The Kidnapped Bride. Metsy Hingle

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      Lorelei stiffened. He was here because of a gold mine? Oh, dear God, what a fool she was. What had she been thinking to kiss him like that? To even listen to him. She could not do this to herself, she decided, and pulled free of his arms.

      “What’s wrong?” he asked, lines of concern etching his face.

      “I’m an idiot. That’s what’s wrong. For even listening to you. I must be out of my mind to even be here like this with you. I don’t know what I was thinking. Whatever there was between us...whatever we had is over. It’s in the past. We can’t go back, Jack. I don’t want to go back.” She didn’t want the mad whirlwind of emotions that went with loving Jack Storm. There were too many highs and lows, too much uncertainty. She swallowed and forced her voice to be firm as she said, “I’m not the same lovesick girl you once knew. That Lorelei Mason no longer exists. I have a new life—a life I’m happy with. And it doesn’t include you. ”

      Anger. She saw it catch like blue flames in his eyes. A day’s growth of stubble darkened his chin. A muscle ticked furiously in his lean jaw as she watched him strap on his seat belt. “You’re wrong. The Lorelei Mason I knew and loved is still there inside you. You may have buried her, buried her really deep, but she’s still there. You wiped away any doubts that I might have had on that score just now when you kissed me back.” He wrapped his hands around the steering wheel and turned to look at her. Once again Lorelei was struck by the element of danger that seemed to be so much a part of him now. “We belong together, Lorelei, and I intend to prove it to you.”

      “How?” Lorelei asked as he shifted the gears and pulled the Explorer back onto the road.

      “By doing what I should have done ten years ago, what I would have done if we’d gotten married like we planned. I’m taking you with me.”

      Lorelei’s pulse stuttered as she recalled the foolish plans they had made. She had been so in love with him, she’d become caught up in the tales of adventure he’d spun of the two of them traveling the world together and searching for lost treasures. It had been a fool’s dream, a girl’s dream that she’d buried when he’d broken her heart and left her standing at the altar.

      But as the truck sped down the road, Lorelei noticed for the first time the changing landscape. The stretch of highway from the city of Mesa had given way to open desert and rocky, low hills. She’d known they’d been going east but only now did she realize where they were headed. Steep river canyons sprawled out before them, and the rugged face of the Superstition Mountains filled the horizon like a temple of some ancient god. “Jack, you can’t be serious.”

      “Oh, but I am, sweetheart,” he said as he veered on the road toward the sign that read Apache Junction. “I once told you that beneath that prim and proper girl I fell in love with there was an adventuress waiting to be set free. She’s still there, buried a little deeper maybe, but she’s there. And I intend to find her again.”

      “Jack, really—”

      “I promised you once that if you married me, someday we’d strike it rich and I’d lay gold at your feet. I’m going to keep my promise, Lorelei.”

      She recalled the crazy promise he’d made when he’d proposed to her. It had been the rash promise of a reckless adventurer who thought the world was his for the taking. “And just how do you plan to do that? Rob a bank?”

      “I’ll do better than that. I’m going to find the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.”

      “You’re crazy.”

      “And you’re going to help me.”

      “You really are out of your mind if that’s what you think.”

      Obviously ignoring her, he continued, “And once we find that mine, my sweet siren, I’m going to hold you to your promise to marry me.”

      

      “You’ve got to be joking.”

      “I never joke when it comes to hunting treasure. You know that.” In fact, it was the one thing, maybe the only thing in his life, that he’d taken seriously. He had realized from the time he was ten and his father had taken him diving near the site of a sunken Spanish galleon, that searching for treasure was what he wanted to do with his life. Jack had known in his gut that there was treasure still hidden inside that old ship. But his father had shaken his head and motioned for him to follow him and the others back to the surface.

      But he hadn’t listened to his father. He’d followed his gut instead and dove deeper into the stern of the ship. And he had been right. When his head broke the surface of the water, he’d held a fistful of gold doubloons in his bag. He could still remember the expression on his father’s face—a mixture of pride and concern.

      “That’s a brave lad you’ve got there, Jamie.” The old salt named Murphy slapped his father on the back. “Puts the rest of us to shame.”

      “Aye, don’t I know it. The boy has no fear. Worries me some that he might get the fever.”

      Murphy laughed. “What do you expect? The boy’s got yer blood flowing in his veins, don’t he?”

      “True. True. But I promised his mother that I’d see to it the boy would have more out of life than this. A man wants more than a life spent hunting for treasure for his only son.”

      And his father had tried, Jack admitted. He’d forced him to go to school and even insisted he attend college. But when Jamie Storm had lost his life in a diving accident, Jack’s world had fallen apart. He’d dropped out of college, tried unsuccessfully to get on with some of the treasure-hunting outfits and somehow ended up in the navy. Six months after his stint was over, he’d still been floundering—until he’d met Lorelei. When he’d seen her on the beach that first time, there had been that same rush of excitement he’d experienced the day he’d discovered the gold doubloons. And just as his gut had told him there was treasure still buried in that sunken ship, his gut told him Lorelei herself was a treasure—a treasure meant for him.

      Meeting her had been the turning point for him. He’d been alive again for the first time since his father’s death. His luck and life had changed after that. He’d gotten on with a treasure-hunting crew and made his first big find.

      And lost Lorelei in the process. Nothing had been quite the same since. Until he’d won the treasure map and fate had brought her back into his life. Now that he’d found her again, he had no intention of letting her go. But first he had to convince her that it was with him that she belonged.

      “Jack, are you listening to me?”

      Jack dragged his thoughts back to the present at the angry note in Lorelei’s voice. “Sorry. What did you say?”

      “I asked you why are you doing this? What could you possibly hope to prove by dragging me off to the mountains with you to search for some gold mine that probably doesn’t even exist?”

      “Oh, it exists, all right. And I’ve got the map to her.”

      “Then go find the blasted mine. You don’t need me.”

      “That’s where you’re wrong. I do need you.”

      “You don’t even know me anymore.”

      “I СКАЧАТЬ