In the Arms of a Hero

by Beverly Barton

  “Let him go, honey,” Ryan said. “You can’t help him. He’ll have to work through this on his own.”

  Through her tears, Lily watched her son leave. Her confession had undermined Cole’s foundation and had taken away the memory of the only father he’d ever known. Had it also destroyed the love and respect he had always felt for his mother?

  Twelve

  Victoria sat alone in her office at the clinic, thankfully tired after a full day’s work. Keeping busy had become her number one priority. The busier she stayed, the less time she had to think about Quinn McCoy. He had left the Double Crown Ranch more than six weeks ago and she hadn’t heard a word from him since. Not that she had expected to hear from him. But in her heart of hearts, she had hoped. Even now, she still found it difficult to believe that Quinn didn’t love her.

  The first week had been the most difficult. Restless at night, she had slept very little and her appetite had faded until she could barely force food down her throat. Everyone in the family had tried to either cheer her or console her, but not until her cousin Holden’s wife, Lucinda, had offered her a proposition she couldn’t refuse, had Victoria managed to overcome her depression.

  Working at the clinic for underprivileged women and children that her cousin Holden Fortune and his wife Lucinda had founded gave Victoria an opportunity to do the one thing that made her feel whole—helping those who needed her. In the month since she had begun working alongside Lucinda, the two had become fast friends and she understood why Holden loved his wife so very much. Victoria often felt ashamed that she envied the couple their happy life together. She truly wanted what they had. A love to last a lifetime. And a child.

  Victoria laid her hand over her flat belly. Even if there was no chance for her and Quinn to live happily ever after, she might still have his child. Missing her period and experiencing bouts of queasiness had prompted her to take a home pregnancy test. When the results showed a positive sign, her first reaction had been to call Quinn. But a couple of seconds later, reality had set in and she’d realized that she couldn’t just pick up the phone and call him. First of all, she hadn’t been one hundred percent sure of the test results. And second, being pregnant wouldn’t change anything between Quinn and her.

  Did she want to be pregnant? she asked herself. Was she prepared for life as a single mother? Yes, of course, she was. It wasn’t as if she were some penniless teenager. She was an adult with all the money in the world at her disposal. Her child—if there was a child—would want for nothing. Nothing except a father!

  But she could give the baby a father, couldn’t she? Sooner or later there were bound to be other men in her life, men who would love her and her child. It was just a matter of time until…

  Who was she kidding? A hundred men could profess their undying love for her and still the only man she’d want was Quinn McCoy. Damn him! Damn him for letting her fall hopelessly in love with him when he knew all along that he didn’t return her feelings.

  Victoria snapped around when she heard a knock on the door. “Yes?”

  Lucinda opened the door, then peeped and smiled. “I’ve got the test results.”

  “Please, come in.” Victoria stood, rounded her desk and waited for Lucinda to enter.

  After closing the door behind her, Lucinda said, “You’re pregnant.”

  Victoria let out the breath she’d been holding. “Oh.”

  “You aren’t really surprised, are you?”

  “No, not really. But with your confirmation, I’ll have to make some decisions now.”

  “Is one of those decisions about whether or not you should contact the father?” Lucinda asked.

  “Before he left, he made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want to be a part of my life, now or ever.”

  “Even so, don’t you think he has a right to know that you’re carrying his baby?”

  “If I tell him and he offers to do the honorable thing, I’m not sure I could marry him, not even for the baby’s sake. I don’t want to trap Quinn into marriage. I love him too much to burden him with a wife and child he doesn’t want. If he marries me, I want it to be because he loves me and for no other reason.”

  “Sometimes marriages that don’t begin with love work out perfectly, when the couple falls in love afterward.” Lucinda smiled shyly. “That’s what happened with Holden and me.”

  “You two are so lucky that things turned out the way they did.”

  “Things could turn out right for you, too, if you’ll swallow your pride and call your baby’s father.”

  Sam Waterman studied his employer, noting that Ryan’s mind didn’t seem focused on their conversation about hiring Annie Jones, the best damn private detective in the state, to back up Lily’s defense team. Sam could tell that something else was bothering Ryan.

  “Is there another problem I could help you with?” Sam asked.

  “What?”

  “You seem to be worried about more than Lily’s trial.”

  “Oh, yeah. Well, to be honest, I’m concerned about Victoria,” Ryan said.

  “I thought she was doing fine now that she’s working again.”

  “She goes through the motions, but the girl hasn’t been herself since Quinn McCoy left the Double Crown.” Ryan looked directly at Sam. “Do you have any idea what happened between Victoria and McCoy to make him run?”

  “I’ve got a pretty good idea.” Sam’s mouth quivered in an almost smile. “Tell me something, Ryan, would you like for me to devise a plan to put Victoria and Quinn together and then allow nature to take its course?”

  Ryan studied his chief of security for several minutes, then grunted. “What I want more than anything is my daughter’s happiness.”

  “Even if being with Quinn McCoy is what it’ll take to make her happy?”

  “If she can’t be happy without that man, then dammit, yes,” Ryan said begrudgingly.

  Two hours later, after devising what he considered a full-proof plan to reunite Victoria and Quinn, Sam Waterman knocked on Victoria’s door.

  “Sam!” she gasped, obviously surprised to see him.

  “May I come in?”

  “Certainly.” She ushered him inside, then closed the door. “Is there a problem? Something to do with Lily’s trial or—”

  “It’s Quinn,” Sam said, his face extremely somber.

  “Quinn? What’s wrong with Quinn?”

  “I’m afraid the injuries he received while rescuing you from Santo Bonisto are still giving him problems.”

  “Is he in the hospital?” Victoria asked, concern evident in her voice.

  “Well, now, you see, that’s the problem. Being the stubborn cuss that he is, Quinn’s refusing to go to the hospital.”

  “But if his wounds haven’t healed properly, why—”

  “He won’t listen to me or to anybody else,” Sam said. “I was hoping…well, I figured if you still care anything about him, then maybe you’d fly up to New Mexico and talk some sense into him.” When Sam noticed the uncertainty in her eyes, he played his trump card. “He desperately needs you, Victoria.”

  After assuring her father and Lily that she would be only a phone call away if they needed her, Victoria took the first flight out of San Antonio the next morning. After arriving in Santa Fe, she rented a car and, following Sam’s directions, drove out to Quinn’s secluded mountainside home.

  She parked the rental car in the driveway, then stepped back and inspected the sprawling wood, stone and glass structure. The place suited Quinn—rugged, masculine and solid.

  Nervously, with her heart pounding a staccato beat, Victoria walked up the steps, onto the front porch and then lifted the door knocker. After several raps, she waited. No response. She knocked again, more forcefully. Still no one came to the door.

  Dear God, had Quinn passed out? Was he lying on the floor unconscious? How could she find a way to get inside the house to help him? If necessary, she’d just have to break a window.

  While considerin
g the possibility of hurling rocks through a windowpane, Victoria heard a sound from the back of the house. She listened carefully and realized someone was chopping wood. Then Quinn wasn’t alone. Thank goodness. Someone was here taking care of him.

  She hurried around the side of the house, eager to meet Quinn’s caretaker. But she stopped dead still in the backyard when she recognized the bare-chested man with the ax in his hand. Quinn McCoy, his lean belly marred by thick red scars, wielded the heavy tool with apparent ease.

  Sam had lied to her! There wasn’t a damn thing wrong with Quinn! Why had Sam done this to her?

  As if sensing that someone was watching him, Quinn propped the ax head on the ground, then turned around slowly.

  “Victoria!”

  He gazed at her as if she were the most welcome sight in the world. He was glad to see her, she thought. And in that one moment before he emotionally withdrew from her, Victoria saw plainly what Quinn was really feeling. A man didn’t look at a woman that way, if she meant nothing to him.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Quinn asked, his voice as harsh as his question was rude.

  “Sam Waterman told me that you needed me,” she replied.

  “He did, did he? Humph!” Quinn lifted the ax. “Well, you can see for yourself that I don’t need you.” He pelted the ax into the wood, chopping the log in two.

  Oh, no, you don’t, Victoria thought. You can’t get rid of me that easily. Not now that you’ve given me a glimpse of the truth. You lied to me when you said that what we’d shared didn’t mean a thing to you, that sex with me hadn’t been any good because I was so inexperienced. You didn’t mean any of those horrible things you said to me that day. So, I’m going to hang around here until I get you to admit that you love me.

  “Actually, what I see is a man all alone, a man who needs some company,” Victoria said as she took several steps toward him.

  “I’m alone by choice,” he told her. “And if I want company—female company—then I know where to find it.”

  “Oh, I see.” She repressed the smile that quivered on her lips. “You probably have a little black book filled with the phone numbers of numerous experienced women who are really good in the sack.”

  Quinn’s face flushed. The smile she’d been fighting broke free, curving her lips softly. He kicked at the ground, his movements reminiscent of a bull preparing to charge.

  “Look, princess, I think it was damn nice of you to come check on me, all things considered,” Quinn said. “But now that you see I’m just fine, there’s no reason for you to stay, is there?”

  She walked right up to him, a warm smile on her lips, a twinkle in her eyes. “Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong. There is a reason for me to stay.”

  “What reason could there possibly be?” When she moved closer, her body almost touching his, Quinn took a step backward.

  “Well, it’s like this, Mr. McCoy.” She moved in on him, brushing her body lightly against his, her smiled widening when she noted the stricken look on his face. “I’ve spent six weeks torn between loving you and hating you. I’ve cried a river of tears and I’ve gone over every word you said to me a thousand times.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Quinn gazed into her eyes. “I told you from the beginning that I was the wrong man for you.”

  “I know you did, and I’ve taken that into consideration. But I’ve come to the conclusion that you’re wrong.”

  “What do you mean, I’m wrong?”

  “You’re wrong about yourself and about me. Actually, you’re wrong about us.” She lifted her arms up and placed them around his neck. “You’re the right man for me. I’m the right woman for you. We’re perfect for each other.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” He pulled her hands from around his neck, then turned his back on her. “Go home, Victoria. Back to where you belong. And leave me the hell alone.”

  He tramped across the yard toward the back porch. Victoria squared her shoulders, tilted her chin and marched right after him.

  “I’ve decided that I belong here with you, so I’m not going anywhere.”

  Quinn stopped so abruptly that Victoria skidded to prevent herself from running into his back. Lightning-fast, he whirled around to face her. His eyes narrowed to slits. The pulse in his neck bulged.

  “Just what do I have to say to you to make you leave?” he asked.

  “Well, why don’t you try telling me that you don’t love me,” she suggested, then laughed. “But then we’d both know you were lying.” Before he had a chance to reply, she said, “Or you could tell me that what we had together was fun while it lasted, but it didn’t mean anything to you. But of course, we know that’s not true.”

  He looked at her incredulously, as if seeing the real Victoria Fortune for the first time.

  What sort of game was she playing? he wondered. She was acting as if she hadn’t believed a word he’d said the day he’d left the Double Crown six weeks ago.

  Victoria snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it. Why don’t you tell me that sex is never all that good with inexperienced girls, so it was really lousy with me because I was a virgin?”

  “Victoria!” Quinn warned, her name grinding through his clenched teeth.

  “And if that doesn’t work, just remind me that I wasn’t the first virgin you’d deflowered and I probably won’t be the last.”

  He didn’t like that broad grin on her face or that devilish sparkle in her eyes. In this kind of mood, Victoria could be dangerous. “All right, so I lied about that one,” he admitted reluctantly. “You were the first and will probably be the only, since I don’t make a habit of—”

  She laid her left hand on his right shoulder, her touch claiming him as surely as if she’d hog-tied him. “No probably to it. Not only won’t you ever initiate another virgin, you’re not ever going to have sex with any other woman. You’re going to be too busy keeping me satisfied to even think about anyone else.”

  “This has gone far enough,” Quinn said, a nervous edge to his voice. “I think I know what’s going on here. If you’ve got it into your head that I wasn’t completely honest with you about…about things, then I’m willing to admit that you could be right.”

  Smiling confidently, she laid her right hand on his left shoulder. “Do tell.” She patted her foot rhythmically on the ground.

  “But I said what I did that day for your own good.” He wished she’d stop looking at him that way—as if she were getting ready to pounce on him any minute now. “Marriage between us wouldn’t work. Heck, I don’t even want to get married. And you’d be crazy to saddle yourself with a bum like me.”

  “Would I?” She eased closer and closer to him, until only a hairbreadth separated their bodies.

  “I’m the kind of guy who, if I ever did get married, would want to support my own wife and kids. I couldn’t handle having to compete with your father’s millions. And in the long run, you’d resent having to lower your standard of living.”

  She pressed her body against his and laughed softly when he sucked in his breath. “You must have me confused with some other heiress you rescued. I’m the girl who was living in abject poverty in a Third World country, doing without most of life’s amenities, when we met. I’ve never had a closet filled with designer dresses. I’ve never driven an expensive sports car. And I’ve been too busy trying to help those less fortunate, trying to right some of this world’s wrongs, to have time to be a social butterfly.”

  Quinn opened his mouth to speak, but Victoria continued. “I know you’re not a multi-millionaire like my father, but you’re hardly penniless. After all, you do have the five hundred thousand you earned rescuing me. But we should probably put that away for the future, so the children can attend some really good colleges.”

  “The children?” Quinn gulped.

  “And I like the idea that you’d prefer us to get by on our own, without any help from my family.” She rubbed herself intimately against him. “And I like the
idea of our secluding ourselves away up here in the mountains and building a simple, meaningful life for ourselves and our children, a comfortable distance away from my family.”

  “You keep talking about children.”

  She brushed her lips tenderly across his. With trembling hands, he reached out and grabbed her shoulders.

  “Are you ready to ask me to marry you?” she inquired.

  “What?”

  “I said are you ready to—”

  “I heard what you said, but I don’t understand you.”

  “I don’t think understanding your wife is a requirement for marriage.” She kissed him again.

  Keeping his hands clasped to her shoulders, he pushed her back, separating their bodies. “I’m going to say this one more time—go home. Leave me alone. I’m not going to marry you. Not now. Not ever. Give it up, honey.”

  “Okay, if that’s the way you want it,” she said. “I was hoping you wouldn’t be so stubborn, but if you’re going to play hard to get, I have no choice but live in sin with you.”

  When she pulled away from him, he stood there dazed, feeling as if he’d just been sucker-punched. Before he realized what was happening, Victoria hurried past him, opened the back door and flew into his house.

  “Oh, I like our kitchen. It’s big and roomy, with all new appliances,” she said. “Is the rest of the house this nice? I hope our bedroom is, since I’m sure we’ll be spending a lot of time in there.”

  Coming out of shock, Quinn bounded into the kitchen, but didn’t catch Victoria until she was halfway down the hallway. He grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him.

  “You aren’t moving in here with me.”

  “Of course I am.” She patted him affectionately on the chest. “I know you don’t have any prior experience in these matters, never having been in love before. But you should know that when people love each other the way we do, they usually live together.”

  Had Victoria lost her mind? he wondered. Or had he? The woman was like a steamroller, barging in and taking over his life.

  “So, that’s it?” he asked. “You’re moving in and I don’t have any say about it?”