The Texan's Diamond Bride (14 page)

Paige closed her eyes and prayed for strength and a little bit of pride and hopefully some poise, because she had the oddest feeling that the rest of her life depended on the outcome of this conversation, and at the moment, she was scared to say a word.

How did people do this? Get their hearts broken and survive? Because she’d been hurt before, but she’d never cared like this, never risked so much, never been so scared.

“I guess we have a few more things to negotiate, Red,” he said, looking so big and strong and gorgeous she could have wept right then and there.

“Negotiate?” They were going to talk business? Now?

Had he forgotten that kiss at the mine after they’d found the diamond? Had it meant nothing to him?

She tried not to let her hurt feelings show. “Okay.”

“I guess we’re back to your family versus mine,” he said.

Oh, God.
That was it? She very nearly did cry then.

“I take it you want the diamond, free and clear, no claim of ownership from my family?” he asked.

“Not…ownership, exactly, but no fight. I’d really like to do this without a fight, Travis. Especially not a long battle in court over who owns what. I don’t think any of us would benefit from that.”

“Okay. I’m not dying for a long, drawn-out fight,” he admitted.

“I was hoping we could come to some agreement…you and me…that we could get both our families to agree to.”

“So, what do you want?” he asked.

As if it were that easy….

She unwrapped the diamond, picked it up and held it in her open hand, letting it sparkle and shine for him.

“This is…Well, there simply isn’t another stone like this in the world. Not of this size and color and clarity. It’s a national treasure. International, actually, and, as I see it, the only rightful place for it is in a museum. The Smithsonian in Washington D.C., I would think, where the Hope Diamond is. They were supposed to be a pair, thousands of years ago. It only seems right that they’re together again.”

He frowned. “That’s it? All this fuss over finding it, and all you want is for my family to let yours donate it to a museum?”

“Actually, I was thinking we could do it jointly, my family and yours. Claim joint ownership of it. No fight. You and I found it—”

“You found it, Red. I was just along for the ride to make sure you didn’t get hurt going after that thing.”

“No.” She shook her head. “We found it together, on land that both our families have a claim to, in a mine that both our families can claim, too. But I don’t want us to fight anymore. I’m sick of the whole fight, and this…Well, to me, it’s simple. The diamond belongs in a museum, where millions of people can see it, and it
would be a huge tax write-off for both our families, I’m sure. So it’s not without benefit to your family….”

He laughed incredulously. “A tax write-off? That’s what you’re offering my family?”

“And a chance to do the right thing with the diamond. I mean, you don’t want to just keep it? Do you?”

“No, Red. I don’t want to keep it. But I thought your family needed it desperately. I thought that’s what this was all about? Saving your family?”

“We just need it for a little while. Maybe six months? To display in the jewelry stores. And then, we’ll give it to the museum,” she tried.

“That’s it? Display the diamond for six months, and your family’s business is saved?”

He said it like he might actually care and not want her family’s business to go under. She took a bit of hope in that.

“Well, no. We’re hoping to corner the market on canary diamonds. My brother has everything in place, just waiting for us to find the diamond. It’s the publicity from finding the Santa Magdalena, and…You’re not going to like this part, Travis. You’re probably going to have a lot of people wanting to get onto this ranch, at least for a while, to cover the story and see exactly where we found it and the old mine. I’m sorry, but—”

“Thank God,” he said, sounding thoroughly relieved.

“What?”

She didn’t get it.

He’d hate having all those people invade his ranch.

“I was counting on having something you wanted really badly, Red. Something to negotiate with, to get what I want,” he said, grinning that beautiful grin of his at her.

“What? I don’t understand.”

“That’s the way it works, right? If I have something you want, badly, then you have to give me something I want in return. I’m counting on that.”

She stared at him, thinking she was missing something here. Really missing something.

“It’s a negotiation, Red,” he said, looking so gorgeous, reminding her of him standing in a tuxedo at some party, looking like a man who owned the world, who knew just what he wanted and knew he was going to get it. “Ask me what I want.”

And then she started to shake, she was so scared.

What did he want?

“You want the ranch. I know that. I told you I’d do everything I could to get my mother—”

“Aw, baby.” He knelt down in front of her as she sat there, trembling and practically unable to speak, took her face in his hand and kissed her softly, sweetly. “Ask me what I want even more than that.”

“More than that?” she whispered.

“I want you. And I’ll tell you right now, I’m not giving an inch here. No wiggle room. You can have the stupid diamond. You can do anything you want with it. My whole family can have a fit. I don’t care. But I get you.”

Tears filled her eyes, and spilled over, running down her cheeks. “So…what do you intend to do with me?”

“Keep you. Make you mine. Forever. That’s my plan. I should warn you, too, that I don’t have a diamond right this minute, and I bet a man who shows up to propose to a woman whose family owns a jewelry empire had
better have a really nice diamond. Probably one from her family’s stores. So I can’t do this properly right this minute, but I can’t wait, either. Paige McCord, say you’ll marry me.”

She nodded, sheer joy spilling over inside of her, as the tears ran down her cheek.

“Say you’ll forgive me for everything my family has done to yours over the years,” he asked. “I’ll forget everything yours has done to mine, and we’ll both promise to never let our families’ problems with each other come between us. And marry me. I need you to say it, Red. I love you, and I need to hear you say it.”

“Yes,” she said. “I will. I love you, too. I’ve never loved any man the way I love you. And I don’t care what anyone in either of our families has to say about it. I just don’t care.”

He got very serious for a moment. “One thing. You have to be honest with me about this. You could be happy? Living here at the ranch?”

She nodded. “I might have to take off a couple of times a year, for the stores. I buy most of the uncut stones we sell in the stores.”

“As long as you come back,” he said.

“And I like to cut the stones we sell myself. I could…Maybe I could have an office here at the ranch?”

“Anything you need, Red. Anything,” he promised.

She smiled so big it was hard to talk. “I love this ranch. I think it’s beautiful here.”

“And you could spend your life here? Be happy here?”

“As long as you’re here with me,” she said.

“Well, then. I think we’ve got ourselves a deal, Red.”

He pulled her into his arms, and it wasn’t long before she was naked on that rug in front of his fireplace once again, thoroughly content.

Life was so good, she thought, snuggling beside him, wrapped in an afghan and warmed by the fire. It was unbelievably, amazingly good.

He sighed heavily, let his hands move through her hair. “You know, it’s almost Thanksgiving. I think we need to have a big family dinner, right here at the ranch. Your family and mine.”

“Oh, Travis. Do you think they’re ready for that? For all of us to be in the same room together?”

“I think they’re just going to have to get used to it. Because you and I are already together, and our parents might be someday, and there’s already Charlie…. I mean, because of him, we’re all already family. It’s time we started acting like one. I say, we invite my family and yours to Thanksgiving dinner.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” She wasn’t looking forward to sharing him with anyone just yet, but supposed it had to happen sooner or later.

“I’ll tell them that you and I are getting married, and that’s that. We’re not going to ask for permission, because no one’s talking us out of it, no matter what. And you can tell them that you and I found the diamond, and that we’ve decided to donate it in both our families’ names to the Smithsonian.”

She could handle that. “No arguments. No discussion. Done deal?”

“Done deal,” he said.

“I like that,” she agreed. “It’s the right thing to do. But what about your brother and poor Penny? I mean—”

“Red, I know my brother. He may have started this thing with her for all the wrong reasons, but I finally calmed down enough to talk to him the other night and the guy’s a mess right now. He says Penny won’t have a thing to do with him, that he has no idea why. I didn’t enlighten him. I’ll leave that to your sister. But I think he’s crazy about her.”

Paige’s mouth dropped open she was so shocked. “Really?”

Travis nodded. “Just convince her to come for Thanksgiving, and we’ll see what happens.”

“Did he actually tell you—”

“No, but just wait. I’m looking forward to watching him grovel.”

“My brothers may kill him first,” she warned.

“Okay, you’re going to have to talk them out of that.”

“You’re right. Because Penny has a little surprise for your brother—”

“What?”

“Just wait. It’s going to be a very interesting Thanksgiving. And that reminds me. I found something else in the mine while we were looking for the diamond, something I forgot to ask you about. A reddish crystal. I’d never seen anything like it before.”

“A rock? You want to talk to me about a rock right now?”

“I like rocks,” she reminded him. “These were really pretty. You know the ones I mean? Like a little bit of red fire trapped in crystal.”

“Like you? Red fire?” He gave a soft, teasing kiss. “That’s how I think of you. My own little red fire. My sweet red fire.”

She laughed, gloriously happy. “This could really be something—”

“I think you’re really something,” he said, kissing her again.

And she knew, she wasn’t going to have any kind of serious discussion with him about this right then.

But that red crystal…

How much could one woman possibly find on a ranch in Texas?

A man to love, a priceless treasure, and…

Well, maybe a brand-new gemstone.

Red fire.

For right now, she was content to be Travis Foley’s red fire.

Another day, she’d figure out exactly what else she’d found on his ranch.

One month later

T
ravis walked in the door and felt like Christmas elves must have been at work in his house while he’d been out on the ranch.

There was a Christmas wreath with a big, red bow on the door, a tree inside beside the fireplace, decorated simply with little red ornaments and tiny, white twinkling lights, greenery spread across the mantle, red and white pillar candles everywhere.

Which could only mean, she was back.

Finally!

“Paige?” he called out.

He heard a little shriek from the direction of the
kitchen, and then she came running toward him, despite her high heels and fancy TV clothes. He caught her in his arms and kissed her like he’d never let her go.

“I didn’t think you’d ever get back,” he said.

She beamed up at him. “It was only four days.”

“Felt like four dozen at least.” And it had. It really had. Each time she’d gone, it had felt that way.

The house, the ranch, the entire world seemed empty now without her.

“Tell me you’re done with all these press conferences and TV shows and all that,” he demanded.

“I’m done! The whole world knows about the Santa Magdalena Diamond, and women everywhere want canary diamonds for themselves, just like Blake thought they would. I don’t know how he did it, but he got the diamonds out to the stores this week, and they’re selling like crazy. Just in time for Christmas.”

“And how do you feel about a nice, quiet Christmas here at the ranch, just you and me?”

“I can’t imagine anything better,” she said, then made a face. “But I’m afraid—”

“No!” He knew what she was going to say. “Just us. Right here. No more—”

“Yes. We’ve been invited to a family get-together. Christmas Eve. Mom said everyone’s coming.”

Travis groaned. “They were just here for Thanksgiving. And it was nice. It was fine. We can do it again next year. How about that?”

“Oh, I think you’re going to want to go,” she claimed.

“No. I just want to be right here with you.”

“But…I think there’s something special for you there.
For Christmas. Since you’ve been so good this year,” she said, looking at him in a way that had him thinking he was crazy to be standing here talking to her when he could have carried her off to bed already.

“I have everything I want already,” he said, thinking of the engagement ring that had been delivered to the ranch while he was gone, custom made by her sister at his request, which he intended to put on her finger on Christmas Eve. If he had his way, they’d elope and she’d be his wife by New Year’s

“No, you don’t have everything yet,” his red-haired beauty claimed. “There’s one more thing. One big thing. A surprise. Just wait. You’re going to love it.”