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A strand of blond escaped its upsweep and danced in the breeze as she frowned. “Why so surprised?”
“To be honest—” he shrugged “—practically everything about you surprises me.”
She sent him a saucy grin. “Good.”
A moment later, a whinny sounded as they approached the stable’s single side door.
“This building replaced the original stable a decade ago,” she said, shifting the catch. “We had a fire. No horses lost, thank heaven. When Dad upgraded, he made sure it was with the best materials and safety features.”
Stepping inside, she flicked a light switch then pointed out a framed photograph, hanging on the wall, of a grand turn-of-the-previous-century red timber barn.
“This one doesn’t smell the same,” she said, “doesn’t have the same feel, but it’s easier to keep clean and has loads more space.”
As the smell of fresh hay and horse filled his lungs, Daniel concurred. This was a clean wide structure, with two-dozen individual stalls, as well as windows and a skylight that would allow in an ideal amount of natural light during the day. Not the personality of the old post-and-beam barn with its massive hayloft, but far more practical.
Times change.
Elizabeth crossed to the first stall on the left. Hooves pawed at a straw floor, then came a welcoming snort, a sound that made Daniel smile and wish his father had listened to him for once and let him learn how to ride. Hunting was Judge Buck Warren’s passion. Daniel still hadn’t forgiven his father for that.
Elizabeth arrived at the stall gate. A regal-looking horse, with a glossy black coat and mane, greeted her by nudging its muzzle against her shoulder. Elizabeth, so small against this other’s height and might, seemed to come alive as she scrubbed her palm over its cheek and murmured words that had Daniel longing to be on the receiving end.
Her face filled with adoration, she looked over. “This is Ame Sœur.”
“Kindred Spirit.”
For the first time he noticed a delicate dimple either side of her smile. “I’ll have you eating escargot yet.”
He pretended to shudder. “You two seem good friends.”
“The best,” she said, and the horse blew through his lips as if to agree. “We try to saddle up every day.”
“Unless you’re away.”
The motion of her hand stroking his muzzle stopped while she fished into her coat pocket and extracted a huge red apple. Her horse’s head reared back as his lips wobbled, searching out the treat. He was crunching into the fruit when she replied in a somber tone.
“Daniel, did Abby say something to you?”
“Say something? About what?”
Searching his eyes, she seemed to consider his response before she dropped her gaze then refocused on the horse, which was chomping and nudging for more. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
When he moved closer, she pulled another apple from her pocket. “Want to feed him?”
“Maybe later.”
“We mostly use trucks and bikes these days.” The horse bit into the second apple. “But if I check the stock and fences, I like to do it with Ame.”
“Right now I’m interested in what you think Abigail might have told me.”
He couldn’t believe it was anything sinister. So what was it that had this normally poised woman looking suddenly flustered?
Still, whatever it was didn’t concern him … unless she wanted it to.
He tilted his head. “And if you want me to back off, say the word.”
With those diamond drops sparkling beneath the fluorescents, she looked him square on for a deliberative moment then finally blew out a breath.
“My parents included a caveat in their will,” she said. “I’m obliged to stay here, in Royal, a good deal of any given year.”
He frowned. “What do you mean—a good deal?”
“I get two months to travel outside of Royal.”
He took a moment to digest the ramifications. “And if you’re gone for, say, two months and one day?”
“I forfeit my inheritance.”
He wanted to laugh. “You’re kidding, right? You lose the ranch?”
“There are reasons—”
“The reason is called blackmail.”
Disgust flooded her face. “My parents didn’t blackmail me.”
“What do you call it when someone threatens to take away what you care about if you don’t do exactly what they want?”
Hell, he was an expert on the subject. How many times growing up had he heard one or the other of his divorced parents say, “Daniel, you won’t see your mother/father again if you don’t …” Fill in the blank. By the end of it, he didn’t care if he ever saw either one of them again.
Her fists plowed into those coat pockets at the same time her chin kicked up. “It’s not blackmail. It’s called handing down responsibility.”
Poor, misguided Miss Milton, Daniel thought, and slowly shook his head.
“You are young, aren’t you.”
Her eyes flashed. “I’m as much an adult, and in charge of my life, as you are.”
“That’s why you’re still doing what your parents tell you.”
She studied him with eyes that burned.
“Do you come from this kind of background?”
His shoulders went back. “I refused to have anything to do with my parents’ money.” Their bribes. He was a self-made man.
“You shunned your parents?” Her tone was pitying. “No. Of course you wouldn’t understand.”
“I understand you’re kidding yourself if you think you’re in charge of your life,” he said. “Way I see it, you’re walking around in chains most of the time.” To a homebody, the caveat might not seem like a hardship. But Elizabeth made no secret of the fact she loved to travel. Explore new lands. Meet new people. She was energetic and, God knew, she had the means. But what good was money if she was forbidden from using it the way she’d most like? Elizabeth hadn’t been given a choice, like he hadn’t been given a choice when he was growing up. Being helpless—voiceless—had to be the worst feeling in the world.
“Is that why you don’t see your parents, Daniel?” she asked calmly. “Because you don’t like chains? Don’t like ties? Because you wanted to be in charge?”
He gave a jaded smile as emotion filled his chest. Elizabeth Milton knew nothing about him. He was wrong to have pushed. Wrong to have wanted to get involved.
“It’s been a great evening,” he told her in a level no-hard-feelings tone. “It’s time I got back.”
Her mouth uncharacteristically tight, she nodded. “I’m sure you need to rise early, as do I.”
“Thank Nita for the meal.”
“Good luck with your future endeavors.”
“I’ll walk you back to the house.”
“No need. I’ve walked that path so often, I’d know it in a tornado.”
She was welcome to it.
He moved out of the stables, heard her close the door. Head down, he’d taken a half-dozen steps when she called out.
“Daniel. I want you to know, I’m happy staying here,” she told him as he turned around. “Sometimes it’s a little … inconvenient. But I’ve come to see this ranch is my future.”
“That’s fine.” Totally her business. He tipped his head. “Good night.”
He’d begun to turn away when she interrupted again.
“You don’t believe me.”
“It shouldn’t matter what I believe.”
“It’s only until I turn thirty.”
By thirty he’d been well on his way to being successful, and happy, in his own right. But, again, not his concern.
“You don’t have to convince me.”
“I don’t want you to leave feeling sorry for me,” she pointed out. “I have everything any person could want or need.”
“Just make sure you don’t include freedom on that list.”
She growled, “It’s not a restriction.”
“No?”
“No.”
As she stood before him, defiant in the moonlight, his skin heated, muscles clenched, and as his gaze held hers, a dark, deep urge overwhelmed him, a primitive impulse that set his heart pumping all the more. She didn’t want his pity and, God save him, he didn’t want to show her any. But she wanted him to believe she wasn’t interested in too much beyond this parcel of land?
Miss Milton was a liar.
Prepared to tell her just that, he moved forward. He stopped an arm’s length away, searched her questioning eyes but then, rather than speak, he acted, circling her waist and bringing her mercilessly close. At the same time he pressed her in and her mouth opened to protest, his head came down, lowering, determined, over hers.
While her hands bunched and pushed against his chest, he held her. When muffled, incensed noises vibrated from her throat, he didn’t relent. Damn it, if he was going, he wanted to leave them both with at least a taste of what he’d felt bubbling and fermenting between them. He needed to show this woman what she already knew.
There was more to life than two months a year.
And gradually, as he’d known she would, Elizabeth came around to his way of thinking. Her fists loosened against his shirt until her fingertips were clinging rather than pushing him away. Her body, instead of objecting, relaxed and, bit by bit, dissolved. Best of all, her lips grew supple and parted, no longer refusing but inviting him in. Daniel smiled to himself.
Damn, it was good to be right.
But at the same moment his palms sculpted over and winged her shoulders in, Daniel also recognized a sliver of concern.
He couldn’t get involved like this with Elizabeth Milton, particularly now.
What the hell had he begun?
Three
As Elizabeth melted against that amazing wall of heat, she couldn’t hold on to a thought, other than to know that this caress went above and beyond any she’d ever experienced, in real life or in dreams.
As Daniel’s strong arms urged her closer and her palms filed up beneath his coat and over the solid scope of his chest, she absorbed every ounce of the magic. Her heart beat so fast she feared it would burst any moment. He’d unleashed such a torrent of emotion from so deep inside she could barely get enough air.
Elizabeth sighed in her throat.
Daniel Warren kissed like a god.
As hot fingertips massaged her nape, with a teasing lack of speed, his mouth gradually left hers. Now was the time she should open her eyes, demand to know what the hell he thought he was doing, pouncing on her like that, forcing her to succumb. But that delicious syrupy feeling humming through veins was just so fine. She felt as if she were floating two feet off the ground. As if her blood were singing. That Daniel Warren was practically a stranger, as well as someone who could never empathize with her situation, didn’t quite register through the haze.
She only wanted him to kiss her again.
“Elizabeth?”
His voice was a husky whisper at her ear. The slide of his palm around her cheek left her trembling and leaning more into his touch. She felt the warmth of his breath on her forehead, on her temple. On reflex, her lips parted again and her face tipped toward his.
“Elizabeth, I can’t say I didn’t want to do that,” he murmured in a drugging, deep voice. “Doesn’t mean I should have.”
His words swirled around through her mind until, little by little, their meaning took hold. Then, all at once, her chest squeezed and eyes snapped open. He was looking at her, gaze dark with regret. In that moment, the reality of what he’d done, what she’d let him do, flooded Elizabeth’s senses until she prayed for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.
Good Lord, what must he think of her? One minute they were enmeshed in a heated discussion, the next she was twining herself around him like a clingy summer vine. Like a teenager her first time out necking. Elizabeth Milton was known not only for her spirit but also her decorum, and yet this man ignited fires within her that had reduced her to little more than a puddle. She’d never felt more vulnerable.
More alive.
Sucking in a breath, she dropped her arms, which had remained around his neck, and took an awkward step back. As his heat receded, the cool of the shadowed night enveloped her. Trembling, she drew her coat close.
“No need to apologize,” she said in a thick voice. Avoiding his gaze, she shrugged. “Sometimes, when emotions run high, things happen.”
“I want you to know, I don’t make a habit of dragging women into my arms like that.” He ran a hand through his hair, looked around. Out the corner of her eye, she saw him crack a lame smile. “Must be something in the air.”
She closed her eyes and withered. If she could turn back time and wipe out these past few moments, she’d do it in a blink. That she’d surrendered so completely was bad enough. Did he need to rub in the fact that he regretted it, too?
