In the Arms of a Hero

by Beverly Barton

  “Yes, ma’am. Just leave it to me. I’ll see that Mr. McCoy receives immediate attention.”

  A week later Quinn had recovered enough to travel. Victoria had called ahead and made all the preparations for Quinn to recuperate at the Double Crown Ranch. Her father had seemed a bit surprised that she wanted to personally nurse her rescuer back to health.

  “You don’t understand, Daddy. Quinn saved my life more than once. I wouldn’t be coming home to you, if it weren’t for him.”

  “I do understand,” Ryan had said. “It’s just I’d like for you to spend your time getting reacquainted with your family, especially now. We need each other more than we ever have. I can hire the best nurses available to take care of Mr. McCoy.”

  “I know you hire only the best. After all, that’s what you did when you hired Quinn.” Victoria hesitated, fearing her father’s reaction if she admitted the entire truth. “Daddy, Quinn’s a very special man.”

  “I don’t think I like the sound of this.”

  “You’re going to think the world of him when you get to know him.”

  “Victoria, the man is a mercenary!”

  “I know that! But then, somebody has to do all the dirty work in the world, so the rest of us can keep our hands nice and clean.”

  “You’re in love with the man. God help you, you are, aren’t you?”

  “I’m afraid so,” she admitted. “And there’s nothing that you or he or anyone can do about it. I’m head over heels, madly, wildly, passionately in love.”

  When her father didn’t respond, she said, “You know how that feels, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, baby girl, I know exactly how that feels.”

  Victoria had informed Quinn that he had been ensconced not only in the same wing of the house where her bedroom was located, but actually in the connecting room that had once belonged to her twin sister Vanessa. Although he’d seen, upon their arrival, what he assumed was most of the immediate Fortune family—including Vanessa—he hadn’t actually met any of them. Victoria had instructed the ranch hands, who had assisted him out of the limousine, to carry Mr. McCoy upstairs.

  There in front of her family, she had bent, kissed him on the mouth and said, “Roy and Ben will get you settled in. You take a nice nap and I’ll be on up to check on you after I reassure everyone that I’m really alive and well.”

  She had taken charge of his life, not once asking him what he wanted to do. If he’d had a choice in the matter he wouldn’t have come to the Double Crown to recuperate. He had tried to tell Victoria that he wanted to go home to New Mexico, but she hadn’t listened to a word he’d said.

  When he had awakened in the Gurabo hospital, she’d been sitting at his bedside. Once the doctors had told him that he’d live, Victoria turned into a whirlwind of activity, planning their return to the United States. She had talked endlessly about taking him home with her, about all the things they would do together once he was fully recovered. She had hugged and kissed him often, which he really hadn’t minded at all, but her frequent declarations of love had unnerved him.

  Now, here he was on the Double Crown Ranch, lying in her twin sister’s bed, with a sizable number of the Fortune clan gathered in the rooms around him. He could just imagine what the big man himself, Ryan Fortune, would say when Victoria told him that she was in love with the mercenary he’d hired to rescue her.

  Would her father suspect that his little girl had lost her virginity to the most unworthy man she’d ever known?

  He’d been out of his mind to make love to her. Hell, he’d thought she would react this way, that she’d convince herself she was in love with him. If he had to do it over again… What would he have done? Would he have really turned her down when she’d asked him to be her first lover? He struggled with the answer, trying to lie to himself, but the truth was that if he had it to do over again, he’d still make love to her. Every man deserved the right to, at least once, make love to a woman who truly loved him. Even a man like Quinn McCoy.

  The hours they had spent together making love in the cave had been unlike anything he’d ever experienced. For as long as he lived, he’d never meet another woman he’d want as much as Victoria.

  But just as soon as he possibly could, he was going to have to get out of her life and stay away. No matter how she thought she felt about him, he knew that they had no future together.

  “Daddy’s been half out of his mind worrying about you,” Vanessa said as she pulled Victoria aside. “I kept telling him that you’d be all right, but I have to admit that I was beginning to have my doubts.”

  “Quinn saved my life on several occasions,” Victoria said. “If it weren’t for him…” She had never kept secrets from Vanessa. Even as small children they had shared confidences, but even more so when they’d turned to each other for comfort after their mother’s death. “I think you should know that I’m in love with him. I want to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him.”

  Vanessa raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Does Daddy have any idea that the man he hired to rescue you also tried to seduce you?”

  “Daddy knows. And Quinn didn’t seduce me. I was the one who seduced him. Well, sort of.”

  “Don’t tell me that you actually had sex with him!”

  “Lower your voice,” Victoria told her sister. “That isn’t something I want Daddy to hear. At least not right now.”

  Before Vanessa could respond, her husband Devin joined them. Slipping his arm around his wife’s waist, he pulled her to his side. “Hope I’m not interrupting.”

  “Not at all,” Victoria said. “Besides, I think it’s past time I got to know my brother-in-law. I understand you were the FBI agent assigned to investigate my little nephew Bryan’s kidnapping and that’s how you and my sister met.”

  “That’s right,” Vanessa said. “Those were difficult days for all of us. I thought Matthew and Claudia would never survive losing Bryan. And then discovering that little Taylor is actually Matthew’s child almost destroyed their marriage.”

  Victoria glanced across the room to where her brother and his wife stood side by side. “Does Claudia still believe Matthew had an affair?”

  “I don’t know,” Vanessa said. “But if she does, it appears that she’s forgiven him or at least they’ve agreed to put aside their differences until Lily’s trial is over. We’ve all been putting Daddy’s problems first these days. Maybe you should wait awhile before you tell him that you plan to marry Quinn McCoy.”

  “You’re going to marry Quinn McCoy?” Devin asked, shock evident in his voice.

  “Yes, I am,” Victoria said. “Just as soon as he’s fully recovered.”

  “Are you telling us that Quinn McCoy asked you to marry him?” Devin shook his head in disbelief.

  “No, he hasn’t asked me, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.”

  Devin shrugged, the look on his face skeptical.

  Just as Victoria started to explain about her relationship with Quinn, Matthew called from across the room.

  “Come here, little long-lost sister. I want to propose a toast.”

  The family gathered together, then raised their glasses as Matthew said, “Here’s to the Fortunes of Texas and to the safe return of our Victoria.”

  Matthew set aside his glass, then reached out and grabbed Victoria in a bear hug. “Don’t you ever run off to one of those damn uncivilized places again and have us worried to death about you.”

  She wrapped her arms around Matthew, realizing her safe return proved to her brother that sometimes even hopeless situations weren’t really hopeless. If she could survive a civil war in Santo Bonisto, then there was a chance that Bryan might not be lost to the family forever. “You and Claudia will get Bryan back someday.”

  He didn’t respond, just hugged her for a long time. Finally, when Ryan placed his hand on Matthew’s shoulder, he stepped out of his sister’s comforting embrace.

  “Come say hello to Lily,” Ryan said. “I’d ve
ry much like for you two to become friends.”

  There had been a time when Victoria had been certain that she would hate Lily Cassidy as she much as she had despised Sophia Barnes, the woman who had become the second Mrs. Ryan Fortune within a year of their mother’s death. The only maternal love and nurturing Vanessa and she received during Sophia’s reign as Queen Bee had come from their aunt Mary Ellen. But Victoria already realized that Lily was very different from her former stepmother. She knew her father loved Lily with all his heart, and tonight, after seeing the two of them together, she felt certain that Lily returned his love in equal measure. Before falling in love with Quinn, she probably wouldn’t have recognized the look of love in Lily’s eyes when she gazed at her father. Victoria suspected it was the exact same way she gazed at Quinn.

  Taking her father’s hand, she squeezed it reassuringly. “I’d very much like to get to know Lily better. After all, if you love her then I’m sure I’ll love her, too.”

  “You’re being very understanding,” Ryan said. “Could it be that my little girl has finally grown up?” He led Victoria to Lily, then slipped one arm around each.

  “We’re very glad that you’re home and safe with us,” Lily said. “Your father was distraught when Mr. McCoy didn’t return with you immediately.”

  “Quinn did the best he could,” Victoria said. “I’m afraid I didn’t make things easy for him at first. And when I finally wised up, everything that could go wrong did.”

  “Life is never as we plan and seldom what we expect.” When Lily smiled softly at Ryan, tears misting her eyes, he kissed her forehead and privately whispered something in her ear.

  Shortly afterward, Lily excused herself. Cutting short his reunion with his children, Ryan said good-night. A hush descended over the room.

  Her brother Dallas draped his arm over Victoria’s shoulder. “Don’t feel slighted. The old man’s going through a rough time and so is Lily. With her trial date set, it’s bothering him more and more that she insisted on her son Cole heading up her defense, after Dad hired the best legal minds in the country.”

  “Is her son a good lawyer?”

  “Lily seems to think so,” Dallas’s wife Maggie said. “Right now, she’s drawing her strength from your father and from her children. I think, considering all the evidence against her, Lily Cassidy is a very brave woman.”

  “Well, I hope for Daddy’s sake that the authorities find out who really killed Sophia,” Victoria said. “It’s time our father had some real happiness. He has a right to spend the rest of his life with the woman he loves.”

  Victoria sat on the edge of Quinn’s bed, her fingers idly stroking his arm. “It’s really wonderful to be home. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy our all being together.”

  “So, have you decided to stay in the good old U.S.A. for a while?” Quinn asked.

  “Actually, if my plans work out, I’ll probably resign from the World Health Institute and—”

  “Hey, that’s some turnaround. Why the hundred and eighty degree? Don’t tell me that our little experience in the Santo Bonisto jungles changed your mind about saving the world.”

  She lifted Quinn’s arm, opened his hand and brought his open palm up to her mouth. “My plans weren’t to save the world, just to go where I was needed and do what I could to help. But now I’ve found one particular person who needs me and I’d like to concentrate all my efforts on taking care of him.” She licked a circle on his palm.

  Quinn snatched his hand away from her. “If you’re talking about me, then that job’s about over for you. I’m not going to need anyone to take care of me for much longer.”

  “I know you’re growing stronger and healing more and more every day.” Victoria caressed his cheek, then brushed her lips across his. “But once you’re fully recovered, you’re still going to need me.”

  “Am I?” His expression remained somber.

  “Of course you are.” She kissed him again. “You’re going to need me to kiss you.” She hugged him gently. “And hug you.” She nuzzled his nose. He grinned. “And make you laugh.” She tiptoed her fingers under the cover, then cupped his sex. “And you’re going to need me for lovemaking.”

  “I sound like a pretty needy fellow,” Quinn said.

  “I’m needy, too,” Victoria told him. “I need you to get well so we can share another night together like the one we shared in the cave.”

  Quinn couldn’t prevent the erection that formed under Victoria’s hand. With her touching him so intimately and reminding him of how it had felt to make love to her, it was all he could do not to beg her to give him relief right this minute.

  “See,” she said. “You need me now.” She whipped the covers to his feet, then crawled into bed beside him.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m going to give you what you need.” She slipped her hand inside the split in his pajama bottoms.

  “Victoria…honey…I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

  When she circled his shaft in her hand, he groaned, then sighed when she caressed the tip with her thumb. “Now, what were you saying?”

  “I was saying I think you’d better lock the door.”

  “I did that when I came in.”

  While she used her hand to excite Quinn, he reached up inside her soft, cotton sweater and cupped her breast. “I liked it better on the island, when you didn’t bother wearing a bra.”

  “There’s a front snap,” she said.

  He undid the closure, then covered her breast with his hand. His touch sent currents of longing shooting through her body. She nuzzled his neck, then nibbled on his ear.

  “This isn’t for me tonight, Quinn. This is for you.”

  “But—”

  “Hush, now. You can make it up to me when you’re all well. We don’t want you bursting any stitches.”

  She lowered her head. Quinn’s hips rose off the bed when her mouth touched him intimately.

  “Ah, princess, you don’t have to do this.”

  “But I want to,” she told him, then proceeded to show him just how much.

  Eleven

  Victoria knocked on the bathroom door, then, when invited in, opened it. “Hi, there. Mind if I help you out?”

  The adorable little boy nestled in a supportive seat within the huge bathtub turned his head, looked up and smiled. From her position on her knees by the tub, her sister-in-law Claudia ran a small, soft cloth over his chubby arms.

  “Why don’t you just watch,” Claudia suggested. “I’m already soaked to the skin. No use both of us getting wet.”

  “He’s precious,” Victoria said.

  “Yes, he is.” With her gaze riveted to the child, Claudia asked, “Do you think he looks like Matthew?”

  “Uh, ah, I don’t know. Maybe. But I’m not sure.” Victoria was uncertain how to respond to her sister-in-law’s question, considering the fact that proof of Taylor’s paternity had almost ended her brother’s marriage. Had Claudia accepted Matthew’s solemn vow that he’d never been unfaithful to her and couldn’t explain how the child was biologically his?

  “It’s all right, you know. I’ve accepted the fact that Taylor is Matthew’s child and although I had my doubts at first, I believe Matthew when he swears he was never unfaithful to me.”

  “Knowing my brother the way I do, I could never believe that this child was a result of Matthew’s infidelity.”

  “While Matthew and I were apart, we both came to realize that our love for each other is strong and deep and can weather any storm, as long as we trust each other. I should have believed Matthew from the very beginning, but… I think I was still in a state of shock after Bryan’s kidnapping.”

  Claudia lifted Taylor from the bathtub. Victoria handed her the hooded bath towel lying on the vanity. After wrapping the child in the cuddly terry cloth, Claudia sat on the edge of the tub, with the little boy in her lap.

  “Don’t give up hope that you’ll get Bryan back,” Vic
toria said. “Miracles do happen. Just look at me. There was a while there when I didn’t think I’d ever see home again.”

  “I’ll never give up hope, but I have to be realistic. We may never know where Bryan is any more than we’ll ever know Taylor’s true origins.”

  Victoria held open her arms. “Here, big boy, want to come to Aunt Victoria?”

  Taylor went happily into his aunt’s arms. Holding him close to her body, Victoria breathed in the fresh scent of a clean baby, something that was on her list of top five wonderful smells. Someday she wanted to have a child. Quinn’s child. She smiled at the thought of Quinn’s reaction when the day came she could tell him he was going to be a father.

  Claudia followed her sister-in-law out of the bathroom. “I don’t know if anyone has told you, but we’ve had some recent assurances that Bryan is still alive.”

  Victoria laid Taylor in the middle of the bed, then accepted the diaper Claudia presented to her, while Claudia filled Victoria in on the most recent developments. “We received an anonymous note on the one year anniversary of Bryan’s kidnapping. It asked for a ransom and designated a drop off location.”

  “Daddy told me that no one picked up the ransom.”

  “No,” Claudia said sadly. “There was no exchange. But at least the kidnapper enclosed a photograph of Bryan lying next to a recent newspaper, so we know he was still alive on that date.”

  “Thank God. Knowing that, you have all the more reason to be hopeful.”

  Both Claudia and Victoria looked toward the door when they heard a knock. Without waiting for an invitation, Vanessa burst into the bedroom.

  “I thought you’d be in here, when I didn’t find you in your room,” Vanessa said to her twin. “You’ve always been a fool over children.”

  “Were you looking for me for any special reason?”

  “Afraid so. Things are in a turmoil downstairs and I think we need to present a united front in support of Daddy and Lily.”