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  The tears came back. She kissed him with her whole heart. “I couldn’t bear to see you hurt because of me,” she whispered. “It killed me to leave, but they could have ruined you.”

  He shrugged. “So I’d have gone back to construction work. But I’d much rather lose the business, and Casa Río, than lose you,” he said simply. “A man can’t live without his heart, little one.”

  She leaned her forehead against his with a soft sigh. “That’s how I felt, because you’re my heart, too.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t have to go? I can live with you forever?” she asked in a small, awed voice.

  His big arms pulled her to him. “All my life, and all yours.” His eyes closed on a hard sigh. “I hope I can live up to you,” he added quietly. “You can’t know how it touches me, that you’d have sacrificed your happiness for me.”

  She pulled back and looked into his haunted eyes. “Bowie...wouldn’t you have done exactly the same thing for me?” she asked gently, smiling at him.

  He took a slow breath and smiled back. “Yes.”

  “Now who’s going to have to live up to whom?” she teased, and smiled against his warm, hard mouth.

  “Just what is your real name?” he asked several heated minutes later.

  “Gabrielle Cane,” she replied.

  He frowned. “But you said that was an assumed name.”

  She grinned. “Yes, I did. To throw you off the track, so you wouldn’t try to find out anything.”

  “For God’s sake,” he said.

  “Didn’t it ever occur to you that I’d have had to falsify all my records—Social Security, learner’s license, and so forth?” She gave him a demure glance through her lashes. “The authorities have unpleasant ways of dealing with people who do that sort of thing.”

  “No, it never occurred to me.” He chuckled. He pulled her down again and wrapped her up with a heartfelt sigh. “It doesn’t matter in the least, now. You’re Mrs. McCayde—all mine.”

  “That works both ways. I never dreamed I’d be free of the past one day,” she said, still stunned by the suddenness of it all. She stared across his bare chest to the window. “I’ve been haunted for so long, Bowie. I can’t believe I’m actually free.”

  “Yes, you can. I’ll make you believe it.” He kissed her forehead with breathless gentleness. “We start here, Gaby. Together.”

  She smiled and looked up at him with her heart in her eyes. “Yes. No more nightmares. No more lies. No more secrets. And I guess that means I can unpack, doesn’t it?”

  “Later,” he said when she tried to get up. His mouth found hers, and she melted into him, wrapped up like his greatest treasure in his big, loving arms.

  * * *

  ONCE THE PAST was put into proper perspective—it took a few days for Gaby to resolve it all—life seemed to move at a slower, less taxing pace. Work went on as usual, and there were no lawsuits.

  The one sour note in her life was that she wasn’t pregnant. She hadn’t told Bowie what she suspected until she’d gone to the doctor, but what she thought was pregnancy was only a missed period. There was still hope, of course, and Bowie’s ardor didn’t cool a bit as time went by. She knew that one day her fondest hope would be realized, so she was content to take it one day, one lovely day, at a time.

  Gaby had found the prospect of a double wedding with Aggie and Mr. Kingman delightful, and it was. She and Aggie chose matching street-length dresses in an antique white color, styled like wispy feminine dresses from the 1920s, with matching veils. Aggie blushed like a girl as she spoke her vows. Bowie and Gaby took their own vows a second time, and with even more reverence, because the love they shared was deeper now, and stronger than ever.

  It seemed as if half of Arizona came to Casa Río for the reception. Gaby’s friends from the Phoenix and Lassiter newspapers were in attendance, along with Bowie’s construction gang chiefs and board of directors. Mr. Kingman had plenty of family attending besides his two sisters, and with them came his foreman, and a number of familiar faces from the rodeo circuit.

  Gaby was staring adoringly at her husband when Harvey paused beside her with a second glass of champagne, which he put into her empty hand.

  “Congratulations, again,” he said.

  She grinned at him. “I think we both deserve some. We’re the toast of two newspapers, lest you forget, and if we threatened to resign, I really think Bob might offer us a partnership.”

  He laughed himself. “Imagine, and we didn’t even get sued.”

  She shrugged. “Mr. Samuels is apparently used to being sued. He does make money, and I can understand that some communities would be desperate enough to let him in.” She glanced at Harvey somberly. “The worst of it was that I felt like I was coming out against agriculture, and that isn’t so. Nobody is more on the side of farmers and ranchers than I am.”

  “This was a different situation,” he reminded her. “We did what we had to, to protect the ecology. We can’t resent that.”

  “I suppose not. But it worries me that we’ve cost Lassiter a lot of jobs.”

  “We’ll find a way to get more—without having to sacrifice the quality of life for it.”

  “Will we?” She smiled sadly. “I hope so.”

  “Stop glowering.” Bowie grinned as he joined them. “We’re supposed to be celebrating.”

  “We already are,” Harvey assured him. He lifted his glass. “Congratulations.”

  “On my wife or my stepfather?” Bowie asked with a wry glance at a beaming Mr. Kingman. “I’m quite happy with both, thanks.”

  “It shows,” Gaby told him, leaning against his side with a warm, happy sigh. “I’m pretty happy myself.”

  “That shows, too,” Harvey said, smiling. “I’d better go and rescue Bob from the competition. See you.”

  Gaby nodded, watching him go. “He’s not a bad man at all, you know,” she mused. “He’s a good reporter, too.”

  “I know another good one.” His arm brought her close. “Have I ever told you how proud I am of you?” he asked sincerely. “You did a hell of a job on that story.”

  “I did my best,” she corrected. “I hope it was good enough. But I still worry about having done what was best for the community,” she confessed. “Bowie, all those jobs...”

  He bent and kissed her gently. “Don’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders—especially not today. Come on. I want you to meet my new in-laws.”

  She was delighted with Mr. Kingman’s sisters and family, and so was Aggie. As the reception wound down, she wondered at the ease with which the two families seemed to fit together. Staring up at her handsome husband, she sighed with pure pleasure at the way things had happened in her life—at the random factors that had led her to Arizona, and to Bowie. It was enough to convince her that there was no such thing as coincidence. She slid her arm around his hard waist and smiled up at him, her eyes soft with love. It couldn’t get better than this, she thought. Nothing could be as wonderful as standing in the arms of the man she loved, with a whole lifetime ahead of them to discover everything there was to know about each other.

  But, Bowie was still keeping one secret from Gaby. For the next few weeks he worked unusually long hours and attended meetings with city council members that he kept from her newsy nose. Until one Monday afternoon, when he put her in the ranch pickup and drove her out to the site where he’d made love to her for the first time. There he showed her the blueprints and pending council approval for his development project.

  She sat down heavily on the running board of the truck with the plans in her hands.

  “Bowie, this is incredibly big,” she burst out. “What is it?”

  “A retirement complex,” he said. “It will cater to elderly people—an age group that can’t do much damage to the surroundings. There’ll be a shopping m
all, complete with grocery store and pharmacy, and a resident doctor and clinic—even a vet.” He grinned. “And over here,” he pointed to another square on the blueprint, “is a small museum and library which will house all the artifacts and history of this area. The entire complex won’t use a fraction of the water an agricultural outfit would, and we’ve designed it with water conservation in mind, right down to the plant material in the landscaping. The whole thing will cost $3.5 million. We can get some federal funding, and the city council is kicking in a bit. There are grants we can apply for from private industry, and I’m furnishing the construction labor. You wanted jobs for Lassiter, honey. Here they are.”

  She couldn’t even think. She jumped up and threw her arms around him, laughing as she hugged him. “I think you’re terrific,” she murmured happily.

  “I’m glad you appreciate me,” he returned, grinning. “It’s nice to know that I have my uses.”

  She grinned back. “I can think of a couple...”

  “Can you?” He bent and kissed her lazily. “The first time was here,” he said, the smile fading. “I hurt you.”

  She put her hand over his mouth. “I loved you,” she replied. “And I left the past behind here. There aren’t any scars on me from what happened—not even one.”

  He let out a heavy breath. “Thank God for that. It haunted me for a long time.”

  “You more than made up for it,” she mused. She hugged him hard. “When do you get council approval on this project?”

  “At the next meeting, unless there’s a lot of public opposition. And I don’t see how there can be,” he added with a chuckle, “because I own the land.”

  “How long will it take to build?”

  “A couple of years, I imagine,” he replied. “These things take time. But it will give people something to hope for, something to look forward to.”

  “Indeed it does. Can I break the story?” she probed.

  “Along with the rest of the media,” he replied. “I don’t play favorites, even when they’re married to me,” he added, tapping her on the nose with his forefinger.

  “Oh, well,” she sighed. “I guess I’ll just melt into the crowd with the rest of the unappreciated press.”

  “You’ll never be that.” He kissed her gently. “Aggie and Ted are coming down for the weekend.”

  “I know. Aggie said that Ted had tickets for the rodeo in Phoenix. He thought you might like to go with him.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, I would. You and Aggie can go shopping.”

  “Are you kidding?” she burst out. “Go shopping, when there’s a rodeo to watch?!”

  He looked down at her. “Fanatic.”

  “So is Aggie; it runs in the family. Besides, one of Ted’s cousins from Texas is competing in the calf roping. We have to go and support him.”

  “If you say so,” he said. He put an arm around her and leaned back against the truck to watch the sun going slowly down behind the Dragoon Mountains. They were turning dark burgundy, their jagged peaks outlined against the orange and yellow and red of the sunset. “This is one hell of a beautiful country, Gaby,” he said.

  “It certainly is.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Bowie, you don’t really mind sharing the past with the future, do you? I mean, the compromise isn’t going to keep you awake nights or anything?”

  He pulled her closer. “I had to make a decision. It wasn’t an easy one, at first. But you’re right about people being important. The thing is to find ways to help the economy without sacrificing too much of the ecology. I think it can be done. I’m going to do my part.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “So am I.” He sighed pleasantly, smiling to himself at the way it had worked out for him and Gaby. He looked down at her, loving every line of her face, every facet of her personality. “I know we said no more secrets. Can you forgive me for keeping this last one?”

  “Of course. In fact, I’ve been keeping one of my own.”

  “Have you? What?” he asked with lazy affection.

  She took his free hand and pulled it to her flat stomach. Then she looked up at him, the light from the setting sun reflected in her eyes.

  The action was enough, without the words. He knew he couldn’t get words out. It was a miracle that he had Gaby, that she loved him, but this made the miracle complete. This would complete the circle of their love.

  He bent and kissed her mouth with soft tenderness. She smiled, thinking that his lips felt like a firebrand in the late afternoon, touching her with the heat of desire, the flame of possession, the mark of love in the shadow of the past. She closed her eyes, and felt the sun warming her eyelids. Love, she thought, endured as surely as Bowie’s precious ruins, as strongly as the land itself.

  Far away, there was a sound. Wind through the trees or ancient chants in the fiery sunset, voices whispering of sacred places, of white winds and soft wonder. Gaby heard them. Their children would hear them, too, now.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from DEFENDER by Diana Palmer.

  “Palmer knows how to make the sparks fly!”

  —Publishers Weekly

  For sensual tales filled with romance and charm, don’t miss any of the titles in New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer’s breathtaking Long, Tall Texans series!

  Defender

  Untamed

  Invincible

  Protector

  Courageous

  Merciless

  Dangerous

  Heartless

  Fearless

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

  —Affaire de Coeur

  Featuring drama, rugged cowboys and love born in Big Sky Country…don’t miss the captivating Wyoming Men series!

  Wyoming Brave

  Wyoming Rugged

  Wyoming Strong

  Wyoming Bold

  Wyoming Fierce

  Wyoming Tough

  Be sure to catch these fan-favorite tales filled with the passion and romance that you know and love from Diana Palmer!

  Fire Brand

  Denim and Lace

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  Defender

  by Diana Palmer

  ONE

  Isabel Grayling stuck her head around the study door and peered in. The big desk was empty. The chair hadn’t been moved from its position, carefully pushed underneath. Everything on the oak surface was neatly placed; not a pencil wasn’t neatly in a cup; not a scrap of paper was out of line. She let out a breath. Her father wasn’t home, but the desk kept the fanatical order he insisted on, even when he wasn’t here.

  She darted out of the office with a relieved sigh and pushed back the long tangle of her reddish-gold hair. Blue, blue eyes were filled with relief. She wrinkled her straight nose, where just a tiny line of freckles ran over its bridge. Her name was Isabel, but only Paul Fiore called her that. To everyone else, she was Sari, just as her sister, Meredith, was always called Merrie.

  “Well?” her younger sister, Merrie, asked in a whisper.

  Sari turned. The other girl was slender, like herself, but Merrie had hair almost platinum blond, straight and to her waist in back. Her eyes, like Sari’s, were blue, but paler, more the color of a winter sky. Both girls looked like their late mother, who was pretty but not beautiful.

  “Gone!” Sari said with a wicked grin
.

  Merrie let out a sigh of relief. “Paul said that Daddy was going to Germany for a few weeks. Maybe he’ll find some other people to harass once he’s in Europe.”

  Sari went up to the shorter girl and hugged her. “It will be all right.”

  Merrie fought tears. “I only wanted to have my hair trimmed, not cut. Honestly, Sari, he’s so unreasonable...!”

  “I know.” She didn’t dare say more. Paul had told her things in confidence that she couldn’t bear to share with her baby sister. Their father was far more dangerous than either of them had known.

  To any outsider, the Grayling sisters had everything. Their father was rich beyond any dream. They lived in a gray stone mansion on acres and acres of land in Comanche Wells, Texas, where their father kept Thoroughbred horses. Rather, his foreman kept them. The old man was carefully maneuvered away from the livestock by the foreman, who’d once had to save a horse from the man. Darwin Grayling had beaten animals before. It was rumored that he’d beaten his wife. She died of a massive concussion, but Grayling swore that she’d fallen. Not many people in Comanche Wells or nearby Jacobsville, Texas, wanted to argue with a man who could buy and sell anybody in the state.

  That hadn’t stopped local physician Jeb “Copper” Coltrain from asking for a coroner’s inquest and making accusations that Grayling’s description of the accident didn’t match the head injuries. But Copper had been called out of town on an emergency by a friend and when he returned, the coroner’s inquest was over and accidental death had been put on the death certificate. Case closed.

  The Grayling girls didn’t know what had truly happened. Sari had been in high school, Merrie in grammar school, when their mother died. They knew only what their father had told them. They were much too afraid of him to ask questions.

  Now, Merrie was in her last year of high school and Sari was a senior in college. Sari had majored in history in preparation for a law degree. She went to school in San Antonio, but wasn’t allowed to live on campus. Her father had her driven back and forth every day. It was the same with Merrie. Darwin wasn’t having either of his daughters around other people. He’d fought and won when Sari tried to move onto the college campus. He was wealthy and his children were targets, he’d said implacably, and they weren’t going anywhere without one of his security people.