by Joanna Wayne
Heather ran her fingernails across his bare chest, and desire pitted inside him, hot and aching.
“You know, Matt, I may be a city girl, but I have boots now. A hat, too. It would be a shame to waste them.”
“Whoa, hold on a minute.” His insides tightened. “You’re not getting caught up in the emotion of meeting your mom, and going off half-cocked, are you?”
“No, I know exactly what I’m doing.” She dropped to the pillow and pulled him down beside her. “I want to sleep with you, Matt.”
A strange mixture of relief and pain flashed through him. If that’s all she wanted, he could definitely oblige. “Under your mother’s roof? You are brazen.” He started to kiss her again, but she rolled away from him.
“I want to sleep with you, but not just tonight. I want to do it forever. I want to sit across the breakfast table from you. I want to share your problems and tell you mine. I want to have your children.”
“I doubt you know what you’re asking for.”
“I know. The question is do you want me, Matt? Do you love me?”
He buried his head in her breast. “You know how I feel about you. It’s the us part that worries me. You’ll stay a while, but what’s to hold you forever? I’ll get used to having you around, used to needing you, then you’ll up and disappear.”
“No one can promise forever, Matt, but I’m not your mother. I’m Heather, the same woman who has stood with you and by you. And I love you.”
“What if I’m no good at being a husband?”
“You’ll make a wonderful husband, maybe not for everyone, but for me.”
Matt held her close. All his life, he’d been convinced he was too much like Jake McQuaid to ever make a woman happy. Susan had forced him to rethink that theory this week. Now Heather was in his arms, asking to be his wife. How could he say no to that? Why would he ever want to?
“You won’t be getting much of a bargain. Just a cowboy lawman.”
“I’ll be getting the man I love.”
Matt released his hold on her, his heart beating fast, as if it were already reaching out for the happiness she was offering. “If this is going to be it, I guess I’d better do it right.” He rolled from the bed and fell tn his knees.
Heather sat on the edge of the bed, her nightshirt brushing her shoulders, her hair tumbling about her face. He studied the image, knowing the sight of her at this moment would live inside him forever. “Heather Lombardi Hathaway... Jessup...whoever you are, will you marry me?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you, but you forgot the ‘I love you’ part.”
He crawled into bed beside her. “I didn’t forget anything. I’m a man of action, remember? And I’m about to show you exactly how I feel.” He skimmed her body with his hands as his mouth claimed hers.
She moaned and squirmed beneath him. “Matt McQuaid, are you sure you want to do this in Miss Susan’s house?”
He kissed her again, soundly, his body screaming its need for her.
“What Miss Susan doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
“And I love you.”
“You did say it.”
“Of course. You can always count on a Texas Ranger.”
Epilogue
Six months later
Matt walked Susan down the steps and then took his place with his brothers, all standing beside their dad. They’d waited for this wedding for twenty-five years. and they’d threatened to hogtie and drag Jake squealing to the altar if he backed out now.
Heather, his wife now, stood across from Matt, looking so pretty she took his breath away. His gaze fell to the swell of her stomach. He marveled every time he thought about his child growing inside her.
The service was short and to the point, tailored to Jake’s specifications. Matt agreed with that philosophy. The sooner he got out of this stupid tie and ridiculous suit, the happier he’d be. A cowboy ought to get married in blue jeans and boots, the same way he lived. But neither Heather nor Susan had accepted that philosophy.
“Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, to...”
Matt’s mind wandered from the vows to events that had brought them to this point. All of a sudden he was aware of a crowd-numbing silence. The preacher was staring at Jake expectantly, waiting for a response.
“Jake, do you take this woman...”
Matt nudged his brothers. “He does.” The answer was a chorus of McQuaid voices.
“I do,” Jake agreed, snapping out of his temporary stage fright “I wouldn’t be standing here in this monkey suit in the middle of a work day if I didn’t.”
“Then I pronounce you man and wife.” The preacher looked Jake square in the eye. “And you can kiss the bride, if she’ll still have you.”
“I’ll have him,” Susan whispered. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him solidly on the mouth to the applause of everyone present.
“She kept me waiting twenty-five years,” Jake announced in his booming voice. “But I can tell you one thing.” He wrapped his arm about her shoulder and hugged her to him. “She’s worth every second of the wait.”
Cy, Cameron, and Matt McQuaid looked at each other and smiled their agreement. The secrets of the past had all been laid to rest. The McQuaid family was finally at peace, and life had never felt so good.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5117-5
LONE STAR LAWMAN
Copyright © 1999 by Jo Ann Vest
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 retrierval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
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.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Matt McQuaid was the epitome of a Texas lawman. All action, few words.
Letter to Reader
Acknowledgments
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Copyright
