The Cowboy Proposes... Marriage?

by Cathy Forsythe

  But Danielle was intimately acquainted with that cold, empty corner of her heart, a place that demanded to be filled. Without realizing what he was doing, Jace was trying very hard to fill that place and she couldn’t allow him to.

  In spite of everything, he’d never said the words that would let her yield her last line of defense. He’d never said he loved her. She needed the words, needed the reassurance. Without them, this was merely a business arrangement.

  Over the past few days, she’d developed a new respect for the hard-edged cowboy lying next to her—enough that living with him for the rest of her life would prove to be no hardship. Especially if every night was even close to what tonight had been.

  Whoever said sex without love was lacking had been wrong.

  But in sharing her body with him, she’d exposed herself to a level of pain that only Jace was capable of inflicting. If he changed his mind, decided marriage to her didn’t fit in with his plans anymore, she would be devastated.

  Her hand inched over her stomach. And if there were a child, he would fight her for that, too—a battle that would be long and vengeful.

  She’d taken a horrible risk in marrying him. Now that the sensual fog he’d woven around her had worn off, she was beginning to see just how big the risk had been. Her fingers crept to her neck, traced the chain and finally found the locket, where it rested between their bodies.

  At least she still had her father. At least she knew that once he got over his anger, he would be there to pick up the pieces if this marriage went horribly wrong.

  Jace’s hand started a lazy exploration, settling on her breast. Warmth flowed through her body and she knew it was already too late. Whatever happened now, she would find a way to survive, to pick up the pieces and get on with her life. After all, that’s what she’d done before. It had worked in the past and she’d make certain it would work again.

  A low moan sounded next to her ear, then Jace was kissing her, tempting her. She turned in his arms and returned his kisses, knowing she couldn’t withhold herself any longer. He had wedged his way into her life and touched her heart.

  As his heat burned her, she could only hope she survived the flames.

  Chapter Nine

  Danielle opened the door to the kitchen and stepped into Jace’s house. Her house.

  Home.

  Strange, but it didn’t feel like home.

  Until she turned and saw Jace carrying their luggage into the kitchen. With a trace of panic, she realized that from this day forward, her home would be anywhere Jace was.

  She followed him up the stairs, lost in her new discovery, turning each thought and feeling around and around as if she was examining an unusual rock. It wasn’t until he stopped and set the suitcases down that she paid any attention to where they were.

  The master bedroom. His bedroom.

  A chill raced over her, a lethal combination of excitement and fear. She had intertwined her life with his, irrevocably, forever. Tonight, they would share this bed, and every night from now on she would sleep in his arms.

  She hoped.

  Jace had been very quiet on the trip home. As they drew closer to the ranch, she could almost feel him withdraw from her. The laughing, teasing man she’d spent the night with seemed to have disappeared.

  His words interrupted her musing. “Which side of the bed do you sleep on?”

  “I always sleep in the middle.”

  A grin flashed across his face, her playmate from the night before appearing for a brief second. “So do I. Should make for a cozy night.”

  He set the suitcases down and turned to leave, his mask slipped back into place. “I’ll get that check for you. I’m sure Daddy is getting anxious.” The teasing warmth in his voice had disappeared, leaving behind a cold caricature.

  The check.

  She’d almost managed to forget Their marriage—and their happiness—was based on money, money Jace would pay for the privilege of having her as his wife.

  The doubts came then. Everything she’d been hiding from herself since she arrived at the ranch Monday night flooded through her. She’d made a horrible mistake. A marriage based on anything other than love had very little chance of survival.

  She glanced at the suitcases, wondering if it was possible for the two of them to move forward and forget about their shared past Shaking off her doubts, she turned to follow Jace to his office. Once she tended to business, she could sort through the tangle she’d made of her life and her marriage.

  Stepping quietly into the masculine room, she waited, her hands clenched in front of her. The scratching of the pen filled the quiet between them. When Jace finished his signature with a flourish, he looked up. Trapping her gaze with his blue-eyed stare, he tore the check from the book and held it out, not making any effort to meet her halfway.

  Danielle debated about refusing the money, but the desperate look in her father’s eyes that last time she’d seen him impelled her forward. She halted at the edge of the desk, wanting something from Jace besides cold silence. When she finally gave in and reached for the check, she got her response, but it wasn’t what she’d been looking for.

  “Bought and paid for.”

  The words crashed over her, ripping away her composure. Hands trembling with reaction, she took an involuntary step back. Barely able to draw breath, she forced the words beyond the lump in her throat. “I guess I’d better start into town. Daddy will be waiting.”

  “Danielle.”

  She paused in her hasty retreat, but she didn’t turn around.

  He softened for a moment. “Would you like me to come with you?”

  Fighting the tears, she shook her head.

  His grim silence accompanied her all the way to the city limits of Jackson.

  It couldn’t have been easy for Jace to pay out that money. She knew he disliked her father, knew the two men had always found it difficult to be in the same room, let alone get along. They were both strong, powerful men, men who were used to having their own way in the world. But those thoughts didn’t make Jace’s anger any easier to deal with. And it didn’t make her next task easier to face.

  Certain her father would not accept the check once he saw the signature on it, Danielle stopped at the bank and deposited the funds in the business account. Knowing she was in for an unpleasant encounter, she crossed the street and entered her father’s office building.

  When the secretary looked up, Danielle knew she was in trouble. The efficient woman, who had worked for Danielle’s father for twenty years, snatched up the phone and uttered a soft warning.

  Danielle smiled, but her lips trembled at the edges. “Hello, Martha. Is Daddy busy?”

  “He’ll see you right away, Danielle.” The older woman flashed a look of sympathetic support, then politely turned away to work.

  Danielle smoothed her hands over her new wool slacks, approaching the double doors as if they would reach out and bite her. But they were snatched open before she could turn the knob.

  “Danielle, where the hell have you been?”

  Danielle pushed past him and entered the pretentious room, waiting for him to close the door. They didn’t need to wash their dirty linen for the entire company. Rumors spread fast enough in the corporate world. “Hello, Daddy. How are you?”

  “My daughter leaves a message that the money I need to pay off a major loan is taken care of and disappears for three days. Oh, I’m fine. Just fine.” His words ended in a roar.

  She trembled inside but refused to let him see it. Bracing herself against his desk, she crossed her arms and watched him pace the floor.

  “You couldn’t have called, let me know what was going on?” He turned to glare at her. “I’ve spent the past three days trying to raise the money myself, but I’ve barely pulled in half. Your darling Raymond put out the word that I was a bad risk.”

  At the mention of her former fiancé, Danielle squeezed her eyes closed. “He’s not my darling.” What a mess. Surely it wasn’t p
ossible for things to deteriorate any further. But determined to win his attention, she squared her shoulders.

  “The money you need is in the bank.”

  Tyrone Simmons’s shoulders became less rigid, but he still eyed her suspiciously. “And just where did you find that kind of money?”

  “I got married, just as we planned.” If only she could leave now, without saying more, she might escape, her relationship to her father. intact. For once, she wasn’t going to be able to cajole him to her way of thinking. The anger in him was too hard, too controlled.

  He stiffened. “To whom?”

  The question echoed between them. She swallowed, praying for courage, then blurted out, “Jace Farrell.”

  The color drained from his face as he stared at her. “I hate that man for what he did to this family. How could you?”

  She moved toward him, putting out a hand to touch him, but he jerked away. Slowly, she let her hand drop to her side, too numb to feeL Her father had been all she’d had for too many years. Now she was losing him, too.

  She couldn’t tell her father the truth, couldn’t reveal that Jace had all but forced her into marriage. It would only make her father’s anger burn hotter and he would hate Jace even more.

  Danielle somehow managed a casual shrug. “It’s simply an arranged marriage. What does it matter who the man is as long as he has money?” Her words sounded callous and calculated, even to her ears. But it was the only thing she could think of that might placate her father.

  Her father, her rock, the one man who’d loved her unconditionally since she was five years old, simply glared at her, while the silence stretched taut between them. Finally, he raised an arm and pointed to the door. “Out. Get out of my life. I don’t have a daughter any longer.”

  His words sliced through her, leaving her emotionally raw and bleeding. “But, Daddy—”

  “You’ve betrayed me. I can’t forgive your going behind my back and marrying a man you know I detest. No matter how noble your reasons.” He turned to stare out the window, his back rigid. “Goodbye, Danielle.”

  Her hand automatically went to the necklace, but this time, it didn’t offer her comfort. Instead, the gold heart seemed to taunt her, repeating her father’s hurtful words over and over.

  Biting her lip to keep from arguing further, she hurried from the room. Without saying goodbye to Martha and unwilling to wait for the elevator, Danielle hit the door for the stairway at a run and rushed headlong down five flights of stairs.

  Gasping for breath when she finally burst out onto the sidewalk, she desperately searched for her car keys, her trembling hands barely able to insert the key in the lock. Just as the door opened, she heard a shout. Her father was hurrying toward her. She couldn’t talk to him now. The pain was too fresh, too strong. Panicked, she jumped into the car, locking her doors before she blazed a trail out of town.

  A trail that led straight to the only other home she had ever known—to Jace Farrell.

  Her father, the one constant in her life, had turned away from her. The hole in her heart she’d been trying to fill since she was five yawned wider, seeming to pervade her entire being as the pain of her loss became almost unbearable.

  When she pulled to a stop in the snow-covered yard, Jace walked out onto the porch. His hat low over his eyes, she couldn’t read anything in his expression or his demeanor. But she desperately needed him to be the warm, understanding mate she’d shared her honeymoon with.

  Stepping over a newly formed mud puddle, she managed to avoid it, then almost slipped on a patch of ice.

  “Need help?” The words washed over her, offering a sense of comfort, a feel of the familiar.

  “No, thank you.” But he reached out anyway, offering his hand in support. As soon as his warm fingers curled around hers, the dam of emotion broke loose. With a wrenching sob, she rushed up the steps and threw herself into his arms. The slight hesitation before he wrapped her in his strong embrace made her cry harder.

  It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Except for the fact that she was in his arms, safe for a few precious minutes.

  Scooping her up, he carried her into the house. As she sobbed out her agony, she was barely aware of him sitting on the couch and cradling her close. She cried for the lost little girl who had grown up into a lost woman. She cried for all the years she’d missed with Jace to hold her. But most of all, she cried for the love she’d been seeking all her life, a love that seemed to be denied her at every turn.

  When the emotional storm passed, she lay with her head snuggled against his hard chest, little hiccups interrupting her breathing. Through it all, he had stroked her hair with a slow, steady caress. That rhythm continued. She savored his touch, tried to absorb it and store the sensation for later.

  Finally, he broke the silence. “Care to tell me about it?”

  Three words easily summed up the end of her relationship with her father. “Daddy wasn’t pleased.”

  Jace stiffened beneath her but didn’t comment.

  Danielle lifted her gaze to meet his, seeing banked anger burning in his eyes. “Oh, Jace, I think I made a terrible mistake.”

  The anger flared brighter. “So marrying me was a mistake?”

  The realization burst through her without warning, filling that empty hole in her heart totally and completely. She loved this man—loved him with all her heart and soul.

  Staring at him, she let the warmth fill her like a stream of soothing water, splashing against the edges of her loneliness and washing away the emptiness. Marrying him had been the best thing she’d ever done.

  “Never.” Pulling his head down, she kissed him, trying to telegraph her newly discovered feelings with her lips, the words too new, too fresh, to say aloud.

  He kissed her back, but there was no warmth, no passion. Desperate, she traced his lips with her tongue, urging him to open to her, to share. Suddenly, a moan seemed to be ripped from deep inside him and he opened his mouth, taking her offering and returning it with burning heat.

  She broke away, needing to speak before the desire exploded around them. “Let’s start over, Jace. Let’s pretend that we married for all the right reasons.” In her zeal to convince him, she grabbed the front of his shirt. “Let’s make this marriage a real one.”

  He pulled a ragged breath into his lungs. “I’m sorry for this morning.”

  The love bloomed brighter. “I know it was hard for you. I’m sorry I had to ask for the money.”

  “I couldn’t stand the thought of buying the woman I wanted to spend my life with. It made me say things I didn’t mean.”

  She touched one finger to his lips. “I know. Let’s put it in the past where it belongs.”

  He moved to slide her off his legs, but she clung to him, for once determined to fight for what she wanted. He simply twisted in her grasp until he had her pinned beneath him on the leather couch. His mouth swooped down to capture hers and he agreed to her terms without another word being spoken. Without protest, she fell into a warm pool of desire along with him.

  His hands gentle, he soothed and stroked, smoothing away her grief. She knew the pain would return later, but for now, the release was what she needed. His tender caresses turned demanding and she responded willingly, wanting to say in words what she only dared show with her touch.

  Edging her sweater upward, he teased a path across her stomach. Danielle shivered as cool air and warm fingers chased over her skin. Slowly, he circled higher, building the anticipation until she was almost begging him to touch her breast. Finally, he pushed aside the scrap of lace that was the only remaining barrier between them.

  The mood was shattered by the shrill ring of the telephone. Jace pulled his mouth from hers and groaned. “Talk about rotten timing.” He pressed a quick kiss on her lips. “Sorry, darlin’, I’m expecting a call I can’t ignore.”

  She lay there, trying to gather her scattered emotions. She loved Jace Farrell. And somehow she was going to find a way to make a life wit
h him. They would be happy—she would make certain of it. Now that she’d found the love she’d searched for most of her life, she would never let him go.

  Jace reappeared in her line of vision, a frown marking his face. “Woman, you make it difficult to leave.”

  With a start, she realized that her sweater was still pushed up, temptation exposed to his view. When she saw the heat building in his eyes again, she couldn’t resist teasing him. Stretching her arms above her head, she pulled her body taut and took great satisfaction in the sound of his sharply indrawn breath.

  “You’ll pay for that tonight.” He jerked her sweater into place. “I have to run into town for a few hours. I’ll be back.” His words were a sweet threat.

  Danielle listened to his footsteps recede, heard his pickup start. Only then did she slowly slide from the couch. Holding her hands over her mouth, she tried to hold back her slow smile. But it broke through, along with her chuckle of delight.

  Jace Farrell was in for one hell of a ride. She would win him over. He would love her again.

  Realizing their bags were still packed, she went to their bedroom and began sorting through the clothing she’d bought. After everything was put away, she opened the box that held the sculpture, the talisman for their future.

  Pulling away the packing materials, she eased it out, lowering it reverently to the dresser. She cleared a space for it in the center of the massive piece of furniture, then let her hand lovingly slide over the wood.

  Two lovers, intertwined for life. It was a symbol of what their marriage could, would, become.

  A loud knock sounded on the kitchen door, then she heard it open. Her father’s voice bellowed her name and she hurried to the stairs.

  “Be right there, Daddy.” Hope hovered over her as she raced down the stairs. If she could repair the damaged relationship with her father, her life would be close to perfect. But when she rounded the corner, she froze in midstep.

  Her father was a changed man.

  Rather than looking robust and confident, he seemed to have shriveled. His face was pale and drawn, his eyes empty of the sparkle she’d always seen there.