hurts like heck. I feel like I’ve been thrown from a horse. But I’m breathing fine. My vision’s clear, my temperature’s normal, and my head doesn’t hurt.” She braced her hand against the curve of her belly, anticipating his next question. “Joaquin’s rollin’ around like always. He was the first thing I checked. No unusual pains. No blood. No cramping.”
Nate wanted to believe. But there was a smudge on her face, scrapes on her arms. Her ponytail had come loose and bits of dirt and grass clung to the tangled mess. “I should still get you to a doctor and check you out.” She reached back and rubbed at the small of her back. “Jolene?”
“How about I trade you one trip to the doctor for a massage?”
“You’ll get both,” he insisted. If she could wheel and deal and try to sweet-talk her way around his common sense suggestions, then she wasn’t as seriously injured as he’d feared. But she was still ten feet away. He needed to get his hands on her and see for himself if she really was in one piece.
Nate scrambled to his feet, giving directions every step of the way. “Don’t move. I’m going to lower a rope down to you. Tie it in a good square knot beneath your arms and I’ll use the horse to pull you up.”
Working quickly and efficiently, he gave her a length of rope, then hurried back to tie it securely to Checker’s saddle. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
Nate mounted up and urged Checker back. The rope pulled taut, but moved easily without getting caught. A big black nose and lolling red tongue appeared over the lip of the canyon. “Jolene!”
He dismounted quickly and pulled Broody to safety, then untied the rope around him. Of course, she’d rescue the dog first. Couldn’t let Nate go down after him. Couldn’t come up together. Temper brewed with admiration.
Stubborn Texas woman.
This time he watched until she had the rope securely tied around her. “Use your legs to brace yourself if you can, so you don’t get dragged against the wall.”
She nodded her understanding. Nate checked her twice before climbing onto Checker. “Ready?”
“I’m ready.”
He backed up the horse. The sun was half a ball of quivering orange heat by the time he spied the crown of that golden hair.
Nate dismounted, secured the horse and ran to pull her the rest of the way himself. His anxious fingers fumbled with the knot. When he had her loose, he led her several feet away from the canyon’s edge, checking bones, pupil reaction, her even gait and anything else he could along the way. Only when he was reasonably certain she hadn’t suffered anything more than scrapes and bruises did he stop.
“Thanks. I really appre—”
Nate stopped her words with a kiss. Her lips softened and yielded under his. He came up for air and peppered her face and ears and temples with probing, grateful kisses.
“I need to call my vet, Dr. Arkin. The dogs ran off a coyote—”
He silenced her again, slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her tight against him. He felt the press of the baby and eased back a bit.
“You know, I didn’t panic,” she said. “You told me you’d come back and—”
He kissed her again, and her lips parted in answer. Their tongues tangled and his breath came hard and fast as relief and passion and every other emotion he’d been too afraid to indulge came rushing forward. Her fingers were in his hair, knocking off his cap and angling his mouth this way and that.
Her throat was humming by the time she braced her palms against his shoulders and pushed against him.
And the stitches.
“Ow!”
She looked up at him in some kind of shock. “You came back.”
Nate brought his hands up to the sides of her neck and buried his fingers in her hair. He gave her a loving little shake and poured out his desperation. “I said I would. I gave my word. But I can’t spend the rest of my life worrying about what fool scrape you’re going to get yourself into next time I’m not around.”
She shrugged, not getting it yet. “I had to save the dogs.”
“Save me, damn it! Just save me!”
His harsh, ragged plea echoed across the storm-beaten plains and settled somewhere in the hopeful light that sparked in those true blue eyes.
“What?”
“I love you, Jolene.” He slid his hands down her shoulders, along her arms and back, trying to knead some understanding into her. “But, you know, I’ve still got a couple of hang-ups that you’re just going to have to learn to live with. If you want to keep me around, you’re going to have to stop saving the world and scaring me to death that I’m going to lose you and this baby every time you get it in your head that somebody needs you. I need you.”
“You need me? You love me?”
That light was blazing now.
“Yeah.”
Nate waited, heart and soul wide-open, for some kind of response.
“I love you, Nate Kellison.” His name. Her voice. “I love you.”
Before the smile had reached his lips, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Hard. Deeply. Thoroughly. It was an embrace full of the love that had reached into his dark old soul and given him life again.
“Wait a minute.” Jolene drew back a bit. “What about California?”
“What about it?” He nuzzled the side of her neck, refusing to release her.
“That’s your home.”
Nate pulled away and looked her in the eye so she could see just how serious he was. “You are my home. You and this baby are where I belong. Somebody’s got to raise him with some common sense—keep an eye on him in case he turns out to have a heart as big as yours.”
“Your family—”
“—can get along without me. They’ve been getting along without me for a while now. I just didn’t know it was time to move on. I still love them. I’ll still want to visit.” He tucked that errant tendril of hair behind her ear. “But, angel—I had to come all the way to Texas to find you. Here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out Grandpa Nate’s ring. He slid the large gold band onto her index finger and kissed it. “Now that I have, I intend to stay.”
And with that declaration, she covered her mouth and burst into tears.
“Aw, geez.”
“Hormones,” she sniffed.
He cradled her in his arms and rocked her gently back and forth. “Crazy Texas woman.”
“Crazy about you.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5089-9
RIDING THE STORM
Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Julie Miller is acknowledged as the author of this work
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