Expecting...in Texas (20 page)

It was all or nothing. She couldn’t allow herself to accept anything short of that.

Exasperation colored his voice. “Can’t you get it through your thick head that I know I don’t
have
to marry you, that I
want
to marry you?” What did he have to do to make her understand? To make her agree?

For one brief, heady moment, the very breath was temporarily stolen from her. But when she found it again, Savannah managed to ask, “Why?”

He looked into her eyes. “Because I love you,” he said softly.

Her heart leaped, but she banked down the surge of emotion. He was still doing “the right thing.”
He must have been talking to Maggie, who had probably told him what Savannah had been holding out to hear.

“Just like that?”

“Yes—and no,” he admitted. The only road to follow was the honest one—and hope for the best. “Maybe I started loving you the first time I saw you, I’m not sure. I’ve reacted to a lot of women over the years. Strongly to some.” But that was all physical passion, and there was so much more at play here.

“I thought you were no different.” He lifted her hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to each. “But you were. I kept thinking about you. Even before you came back to the ranch, I was thinking of heading on up to Dallas on business and maybe looking you up.” Cruz abruptly stopped himself. “No, no more half truths,” he said with determination. She would be won with honesty, or not at all. “I was going to look you up. The business trip was just an excuse.”

Savannah’s jaw slackened just a tad. This was far more than she’d ever hoped for. This time, there was no way she could rein in her hopes.

“You were really going to look me up?”

“Yes.” If he was going to tell her the truth, he had to tell her all of it. “Because I wanted to prove to myself that you didn’t have the sweetest lips,
the softest skin, the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. That I’d just taken a good night of sex and built it up into something better, something wondrous.”

His eyes held hers as he bared his soul, and prayed she wouldn’t turn her back on him.

“But I hadn’t. If anything, I’d downplayed it. Loving you got better every time.”

Savannah caught her lower lip between her teeth, unable to resist teasing him just a little. “So this is about sex?”

“In part,” Cruz admitted. Then he quickly added, “In a very small part. Mostly it’s about having my gut ripped out.”

“What?”

He forced himself to relive yesterday morning.

“That’s how I felt when I saw you yesterday, lying so still at the bottom of the stairs, looking so damn pale.” Even talking about it wrenched his heart. He’d never been that scared before. “All I could think of was, what if you died? What if I never got to hold you again?” He threaded his fingers through her hair, cupping her cheek, grateful that he’d been given another chance. “Or to tell you that I wanted you? Not to give the baby a name but because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life without you.” He ran his thumb slowly along her lower lip, exciting himself. “Now what do I have to say to make you say yes?”

She swallowed before she answered. She had to. The lump in her throat wouldn’t let her speak. “You already said it.”

She was better at words than he was. Cruz wanted to be absolutely sure there was no misunderstanding. He searched her face as he asked, “Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

Just then, she felt the baby kick. It was going to be all right. Everything was going to be all right from here on in.

She smiled up at him with a smile that came from the deepest part of her. “Can’t let all those beautiful words go to waste.” She threaded her arms round his neck, needing to hear them again. “Do you really love me?”

“Yes, I really love you.” Cruz kissed her lips softly, then gently took her arms from around his neck. He tugged the curtain around her bed, giving them more privacy. His eyes gleamed. “When’s the nurse coming back?”

In Cruz’s opinion, Savannah’s smile turned incredibly sexy. “She won’t be back until I’m ready to be discharged.”

“And when’s that?”

“At three.”

He glanced at his watch. “Four hours. That’ll be just enough time to show you.”

“Put your money where your mouth is,” Savannah challenged.

“I’d rather put my mouth where your mouth is.” Sitting down again, he gathered her to him.

Savannah began to laughed. “Cruz, you wouldn’t—”

But he would.

And they did.

Epilogue

“J
ust a little further. You’re doing great.”

Savannah felt Cruz’s hand at her elbow, guiding her. Her eyes covered with a silk bandanna, she kept her hands stretched out before her, anticipating contact. But all she felt was air. They’d left the confines of the Jeep where he’d originally covered her eyes before beginning this journey, and, from what she could gather, they were still outdoors. But where?

“Is there something about you I should know, Cruz? You’re not into anything kinky, are you?” She asked the question teasingly. “I mean, blindfolds, long winding car rides, mysterious behavior. Just what have I gotten myself into?”

“An endless supply of love, for openers.” His excitement had gone from a Kentucky two-step at the outset of this trip to a frantic jitterbug at its final destination. What if she was disappointed? Cruz tried not to think about that. Instead, he concentrated on positioning her in exactly the right place. He wanted her first view to be breathtaking.
His face close to hers, his fingers on the ends of the bandanna, he asked, “Ready?”

Excitement swirled through her. What was all this about? She could feel the wind whistling softly around her as it passed rough fingers of winter along her face. “I was ready ten seconds after you put the blindfold on me—hours ago.”

He laughed. “You have no concept of time. It wasn’t hours ago.” He didn’t have to glance at his watch to know how long it took to get here. He knew the route by heart. He had clocked it and traveled it a great many times since he’d made his decision. “Twenty minutes to be exact.” With a flourish as pregnant as the woman he’d recently made his wife, Cruz undid the knot and pulled the bandanna away. He held his breath as he gestured around. “Well, what do you think?”

She blinked once, and then again, before staring, stunned by what was before her. Nature had laid itself out beneath her feet as neatly as a painted scene on a calendar. “I think you tied the blindfold too tight. I’m seeing things.”

“What is it you think you see?”

The valley below, even swaddled in autumn colors, was lush and vibrant. “The most beautiful view I’ve ever laid eyes on.” She turned toward Cruz, an unspoken question in her eyes. “It’s gorgeous.”

He let go of the breath that had stopped up his lungs. “It’s yours. Ours,” he amended, almost tripping over his tongue in relief and happiness. Taking Savannah’s hand in his, he spread his other hand out wide. “This is where the ranch house will be.” Every syllable was bursting with pride. He loved this land. Almost as much as he loved her. “I wanted to show it to you as soon as I had the deed in my pocket.” His eyes held hers. “So you wouldn’t regret marrying me.”

How could he even think that? “I don’t regret marrying you, and it had nothing to do with what you have in your pockets.” She was just going to have to convince him, she thought. The prospect was not without its appeal. “I didn’t marry you for what you could give me materially, Cruz. I married you because of what you did to my heart—” mischief curved her mouth “—and because you’re a hell of a kisser.”

He laughed, taking her into his arms. But he was serious in his intent. He never wanted her to regret becoming his wife. “No, really.” Cruz pressed a kiss to her forehead. God, but he loved this woman. “I know the wedding left a little something to be desired.” It had been a hurried affair, thrown together in the space of six days that were mostly a blur.

Her smile reached up and touched him. “No, it didn’t.”

He raised a dubious brow. “Yeah, right. Every woman dreams of being married in her best friend’s living room with just a few people present—most of them her new in-laws.”

Savannah pretended to sniff indignantly. “I don’t know about most women, but it suited me just fine. And don’t you go saying anything against my in-laws. I like them a lot.” Raising her left hand, she angled it so that the gold band caught the sun and gleamed. “Besides, this is what counts.” Her eyes shifted to Cruz. “This, and you.”

He covered her hand with his own. There was a matching band on the third finger. “You’re a rare woman, Savannah Clark.”

She raised her chin. “That’s Savannah Clark Perez—and don’t you forget it.”

His arms closed around her. “I don’t intend to. Ever.”

They were going to be happy here, she thought. Very happy. And very lucky. “Show me where the bedroom is going to be.”

Releasing her, Cruz looked around. He took her hand, walked a few feet, then paced off a length. Finished, he announced, “Right here.”

“I like it.” Tilting her head, she raised her mouth to his invitingly.

Having no reason to resist, Cruz drew her to him. The kiss he brushed against her lips deepened until it pulled them both in. Savannah felt her body heating as he slipped his hands beneath her jacket. A purr of contentment echoed through her as she felt his fingers exploring. “What are you doing?”

The grin made his mouth look sultry. “Just breaking the room in.”

“Ah.”

Cruz kissed the grin from her face. And felt it enter his soul—where it remained.

Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Marie Ferrarella for her contribution to THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS series.

ISBN: 978-1-4603-1137-0

EXPECTING…IN TEXAS

Copyright © 1999 by Harlequin Books S.A.

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