to mate temporarily subjugated by this tenderness. “Lauren Townsend, you are my heart. I will love you until my last breath leaves this body.”
“Me too.” She smiled into his eyes tearily. “With every beat of my heart, every breath I take, I will love you.”
To which he responded by rolling her beneath him and stealing her very breath.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photograph by Lindsay Wilson, 2010
Norah Wilson is the author of romantic suspense novels Guarding Suzannah, Protecting Paige, and Saving Grace. She is a three-time finalist in the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart contest and won Dorchester Publishing’s New Voice in Romance award. Under the pseudonym Wilson Doherty, she and her writing partner, Heather Doherty, write young adult paranormal fiction. A native Canadian, Wilson lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with her family.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR