A Hard-Hearted Man

by Melanie Craft

  “Bloody hell!” Jake screamed, his arm going limp. The gun cracked loudly, discharging into the wall, and dropped out of his fingers. Out of the corner of his eye, Ross saw Lilah scrambling to grab it as he drew back his arm and hit Jake with enough force to send them both sprawling onto the floor.

  Ross landed hard on top of Jake, who used his good arm to backfist Ross’s head with a blow that burst around him in a spray of light. He heard Lilah shriek as if from a distance, but the haze faded as he gritted his teeth and grabbed Jake, who was still half pinned under him.

  “I should have killed you years ago, you bloody bastard,” Jake gasped, twisting, and reaching up for Ross’s neck. His thick hand closed on it, and Ross felt Jake’s heavy fingers digging into his skin, squeezing hard against his windpipe.

  Lilah was yelling something, but Ross was only conscious of Jake’s rage-twisted face below him as he drew back his arm.

  “Too late,” Ross said through his teeth. “You lose.”

  The punch exploded through his fist with all the pent-up force in his body, and Jake grunted and collapsed back onto the floor, where he lay motionless.

  “Ross, get away!” Lilah shouted. “I’ve got him covered!”

  He looked up to see her standing over them, holding the gun, her hands shaking as she pointed it. She stared down at Jake’s unconscious body, then turned to Ross.

  “On second thought,” she said, “he doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.”

  Ross smiled. His face was beginning to throb and swell where Jake had hit him, and he still felt hazy from the blow, but seeing her standing there was all that mattered.

  He reached out, gently, and took the gun from her, clicking on the safety. “Are you all right?”

  She exhaled unsteadily. “I think so. Thanks to you.” Her hazel eyes met his, and he could see wariness and vulnerability struggling on her face.

  “Good.” Ross stared at her, suddenly at a loss for words. She had been haunting his thoughts, and suddenly being faced with the warm, vibrant reality of her made his voice seize up. There were a hundred things he wanted to say, and they all rose at once inside him, jamming his throat.

  She stepped toward him and reached up to touch his face delicately, her fingers tracing the outline of what he knew was going to be a dramatic bruise. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” he said quickly, instinctively.

  “As always.” Her eyes were wistful.

  Ross swallowed hard. “Actually,” he said. “I...my face hurts.”

  Lilah tilted her head, looking curiously at him. “I’ll bet,” she said. “I’ll find you some ice just as soon as we call the police.”

  She began to step back, but he caught her waist. “Wait.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not fine at all.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked softly.

  “Everything. I haven’t been fine for days. God, Lilah, I’ve been so damned—”

  Lilah’s fingers suddenly tightened on his arm and she turned her head sharply, glancing around with wide, worried eyes. A second later, Ross heard it too—the sound of a car pulling up outside the house. He tensed, and moved quickly toward the window, just as a female voice echoed down the hall.

  “Ross? Ross? Are you here? Oh, my God, Otieno, the door is wide open, and look at this window. I knew something weird was going on. Ross, where are you?”

  Lilah relaxed visibly, and shot him a half-apologetic, half-relieved look. “It’s Denise,” she said. “Come on.”

  Denise was charging down the hallway, followed closely by Otieno, and there was nearly a collision in the doorway as Lilah stepped out of the room toward them.

  “Lilah!” Denise cried joyfully, seizing her. “You’re okay! Ross was so worried that I got scared, so I went out to look for you just in case you were out hiking. Otieno picked me up on the road, and when I told him everything, he drove us straight up here. What’s happening? Why is Ross looking at me like that?”

  Ross blinked, realizing that he was glaring at Denise, and silently turned his gaze toward the inert form on the floor.

  Denise frowned. “Did I interrupt some—yikes, who’s that?”

  “That’s Jake Wyatt,” Lilah said. “He smuggles ivory. Somebody needs to call the police.”

  “I will,” Ross said gruffly. The moment was definitely ruined, but it hadn’t been the best choice of moments for what he wanted to say. There would be time for that soon. Very soon. He picked up the phone and began to dial.

  “To a long excavation!” Elliot said, raising his glass. The group around the campfire cheered, and toasted.

  “And shorter work hours,” Denise added.

  “I’ll drink to that,” Lilah said, attempting to clink her plastic cup against Denise’s, and getting more of a dull thud.

  It didn’t matter. She had spent most of the day in meetings with officials from the Park Bureau and the Department of Wildlife, being formally thanked for her role in the arrest of Jake Wyatt.

  “To luck,” she said, grinning at Elliot. As the Minister of Wildlife had been shaking her hand that morning, she had taken a deep breath and tactfully mentioned her small problem with the excavation. Within an hour, she had a signed and stamped research permit giving her team unlimited access to the Bradford site. Yes, things were working out beautifully.

  Except regarding Ross. Lilah was trying not to think about him, but she couldn’t help it. The way he had looked at her after he’d saved her from Jake still made her heart jump to remember it. And he had seemed different, urgent, as if he had something important to say.

  But from the moment Otieno and Denise had appeared, things had been frantic and crazy, and she hadn’t had a chance to do more than glance his way after the police arrived. There had been too much to explain, too many questions to answer, and after they found the ivory, she had been taken into town to do the whole thing over again officially.

  Ross had seized her arm at one point, startling her in the middle of a circle of policemen, and she looked at him hopefully, her heart in her throat.

  “We need to talk,” he said. “Soon.”

  She smiled uncertainly. That could mean anything. “Okay.”

  “I’ll find you.”

  And then the police had whisked her off to Jake Wyatt’s ranch, Ross had disappeared into the chaos of it all, and she hadn’t seen him since.

  She sighed, and Elliot glanced at her, lifting the champagne bottle. “Want a refill?”

  “No, thanks.”

  Ross probably just wanted to say that he’d be leaving soon, now that the ranch situation was resolved. Now that there was nothing to keep him here. Lilah bit her lip.

  “Seen Ross today?” Elliot asked.

  Lilah shook her head, and he frowned. “Hmm. Well, he probably has a lot to do. And you were gone most of the day. I’m sure he’ll come by.”

  “Sure.”

  Denise moved next to them, and crouched down to grab a bag of pretzels sitting nearby. She put a hand on Lilah’s shoulder, leaned in close, and said, “So, have you seen Ross?”

  “No,” Lilah said.

  “Oh,” her friend said uncomfortably. “Gee. I thought you...well, anyway, I’m sure he’s just—”

  “Busy.” Lilah said. “Right.”

  “Oh dear. Well. Look, if he’s going to be a jerk, then to heck with him. You don’t need the kind of guy who just waltzes in and out of...” She paused. “I’m not helping, am I.”

  Lilah squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. I’m happy about the excavation, and that’s what we came here for in the first place, right?”

  “Right.” Denise didn’t look pleased.

  “I think I’m going to go for a walk,” Lilah said, standing up.

  Denise stood up too. “Do you want company?”

  “No, I’ll be fine. I’m just going to go wander around in the canyon and look at rocks. The usual thing.”

  “Well, be careful. Look what happened the last
time I thought you’d just gone for a walk.”

  Lilah passed the excavation site and wandered along the canyon floor, instinctively sweeping her eyes across the jumbled mass of stones.

  She had to make herself take her own words to heart. The site was what she had come here for, and now she had it. That was what mattered, right? She sighed. Wrong. She sure felt lousy for someone whose plan had worked out so well.

  The thought of putting on a happy face as Ross headed back to work and out of her life forever raised a swollen lump of agony that pushed up against her chest until she thought she would suffocate. She couldn’t do it. If he came down here to say goodbye, she was going to turn and run. Let him be shocked and angry. It was too much to ask of her.

  A stone caught her eye. Lilah instinctively crouched down to get it, but it was only a water-smoothed pebble slightly lighter than the chert she wanted. She cradled it in her palm for a moment, then pitched it aimlessly to the side.

  “What did you find?” called a familiar voice behind her.

  Lilah blinked, but to her credit, she didn’t fall over this time. Her heart began to beat faster, and she stood up slowly, turning.

  Ross was hurrying along the canyon toward her. He was wearing a business suit, the tie only barely loosened around his neck, and he carried a coffee mug, very carefully, in one hand.

  She smiled hesitantly. “Haven’t we done this before? Now I’m supposed to say something rude, aren’t I?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “I can’t think of anything,” she confessed. “Sorry. How’s your face?”

  Ross grinned. “Sore. But you should see the other guy. He’s in jail.”

  “And likely to stay there for a long time?”

  “No doubt. Kenya isn’t kind to ivory dealers. And the officials who were siding with Wyatt are now pretty damn angry with him. It turns out that he intended to use this factory as a cover to help him expand his ivory business.”

  “So that’s why he wanted it so badly.”

  “Right. It would have been perfect. Trucks going in and out all the time, constant activity right next door. A complete camouflage for his own shipments. He wasn’t stupid.”

  “Just unlucky.”

  “And up against the formidable Dr. Lilah Evans.”

  Lilah blushed. “Not so formidable in the end. I should have learned my lesson the first time I trespassed. Never again, I swear. Thank you for saving me.”

  “No,” Ross said, with a look that made her knees feel weak. “Thank you for saving me.”

  “Then the ranch is definitely safe? No more industrial threats?”

  “I wasn’t talking about the ranch, but yes, it’s safe. The development plans went down with Jake Wyatt, and I signed the final papers today. We’re now officially standing on the new addition to the Nairobi National Park.”

  “Oh, Ross, that’s great. I’m so glad,” Lilah said and paused, scuffing her toe in the dirt. “I...guess you’ll be leaving then, if this ranch business is all finished.”

  “Not necessarily.”

  Lilah looked warily at him. “What do you mean? I thought you were anxious to get back to work.”

  “I was. But something has come up. The government has declared Wyatt an international criminal and seized his land. I managed to get the wheels turning on an interesting new idea. It looks like they’ll also be adding that land to the park area.”

  Lilah stared at him. “What? You’re serious?”

  “Completely. Not bad for a day’s work, don’t you think?”

  “Well...yes! That’s incredible news. Congratulations. You must be really happy.”

  “There’s more. Since this will double the current size of the reserve, the Park Bureau decided to bring in extra help.”

  “Meaning...”

  “I pulled a few strings and made sure that ECO got the job. I’ll be heading the project, if I decide to stay here.”

  Lilah was having a hard time assimilating all of this. Ross wasn’t leaving? She was staying, and he was staying... if he decided to. What was that supposed to mean?

  “Oh,” she said. “Well. That would be nice. If you stay, maybe I’ll see you around. I’m staying too, you know.” Her own voice sounded brittle to her ears.

  “Lilah,” Ross said. “It’s up to you. Do you want me to stay? If you do, then my decision has been made.”

  He stepped forward and caught her by the shoulders, looking down into her eyes. There was a new expression on his face, a heat that made her catch her breath, but she was still afraid to hope that it could possibly mean what she wanted it to.

  “I...I don’t understand,” she said.

  Ross let go of her suddenly, and bent down to pick up the coffee mug. He handed it to her, and she looked at it, surprised. “Ross, this mug is full of sand.”

  It was one of the plain enameled mugs from camp, but it was packed to its brim with loose, sandy canyon soil. Lilah stared at him, now thoroughly confused.

  Ross was watching her expectantly. “Dig in it.”

  “Dig in the mug? Why?”

  “Because you told me once that archaeologists always like what pops out of the dirt. Now humor me, please.”

  “Okay.” Lilah stuck her fingers into the mug and began to feel around in the loose sand. “I don’t—oh, Ross?”

  Her fingers had come across something small and hard, with a shape that made her heart begin to pound. She fished it out, and brushed it off quickly, feeling her mouth go dry as the facets of the diamond caught the late-day sunlight and reflected it as rainbow-hued fire. The stone was set simply in a band of white gold, and Lilah held it tightly, speechless.

  “I had it made today,” Ross said. “And I had to offer the jeweler everything but my soul to get it done so fast. That’s why I took so long to get here.”

  “I thought you wanted to say goodbye,” Lilah whispered, barely getting the words out around the lump in her throat.

  “No. Never. Tell me that you want me to stay, Lilah. You have to, because we have a lot to talk about.”

  “We do?”

  “We do,” Ross said, and took a deep breath. “You’ve known all along how important this is, and now I finally understand. I’ve spent my life keeping people at a distance so that no one would ever hurt me, trying to believe that I didn’t lose anything because of it. But when I saw that I could lose you, I knew that any risk was worth taking to keep that from happening.”

  “I would never hurt you. You have to trust me.”

  “I do. Completely. God, Lilah, I love you so much, and I need you with me, to share my life. I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

  She was in his arms before she even realized that she had moved. He held her tightly against him, so hard that she could barely breathe, and she pressed herself so close to his chest that she thought she would melt into him.

  “You were never alone, really,” she mumbled into his shirt.

  “But I was,” Ross said, bending his head to bury his lips in her hair. “Believing it made it true, until you came along and helped me see that that’s not how I want to live my life.”

  Lilah sniffed and blinked back happy tears. “You should have consulted a good archaeologist years ago.”

  “This is worth the wait. I hope you still love me.”

  “Love you? Oh, Ross, so much. You know that.”

  “Then marry me. I’ll keep asking until you agree.” He gazed down at her anxiously, his fingers tense against her skin as he waited for her answer.

  She could feel a smile, free and delighted, curving up over her face as if it would grow forever. “You really want to marry me? For life? To raise babies and get old together?”

  “You’re damned right I do. We’ll teach those babies about stone tools and wildlife reserves, and show them that the most worthwhile thing in life is to take risks for what you love. Say yes, Lilah. I want to hear you say it.”

  “Yes!” she said, laughing the word. “Yes, yes, yes!” She looked u
p into his eyes and saw love there, melting what she had once called gray ice. It flared up from the core of him, unguarded and unchecked, and beamed out to wrap her in a light warmer than the sun.

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-6570-7

  A HARD-HEARTED MAN

  Copyright © 1998 by Melanie Craft

  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 written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York. NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have 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.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  “What the bell kind of man do you think I am?”

  Letter to Reader

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Copyright