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Daniel pulled her to her feet. “You’re frowning again, and I haven’t even told you my idea.”
“Oh, sorry.” She slipped her hand free and stepped away from him to keep from making a fool of herself. “I guess I was thinking, too.”
“Well, it’s like this—and tell me I’m crazy if this sounds too insane to pursue—”
Megan watched as the man blushed and stumbled over his words. It wasn’t like Daniel to be embarrassed. Nor was it like him to beat around the bush. Megan leaned back against the wall, enjoying this side of Daniel she hadn’t seen. “It can’t be all that bad. Your ideas are usually spot-on.” She smiled, encouraging him to continue.
“You need the money to buy your horses.”
Before he finished his sentence, she shook her head. “I told you, I won’t take your money.”
“That’s good, because I don’t have enough to buy the Triple Diamond breeding stock. But I might have a solution for both your problem and mine.”
Megan’s heart skipped several beats as Daniel’s cheeks turned a ruddy red.
“You need a husband. I need an injection of social elitism that will impress Marshall Kennedy.”
Her heart stopped. Her breath caught and held, refusing to move past the knot in her throat as she waited for what she’d only dreamed would come next.
Daniel shoved a hand through his dark hair and frowned. “I can’t think of any other way to accomplish both, or I’d do it, but I’m fresh out of ideas.”
“Daniel!” Megan said, her voice breathy. “Get to the point.”
“Why don’t we get married?”
Even though she’d known it was coming, it still hit her square in the chest. The air rushed from her lungs, and a tsunami of feelings washed over her. A surge of joy made her heart beat so fast she felt faint. She crested that wave and slid into the undertow of reality. “A marriage of convenience?”
“Exactly.” He reached for her hands.
When she hid them behind her back, he dropped his arms. “It wouldn’t have to be forever. Just long enough to satisfy the stipulations of your grandmother’s will and keep your horses. That would help me get past the Kennedy gauntlet. We could leave today, find a chapel in Vegas and spend the night. It would be over in less than five minutes.”
With her heart smarting, Megan forced a shaky smile. “Way to sweep a girl off her feet.”
He waved his hand, and Halo tossed her head. “If you want, I can make an official announcement in front of my family.”
Megan shook her head. “No.”
“No, you won’t marry me?”
“No.” She pushed past him to pace down the center of the barn. “Your plan is insane.”
“Do you have a better one?” he asked. “I’m all ears.”
The plan was the same as the one she’d been thinking of before Daniel had woken up. Only when she’d dreamed it up, it didn’t sound as cold and impersonal as Daniel’s proposal. Somewhere in the back of her mind she’d hoped that a marriage to Daniel would be something more than one of convenience.
After yesterday’s kiss, she wasn’t sure she could be around Daniel for long periods without wanting another. And another.
“The problem is, my only other choice is to move home and live under my father’s thumb.”
“And you don’t want to do that, do you?” he asked.
Megan faced Daniel, her back straight, her chin tilted up. “I’d rather die than live like my parents want me to. If it were just me, I’d stay and tell my father no thank you.” Then her shoulders sagged. “But I can’t abandon my horses.”
“Is there anyone else who’d come to their rescue?”
“No.” Megan glanced around, looking for the answer. Her gaze returned to Daniel. “If you’re serious about your offer—” she paused, then went on “—I’m in.”
As soon as she said the words, she wanted to take them back. This was not how a proposal was supposed to be. She should have been ecstatic, giddy with excitement for the man professing his love to her. Instead they’d hop a plane to Vegas and wham, bam, thank you, ma’am, they’d be married by some pathetic imitation of Elvis in a drive-through chapel on the Strip.
Daniel’s lips quirked. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not happy about this?”
“I don’t know.” She flung her hands in the air and fought back tears. “I guess I expected...well...not this.”
“It’s not as if it will be a real marriage. Once we’re both in the clear, we can get a quickie divorce, and you will be free to marry whomever you prefer.”
Megan stared at the man. He really didn’t have a clue that she was falling in love with him. “Yeah. But the man of my dreams would have to do a better job of proposing.”
“You deserve the best, Megan. If he doesn’t care enough to do it right, don’t marry him.”
She raised her brows. “And your proposal was the standard to measure by?”
“Oh, hell no.” Daniel grasped her hands and pulled her closer. “If this were a real proposal, I’d have taken you out to dinner at a nice restaurant or, better yet, on a picnic to your favorite spot on the ranch, because I’d know you didn’t give a damn about all that fancy stuff. You love being out in the fresh air, close to the animals you love.”
Megan could picture this scenario. He’d take her out to the hill with the ancient oak tree near sunset and wait to ask until the bright orange globe settled at the edge of the horizon, brushing a glorious palette of colors across the clouds. She sniffed. “A picnic would have been nice.”
“And I’d have brought along a bottle of wine.”
She cocked her brows. “To get me liquored up?”
“Can’t have my girl turning me down, now can I?” He grinned and pulled her closer. “Then at sunset, I’d have gone down on one knee.”
Megan’s breath caught in her throat just as it would have had he been performing according to his script. Her chest tight, she forced a chuckle, hoping to ease the tension rising inside.
Daniel’s brows dipped. “What are you laughing about?”
“On a cattle ranch, you would have put your knee in a cow patty.”
“Anything for the woman I was about to ask to marry me.” Daniel held her hands, his gaze intense, the smile sliding away. “I’d have asked you properly, saying something flowery and sincere, like this. ‘Megan, you outshine the stars in the sky and make my heart beat faster whenever you’re around.’”
Megan laughed, the sound catching in her throat. “That would be a good start.”
“‘Would you marry me and make me the happiest man alive?’” He nodded to her. “And you would fall into my arms, crying happy tears, shouting yes at the top of your lungs.”
A real tear slipped from the corner of her eye and trailed down her cheek.
Daniel caught it on the tip of his finger. “You’ve got the idea.”
“A proposal like that would make it hard for a girl to refuse.”
“That’s where the liquor comes in to seal the deal.” He curled his fingers around hers. “So, Megan Talbot, will you marry me for however long it takes to sort out our troubles?”
Her heart breaking just a little, Megan wanted to say no. Daniel still had a long way to go before he fell in love with her, if he ever did. Then again, if she wanted to save her horses, this option seemed to be her only recourse on her father’s short deadline. If she married, she’d have the money she needed, and her father couldn’t expect her to come home to California to live.
He let go of her hands and stepped back. “Want time to think about it? I know it sounds crazy. You might feel better if we put the agreement in writing. I don’t want your inheritance, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
“No, I trust you, and no, I don’t want time to think about it. My answer is yes.” If she thought about it too long, she’d talk herself out of it, and she couldn’t afford to pass up the offer. “For the horses.”
“Right. For the horses.”
Chapter 5
Daniel circled the single-engine Mooney as he went through his preflight checklist of the airplane. Flaps. Check. Horizontal stabilizer. Check. Ring?
Panic struck. He stopped in the middle of his inspection and dug into his pocket for his grandmother’s wedding ring. He wished he’d had time to take it to a jeweler to have it sized properly and fitted into a pretty box for safekeeping. But after they’d made their decision, they’d agreed they had little time to dawdle.
In the past hour, he’d taken care of the animals and informed Jack he’d be leaving. Then he’d arranged for someone to take care of the breeder barn in his absence and check on Halo through her recovery.
He’d barely had time to pack a bag and file a flight plan with the Tulsa airport. In less than thirty minutes, he and Megan would be on their way to Vegas to get married.
Holy smokes! He was getting married.
Granted, it was a marriage of convenience, but it was no less nerve-racking. Megan came from a family far above Daniel’s social class. Hell, for the first ten years of his life, he’d lived on the reservation in a trailer. Megan grew up in the lap of luxury, surrounded by people who took care of her every need. How could he compete with that?
He’d never truly been one of the elite Coltons, either. He’d never felt like he quite fit in.
Now he was marrying into a family known nationwide for their wealth and prestige. Megan’s parents were often in the news attending various events.
Then he reminded himself that she’d given up that lifestyle to come to work for him. She was willing to muck stalls and get her hands into the dirty and not so pleasant tasks of raising horses. Her fancy upbringing hadn’t slowed her down one bit. She was tough and fearless when it came to working with the large animals.
Megan had driven back to her apartment in Tulsa to throw some clothes into a suitcase and get back to the ranch. She’d be here any minute, ready to climb aboard the small plane the Coltons owned.
Damn. Where was that ring? When he couldn’t find the pretty emerald-and-diamond ring, he nearly had a heart attack.
“Daniel!” Ryan Colton, Daniel’s half brother, emerged from the darkness of the hangar into the bright Oklahoma sunlight. “Heard you were heading to Vegas.”
“I am,” he said, digging deeper into both front pockets.
Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “Forget your key to the plane?” His lips twitched.
Daniel’s fingers connected with metal, and the tension in his shoulders released. The ring was safe in his pocket. “No, thank goodness, I have it.”
“Dude, the plane doesn’t take a key.”
His mind on the trip ahead, Daniel ignored Ryan’s comment. “What brings you out to the hangar?”
“Jack informed me Halo was poisoned. What’s going on?”
The tension returning for an entirely different reason, Daniel’s chest tightened. “The lab reported they found poison in Halo’s blood. We have no idea how it happened.”
“Maybe she got hold of something in the barn or in the field.”
“Megan and I went over the entire barn, thoroughly cleaned Halo’s stall and couldn’t find anything that would have poisoned her. We don’t use rat poison in the barn.”
Ryan smiled. “That’s why we have Sleek.”
“Right, and we have too much invested in the horses we keep in the breeder barn to risk storing anything poisonous there.”
“Do you think someone might have given it to her?”
Daniel had considered that option. “Who would want to hurt Halo? She’s one of the best mares in my breeding program, and she’s got the best temperament.”
“I don’t know.” Ryan scratched his chin. “Do you know of any competing breeders who’d go to the trouble of sabotaging your horses?”
Daniel shook his head. “It’s not like she’s a race horse with the potential to win a derby.” He shrugged. “It makes no sense.”
“I’ll nose around and see if I can learn anything that’ll shed some light.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey, on another topic, is Greta back from Oklahoma City?” Ryan asked.
His half sister, Greta, had been in Oklahoma City busily planning her wedding to Mark Stanton, the son of one of the wealthiest families in the state. He missed her expertise with the horses. She was one of the best trainers he’d known.
“Not that I know of.” Daniel checked beneath the plane for any leaks. “Why do you ask?”
“I could swear I saw her at the hardware store yesterday.” Ryan shrugged. “Must have been seeing things.”
“I’ll be glad when she’s done with this wedding planning business.” Daniel straightened.
“You and me both. It’s not like her to get all girlie.”
Megan emerged from the shadows of the hangar and out into the open, rolling a suitcase behind her. She wore jeans, boots and a green blouse that exactly matched her eyes. Her hair was damp but pulled back in her normal French braid. Other than the nice shirt, she looked like she was ready to go to work, not to her wedding in Vegas.
Daniel’s heart skipped several beats. Megan could wear a feed sack and make it look great. With those long legs, the subtle sway of her hips and the way she smiled...his groin tightened, and he wanted to hold her close all over again. Keeping her at arm’s length would be a challenge.
“Hey, Dan.” Ryan waved a hand in front of Daniel’s face.
Daniel barely saw the hand, his gaze on the woman walking toward them.
Ryan turned. “Ah, Megan. Are you going, too?”
Megan rolled her case to a stop, nodding. “Yes, I am.” Her gaze shot from Daniel to Ryan and back.
Daniel took Megan’s bag and loaded it into the plane. “I have a couple more checks. Then we’ll be ready to go.”
“So, what’s in Vegas besides the usual—gambling, wedding chapels and shows? I haven’t heard of any of those involving horses.” Ryan stared at Daniel, then Megan.
A flush of pink rose in Megan’s cheeks. She glanced at Daniel and gave him a slight shake of her head.
Taking Megan’s cue, Daniel replied, “We’re going to see a man about a horse. If the Kennedy Farms deal doesn’t work out, we want to have a backup plan.” Daniel didn’t like lying to his brother, but Megan wasn’t ready to announce their plans, and that was okay with him. He wasn’t certain how he felt about what they were about to do.
“Well, then, I won’t keep you.” Ryan held out his hand. “Be careful. I understand there are some storms heading this way.”
“I’ve already checked the weather. We’re flying north of the system.” Daniel took his brother’s hand.
“Good. We kind of like having you two around.” Ryan shook Daniel’s hand and then pulled him into a hug. “See you in a day or two?”
“It might be closer to a week.”
“A week?” Ryan stepped back, his eyes wide. “What kind of horses take a week to look at?”
Daniel’s lips firmed. “After we stop in Vegas, we’re going to California to check out more horses. I have a meeting scheduled with Marshall Kennedy in Reno in a week. We’ll be back at the Lucky C long enough to regroup and head out again.”
“Sounds like a nice vacation. Wish I could go along with you.” Ryan nodded. “Again, you two take care and come back in one piece.”
“We will.”
Ryan stood back as Daniel helped Megan into the plane and climbed in after her. She settled in the copilot’s seat and Daniel sat beside her, going over the remainder of his preflight check. When they were finally ready, he showed her how to wear the copilot’s headset and slipped his headset over his ears.
“Ready?” he said into microphone.
“Ready.” Her voice came to him over the sound system.
As they taxied down the grass runway and lifted off into a westerly breeze, Daniel gripped the yoke, his pulse racing as he thought about what lay ahead. In a few short hours, they’d be in Vegas getting married.
* * *
Megan’s fingers curled around the armrests as the plane left the grass strip and climbed into the sky. When they were far enough away from the ground that she didn’t have to worry about crashing, she settled back and relaxed.
“I knew the Coltons had a plane, but I didn’t realize you all knew how to fly it.”
“Not all of my brothers have learned.”
“Just how long have you been flying?”
“Since I was about fifteen and Big J bought the plane. He paid for my flight lessons while he learned to fly, as well. It’s always a good thing to have a copilot in case something happens to the pilot.”
Megan’s stomach fluttered as she stared at the yoke in front of her. “Just so you know, I don’t have a clue how to fly this thing, but I’m willing to learn.”
He smiled over at her. “It’s not a requirement, but I’m glad to hear you’re willing. Not many people are interested.”
She liked it when he smiled at her. He had the faith in her to think she could learn to fly an airplane. She’d always been interested in flying, but her parents wouldn’t have allowed her to take flying lessons any more than they wanted her working with large animals. To say they were overprotective would be a gross understatement. Hell, she’d learn to fly if it was something Daniel wanted.
“My parents are likely to flip when I come home with a husband. Just so you know. We’re likely to incur resistance.”
“I can handle it,” Daniel assured her.
“I placed a call to the attorney who handled my grandmother’s will and arranged an appointment with him in two days. I also arranged to meet with a horse broker.”
“Good thinking. By this time a week from now, we should be sitting pretty. You with your horses, me with my breeder stock semen.”
Megan nodded. “Sounds easy enough. However, I’ve never known anything to be that simple.”
Daniel shot a glance her way. “True.” He held out a hand. “We’ll get through this together. We make a good team.”
She took his hand, that same sharp crackle of electricity shooting through her. She had no doubt they’d make it, and she refused to think about what would happen afterward, when their marriage of convenience was no longer needed.
“Hey.” Daniel squeezed her fingers. “It’s going to work out.”
She nodded, comforted by the gentle pressure on her hand.
“You didn’t get much sleep last night. Why don’t you relax and take a nap? I might need you later to spot me through the mountains.”
Her heart leaped into her lungs. “Mountains?”
“Unless you want to take the long way around, we’ll be flying just south of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico.”
She bit on her bottom lip.
Daniel let go of her hand and brushed his thumb across her lip. “Don’t worry. I’ve flown this route several times.”
“I have, too. In a 747, not a crop duster.” She stared out the window at the ground several thousand feet below them. “Something tells me it will be a lot different than flying over at thirty thousand feet.”
“It is, but I think you’ll like it.”
Megan settled into her seat, letting the hum of the engine lull her into a trance while they were still over the flat terrain of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. At least the danger of the flight took her mind off her coming nuptials.
She must have fallen asleep somewhere between thinking about crashing into the mountains and a cheesy wedding in Vegas, because the next thing she knew, they’d hit a speed bump on the Vegas Strip.
Megan’s eyes popped open, and she stared around the interior of the airplane. It hadn’t been a speed bump they’d hit. The little plane hit another pocket of air and jerked.
She sat up straight and stared out at a darkening sky. Thunderclouds rose high to her left, lightning flashing. “Is everything okay?”
“Should be,” Daniel said through gritted teeth. His fingers gripped the yoke, his knuckles white. “Remember that storm my brother was talking about coming out of the southwest?”
“I thought we were going around it?”
“That’s the idea. Only it’s getting bigger as we speak. We won’t be going through it, but we’re getting some of the bumpy air around it.”
Mountains rose ahead of them, their snow-covered peaks appearing beautifully dangerous. Megan’s heart lodged in her throat. “I thought we wouldn’t be going through the mountains on this trip.”
“In order to go around the storm, I’m having to fly farther north. We’re nearing the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.”
Megan’s pulse raced, her breathing becoming shallower. “Just how much experience do you have flying through mountains?”
He laughed, though it sounded strained through the headset. “Too late to ask now, isn’t it? But for what it’s worth, I have over two thousand hours flying this plane.”
“That sounds like a lot. How many of those hours were in this kind of weather?”
“There are never enough hours flying in this kind of weather. The idea is to avoid these conditions.”
“Should we put down?”
“Can’t. Not here. The best we can hope for is to swing wide.”
They hit more turbulence, and the plane dropped like someone had pulled the rug out from under them.
Megan swallowed a scream and held on.
Daniel moved his feet and scanned the instrument panel, his hands steady on the yoke. “Just a little farther and we should clear the side of this storm.”
She caught and held her breath as they neared the snowy crags a lot lower than she liked.
Lightning flashed nearby. A rumble of thunder sounded over the roar of the engine and through the muffling of her headset.
Megan had never been so frightened in her life. But seeing Daniel in the pilot’s seat, his jaw set, all his concentration on flying the airplane, made her feel a little safer.
Until the next big dip brought her even closer to the jagged peaks. Her stomach clenched, and she bit down hard on her tongue to keep from screaming again. Daniel didn’t need a crying woman in the cockpit with him. She had to be strong, even though she shook from head to toe.
The clouds billowed higher, blocking the sun, making the sky ominous.
Megan found herself leaning away from the turbulence, willing the little plane to fly safely around the storm and up over the mountains.
They seemed to be heading straight into the mountains instead of flying over the top, and the storm appeared to be engulfing them in its fury.
Tearing her gaze away from the mountains, she risked a glance in Daniel’s direction. His face was tense, a muscle flicked in his jaw and his knuckles were white on the yoke.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said softly, as if speaking the words out loud would make it so. She sent a silent prayer to the heavens to deliver them safely through the storm and over the mountains they were racing toward.
“Hold on,” Daniel said in her ears.
Her fingers dug into the leather of the armrest. She closed her eyes, trusting Daniel to deliver her safely over to the other side of the storm and the mountain.
Another drastic drop forced her eyes open in time to see the ragged peaks directly in front of them.
Daniel struggled with the small plane, pulling back on the yoke at the last minute, narrowly missing the edges of a giant outcropping.
Once over the top of the mountain, the clouds parted, and they blew through as if spit out by the storm. Slowly the turbulence subsided, and they flew out of the black clouds, into an entirely different world of sunshine and blue skies.
“Wow.” Megan pressed her hand to her heart and drew in a long, steadying breath, then let it out. “You were amazing.”
Daniel scrubbed a hand down his face. Beneath his Cherokee complexion, his face had paled.
Megan reached out and placed her hand over his on the controls.
Eventually he unwound his grip, transferring it to her hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to outrun the storm. We could have been killed.”
“But we weren’t, thanks to your superb flying skills.”
“I feel like we should find a place to land and rent a car for the rest of the journey.”
“No way. I’ve never flown into the sunset in a single-engine airplane. And it appears as if we’re going to have an outstanding display.”
“As long as you’re okay.”
“I’ll admit, I was shaking in my boots about the time we hit that last really bad dip.”