"I'm not waiting for anybody. Besides, somebody needs to argue with you. Maybe then you'd learn not to give orders and expect people to jump to obey."
"One thing I learned in the Army is that somebody's got to give the orders, damn it."
Luke's grip on her wrists loosened, but Katie remained nose to nose with him. He loomed over her, but she no longer found him intimidating. In fact, she had to fight the urge to grab him around the neck and kiss all the mad out of him. But that would be surrender. "I am not one of your soldiers," she told him, although her words lacked conviction. "Don't give me orders."
"When we're married..." he began.
"Which will be never," she said between gritted teeth. "I changed my mind."
"What if you're pregnant?"
"What if I am? It was my choice, and it'll be my baby. I don't need you!" Oh, but I do. I do. Why are we fighting like this?
In the sudden silence filling the room, Emmet's voice, low and anguished, seemed to fill every corner. "Your choice, Katie girl? You've given yourself to him, then?"
Oh, God, what have I done? Slowly she turned to face her father. Unable to meet his eyes, she nodded. Her voice broke as she said, "Yes, Pa. I've...I've...yes."
Emmet looked at Luke. "Did you take advantage of her?" Now his tone was terrible, strong and dangerous.
Luke stood a little taller, a little straighter, as he looked her father straight in the eye. "Yes sir, I did."
"No, Pa! He didn't." Arms outspread, she stepped between the men, protecting Luke from her father's certain wrath. "It was my idea. He resisted, but I kept asking. I wanted him," she admitted.
"I wanted him to love me."
"I do love her, Mr. Lachlan. More than I can say." Luke's hands at her waist moved her aside as if she weighed no more than the feathers that still drifted about the room. He stepped past her and faced her father again. "And I'd be proud to take her to wife any time--tonight if I can. I just thought it would be better if I could make a proper home for her."
"Katie's no stranger to hardship," Emmet said, and Katie thought she saw a spark of warmth melting the ice in his eyes. "What she does need, though, is a strong hand on the bridle."
"Pa! Really!"
"I've learned that. But she also needs a man who'll love her with all his heart." Luke looked at Katie then, and in his eyes she read his pledge. "And I do."
Her breath seemed to catch on a heart that swelled in her chest. "You really do? Love me, I mean?"
"I really do, sweetheart."
She expected him to kiss her then. Instead he looked back to her father, grinning widely. "I reckon I'll just have to keep her so busy raising little Savages that she'll have no time to get into mischief."
"If you say one more word about--" The rest of her threat was lost as Luke's lips closed over hers.
Dimly Katie heard her father say, "Guess I'll go look up a preacher," before she lost herself in the glory and passion of Luke's kisses.
THE END
About the Author
Among her varied careers are a couple Judith B. Glad actually chose, rather than falling into. With her children in school, she decided it was time for her to follow her own dreams, so she went back to school and studied botany. After completing her M.S., she became a botanical consultant, and spent the next twenty-odd years picking flowers for a living. Well, it was a little more complicated than that, but she picked enough flowers to keep her happy.
Consulting is not always steady work, so one slow winter Judith decided to spend a little time at her second career choice. Now she'd done a lot of writing as a consultant, but somehow describing proposed mine sites and interpreting statistical data wasn't the kind of writing she wanted to do. So she wrote a book. And another, and... Before she knew it, she was spending more time writing than picking flowers.
Judith lives in Portland, Oregon, where her garden blooms all year 'round and the long, rainy winters give her lots of time for writing. Visit her website (www.judithbglad.com) for samples of her stories.
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