The Texan's Forbidden Fiancée

by Sara Orwig

  Now they had found the gold and the bones. Her time with Jake was over. She would go back to her artwork and he would return to Dallas and his energy business that probably caused him to travel often.

  She didn’t want to say goodbye to him. The mere thought of not seeing him hurt deep in her soul. The more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to be with him and the more she wanted him in her life. Permanently in her life. She had no idea how Jake felt and she wasn’t going to tell him because he might not feel as strongly.

  She was in love with him. It went beyond the lovemaking, beyond carnal desire. She loved him. Maybe she always had and there was never anyone else and never would be.

  What if Jake didn’t feel that way and walked out?

  She couldn’t answer her question, and she hoped she’d never have to.

  Later, as they drove to Jake’s ranch after having stopped at her house so she could pick up her things, she turned to face him. She placed her fingers lightly on his warm thigh. Instantly, his hand covered hers. “Jake, it’s getting late. Let’s just go to your ranch tonight instead of Dallas.”

  “Really? I don’t want you to be disappointed if you had your heart set on Dallas, but truthfully, I’m glad to hear you say you’d rather stay here.”

  “It’ll be a lot better. Frankly, I want to open the box and look at the gold. Besides, I can think of more fun ways to spend the evening than going to Dallas.”

  He glanced at her and then turned his attention to the highway. “When we’re home, I’ll show you what I’ve been thinking about all day long.”

  “You’ve been thinking about those gold coins,” she said, smiling at him.

  “Not nearly as much as making love to you,” he said in a husky voice. “Just shower while I shower, wrap in a towel and I’ll be ready and waiting.”

  “I figured we’d eat dinner, look at the coins and let our families know and then we would spend the rest of the evening in the best way possible,” she said softly, stroking his thigh.

  He covered her fingers again and held her hand against his leg. “Save the caresses for when we’re home. I might wreck the truck.”

  She laughed softly and started to move her hand away, but his fingers tightened, holding her hand on his leg.

  “When we get home, I’ll take the box inside. Later tonight, much later, we can count the coins, but I agree we should let our families know. This is a big deal for us. That old legend was the truth—I’m still shocked. Deep down, I really didn’t think we would ever find anything. Now we’ll have to try to identify whose remains we have. We may not know all of our earliest ancestors who came to Texas.”

  “I know some of mine, but I don’t know how they can specify which ones they might be.”

  “They should be able to decide which are Milans and which are Calhouns from our DNA, I’d think. I’ll call tomorrow and see what to do with the remains.”

  She turned herself in her seat so she could face him. “This has been a most amazing day. Wyatt will probably want to come by tomorrow and see the coins.”

  “My whole family will come see them so we’re telling them too late tonight for anyone to come to the ranch. I want you to myself with no interruptions.”

  “I’ll get my brothers to come get the coins and take them to the bank. I’m sure word will travel about them and we need to get them secured tomorrow.”

  “I can do it for you if you’d like.”

  “Thanks, but I promise you, my brothers will be happy to take mine for me.” She couldn’t contain the grin that overtook her. “This is so exciting. It isn’t the money as much as the link with the past.”

  “It’s a link, but those coins may be worth a lot. It may surprise you.”

  She realized that an awful lot was surprising her these days.

  She turned to look out the window then as they neared Jake’s ranch. She glanced out at mesquite and cactus, an occasional acacia or a tall cottonwood. When they reached the entrance to his ranch, the gates were open. He drove across the cattle guard and headed down a graveled road.

  Happiness filled her because she was with him and they would soon be alone for the evening. She studied his handsome profile, his straight nose and firm jaw, his prominent cheekbones. Always by the end of the day his black, wavy hair was in a tangle and stubble was beginning to show on his jaw.

  She wanted to unbuckle her seat belt, scoot close to him and put her hands on him, but she controlled the impulse. They were almost to his ranch house. Soon she would be able to do what she wanted with him.

  The road was winding and seemed long, but finally he drove to the back, parked and handed her a ring with keys. “You unlock the door and I’ll give you the alarm code so you can switch it off. I’ll carry the gold. It’ll help if you’ll hold the door.”

  “Sure you don’t want me to help you?”

  “No. I got it.”

  He climbed out and picked up the metal box. She closed the door and rushed ahead to get the back door unlocked. The alarm beeped as she held the door for him and he hurried past her. She punched in the code before the alarm went off, then locked the back door and turned to go look for Jake.

  His home was far more ranch style than her parents’ elegant house, and it looked comfortable and inviting. She found him in a spacious family room with a beamed ceiling and brown leather furniture. He had set the box on the floor, removed the lid and stood looking at the gold coins. All she could think was that it meant she would see the last of him.

  He turned as she walked up. Slipping his arm around her, he pulled her close against his side. “Finding this was like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s thanks to your brothers. That location was Wyatt’s suggestion.”

  “It’s great, Jake. I’m thrilled.”

  He looked down at her, tilting her face up to his. “I’d say let’s shower together, but I’m really grubby. C’mon. I’ll give you a room and we can get cleaned up. I meant it when I said you don’t have to wear anything except a towel. That would suit me just fine. That would be even better than that box of gold coins.”

  Smiling at him, she wanted to pull his head down and kiss him, whether they had cleaned up or not. Her smile faded because desire made her heart pound. She gazed intently into his thickly lashed brown eyes and then she looked at his mouth.

  His expression changed. Stepping closer, he slipped his arm around her waist to draw her close against him. “I’m dusty and sweaty.”

  “I don’t care,” she said, thinking he was appealing and sexy. With a moan, wanting him with all her being, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately. She poured her feelings into her kiss, all her longing, all her love for him that had returned full force if it had ever really gone at all.

  His hand unfastened her buttons and yanked off her shirt. He had already tossed his aside.

  With shaking fingers she undid his belt and jeans. Clothes and boots were tossed away. She could think only of Jake, wanting him desperately, feeling as if she might lose him again. He released her a moment to get protection and then he pulled her into his arms again.

  While he kissed her, he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around him. Holding her tightly, he let her slide down so he could enter her, fill her. She was wrapped around him, kissing him as if it were her last time with him.

  He thrust deep and fast, pumping his hips. Tension built, a physical need that swept her. He groaned while he kissed her, the sound muffled deep in his throat.

  She cried out with her climax. “Jake!” she gasped. “I love you.” She whispered the words, meaning them with all her heart, mindlessly lost in the moment as ecstasy and relief poured over her.

  He slowed while she draped herself on him. “Jake,” she whispered. She showered kisses on his face and throat, not caring about the salty taste of him. S
he held him tightly with her growing fear that when she let go of him sometime soon, he would be gone forever.

  She finally slipped down, placing her feet on the floor, still holding his shoulders.

  “It’ll be better next time,” he said. “We’ll take a long time. You’ll see.” He leaned down to brush kisses on her mouth, her throat.

  “It was perfect this time,” she whispered before turning away to gather her clothes.

  His fingers closed over her wrist. “Come on. I’ll show you where a shower is.”

  He took her down a hall and into a spacious bedroom with polished oak flooring, a sofa, a desk, a big-screen television and a king-size bed. There was a big wooden rocker in the room along with a full-length mirror.

  “Right through there is a shower and there should be fresh towels for you. I’m just across the hall.”

  She nodded and watched him as he left.

  Would he disappear out of her life again soon? She intended to see that he didn’t.

  She showered, washed and dried her hair, and wrapping herself in a thick, pink towel, she went to find her clothes. When she opened the door and stepped into the hall, the bag she had brought from the ranch was waiting outside the door. Smiling, with a glance at the closed door across the hall, she gathered her things and went back inside, closing the door.

  Shortly she was dressed in red slacks and a red short-sleeved shirt with flip-flops on her feet. She let her hair fall freely across her shoulders.

  She left to find Jake, discovering him in the kitchen. She walked into the room with a high-beamed ceiling, a copper pot rack hanging over the center island workstation, cherry cabinets and stainless-steel appliances, making for a far more up-to-date kitchen than the one on the Milan ranch.

  Jake had his back to her while he placed twice-baked potato halves to warm in the oven. He turned and stopped, his gaze roaming over her appreciatively and making her want to be in his arms again.

  He crossed the kitchen to her and rested his hands on her hips. “You look too composed and refreshed. We may end up right back in bed.”

  “I’m not going to argue with that,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to brush his lips with hers.

  His arm tightened around her waist, pulling her tightly against him while he captured her mouth. With a pounding heart, she kissed him as if they hadn’t just made love.

  Finally he released her. “I’m fascinated with the old coins,” he said.

  “The coins are exciting.” She didn’t add that they weren’t as exciting to her as he was.

  She could swear his eyes were almost twinkling, and he looked like a kid at Christmas when he asked, “Want to go count them now?”

  Seeing his excitement, she agreed.

  “There’s no way to know which family the gold belonged to,” she said, following him into the family room. Jake set his drink on a table, hunkering down to tilt the metal box to dump out the coins.

  She sat on the floor across from him and gold coins spilled out, sliding and building into a stack until some came to rest on her crossed feet. She could see inside the open chest and there was a small metal box in the bottom. She reached inside to take it out. “Jake, look. Here’s something else,” she said, raising the lid to see a folded paper inside.

  She picked it up.

  “Maddie, let me see that,” he said, but she had already started unfolding it with great care.

  Ten

  “Maddie—” Jake said, stretching out his arm to take the paper from her, but she twisted out of his reach as she began to read.

  “‘To whom it may concern. Having just lost in a game of chance with cards, a gambling game, I hereby pay in gold one half of my debt to Reuben Calhoun.’” Her mouth went dry and her heart began to pound, but she continued with the note.

  “‘For the other part of my debt I deed a ten-acre strip of land from the west boundary to the east boundary, along the entire north side of my property, to Reuben Calhoun.’ It’s signed ‘Mortimer Milan.’”

  “Maddie, wait a minute—” Jake ordered.

  Hurting again as she had so long ago by his actions, she turned to look at him. “This is a deed for part of our ranch to go to the Calhouns. There are witnesses. It’s dated 1887.” She stared at him while pain squeezed her heart. “You were after this deed all along. That’s why you said I could have the gold if we found it.”

  Angry, feeling betrayed all over again, she stood and flung the ancient paper at him. “Answer me. You knew about this deed, didn’t you?”

  “Listen to me.” He stood facing her. “Yes, I knew about it.”

  Closing her eyes, she rocked on her heels as if he had physically hit her, only the blow was to her heart.

  “Maddie, I don’t want it now.”

  She opened her eyes. “I don’t believe you. You set this all up to see if you could find the deed and have that much of our ranch because that’s where you want to drill.

  “Don’t lie to me, Jake,” she demanded, her face flushing. “That’s why you wanted to look for the treasure, not for your ancestors’ remains. Answer me. That’s why you got into this search, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it was in the beginning because we were still angry with each other. Maddie,” he said, walking around the gold between them.

  She was shaking as she faced him and she stepped back to avoid his touch. “Take the property. You succeeded completely and you’ve made a fool of me in doing so.”

  Closing the distance, he grasped her shoulders and held her. “Listen to me. I don’t want it. I wouldn’t think of hurting you that way. Not now.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she said, his deceit turning her to ice.

  He leaned down and caught up the letter and the deed that was rolled up, tied with a strip of leather with writing on the outside of it.

  He handed her the deed. “This may be the real thing and the only copy. Who knows. I’m sure it’s the first deed to this land.” He held up the letter and tore it in two.

  Stunned, Madison watched him. “What are you doing?”

  “I would never hurt you deliberately.”

  “Your family knew you were doing this in hopes of finding the deed, didn’t they? They’ll expect that land to go to them.”

  He caught her wrist and picked up the two pieces of the letter. “Come here,” he said, taking her into the kitchen. Still shocked by his tearing up the letter, she followed and watched as he opened a drawer to get a box of matches, striking one. Standing over the sink, he set fire to the lower part of the two strips of paper. He glanced at her as the paper burned brightly.

  She could only stare at the flames engulfing the letter as it swiftly disappeared. He dropped the remains into the sink before they burned his hand and she watched them curl into black cinders with a plume of fading gray smoke.

  “There is no evidence of any change in the Milan deed now,” he said.

  Momentarily speechless, she stared at him. “Why?” she whispered, unable to get the word out clearly. She gulped for breath. “You did all that searching for the treasure just to get that letter.”

  * * *

  Jake stared at her, his own thoughts in turmoil. “I love you,” he said, declaring it as if more to himself than her. “Maddie, I just realized that I’m in love with you,” he said. He stepped closer to take her in his arms. He felt dazed, but he couldn’t bear to hurt her and he realized he did not want to lose her a second time.

  “I promise you, I will not take your property and neither will my family. First of all the letter has been destroyed, so now no one can use it. Second—I wouldn’t let them take your property if they tried. Third—no living person knows about that letter except the two of us.”

  “Your family will ask you. Tell them the truth, Jak
e.”

  “They’ll understand why and if any of them don’t, so be it. If we get into it about the land, I can pay them for their share. I don’t care. I love you with all my heart. Maybe I always have deep down. There’s really never been any other woman I’ve been deeply interested in since high school. I love you,” he declared again.

  Would she accept what he was telling her? He hoped he’d proved his feelings for her. Hoped she realized that to do what he had just done, he had to love her deeply.

  He searched her eyes for a clue to her feelings, and saw all the hurt vanish faster than the letter had, replaced by a shimmering glow. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she reached for him, and he gasped for the breath he’d been holding.

  “Oh, Jake,” she said, “I love you with all my heart. I thought I was losing you again. And I misjudged you again—I’m sorry.”

  “Shh, Maddie. Originally, I was searching for that deed to wave it in your dad’s face. Sorry.” Jake pulled her into his embrace, wrapping his arms around her while he lowered his head to kiss her.

  In minutes he picked her up, carrying her to his bedroom, yanking back the covers on the bed and then pulling her into his arms to kiss her again. He had a lot to prove to her, yet again.

  * * *

  Later, Madison lay beside Jake with his arm around her. She shifted and turned to look at him and he rolled on his side to face her. “What?” he said.

  “Won’t your family be terribly unhappy with you?”

  “For burning the letter? I don’t think so. We’re all well-fixed. We don’t need to take part of your land. You’ve told me I can lease a piece of your land or present you with an offer and you’ll listen.”

  “Yes, but you’ll be paying the Milans for the lease. That’s different from you owning the land,” she said, thinking about what he had just said to her.

  He propped his head on his hand to look at her. “I love you, Maddie. I’ve been searching my feelings, but when you got so angry, I was afraid I was going to lose you again. I don’t want that to happen. I want you in my life all the time. This week has been the best week of my life since I was a teenager. The love we had then has gone because it was different. We were kids and I’ll have to admit, maybe your dad was right about us being too young to marry. He just went about keeping us apart in a terrible way.”