TIS THE SEASON...FOR ROMANCE (WESTMORELAND/MASTERS/JEFFERIES) (33 page)

Here he was kissing another man’s wife like he had ever right to do so and she was letting him. He forced his thoughts off the man she’d married and back to the man she actually belonged to. Him. He’d never been one to encroach on any man’s territory, but with Abby she was his, had always been his and would always be his, regardless of whom she was married to.

When they heard a noise behind them they pulled apart when a couple walked out the restaurant. No one noticed them standing in the shadows and after the couple passed they stared at each other while trying to get their erratic breathing under control.

The glow of the moon spilled across the landscape and provided only a small amount of light where they stood. He thought she looked so prim and proper standing there in her pretty dress and the shawl wrapped around her shoulders. And he thought the same thing now that he had that first day he’d first set eyes on her. She was utterly beautiful.

An intense expression burned in Corey’s eyes and Abby felt it more than she saw it. She didn’t want to think about her behavior just now when they’d kissed, but knew she had to do so. It was so unlike her to act so unladylike and wanton. She had let him kiss her for heaven’s sake. And she had kissed him back! What was there about this man that even now after thirty-two years, he had the ability to tap into a side of her that no other man could touch? Corey could make her feel things, crave things and desire things. He could make her become a totally different woman where she would shed her dignified refined side and become Corey Westmoreland’s woman in a way that would scandalize all those who knew her.

Sheila and Jackie were right. He was handsome and sexy. Always had been and still was. The years had been good to him. There was the neatly trimmed curly black hair that was now tinged with a touch of grey at the temples; his high cheekbones; full lips; chiseled jaw and beautiful chestnut colored skin. She continued to stand there knowing he was studying her like she was studying him.

She was no longer the eighteen-year-old he’d met that summer. Although she had kept in shape, was constantly told she didn’t look her age, she was nonetheless now fifty. But still, he had recognized her like she had recognized him. And he still desired her like she desired him. It sounded crazy but it was true.

“You’re still beautiful, Abby. God, you are beautiful.”

She pulled in a deep breath. His words, as profound as they could get, nearly brought tears to her eyes. This tall, dark handsome hulk of a man had a tenderness about him that he’d always displayed around her. “You’re still beautiful, too, Corey.”

He smiled at that. “Remember, I told you men aren’t beautiful.”

He had told her that several times and she refused to listen then and she refused to listen now.

“And how is your husband?”

He asked in a soft, husky voice and the sound made the pulse at the base of her throat throb. “Larry died ten years ago.”

He lifted a brow as his eyes locked with hers. “Ten years ago?”

“Yes.”

She paused and then asked. “What about you? Whenever I thought of you over the years I imagined you’d gotten married and had a bunch of kids and grands by now.”

He almost smiled at that, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes when he said. “I never married and I don’t have any children.”

His words sent her mind in a tailspin. Her brain cells seem to scatter with his words and she knew a look of disbelief covered her face. “You never married?” she asked in an incredulous voice.

“No.”

And all these years she’d figured he had. He was everything a woman could have wanted. He was everything she had wanted. But…

“It’s so good seeing you again, Corey. A part of me can’t believe it.”

A part of Corey couldn’t believe it either, and he was afraid if he blinked she would disappear. “Look, I know you need to get back inside before your friends start to worry, but is there a way for us to talk after you finish eating this evening? If you tell me where you’re staying I can drop by. If that’s okay?”

”Yes, it’s okay. I’m staying at a villa at the Silver Arrow Dude Ranch, and usually I take a walk at night around the area.”

“Can I join you in your walk tonight?”

She smiled. “Yes. I’m in villa 510 and I’ll be waiting, Corey.” And then she stood on tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips before turning to quickly go back inside.

* * *

Abby answered the door the moment Corey knocked on it. Both Sheila and Jackie had decided to take advantage of the conservatory tour where through a telescope they could get a nighttime viewing of those elusive Yellowstone wolves. They had tried getting her to come along but she had talked her way out of it.

She hadn’t mentioned anything about Corey to them. The last thing she wanted was to go into any details about him. And if they knew that Corey was the same man at the restaurant, they would have canceled their outing tonight to hang back and flirt with him. Those two could get totally outrageous at times. Tonight she needed Corey to herself to find out what had been going on in his life for the past thirty-two years. Specifically, she wanted to know why he never married.

“Corey.”

“Abby.”

He looked around her. “Where are your two friends?”

“They went out tonight to the conservatory, hoping to get a glimpse of those Yellowstone wolves,” she said, stepping onto the porch and closing the door behind her.

They began moving down the walkway toward the lake and from the light of the moon overhead, Corey also noticed she’d put her hair down and had changed into a pair of slacks and a top. Because the night air was rather cool even for June, she was wearing a jacket.

“You look pretty tonight,” Corey said.

She smiled up at him. “Thanks.”

“That doesn’t mean you didn’t look pretty earlier,” Corey decided to clarify.

She chuckled. “Thanks again.”

As they continued walking in the direction of the lake he said, “This reminds me of that summer.” Others were out strolling about but he didn’t care. He could only concentrate on the woman at his side.

When they reached the lake, they sat down on one of the benches. Lanterns were lit giving the courtyard a romantic air. He turned to her. “So, am I a secret from your friends?”

Abby was almost embarrassed to admit that she had deliberately not told Sheila and Jackie about him, but not for the reasons he thought. “I’ve known Sheila and Jackie and their husbands for years. The reason I didn’t introduce you to them is because -”

“You don’t have to explain, Abby.”

“Yes, I do. I don’t want you to think that after thirty-two years I’m still sneaking around to see you.”

“So tell me what’s been going on with you over the years,” he said quickly, as if to move on to another topic.

Abby knew that no matter what excuse she gave regarding not telling her friends about him, he would recall how they’ve spent two weeks together years before and she had to sneak around to do it, deliberately keeping him hidden from her parents.

She settled back against the bench and decided to move on and answer his question. “Last year I retired as a hospital administrator and opened Abby’s Manor, a day care facility for the elderly. I leave the day-to-day management of it to my efficient staff and it gives me a chance to do a lot of fundraising for a number of charities I’m involved with. I enjoy that.”

She glanced over at him and asked. “What about you? Are you still a park ranger?”

He chuckled. “No, I retired last year. Now I spend my time there.” He tilted his head back and pointed upward. “Up on that mountain.”

She tiled her head back and followed the direction of his finger and couldn’t see much in the darkened sky. But she did see the peak of a mountain that seemed to kiss the tip of the moon. “You live on a mountain?”

“Yes, that’s Corey’s Mountain. It was a major investment but I wanted it and I worked hard for it. I leased a place in the lowlands to stay in while working as a ranger and would only travel home to the mountain on my days off. I love it there.”

“But doesn’t it get lonely?”

He met her gaze. “Yes, it gets lonely.”

She didn’t say anything else for a while and then asked. “And you remained here in Montana all those years working at Yellowstone?”

“No, I thought I needed a change and moved to Tennessee for a while and worked as a park ranger there,” he said. “But I discovered how much I missed Montana and moved back after a couple of years. It helped when Durango, one of my nephews from Atlanta, decided he wanted to follow in my footsteps and become a park ranger. He moved out here for college, and later became employed at Yellowstone.”

She smiled. “So how many nephews do you have now? When we were together I think there were only five– Dare, Thorn and Jared. Spencer and Stone were still in diapers.”

He chuckled. “You remember that? Even their names after all this time?”

“Yes. You were a proud uncle and talked about them often.”

He leaned back on the bench. “I’m still a proud uncle and there are six others who came later. And I finally got a niece. Her name is Delaney and she’s twenty-seven.”

Abby nodded. “And I have a daughter. Her name is Madison. She is twenty-five.”

“If she looks anything like her mother she must be beautiful,” Corey said.

“Thanks. Most people think she looks like both Larry and I.”

Corey knew what she was saying and he knew the reminder behind her words. She had loved him but had married someone else and given birth to another man’s child. Despite her outer calm, for her to feel the need to establish that fact, displayed a strength she hadn’t had thirty-two years ago. Her parents had taken advantage of her and she’d given in to them too easily. She was no longer that woman. He had a feeling that this Abby could handle just about anything that came her way and he wanted to get to know this new Abby.

He smiled and met her gaze head on and said, “What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours. It’s always been that way with us, Abby. And that includes your daughter.”

“Oh, Corey.” Abby snuggled closer to him on the bench and placed her head on his chest when he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. What he’d said had let her know that Larry might have fathered Madison, but her daughter was special to him because Madison belonged to her.

They sat that way for a while and then Corey asked in a low, husky voice. “Did you ever grow to love him, Abby?”

She lifted her head and met Corey’s gaze. It would be so easy to lie and say that, yes, over the years she had fallen in love with Larry and that they’d had a good marriage and a loving relationship. And that she, Larry and Madison had been one happy family. But that would be a lie and she couldn’t lie to Corey.

“Yes, I loved Larry, but I was never in love with him, Corey. We maintained a friendship through our marriage.” She released a deep sigh and added, “Larry and I were never intimate again after Madison was conceived.”

He didn’t say anything but she knew he was thinking about all she’d said. Some would probably think she’d given him too much information, but she didn’t feel that way. Especially, not with Corey.

“So in a way you were just as lonely as I was,” he finally said in a low and calm voice. “You just didn’t have a mountain to escape to.”

She smiled sadly. “No. But I did have Madison and she kept me busy. We have a good relationship and she was close to her father. I doubt she ever suspected anything strange about our marriage. We worked hard to make sure she didn’t and we never wanted her to know she was the reason we remained in a loveless marriage. To anyone looking at me and Larry, you would think we were a couple in love. That’s the image we worked hard to project.”

Corey held her gaze. “But what about the passion, Abby? You are a very passionate woman.”

A slow smile touched her lips. “I can only be passionate with you, Corey. I always became a different person making love with you. I always felt free and knew I could be myself.”

“So, you never took a lover?”

She shook her head. “No, although there was a time I suspected Larry had one. But I was pasr the point of caring. He was discreet and Madison was my life. And Madison was Larry’s life as well. We stayed together all those years for our daughter.”

She paused and said, “I guess you can say we were victims of circumstances.”

Corey didn’t say anything. He had been a victim of circumstance as well. He had loved her. And over the years he hadn’t wanted any other woman but her. Another woman’s face flashed into his mind. Carolyn Roberts.

She had been someone he’d met during that time he had worked in Tennessee. They had stayed together for a year and he’d tried to forget about Abby. But when he realized he could never love Carolyn the way she deserved to be loved, she had made it easy on him by leaving before he had a chance to walk away.

“And after your husband died you still didn’t have a lover?” he asked her.

She shook her head sadly. “I wasn’t interested in anything other than a date on occasion but that’s all there was. I’ve only shared a bed with two men in my entire lifetime. You and Larry. With you it had been love and with Larry, a sense of duty.”