Gabe relaxed his hand on the door handle, and stepped forward. He smiled. “Thought it might be time.”
Morgan didn’t move. “Not outside,” she said, blocking his way out of the cabin. “We need to talk in private, where we can’t be overheard.”
Gabe frowned. Despite his better judgment, he moved aside to let her enter. She stepped into the cabin, and wheeled to face him when he slowly closed the door.
“What’s wrong?” he asked when she simply stood there, staring up at him. He ignored the tightening in his gut, and the pounding of his heart in his chest. The soft, familiar scent of the perfume she wore drifted through the air, teasing his senses.
“Why did you ask me the day after I found you if I knew someone named Laney Monroe?”
Morgan’s voice was soft as velvet, and Gabe strained his ears to hear. His brows furrowed, and his heart beat faster at the mention of Tyler’s wife. Why was she bringing that up now?
“She’s my brother’s wife,” Gabe said through clenched teeth.
“Why did you think she’d be in the future?” Morgan pressed on. She stepped closer to him.
Gabe ran a hand through his hair, and stared into Morgan’s soft eyes. There was no accusation, no anger in her features or tone of voice.
Tell her the damn truth, McFarlain.
Gabe hesitated. Every muscle in his body was strung tight. If he told her, he’d lose the one person whose opinion of him mattered more than anyone else’s ever had.
“Because she’s the reason I’m here.” Gabe stepped around her. He couldn’t face her. Anger boiled in his veins, anger at his past, and anger at himself.
“Your brother’s name is Tyler Monroe?” Morgan asked from behind. “That photo that was in the envelope from the reverend, that’s you and your brother at the Double M Ranch, right?” She moved to stand in front of him again, to look him in the eye. Her hand reached up to touch his arm. “He’s the one your father chose over you.”
An overwhelming feeling of sinking into the ground overtook him, despite her warmhearted tone. Hatred for his old man raged through every part of him. He tensed, even as Morgan’s soft touch soothed his taut muscles.
“How do you know about the Double M?” he asked slowly, his voice strained. His pulse pounded at his temples, and he tightened his fist with the urge to strike out at something. All those years of wondering, searching for his father to demand an answer why Jonas hadn’t wanted him came rushing back. His blinding need to make someone pay for the injustice of it had spilled over onto Tyler and the wealth of the Double M Ranch. Part hatred, part jealousy had fueled him to form his plan to ruin his brother, even though their father had no longer been alive.
Morgan smiled softly. Her eyes never wavered from his. “I found this in the envelope that the reverend left for you.”
She held out a much smaller envelope than the big brown one the reverend had left behind. Gabe stared at it, then back at her.
“Open it,” she coaxed. “I want to apologize for looking at it, but I was curious. I hope you won’t be too mad at me for snooping into your business, but I’m glad I did.”
“What is it?” Gabe’s forehead wrinkled. Hesitating, he took the envelope from her.
“It’s from your brother.” Morgan’s smile widened.
Gabe instantly tensed. A letter from Tyler? Apprehension filled him anew. Did he really want to know what his brother had to tell him? Slowly, he pulled out the letter, and unfolded three sheets of paper. He skimmed through the letter, turning away from Morgan. Reading it a second time, he glanced at the other documents, disbelief coursing through him.
Why the hell would Tyler do such a thing? He’d deserved to be hanged that day, not given part ownership of the ranch. He hated the place. Hated what it stood for. His childhood flashed before him. The endless moving from town to town with Cora, watching happy children with their families while he scrounged and fought like a dirty dog with kids who insulted him or his mother, and adults looking the other way because he was nothing but a whore’s bastard son. Gabe clenched his jaw and flung the papers in the air. They fluttered to the ground at his feet.
“Gabe?” Morgan’s shocked voice startled him to turn toward her. She squatted and gathered the papers together.
“I don’t deserve any part of that place, and I sure as hell don’t want it,” he said coldly.
“Why? The Double M is a hugely successful ranch.” Disbelief and confusion shone in Morgan’s eyes.
“How would you know that?” His voice rose in anger.
Morgan gaped at him. Her stare didn’t falter. She faced him squarely, apparently not intimidated by his outburst.
“I was just there this morning. I went there because Bryce asked me to come.”
“Bryce?” What did the man she called her ex have to do with the Double M?
“Bryce . . . Monroe,” Morgan said slowly. “Current part-owner of the Double M, Tyler’s descendant, and Logan’s bio-dad.”
It was Gabe’s turn to stare. Her boy had blood ties to Tyler . . . and, in a way, to him? He paced the room. Morgan rushed up to him, and grabbed his arm.
“I don’t think you and I meeting was coincidence, Gabe. That reverend, he planned this. He sent you here for a second chance, right? That’s what he told me. He knew my name when he came to the house that day. He planned for us to meet.”
Gabe scoffed, and pulled away. Her soft touch, and what it did to him, was more than he could bear at the moment.
“Bryce wants to sell the ranch, Gabe. He has no interest in it.”
“I suppose he and I have more than blood in common, then,” Gabe snarled.
Morgan shook her head, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. She gripped his arm again. “He wants to get rid of all that family history. You have the power to stop him. Without you, he can’t sell, but he’s going to go to the courts to fight Tyler’s will.”
“Good riddance.” Gabe eyed her coldly.
Morgan stepped up to him, their bodies nearly touching. “What’s happened to you that you hold such hatred inside you? Help me understand.” Her imploring, pleading eyes tore at him.
“I’ve told you before, Morgan. I done some things I ain’t proud of, and that’s why I’m here.”
“What things?”
Gabe sucked in a deep breath. He’d tell her what had been eating at him, and then she’d finally see him for the bastard that he was.
“I wanted to make my father pay for what he did to me, for abandoning me and my mother,” he said slowly. “While he married another whore, and gave his name to her son, my mother and I scraped by the best we could. Everywhere we went, I was seen as nothing but the filthy son of a whore. When she finally told me who my father was, I wanted to confront him, but he was already dead. So my hatred fell on Tyler, and the ranch he inherited.”
Morgan hadn’t moved. She simply looked at him, waiting for him to continue. Gabe laughed.
“I asked for work at the Double M, and was made foreman shortly after. I schemed to ruin the ranch, and at the same time teach my brother a lesson in what it’s like to live a life of misery.”
He ran a trembling hand along his jaw. There was still no reaction from Morgan. She calmly stood in front of him.
“And how did you manage to do that?” she asked softly.
“I did things to hurt some of his horses, which unfortunately also affected a neighbor’s animals. I thought I had arranged for a whore to come and marry Tyler. It would have been the perfect revenge – saddle my brother with a whore.”
Gabe laughed again, a scornful laugh. “Little did I know that the reverend had somehow intervened. He sent Laney, a woman from the future, for her second chance, and to marry Tyler. The two of them became inseparable, but I split them up. I forced Laney back to this time.”
Gabe closed his eyes for a split second, willing the images of Laney out of his mind while she pleaded with him not to force her to go to the reverend and demand to be sent back to her time. Th
e anguish in Tyler’s eyes, when he found out his wife had gone missing, and that no one could find her or knew where she was, had haunted his sleepless nights lately. He hadn’t known back then what caring for a woman - being in love - was like, much less what it felt like. He knew now. Morgan’s hatred of him would kill him. He swallowed, and continued.
“Tyler and the reverend turned the tables on me. They sent me here, and, as I came to find out from the old man, he managed to send Laney back to the past. So you see, I ain’t here for a second chance. I’m here for my punishment for what I done.”
Morgan shook her head. “I wonder if Laney would have met Tyler if you hadn’t schemed for her to marry him,” she said. “Have you thought of that?” Their eyes met. “Apparently your brother has forgiven you. Why can’t you forgive yourself?”
“There ain’t no turning back for me, Morgan. I can’t undo my past.”
“But you don’t have to continue down the same road. You can’t go back and undo things, but you can move forward with your life, change things for the better.”
Gabe pulled away from her. He sat on his bunk, and stared at the floor, resting his elbows on his knees. He couldn’t bear to let her see the shame of his past, and the guilt over what he’d done.
Not a moment later, Morgan’s hands were on his arms. He tilted his head to look up at her. She stood right there, concern in her imploring eyes. He couldn’t pull away from her. The draw of her tender gaze was too much.
“You’re trying to push me away, Gabe, but I won’t let you,” she whispered. “Not anymore. You can pretend to be angry at the world all you want, but one of these days you’ll realize that not everything is bad and ugly. You can’t change who your parents were or what they did, but you can change who you are.”
She leaned forward, and brought both hands to his face, framing his cheeks with her palms. Gabe drowned in the depths of her amber eyes, his mind waging a losing battle against the soothing touch of her palms.
“Everyone deserves a second chance. You’ve been given the opportunity to make a new start,” she whispered, smiling as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Your brother thought enough of you that he willed half of his ranch to you.”
“I ain’t a good man, Morgan,” he grumbled. “Because of the way I grew up, I—”
“Stop saying that.” Her voice rose uncharacteristically. For once, genuine anger blazed in her eyes. “You’ve been in the dumps all your life, you’re so blinded when good things actually happen to you. There are people who care about you.” She straightened, removed her hands from his face, and glared down at him. He’d never seen her this mad.
“Just because you had a rotten upbringing doesn’t mean you have to live your entire life that way,” she continued angrily. “Jake Owens thinks highly of you. I saw what you did for that little boy, Aaron, and I’ve seen you with Logan. You’ve had plenty of opportunity to take complete advantage of me, but you didn’t. You’ve never acted anything but honorably with me. I’ll never believe that you’re the horrible man you make yourself out to be. You’re a good man with a bad past. Stop looking back, and start looking toward the future.”
Morgan spun on her heels, facing away from him. She hugged one arm around her waist.
Gabe clenched his jaw and sprang up from the mattress. “Dammit, woman, why the hell do you keep pestering me?” His tone was more forceful than he’d intended. He needed to be angry with her, needed her to understand that she was wrong about him.
Morgan turned slowly, her eyes wide as she stared up at him in disbelief. She chuckled softly, and took a step toward him again. Their gazes locked.
“Haven’t you figured that out by now, Desperado?” Her anger was gone, replaced by the soft, calm voice that always held him mesmerized.
Gabe stared into her eyes. The answer was written there plain as day. No one had ever favored him with the kind of look she offered. Gabe’s chest tightened, and warmth spread through him. He’d seen that look in a woman’s eyes before, but it hadn’t been directed at him. Laney had gazed at Tyler the way Morgan favored him at this moment. It was that same look that had spurred him to find a way to send Laney back to the future, to hurt his brother. A look he never expected to see a woman bestow on him.
“I love you, Gabe McFarlain,” she whispered, and leaned up to touch her lips to his.
Chapter Twenty-One
Heat coursed through Gabe’s veins. Disbelief warred with elation. The first time Morgan kissed him had started like this, soft and innocent, and he’d nearly lost control then. His mind and body yearned for the sweet woman whose lips touched his with the lightest strokes, to the point that it made him nearly mad with want. Sensations of heat and fire rushed through him.
“Morgan, I—”
“Tell me to my face that you don’t have feelings for me. Tell me, and I’ll walk out of here and never bother you again,” she whispered against his lips.
He was done lying to himself, and to her. He loved her, and the thought that she might turn her back on him and leave was more terrifying than facing the hangman’s noose or living in this future time.
Hesitating only briefly, Gabe reached for her. His fingers clamped around her waist, and he drew her to him. Morgan offered no resistance. He wound his arms around her, and molded her fully up against his body. She fit so perfectly along the length of him, as if they’d been made for each other.
“I don’t want you to leave,” he choked. “You don’t know what it is you do to me, Morgan. I can’t figure out why you hold me in such high regard, but I don’t ever want to lose your respect.” He clenched his jaw, and added, “I wish I was the man you think I am.”
Her hands came up and she stroked his cheeks with her soft palms. “You are, Gabe. You can tell me all your flaws, and how you think you’re not a good person, but underneath all that, you are exactly the man I want, and so much more. Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes.”
She spoke the words with such conviction, a small part of him started to believe them himself. Her palms still cooled the heated skin of his face. With each second that passed as she stood there in his tight embrace, an expectant look in her doe eyes, his walls began to crumble. The road behind him disappeared, until there was only Morgan, here in his arms. She was real, she was now, and she would be here tomorrow.
“I love you, Morgan Bartlett,” he rasped, and brought his mouth down on hers.
Her arms instantly wrapped around his neck, drawing him down further. Gabe hesitated to deepen the kiss. He’d sworn he’d never treat her like a loose woman. She moaned softly, molding herself to him. All reason left him. He tightened his hold on her, lifting her off the ground as his lips crushed down on hers. He stumbled backward, his calves connecting with his bunk, and he lowered himself onto the mattress, pulling Morgan on top of him. She straddled his hips, never breaking the contact of her mouth on his.
Gabe had never kissed a woman like this before. It had always been for fun, and quick gratification. Most whores didn’t want to be kissed. Some of them might have enjoyed a good roll under the sheets, but in the end it had always been business. This was different. The way Morgan kissed him back held far deeper meaning than a one-time pleasure ride. It held the promise of a future. That she might be his, and his alone, brought every protective instinct in him to life, along with a need to claim something he’d never thought he deserved.
He broke away from her mouth, trailing his lips along her jaw, and down to her neck. She sucked in a quick breath, tilting her head to his kiss. His fingers explored along the curve of her hips and waist, upward along the ripples of her ribs, and back down. If he could commit the feel of her to memory, by damn it’s what he would do. Nothing had ever felt as good as this woman in his arms.
Morgan leaned into him. She whispered his name, and that she loved him. She buried her fingers in his hair, holding him to her bosom. Gabe inhaled a deep breath, savoring the soft scent of her skin.
He wrapped his arms fully around
her middle, some part of him afraid she’d pull back, not quite accepting that she was here and this was real. No one had ever touched him the way Morgan held him to her, making him feel cherished and loved. Her soothing strokes sparked feelings more powerful than all the hatred he’d bottled up inside all these years. His desire to be what she saw in him was overwhelming.
Her fingers raked slowly through his hair, the simple touch erasing away years of anguish and self-loathing. He closed his eyes, wrapping her even tighter in his embrace. He didn’t deserve her. He had no right to want this.
Morgan’s hands kneaded the back of his head, down his neck, and with languid strokes of her fingers, worked the tension from his muscles. It was like some dream he didn’t want to wake up from. His head rested against the softness of her breasts, her heart beating strong in his ear. He mimicked the actions of her fingers, exploring slowly along her back, rubbing the fabric of her shirt against her skin.
He continued to nuzzle her neck while she worked her magic along his back. Her hands moved lower, finding their way beneath his shirt, and new sensations raced through him from her touch. Following her lead, Gabe worked her shirt free of the confines of her denims, running his palms up her back and along her feminine curves. It was no longer enough.
“Morgan, I can’t be the honorable man you think I am,” he rasped, seeking her mouth again. He either had to stop this now, or there’d be no going back. His denims had become unbearably tight, and Morgan’s weight, as she straddled him, more torturous than anything he’d endured before. Guilt nagged him for wanting what he’d told her weeks ago he wouldn’t do, but his restraint had been pushed to the limit. He loved her, and she’d said she loved him. He’d make this right somehow.
“I don’t want you to be honorable right now,” she breathed. “And I hope you won’t think any less of me because of it.”
Gabe groaned, and in one swift move, bucked her off his lap and rolled her onto the mattress. He leaned over her, staring down into her passion-glazed eyes. She smiled up at him, then reached for his shirt and pulled it up and over his head. Her hands slid along his chest, up his shoulders and to his back. Fire coursed through him. His heart was about to leap from his chest, and he covered her mouth while her name was still on his lips.
Diamond in the Dust (Second Chances Time Travel Romance Book 3) Page 20
