"This is wrong!"
The finality of her words must have gotten through to Wade. He didn't try to kiss her again."How?" he asked bitterly."How could it be wrong?"
Kathryn clung to the sink for support."We're family, for heaven's sake!"
"Only in the sense that when my father married your sister, we all came together as a unit. We've been over this ground before. You and I have no blood ties!"
Her face crimsoned."So that makes it all right for us to carry on a tawdry affair behind their backs? Behind your fiancée's? I'm amazed you could even consider it!"
He didn't answer immediately, but something profound and painful was going on inside him, turning his eyes the dark green of an angry ocean. Unexpectedly, he moved away."If you're ready," he said quietly, "I'll take you home."
Rebecca Winters, an American writer and mother of four, is a graduate of the University of Utah, who has also studied at schools in Switzerland and France, including the Sorbonne. She is currently teaching French and Spanish to junior high school students. Despite her busy schedule, Rebecca always finds time to write. She's already researching the background for her next Harlequin Romance!
Books by Rebecca Winters
HARLEQUIN ROMANCE
3090-THE STORY PRINCESS
3120-RITES OF LOVE
3144-BLACKIE'S WOMAN
3162-RESCUED HEART
3192-THE MARRIAGE BRACELET
3210-BOTH OF THEM
MEANT FOR EACH OTHER
Rebecca Winters
Harlequin Books
TORONTO * NEW YORK * LONDON * AMSTERDAM * PARIS * SYDNEY * HAMBURG * STOCKHOLM
ATHENS * TOKYO * MILAN * MADRID * WARSAW * BUDAPEST * AUCKLAND
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."
ISBN 0-373-03228-5
Harlequin Romance first edition October 1992
MEANT FOR EACH OTHER Copyright © 1992 by Rebecca Winters.
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 permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All the characters in this book havo 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.
®are Trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.
Printed in U.S.A.
CHAPTER ONE
AS THE PLANE circled the sunbaked Salt Lake Valley in preparation for landing, Kathryn Lawson's slender fingers tightened on the armrests. Her sister Alice, would be waiting to take her home to Afton, the small Wyoming town where they'd been born and raised.
After their mother's death, Kathryn had moved in with Alice who, by that time, was married to Clyde Matheson, a widower, and owner of the general store in Afton. He had one son, and later on, two more children were born. They all lived happily in a tiny old house that Alice declared would always be home to Kathryn.
When Kathryn reached college age, she'd used her small inheritance from the sale of their parents' home to attend university in Boulder, Colorado. During that period she made visits to Afton at every opportunity. But when she went on to graduate school in San Diego, California, and married Philip, the visits stopped. In fact, she hadn't been back to Afton in five years. Yet she wasn't sure she'd done the right thing in coming now. She'd finally given in to Alice, who insisted that Kathryn needed to relax with her family for a while after the divorce.
Unfortunately Alice had become extremely protective since Kathryn's miscarriage and subsequent separation from Philip. Now that Kathryn had severed all ties with her ex-husband and had resigned from her teaching position at UCLA, Alice wouldn't leave her alone. She practically demanded that Kathryn come home for a month before she made any serious decisions about the rest of her life.
The screech of the wheels against the tarmac jarred Kathryn back to the present. When the plane had taxied to a full stop, she unfastened her seat belt and jumped up nervously to reach for her purse and over night bag. She was aware of an uneasiness in the pit of her stomach, a sensation that owed nothing to the uneventful flight from San Diego to Salt Lake.
Since the trip was short―only an hour and a half she still felt reasonably fresh in her white cotton suit with the tailored navy-and-white striped blouse beneath. It was the kind of outfit she wore when she lectured, to distinguish herself from the students who showed up for class in casual gear such as cutoffs and blue jeans.
She wore it now because to some extent it hid her recent weight loss. Kathryn's figure was normally well rounded, but following her miscarriage and divorce, she hadn't been able to put on weight, a fact Alice would notice immediately.
She hoped her golden tan and rose-tinted sun glasses would hide the fatigue lines beneath her heavily lashed dark blue eyes. With her white high-heeled sandals, and her shoulder-length brown hair caught in a knot on top of her head, she knew she looked taller than her medium height and hoped her appearance gave the air of a confident thirty-year-old college teacher. The last thing she wanted was for Alice or Clyde to find out she was a mass of nerves.
Taking a fortifying breath, she walked off the plane and rode the escalator to the baggage-claim area on the main floor. Except for the contents of a large suitcase, and her overnight bag, all her things were in storage and would be sent on when she had a permanent address. Her old Toyota had been on its last legs when she left San Diego, so she'd sold it, planning to buy a new car at the first opportunity.
While she waited for her suitcase to show up on the carousel, her gaze flitted from one face to another as she scanned the room for signs of her sister, whose hair and coloring were similar to her own. But Kathryn was several inches taller and at one time had a more voluptuous figure; Alice, only five foot three, had a trim shape that made her look almost as youthful at forty as she had at twenty. Clyde, on the other hand, was a huskily built man over six feet tall, with light blond hair. Kathryn had always thought the two of them made an attractive couple.
As she stepped outside the entrance, the ninety-five degree heat of the desert enveloped her. While other passengers found rides and climbed into the backs of taxis and limousines, she searched for Clyde's Dodge, then checked her watch again. Alice knew the plane was due at 5 p.m. Maybe she'd had car trouble. Any thing could have happened on her way down from Afton.
At first Kathryn was too intent on watching for her sister to pay much attention to the truck pulling a horse trailer that glided to a stop at the curb. Then a tall dark-blond man levered himself from the cab. There was something familiar about him as he strode toward her, drawing her interest.
She couldn't help but admire the sinuous way his lean body moved, and the fit of scruffy-looking jeans moulded to hips and powerful thighs like a second skin. His chest filled out a white T-shirt that had seen better days yet the state of his clothes meant nothing in the face of such unconscious sexuality.
When he was a few feet away, Kathryn suddenly panicked. But it was too late, because he'd already plucked the sunglasses from her face, and she found herself the object of Wade Matheson's scrutiny.
Shocked by his presence, she couldn't say
a word. She merely stared helplessly into the hazel eyes she'd always found so fascinating. In certain lights they seemed to take on different colours, from muted brownish green to tawny yellow. Right now they gleamed with a penetrating hostility that made her shiver.
Discomfited, she quickly shifted her gaze to his hair, once as fair as his father's. Five years had not only darkened it but had added lines around his wide mouth, which now displayed an unmistakable hardness. More lines grooved his deeply tanned forehead, where several tendrils of hair clung to the heat dampened skin. The uncompromising set of his straight nose and rugged features banished once and for all her memory of a twenty-year old boy, Clyde's son by his first wife. Why had she ever thought him so vulnerable?
For a moment, her mind flashed back to a time when she and Philip had been in Florence, Italy, admiring the works of Michelangelo. She could still remember seeing some of the famous sculptor's unfinished pieces. The figures were emerging from the stone, not complete but substantial enough to suggest the finished masterpiece.
That was how Wade had affected her then. Now, a man, not a boy, had walked away from the stone, complete and whole, and more attractive than she had dared to remember. Her eyes closed involuntarily to shut him out. Swaying slightly, she felt a firm hand grasp her elbow. His touch unnerved her and she jerked her arm away.
His eyes narrowed. "I'm beginning to understand what Allie meant when she said you needed a break."
Allie? Kathryn repeated the word to herself. In the past, Wade had always referred to Alice as Mom. His use of a nickname made Kathryn realize how much he had changed, how much everything had changed. "What there is left of you looks as if the slightest breeze might blow you away."
Stung by his brutally honest assessment, she swallowed hard to regain her composure. She couldn't let him know how his unexpected presence had made chaos not only of her emotions, but of her carefully constructed plans to avoid him. "W-where's Alice?"
"At home getting things ready for you."
"When we spoke on the phone this morning, she said she'd meet me. I don't understand."
He folded his arms loosely across his chest. "What's to understand? I had to come to Salt Lake to buy a new quarter horse, so I volunteered to collect you."
"I see." She smoothed an imaginary strand of hair away from her temple. Naturally Alice would find nothing wrong in Wade's offer to pick up another member of the family. Perhaps she'd even encouraged it, since Wade had never come with the others to visit Kathryn in California.
Apparently he'd chosen to go to school each summer, instead; now at the age of twenty-five he'd already received his MBA and had established his own business. He'd always been more serious than his half brother and sister and infinitely more mature. According to Alice he was working night and day at his ranch and the family saw very little of him. As for Laurel and John, they were home from Wyoming State University for the summer, helping out at their dad's store to earn extra money. They'd assured Kathryn in a recent phone call that they were looking forward to seeing their one and only aunt.
"I doubt you 'see' at all." Wade's mocking tone came as a surprise.
"W-what do you mean?" Unwittingly she glanced at him, then realized her mistake as she confronted the anger smoldering in his eyes.
"Damn you, Kathryn. It's been five years. More like a lifetime. That's how long I've hated you."
The emotion in his voice, more than the words, brought unexpected pain. "Then―"
"Why am I here?" he broke in tersely, preventing her from finishing the question foremost on her mind. "You may well ask," he said in a low harsh tone.
"When the folks told me you had actually deigned to honor the family with your presence, I decided our first meeting had better take place without an audience. After all, they're anticipating a joyous family reunion, and we wouldn't want to disappoint them, would we?"
With pounding heart, Kathryn looked around, aware that the intensity of their conversation was attracting the attention of several older couples standing nearby. "I don't think this is the place to be conducting the kind of discussion you have in mind," she said quietly, attempting to downplay a volatile situation.
"I agree. let's go." Still holding her sunglasses, he picked up the suitcase with one hand, then gripped her upper arm firmly with the other. He ushered her between cars and limos toward the Ford pickup. Kathryn almost had to run to keep up with him, which was difficult in her heels.
Both the truck and trailer looked new. Despite her inner turmoil, part of her was still trying to deal with the fact that Wade had become so independent and successful since the last time they'd been together. But she didn't dare talk to him about anything that personal now. She found it hard to believe they had once communicated freely about everything, often sharing similar thoughts and attitudes on a variety of subjects.
Ever since childhood, Wade had talked about his dreams of owning and operating a dude ranch. Judging by Alice's reports, Wade's dream was fast becoming a reality.
After disposing of her suitcase and overnight bag in the back of the truck, he opened the passenger door for her. The high step forced her to stretch, causing her skirt to ride up above her knees, exposing her slender golden legs to his gaze. But if he was disturbed by the sight, she saw no evidence of it in his taut expression as he slammed the door and went around to the driver's side of the truck.
Tossing her sunglasses onto the dashboard, he slid behind the wheel and shut the door, enclosing them in an intimacy she had sought to avoid all these years. Apparently some habits never changed; in the sun heated interior she could detect the clean fragrance of his shampoo. She'd always loved that scent....
After such a long time of not seeing or talking to Wade, it disgusted her that his nearness still had the power to destroy her peace of mind and make her palms go clammy with tension. What had happened before she left for San Diego ought to have been for gotten, or at least buried deep in her subconscious, never to resurface. As long as she stayed in California, she'd managed not to dwell on the last summer she and Wade had spent together-when their friendship had changed into something else.
For years, shame had consumed her-shame that at the supposedly mature age of twenty-five, she could have found herself in an emotional entanglement with a twenty-year-old boy. Her last memory was of the two of them lying on his bed, wrapped in each other's arms, kissing and loving until she never wanted to stop.
Despite their age difference, Kathryn couldn't remember a time when she hadn't been drawn to him. After he'd graduated from high school and had started working at the store with his father to save money for college, she discovered that she preferred his company to almost anyone else's, even her boyfriends'.
But all that was over long ago, and she realized she couldn't avoid a reunion with her sister's family in definitely, or Alice and Clyde would start prying into the reasons. Kathryn shuddered whenever she imagined their reaction if they'd ever found out what she and Wade had done while the rest of the family was on vacation in Banff, in the Canadian Rockies. But fortunately time and distance had negated that possibility.
When she realized where her thoughts had wandered, she gave herself a mental shake and stared out the window at the scorched foothills on her right. They'd left the airport and were headed north on 1-15, trapped by a blistering sun that wouldn't set until much later. Its reflection glinted off the Great Salt Lake to the west, making Kathryn squint against the brightness.
She wanted to put on her sunglasses but she was worried that Wade might interpret it-correctly-as a desire to hide from him, to escape. She might as well have been sitting next to a stranger, albeit one who had just admitted he despised her. An involuntary shudder racked her body, something Wade was quick to notice.
"If the air-conditioning is too cold, I'll turn it down."
"Actually it feels good," she murmured, wishing he wasn't so observant. But then, it was one of the qualities that had made him such an appealing personality. Even at
a young age, he was popular with everyone, particularly girls, who found his mind every bit as intriguing as his looks. Certainly, Kathryn hadn't been immune.
When she left for San Diego without saying goodbye to him, she had no doubt that she'd wounded his pride irreparably. But what choice had there been? If she'd stayed one more day alone in the house with him, she would have lost what little control she still had. After all, she was the adult, and it was up to her to avoid disaster. She willingly took the blame for a situation she should have been able to handle at the time, but didn't. Couldn't.
She spent the first year of self-imposed exile in San Diego hating herself for ever allowing her emotions to get the best of her. Once married, she'd finally managed to see the experience for what it was and could do nothing more than put it behind her, praying Wade had done the same.
But now it seemed that, given the opportunity, Wade wanted her to know there had been consequences to pay. As if she wasn't already aware that what they'd done had caused a permanent rift in the family!
As soon as Kathryn had gone to California, she learned from Alice that Wade had suddenly quit his job at the store, moved out of the house and gone to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he worked and went to college. Though Clyde hadn't actually said as much, Alice confided to Kathryn that her husband was hurt by Wade's decision to go to Colorado State instead of the University of Utah, which was much closer to Afton. Wade couldn't have made it plainer that he was striking out on his own.
His actions seemed to have a domino effect. John proceeded to inform the family that he wasn't spending the rest of his life in Afton. Now twenty, he was hoping to go to law school and dreamed of one day working as a corporate attorney in a big-city law firm. Nineteen-year-old Laurel planned to combine work and travel. Though Alice and Clyde had accepted the fact that their children wanted to pursue new vistas, Kathryn suffered pangs of guilt, because she felt that indirectly her relationship with Wade had altered the course of everyone's lives.
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