In a Cowboy's Arms. Rebecca Winters

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      She looked around the meadow now. Two days before her birthday their talk had turned into a physical expression of mutual love. They’d become lovers for the first time under the dark canopy of the sky.

      To be that close to another human, the person she adored more than life, filled her with an indescribable joy that was painful in its intensity. They’d become a part of each other, mind, heart and body.

      She never wanted to leave him, but he’d forced her to go home, promising to meet again the next night so they could slip away to get married. He intended to be with her forever.

      He pulled her against his hard body one more time, covering her face and hair in frenzied kisses. She was so hungry for him she caught his face in her hands and found his mouth.

      After a few minutes he grasped her arms and held her from him. “You have to go home now.”

      “Not yet—” She fought to move closer to him, but he was too powerful for her. “My father will think I’m still at Liz’s house studying for finals.”

      He shook his head. “We can’t take any more chances, Sadie. You know as well as I do that with his violent temper your father will shoot me on sight if he finds out where you’ve been tonight. You need to go home now. Tomorrow night we’ll leave for the reservation and be married. From then on you’ll be known as Mrs. Jarod Bannock.”

      “Don’t send me away,” she begged. “I can’t stand to be apart from you.”

      “Only one more night separates us, Sadie. Meet me here tomorrow at the same time. Bring your driver’s license and your birth certificate. We’ll ride over to the firebreak road where I’ll have the truck and trailer parked. Then we’ll leave for White Lodge.

      “The next morning you’ll be eighteen. We’ll stop to get our marriage license. There’ll be no waiting period. All you have to do is sign a waiver that you accept full responsibility for any consequences that might arise from failure to obtain a blood test for rubella immunity before marriage. That’s it. After that we’ll drive to the reservation.”

      She’d gone to the reservation with him several times over the years and once with his sister, Avery. Everyone in his Crow family had made her feel welcome.

      “Remember—you’ll be eighteen. I’ve made all the preparations for our wedding with my uncle Charlo. As one of the tribal elders, he’ll marry us. There’ll be at least a hundred of the tribe gathered.”

      “So many!”

      “Yes. Our marriage is a celebration of life. You’ll be eighteen and your father will have no rights over you by then.”

      She stared into his piercing black eyes. “What about your grandparents?” Sadie had loved Ralph and Addie Bannock the moment she’d met them. “How do you think they really feel about us getting married?”

      “You have to ask? They’re crazy about you. I’ve already told them our wedding plans. They’re helping me any way they can. Earlier today my grandmother told me she can’t wait for us to be living under the same roof with them until we can build our own place. Don’t forget they loved your mother and like to think of you as the daughter they were never able to have. Surely you know that.”

      The words warmed her heart. “I love them, too.” Sadie shivered with nervous excitement. “You really haven’t changed your mind? You want to marry me? The daughter of the man who has hated your family forever?”

      “Your father has something wrong in his head, but it has nothing to do with you.” His dark brows furrowed, giving him a fierce look. “I made you an oath.” He kissed her throat. “I’ve chosen you for my wife. How could you possibly doubt I want to marry you after what we’ve shared?”

      “I don’t doubt it,” she said, her voice trembling. “You know I’ve loved you forever. Having you as my husband is all I’ve ever dreamed about. Oh, Jarod, I love you so much. I can’t wait—”

      He caressed her hair, which cascaded to her waist, and then his hands fell away. “Tomorrow night we’ll be together forever. But you’ve got to go while I still have the strength to let you go.”

      “Why don’t we just leave for the reservation now?”

      “You know why. You’re still seventeen and the risk of getting caught is too great.” Jarod reached into his pocket and pulled out a beaded bracelet, which he fastened around her wrist. “This was made by my mother’s family. After the ceremony you’ll be given the earrings and belt that go with it.”

      “It’s so beautiful!” The intricate geometric designs stood out in blues and pinks.

      “Not as beautiful as you are,” he said, his voice deep and velvety soft. “Now you have to go.” He walked her to her horse. Once she’d mounted, he climbed on his stallion and rode with her to the top of the hill. They leaned toward each other for one last hungry kiss. “Tomorrow night, Sadie.”

      “Tomorrow night,” she whispered against his lips.

      Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Her heart pounded the message all the way home.

      * * *

      REMEMBERING THAT NIGHT now, Sadie felt the tears roll down her face. Their love affair had turned into a disaster, permanently setting daughter and father against each other. She was forced to leave for California and never saw Jarod again. And the Hensons had been left to deal with their drunken boss until the bitter end. Guilt had swamped Sadie, but she’d had no choice except to leave the ranch to prevent her father from carrying out his threat to kill Jarod.

      While her mind made a mental list of what to do first before she and Zane left for Montana, she hung up the phone and took a clean cloth to wash Ryan’s face and hands. “Come on, sweetheart.” She kissed his light brown hair. “Lunch is over. Time for a nap.”

      While she changed his diaper, she looked out the upstairs window of the house she’d lived in with her mother and Tim on Potrero Hill. The view of San Francisco Bay was spectacular from here.

      But much as she loved this city where her mother had been born and raised—where she’d met Daniel when he’d come here on business—Sadie was a Montana girl through and through. With her father’s death, her exile was over. She could go home.

      She longed to be back riding a horse through the pockets of white sweet clover that perfumed the land in the spring. Though she’d made friends in San Francisco and had dated quite a bit, she yearned for her beloved ranch and her oldest friends.

      As for Jarod Bannock, eight years of living away from him had given her perspective.

      He was a man now, destined to be the head of the Bannock empire one day. According to Liz he had a new love interest. Obviously he hadn’t pined for Sadie all these years. And she wasn’t a lovesick teenager who’d thought her broken heart would never heal after her father’s treachery against Jarod. He’d been the one behind the truck accident that had put Jarod in the hospital. But that was ancient history now. She was a twenty-six-year-old woman who couldn’t wait to take her half brother back to Farfields Ranch where they belonged.

      Ryan might end up being her only child, which made him doubly precious to her. One day Ryan Corkin Lawson would grow up and become head of the ranch СКАЧАТЬ