A Cowboy's Woman (24 page)

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Authors: Cathy Gillen Thacker

BOOK: A Cowboy's Woman
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Shane sauntered closer. He stopped just in front of her, put his hands flat on her desk, leaned across it and studied her face. “You look terrible,” Shane said, as if the fact of that made him very happy indeed.
Greta knew her eyes were swollen and her nose was all red—she'd be lucky if both returned to normal by the next century, at the rate she'd been crying. She sent him a withering look. “If one more person tells me that, I'll deck them,” Greta declared. She stood and walked around her desk to poke him in the chest. “And for the record, you don't look so hot yourself, cowboy.”
His lazy grin widening, Shane ambled closer yet. He placed both his hands on her shoulders, cupping them with a gentle possessiveness that robbed her of her breath. “That's 'cause I didn't sleep a wink last night,” he said softly.
Refusing to give in, Greta regarded him stubbornly. “Neither did I.”
Shane's tender glance continued to rove her upturned face. “Nor did we get much sleep the night before that,” he reminded softly as a sexy sparkle crept into his gray eyes, “though for a very different reason.”
Greta drew a deep breath. If he was going to try to make love to her here and now—“So what are you prescribing?” she demanded hotly. “A day in bed...together?”
Shane laughed at her audacity and waggled his eyebrows at her. “Or two or three,” he quipped mischievously.
Reminding herself he had dumped her the night before, and in a thirty-second TV clip no less, Greta glared
at him. “If you're here to break my heart again, you better do it fast. I can't take much more of this torture.”
Shane sat down on the edge of her desk and hauled her onto his lap. “I'm not here to break your heart, Greta,” he told her with a soberness that gladdened her heart and soothed her soul. “I'm here to mend it. And our marriage. And everything and anything else in our lives that need it. Because I realized something today, Greta.” Shane pulled two solid-gold wedding bands from his pocket. He took off the cheap ones that had been turning their fingers green—the ones both just happened to still be wearing despite everything—and replaced them with the solid gold bands, filling her in on the specifics behind his actions all the while. “The love I feel for you is not going to go away,” he told her huskily. “Not today or tomorrow or the next day. What I feel for you, I feel for life. And I think—” Shane murmured, searching her eyes with all the love and caring he'd just expressed “—you feel the same way about me.”
Tears of joy spilled down Greta's cheeks. “I do,” she whispered earnestly, wrapping her arms about him and holding him so close she could feel their hearts beating as one. She kissed him then, before he had a chance to change his mind and take it all back. “Oh, Shane, I'm so sorry.” Happiness—to have him in her life again—trembled in her voice and filled her soul. “I should have told you what I'd planned with Beau last night before it ever happened,” Greta declared, willing to take her share of the responsibility.
Shane smoothed her hair with the flat of his hand with long gentle strokes. “It wouldn't have changed anything if you had,” he admitted ruefully. Apology radiated from his gray eyes. “I would have been just as hurt and
ticked off and liable to go off half-cocked and do something reckless and irresponsible, because I hadn't yet owned up to some very simple truths about this whole love-and-marriage thing.”
“Which are...?”
Shane kissed the back of her hand. “First of all, honesty is always the best policy, and that goes double when it comes to the ones you love. It's time I grew up and told people exactly what I think and feel instead of responding with the troublemaking behavior of my youth.”
“I'll agree with you there.” Briefly she told him about her talk with her folks. “I made the same pledge—I have to start saying what's in my heart, too, instead of just acting as if it doesn't matter and walking away.”
“Good.” Shane drew her close for a long, leisurely kiss that filled her with warmth.
“What other truths did you learn from all this?” Greta asked. More than anything she wanted them to start off correctly this time.
“We can't live our marriage with one foot out the door.” His low, husky voice was filled with emotion. “We have to stick with it and each other through thick and thin if we want to live happily ever after the way our folks have—and I do want that.”
Contentment unlike anything Greta had ever known swept through her. “I do, too,” she confessed as they paused for another slow, sexy kiss. Knowing they had all the time in the world together, Greta leaned back and looked into his face. She was wearing her heart on her sleeve again. But it was okay. “You know, I've learned a couple of things from all this, too,” she admitted happly.
“Such as?” Interest flared in his eyes.
Greta flattened her hand across his chest, loving the warmth and strength of him every bit as much as the unpredictability and wildness. She swallowed hard, for the first time in her life determined to say and do and live it all. “There's no place for fear or cowardice in a good marriage. I can't be afraid to tell you what's in my heart. I have to have faith that we' ll be able to work things out, no matter how difficult.”
Shane nodded. “And I promise,” he said hoarsely, “I'll do the same.” He paused to kiss her again.
Greta kissed him back, then waited till he looked at her before she continued again. “And last but not least it's never a good idea to wait for a more-convenient time to tell someone you love them. Because when it comes to the people you love—” Her voice caught at the thought of all she had nearly lost. She drew a deep breath and forced herself to continue again. “You can never let them know that often enough. So every day, from now on, Shane McCabe,” she vowed, the look of love in his eyes giving her more courage than she'd known it was possible for any one person to possess, “I promise to let you know that I love you in a hundred different ways.”
Shane grinned as he got up to lock the office door. “I like the sound of that.”
Greta smiled, knowing this was her place of business and that no one else was due for several hours. That—plus her abiding love for Shane—gave her the freedom to do anything she wanted right here and right now. “I thought you would.”
Shane settled back on the desk, tugged her back onto his lap and began to unbutton her blouse. “I suppose this could happen in the bedroom?” he asked with mock seriousness.
Greta sucked in a breath as his hand bypassed the lace of her bra and cupped her breast. “Oh, yes.”
“And in the kitchen?” With customary thoroughness Shane kissed his way down her neck.
Her nipple pearled in his palm. Lower still, there was a spreading heat. “Most likely,” Greta said breathlessly.
Shane's hand moved to her other breast, giving it the same warm and tender attention with his hand before following that with his lips. “You know, I used to think being married was the most restrictive covenant a man could endure,” he confessed, pausing to kiss her lips softly, evocatively, “but now I'm thinking it doesn't sound bad at all,” he told her, all the love he felt for her in his eyes. “In fact, it sounds like the best thing going.”
“I'm glad you feel that way.” Greta grinned and, more than ready for some of their wild, unrestrained loving, began unbuttoning his shirt, too. “And speaking of marriage... when are your folks renewing their wedding vows, by the way?” He'd told her; several people had; she just couldn't remember.
“Both the rehearsal dinner and the marriage ceremony are being held next week.” Taking her by the hand, Shane led her over to the sofa against the wall. “Which in turn presents another problem.” He kicked off his boots. She kicked off hers.
“What?” At his behest, Greta followed that with her skirt, blouse, bra and panties.
Shane unzipped his jeans. “My parents had their heart set on all of their sons being married before they celebrated their anniversary and re-tied the knot, so to speak.”
“And you all are now—” Greta murmured thoughtfully
as she and Shane finished getting him really, really comfortable.
“Except Travis,” Shane finished for her.
Greta thought about that for a moment as the two of them lay down on their bed of discarded clothing and stretched out side by side. As far as she knew, Travis McCabe wasn't even dating anyone. He hadn't, since his fiancée had died in a tragic accident just minutes before they could make it to the altar. Greta looked at Shane. “What's his opinion of all this?”
Shane shrugged. He wrapped his arms around her, and brought her close, fitting her softness to his hardness, infusing them both with sizzling warmth. “Like me, he doesn't think there's a chance on this green earth that it's gonna happen.”
Greta smiled as Shane found the sensitive spot behind her ear with the tip of his tongue. She arched against him, wanting so much more, knowing the waiting, the long, slow, luxuriant love play would make it all the better when they did finally join together. “Does Travis want it to happen?”
“Not really.” Shane winked, as he settled his lips over hers and prepared to get down to business. “But that,” Shane said optimistically, tilting Greta's lips up to his, “doesn't mean it won't.”
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5039-0
 
A COWBOY'S WOMAN
 
Copyright © 1999 by Cathy Gillen Thacker.
 
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 hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the published, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
 
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.
 

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