Counterfeit Cowgirl (Love and Laughter) (17 page)

Tyrel leaned up against the wall and watched her, feeling his heart slap against his ribs and his muscles finally relax one by one. For the first time in weeks, he could breathe without feeling as if his chest were bound in barbed wire.

She was safe. She was well. That would have to be enough for him—at least for now.

“You always had a damn fine seat,” he said quietly.

She jerked toward him at the sound of his voice. He watched her face go pale. The chestnut faltered. Hannah tightened her grip on the reins and pushed the gelding on. Except for the sound of the horse’s hoofbeats, the whole world seemed silent.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

Two weeks of sleeplessness, endless phone calls, hopeless leads, dogged badgering, relentless prayer. Even now, his knees felt weak, but whether it was fatigue or the sight of her, he wasn’t sure.

“A woman like you is bound to attract attention, Hannah. I asked around.”

“I assume Daddy is paying you well for your time,” she said.

He straightened from the wall. Regardless of his fears, neither his nor her father’s stupidity had broken her spirit. The muscles in the back of his neck relaxed a tad.

“I never knew who you were, Hannah. Not until a couple of weeks ago when I talked to your dad.”

“Of course you saw no reason to inform me of your correspondence with him. Even though…” Her voice cracked. She scowled and went on. “Even though we had become…intimate by then.”

He watched her. She was all wounded pride and elegant toughness. It was little wonder his heart would never recover. “I think you’ve kept a couple of things from me, too, Hannah.”

She didn’t look at him, but her brow remained furrowed. “He was paying you, wasn’t he? All the time I thought I was achieving something on my own. Earning your respect. He was paying you.”

The gelding’s hoofbeats seemed to echo the beat of Tyrel’s heart.

“You always had my respect. Ever since I saw you trekking through the snow in nothing but a towel and a glare.”

“You were being compensated to keep me,” she said. “Paid—like I was some kid sent off to summer camp.”

“I never thought of you as a kid.”

“You must have laughed. I didn’t know how to feed a calf. Didn’t know how to cinch a saddle.”

Okay. He’d laughed. But the memories of those past moments were like sunshine on his soul now. And if the truth be known, she’d gotten her licks in. “Well…you can be an infuriating woman.”

“You made fun of my roping skills:”

“You insulted my ranch.”

“You insulted my accent.”

“You insulted my whole family.”

“You made a bet about me—like I was a…a racehorse or something.”

“You threw milk in my face.”

“You worked me like a dog.”

“You set fire to my kitchen, turned my ranch upside down and broke my brother’s leg.”

She came back with no rebuttals, but let the gelding carry her in yet another circle.

“It must have been hard—putting up with me.”

He watched her—the way she held her hands just so, the way she hugged the chestnut’s sides, the way her mouth pursed in that odd combination of fragility and toughness. His heart contracted.

“Yeah, it was hard,” he said. “Damn hard, but what can I do? I’m in love with you.”

The reins fell from Hannah’s hands. The gelding shuffled to a halt.

Her face went absolutely pale, but she gathered her composure with the same aplomb that she gathered the reins—swiftly, unerringly. “What’s Daddy paying you to say that?”

“Damn the money!” He all but yelled the words, losing his composure just as quickly as she’d gained hers. “And damn your father! It’s not my fault he didn’t know what he had in you. I know! I see!” He paused, breathing hard. “And I love you.”

She blinked her eyes. They were unearthly bright, but she shook her head, denying her tears just as she denied his words. “I don’t believe you, Tyrel.”

He narrowed his eyes and paced across the arena. “You do believe me,” he growled, staring up at her. “And that scares you.”

“Scares
me!
”

“Scares the hell out of you. Because for the first time in your life someone knows who you really are.”

“Really? And who am I?” she shouted.

Silence settled slowly in.

“You’re Hannah Nelson,” he said into the quiet.

She stared at him, then finally shook her head. “I’m not. Not even if I wanted to be. I’m Allissa Clifton Vandegard.”

Silence.

“Then I want to marry
her,
” Ty said.

Her eyes went wide and her lips parted in surprise, but in a moment she drew herself up straight, though her hands shook on the reins.

“A rich daddy can convince—”

He cut her short “I don’t want to hear your sorry excuses, Hannah. Do whatever you have to do. Get me prenuptial papers. I’ll sign them. Hell, I’ll have them drawn up myself.”

The arena echoed with silence.

“You don’t even have to live with me,” he said, his voice going soft. “I’ll take whatever I can get. One day a month. One night a year. Live in New York if you must. LA. Wherever you—”

“Is that what you think I want?” she asked, her voice cracking. “You think I want to live in LA?”

“I don’t know what the hell you want!” he yelled.

“Then you don’t know me very well,” she yelled back.

He clenched his fists, drew a deep breath, and forced himself to relax. “I want to know you, Hannah,” he said softly. “I want to dedicate my life to knowing you.”

For a moment all the world was still, then she said, “And I want you,” she whispered, and slipped from the saddle into his arms.

“Hannah!” He squeezed her to him, feeling that his heart would burst. “I’m sorry. I should have—”

“Shh.” She laughed, then kissed him and laughed again. “You can make it up to me.”

He kissed her back—his heart full, his dreams complete. She was his, forever and always. But her words niggled at his mind. He pushed her slowly to arm’s length. “Make it up to you?” he asked suspiciously.

“Sure. Sing me a song at the next rodeo and I’ll marry you,” she said, and slipping her hand behind his neck, she kissed him again.

Head Down Under for twelve tales of heated
romance in beautiful and untamed Australia!
Here’s a sneak preview of the first novel in
THE AUSTRALIANS
Outback Heat
by Emma Darcy available July 1998

‘H
AVE
I
DONE
something wrong?’ Angie persisted, wishing Taylor would emit a sense of camaraderie instead of holding an impenetrable reserve.

‘Not at all,’ he assured her. ‘I would say a lot of things right. You seem to be fitting into our little Outback community very well. I’ve heard only good things about you.’

‘They’re nice people,’ she said sincerely. Only the Maguire family kept her shut out of their hearts.

‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘Though I appreciate it’s taken considerable effort from you. It is a world away from what you’re used to.’

The control Angie had been exerting over her feelings snapped. He wasn’t as blatant as his aunt in his prejudice against her but she’d felt it coming through every word he’d spoken and she didn’t deserve any of it.

‘Don’t judge me by your wife!’

His jaw jerked. A flicker of some dark emotion destroyed the steady power of his probing gaze.

‘No two people are the same. If you don’t know that, you’re a man of very limited vision. So I come from the city as your wife did! That doesn’t stop me from being an individual in my own right.’

She straightened up, proudly defiant, furiously angry with the situation. ‘I’m
me.
Angie Cordell. And it’s time you took the blinkers off your eyes, Taylor Maguire.’
Then she whirled away from him, too agitated by the explosive expulsion of her emotion to keep facing him.

The storm outside hadn’t yet eased. There was nowhere to go. She stopped at the window, staring blindly at the torrential rain. The thundering on the roof was almost deafening but it wasn’t as loud as the silence behind her.

‘You want me to go, don’t you? You’ve given me a month’s respite and now you want me to leave and channel my energies somewhere else.’

‘I didn’t say that, Angie.’

‘You were working your way around it.’ Bitterness at his tactics spewed the suspicion. ‘Do you have your first choice of governess waiting in the wings?’

‘No. I said I’d give you a chance.’

‘Have you?’ She swung around to face him. ‘Have you really, Taylor?’

He hadn’t moved. He didn’t move now except to make a gesture of appeasement. ‘Angie, I was merely trying to ascertain how you felt’

‘Then let me tell you your cynicism was shining through every word.’

He frowned, shook his head. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’ The blue eyes fastened on hers with devastating sincerity. ‘I truly did not come in here to take you down or suggest you leave.’

Her heart jiggled painfully. He might be speaking the truth but the judgements were still there, the judgements that ruled his attitude towards her, that kept her shut out of his life, denied any real sharing with him, denied his confidence and trust. She didn’t know why it meant so much to her but it did. It did. And the need to fight for justice from him was as much a raging torrent inside her as the rain outside.