by B. J Daniels
Ethan swore under his breath and looked back down the mountain.
“What is it?” she asked turning in her seat. A set of headlights disappeared down the county road below them on the mountain.
“Nothing,” he said, but he kept glancing in his rearview mirror until they came around a bend and the road below them disappeared. “Mountain Crest,” he said, his voice filling with pride as he let go of her hand to motion toward the ultramodern structure. “So what do you think?” he asked when she didn’t respond. Couldn’t respond.
She tried not to shudder. Two years ago, she’d heard that everyone in Gilt Edge was talking about the ultramodern mansion some rich businessman was building on the side of the mountain overlooking the valley. Few people had seen it since the property was gated down on the county road and under the watchful eye of a caretaker who stayed on the estate until recently, apparently. The rest of the property was surrounded by an eight-foot-high stone fence. Ethan was determined to have his privacy.
Over those two years, several unfortunate accidents had occurred during construction. Three laborers had been injured and the first caretaker had been found dead. All of the incidents were ruled accidents and yet rumors circulated. Locals said that Mountain Crest was cursed.
Drey had scoffed at such foolishness long before she’d met Ethan and begun dating him. It surprised her, though, that when he was in Gilt Edge overseeing the building of the house—and even after it was almost finished—he always stayed at the local hotel. When she’d asked him about it, he’d said that he wanted to wait until the house was completely finished.
She could feel Ethan waiting for her reaction. “It’s breathtaking.” It had certainly taken her breath away the moment the house had come into view. Followed instantly by that awful premonition. She saw at once that he’d hoped for more effusiveness. “I don’t recognize the architecture.” Not that as a librarian she was up on the latest architecture.
“It’s my own design,” her husband said a little stiffly as he drove slowly up the paved road. “It will grow on you.”
Again she saw herself lying face down in the pool, the house looming over her. She tried to hide the shiver that started at the nape of her neck and crawled with icy feet down her spine. She forced the image away. It wasn’t like her to let silly rumors of a curse unnerve her. And yet when she’d glimpsed the house for the first time, she hadn’t been able to shake the horrible premonition that had come out of nowhere.
“Close your window if you’re cold,” Ethan said, apparently having noticed her shudder. As the road had climbed up the mountain, the air had cooled.
But as she whirred up her window, she knew it wasn’t the Montana air that was chilling her. The dark windows caught the glare of the headlights, casting odd shadows across the grounds—and skittering over the pond. She swallowed at the sight of water and was glad when Ethan turned into the driveway at the front and killed the lights.
“For now, you won’t have any staff.”
Staff?
“I’ll see to hiring a cook, housekeeper—”
“Ethan, I don’t need any of those.” Since he’d talked her into quitting her job, she would have plenty of time on her hands to take care of the house.
But he didn’t seem to hear her as he climbed out of the car. She sat for a moment, not sure if he would want to open her door, maybe carry her over the threshold. All this had happened so fast, she still felt as if caught in a whirlwind.
To say Ethan Baxter had swept her off her feet was an understatement. One moment he walked into the library and the next they were flying to Paris for dinner or landing on a helicopter pad on a yacht in the Caribbean or getting engaged.
“I’m going to make all your dreams come true,” Ethan had promised.
And here she was on her wedding night and nothing about it was as she’d once dreamed. Dierdre “Drey” Hunter Baxter. Married.
Married to the wrong man.
* * *
HAWK CAHILL HAD stayed as far away from Gilt Edge and the festivities as he could on Drey’s wedding day. He’d ridden up into the mountains that surrounded the small Montana town so people would quit asking him if he’d heard about Drey marrying some New Yorker. He’d have had to be living on the moon not to hear about the upcoming wedding.
His family had the good sense not to bring it up in the days preceding the big event. Invitations had gone out. Like that monstrosity he’d built to his ego, Ethan Baxter had made sure that his wedding would go down as the biggest event this town had ever seen.
At least that’s what he was quoted as saying in the article that ran in the local paper about the engagement. Hawk had heard that Drey needed a wheelbarrow just to haul around the huge diamond on her ring finger.
He’d gritted his teeth all day, getting through it the same way he did when he had a root canal at the dentist.
But tonight, as he and his horse started out of the mountains in the dark with only the moon and starlight to guide him, he couldn’t keep his mind off the fact that Drey was married. This was her wedding night—and not the one he’d envisioned for her all those years ago. He could almost laugh about the plan he’d had for their wedding night.
Nothing like Ethan Baxter’s, that was for sure. Hawk wouldn’t have taken Drey in some fancy car to some ugly mansion on the mountainside. Nope, he’d planned to erect a wall tent up by one of his favorite mountain lakes. After the wedding they would have ridden by horseback to find a lantern burning inside the white tent. The only music would be the gentle lapping of the lake at the rocky shore and the sweet sounds of their lovemaking.
With a curse, he spurred his horse, anxious to get back to the ranch and reality. His new reality. And his own fault. He’d never been able to forgive her after what had happened in college. Even now, after all these years, the pain had only dulled to an ache. He’d thought it the worse pain he’d ever experience.
But knowing that Drey would be spending this night with some other man as his wife was almost more pain than he could endure.
“You can stop her from marrying him,” his little sister, Lillie, had pleaded. Drey had told him she was planning to get married. When the announcement had come out in the local newspaper, it left little doubt that it was true.
“I’ve never been able to stop Drey from anything,” he’d told his sister, who still wouldn’t let it go. “This New Yorker can give her a hell of a lot more than I can.”
“Drey doesn’t care about any of that,” Lillie had snapped.
“You sure about that?”
His sister had been furious with him. “What happened between the two of you?” she’d demanded more times than he could remember.
“None of your business.”
She’d squinted at him, determination in her gray gaze so like his own. “I’m betting you’re to blame.”
He’d said nothing, knowing at least part of it was true.
“You’re really going to let your pigheaded stubbornness keep you from the only woman you’ve ever loved? Then you aren’t the man I thought you were.”
He hadn’t bothered to argue. He wasn’t the man his little sister thought he was and it hurt like hell. Especially tonight when he knew that because of his inability to forgive, he’d let the best thing he’d ever had get away.
* * * * *
Don’t miss RANCHER’S DREAM by B.J. Daniels
Available August 2018 from HQN Books!
Copyright © 2018 by Barbara Heinlein
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