He reached down, captured her hand and pulled her to her feet. ‘Marco, do you mind if I steal your daughter away for a bit?’
Marco grabbed the handle of the basket before Dominic could march off with her. ‘You take good care of her.’
‘I will, sir. I promise.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t I get any say in...?’ Dominic pulled her through the crowd and her words trailed off. He obviously had no intention of listening to a single word she said. She should pull him to a halt and snatch her hand from his, but she couldn’t imagine making such a scene in front of all these people.
And a treacherous part of her didn’t want to fight him. That stupid, treacherous part of her wanted to leave her hand in his and go with him wherever he led. For ever.
For ever? Ha! That wasn’t going to happen.
And pretending it could, even for five minutes, would only lead to more heartbreak. So when he towed her outside through the giant carousel and into the cool of the evening air, she did pull him to a stop. ‘Where are we going?’
‘The beach.’ He gestured to the beach below them, the sand silver in the starlight.
‘Why?’
He urged her forward again. ‘Why?’ she demanded, doing her best to resist him.
‘I need to talk to you.’
‘Why can’t we talk inside?’
‘I want privacy.’
‘But—’
He rounded on her, his eyes fierce. ‘Do you want me to carry you?’
She pursed her lips. That could be kind of nice. He had shoulders to die for...
She cut the thought off. ‘Fine,’ she snapped. ‘The beach.’
He didn’t speak again, even once they reached the sand. He led her down to the deserted southern end of the beach. He spread out a picnic blanket. He took her hand and led her across to it and urged her to sit. He opened a bottle of champagne and poured her a glass. He spread strawberries onto a plate and set them in front of her. He served a slice of chocolate mud cake and handed it to her.
And then he paced up and down in front of her in the sand. She stared at the goodies, she stared at him, and frowned. ‘Um, Dominic, aren’t you going to have anything?’
He swung to her. ‘These are all your favourite things, right?’
‘Yes, yes,’ she assured him because it seemed so important to him. He stared pointedly at the plate she held so she forced herself to take a bite and couldn’t stifle a groan of pure delight. ‘Man, this stuff is good.’
She was starving! She’d been too keyed up to eat earlier and too busy afterwards to even think about food. She took another bite, wondering at the satisfaction that rippled across Dominic’s features before he set to pacing again.
She held in a sigh. ‘So let me guess. This is a thank-you for all my hard work and to celebrate our success, right?’ He obviously wanted to be terribly adult about their relationship. She just wished they could drop the pretence and go their separate ways as quickly as they could.
Working day in and day out with Dominic had become a kind of torture and she wasn’t a sadist. She’d come to realise that a quick and clean break would be for the best.
‘This is about me not being a sap.’
Good Lord, where had that come from? She eyed him warily. ‘Um, of course you’re not.’
‘I’m not like my father.’
She stilled. He stopped pacing to turn to her. ‘I only realised that—’ he glanced at his watch ‘—about fifteen minutes ago.’
‘I...’ She moistened her lips. She didn’t know what to say. Being here with him like this was hell, but she didn’t want to leave. Not now.
‘You made me realise that, Bella.’
Her? How?
‘And once I did, a whole string of epiphanies followed.’
They had?
‘You told me you loved me but I walked away.’
She stared out at the water, at the path silvered by the moon, and swallowed hard, keeping her eyes unnaturally wide until the burning in them receded. When she was sure her voice would work she said, ‘That’s true.’
‘But you maintained your dignity.’
Her head snapped up at that.
‘That’s something my father never managed.’ He stared at her, his eyes two fierce points of light in the semi-darkness. ‘But I am not like my father.’
Her heart started to beat hard. ‘Why are you telling me this?’
He crouched down in front of her. ‘So that you’ll know, when I ask you in a minute to marry me, that I’m serious and that I mean it.’
Her piece of mud cake slid right off the plate to land on the blanket with a soft plop.
‘Bella,’ he chided. ‘You’re supposed to eat it, not drop it. Never mind, you can have my piece.’ He scooped it off the blanket and back onto the plate and then grabbed a napkin to clean his hand and the blanket.
She watched him in a frozen haze. Finally she grabbed the napkin from his hand and tossed it somewhere behind her. She rose up on her knees to grab the lapels of his jacket and pull him down to the blanket beside her. ‘What did you just say?’ Her voice wobbled dangerously.
‘I want to marry you. I love you, Bella, and I want you to know that I’m for real.’
Her chest and her throat grew too tight with the suspense, with the fear and the hope. She hauled in a breath and promptly burst into tears.
‘Don’t cry!’ He rubbed her shoulders. ‘Hell, Bella, I didn’t mean to make you cry!’
The horror in his voice almost made her smile.
‘Damn it!’ His hands tightened around her shoulders. ‘It’s the sunset, isn’t it? I didn’t manage the sunset. The timing’s all wrong and—’
‘Shut up about the sunset,’ she ordered through her tears, gulping her sobs back. She had far more important things to do at the moment than cry. ‘Tell me why you love me. Make me believe you want to marry me.’
His face gentled. He traced a finger down her cheek. ‘Bella, before I met you my life was blank, grey...monotonous.’
She tossed her head. ‘You have a great job that you’re brilliant at. How can that not be satisfying? You’ve slept with a lot of beautiful women. How could that be dull?’
‘My high-flying career merely ensures that the wolf is never at my door again. It has nothing to do with filling a greater need or a passion. And the women...’ He dragged a hand down his face. ‘None of them touched my heart.’
He pulled his hand away, his eyes intense. ‘And then I met you and I knew you had a secret. I knew your life would never be blank or grey, with boredom stretching out in front of you as far as you could see like some bad joke. I mean, I had everything, right? Why couldn’t I be happy?’
Her heart thumped so loud she was sure he could hear it.
‘So I decided I would watch you, get to know you, so I could discover where your relish for life came from and why it was you saw everything in brighter colours than I did.’
‘Did you find an answer?’
‘It was one of my epiphanies.’
‘And?’ She blinked. What was her secret?
‘Love,’ he said softly. ‘You’re not afraid to love. You care about so many different things and it gives you joy and enthusiasm and life.’
Except when he’d walked away from her after she’d told him she loved him. That blankness he’d described had descended on her then.
‘And it hit me that I’ve spent my entire life trying not to care about things because you never know when they might be taken away—trying not to care about people because you never knew when they’d let you down.’
She reached out to lay a hand against his cheek. ‘Oh, Dominic,’ she whispered. He’d lost so much. She didn’t blame him for protecting his heart.
‘I don’t want to live like that any more, Bella. Since I’ve met you I haven’t had a single dull moment. A lot of frustrating ones, perhaps, but no dull ones. You make my life so much brighter, clearer, better. I love you. I never knew I could lo
ve someone so...hard. So please, Bella, will you marry me? Will you build a life with me? Will you be mine for ever?’
She pulled her hand from his face and clutched it in her lap. Her heart thumped so hard that for a moment she couldn’t speak. ‘Dominic, if I walked away from you now, what would you do?’
His face twisted. His pain wrapped about her and she almost relented, but she needed to know his answer. More importantly, she suspected that he needed to know the answer.
He sat back on his heels. ‘I wouldn’t blame you for it, Bella. I’ve treated you shockingly.’ His eyes suddenly flamed. ‘But I will not do what my father did! I will not fall apart. He thought he could only find strength and meaning in his relationships with women. You’ve shown me that’s not true. I will keep working hard. I will develop friendships with people I like. I will find hobbies I enjoy and immerse myself in those.’ He stilled and swallowed. ‘Are you going to walk away, Bella?’
Not a chance! She shifted until she was kneeling in front of him. ‘Are you sure you know what you’re letting yourself in for? I’ll want a dog.’
‘We’ll get two.’
‘I want a house in the suburbs.’
‘A big one,’ he agreed, ‘that we can fill with children. And not too far from Marco, so he can visit whenever he wants.’
Her heart threatened to beat a path clean out of her chest. ‘I don’t want a husband who spends two or three months at a time away from home.’
‘I’m not leaving you for two or three days, let alone two or three months.’ He shook his head emphatically. ‘We’re going to build that dream restaurant of yours. You and me.’
They were? Her heart started to soar.
‘You cook the best food I have ever eaten in my life but you couldn’t design a realistic business-plan to save your life—you’d blow the budget. That’s where you need me. I’ll keep you on budget. Plus I can play host whenever you need me to. Plus someone will need to look after the children when you’re busy.’
She took his face in her hands. ‘Dominic, I want you to be happy. You don’t have to want all those things, too. I will take you any way you come. We can compromise and—’
‘I don’t want to compromise, Bella. Those are the things I want. That’s the life I want. With you.’
She wondered if she had stars in her eyes because his face grew soft. ‘Dominic,’ she whispered. ‘Most of all I just want you. Yes, I would love to marry you. Nothing could make me happier.’
He grinned. It was slow in coming, but when it did it was low and wide and it made her pulse jump. ‘You said yes.’ His smile grew kind of goofy. ‘You said yes,’ he repeated.
She found herself starting to laugh. ‘This is the part where you’re supposed to kiss me.’
He wrapped an arm about her waist and pulled her flush up against him. His free hand tipped her chin up before caressing the skin of her throat. The goofiness vanished and pure wickedness replaced it. ‘Your every wish,’ he murmured against her lips, before he captured them in a kiss that Bella prayed would never end.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt of The Cowboy Comes Home by Patricia Thayer!
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CHAPTER ONE
WILLIE NELSON’S “On the Road Again” poured out of the open windows of Johnny Jameson’s truck as he drove along the country road. It was January in Texas, but he was energized by the cold air, knowing the temperature would rise to triple digits soon enough come spring. No matter what the weather, he’d much rather be outside than cooped up indoors.
He always liked to keep on the move. Never felt the need to stay at any one place too long. More times than he could count, he had lived out of his vehicle.
He’d been lucky lately. The jobs came to him, and he could pick and choose what he wanted to take on. That was the reason he was coming to Larkville. He’d been intrigued when he’d heard the job description. Also because Clay Calhoun and his prize quarter horses were legendary in Texas. But before he got too excited, he wanted to assess the situation before he made any promises to the man, or to the job. If there still was a job, since the offer had been made months ago.
He’d been delayed by a stubborn colt, but after he’d finished training it, the thoroughbred was worth what the owner had paid. When he’d called Calhoun to let him know he’d be delayed with previous commitments, he’d ended up talking to Clay’s son Holt, who’d explained that his father was ill, but assured him that the job would be there whenever he arrived at the ranch. Johnny had said to expect him around the first of the year.
As it turned out it was the first of the year, and he was finally headed for the Double Bar C Ranch. He glanced in the rearview mirror at his trailer, and his precious cargo, Risky Business, his three-year-old roan stallion.
His attention focused back ahead and on the southeast Texas landscape of rolling hills and pastures that had the yellow hue of winter. He looked toward a group of bare trees and a cattle water trough nestled at the base. There was also a visitor, one beautiful black stallion. The animal reared up, fighting to get loose from his lead rope that seemed to be caught on something.
He glanced around to see if anyone was nearby. Not a soul. He pulled his truck to the side of the road and got out. After walking back to check his own horse, he headed toward the open pasture to hopefully save another.
* * *
Jess knew she was going to be blamed for this.
Since her brother Holt was away on personal business, her sister, Megan, was away at school and her brother Nate was in the army, she was the one family member around to handle Double Bar C emergencies. Even though she really wasn’t involved in the day-to-day running of the ranch—Holt was in charge of that—she knew finding Night Storm had to take top priority.
The bigger problem was, how do you find, much less bring back, a rogue stallion? No one but Clay Calhoun had ever been able to handle the valuable quarter horse. Now that Dad was gone, the question was what to do with Storm.
The ranch foreman, Wes Brogan, had decided to let the animal out to the fenced pasture, but before Wes was able to transport Storm there, the horse broke away.
When she’d gotten the call early this morning, she immediately went to the barn, saddled up Goldie and rode out to find Storm. She’d been on a horse since she was a baby, so there wasn’t any problem keeping up with the ranch hands. To cover more ground, the crew took off in different directions of the vast Calhoun land and so Jess set off on her own.
The Double Bar C had been in the family for generations, and her father had worked hard so it would remain with the Calhouns for many more. Big Clay had loved his horses, especially this stallion, but there had been trouble since Storm had arrived at the ranch. The valuable horse had been mistreated in the past. Eventually Storm began to trust her father somewhat, but since Clay’s death a few months back, the horse’s behavior had gotten worse and no one had been able to handle him.
She sighed, feeling the bite of the January cold against her cheeks. She slowed her horse as they came to the rise and suddenly caught a spot of black. Taking out her binoculars, she saw the welcome sight.
“Hallelujah!” she cried out, seeing Storm. Then she looked again and saw a man holding on to his lead rope. She didn’t recognize him as one of the hands, then she spotted a truck and trailer alongside the road.
“Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not going to steal Double Bar C property.” She kicked her heels into the mare and they shot off.
* * *
Johnny had worked with the horse for close to thirty minutes and had made some headway. The animal was still in distress, but at least Johnny had gotten close enough to loop a rope around his neck so he could calm the animal.
And what a beauty he was. His glistening black coat looked well cared for, he thought as he kept the spirited stallion moving in a circle. He pulled the rope taut, knowing he would need an arena to truly work him.
The horse got more agitated when he heard a rider approach, but Johnny couldn’t take his attention from his task.
“What do you think you’re doing on Calhoun land?”
He was surprised to hear the female voice.
“Trying to help this valuable horse.” He managed to maneuver around to see her.
“He’s not your valuable horse—he belongs to my father.”
He noticed the pretty buckskin mare, then he lifted his gaze to the tall blond beauty who sat straight in the saddle. Her long slender legs hugged the animal’s flanks and she controlled her horse as if she were born to ride.
“Then maybe I should be having this conversation with Mr. Calhoun.”
He heard her gasp, followed by, “That’s a little difficult since his death.”
Thrown by the news, Johnny slowed the stallion but when the animal acted up, he turned his attention back to him.
“Please accept my condolences, Ms.…”
“Jess Calhoun.” She took her lariat off her saddle. “What do you need me to do?”
Back to the problem at hand. “If you can manage it, throw another rope over the stallion’s head?” he asked.
“Storm. The horse’s name is Night Storm.”
She swung the rope overhead and it took a few tries, but she finally hit her target.
Bella's Impossible Boss Page 18
