by Cates, Tory
“I probably loved you from the moment back at that podunk rodeo when you helped me pull my rigging,” Hunt confessed. “But I wouldn’t admit it to myself, wouldn’t let myself feel it until you showed me that you would never just love me for what I could do for you or give you. After watching you in action, I knew you were perfectly capable of getting anything you really wanted without any help from me. That’s when I decided you were the one I wanted. But not before you came to me.”
“It was hard, Hunt,” Shallie admitted. “I could never have believed you loved me.” Saying it aloud put a seal on Hunt’s words. Shallie began to accept their reality. She found further confirmation in the brush of his lips.
“Lord, I’ve missed you, woman.”
Shallie let her kiss tell him of the long months of loneliness, of wanting him. Of desire and desperation. Their tongues exchanged the messages each had harbored unspoken for so long, and the bitter taste of heartaches unshared melted in the sweetness of union.
Through the distance, the announcer’s voice echoed. “That’s it, folks, it’s official. Hunt McIver is our world champion in the bareback riding, with Emile Boulier taking second and Jesse Southerland in third place.”
“Marry me, Shallie,” Hunt breathed.
The crowd erupted in pounding, hooting cheers, calling for the new champion.
“They want you back in the arena.”
“Answer me,” Hunt insisted. “We’ll merge the Double L and the Circle M under a joint brand. You won’t have to give up anything. What do you say?”
Shallie thought that the sound of forty thousand hands clapping out wild approval provided just the right accompaniment as she accepted Hunt’s proposal.
TORY CATES, a RITA Award finalist, is the author of five romance novels set in the American West. A journalist who has written for magazines such as O, Real Simple, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping, she draws on her nonfiction experience to give her romances their special authenticity. She also writes critically acclaimed novels under another name. Tory Cates lives in Austin, Texas.
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Pocket Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1982 by Tory Cates
Previously published in 1982 by Silhouette Books.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Pocket Books paperback edition November 2013
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Interior design by Lewelin Polanco
Cover illustration by Craig White
ISBN 978-1-4767-3244-2
ISBN 978-l-4767-3260-2 (ebook)
