In spite of all the pain and the heartache, she wouldn’t have changed one thing that had happened between them. If she didn’t have Rand, she would still have the memories. Every touch, every kiss, every laugh they’d shared, she would always remember. Maybe—and it was a big maybe—there would be other men in her life, but no man would ever take his place. No man could come close.
“Miss Grace?”
Startled, she glanced up at Jeffrey’s call. Jeffrey, an elderly man with a British accent, had been the Sullivans’ family butler since Grace was a little girl. He was more like an uncle than an employee, and Grace adored him.
“You have a package,” Jeffrey said in that deep baritone voice of his.
“Would you mind putting it in the study for me?” she asked. “I’ll take care of it later.”
Jeffrey—the calmest, most composed man on the face of the earth, hesitated. “I don’t believe the study would be an appropriate place to put it, Miss. Nor do I believe you should wait until later.”
Grace shook her head. Jeffrey was much too formal, she thought. Not once in all her life had she seen the man let his hair down, so to speak, do the boogie-woogie or shake a tail feather. Life was just too damn short not to enjoy every moment.
Well, dammit, if it killed her, she was going to have a good time tonight. When the music changed later to something fast and fun, she intended to get out there and shake a tail feather of her own.
She might even shock Jeffrey and drag him out there with her.
For the moment, though, she would humor the man. She followed him to the front door, where he surprised her by taking the glass of champagne from her hands, then opened the door for her.
Her surprise turned to shock.
On her parents’ front porch, were two foals. And not just any foals, but the foals that she and Rand had rescued from Black River Canyon. They bumped nervously into each other, but a lead line and bridle held them in place. Grace stepped outside, followed the ropes attached to those bridles to see who was holding them.
Rand.
Wearing a black tuxedo, of all things, he stood to the side of the front door, leaning casually against the house.
Grace felt her heart leap in her throat.
“Rand,” she whispered his name. “What…what are you doing here?”
“Lucas and Julianna couldn’t make it,” he said. “They sent me in their place.”
“Oh.” What was she supposed to say? I’m so glad they couldn’t come, and would you just please kiss me? “I…I hope everything is all right.”
“Everything is great. Julianna had her baby early this morning, two weeks early, but she and the baby are both fine.”
“I’m so glad.” And she was, Grace thought, her mind reeling. Extremely glad. But with Rand staring at her with those black eyes of his, a smile lifting one corner of his mouth, looking incredibly and ruggedly handsome in the tux he had on, Grace simply couldn’t keep a thought straight.
She’d thought she would never see him again, and here he was, standing two feet away from her. She stared at him, held her hands carefully at her sides because she was afraid she was going to leap into his arms and make a complete fool out of herself.
He was here for Lucas and Julianna, Grace reminded herself. Not for her.
She struggled to draw air into her lungs. “What are you doing here with the foals?”
“I adopted them.”
“You adopted them?”
He nodded. “And the mares and stallion, too.”
“You adopted all of them?”
“Yep.”
Yep? He’d adopted five horses and all he could say was “Yep?” The man was enough to make to her crazy. In fact, he already had.
“You said your mother was selling the ranch and all her horses,” she said carefully. “Where will you keep them, and who’s going to take care of them?”
“Actually—” he pushed away from the wall of the house and moved closer to her “—I was hoping you would.”
“Me? You mean the foundation?”
“No. I meant you.”
Confused, she looked at the foals. With their big, dark, watery eyes and sweet faces, she tried to think of a way she could keep them, but there wasn’t. “Rand, I don’t have a permanent place to keep them. That’s why they’re adopted out, to give them homes.”
“What if you did have a place? A permanent place.” He moved in front of her and stared down at her. “With me.”
“Permanent?” Her pulse skipped, then starting to race. “With you?”
She knew she sounded like a silly parrot, repeating everything he said, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances.
“Yeah. With me.” He touched her cheek with his fingertip. “I’ve got fifty acres in Wolf River. My parents’ land. It’s not much, but we can buy more later, after we build a new house.”
“We?” she barely managed to get the single word out. “You and me, Grace,” he said quietly. “A herd of horses, a passel of kids. Maybe even a dog and cat. I always wanted a dog.”
A passel of kids? Terrified that her knees would give out on her, she grabbed hold of his arms and leveled her gaze with his. “Whatever it is you’re getting at, Rand Blackhawk, will you just say it?”
He cupped her chin in his hand and looked down at her. “I’m asking you to marry me, Grace Sullivan.”
Rand watched Grace’s eyes widen and felt her jaw go slack in his palm. He’d expected her to be surprised, but hell, no one was more surprised than him.
She blinked, then stepped back from him. “You’re asking me to marry you?”
Rand had never done this before, but still, he didn’t think that her response was what anyone would call encouraging. He dragged a hand through his hair and frowned. “Look, I know I won’t be the easiest person to live with, but I love you, dammit, so that’s gotta mean something.”
“That’s how you propose to me?” she asked, folding her arms. “‘I always wanted a dog. I love you, dammit’?”
“Yes.” That wasn’t what he’d intended. Somehow, that’s just how it came out. “So what’s your answer?”
“Yes.”
She had him so damn flustered he wasn’t certain what she was saying yes to. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, dammit. I’ll marry you.”
“Thank God,” he said on a rush of breath, then dragged her to him and caught her mouth with his. Laughing, her arms came around his neck, and she kissed him back. He lifted her off the ground, smiled against her lips. “Thank God,” he said again, and held her tightly to him. “Thank God.”
He deepened the kiss, felt a fierce and powerful emotion grip him. He’d never felt anything like it before, not before Grace, but he knew what it was. Love. He knew that she was his one true love, the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
“Tell me you love me,” he whispered against her mouth.
“I love you,” she said, breathless. “I love you, I love you.”
She inched away from him and gazed up at him. “What happened in Wolf River, Rand? When I left, I thought I’d never see you again.”
On a sigh he touched his forehead to hers. “For the past twenty-three years I’ve felt guilty. Not only because I hadn’t died with my family, but because deep inside of me I was glad that I hadn’t died. I felt I’d let my family down because I was happy I was still alive. So I didn’t believe that I deserved love, and I could never allow myself to love anyone back.”
He brushed his lips against hers and smiled. “And then you came into my life, Miss Grace. I’ll never forget the way you looked that first day I met you, standing in that hot, dusty barn in your business suit and high heels. I wanted you so bad I hurt.”
“That first day?” She frowned at him. “You acted like all you wanted to do was get rid of me.”
“I did,” he said honestly. “Because I knew you were a threat to me. I knew I was looking at a woman—the woman—who had the power to get ins
ide me. The power to make me feel. I’d spent a lifetime not allowing myself to feel, Grace. You scared the hell out of me.”
“You scared me, too,” she admitted.
“But you didn’t back down,” he said. “You hung in there, stood up to me, and stuck it out. I’d never met anyone like you before. You absolutely staggered me. You still do.”
There were tears in her eyes as she kissed him, and when she drew back, she smiled at him. “And you mean it, about the fifty acres and horses and kids and everything? You really want all that?”
“Yeah, I really want all that,” he said softly. “But only with you, Grace. Without you, none of it would mean anything to me.” He grinned at her. “Not even the five million dollars I just found out I inherited.”
Her eyes widened. “Five…million…dollars?”
“Yep.” He was still trying to get used to it himself. “Seems my grandfather had a lot of money he’d made in oil and bonds and put in trust for his children. Since my uncle was the executor, he forged a new will when my grandfather died and took everything.”
“And your parents died without any of what was rightfully theirs,” Grace said sadly.
“The money didn’t matter. My parents died happy, with each other. That was worth more than any amount of money.” He pressed a quick kiss to her nose. “But don’t get me wrong, darlin’. I intend to enjoy my inheritance. Build a ranch and a house and keep you living in the manner to which you’re accustomed.”
She frowned at him. “I would have lived in a pup tent if you’d asked me to, buster, though I should tell you I have a healthy trust fund myself, also from my grandparents. We wouldn’t have needed to clip coupons to survive.”
“Yeah?” He lifted a brow. “I should have married you that first day and saved a lot of time.”
“Yes, you should have,” she said primly, then the amusement in her eyes turned to concern. “What about Seth and Lizzie?” she asked. “Have you found them?”
“We think we’re close to finding Seth, but we’ve had to hire a private investigator to find Lizzie. They will both be free to do whatever they want with their trust funds, when and if we do actually find them, that is.”
“If? You mean you might not find them?”
“We never know what tomorrow brings, Grace.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her again. “But with you by my side, sweetheart, I’m going to look forward to each and every day.”
The foals nudged Rand from behind, pushing him closer to Grace. Laughing, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Did I tell you how sexy you look in that dress you’re wearing?” he murmured.
“You look pretty damn good yourself in that tux, Blackhawk.”
He nuzzled her ear. “So how long before this shin-dig is over and we can both get naked?”
“Soon,” she whispered, then wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a long, searing kiss that surely must have made smoke come out of his ears.
He whispered what he wanted to do to her later, felt her shudder in response to his words. Later he knew he would make her shudder again and again. And she would do the same for him.
Smiling, he held her close. It had taken him twenty-three years and the love of a special woman, but with absolute certainty, Rand Blackhawk knew that he had finally come home.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0337-2
TAMING BLACKHAWK
Copyright © 2002 by Barbara Joel
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*Hearts of Stone
†Secrets!
Taming Blackhawk Page 14
