The #1 Bestsellers Collection 2011

by Catherine Mann

  “You never want to ‘do’ this, Adam. That’s the problem.”

  “I don’t have time for it, all right?”

  “Why don’t you schedule me in for a week from Tuesday, Adam? Will I get one minute? Or two?”

  He blew out a breath, reached out one hand to her, but she skipped back to avoid his touch. Adam sighed. “You know as well as I do, I’ve got responsibilities.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  He was irritated, angry and just a little weary of this whole situation. Monica had less and less patience with what she saw as Adam’s “preoccupation” with the King ranch. And as she pulled further away from him, he did the same. The ranch was his family’s legacy. It took time. Dedication.

  The car door closed behind Jeremy and he looked to see his son pull the seat belt across his chest and hook it securely.

  Glancing back at his wife, Adam said, “Can we not do this now? I’ve got a meeting.”

  “Right.” She shook her head, blond hair flying in a tight, short arc around her jawline. “Wouldn’t want you to miss a meeting just because of your family.”

  “Damn it, Monica.”

  “Damn you, Adam.” She turned and stalked to the car without another look at him. Just before she opened the car door, though, she allowed her gaze to lock with his. “Not that you’ll notice or anything, but I thought you should know—we’re not coming back. Jeremy and I are driving to my mother’s in San Francisco. I’ll let you know where to send our things once we’re settled.”

  “Just a damn minute,” Adam said, starting for her.

  But she hopped into the car, fired the engine and raced down the driveway before he could get to her. He watched dust and gravel fantail up behind the wheels of her car. The sun beat down on his head and shoulders and despite the heat, he felt cold. Right down to his bones.

  The dust settled and still he stood there, watching after the car carrying his wife and son away from him. Then the alarm on his watch beeped and he idly reached to turn it off. He had to leave for the meeting. He’d give Monica a chance to cool off. Then they’d talk. Work this out.

  He headed for his SUV.

  First things first. He had just enough time to make that meeting.

  Twenty minutes later, Jeremy and Monica were dead.

  Adam came up out of the past with a jolt.

  It had been years since he’d allowed himself to remember that day. But now, it had all rushed back at him because of the child, still laughing, in the corral.

  Adam felt as though a steel clamp was on his chest and it was tightening with every strangled breath he took. His eyes narrowed until he was looking at Gina and the boy as if down a long, dark tunnel. He might as well have been miles away. Sunlight splashed down on the two of them, as if defining the difference between Adam in the shadows, and his wife, in the golden rush of light.

  Then Gina caught sight of him, smiled and waved. He stiffened at the warmth in her gaze, the welcome in her smile. He hadn’t wanted this. Still didn’t want it.

  He could admit that over the last couple of months, he’d become too accustomed to her presence. The scent of her in the house. The feel of her in his arms. He turned to her in the night and listened for her during the day. This was a temporary arrangement that was beginning to seem far too permanent.

  When he didn’t answer her wave, only stared at her out of cold, empty eyes, Gina frowned slightly, then shifted her gaze back to the boy on the horse.

  “She’s good with kids, isn’t she?”

  Adam slowly turned his head to nod at Gina’s brother Tony, walking toward him. He hadn’t even known the man was on the ranch.

  Tony pulled the brim of his hat down lower over his eyes to combat the glare of the sun. He stopped beside Adam and shot a look at his sister. “Mama sent me over with some of her homemade bread. Thought I’d watch Gina for a while before going back to the ranch.” He turned an interested look on Adam. “Looks like I’m not the only one watching her.”

  Adam frowned at him. “Did you have a point?”

  Tony grinned. “Only one. That look you were giving Gina just then makes me think that maybe this temporary arrangement might be coming to mean a little more to you.”

  “You’re wrong.” Couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, watching Gina with that child had just brought home to Adam the fact that he had to get her out of his life. The sooner the better. He wanted his old insular life back.

  “See, I don’t think so.” Tony wandered to the barn, leaned back into a patch of shade and folded his arms over his chest. “I admit, I sided with Mom about this marriage. Seemed like a bad idea all the way around to me. But,” he said, pausing to briefly look at his sister again, “Gina’s happy here. And I think you’re happier with her here, too.”

  Adam’s features closed. He stared at Tony, deliberately keeping his gaze from the temptation of Gina. “You’re wrong about that, too. Haven’t you heard, Tony? I don’t do happy.”

  “You used to.”

  “Used to do a lot of things,” he said shortly, turning his back on his uninvited guest, as well as his wife, and heading back into the barn.

  Tony, of course, followed him. “You just determined to be a miserable bastard, Adam?”

  “Go with your strengths,” he said, never stopping, never turning for a look back at the other man. He didn’t want to make nice with Gina’s family. He didn’t want to watch Gina and feel a yearning. He wanted his world back the way it had been before Gina had become a part of it.

  He walked straight to the rear of the barn and into the tiny office. Jerking his head at his foreman, an unspoken message was passed between them. The other man jumped out of the chair, nodded to Adam and Tony, then hurried out of the office, muttering something about seeing if Gina needed any help at the corral.

  Adam didn’t watch him go. If there’d been a door on the office, he’d have slammed it. But he had a feeling, that wouldn’t have slowed Tony down anyway. Like his sister, the man refused to be ignored.

  “So what’s the deal, Adam? You too scared to admit you care for my sister?”

  Adam’s head snapped up and he shot Tony a glare with so much ice in it, the man should have been sliced to ribbons. Naturally Tony looked unmoved. “My brothers don’t get away with talking to me like that. What makes you think you can?”

  Tony shrugged indolently, then took off his wide-brimmed hat and ran one hand through his hair. Lifting his gaze to Adam’s, he said, “Because I’m worried about my sister and I figure you can understand that.”

  Damn, he was right. Adam did understand all too well. Family loyalty. The instinct to defend and protect. These were things the Kings were raised with as well as the Torinos. So he was willing to cut Tony some slack in that department. But that didn’t mean that he was willing to discuss his private life. Or his marriage to Tony’s sister.

  “I get it,” Adam said. “But I’m still telling you to butt out. Gina and I will handle what’s between us without your help or anyone else’s.”

  “That may be the way you want it,” Tony mused, stepping into the room. He put his hat back on, bent down and planted both palms on the edge of the cluttered desk. “But that’s not how it works. Gina’s family. My baby sister. I look after my own.”

  “So do I,” Adam countered.

  “That right?” Tony’s eyebrows lifted. “Not how I remember it.”

  Adam flushed and felt the rising tide of anger rush up from the soles of his feet to fill his head and his vision until the very edges of it were a cloudy red. “You got something else to say, say it and get out.”

  Tony pushed up from the desk and scrubbed a hand over his mouth as if he could physically call back the words he’d just said. “That was out of line. I’m sorry.”

  Adam nodded, but he wasn’t willing to give more than that.

  “All I’m saying is, you’re an idiot if you don’t give what you’ve got with Gina a real chance, Adam. And I don’t figure you for an idiot.
”

  “Tony, what are you doing?”

  Both men turned to face Gina, standing in the doorway of the small office. She looked from one man to the other, fury flashing in her eyes and Adam felt a solid punch of something that was much more than desire.

  That’s when he knew for sure he was in trouble.

  “I thought you were with the horses.”

  She brushed that aside with a wave of her hand and narrowed her eyes on her older brother. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Sam’s taking Danny around and talking to his parents. I want to know what you’re doing here.”

  “I’m having a talk with my brother-in-law,” Tony told her easily, but being a wise man, he took a short step back.

  “And you?” She shifted her look to Adam.

  “Let it go, Gina,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s over,” Adam said with a glance at Tony as if to make sure of that fact. “Isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” Tony nodded and edged toward the door, clearly trying to slip past his sister before she could turn her fury directly on him. “It’s over. Adam? Good to see you.”

  Adam nodded again and waited until Tony was gone before looking at the woman who was his wife. And only then did Tony’s words reverberate through his mind.

  It’s over.

  If only, Adam thought, staring into Gina’s amber-colored eyes, it were that easy.

  Ten

  When Tony left, it was as if Gina were alone in the small, cramped office. Adam, though physically present, had shut himself down so completely, it was as if he’d forgotten she was even there.

  “Adam,” she said, moving in closer, despite the unwelcoming chill in the room, “what’s going on? What were you and Tony talking about? And why do you look so angry?”

  “Angry?” He glanced at her and his eyes were cool, dispassionate. “I’m not angry, Gina. I’m simply busy.” To make his point, he picked up a sheaf of papers, straightened them and tucked them into a manila file folder.

  “Uh-huh. Too busy to talk to me but not too busy to talk to Tony, is that it?”

  He swiveled in the desk chair, propped his elbows on the narrow, cushioned arms and folded his fingers together. Tipping his head to one side, he said, “Your brother showed up, I had no choice but to talk to him. Just as I had no choice but to put my own work aside when I heard that boy screaming.”

  Gina shrugged and tried a smile. It didn’t get a reaction out of him. “Danny was excited, that’s all. His parents are buying the young mare for him and his sister and it was his first ride.”

  “I didn’t ask why the child screamed,” Adam said, then reached for a pen laying on the desk. Absently clicking the top of it, he continued. “I only said the noise is distracting. I’m not used to having all of these people coming and going from the ranch. And I don’t like it.”

  Now Gina flushed a little with the small whip of anger that jolted her. The way he sounded, she might as well have been holding parades every day. One or two people a week was nothing. It was normal. And hey, if he’d come out of the barn or his office and talk to them, maybe he might not hate it so much. Instead he kept himself in solitude. He was always working. On the phone, riding the ranch on one of his horses, closeted in the office with buyers.

  Fine for him to lose himself in his own business, but he didn’t want to allow her the same privilege. Her business was as important to her as the ranch itself was to Adam. You would have thought he could appreciate that, at least.

  Still, no point in arguing with a man whose expression clearly stated he was looking for a battle. She didn’t really want to fight with him anyway. Instead she wanted to reach him. Reach the Adam she’d known as a girl. The one who’d always stood up for her. The one she knew was still locked away deep inside him.

  So when Gina spoke, she kept her tone reasonable, despite the flare of what her mother liked to call the Torino Temper.

  “I’ve only had a few people a week over, Adam. They have to come to see the Gypsies in person. I have to see the way they are around the horses. There’s simply no way to avoid it even if I wanted to. Which, by the way, I don’t.”

  “I don’t want these people around.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” She wouldn’t give in. She loved him, but she wasn’t going to stand still for having Welcome tattooed on her forehead, either.

  His mouth flattened into a slash of disapproval. “This isn’t working out, Gina.”

  “This?” she repeated, with a wave of her hand. “This what? The horses? The people?”

  “The marriage,” he said shortly.

  She rocked back on her heels a little from the force of that smack down. Her stomach tightened and an ache settled around her heart. But through the pain, her mind started racing. What had brought this on? She thought back over the day and all she could find was little Danny’s scream. Then something hit her and she felt badly that it hadn’t occurred to her before.

  “It was Danny, wasn’t it?” Her voice was a whisper of concern. “Little Danny’s scream started all this.”

  His face froze, so Gina knew she’d touched on the truth. She should have realized. He’d lost a son. Of course that child’s scream would tear at him. Bring back memories of another child, that one lost to him forever.

  “The boy has nothing to do with this.”

  “I think you’re wrong.”

  “Of course you do,” he said. “But that doesn’t really matter.”

  “Adam, it does matter.” She took a step closer to him, her momentary rush of anger dying in a swell of sympathy. “Hearing Danny made you think of Jeremy.”

  If possible, the scowl on his face deepened. His dark eyes shuttered and before she could say anything else, Adam stood up and faced her.

  “This isn’t about my son. Don’t bring the past into this.”

  “The past colors everything we have now,” she argued.

  “Maybe in your world, but the past does not influence me.” He glared at her and Gina knew he actually believed that lie. But she also knew the truth. She knew that when he’d heard Danny’s joyful scream, it had touched something inside him. Something he kept locked away from everyone.

  “This isn’t about that boy. This is about the deal we struck. I realize we made a bargain,” he said, his eyes as cold as ever, his words as unaffected by emotion as the robotic voice of a computer. “One which, I’m sure you’ll admit, I’ve done my very best to honor.”

  “Yes,” she said tightly, trying to ignore the rush of heat that swam through her at the mere thought of the nights she spent in his arms. If she hadn’t been using her diaphragm religiously, she had no doubt that she’d be pregnant. Her mom had always said they were a fertile bunch and heaven knew Adam had certainly put everything he had into making the child they’d agreed on. “You have. As have I,” she pointed out quickly.

  “True.”

  Did his eyes warm up there for a second? Was he, too, thinking about their nights together? Or was it only wishful imagining on Gina’s part?

  “But,” he said, capturing her attention again, “since we’ve been married more than two months and you’re not pregnant yet, it might be time to reconsider the bargain.”

  “What?” She hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t thought that Adam would want to walk away from a deal that promised him the deed to the land he wanted so badly. But if he did want out, what could she do about it? Clearly she hadn’t been able to get him to open up yet. So was she supposed to pick up her toys and go home? Forget about her time here? With him? Try to move on?

  Oh, good God.

  As if needing more room for this conversation, Adam stepped past her and walked into the shadow-filled barn. The mingled scents of horses, fresh hay and old wood made an almost comforting aroma. She walked to join him and kept her gaze on his even when he turned his head to stare out at the sun-washed yard beyond the open doors.

  “You want to end the bargain?” she asked, and win
ced when her voice came out so small, so reluctant. “Because if you do, I won’t agree.”

  She should, of course. What kind of woman would stay with a man who didn’t want her? Where the hell was her dignity? Her sense of Torino pride? But the moment those questions rose up in her mind, she mentally provided the answers.

  Her pride had been swallowed by her love. It wasn’t as though she had a choice in this, Gina thought in her own defense. It wasn’t as if you got to choose who to love. She had loved Adam for most of her life. Sometimes, she felt as if she’d been born loving him. And the time spent with him these last few months only confirmed her feelings.

  She wasn’t an idiot, though. She knew he wasn’t perfect. Far from it, in fact. He could be cold and calculating. He wasn’t an easy man to get along with, but he was never cruel or deliberately unkind, either. There were shadows of pain in his eyes that she only rarely caught glimpses of and his even rarer smiles were enough to melt her heart even when she was doing her best to stand strong.

  Not perfect, no. But he’d always been perfect for her.

  And wasn’t that what loving was all about?

  He shifted his gaze, stared at her for a long time and she really wished she could read whatever he was thinking in his eyes. But he was too good at masking his emotions. Too good a negotiator in business to let his opponent get a good read on him.

  Finally, though, he spoke. “No, I don’t want to end our bargain.”

  Gina pulled in a slow, deep breath, relief swamping her even while anxiety hovered nearby, ready to pounce. “All right,” she said. “Then what are you talking about?”

  “I think it would be in both our best interests to redefine the bargain, that’s all,” he said quietly. “You’re not pregnant yet …”

  “It’s only been a little over two months,” she argued.

  “True. But what if it takes a year? Two?”

  She didn’t say anything, even though on the inside, she knew she wouldn’t have had a problem with it. The more time she had with Adam, the better her chances of getting through to him, making him see just how good they could be together.