Sinful (10 page)

T
O
E
VE
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S DISMAY
, Leah was standing in the middle of the kitchen floor arguing with Connor, who was still wearing his coat. Brooke and Sawyer weren’t with him.

“What are you doing here?” She’d been regretting her decision to leave Connor at home and wishing she had his strong arms around her, and suddenly, there he was.

Connor whipped his head around, took one look at the tears swimming in her eyes, and said, “What the hell did he do to you?” He scowled as the first tear trickled onto her cheek. “I should never have left you to face your father alone.”

Connor opened his arms, and Eve walked right into them, seeking the comfort he offered. She slid her arms around his waist and pressed her nose against his throat, loving the feel of his solid strength supporting her and the intimacy of his bristled cheek against her skin.

This was what she’d imagined it might be like all those years when she’d stood on the sidelines wanting what she couldn’t have. The reality was even better than she’d imagined.

“Are you all right?” he whispered in her ear.

“I’m fine. Where are the kids?” she asked as she leaned back to look into his concerned eyes.

“I left them with Aiden and Brian.”

From the corner of her eye, Eve saw Leah wince at the mention of Aiden’s name. Eve felt a wave of compassion for her sister but remained in the circle of Connor’s arms.

Connor continued, “When I dropped the kids off my family was still in the dark about our engagement. I figured we could give them the news when we pick up the kids.”

Eve’s heart sank. She had no desire to be cordial to that male wolf pack, but since she was now engaged to one of them, she couldn’t very well show up snarling. This marriage business was getting really complicated really fast. She made herself step back, so Connor’s arms fell away. “We’d better go.”

Connor grabbed her coat from the rack and held it so she could put her arms into the sleeves, a courtesy she’d seen him perform for Molly on countless occasions. His gaze remained on her face as he adjusted the collar. Eve felt warm all over. She hadn’t realized that once Connor felt committed he would treat her with all the care and attention he would have given to her if she were already his wife.

She felt like a traitor to her family, because she liked one of those awful Flynn boys a lot. Okay. Fine. She
loved
one of those awful Flynn boys. Only he wasn’t awful. Not anymore. Not to her.

Eve saw the frown on Leah’s face and knew her sister thought Connor was acting, that his behavior was false, that no Flynn could be trusted. Eve couldn’t
allow such doubts to take hold. She had to give all of herself to Connor and believe that, in the end, he would be able to love her. Otherwise, this marriage was doomed from the start.

Connor was reaching for the doorknob when Matt pushed the door open and stepped inside the kitchen. The shoulders of his shearling coat were layered with snowflakes, and he pulled off his Stetson and slapped it against his jeans to rid it of the snow caught on the brim. He stopped cold when he saw who’d come to visit.

“Well, well. How are you, Connor?”

The two men did one of those male embraces where they bumped shoulders and slapped each other on the back, big smiles on both faces.

“Long time no see,” Connor said. “I figured I’d let you get settled before I gave you a call. How are you, Matt?”

Matt shot a look at Leah and Eve before he said, “Not bad.”

Eve had been expecting animosity, but the two men had greeted each other like old friends. Then it hit her. Matt’s mother and Connor’s father had been sister and brother, which made the two men cousins. It had never occurred to her that her elder Grayhawk siblings might not share King’s aggrieved attitude—which had become her attitude, and that of her sisters—toward Angus Flynn and his sons. She’d never considered the fact that, before her father divorced Jane Flynn, the cousins might have been close.

“Are you two friends?” Eve blurted.

Connor turned to her and said, “Matt’s mom—my aunt—was living with us—” He cut himself off,
hesitated, then finished, “At the end. Matt shared many a supper at our table.”

Eve shot a look at Matt. It was the first information any of them had gleaned about Matt’s life before he’d left home. No wonder Angus was so angry at King. Apparently he’d been a witness to his sister’s deterioration and, very likely, her death.

Eve did the math and realized Connor would have been a ten-year-old when Matt left home at seventeen, which was the same year Matt’s mother died. Connor had been old enough to grieve the loss of his aunt, with whom it seemed all of the Flynn boys had been close.

“We’ve missed you, Matt,” Connor said. “What have you been doing with yourself all these years?”

“This and that.”

Eve wasn’t sure whether Matt had been vague because it would have taken too much time to explain, or because she and Leah were standing there.

“Eve and I just got engaged,” Connor announced.

“Congratulations.” Matt reached out to shake Connor’s hand. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

She saw Connor’s lips twist ruefully, conceding the difficulties that were bound to result from a Grayhawk hitching up with a Flynn, not to mention the sheer number of compromises and changes that occurred when two people married.

“Eve just told King the good news,” Connor said.

Matt eyed her speculatively. “How did that go?”

“About how you’d expect.” She wasn’t any more willing to share information with Matt than he was with her.

“Don’t forget I need those mustangs off my land this week,” Matt said.

Eve bristled to hear him call Kingdom Come “my land.” But she simply said, “Don’t worry. My herd will be gone by the end of the day.”

“Maybe not,” Connor said.

“What’s the problem?” Eve asked.

“I made arrangements to use a friend’s tractor-trailer, since we’re moving twenty-two animals. I just got a call that it’s not available until tomorrow.”

“There’ll be a foot of snow on the ground by tomorrow,” Matt said, glancing out the kitchen window, where snow was falling in large, beautiful flakes.

A spring snowstorm was nothing out of the ordinary in Wyoming, but it was going to make rounding up her mustangs a lot harder if they had to do it with a lot of fresh snow on the ground.

“Daddy has a tractor-trailer,” Leah said.

Eve turned to Matt. “Any problem if we use that?”

She felt her blood pressure rise every second Matt hesitated. To her surprise, the answer didn’t come from Matt.

“Use it,” Leah said. She looked at Matt and arched a brow. “Do you want those mustangs gone, or not?”

“Take it!” Matt snapped.

“I’ll make sure it’s parked by the loading pens when you get there,” Leah said, ignoring Matt.

Eve was halfway out the door when Connor turned back to Matt. “You shouldn’t have come back, Matt. You can’t undo what happened.”

He’d already pulled the door closed behind him before Eve had a chance to react to what he’d said.

She stopped on the covered back porch. “Why shouldn’t Matt have come back?”

“If Matt wants you to know why he left, or why he came back for that matter, he’ll tell you.”

“You shouldn’t have said anything if you weren’t going to spill the beans,” she said irritably. “I don’t like secrets.”

“I’ll remember that,” he said with a wry smile. “No secrets.”

Eve felt a spurt of guilt. She’d been keeping a pretty big one for a very long time. Maybe Connor had, too, if her father was right and he’d killed his best friend. An accident? Friendly fire? Or did her father mean
killed
figuratively, as in, something Connor had done had resulted in his friend’s death.

“We’d better get moving if we’re going to beat the snow,” Connor said, making her shiver when he set his hand on her nape. He ushered her to her pickup and opened the door, then lifted her with both hands at her waist, as though she weighed nothing, and gently settled her in the driver’s seat.

Eve had never felt so precious. She wanted to reach out and smooth the lock of hair from Connor’s forehead, but it felt like something only a lover would do. She held herself back because she didn’t want to give him any reason to suspect that her feelings ran much deeper than his. She felt far too vulnerable to show him she cared. Besides, he might begin to wonder just when her feelings for him had grown so strong.

It took an hour for them to get back to Safe Haven in their separate vehicles, and another thirty minutes to collect three volunteer cowhands and trailer the horses they would be riding on the roundup.

“The snow’s really falling hard,” Eve said, biting her lip as she surveyed the landscape on the drive back to Kingdom Come. The wind had whipped up, and visibility was poor.

“You want to ask Matt for extra time to move your mustangs?” Connor asked. “After all, what can he do if they’re not gone in a week?”

“Have them picked up and sent to slaughter,” Eve replied. “I’m not taking any chances. We do it today.”

“I don’t remember Matt being as ruthless as you’re painting him,” Connor said.

“Maybe he wasn’t then. He is now. What happened to him? Why did he leave? Can you at least tell me that?”

Connor shook his head. “It isn’t my story to tell. Ask Matt. Or your father.”

Eve shot Connor a sideways look. Her father must have done something horrible to Matt, as Leah had suggested. What could be so bad that Matt would run so far and be gone so long? She had no more time to contemplate the matter, because they’d arrived at the pasture where the horses were kept.

Eve glanced at the pickup following them that contained Frank and the two wannabe cowboys. “I’m a little worried about using those greenhorns to get this done.”

“The guys who volunteered said they can ride. Besides, we don’t have much choice. We need the help.”

“What if someone gets lost in this snowstorm? What if someone gets hurt?”

Connor chuckled. “You’re forgetting who you’re talking about, Eve. These are men who’ve been shot at—and who’ve shot back. They’ve lived in terrible
conditions for months at a time, been bored silly one moment and fighting for their lives the next. I think they can handle a horseback ride in the snow.”

Eve pursed her lips and shrugged. “I don’t want to be responsible if one of them gets injured.”

A shadow crossed Connor’s eyes. “I know what you mean.”

Eve considered asking Connor about his friend who’d died, but she didn’t want to cause him more pain. Instead she said, “I’m surprised you felt comfortable leaving Brooke and Sawyer with your brothers.” Because she’d spent so much time with Molly, Eve knew the kids had spent very little time with their uncles while Connor was gone.

“Brian’s great with kids,” Connor said. “I suspect it’s because he makes so many visits to local schools dressed up as a fireman.”

“I thought Brian lived in town. Did he come to the ranch just to spend time with your kids?”

Connor shook his head. “His wife got the house in the divorce. He’s been living at the ranch when he isn’t on duty at the fire station. Brian always wanted kids, but his wife didn’t. It’s another reason they weren’t a good fit.”

“Do you want more kids?” Eve asked.

Connor looked surprised by the question. “I haven’t thought about it. Do you?”

“I’d love to have a sister for Brooke and a brother for Sawyer, but I’d be happy with two more healthy children whatever their sex.”

“So four kids in all?”

Eve nodded. It was something she’d imagined her whole life. A family where the father and mother sat
down to dinner together with their children. Idyllic maybe, but it never hurt to dream.

“We’ll have to work on that when you’re ready,” Connor said with a smile.

Eve felt her face heat and knew she was blushing. She tried to meet Connor’s gaze but was too aware of the desire in his eyes to hold it for long. The idea of making a child with him, something that had been a fantasy her whole life, was suddenly very real. But she wasn’t willing to take that giant leap until she saw how their “convenient” marriage played out. Which meant continuing the contraceptives she’d been taking the past three months since Connor had come home. She’d told herself there was very little chance that she and Connor would end up making love. But she was practical enough—and hopeful enough?—to have taken precautions anyway. Now she was glad she had.

They parked at the pasture gate, unloaded the horses, tightened cinches on saddles, and mounted up.

“How hard are these mustangs going to be to find?” Connor asked as the five of them headed across the rolling terrain on horseback.

“They’ll likely be along the back fence where there’s a stand of pines and evergreens to cut the wind.”

That was where they found them. There was no stallion with her herd. Her twenty-two mustangs consisted of sixteen mares, two of which were pregnant, five gelded yearlings, and a colt that had been born shortly before she’d bought the herd.

The mustangs were still wild, and their instincts were honed to survive attacks by wolves, bears, and
mountain lions, so they were alert and running the instant they caught sight of the riders.

Eve reined her mount to a halt, her heart in her throat as she watched the wild horses take flight, manes and tails flying. They looked majestic, harking back to a bygone day when there had been millions of wild horses on the plains, just as there had once been millions of wild buffalo. The sight of her small band of mustangs galloping across the snow, their pounding hooves sending powder flying, was breathtaking.

Eve wished she had her camera with her. Taking photographs of wild herds was how she’d fallen in love with mustangs in the first place. Her small herd included three golden palominos, two stunning brown-and-white pintos, one gray, and one chestnut. The rest were browns, some with stars on their foreheads, a few with white stockings, but most just as ordinary as ordinary could be. Eve dreamed of the day that the single colt, which was black with a white star on its forehead, would take its place as leader of the band.