The Parent Plan Part 2. Paula Riggs Detmer

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СКАЧАТЬ she wondered, then rejected the notion. Even in her sleep, she would have responded to him.

      Bracing herself against the cold, she got to her feet and tiptoed barefoot out of the room. The light was on in the master bedroom. Cassidy was awake, lying naked on his back, his powerful arms folded under his head. One thick forearm bore a long, angry-looking scrape, and on his right shoulder was a large bruise already purpling and puffy, both giving testimony to the battle he must have waged to bring a new foal into the world.

      He’d obviously showered. His black hair was still damp and only haphazardly combed away from his lined forehead and he smelled faintly of soap. The covers lay in disarray, as though jerked free in anger, and only the sheet covered him.

      At her entrance he turned his head and looked at her. Though his gaze was direct, his expression was shuttered. Oh, no, no! she thought, already preparing herself for the worst.

      “Golden Girl?” she asked quietly as she closed the door behind her.

      “Gone. The foal, too. Prettiest little filly you ever saw.” His gaze flickered, then held steady again. She wondered again what had happened to him in the past to prompt him to guard his feelings so brutally.

      “I’m sorry.”

      He acknowledged that with a curt nod. “Doc tried, I’ll give him that. But it was a breech.”

      Karen saw in his eyes the things he’d omitted, and she wanted to weep.

      Feeling as though she’d aged a hundred years in the span of one day, she removed her robe and tossed it toward the foot of the bed. Outside, the wind strained against the branches of the towering aspens, and the old house creaked in a familiar nightly ritual that had never failed to soothe her—until tonight.

      “I told Vicki I would give her the news as soon as you told me, but I don’t have the heart to wake her,” she said as she slipped beneath the already tumbled covers.

      “I’ll tell her. It’s my responsibility.”

      “But not your fault.”

      His control slipped long enough to reveal a muscle ticking along his jaw. His voice, too, held a harsh note of self-censure. “It was my call, my decision to breed the mare.”

      “Of course you bred her,” she hastened to assure him. “Goldie was a beautiful animal with excellent bloodlines. There isn’t a rancher in the state who wouldn’t have bred her.”

      “Tell that to my daughter.” He plowed a hand through his already rumpled hair.

      “I will, even though I have a feeling she’ll figure that out for herself. Vicki has your instincts, your love of animals. She’ll make a marvelous rancher.”

      His eyes flashed. “The hell she will.”

      Karen drew a calming breath. “Please, let’s not get into another argument about our conflicting views on gender-specific careers.”

      Cassidy felt rage tearing at the edges of his calm, the strangling, desperate kind that always came when his thoughts threatened to slide into a pit of icy blackness where some nameless, faceless terror was always waiting.

      “If that means I don’t intend to allow my daughter to burn herself out doing a man’s job, then, yeah, there’s no point in arguing, because it’s a done deal,” he said with more force than finesse.

      “No,” she said quietly, distinctly. “It isn’t. Victoria will have the same unlimited choices I had growing up.”

      “Yeah, and we all know how well you turned out, don’t we, Dr. Sloane?”

      “Damn you,” she whispered, her voice as raw as a blizzard wind. “I don’t deserve that.”

      “No, you’re a great doctor. Everyone says so.”

      She breathed in sharply, then let the air out in a slow stream. “What’s happening to us, Cassidy?” she asked, looking at him beseechingly.

      “We’re worried about Vicki, that’s what’s happening.”

      She shook her head. “No, it’s more than that,” she said after a long moment of deliberation.

      “You’re just upset.”

      “Why are you shutting me out when we both need each other so much?”

      Need wasn’t an emotion he allowed. Not for a long, long time. “Karen, I’m not exactly in a mood for a deep philosophical discussion at the moment.” His voice came out hard and clipped, and he couldn’t make himself say the words to ease the hurt now shimmering in her eyes like unshed tears. But it was the tears quivering on the tips of her lashes that broke him.

      “Damn.” He was moving before he thought, rearing up to close the distance between them, reaching for her even as he crashed his mouth down on hers.

      He absorbed her unique taste, part sweet, part tart, and felt her lips soften. In the back of his mind he knew what he was doing wouldn’t solve a thing, but the need to try one more time to bind her to him was too strong. But even as he argued that he was fighting for what was his by law and by need, he struggled against a feeling of revulsion at his own behavior. With a groan, he dragged his mouth from hers.

      “No, don’t stop,” she pleaded, her voice thick with tears.

      “It tears me apart when I hurt you,” he rasped, blood surging to his loins. “I just can’t seem to stop doing it.”

      “I know.” Reaching up, she traced the line of his mouth with her fingertip, and heat shot through him. “I wish I’d declined the invitation to that stupid party.”

      “Goldie would still be dead, party or no party.”

      “Yes, but the party reminded us both of the things we said to each other that night at the cave entrance.”

      “You mean the things I said, don’t you?”

      She nodded. “They hurt, Cassidy. I can’t deny that.”

      He felt an odd twisting in his gut. “Would you rather I lied?”

      She shook her head. “I can’t go on feeling guilty forever.”

      “I want you home, Kari. That’s not going to change.”

      He saw the play of emotions in her eyes, bled a little when the glow left.

      “Where does that leave us now, at this moment?” she asked, her chin angling defiance and strength.

      “The same place it always does in this room. I want you.”

      “All right.”

      “Just like that?”

      Her smile was ragged, but it still had the power to draw him closer. “No, not just like that. I want you, too.”

      Worn out from so much talk, he captured her finger between his teeth and used his tongue to lave the tip. Gentleness was a skill he’d СКАЧАТЬ