The Cowboy's Bride

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “If we didn’t marry for real, it didn’t seem right for me to do so,” Callie said demurely. “No matter what Uncle Max’s will said.”

  Cody paused. “Did you mean it when you said you loved me with all your heart and soul?” he asked hoarsely.

  Callie nodded. She laced both arms about his shoulders as she promised softly, “Now and forever.”

  00:09

  THEN THERE’S SOMETHING I have to tell you,” Cody said.

  Callie tilted her face up to his and looked earnestly into his eyes.

  “I love you, too.” His breath was expelled in a long, hot rush and his voice dropped another husky notch as he pulled her closer still. “Always have and always will.”

  “Oh, Cody,” Callie whispered as her heart filled with boundless joy. Though she’d known it in her heart since he’d made love to her last night, she had about given up on ever hearing him speak the words. Now that he had, tears of happiness streamed down her face.

  “Now, Callie...” Cody slanted her a teasing grin and made a great show of mopping up her tears with the pads of his thumbs. “Don’t cry. You’re not supposed to cry on your wedding day.”

  “I can’t help it,” Callie said thickly. In coming back to Montana, she had hoped only for a better life and instead had found paradise. “I am so happy.”

  “So am I.” Cody hugged her to him fiercely. They kissed again, this time with tenderness. When they finally drew apart again, both of them filled with the most delicious sense of well-being, Cody said huskily, “Max was right. You are the woman for me, the only woman for me.”

  Callie smiled as she smoothed her thumb across the ruggedly shaped lines of his clean-shaven jaw. “And you’re the man for me.”

  His eyes darkened. His hold became less sensual, more protective, and he released a long, slow breath. “Even so, there are some things we should discuss,” he said seriously.

  Callie had an idea where all this was headed. “Like our future,” she said.

  “Right.” Cody paused, then grasped both her hands in one of his and continued gruffly, “About the ranch. I admit I haven’t thought about it long, but I think you were right in wanting to give it away, because all this inheritance stuff has done is complicate the relationship between us. So as far as I’m concerned, you can give it to whoever you want. Because when it comes right down to it, there’s only one thing I want from you.”

  He looked so serious. Callie drew a quick breath. “And that is... ?” She wanted so much not to disappoint him again.

  Cody pressed his lips together firmly as he decreed, “For starters, no more of this marrying each other only to rescue each other from some terrible fate, like you running from your family, or me trying to get back the cattle operation I worked so hard at building up. If we marry, I want it to be because we love each other and always will. And I want it to be a real marriage in every respect. I want us to be as committed to each other, and to our relationship, as my parents were.”

  These were terms she could meet. Happy tears flooded her eyes and streamed down her face. “I think I can do that,” Callie said thickly. “In fact, I know I can.”

  “Good,” he confirmed huskily, holding her close. Gently, he stroked a hand through her hair. “‘Cause I’m counting on us building something real and lasting this time.”

  “Although I think there is something you should know, too, Cody,” Callie said passionately, looking deep into his eyes. “You are the one I planned to give the ranch to if you didn’t show up here to marry me and I had inherited. I never would have let you walk away empty-handed. And I don’t want you to walk away empty-handed now. I know how much you love this place. I know how much of your heart and soul you’ve put into it. I would never ask you to give it up.”

  “So we can stay?”

  Callie smiled and wreathed her arms around his neck as she admitted softly, “I wouldn’t want us to raise our family anywhere else.”

  As they smiled at each other, there was more noise outside the tent, then Pearl coughing loudly in a way meant to garner their attention. “Hurry up, you two,” she called impatiently as the music began. “The ceremony’s going to be starting any minute.”

  Cody poked his head out the tent. “Hold your horses, Pearl. We’re coming.”

  00:00:17

  “DO YOU SEE TRACE and Patience?” Callie asked as she searched around for her bouquet.

  “No, not yet.” Cody frowned. “And I don’t see their respective mates, either”

  “Do you think they’re coming, that they’ll get here in time, too?” Callie asked worriedly.

  Cody looked at her and grinned, his optimism for the future as contagious as his smile. “I hope so,” he murmured softly, taking her into his arms yet again. “I’d hate for us to be the only ones who are this happy. Wouldn’t you?”

  Callie nodded. “It’s just too bad Uncle Max couldn’t be here for this.”

  Cody smiled and shot a glance heavenward. “I have the feeling he knows.”

  Weddings by De Wilde

  Since the turn of the century the elegant and fashionable De Wilde stores have helped brides around the world turn the fantasy of their “Special Day” into reality. But now the store and three generations of family are torn apart by the divorce of Grace and Jeffrey DeWilde. As family members face new challenges and loves — and a long-secret mystery — the lives of Grace and Jeffrey intermingle with store employees, friends and relatives in this fast-paced, glamorous, internationally set series. For weddings and romance, glamour and fun-filled entertainment, enter the world of DeWilde...

  Twelve remarkable books, coming to you once a month, beginning in April 1996

  Weddings by DeWilde begins with

  Shattered Vows

  by Jasmine Cresswell

  Here’s a preview!

  “SPEND THE NIGHT with me, Lianne.”

  No softening lies, no beguiling promises, just the curt offer of a night of sex. She closed her eyes, shutting out temptation. She had never expected to feel this sort of relentless drive for sexual fulfillment, so she had no mechanisms in place for coping with it. “No.” The one-word denial was all she could manage to articulate.

  His grip on her arms tightened as if he might refuse to accept her answer. Shockingly, she wished for a split second that he would ignore her rejection and simply bundle her into the car and drive her straight to his flat, refusing to take no for an answer. All the pleasures of mindless sex, with none of the responsibility. For a couple of seconds he neither moved nor spoke. Then he released her, turning abruptly to open the door on the passenger side of his Jaguar. “I’ll drive you home,” he said, his voice hard and flat. “Get in.”

  The traffic was heavy, and the rain started again as an annoying drizzle that distorted depth perception made driving difficult, but Lianne didn’t fool herself that the silence inside the car was caused by the driving conditions. The air around them crackled and sparked with their thwarted desire. Her body was still on fire. Why didn’t Gabe say something? she thought, feeling aggrieved.

  Perhaps because he was finding it as difficult as she was to think of something appropriate to say. He was thirty years old, long past the stage of needing to bed a woman just so he could record another sexual conquest in his little black book. He’d spent five months dating Julia, which suggested he was a man who valued friendship as an element in his relationships with women. Since he didn’t seem to like her very much, he was probably as embarrassed as she was by the stupid, inexplicable intensity of their physical response to each other.

  “Maybe we should just set aside a weekend to have wild, uninterrupted sex,” she said, thinking aloud. “Maybe that way we’d get whatever it is we feel for each other out of our systems and be able to move on with the rest of our lives.”

  His mouth quirked into a rueful smile. “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”

  “Why? Because you’re the man? Are you sexist enough to believe that women don’t have sexual
urges? I’m just as aware of what’s going on between us as you are, Gabe. Am I supposed to pretend I haven’t noticed that we practically ignite whenever we touch? And that we have nothing much in common except mutual lust—and a good friend we betrayed?”

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-7483-9

  THE COWBOY’S BRIDE

  Copyright © 1996 by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  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 publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing 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.

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