She tugged on Luke’s hand, urging him to stand. He rose from his kneeling position, brought her hands to his lips and kissed them.
“I know it may be too soon after everything that’s happened,” he said. “But maybe we could plan a fall wedding or a winter one, if you need more time. I’m sure you can find a teaching job here, if you’re willing to give up your position in Jackson.”
“A fall wedding would be wonderful, and I’m willing to give up my job in Jackson, but...” But do you love me? she wanted to shout. “Why do you want to marry me?”
“Why do I want to marry you? Why do you think?” He drew her into his arms.
“I need the words, Luke. I have to hear you say them.”
He swung her up into his arms. “Because I love you, Deanna. I love you more than anything in this world.”
“Then yes, I’ll many you,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. “I love you, too, you know. I’ll love you forever...and then some.”
Epilogue
“Where are you taking me?” Deanna asked, as Luke tightened the blindfold around her eyes. “And why can’t I see where we’re going?”
“Because I want your anniversary present to be a surprise,” he told her as he lifted her onto Cherokee’s back, then mounted the horse and settled behind her into the saddle. “Now, stop fussing.”
Deanna allowed Luke to have his way, knowing that she, too, had a surprise to share for their first anniversary. Their first anniversary. Sometimes she could hardly believe that she’d been Luke’s wife for an entire year. Three hundred and sixty-five days of happiness.
It didn’t take her long to realize that Cherokee was taking them up into the hills. With each passing moment, the excitement built within her. What sort of gift could Luke have waiting for her? A picnic in a secluded glade perhaps?
Luke brought Cherokee to a halt, dismounted and then lifted Deanna into his arms.
“You can take off your blindfold now, Mrs. McClendon,” he said.
She smiled, loving it when he called her Mrs. McClendon. Her stomach quivered with anticipation. She reached up and jerked away the scarf that covered her eyes, and her smile was instantly replaced by an expression of astonishment.
“Luke,” she breathed his name aloud.
“Do you like it, babe?”
She stared in wonderment at the cabin that had been erected on the site where their old cabin had stood. A cool autumn breeze ruffled the treetops and stirred the dry leaves lying on the ground. She could hardly believe what she saw, but there it was—a small log cabin, new and fresh and shining like gold in the afternoon sunlight.
“When? How? Why?” she murmured the questions in rapid succession.
Luke carried her up the stone walkway and onto the porch. He kicked open the front door and carried his wife over the threshold and into the cabin he had spent months secretly building for her.
“Do you like it?” he asked, as he eased her down on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
She gazed at the roaring fire, then glanced around the room filled with rustic furniture. In the corner by the double windows, an old iron bed awaited. The pristine white sheets had been turned down. The feather pillows had been fluffed.
“I love it,” she said. “But...oh, Luke.” She held open her arms to him.
He went down on his knees before her, then allowed her to take him into her embrace. “I wanted our special place back,” he said. “I was the one who destroyed it and I needed to be the one who rebuilt it.”
With his arms draped around her hips and his head resting in her lap, she caressed him tenderly. “A new cabin to replace the old. A new and better life to replace the unhappy, lonely lives we lived. Sweet, new memories to cherish.”
“I love you,” he said. “You know that don’t you? You know that I regret—”
She covered his lips with her fingers. “No regrets. We’ve put them in the past with all the bad memories. You’ve forgiven me. I’ve forgiven you. And here in our special place, in a cabin you built to show me how much you love me, is the perfect place and the perfect moment for me to give my anniversary gift to you.”
“You have something to give me?” he asked. “It must be tiny if you have it with you.” He lifted his head from her lap and ran his hands over the front pockets of her jeans, then when he found nothing, he lifted her hips and checked the back pockets.
She giggled, then grabbed his wandering hands and placed them over her stomach. “Right now my gift is very tiny. But it’s going to grow bigger and bigger. And when it’s grown to about seven or eight pounds, I’ll give it to you.”
Luke stared at her, a look of total awe on his face. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Yes. I’m pregnant,” she said. “Probably not much more than a month. I took the test yesterday morning.”
“Deanna...”
“I’m going to have your baby, Luke.”
He ran his hands lovingly over her still flat belly, then he laid his head against the spot where his child was nestled inside Deanna. He kissed her stomach.
Deanna took his face in her hands and lifted it. Tears glistened in Luke’s moss-green eyes. Tears of happiness. And tears of grief for a little boy who would have been fifteen years old now.
“It’s all right, you know,” she told him. “I think our little boy will be a guardian angel for his little brother or sister. Nothing is going to happen to this baby. He or she is protected by heaven. I know it in my soul.”
Luke lifted her up and into his arms, then carried her across the room to the bed. They undressed each other slowly, savoring the deliriously sweet moments that led them from earth to paradise. From love to ecstasy. From the sorrows of the past to the joys of the future.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6576-9
LONE WOLF’S LADY
Copyright © 1998 by Beverly Beaver
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York. NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone beating the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Lone Wolf's Lady Page 25
