Oh, God. Real. He was really there, no doubt about it now. No trick. No fantasy. Real.
She asked, “Is there...some reason you told me not to turn around?”
“Do you want to walk away from me?”
“Are you insane? Of course not.”
“Because if you do, just go, just don’t even look at me. Don’t even...” His voice broke. A low oath escaped him. And then his hands were on her, clasping her bare shoulders tight. Heat sizzled through her. His touch felt so good. “Never mind.” The words came out in a sandpaper whisper. “Forget I said that. Don’t walk away from me. Oh, God, Rory. Please...” And he pulled her back against his tall, hard body and pressed his cheek to hers. “I love you. I see that now. There’s no going back. I want a chance with you. I don’t care how long it lasts, where we end up. I just want...a chance, okay?”
She couldn’t take it anymore. She turned in his arms, put her palms flat against his broad chest and stared up into his beloved grim face. “How did you get here?”
“Well, they have these machines called airplanes...”
She wanted to punch him. And she wanted to grab him to her and never, ever let him go. Or maybe both. “Very funny.”
He wore the same good dark suit he’d worn to Clara and Ryan’s almost wedding and he looked at her with eyes full of love. “I have an actual engraved invitation,” he told her. “It came by courier to the ranch yesterday morning.”
She knew then. “Let me guess. My mother sent it.”
He nodded. “I had to scramble for flights.”
“What? My mother didn’t send a family jet for you?”
“She offered in the little note that came with the invitation. It said to call her and she would take care of transportation.”
“But you didn’t call her.”
“It seemed the least I could do, to book my own damn flight.”
“You’re too proud, Walker.”
He shrugged. “I ended up with a damn stopover in London that lasted half a lifetime. I started to wonder if I would even make it here tonight.”
“But you did.” She gazed up at him. She would never get enough of that, of just looking at him, of being held in his arms.
“Tell me now,” he said, his tone gone desperate. “Have I blown it completely? Is there any way that you might be willing to try again?”
Her brother Damien danced by, his wife, Lucy, in his arms. Her brother Alex came right after with his wife, Liliana.
She said, “I think you should dance with me.”
He blinked. “Dance...?”
She put one hand on his shoulder and held the other up for him to take. “Dance.”
He led her onto the floor and took her in his arms. As they swayed and turned beneath the dazzling light of the world-famous Empire-style gold-and-crystal chandeliers, she said, “You would have to learn to trust me. To trust what we have together.”
“Yes,” he said. “I see that. I do. And I do trust you, Rory. I believe in you.”
“And I believe in you. I do, Walker. You are my heart’s desire.”
“Rory...” They had somehow stopped dancing. They swayed together in the middle of the ballroom floor. The other couples seemed unfazed. They simply danced around them. He asked again, “Another chance? You and me?”
“I love you, Walker.”
“I can’t believe it. I think you just said yes.”
“I have it all figured out,” she told him. “How it’s going to be. We’ll take it slow, okay? We won’t be rushing anything.”
He suddenly looked stricken. “Are you saying you already know that you’ll never marry me?”
“Oh, I will definitely marry you. No worries on that score.”
“Whew. You scared me there for a minute.”
“Kiss me, Walker.”
“Right here? In the middle of the dance floor?”
“Kiss me. Now.”
And he lowered his lips to hers.
Epilogue
Later that night, after they retired to her palace apartment and celebrated their reunion in the most intimate way, Walker proposed properly, on his knees, wearing nothing, offering her a beautiful cushion-cut diamond engagement ring.
She accepted, joyfully.
Walker remained with her at the palace for Christmas and New Year’s. On the second of January, they flew home to Justice Creek, stopping off on the way for a few days with Genny, Rafe and little Tommy in Derbyshire, England.
In February, after the wound on Rory’s forehead had healed to a thin, red scar, they hiked back to Ice Castle Falls. The falls were still frozen. Rory got some great pictures. And on that same fateful ledge where he’d turned her down all those summers before, Walker took her in his arms and kissed her slow and sweet and deep.
From there, they went to the cabin in the woods. They took the shutters off the windows, built a fire against the cold and climbed the stairs to the sleeping loft with their arms around each other. The old iron bed up there was a creaky one. Neither of them cared.
In March, Rory accepted an assignment to photograph the birds of the coastal marshes in Virginia’s Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. They left the Colgins in charge at the ranch and Walker went with her. For three weeks, they camped out. It was rugged and isolated and absolutely wonderful.
After they returned, Clara had her baby and found her own heart’s desire.
Summer came and with it peak season at the Bar-N. Guests filled the houses, the cabins and the bunkhouse. Rory helped out around the place and studied up on raising chickens. There were a lot of options and she wanted to get it right. She settled on pasturing, which included a movable fence, an electric energizer to keep the birds in and the predators out, and a portable chicken house. The chickens had a safe, movable area that contained grass, bugs, sunshine and fresh air. By September, she had two dozen happy, healthy birds.
Walker said, “I didn’t believe you really meant it when you claimed you wanted chickens.”
She went and sat on his lap and whispered, “Next, I want a rooster. I want to raise my own chicks.”
“A rooster, huh?” He stood up suddenly, taking her with him.
She laughed in surprise. “Walker, what...?”
“Come on upstairs.” He nuzzled her neck. “We can talk it over in bed.”
He carried her up to their bedroom and made slow, delicious love to her in the middle of the afternoon. The rooster was temporarily forgotten. Rory didn’t mind.
For Thanksgiving, Rory and Walker flew to Montedoro. They visited her family and attended the traditional Prince’s Thanksgiving Bazaar and the annual Thanksgiving Ball.
Christmastime, they spent at home in Justice Creek. She dragged him to Rocky Mountain Christmas again, and they bought more “Christmas crap,” as he so fondly called it.
That evening at home, she said, “I want a tree-decorating party, same as last year. It’s going to be an annual tradition with us.”
He scooped her high in his arms. “We can talk about it upstairs.” And he carried her to their bed, where he took off all her clothes and kept her awake late doing lovely, naughty things. The tree-decorating party discussion? Didn’t happen.
But really, what more was there to say? Rory wanted the party and Walker did, too, though he kind of enjoyed playing Scrooge about it. The next day, they invited friends and family to come and help them make the ranch house ready for the holidays. Everyone had a great time and they all agreed it should be an annual affair.
Rory’s parents arrived on December 20. And on Christmas Eve at two in the afternoon, in a tiny log church surrounded by the snow-covered peaks of the Rockies, Rory stood at the altar with Walker at her side.
His voice shook just a little when he said, “I do.”
He slid the platinum band on her finger to join the engagement ring he’d given her the year before. And then he took her in his arms and he kissed her so tenderly.
“Merry Christmas, Your Highness,” he whispered.
“Forever and always,” she answered.
“And that,” he said gruffly, “is the only Christmas present I’m ever going to need.”
* * * * *
Watch for Clara’s story,
NOT QUITE MARRIED,
coming in May 2015,
only from Harlequin Special Edition
Keep reading for an excerpt from A ROYAL CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL by Leanne Banks.
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Chapter One
Princess Fredericka hoped her brother wasn’t going to be impossible.
She knew she had made more than her share of mistakes. She’d been a wild child when she’d been a teenager and terrified her family with her antics. Everyone had breathed a sigh of relief when she’d gotten married, because she’d appeared to calm down. In many ways she had, but she’d learned things didn’t always turn out the way one expected. She’d managed to make the best of what life had dealt her. Ericka knew her brother Stefan, the ruling prince of Chantaine, however, would have a hard time seeing her as a competent single mother to her adorable son, Leo.
She resisted the urge to fidget as she waited to be invited into her brother’s office. She nodded at staff members as they hung holiday greenery and put candles in the window. Ericka suspected the Christmas decorations had been ordered by Eve, her brother’s wife. Ericka barely remembered seeing Christmas decorations when she had been growing up in the palace. With the exception of the huge Christmas tree in one of the formal rooms, one might not have known the holiday existed. Of course, the deep chill between her mother and father hadn’t helped matters.
Her father, Prince Edward, had been a philanderer and an absentee father and husband. Her mother had felt trapped and bitter. Ericka remembered wishing only that she could run away. She’d done exactly that in more than one way, which was why she suspected this was going to be a messy discussion. Stefan was extremely protective.
The door to Stefan’s office finally opened. “Your Highness, Princess Fredericka, please come in,” Stefan’s assistant said.
She nodded. “Thank you very much,” she said, then entered her brother’s office while the assistant left the room. “Stefan,” she greeted, walking toward her brother. She noticed a wisp of a couple gray streaks on the sides of his dark hair. The burden of his position was obviously weighing on him.
She kissed his cheek and he kissed hers. “How are you?” she asked.
“I’m well,” he said. “I’m more concerned about you and Leonardo.”
Ericka smiled. “Leo and I are great. I’m happy to be back in Chantaine after spending the last year with Tina in Texas.”
“You could have spent the last year here in Chantaine,” he said, and rounded his desk to sit in his chair.
Ericka sat in the chair across from her brother, watching him as he tented his fingers and studied her. “I think it was good to be with Tina in Texas during my pregnancy and delivery. She and her husband were supportive, and it was fun having their daughter, Katarina, around. She’s quite the spitfire. Little ones put everything in perspective.”
“True,” Stefan said, giving a serious nod. “I think it would be best for you and Leo to live at the palace.”
Ericka’s stomach twisted and she bit the inside of her lip. She hated to go up against Stefan but knew it was necessary. “I think not,” she said. “I’ve found a lovely gated cottage and a nanny. I think this will be best for Leo and me.”
Stefan frowned. “But what about security? You and Leo need to be protected. That would be much easier within the palace walls.”
Ericka shook her head. “The palace isn’t the place for me. If you think about it, it’s not the place for most of us. None of your siblings live here. I apologize for how this may sound, but the palace feels claustrophobic. I don’t want that for Leo.”
“He’s a baby,” Stefan said. “How will he know?”
“Babies sense more than you think. He would sense my tension. Leo and I need our own place. As I said, I have found a wonderful nanny and I’ve arranged for therapy for his hearing disability.”
Stefan pressed his lips together. “Is there any chance you’re wrong about his hearing? He’s so young.”
“No,” she said, remembering the grief she’d suffered when she’d learned her perfect Leo couldn’t hear. The doctors had tested Leo before she’d left the hospital with him, and many more tests had followed. “He has a hearing disability and I’m determined to make sure he gets the best treatment available.”
“I can’t believe you don’t think living in the palace would make your life easier,” Stefan said. “And your son’s life safer.”
Ericka shook her head. “Don’t try to guilt me into doing things your way, Stefan. I have to follow my best inner guidance. I have to be my own expert. I’m counting on you to be supportive.”
Stefan sighed. “This situation is going to put a lot of pressure on you. I hesitate to bring up the past, but—”
“You’re talking about the time I spent in rehab in my teens,” she said. Ericka couldn’t blame any of her family for being concerned, but if she’d successfully survived her most recent humiliation, she could handle anything. “I’m lucky I learned to avoid chemicals early on. I haven’t had a drink in nearly a decade. I learned to wake up every morning and make the decision that I’m not going to drink or use drugs that day.”
Stefan nodded. “It’s obvious you’ve come a long way, but I still don’t want you to be overwhelmed.”
“I’m going to be overwhelmed at times,” she assured him. “I have a baby. Being a mother is new. But I’m a Devereaux and I’m not the weak link you may have once thought I was.”
“I never said you were the weak link,” he said with a dark frown.
“Well, maybe you just thought it,” she said gently with a smile and lifted her hand when she could see he was going to protest. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll soon see there’s more to me than you thought. I’ll be very happy in my cozy cottage.”
“Okay,” he said reluctantly. “As you wish. However, I insist on providing you with security. You’ll have a guard within the next couple of days.”
Ericka made a face. “If you insist,” she said. “Just make sure whoever you choose is low-profile or they’ll get on my nerves. No one too pushy.”
“I do insist, and I’ll make sure you have the best security possible. You’re working for the palace, so protection is more than appropriate. The new rules specify that if any of the Devereaux family is working for Chantaine, they shall be given security. You’re taking over the coordination for the conference for The Royal Society for A Better World, although I don’t know how you expect to do it with a baby and no husband,” he said.
“Single mothers have been accomplishing great things for ages,” she said. “I’ll have a nanny and two sisters willing to help.”
“Along with Eve,
” Stefan said of his wife. “She would kill me if I didn’t offer her assistance.”
Ericka smiled still amazed at the change Eve had wrought in her brother. The two were soul mates. Her happiness faded a little when she thought of her own future romantic prognosis. She wasn’t sure her soul mate existed. Brushing the thought aside, she knew it was silly for her to waste one moment on any ideas about romance. She had no time or energy for a man in her life right now.
“You’re always welcome at the palace if you should change your mind.”
“Thank you, but I won’t,” she said. “Now shall we cover a few issues about the upcoming conference?”
Stefan shot her a smile that held a hint of approval. “Down to business already?”
“I’ve been ready,” she said, and powered up her tablet.
* * *
Two days later, Stefan sent Ericka a text message informing her that one of his assistants would be bringing her security detail to her for introduction. Ericka frowned at her phone in response. This wasn’t the best time. She was tired and hadn’t even taken a shower yet. Leo hadn’t slept well and had been fussy throughout the night. Even though Nanny Marley was more than able to care for Leo, Ericka had wanted to soothe him. Ericka was finding it more difficult than she’d planned to turn Leo’s care over to someone else.
Silly. Ericka had never considered herself overly nurturing, but Leo had provoked powerful changes within her. Of course now that sunlight streamed through the windows of the cottage, Leo slept peacefully.
Yawning, she pulled her hair into a topknot and quickly changed clothes. She dashed to the bathroom to splash water on her face and brush her teeth. The introduction with her security detail shouldn’t take any longer than five minutes. After that, she planned to sneak in a little nap before working. Before Leo, Ericka would never have considered meeting someone without being turned out to as close to perfection as possible. Having a baby had changed her priorities.
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