by Linda Turner
“Oh, sweetheart, I would never do that to you.” Leaning over, he kissed her hungrily and wished he could hold her the way he longed to. But her hurt shoulder prevented that, so he had to be satisfied with just a kiss. “I love you,” he murmured, cupping her face in his hands. “I would never do anything to deliberately hurt you.”
“I love you, too,” she said softly, unable to stop the tears that spilled over her lashes. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“Once I fell in love with you, that was never a possibility.” His face somber, he took her hand again and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “There’s something you should know, sweetheart. Even before I came to Australia, I was thinking about retiring from SPEAR.”
“What? Why?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said quickly. “I believe in the agency and what it does, but I’ve been doing this for a long time now. I’m tired of the constant moving around. I want to put down roots somewhere and settle down. I thought maybe I’d go to Wisconsin and buy a farm, like my parents. What do you think? Would you be interested in marrying me and being a dairy farmer’s wife?”
Her heart expanding with love, Lise would have gone to the moon with him if he’d asked. But before she could tell him that, there was a knock at the door, and they both looked up to find Jeff standing in the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said gruffly, “but I just wanted to let you know we didn’t find anything in the barns and outbuildings. Headquarters wants us to extend the search to the rest of the station, so we’re going to be taking off in a few minutes, then head for Perth sometime tomorrow morning. Are you coming, Russell?”
Lise’s heart stopped cold in her breast, but she needn’t have worried. “No,” he said without hesitation. “I’m calling it quits. I’ll report to headquarters later to make it official, but for now, I’m staying here.”
“I wish you luck then,” Jeff said with a short salute. “Both of you.”
With a final nod, he disappeared from the doorway as quickly as he’d appeared, and almost immediately, they heard the helicopters fire to life on the airstrip. Long seconds later, they lifted into the night sky and fanned out over the station.
The silence left by their leave-taking was ripe with promise. His gray eyes smiling into hers, Russell arched a brow at her. “Well?”
Feeling like her heart suddenly had wings, Lise couldn’t seem to stop smiling. There’d been a time when she’d thought she’d never be able to forgive him for using her to get to Simon, but that was before she knew just how wicked her father was. Desperate situations called for desperate measures, and Russell the SPEAR operative did what he had to do to catch a dangerous terrorist. It was Russell the man who had made love to her, however. And it was that same man who made her fall in love with him.
Her heart in her eyes, she reached for him, needing his arms around her when she told him she would marry him. “I love you with all of my heart,” she said huskily. “Yes, I’ll marry you. As for Wisconsin, it sounds wonderful, but what about the Pear Tree Station? It’s mine, you know.”
Surprised, he said, “It is? I thought it was Simon’s.”
“He had it put in my mother’s name when they married, and it became mine when she died. Now I know why. He didn’t want it traced to him.”
“Son of a bitch,” Russell growled. “He hid behind his own wife and daughter.”
“He won’t do it again,” she promised. “Even if I’d let him—which I won’t—he’ll never come back here now that SPEAR knows about the place. So how do you feel about Australia? Would you be terribly disappointed if we owned and operated a cattle station here instead of a dairy farm in Wisconsin?”
Wondering how she could even ask that, he grinned and kissed her. “Are you kidding? Cows are cows. I love it here. Especially with you beside me. That’s all I need.”
“Me, too,” she said huskily, and realized that she’d never spoken truer words. As long as she had him beside her, nothing else mattered. Love shining in her eyes, she turned into his arms. It was the only place she wanted to be.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given
to Linda Turner for her contribution to the
A Year of Loving Dangerously series.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0698-4
THE ENEMY’S DAUGHTER
Copyright © 2001 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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