Heart of Winter Read online

  The “yet” made her pulses go wild. She stared down into her black coffee. “You don’t…hate me?” she asked.

  “Look at me, country mouse,” he breathed.

  She lifted her shimmering, soft eyes to his and caught her breath at the emotion she read in them.

  “I love you to the furtherest corner of my soul,” he said quietly. “I’ve never loved this deeply, this completely. But you were a baby, and I was afraid of you. I didn’t think you were capable of feeling deeply at your age.”

  She felt the warm glow wash over her body like scented water, and she smiled at him. “And now?”

  He chuckled deeply. “If you could have seen the look on your face when you walked in here…it told me everything. That you cared. That you’d been hurting the way I had. That you loved me. It was like waking out of a nightmare.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she began.

  He pressed a long forefinger against her lips. “It’s over—forgotten.” His finger traced her soft, pink mouth. “Kiss me.”

  She leaned forward and drew her lips against his slowly, teasingly. “Like that?” she whispered saucily.

  He caught the back of her head and ground her mouth into his for a long moment, making her ache with the barely contained passion in his kiss. “More like that,” he replied with a mocking smile when she drew back, blushing.

  She dropped her eyes to her coffee. “Did you really want me here?”

  “Are you out of your mind?” he asked conversationally. “It was all I could think about. I reasoned that if I could get you here, keep you here long enough, you might be able to forgive me.”

  Her eyes misted once again as she looked at him. “For what?” she asked incredulously.

  “For almost costing you your life,” he said, and his face went rigid with remembrance. “Oh, God, when I saw that taxi heading for you…” He stopped and caught his breath deeply. “I prayed every step of the way until I got to you, and I swore that if you lived I’d make it all up to you somehow.”

  “But it was I who’d caused you so much pain,” she countered.

  “We hurt each other,” he said, summing it up. “But that’s over. I want you to live with me.”

  “Yes,” she said quietly.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me about the terms?” he asked with a slow grin.

  She shook her head.

  “Unconditional surrender?” he probed.

  She nodded with a smile.

  He caught her hand and took it to his lips. “Marry me, then.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  He gave her a measuring glance. “I thought you just said you wanted children with me?”

  She blushed wildly. “Well…”

  “Yes or no?”

  She met his teasing eyes levelly. “Yes. A boy, and maybe another girl,” she added gently, sensing his pain.

  He nodded. “The farm will be a good place for them to grow up.”

  She clutched his hand as if all the past few minutes were a delicious dream she was afraid of losing. “Oh, I only wish my father was home so that I could tell him.”

  “He is, and I already have,” he said.

  She gaped at him, tugging her hand loose. “He is?” she burst out.

  He nodded. “I called him. He was here for those first few critical hours until we were sure you were going to be all right. Then I persuaded him to pretend he was still on vacation so I could take you home with me.”

  “However did you get him to agree?” she asked, aghast.

  He touched her cheek gently. “I told him I was in love with you, country mouse, and that I was reasonably certain you were in love with me.”

  Her eyes closed briefly. “Is it real, or am I just dreaming again?” she said, more poignantly than she knew.

  He stood up, drawing her with him. His face was strained. “We’d better go call your father before I give in to the temptation to show you how real it is. Think how shocked Mrs. Brodie would be,” he added wickedly.

  She reached up and touched his cheek. “Are you sure?” she asked quietly. “I’m not worldly, and…”

  “Hush.” He brushed her mouth with his. “You’re my priceless treasure, and I’ll treat you like paper-thin glass. All right?”

  She flushed and turned away from his mischievous smile. “I thought we were going to call Dad.”

  He drew her into his arms. “In just a minute,” he agreed, bending his head. “I think it can wait that long, don’t you?”

  She went on tiptoe to meet him halfway, her warm smile disappearing under the slow, expert pressure of his mouth. Yes, the phone call could wait. Everything could wait. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the one man in all the world whom she could love forever. In the back of her mind were the lines of a poem…“Keep spring within your heart, if winter comes, to warm the cold of disillusion.” The winter approaching would find spring flowering in her soft eyes.

  ISBN: 978-1-55254-669-7

  HEART OF WINTER

  Copyright © 2006 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:

  WOMAN HATER

  Copyright © 1987 by Diana Palmer

  IF WINTER COMES

  Copyright © 1979 by Diana Palmer

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or here after invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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