by Robyn Grady
To her right was perhaps the largest, most poignant picture of all. In the background, stood her birth mother, looking so proud and healthy as she smiled over at her daughters. In a foreground filled with tulips, Scarlet tried to push her laughing twin in the tire swing, a haunting scene which lay half-pieced-together in her mind like snippets from a beautiful dream. All of it was gone save for memories, this picture and the bittersweet ache that now threatened to engulf her.
Her breathing had grown choppy. Every inch, inside and out, felt insufferably weak, yet also warm and infinitely humbled. When she tried to speak, her words came out a choked whisper.
“Where did you get these?”
Daniel stood directly behind her. “From albums and yellowed envelopes and shoeboxes tied with string. Your mother, Faith, helped.”
Given how she’d changed her opinion of him, Scarlet could believe it.
“What about that violin?” She nodded across at it.
“A fiddle.”
“Is it yours?”
“Yep.” He smiled softly. “It’s mine.”
Then he did the most amazing thing. Daniel told her a story from his childhood, a sad and violent tale that left Scarlet’s eyes edged with tears. When he’d finished, looking remarkably composed—relieved—he nodded to her left.
A few feet from the stool stood a lacquered white dresser. On its ledge lay an armful of pink tulips and an enormous bowl filled with matching jelly beans. Scarlet swallowed back tears. He’d thought of everything.
Daniel had moved to stand beside her. As his body heat radiated out and seeped in, she watched his calm, knowing gaze sweep the room.
“A stone will always sink in my chest whenever I think of my father losing his job, reaching for a bottle that was his ‘one too many.’ But I can look at these moments and admit…I’m grateful for that very early time. For the family I once had.” His jaw shifted as he paused. “I’d give anything to have it back.”
A hot tear dropped down her cheek. Daniel could be patronizing, facetious, but with all her heart she believed him now. This wasn’t some cheap trick. He’d finally accepted the cards fate had dealt and, from Scarlet’s perspective, that acceptance came as a double shock. Five minutes ago, she’d thought she was streets ahead in the self-healing stakes.
When he searched her eyes with an openness that bared his soul, she read his mind and took two steps back.
“Look, this is all incredibly touching. I admit. I’m moved. But, Daniel—”
“I’m in love with you,” he said, and her mind froze, then flooded with stunned disbelief. She studied him with a sidelong glance.
“What did you say?”
“I love you,” he said again as his gaze roamed her face. “The kind of love that never goes away, that keeps getting stronger every hour, every day.”
Blindsided, she shook her head. Daniel didn’t go for that kind of complication. He didn’t want the hassle. The routine. She’d believed that was part of the reason he’d pushed her away and had left her that day. You couldn’t lose something you’d never had.
“You’re confused,” she decided.
“I’m crystal clear,” he replied. “I want to wake every morning knowing that you’re curled up beside me. I’m committed to whatever life throws our way.” His head slanted and he cupped her cheek with a big, warm palm. “I’m sure, no matter where this journey takes me, I’ll never give up hoping that one day, somehow, you’ll love me, too.”
Even as her heart gave a kick, she narrowed her eyes. A silly part of her almost wanted to believe but, honestly, this was all a little transparent.
“You want us to be lovers again.” He wanted her in his bed.
“Yes, I want us to be lovers. And friends. Best friends.”
“Best friends can’t feel the way I feel about you. Whenever I’m with you, the things that you do, it’s like trying to stand up in a whirlwind. Whenever you’re around I’m tossed up.” She cast a clarifying glance around. “Completely thrown off balance.”
His arm coiled around her waist and he brought her close. “You mean like this?”
There should have been a moment of hesitation. An instant where she pushed against his chest and told him to back off. At least to slow down. Instead, as his other arm wound around her upper back and his head lowered over hers, she found herself going limp, welcoming surrender and relishing the split second before his mouth captured hers.
When their lips touched, she felt only the thrill of wonder and a blinding inner peace. Then he drew her closer still, the hard planes of his chest pressed against her breasts, and she simply melted more. With her palm finding his jaw, he deepened the kiss until she ran out of air and all her jumbled world settled and joined seamlessly with his.
After he slowly broke away, he dropped a lingering kiss on her cheek, on her ear. He was breathing deeply. For the life of her, she couldn’t think straight. Figure out what to do next.
She’d forgiven her childhood past. Could she possibly find it in her heart to forgive Daniel, too? This contact—his strength and skill and tenderness… Despite having lived in separate worlds, were two people simply meant to be?
Leaning back in the circle of his arms, she pressed a palm to her brow.
“I’m spinning again,” she said.
A finger tilted her chin up and his gaze meshed with hers. “This is just a theory, but ever consider the possibility that you might feel the same way about me? That you’re in love, too?”
Letting out her breath, she surrendered the truth. “I know I’m in love with you.” She frowned. “Maybe because you’re so bad for me.”
“Now tell me. Does this feel bad?”
Then he kissed her again, and this time the entire room became a swooping carnival ride. As he held and curled over her, she dissolved, utterly undone. When he finally released her, she was stripped bare. Dizzy and defenseless.
“I love you,” she admitted again, and was half-okay saying it this time.
“And when I ask you to marry me, you might even say yes.”
Her knees went but with two powerful arms locked around her, she didn’t slide. Although hyperventilation was on the cards.
“You’re proposing?” she got out.
“I want a family. Our family. A boy I can teach how to fish and kick three kinds of ball. A girl to spoil with frilly frocks and stories about magic ponies.”
A tear fell from the outside corner of one eye, curling around and tickling her chin. If this was a dream, she’d gladly sleep forever.
“You want that with me?” She thought again about her mother’s problem, about whether she might one day turn out the same way.
“Scarlet, I don’t want to be with anyone but you from this moment till the day I die. Doesn’t matter where or how, I want to spend our lives together, whatever comes our way.”
More tears fell. Her throat was thick with disbelief. With overwhelming love. She sobbed out a clipped laugh.
“You really are a romantic, aren’t you?”
“Guess what?” The tip of his nose circled hers. “So are you.”
Their lips met and she melted into another mindless kiss. But when they surfaced again sometime later, Scarlet winced at a jab of guilt.
“There’s a wedding due to start.”
He showed no sign of releasing her. “We could ask the minister to make it a double service? That’d be a nice surprise.”
“Daniel. That wouldn’t be right.”
He blinked, cocked his head. “No, no. Of course not.”
Winding her arms around his neck, she arched a brow. “I was thinking more a ceremony on a deserted beach at sundown with your motorcycle parked close by for a speedy escape.”
His eyes brimmed with laughter. His face filled with love. Coming close to kiss her again, the man she would adore forever openly confessed, “That sounds like pure heaven to me.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from One Winter’s Night by
Brenda Jackson
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One
A blistering cold day in early November
It had snowed overnight and a thick white blanket seemed to cover the land as far as the eye could see. The Denver weather report said the temperature would drop to ten below by midday and would stay that way through most of the night. It was the kind of cold you could feel deep in your bones, the kind where your breath practically froze upon exhale.
He loved it.
Riley Westmoreland opened the door to his truck and, before getting inside, paused to take in the land he owned. Riley’s Station was the name he’d given his one-hundred-acre spread seven years ago, on his twenty-fifth birthday. He had designed the ranch house himself and had helped in the building of it, proudly hammering the first nail into the lumber. He was mighty pleased with the massive two-story structure that sat smack in the center of his snow-covered land.
He was probably the only one in his family who welcomed the snowstorms each year. He thought the snow was what made Denver the perfect place to be in the winter and why his home had fireplaces in all five of the bedrooms, as well as in the living room and family room. There was nothing like curling up before a roaring fire or looking out the window to see the snowflakes fall from the sky, something he’d been fascinated with even as a child. He could recall being out in the thick snow with his brothers and cousins building snowmen. These days he enjoyed moving around the mountains on his snowmobile or going skiing in Aspen.
Riley got into the truck and after settling his body on the leather seat he snapped the seat belt in place. There really was no need for him to go into the office since he could work from home. But he had wanted to get out, breathe in the cold, fresh air and feel the chill in his bones. Besides, he did have an important appointment at noon.
Since his oldest brother, Dillon, had slowed down now that his wife, Pam, was close to her delivery date, a lot of the projects on Dillon’s plate at their family-owned business, Blue Ridge Land Management, fell on Riley’s shoulders since he was the next man in charge of the Fortune 500 company. The next thing on the agenda was the planning of the employees’ holiday party next month.
The event planner that had handled their social functions for the past ten years had retired and before Riley had taken over the project, Dillon had hired Imagine, a local event planning company that opened in town less than a year ago. The owner of Imagine, a woman by the name of Alpha Blake, had put together a charity event that Dillon’s wife, Pam, had attended over the summer. Pam had been so impressed with all the detailed work Imagine had done that she passed the woman’s name to Dillon. As far as Riley was concerned, you couldn’t come any more highly recommended than that. Dillon trusted his wife’s judgment in all things.
Riley was about to start the ignition when his cell phone buzzed. He pulled the phone off his side belt. “Yes?”
“Mr. Westmoreland?”
He lifted a brow, not recognizing the ultrarich, feminine voice but definitely liking how it sounded. He figured this had to be a business call since none of the women he dated would refer to him as “Mr. Westmoreland.”
“Yes, this is Riley Westmoreland. How can I help you?”
“This is Alpha Blake. We have a noon appointment at your office, but I have a flat tire and had to pull off to the side of the road. Unfortunately, I’m going to be late.”
He nodded. “Have you called for road service?”
“Yes, and they said they should be here in less than thirty minutes.”
Don’t count on it, he thought, knowing how slow road service could be this time of the year. “Where’s your location, Ms. Blake?”
“I’m on Winterberry Road, about a mile from the Edgewater intersection. There’s a market not far away, but it didn’t appear to be open when I drove past earlier.”
“And chances are it won’t be open today. Fred Martin owns that market and never opens the day after a bad snowstorm,” he said.
He knew her exact location now. “Look, you’re not far from where I am. I’ll call my personal road service company to change your tire. In the meantime, I’ll pick you up and we can do a lunch meeting at McKay’s instead of meeting at my office, since McKay’s is closer. And afterward, I can take you back to your car. The tire will be changed by then.”
“I—I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”
“You won’t. I know you and Dillon have gone over some ideas for the party, but since I’ll be handling things from here on out, I need to be briefed on what’s going on. Usually my administrative assistant handles such matters, but she’s out on maternity leave and this party is too important to hand off to anyone else.”
And what he didn’t bother to say because he was certain Dillon had done so already was that this would be the fortieth anniversary of the company his father and uncle had founded. This was not just a special event for the employees, but was important to everyone in the Westmoreland family.
“All right, if you’re sure it won’t be an inconvenience,” she said, breaking into his thoughts.
“It won’t be, and I’m on my way.”
* * *
Alpha Blake tightened her coat around her, feeling totally frustrated. What did a person who had been born in sunny Florida know about the blistering cold of Denver, especially when it had snowed all night and the roads and everything else were covered with white?
But she was so determined to keep her noon appointment with Riley Westmoreland that she’d made a mess of things. Not only would she be late for their appointment, but because of her flat tire they would have to change the location of the meeting and Mr. Westmoreland would be the one driving her there. This was totally embarrassing when she had been trying to make a good impression. Granted, she’d already been hired by Dillon Westmoreland, but when his secretary called last week to say that she would be working with the next man in charge at Blue Ridge, namely Dillon’s brother, Riley, she had felt the need to make a good impression on him, as well.
She turned up the heat in her car. Even with a steady stream of hot air coming in through the car vents, she still felt cold, too cold, and wondered if she would ever get used to the Denver weather. Of course it was too late to think about that now. It was her first winter here, and she didn’t have any choice but to grin and bear it. When she’d moved, she’d felt that getting as far away from Daytona Beach as she could was essential to her peace of mind, although her friends thought she needed to have her head examined. Who in her right mind would prefer blistering cold Denver to sunny Daytona Beach? Only a person wanting to start a new life and put a painful past behind her.
Her attention was snagged when an SUV pulled off the road to park in front of her. The door swung open and long, denim-clad, boot-wearing legs appeared before a man stepped out of the truck and glanced her way. She met his gaze through the windshield and couldn’t help the heart-piercing moment when she literally forgot to breathe. Walking toward her car was a man who was so dangerously masculine, so heart-stoppingly virile, that her brain went momentarily numb.
He was tall, and the Stetson on his head made him appear taller. But his height was secondary to the sharp handsomeness of the features beneath the brim of his hat. There was the coffee-and-cream color of his skin, his piercing dark brown eyes, a perfectly shaped
nose, his full lips and a sculpted chin.
And she couldn’t bypass his shoulders, massive and powerful-looking. It was hard to believe, with the temperature being what it was, that he seemed comfortable braving the harsh elements with a cowhide jacket instead of a heavy coat. It was in the low teens, and he was walking around like it was in the high sixties.
Her gaze slid all over him as he moved his long limbs toward her vehicle in a walk that was so agile and self-assured, she almost envied the confidence he exuded with every step. Her breasts suddenly peaked, and she could actually feel blood rushing through her veins. She didn’t have to guess about what was happening to her, but still, she was surprised. This was the first time she’d reacted to a man since her breakup with Eddie.
The man made it to her car and tapped on the window. She all but held her breath as she pressed the button to roll it down. “Riley Westmoreland?” She really didn’t have to ask since he favored his brother, Dillon.
“Yes. Alpha Blake?” he responded, offering her his hand through the open window while looking at her with what she thought was cool and assessing interest.
“Yes.” She took his hand and even through her leather gloves, she thought it felt warm. “Glad to meet you, Mr. Westmoreland.”
“Riley,” he corrected, smiling, and she felt her insides melt. He had a gorgeous pair of eyes. Dark and alluring. “The pleasure is all mine,” he added. “I’ve only heard exceptional things about you and your work. Both Dillon and Pam speak highly of you, Alpha. I hope it’s okay for me to call you Alpha.”
“Thank you, and yes, that’s fine.”
“I’ve made all the arrangements with my road service. Keep your emergency lights on and leave your car keys under your seat,” he said, taking a step back so she could get out of the vehicle.
She nervously gnawed her bottom lip. “Will it be safe to do that?”
He chuckled. “Yes, days like this keep thieves inside.” He opened the car door for her. “Ready to get inside my truck?”
