“Yeah,” he said again, still hoarsely. “They will. Lots of theys, because we’re inside the Clear Creek city limits here, and the FBI will eventually show up, too, since he was one of their bank robbers. But they can all wait.”
Lina sat up, fire lighting her eyes. “If any of them have the nerve to say you were wrong to shoot him, they’ll hear from me!”
Both amused and completely turned on by her ferocity, Bran kneaded her nape. “No, I’m pretty sure no one will. Charlie was a witness, remember. Charlie’s SUV is now pocked with bullet holes, which proves Jones was shooting at us. And this is the guy you saw shoot and kill Maya. It’s just routine, Lina. I’ll probably be on administrative leave for a few days.”
“Oh.” She relaxed again. “Okay. That will be nice. Having you home, I mean.”
“Yeah, I think I need that, too,” he admitted. “Considering you scared me spitless.”
“What do you mean, I scared you?” she asked in mock indignation. “It wasn’t my fault.”
“No. It was mine.” He couldn’t believe he was going to do this. It was a hell of a lot riskier than sticking his head out where a gunman could blow it off. But the tightness deep in his chest wouldn’t let him off the hook. He had to say this, and he had to see her face when he did, or he’d have to learn to live with this discomfort that verged on pain.
“Yours?” Lina planted a hand on his chest to once again sit up enough so she could see his face. “What are you talking about?”
“Not what happened. I don’t mean that.” He swallowed, feeling like his damn Adam’s apple had swollen to twice its usual size. “I mean that I don’t know how I’d have gone on without you.” Admitting that much was bad enough. Getting the rest out...
Her eyes widened and he was sure she’d quit breathing.
“I’ve never loved a woman before. Except my mother, I guess.”
“And she let you down,” Lina said softly.
Trying really hard not to squirm, he moved his shoulders. “I thought she did.” Thought? He shoved aside his surprise. He’d have to think about that later. “The thing is, I started to love you without knowing what was happening.” Fast, before he could chicken out, he said, “I do love you. I’m not easy to live with. I know that. But... I’ll keep trying. And I swear I’ll never let you down, not in any of the big ways.”
Tears filled her gorgeous gray-green eyes. “I know you won’t, Bran. I never doubted that. Not once.” She laid her hand on his cheek and jaw, her skin so soft. She smiled tremulously. “And of course I love you. Surely you’d guessed.”
“I...hoped.” He turned his face to press a kiss into her palm. “Can we get married soon? Until we do, I think I’ll keep—” Cutting himself off seemed smart. He didn’t have to tell her he’d keep being scared until the deed was done. Scared he’d blow it. Scared she’d come to her senses. Scared her I love you was really gratitude.
Scared she’d cancel the wedding two days before it happened.
No, he hadn’t loved Paige, but he hadn’t needed one more person walking out on him.
“I won’t, you know.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Change my mind. That’s what you were thinking, isn’t it?”
God, she’d pulled his thoughts right out of his head. Which should scare him, but for some reason didn’t. “Yeah,” he admitted. “I told you the truth. I’m glad Paige was smart enough to realize something was missing. But even so...” He hesitated.
“If it happens to you once, you’ve got to wonder the next time,” Lina concluded for him.
He grimaced. “Plus, it’s you. I don’t want to be without you, Lina. I want you to stay. Don’t move back to your apartment.”
“No, although...” She was the one to hesitate this time. But then she said in a rush, “Could we move to my apartment instead? At least for now? I don’t ever want to go out on your balcony again, or even look out the sliding doors.”
He shook his head. “See? I should have known you’d feel that way. Of course we can move to your place. We can grab enough stuff for tomorrow and go now. I’ll come back for the rest later. I kind of thought we should buy a house before the baby comes anyway.”
“I would love that,” she said, her eyes shimmering. “And let’s do go now. Because I’d really like it if you’d make love to me, and not on that bed.”
He cupped one of her breasts and squeezed gently. “Seems to me this recliner worked just fine last night.”
Lina arched her back to push her breast more firmly into his hand. “You’re right. This recliner has no bad memories at all.”
“Only good,” he said huskily, starting to divest her of the clothes she’d put on only a few minutes ago. But, hey, he’d let her keep her socks.
* * *
BRAN HELPED LINA up the front porch steps, then slid the key in the lock and ceremoniously opened the front door of the 1940s bungalow.
“Home, sweet home,” she said with satisfaction.
“All ours,” he agreed.
The house was only the third they had looked at. Lina had loved it at first sight. That it was less than three blocks from Zach’s house was a bonus. After having him do an inspection, they had put earnest money down the same day they saw it. Because Bran had both the proceeds from his childhood home and substantial savings from his salary, he had been able to pay cash, allowing them to close on the house in only two weeks. Lina’s more modest savings were slated to pay for some of the remodeling they intended to do.
Most of the work could wait, this house was dated but, unlike Zach’s when he first bought it, livable. They had decided to go ahead and refinish the hardwood floors before move-in day. Lina just hoped to be in the house before the baby came.
And married.
She was still having nightmares, but at least no one was out to kill her anymore. After Bran shot Tag Jones, Clear Creek Police had located a car no one recognized in a visitor spot at the apartment complex. The key they found in his pocket fit. The registration that was in the glove compartment and the borrowed driver’s license in his wallet led a combined county and FBI SWAT team to a house up a long, rutted dirt road in the northeast corner of the county, tucked in the Cascade foothills. There, they surprised the Cobbs, as well as the couple renting the house who were arrested for aiding and abetting.
Enough of the stolen money was recovered to make the banks happy.
Charged with a long list of crimes including first-degree murder, Derrick Cobb went to jail. Even though everyone concerned suspected Melissa Cobb qualified as a battered woman, she faced charges, too.
Detective Tom Sperling had announced his retirement. Zach was one of many to apply for the position that was opening, and already knew he’d been selected. He’d only been with the department a year, but the two years he’d worked Homicide for the Portland Police Bureau trumped anyone else’s qualifications. Lina knew Tess was relieved, because in theory detectives were less likely to be killed on the job than patrol officers. In practice...well...the bullet that took out the window in Charlie Warring’s Subaru had come very close to striking Bran in the head.
Lina, for one, was glad Bran worked for a rural county sheriff’s department, and not in an urban area, where serious crimes were so much more common.
Today, they wandered through the house, Bran relaxed and indulgent. With it empty, their footsteps and voices echoed. Lina could hardly wait to start hunting for antiques to supplement the basic furniture they already owned. Fortunately, she’d have plenty of time once the baby had come.
Today she stopped in the middle of one of the smaller bedrooms, taking in the way the winter sun fell through the old-fashioned sash window, and said, “This one will be hers.”
“Good choice,” Bran said, then cocked his head. “Sounds like Zach and Tess are here.”
/>
Tess was the first to appear. Looking around, she said, “I love this place. You know Zach and I aren’t ever going to be able to move, don’t you? Not now that you’ll be living so close.”
Lina laughed. “Adding on a bedroom or two to your house would be a snap.”
Framed by the doorway, Zach groaned. “Adding on? We’re already trapped in the never-ending remodel.”
“It’s fun,” Tess insisted.
She and Lina started talking wallpaper. Just a border in here, Lina decided. Bran was determined to have the basics done so they could move in before the baby came. Zach had volunteered to sand the floors, after which he’d help Bran stain and finish them. Lina didn’t care if they got anything else done before they moved in, except for the baby’s bedroom.
“Maybe I should paint before Zach starts on the floors—”
Bran had been talking to his brother, but he turned at that. “I’ll be doing the painting in here. The fumes can’t be good for a pregnant woman.”
“But my doctor said—”
He crossed his arms and just looked at her. She quit wasting her breath.
“And no ladders for you,” he added. “At least until after the baby comes.”
Tess laughed at Bran. “Detective Domineering.”
Without altering his stance, he stared his sister-in-law down. “Maybe. But she’s not climbing up on a ladder anyway.”
Lina got the giggles. She might have taught Bran Murphy to love, but there was only so much you could change a man.
And, truthfully, she wasn’t all that enthusiastic about ladders of any height at the moment.
Their wedding was less than a week away. She suspected Bran was more nervous than he admitted about meeting her parents, who were flying in Thursday ahead of the Saturday ceremony. She, in turn, was a little nervous about meeting his mother, who would be staying with Zach and Tess. Bran himself had called his mother to invite her. Even though he hadn’t asked, Lina left him alone in the living room for that call. He’d talked to his mother for a long time, his voice quiet.
After, all he’d say was, “She was a lousy wife, but a good mother. I...lost something when I cut her off. As you and Zach both have pointed out, I have a chance for a do-over.”
She had hugged him, something he so obviously needed from her, and often. “And Anna Grace Murphy will have two grandmothers.”
Now, dreaming, she wandered over to peer out the window at their yard, thinking this spring she’d plant a rose beneath the window. Bran came up behind her, enclosing her securely in his arms.
Smiling, she turned her head to see that they were momentarily alone. “We’ve come so far,” she murmured.
He nuzzled her neck, said, “Yeah,” and looked at her with naked honesty. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Blinking back tears, she whispered, “Ditto.”
Even as he kissed her, he caressed her stomach with one big, warm hand, as if to be sure baby Anna knew she was part of everything good, too.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781488006647
The Baby He Wanted
Copyright © 2016 by Janice Kay Johnson
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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When his past collides with her present, only true love can survive the wild ride...
Bullfighter Ian Tall Chief is determined to get off the reservation and onto the pro circuit. After a wild youth, and some big mistakes, he’s found his focus. The only person who can break his concentration? Lacy Evans, owner of the Straight Arrow Ranch.
But the beautiful cowgirl is dealing with problems of her own. She’s running the ranch alone, after her parents’ deaths. The macho rodeo world is not ready for a female stock contractor. And she’s discovered her parents were keeping secrets from her—ones that rock the very foundation of her identity. Can she trust Ian to be the good man he claims to be?
“I know how this goes.”
Lacy paused before adding, “There are two kinds of men here. The first doesn’t think a woman like me should be anywhere near a bull because we might do better than them and that would obviously be the end of the world. The second thinks I’m nothing but a one-night stand that hasn’t happened yet.” She pointed a finger at him. “Guess which one you are.”
His lips...nice lips, rounded and full and—no, stop it, Lacy. She was not going to start thinking about his lips! All they were doing were twisting off to the side, as if he was thinking about laughing at her but trying not to.
Unfortunately, in trying so hard not to stare at his mouth, her gaze drifted back down to his chest. The wet T-shirt left nothing to the imagination. Pecs, nipples!
She snapped her gaze to the front windshield of the truck. She wouldn’t look at him. That was the best solution.
“Have you considered,” Ian Tall Chief said in an amused drawl, “that there might be another kind of man here?”
Dear Reader,
Welcome back to the rodeo, where dreams are made—and broken—in eight seconds in the arena on the back of a two-ton bull.
Ian Tall Chief has something to prove. He’s got a secret, one he guards with his life: he’s got a son he gave up for adoption. It’s been six years and he wants to be someone his son can be proud of, which is why he’s determined to make it to the rodeo finals as a bullfighter.
But his path is
blocked by one very stubborn woman. Lacy Evans. She’s the owner of the Straight Arrow Ranch and her bulls have been giving Ian nothing but trouble. Lacy is as tough as nails, yet there’s something vulnerable about her that makes Ian want to protect her.
When Lacy’s hidden past comes to light and collides head-on with Ian’s, will these two make it out of the arena?
One Rodeo Season is a sensual story about accepting your past and fighting for your future—and falling in love. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it! Be sure to stop by sarahmanderson.com and sign up for my newsletter at eepurl.com/nv39b to join me as I say, Long Live Cowboys!
Sarah
One Rodeo Season
SARAH M. ANDERSON
Sarah M. Anderson may live east of the Mississippi River, but her heart lies out West on the Great Plains. Sarah’s book A Man of Privilege won an RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award in 2012.
Sarah spends her days having conversations with imaginary cowboys and American Indians. Find out more about Sarah’s love of cowboys and Indians at sarahmanderson.com and sign up for the new-release newsletter at eepurl.com/nv39b.
Books by Sarah M. Anderson
HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE
Rodeo Dreams
HARLEQUIN DESIRE
The Nanny Plan
His Forever Family
The Bolton Brothers
Straddling the Line
Bringing Home the Bachelor
Expecting a Bolton Baby
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Harlequin Superromance May 2016 Box Set Page 26
