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“I never stopped loving you,” he whispered, kissing her shocked eyes closed. “I didn’t realize that I did until it was too late, until I’d driven you away with my own confused indifference. And then I couldn’t get you back. I couldn’t get to you.”

  “You love me?” she asked uncertainly.

  He lifted his head and touched her mouth softly with his. “You can ask that, after the way I just made love to you?” he whispered.

  “Desire…” She faltered.

  “Physical love,” he corrected quietly. “Because that’s what it is, between you and me. It always was, even the first time. I’ll never get enough of you.”

  “But you let me go,” she said uncertainly.

  He kissed her forehead with lips that were breathlessly tender. “I had to,” he said simply. “I’d managed to foul up my whole life by getting myself engaged to Lorraine. I had to force her to break the engagement, and by then you were settled in Louisville. I did write to you, but you wouldn’t answer me. I couldn’t blame you for that, after the way I’d treated you. But it was a damned long four years, Eleanor.”

  “You never were trying to make a convenience of me, were you?” she asked wonderingly. “It was this, from the beginning, from the day I came home again.”

  He nodded, his eyes quiet and sad. “I loved you so much, little one. And every attempt I made to come close just pushed you further away.”

  “I didn’t know,” she said.

  “Yes, I realized that. And then Wade Granger started coming around,” he said curtly. “And I wanted to kill him.”

  “He saw through me very quickly,” she confessed. “He was my best friend. He knew how I felt about you. He took me out to try and make you jealous.”

  “He succeeded,” he said, his voice quiet. “I was terrified of losing you to him. Especially after yesterday. I lost my head once I got you in my arms in that bedroom. I couldn’t have stopped to save my life. And then you said you were going to marry him…”

  “He’d have been shocked,” she said with a slow smile. “I’d already refused him. It was all a last-ditch attempt to save myself from you.”

  “And look where it got you,” he mused, lifting his head to look down at their locked bodies.

  She flushed. “Keegan!”

  “You’re not embarrassed?” he teased. “Not after the way you were with me this time?”

  She swallowed. “Actually, yes, I am. And for heaven’s sake, what if someone should come along?”

  He sighed ruefully. “We could go inside, and do this in a bed,” he said. “Or,” he added with a wicked grin as he lifted himself away from her, “we could drive into town and get a marriage license.”

  Eleanor sat up, gaping at him as he dragged on his jeans and tossed hers over to her.

  “Don’t look so shocked,” he murmured. “Don’t you want to marry me? You’d get to sleep in my arms every night. You could even have a son or two with me, if you liked.”

  She was still gaping. With a resigned sigh, he stuffed her deftly back into her clothing and laughed at her shocked expression.

  “A fine lot of help you are,” he muttered as he pulled the knit shirt back over her taut breasts. “Shameless woman.”

  “I’m…speechless,” she faltered. “You really want to marry me?”

  “Didn’t you hear what I told you while we were making love?” he asked. “I love you. What I have in mind is a lifelong affair, not a hurried roll in the hay. I want children with you, you little idiot!”

  “Oh.”

  “Legitimate children,” he emphasized. “And don’t think I didn’t see the way you touched your waist and grinned yesterday. You could already be pregnant. I have a feeling I’m not sterile.”

  She glanced at him shyly. “I may not fit into your world.”

  “I’ll make a new one, just for us,” he replied. He lifted her to her feet and framed her face with his hands. “I love you,” he said fervently. “Deathlessly, with all my heart. I want to live with you until I die, and I hope we have sixty years and that when the time comes, we go down into the dark locked in each other’s arms. Because I’m afraid of nothing in this world except trying to live in it without you.”

  Tears stung her eyes as he bent and drew her lips warmly under his. “I feel the same way,” she whispered shakily. “I never stopped loving you. There could never have been anyone else. I gave you my heart, and I couldn’t get it back.”

  “Then let’s get married,” he said.

  She smiled. “If you’re sure.”

  “Of course I’m sure,” he murmured, smiling. “I’m getting tired of finding excuses to come down here every day. Marry me and we can stay at Flintlock and Mary June will get your breakfast.”

  “Who’ll get Dad’s?” she asked suddenly.

  “We’ll get him a maid of his very own.” He chuckled. “Someone who’ll make a good nanny as well, when we come visiting.”

  “Oh, darling,” she whispered, lifting her arms around his neck.

  “Oh, yes,” he murmured, and his strong hands tugged her up against his body in a fierce embrace. “Kiss me once more, and we’ll go up to the house and break the news to all concerned. I’ll even call your friend Wade and tell him.”

  “How generous of you,” she teased.

  “I can afford to be generous now.” He kissed her softly. “I’ve got the whole world in my arms.”

  She sighed. “I’ve just thought of something,” she said, hesitating.

  “What?”

  “Darling, all our children will have freckles,” she murmured.

  He laughed. “Shut up and kiss me.”

  She was still smiling when he parted her lips with his. As she returned the kiss, Eleanor reflected that she didn’t really mind the prospect of freckled children with red hair. They’d stand out in a crowd, just like their handsome redheaded father.

  She remembered reading somewhere that revenge was like the eye of a tiger, seeing with narrow vision. She’d seen Keegan that way, hating him for what he’d done to her. But now it all seemed worthwhile. Her tiger had blue eyes, and although she’d never get him into a cage, she was perfectly content to run free with him. She closed her eyes, sighing softly as she touched his cheek with her left hand. In her mind, she could already see the thin gold band he would slide on her third finger, a circle of love without end.

  * * * * *

  New York Times bestselling author

  Serves up one of her most popular Texans – Jason Donavan – in a thrilling story destined to enthrall!

  “Diana Palmer is a mesmerizing storyteller who captures the essence of what a romance should be.”

  —Affaire de Coeur

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  DIANA PALMER

  The prolific author of more than one hundred books, Diana Palmer got her start as a newspaper reporter. A multi–New York Times bestselling author and one of the top ten romance writers in America, she has a gift for telling the most sensual tales with charm and humor. Diana lives with her family in Cornelia, Georgia.

  Visit her website at www.DianaPalmer.com.

  ISBN-13: 9781460383667

  EYE OF THE TIGER

  Copyright © 1986 by Diana Palmer

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