by Sharon Sala
“Okay,” Victoria said. “We’ll be just outside. I insist on taking my car. It’ll be easier, since I’m the tour guide and driver. Deal?”
“Deal!” they agreed.
Jenny went back into the room, and Chance and Victoria walked outside, laughing and talking as they made their way to her car.
Logan saw red. It flooded his vision, blurred his thoughts, and sent adrenaline flowing in overabundance. The car door flew open and he jumped out, roaring in anger at the attractive couple who’d just exited the motel lobby, arm in arm.
18
Victoria heard Logan coming before she saw him. She looked up in shock, then reacted by grabbing Chance’s arm and pushing him back. She started to run toward her father, convinced by the look on his face that he was out of control. She had to stop him and explain before he did something unforgivable and irreparable. Chance would be caught unaware, not knowing who this man was or why he was coming at him.
Victoria was not mistaken. Logan Henry was ready to kill.
“No, Daddy! Stop!” She grabbed her father by the shoulders, setting herself between the two men, stopping his advance.
Shouts flew out of his mouth and curses spilled from angry lips as Logan tried in vain to get past his daughter’s restraint.
Chance stared at him and realized it was the man from the club last night who had charged across the parking lot like a madman.
And Victoria was calling him…Daddy?
The world spun. Chance staggered from the onrush of images that flooded his mind. People’s faces suddenly had names…incidents were recalled in the flash of a heartbeat…and in that moment, in the heat of their argument, Chance saw his past…and remembered!
What he remembered nearly made him gag. Overwhelming, uncontrollable fury sent him forward. He yanked Victoria away from the man, blocked the punch that was coming his way, and pinned Logan Henry against his car in the space of seconds.
“You won’t ever…not ever…hit me, or anyone I care about…ever again,” Chance said.
The threat was quiet and obvious and real. In spite of his anger, in spite of his fury at the sight of his daughter side by side with the man who could ruin them all, Logan Henry shivered. He was trapped by the devil, and he knew it.
Chance’s eyes were dark and wild, his face contorted, like a predator ready for the kill. Logan’s arms grew numb from being pinned over his head. A vein in his temple began to throb, sending a thunderous pain shooting behind his eyeballs. He tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.
And then he and Chance were torn apart by a small whirlwind who shoved between them, shouting and pushing them aside in fury.
“Don’t touch him!” Jenny screamed.
Logan stepped back in shock. Who was this woman? And what did she have to do with Chance and Victoria?
“Jenny,” Chance was trying to get her under control. “Jenny! Listen to me! Get back before he hurts you.” All he could remember was another time…and another woman falling to the ground at this man’s hands.
Jenny stopped, her breasts heaving, her hands curled into fists.
Chance was shaking with rage. The adrenaline that had coursed through his body had overridden his nervous system. He didn’t know whether to just strangle the man and be done with it, or walk away. Neither seemed satisfactory. One would be too quick, the other lacked justice.
Jenny turned and threw herself into Chance’s arms, holding onto his strength. It was all she could do. When she’d come out of the lobby and seen the two big men in the first stages of a fight, all she’d thought was, Chance can’t be hurt again. If he suffered another blow to the head…
“Are you all right?” she asked, her voice muffled against the front of his shirt.
Chance took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The feel of her in his arms was beginning to calm his rage. She was shaking. At least he thought it was her. It could have been the thunder of his own heart. My God! I remember! I remember!
Victoria touched Chance’s arm in a gesture of appeal and then began to berate her father for his actions.
“Have you lost your mind?” she cried. “Look at you! You look like something the cat’s dragged up that the dog wouldn’t eat. You come out here…in broad daylight…in a public place…and try to start a fight. And what’s worse, for no reason!”
“What the hell is he doing here?” Logan snarled, pointing toward Chance. “I see you two coming out of a motel…what am I supposed to think? Better yet, what would Ken think?”
Victoria was livid. “Ken thinks you’re a bastard, Daddy. He always has. I’ve defended you for years. It seems I should have listened to my husband.”
Logan was dumbstruck. “Bastard? How dare—”
“Oh shut up!” she cried, and turned to Chance and Jenny. “I’m sorry…so sorry.” Embarrassment and shame made her want to cry.
Jenny spun out of Chance’s arms. She took it upon herself to answer Logan Henry’s question and accusations.
“I’ll tell you what Chance is doing! He came out here to find himself…and his memory. If you’re part of his past, I can see why he wanted to forget.” Her eyes were wild, her body shaking as she pummeled the man with words of accusation. “For the past twelve years, Chance’s whole past was a secret to me. But I didn’t care! I loved him for who he is…not who he was. Three months ago, he saved my life, and nearly died in the process.”
Logan felt sick. Everything he’d supposed had been wrong. As usual, he’d put his foot in sideways and had it stuck up his own ass.
“But I—”
“I’m not through talking to you,” Jenny said. “When I am, you get out of my face, but not until.”
“Jenny,” Chance said, starting to grin. “Honey! I am big enough to take care of myself…don’t you think?”
Jenny ignored him. He’d figured on as much and stood back, letting her have her say. There’d be no stopping her till she did.
“He was so close to dying…” Her voice broke, remembering how frightened she’d been. And then she got her second wind and started back in on Logan. “But he didn’t! The only problem was, when he finally woke up in the hospital, his memory was gone! Do you hear me? Gone!” Jenny thumped him on the chest with her forefinger, jabbing sharply with each word to emphasize her point. “He had to take everyone and everything on trust. There was no constant in his life.”
“I had you, Jenny. You were my constant, darlin’.” He came up behind her, slid his arms around her shoulders and pulled her up against his chest, holding her gently but firmly.
He wasn’t entirely sure it was safe to turn her loose yet. Jenny was a fury when threatened. He didn’t give a damn about Logan Henry, but he didn’t want Jenny to soil herself on the man.
Logan didn’t think it was possible to feel worse, but he soon discovered that he could. Victoria was giving him a look he hadn’t seen in years. It was somewhere between despair and disgust. Chance had already made it plain that his feelings hadn’t changed. And this little thing, this woman who was being barely restrained, wanted to whip his ass.
“You have to understand,” Logan finally managed to say. “It was what happened in the past that made me think…”
Jenny was furious. “I don’t have to understand anything but that you tried to hurt Chance. Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway?” she asked.
“He thinks he’s my father,” Chance said. His words hung in the air, silencing the others.
Jenny turned and stared at Chance. She was speechless. She looked back at the older man, seeing for the first time the resemblance. But for twenty pounds and the difference in years, they were nearly identical in features and build.
“Well, Good Lord!” Jenny said. And then her eyes lit up and her face beamed. “Chance! You remember, don’t you?”
He hugged her. “Yes, darlin’, I remember everything…and everyone.”
“I am your father,” Logan said. “Whether you like it or not. Whether you choose to ac
knowledge it or not.”
“I never had a choice, you son-of-a-bitch,” Chance said. “I didn’t even know you existed until it was too late. And then the way I found out…by accident. If it hadn’t been for Victoria…and me…you’d never have acknowledged it, and you know it.”
Chance saw the pain on Victoria’s face. For the first time in twelve years, he came face to face with the girl he’d left behind.
She smiled in silent recognition of what had been. It was time for what was to come.
A weight lifted, lightening the load of guilt Chance had carried for too long.
“I admit I made some mistakes,” Logan said. “But I tried to rectify them. I offered to help you—”
“On the day I buried my mother,” Chance snapped. “What did I need with your help then? Between the two of us, we’d already killed her.”
Jenny groaned. What she was hearing made her heartsick for Chance.
“What happened wasn’t your fault,” Logan said. “She…”
“What do you know about it? I came back from that dance beat all to hell and she wanted to know what was wrong. Do you know what I told her? I told her that I’d just met my father. That this was how glad he’d been to meet me.”
Jenny’s heart was breaking. The horror Chance had lived through would have ruined a lesser man. For the first time, she began to understand the reason for Chance’s reticence over the years, and his refusal to acknowledge that he’d loved her. How could he have loved anyone? No one seemed to have ever loved or wanted him…except possibly Victoria.
Jenny saw the look that passed between Chance and Victoria. She knew that once something had happened…something that obviously almost killed them both. She remembered the scars on Victoria’s wrists, and the hints Chance was making now about the relationship that had once existed between them. She wrapped her arms around her middle and tried not to shake. She just couldn’t lose Chance. Not now. Not when they’d finally found each other.
“As for guilt,” Chance continued, “I may as well have put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger myself. We had one hell of a fight, and the next morning she was dead. I’ve lived with that fact every day of my life since.”
“I told you I was sorry. I don’t know what else to say.” And then he remembered. “About your house…the one that burned. I’ve been paying the taxes on the property. I thought that maybe sometime you’d want to sell it and—”
“I don’t want a goddamned thing from you.” Chance’s voice was soft and low. “That’s why I burned the place to begin with. I’d spent my last night under a roof that you’d provided, however inadvertently. If the money came from you, I wanted nothing to do with it.”
“My God!” Logan whispered, and sank backward onto the bumper. “You burned it? Do you know how sick and afraid for you I was, watching that house crumble beneath the flames? It was just an accident that I was in town when it happened. We all thought you were inside when it burned. They searched for your body.”
“It was disappointing not to find it, wasn’t it?”
Chance’s accusation ripped at Logan’s heart. He flushed and buried his face in his hands.
“Go home, Daddy,” Victoria said. “Take a bath, doctor your face, and I’ll be along later. We have to talk.”
Sadness tinged her voice as she stared her father down. She breathed a sigh of relief as he nodded.
They watched him drive away.
“I’m sorry.”
It was all she could say. Victoria was trembling, trying desperately not to break down and cry in the middle of the motel parking lot in broad daylight.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Chance said. He wrapped her in a hug, patted her gently on the back, and nodded in agreement at Jenny’s silent indication that she’d see him back in the room. “And, by God, neither have I!”
Victoria looked up and smiled. “It sounds good to hear you say that,” she said. “Listen, enough of this.” She’d noticed Jenny’s disappearance. “I’m going to leave now. I think you and Jenny need a little time alone. Ken will be home tomorrow. Please come out to the house and have dinner with us. He wants to meet you and Jenny. The boys will be ecstatic to learn they have an uncle.”
“I don’t know,” Chance said. He had no desire to come into contact with Logan Henry again.
“Daddy won’t be there,” she assured him. “I’ll see to that. In fact, I’d better go now. He and I have a long discussion ahead of us, and I intend to corner him before he can wangle his way out.”
Chance nodded and then escorted Victoria to her car.
“Chance?”
“What?” he asked.
“I always wanted a brother.”
He looked at that clear green gaze, once so familiar, and finally smiled. “You may have gotten more than you bargained for,” he said.
“I don’t think so.” And then she was gone.
Chance didn’t linger in the parking lot. Seeing Jenny again was suddenly the most important thing. The last thing he remembered was her beneath Cheyenne’s hooves, only seconds away from death. Since then, much had come and gone between them, but not as far as Chance was concerned. He was still stuck in that time frame, sick with fear, hopelessly in love. He needed to hold her.
“Are you all right?” Jenny asked as Chance burst through the door, looking at her as if he’d seen a ghost.
He hung out the “Do Not Disturb” sign, slammed and locked the door, and scooped her off her feet.
“What?” Jenny was dumbfounded.
“I need to hold you,” he said as he carried her to the bed. “I know a lot has happened between us, darlin’.” He stretched out on top of her, lifting himself above her with his elbows as he threaded his fingers through her hair. “But, mentally, I’m still caught in the fear of seeing you underneath that goddamned horse.”
“Oh, Chance.” She wrapped her arms around him.
Chance knew that he’d made love to Jenny numerous times. But in his heart, this would be the first. Remembering the last twelve years of their lives was going to make this time more special than anything that had gone before.
“Jenny…”
“What, Chance?”
“I want to make love to you…very badly.”
She smiled. “It won’t be the first time,” she said.
“It will be for me, darlin’. It will for me.”
The impact of his words brought tears to her eyes. Jenny knew just what to do. She nodded, let her arms fall to her sides, and waited, allowing him to do with her as he wished. The trust was implicit.
Chance saw what she offered. He had no words to express what he was feeling, but he could show her.
He tried to prolong the unveiling of Jenny by slowly removing one garment at a time, but the more that he saw, the more that he wanted. His hands were shaking, his breath coming in deep, aching gulps as she allowed him access to the buttons and zippers. The pink blouse slid away to the floor, followed by the matching pink slacks and shoes. An ivory teddy was all that remained of a barrier, and it too quickly disappeared.
He exhaled his breath in a soft grunt as he leaned back on the heels of his boots and saw blue heaven in her eyes. She was so tiny, yet so much woman. Her breasts enticed, her arms beckoned as she lifted them and began to help him unsnap his shirt.
And then he was lying, body to body, beside her. He closed his eyes and let his fingers trace what he could not see—peaked nipples, satin skin warm to his touch. Her heart was beating a rapid tattoo beneath his fingers as he lingered over her breasts.
And then Jenny’s hands encircled him and brought him to life, instantly, achingly. His manhood pulsed under her caress, and then thrust forward uncontrollably as she teased him into a frenzy.
A sheen of perspiration broke out across his body as he slid his hand across her belly and beyond. She opened instantly, moving her legs enough to give him access to any part of her he chose. He chose it all.
He’d meant to wait. To bri
ng her closer to fulfillment before he took her, but it was impossible. The sweet sound of her little moan in his ear, the sensation of her legs encircling him and drawing him inside were more than he could bear. He sank, deep and low, and shuddered, trying to maintain control of a maverick body that wanted to be turned loose inside the heat of Jenny.
Control was impossible. He could feel her pulling at him, warming, coaxing, and it was too much to resist. He moved once, twice, and then constantly, cherishing her with his body in a gentle but possessive way.
Jenny inhaled once, deeply, as he entered her. Joy came and went with the touch of her man and what he was doing.
When she moved, he went with her. If she shifted on the bed, he went deeper, if she arched, he moved higher. They were on a fast ride to heaven.
Jenny could feel it beginning. The hum…the high-pitched signal of love that was starting to spiral through her. Words were impossible…and unnecessary. But she couldn’t control her gasp of pleasure.
“Ohhh!”
Chance felt the whisper against his cheek as she moaned in passion. It felt good. It felt right. Jenny was his. She’d always belong to him. And then thoughts became jumbled as his blood coursed, building and building into an uncontrollable pressure that suddenly broke and spilled. From him, to her, with love.
Time meant nothing. Chance had no idea how long he’d been holding her, but he knew it would never be long enough.
Love for Jenny the girl and Jenny the woman were all mixed up inside him. She’d loved him her whole life—unequivocally, without restraint, without reservations. And she’d waited for him to admit his love, sometimes patiently and sometimes not, but she’d waited.
He buried his face in her hair and knew that he was the luckiest man in the world. Remembering the men that Marcus had dangled in front of her made him crazy. I came too close to losing you, girl.
“I love you, Jennifer Ann,” he whispered.
She smiled and curled herself a little closer.
“I love you, too. And that’s why I’m going to leave this afternoon.”
