The Rancher's Heir. Sara Orwig

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       Three

      Noah

      As Noah drove away, he took deep breaths and relaxed his grip on the steering wheel. It had hurt far more than he had expected to see Camilla again. He thought he was getting over her, but the minute she opened the door, he knew damn well he hadn’t gotten over her at all. He had just been busy trying to stay alive and do his job.

      While he hurt, he wished he didn’t care. He and Camilla had no future together and he didn’t want to see her again because today had torn him up. She hadn’t looked happy, either.

      She had been prettier than ever, looking gorgeous, and his knee-jerk reaction had been to want to wrap her in his arms and kiss her for the next hour and carry her to bed.

      He couldn’t ever do that again.

      He struck the steering wheel with his hand. He needed to get to the ranch and outside where he had hard, physical work. The Army was over. His life with Camilla was over. He had to move on and get a new life and try to forget her.

      He hadn’t helped himself by asking her why she fell in love with him when he knew what she liked and they both were tense and angry. Her kisses made him want to promise to change, to do whatever she wanted, but he hung on to his wits enough to know that he couldn’t stop being decisive, controlling, demanding. He loved the Bar G Ranch and didn’t want to give up that life. He’d lived in Dallas and worked in the family business and he’d had more of that than he wanted. That wasn’t the life for him.

      He drove carefully because he was upset and his mind was elsewhere. It was not until he was in his own condo that he could let go, let the memories that tugged at him come, the regrets, the anger, the longing he couldn’t control.

      He brewed coffee, poured a mug and went out on his balcony to look over the city of Dallas. He was high enough up that the horns and clatter of trucks were muffled.

      He sat and sipped his coffee and thought about what else he had to do before he went back to the ranch, yet every few minutes, his thoughts would return to Camilla. He had to let go because they would not get back together. The differences were too big, too basic. She felt he was too strong an alpha male, making decisions and taking charge, because she had grown up with two take-charge males—Thane and her dad. She said her mother had given in to her dad always. Noah felt certain that wouldn’t happen with Camilla. She was about as strong-willed as he was if she stopped to think about it. Would she really have liked him better if he couldn’t take charge, couldn’t make decisions and act on them? He didn’t think so.

      She hated her grandfather’s ranch, thus she disliked all ranches. He knew her memories were terrible at her grandfather’s place because her little brother had caught pneumonia from his fall into an icy pond and had later died. That would be a bad memory, but Noah didn’t think his ranch would trigger any such memories. He should have tried more to coax her out to his ranch.

      She loved life in the city. He loved it out on his ranch, which she had never even visited. They weren’t going to work through their differences because neither of them would change. In bed was the one place where they had absolutely no disagreements. She was fantastic, instantly and intensely responsive. He sipped his coffee and made an effort to get his thoughts off sex with Camilla. The big deal was to give Camilla’s baby his little present. Why the hell Thane had been so insistent on placing that present in his little nephew’s hands, Noah couldn’t imagine, unless it had been that the little kid had no dad and Thane hoped Noah would be enough interested in the child to try to work things out with Camilla.

      Noah had always wondered if she’d married on the rebound because it had been so fast, coming up right after he had been home on furlough and they had gone another—and final—round in their battle over his alpha-male, take-charge way, their city versus country life.

      A part of him suspected that Thane wanted them back together and thought her fatherless child might draw them closer. That wasn’t going to happen. Noah knew Camilla hadn’t changed. She didn’t want any part of him in her life.

      He sipped his hot coffee, closing his eyes, lost in memories of holding and kissing her that he couldn’t push out of mind. She was still the sexiest woman he had ever known. She dazzled him, and until he’d left for the Army, they’d had fun together. He had been staying in Dallas some of the time, or coming in from the ranch often to take her out, and for a time, they seemed to be getting closer. Until he started inviting her to his ranch.

       Give the baby his present and tell her goodbye. After that and Mike’s wedding, there won’t be any other reason to try to see her.

      His logical mind gave him clear commands, but he couldn’t stop the memories that clutched at his heart. Memories of one of the last times they were СКАЧАТЬ