“I was wrong, horribly wrong.” The clear hurt he heard within her burst of fury made his tone humble. “Forgive me.”
His wife averted her gaze and lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “Why should I?”
“Have mercy on me sweetheart,” He continued without pause, tried to make her understand. “Being without you would kill me.” Ben cupped her chin and turned her face so he could look into red-rimmed eyes. “I need you in my arms every night and to wake up every morning beside you.” He put gentle fingers over her lips when she started to make a sound. “I can’t promise I won’t behave like a jackass again, but I’ll love you like no other.”
“Ben,” Her soft sigh feathered his hand.
“Please honey. I’ll find work, buy us land and build you a nice cabin, big enough for a family. I’ll give you your dream.”
Evie took hold of his hand, pulled down so she could speak clearly. “All I want is you.”
“Does that mean … ?”
“I should make you wait, work harder to persuade me.”
His lips brushed hers then Ben framed her face with his hands, his gaze held hers. “You are my life.”
“I love you,” Evie melted against him, unable to resist.
“So you’ll forgive me? Give me a second chance?”
Her hand came up to rest her palm on his cheek, “Yes and-”
Her husband whooped, jumped to his feet and tossed his hat in the air. The loud unexpected sound spooked Sugar. The mare leaped over the rickety fence and took off. He shook his head, fell back onto the soft grass next to his wife and laughed.
“Ben-”
“Guess I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Probably not,” Her tone indulgent, Evie smiled even as she shook her head. “I need to tell yo-”
“How much you adore me?”
“I do but Ben in Sugar’s sa-”
“Don’t worry about the mare. She won’t go far,” He reached over, toyed with the long loose locks of dark hair that tumbled over her shoulders.
“That’s good but-”
His fingers caressed the side of her neck. “We’ll track her down in no time.”
“Okay but-”
“Have a little faith in your husband.”
“I do I just need to tell you-”
“Does it involve imminent danger?” He stroked her cheek.
“No but-”
“It can wait. I’ve something more important to attend to.”
Her lips curved, hinted at a smile. He was right. There’d plenty of time later to talk about the money.
“Tracking down Sugar?”
“We’ll go after the mare in a minute or two.”
A sparkle in her eyes, Evie leaned closer, “Why not now?”
“Because,” Ben tugged her onto his lap. “I need a taste of my wife.” He captured her mouth in hungry possession and kissed her senseless.
About Impulse
Impulse is a new digital first imprint that will publish romance fiction for today’s woman – bought to you from the women’s fiction team at HarperCollins.
Our aim is to find, publish and break new talent from debut authors and import the hottest trends from the US. Whether that is through short reads for your mobile phone or epic sagas that span the generations - we want to proudly publish romance fiction that gets everybody talking.
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HarperImpulse an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2013
Copyright © Lori Connelly 2013
Cover Photographs © shutterstock.com
Lori Connelly asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 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 HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © August 2013 ISBN: 9780007544486
Version 2013-08-01
Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.
Lori Connelly Page 24