Lorelei Dropped Her Bridal Bouquet As Everything Went Dark. Letter to Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Copyright

Lorelei Dropped Her Bridal Bouquet As Everything Went Dark.

Jack tossed the sheet over her head and then she felt herself being lifted from the floor and flung over a shoulder—a hard, muscular shoulder. And suddenly they were moving.

Just as the first notes of “The Wedding March” sounded, Lorelei felt the blast of July heat hit her and realized they had exited the church. She’d just been kidnapped from her wedding! This can’t be happening, she thought. Shock turned to anger as she attempted to get free.

“Be still,” Jack commanded, patting her on her rear.

“Jack! Take me back to my wedding!”

“Sorry, beautiful. That’s something I’m not willing to do.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

“Because, sweetheart, you promised a long time ago to marry me, and I’ve decided to hold you to that promise.”

Dear Reader,

LET’S CELEBRATE FIFTEEN YEARS

OF SILHOUETTE DESIRE...

with some of your favorite authors and new stars of tomorrow. For the next three months, we present a spectacular lineup of unforgettably romantic love stories—led by three MAN OF THE MONTH titles.

In October, Diana Palmer returns to Desire with The Patient Nurse, which features an unforgettable hero. Next month, Ann Major continues her bestselling CHILDREN OF DESTINY series with Nobody’s Child. And in December, Dixie Browning brings us her special brand of romantic charm in Look What the Stork Brought.

But Desire is not only MAN OF THE MONTH! It’s new love stories from talented authors Christine Rimmer, Helen R. Myers, Raye Morgan, Metsy Hingle and new star Katherine Garbera in October.

In November, don’t miss sensuous surprises from BJ James, Lass Small, Susan Crosby, Eileen Wilks and Shawna Delacorte.

And December will be filled with Christmas cheer from Maureen Child, Kathryn Jensen, Christine Pacheco,

Anne Eames and Barbara McMahon.

Remember, here at Desire we’ve been committed to bringing you the very best in unforgettable romance and sizzling sensuality. And to add to the excitement of fifteen wonderful years. we offer the chance for you to win some wonderful prizes. Look in the pages at the end of the book for details. And may we have many more years of happy reading together!

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Port Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

The Kidnapped Bride

Metsy Hingle

www.millsandboon.co.uk

METSY HINGLE is a native of New Orleans who loves the city in which she grew up. She credits the charm of her birthplace, and her own French heritage, with instilling in her the desire to write. Married and the mother of four children, she believes in romance and happy endings. Becoming a Silhouette author is a long-cherished dream come true for Metsy and one happy ending that she continues to celebrate with each new story she writes. She loves hearing from readers. Write to Metsy at P.O. Box 3224. Covington, LA 70433.

For Jean and Jeanne Wilson,

for all the years of friendship,

for all the years of love.

One

“You don’t have to go through with it, you know. It’s not too late to back out.”

Lorelei Mason dragged her attention from the sight of her future mother-in-law being escorted down the aisle of the church and stared at her younger sister. Dressed in rosecolored silk that set off her creamy skin and the reddish gold of her hair, her sister Desiree looked at her out of troubled eyes. “It’s not too late to back out of what?”

“The wedding,” Desiree informed her, darting a quick glance at the church doors. “If you’re having second thoughts about marrying Herbert, then you shouldn’t do it. It’s not too late to say you’ve changed your mind.”

“What makes you think I’m having second thoughts?” Lorelei asked even as she felt the knot of apprehension tighten in her stomach again. She wasn’t having second thoughts about marrying Herbert Van Owen III. She was having third, fourth and fifth thoughts about marrying him and had been for the past two weeks—ever since Jack Storm had showed up in Mesa. The blasted man, Lorelei thought, frowning. She hadn’t expected to ever see him again, nor had she wanted to. So what was a sea-loving pirate like him doing here in the Arizona desert? And why now, just when she was about to get married?

“Because you don’t look the way a bride should look on her wedding day.”

At her sister’s remark, Lorelei shoved thoughts of Jack from her mind. She looked down at her white lace-and-satin wedding gown—the one she’d ordered months ago from the bridal store in Phoenix and had paid an outrageous two weeks’ salary for. She made a point of checking her matching white shoes and the bouquet of ivory roses and lilies in her hand. Arching her brow, she leveled her younger sibling with the look of superiority and wisdom that her almost two years’ advantage in age gave her. “That’s funny. I think I look like a bride. And I know I’m certainly dressed for the part.”

Desiree let out a dramatic sigh that bespoke her stage training. “You’re always so literal, Lorelei,” she said, making a face. “I wasn’t talking about your dress. I was talking about you. You don’t look the way a bride should look on her wedding day.”

“And how is it I’m supposed to look?” Lorelei asked imperiously. She would not let her baby sister cause her to start second-guessing herself. Her decision to marry Herbert had been a sound one, made after carefully considering the pros and cons. Her stomach did another somersault, and Lorelei fought against the uneasy feeling. It’s nerves, she told herself. She just needed to get this wedding over and done with. She cut a glance toward the vestibule. What in the world was keeping her father and older sister? How long did it take to adjust a cummerbund anyway?

“You should look...happy.”

She shifted her attention back to her sister. “I am happy,” Lorelei informed her.

“But you don’t...glow. A bride should glow on her wedding day,” Desiree said dreamily.

Lorelei blinked. Glow? She was expected to glow when she was having a hard time not losing the coffee and toast she’d managed to force down sometime before noon that day? “I’m not a light bulb, for pity’s sake. And I don’t know any women who walk around glowing on their wedding day or any other day.” Except maybe her mother. There had always been a glow about her mother whenever she looked at Lorelei’s father. “That’s just another one of those foolish ideas the media uses to help sell a poor, prospective bride a lot of unnecessary products.”

“No, it’s not,” Desiree insisted as she fidgeted with the sprig of pink and white roses in her bouquet.

Lorelei narrowed her eyes at the movement. What was wrong with her sister? Desiree never fidgeted. Or at least not since they’d been children. And then only when she’d done something she felt guilty about.

“The media has nothing to do with it. On her wedding day a bride should glow with happiness. And you don’t.”

All right. So she didn’t glow, Lorelei conceded silently. There was no surprise in that since she didn’t feel like a glowing bride, either. But then, she was almost twenty-nine now, not some starry-eyed teenager who believed in such romantic nonsense. She was a responsible and levelheaded woman. And she refused to let her sister’s remark get to her. “Desiree, sweetie, you’ve obviously played one too many romantic leads.”

“This has nothing to do with my acting.”

“Then what is this all about? And for heaven sakes, stop that fidgeting. Why are you so nervous anyway? You’re not the one getting married. I am.”

“Oh, Lorelei.” Desiree caught her hand and squeezed it.

Uneasiness climbed up Lorelei’s spine again at her sister’s solemn expression. “What? What’s wrong?”

Desiree blinked back tears. “You’re my sister and I love you. I just don’t want to see you make a mistake that you’ll regret for the rest of your life.”

Taken aback, Lorelei asked, “What makes you think I’ll regret marrying Herbert?”

“Because I don’t think you really love him. And if you don’t love him, you shouldn’t marry him.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Lorelei told her, pulling her hand free. The knot tightened in her stomach again.

“No, it’s not. I think you want to love Herbert. I really believe you do. But you can’t because you’re really still in love with Jack and—”

“Don’t you dare mention that...that scoundrel’s name to me,” Lorelei ordered, unable to keep the heat out of her voice. Of all days, her wedding day was not when she wanted to be reminded of Jack Storm and what a fool she had been where he was concerned.

“But—”

“All set?” her father asked as he and her sister Clea joined them.

“Yes,” Lorelei said, pulling herself together. She pinned Desiree with a look that said the discussion was closed.

“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Henry Mason told her.

“You okay?” Clea asked. “You look...upset.”

“I’m fine. I just want to get this over with,” she said, her voice clipped. At the slight lifting of Clea’s dark brow, Lorelei softened her tone and said, “Sorry. Bridal jitters, I guess.”

Clea smiled. “Which is another reason I’m glad it’s you getting married and not me.”

Lorelei forced a smile, then gave a nod to the organist to begin the processional. Music filled the church, and Lorelei’s stomach took another nosedive as Clea moved to the center of the entranceway and prepared to walk down the aisle.

“My boutonniere,” Henry Mason exclaimed. “I left it in the room.”

“Daddy, don’t worry about it. You don’t need it.”

“Nonsense. I can’t walk my little girl down the aisle and not be properly dressed. Besides, your mother would never let me hear the end of it.” Smiling, he patted her cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

Lorelei’s palms grew damp as her older sister started down the aisle. The flowers in her hands started to shake, and Lorelei tightened her grip, strangling the stem of the bouquet. She felt hot. She felt cold. Her head started to buzz. She pressed her hand to her stomach, feeling as though a war had been launched inside it. Stop it, Lorelei commanded and attempted to regain control of herself.

It was bridal jitters, just as she had told Clea. All brides went through this. Of course she wanted to marry Herbert. She’d known him for four years, had been engaged to him for the past two.

I don’t think you really love Herbert.

Desiree’s words played over in her mind, but Lorelei shut them out. All right. So maybe there weren’t any fireworks when Herbert kissed her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love him. Of course she loved him. And she was going to marry him.

Clea reached the midway point, and Desiree stepped to the center of the doorway, preparing to precede Lorelei down the aisle to the altar, where Herbert waited.

Lorelei swallowed past a fresh bout of nerves as the music played on and the organist gave the cue for Desiree to begin going down the aisle.

Desiree hesitated in the doorway and turned to face her. There it was again, the guilt in her baby sister’s eyes. “Lorelei, I’m sorry. I just want you to be happy. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Confused, Lorelei stared at her sister. “Forgive you for what?”

“For stopping you from marrying the wrong man.”

Lorelei whipped around at the sound of Jack’s voice. She froze. For a moment she couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak. She simply stared at him. He stood there in the back of the church looking bigger than life in his faded jeans and denim shirt, his dark hair curling at his neck, his sinful blue eyes gleaming mischievously. She looked down at his hands, big and bronzed from the sun, and holding what appeared to be a sheet.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said, flashing her a smile.

The familiar endearment snapped her from the spell. “What are you—?”

Jack tossed the sheet over her head, and Lorelei dropped her bouquet as everything went dark. She grabbed at the sheet, tried to push it away from her face.

“Aghhh,” Lorelei attempted to scream, and managed to swallow a mouthful of cotton sheet. Then she felt herself being lifted from the floor and flung over a shoulder—a hard, muscular shoulder.

And then suddenly they were moving.

Just as the first notes of the wedding march sounded, Lorelei felt the blast of July heat hit her and realized they had exited the church. This can’t be happening, she thought. It can’t be. Shock turned to anger, and she renewed her attempts to get free.

“Be still,” Jack commanded, smacking her on her rear.

Lorelei gasped and got another mouthful of sheet. Furious, she started to kick her legs, only to have her stomach, which had been churning all day, turn over at the bumpy trip down what was obviously the church steps.

It would serve him right if she got sick all over him. And she’d ruin her wedding dress. Her wedding! She’d just been kidnapped from her wedding. The strains of the church music grew more distant, and Lorelei kicked out again, only to earn another swat to her bottom. Outraged, she was just about to kick again when she felt herself being dumped into the seat of some type of vehicle and strapped in with what had to be a safety harness.

She heard the door slam next to her and another one open on the other side. When the engine started, she renewed her fight through the tangle of sheet and wedding veil. Finally she managed to get her head free. A thick section of fawn-colored hair fell across her right cheekbone and eye—a casualty of her upswept hairdo. Her carefully and expensively styled hairdo. Pushing it away from her face, she glared at Jack. “How dare you!”

He shifted the truck into reverse and executed a swift turn that sent her body sideways and did nothing to ease her stomach.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, still fighting to get the rest of her body free from the imprisoning sheet.

“I told you,” he said, giving her a wink and that devilish smile again. “I’m stopping you from marrying the wrong man.” Then he shifted and sent the vehicle speeding past the church.

“You’re crazy!”

“Probably.”

Lorelei twisted in her seat, and another curl tumbled into her eyes. She shoved it away in time to see her sister Desiree standing on the church steps, a guilty expression written all over her face.

Jack made a sharp turn, and Lorelei’s wedding veil plopped into her lap. She stared at the crushed tulle trimmed with tiny seed pearls and looked back at the church that was rapidly shrinking from view. What would her parents think? What would Herbert think?

Herbert! Oh, mercy, he and his mother were waiting for her at the church. She swallowed a groan as she thought of the formidable Mrs. Van Owen II and what she would say. The woman would never forgive her if she ruined Herbert’s wedding. “Stop! I demand you stop this instant!”

Jack ignored her.

Lorelei yanked away the rest of the sheet and threw it on the floor. “Jack Storm, either you turn this thing around right now or I’ll...I’ll jump out.”

“I wouldn’t recommend doing that,” he said calmly, pushing his foot down on the accelerator. “You’d end up splattering that pretty face of yours on the road, and I’d just come back and get you anyway.”

Lorelei swallowed past the lump in her throat as she watched the speedometer climb to near eighty. She looked at the smug expression on his face. Refusing to let him intimidate her, she unhooked her seat belt and grabbed the handle of the door. “I mean it, Jack. Stop or I’ll jump out.”

He continued to ignore her. He didn’t think she’d do it, she realized. He thought she didn’t have the guts. Hadn’t he accused her of as much two weeks ago when she’d refused to meet with him? She’d show him. How hard could it be? Stunt people did this all the time for a living. She’d seen them do it countless times on movie sets when she’d been growing up and shuffling from one location to another with her parents. One of the extras whose makeup her mother had done had even shown her how it was done. Tuck and roll. That’s all she had to do. Tuck and roll. Taking a deep breath, Lorelei pushed down on the handle and shoved against the door.

Nothing happened.

She caught Jack’s smirk. More determined than ever, she punched the unlock button and heard another click just as she jerked down on the door handle.

Jack moved his hand from the driver’s-door panel back to the wheel. Flashing her another smile, he said, “These new automatic-lock features are pretty amazing. I’ll have to remember to write the manufacturer and thank them for making it standard equipment.”

Anger escalated to fury, and Lorelei clenched her hands into fists. She wanted to hit him. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She wasn’t the same reckless girl she’d been ten years ago. She was older, wiser and not given to emotional outbursts. “Jack, I demand you take me back right now.”

“Sorry, beautiful. Can’t do that. If I took you back, you’d marry that stuffed shirt, Herbert.”

“I want to marry Herbert. And he is not a stuffed shirt!”

Jack snorted and continued to cruise down the highway. “Sure. he is. Why else would the guy have been wearing a suit and tie in the middle of the week in this heat?” he asked, reminding her of their encounter two weeks ago.

“At least he owns a suit and tie,” Lorelei countered.

Jack shrugged, obviously unfazed by the barb. “And the fellow’s got sissy hands. I swear when he shook hands with me they were as soft as a baby’s bottom. I bet he even has them manicured.”

“I happen to like the way Herbert dresses and I like his hands.”

“Hey, if it turns you on, I’ll get a suit and tie,” he said. “But that’s where I draw the line. No way am I going to let anybody slap sweet-smelling creams on my hands.”

Lorelei looked at Jack’s hands gripping the steering wheel. Large and strong, with a long white scar that sliced through the bronzed skin on his right hand. There was nothing soft or nice about Jack Storm’s hands. There never had been. His were a man’s hands—roughened and callused by hard work and physical labor. Yet she knew just how gentle those hands could be. How carefully they could unearth a delicate seashell buried in wet sand. How tenderly those fingers could be when caressing a woman’s body.

Flushing at the unbidden memory, Lorelei dragged her thoughts back to the present “Oh, this is a ridiculous discussion. I don’t give a hoot what you wear or what you do to your hands. Turn this thing around immediately and take me back to my wedding.”

“Sorry, beautiful. That’s something I’m not willing to do.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

He looked at her then, and for once there was no laughter in those deep blue eyes. He was deadly serious—a rarity for Jack Storm. “Because, sweetheart, you promised a long time ago to marry me, and I’ve decided to hold you to that promise.”

He’d shocked her. Jack knew it from the expression on her face, from the way she opened her mouth to say something, only to clamp it shut again without murmuring a word.

“You can’t be serious,” she finally managed to say.

“I assure you, I am.” Despite the conviction in his voice, he hadn’t been at all sure he could pull this off. Hell, he still wasn’t sure he could pull it off. But his instinct—that same gut feeling that had saved his skin on treasure hunts more times than he cared to count—had told him he had to try. Because the moment he’d seen her again, he’d realized she was what had been missing in his life. Of all the treasures he’d discovered and lost through the years, she was the only one he’d regretted losing.

“That was ages ago. We were just kids.”

“It was ten years ago, and there was nothing childlike about our relationship or the way we felt about each other. You gave yourself to me,” Jack reminded her. “You said you loved me and promised to be my wife.”

“I wasn’t the one who forgot to show up for the wedding!”

Jack flushed, shame and regret reddening his face, his neck. “I was late. I—”

“You stood me up!”

“Lorelei, I—”

“I waited for you at that justice of the peace’s house,” she told him, her voice breaking. “I sat in a battered old chair in a dreary little room with the man’s wife looking at me with pity in her eyes and I waited for you. I waited all that day and all that night When the sun came up the next morning, I knew you weren’t coming.”

The pain in her voice felt like a one-two punch to his gut. Jack jerked the wheel of the truck to the right and pulled off onto the side of the road. He turned to her.

She looked away.

He felt the slam to his ribs again and knew he deserved it. “Lorelei, listen to me. I did come.” Gently he turned her head so he could see her face—the face that had haunted him while he’d trekked through the jungles of Colombia, when he’d crossed the mountains of Peru, as he’d searched the floor of the Atlantic. A part of her had always stayed with him...kept him on course. He’d known that someday after he’d made his big strike, he would find her again and make things right. Only the years had somehow managed to slip by without him ever making that big strike. Then he’d walked into that bookstore and seen her again. He realized at once that she was not only still the love of his life, but she was his lady luck. With Lorelei beside him, he would find the treasure. Fate had brought her to him again, and he had never been one to question fate.

He looked into those whiskey-colored eyes, the siren’s eyes he’d remembered filled with laughter, filled with love. But there was no laughter in those eyes now. There was no love. There was anger. And hurt. And he was the cause. Guilt washed over him, and for a moment he contemplated doing as she asked—taking her back to the church. No. He dismissed the notion. He couldn’t let her marry another man.

He’d make it up to her, Jack promised himself. All he needed was a chance—the chance he’d stolen for himself today. “I came, Lorelei.”

He saw the doubt, the questions as she narrowed her eyes and searched his face. “It’s true,” he insisted. “I came the next afternoon. I was late. I’d been offered a chance to go out on a dive. There was this ship, part of a fleet of Spanish—”

She yanked away from his touch. “You jerk! You stupid, insensitive jerk! I lied to my parents and my sisters for you. I hurt them, telling them I didn’t want to spend my spring vacation with them because I wanted to be with my friends. I hurt them deliberately so we could elope the way we’d planned. And now you tell me the reason I hurt them, the reason you left me waiting in that godforsaken little justice of the peace’s office, was so that you could play treasure hunter?”

“I wasn’t playing, Lorelei. I was on a diving boat. There was no way to get to a phone and call you.”

“You didn’t need a phone. You were supposed to be there!”

“I’m telling you I was there. But I was late. Sweetheart, I knew you were worried about the future, about how we would live.”

“Do you blame me? Treasure hunting isn’t exactly the most reliable profession.”

He managed not to wince at the verbal cuff. “I wanted to surprise you with a stake,” he said tightly, his own temper beginning to shred—partly out of anger, partly because he knew she was right. He’d had nothing to offer her ten years ago. He had little more now—except for the map and his gut feeling that he could find the mine. And that the mine would be the key to their future. “I earned nearly a thousand bucks on that dive. And I—”

“You nearly destroyed my life. I loved you, Jack. I loved you and trusted you. But all you cared about was finding some blasted treasure.”

Her words carried the sting of a slap and took the edge off his temper. “Lorelei, that’s not true. I—”

“I’ve had enough of this trip down memory lane with you. I’m not interested in discussing it further,” she said, her voice cool, her eyes even cooler. “I want you to take me back to the church so I can marry Herbert.”

Jack recalled the sight of her standing in the back of the church, a vision dressed in white and looking so damn beautiful she’d stolen his breath away.

And she’d been about to marry another man.

He gritted his teeth. Shoving the truck into gear, he pulled out onto the road and stole a glimpse in his rearview mirror. The sprawl of the city dissolved behind them as he veered the Explorer east to the Highway 60 Loop and headed toward the Apache Trail and the Superstition Mountains.

“Jack, I said to turn around. Now. I want you to take me back to the church. I’m going to marry Herbert.”

“Not if I can help it, you’re not.”

Two

“Jack. this is crazy. You can’t just kidnap me from my wedding!”

“Sweetheart, I just did.”

“Well, you certainly won’t get away with it. As soon as Herbert finds out what’s happened, he’s going to come after me,” Lorelei advised him, wishing she were half as sure of that as she sounded. Knowing Herbert, he’d probably be too busy calming his mother to worry about coming after her for quite some time.

“I wouldn’t count on that if I were you. Somehow good old Herbert didn’t strike me as the type of guy who’s given to emotional reactions. If he were, he’d have decked me the minute he walked through the door of that bookstore and found me kissing you.”

Lorelei flushed at the memory of looking up from the stack of books she’d been putting on a display and seeing Jack again. Her heart had seemed to stop working right then and there- In the years since he had jilted her, she’d seen him countless times in her dreams wearing that reckless smile, with that adventurous gleam in his blue eyes. Jack in the flesh was far more arresting than any dream had ever been. His smile was just as wicked and daring as she remembered ; his eyes were just as blue. But there was a danger and a hardness in those eyes now that hadn’t been there ten years ago. The body at twenty-three that she had found so sexy when they’d strolled hand in hand along the Florida beaches was even sexier now at thirty-three. The muscles were more defined, the deep bronze of his skin more weathered. The handsome boy she had fallen in love with had grown into a dangerously attractive man. Before she could stop herself, she’d said his name aloud.

In the blink of an eye, he’d been across the shop and had her in his arms. She hadn’t been able to think or utter a reply of protest before his mouth was covering hers. The unexpected kiss had shattered her, so much so that she hadn’t even heard the chime on the shop’s door announcing someone’s entrance. She hadn’t heard anything at all until the sound of Herbert’s shocked “Lorelei” had finally penetrated her senses. Of course, Herbert had immediately accepted her explanation that she and Jack were old friends. And instead of breaking Jack in two, he had shaken his hand.

“Besides, even if good old Herbert were to decide you needed rescuing,” Jack continued, cutting into her thoughts, “my guess is that Desiree’s story will put him off the notion.”

Lorelei narrowed her eyes. “What story?”

“The one Desiree’s probably telling him and your parents right about now.”

“And just what exactly is it she’s telling them?”

“That you and I were desperately in love ten years ago, but we were forced to separate when your parents moved away with you and your sisters.”

“That is not the reason we split up, and you know it.”

Ignoring her statement, he continued, “And when we ran into each other a few weeks ago, we both realized we still had feelings for one another and you began having second thoughts about marrying Herbert.”

“I have not been having second thoughts about marrying Herbert,” Lorelei insisted.

He cut her a glance. “Haven’t you?”

“No. And Herbert will never believe that story. Neither will my parents. No one will.”

“Not even when Desiree explains that you and I were engaged? That we had planned to elope until fate stepped in and kept us from carrying out our plans?”

“Fate had nothing to do with it,” Lorelei argued. “And no one ever knew about our plans to elope. I never said a word about it to anyone—not even to my sisters.”

“They know about it now,” Jack replied. “I told Desiree the whole story a few days ago when I asked for her help. She was very sympathetic, I might add. Why do you think she agreed to help me?”

“Because Desiree’s a soft touch and far too gullible for her own good.” And she was going to murder her little sister the moment she got back to Mesa, Lorelei vowed silently. “Knowing your ability to spin tales, I have no doubt that you tricked her with all that talk about fate. She’s a sucker for that romantic nonsense. Otherwise, she would never have done anything as stupid as this. Not if she knew the truth about what happened...the way you jilted me.”

“I did not jilt you. I came, Lorelei,” he repeated, his voice growing harder, his eyes heating. “I was late and by the time I got there, you were already gone. It was a mistake in judgment on my part—one that, believe me, I’ve lived to regret more than you can ever imagine. I would have explained everything to you if you hadn’t been so stubborn and refused to take my phone calls.”

“I wasn’t interested in your explanations. If I had mattered to you, you would have been there.”

“I tried—”

“The least you could have done was tell me to my face why you didn’t show up.” A part of her had prayed for weeks that he would come and do just that, make everything all right. But he hadn’t.

“Don’t you think I would have come to you if I could? I couldn’t—at least not right away. The boat was leaving again that night. I planned to tell you and have you meet me later. By the time I got back and went to see you, to try to explain what had happened, it was too late. You were gone. Your family had packed up and moved somewhere on the West Coast.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I almost went crazy when I found you gone. I was going to explain everything to you, to try—”

Lorelei looked away. She hardened her heart, refusing to let herself be moved by his words. “No explanation was needed, Jack. Your absence said it all. There’s certainly no need for excuses now.”

“Damn it, Lorelei. If you’d just let me explain—”

She whipped around in her seat. “Save it, Jack! Whatever your reasons were, they’re irrelevant now. You may have fooled Desiree with your lost-lovers story. But she’s easily fooled. I’m not And neither is Herbert. He won’t believe a word of that story when he hears it.”

“No?”

“No,” Lorelei replied, tipping up her chin.

“Don’t be so sure of that, sweetheart. A man is apt to do strange things when his pride’s on the line. I should know. If I were Herbert and you disappeared on our wedding day and then I learned that the man you’d disappeared with was a man you’d once been engaged to, had even planned to elope with, then I’d have to ask myself why you’d insisted on a two-year engagement for us. And I’d also start asking myself why was it that you had once been so eager to marry someone else, yet the only reason there was a wedding scheduled today was because I’d been the one who’d insisted on it. Not you. Doesn’t sound to me like you were all that anxious to marry the guy anyway.”

Steaming over how much Desiree had revealed to Jack, Lorelei bit back an urge to scream. “That’s the difference between you and Herbert. You have a suspicious, narrow mind. Herbert doesn’t. He knows I love him and he trusts me.”

“Does he?”

“Yes,” Lorelei informed him.

“Then he’s an even bigger fool than I thought he was.”

“Herbert is not a fool. And he isn’t going to believe a word of that story you have Desiree feeding everyone.”

“You’ve obviously forgotten what a good actress your baby sister is. Take my word for it, she’s very good.”

It was true and she knew it. Desiree was born to be onstage. She’d been the only one of the three who had inherited any of their parents’ theatrical talents.

“I caught her in a little dinner-theater number down in New Orleans not long ago. I went backstage to see her afterward. Did she happen to mention it to you?”

Desiree had told her about Jack’s visit and his inquiries about her, but she had refused to listen. Just hearing Jack’s name again had sent her into a tizzy of emotional confusion.

“She was very good in that play, and I imagine she’ll be even more convincing when she talks to Herbert—especially since she can say with all honesty that you haven’t been yourself at all lately. Certainly not the happy and eager bride-to-be.”

“I am happy. Or at least I was until you pulled this stunt. And I’ll have you know that I’ve been very much looking forward to marrying Herbert. I’m still looking forward to marrying him and I’m going to—just as soon as you take me back to Mesa.”

“Trust me, Lorelei. When I take you back to Mesa, it won’t be so you can marry Herbert.”

Lorelei’s pulse jumped at the possessive way he was looking at her. Chiding herself for her response, she looked out at the road ahead and forced herself to focus on her situation. Her thoughts immediately came back to her parents. “Regardless of what Desiree tells them, my parents are going to be worried.”

“From what your mother told me, she’s been worried over your lack of enthusiasm about marrying Herbert.”

“How would you know what my mother’s feeling?”

“Didn’t I mention that I had breakfast with her and your dad a few days ago?”

“No, you didn’t mention it.” And neither had her parents.

He shrugged. “I ran into them in the hotel dining room. Seeing how we’re old acquaintances, I thought asking them to join me was the polite thing to do. They really are a neat couple, you know. And of course, they insisted I come to the wedding.”

Of course, her parents would invite him. It was their nature to do so. They were open and giving and always willing to share. “I’m sure the invitation would have been rescinded if they’d known what you’d planned.”

Color climbed up his neck and cheeks. “I’m hoping that given the circumstances, they’ll understand I couldn’t very well tell them what my plans were. On the other hand, I don’t think they’ll be all that surprised.”

“You don’t think they’ll be surprised that you kidnapped me on my wedding day?”

“Your mother won’t. According to her, you moped around for weeks after your family moved to the West Coast. She assumed I was the reason. She said you never said anything, but she suspected you and I had been in love and that you were missing me.” He slanted her a glance. “Did you miss me, Lorelei?”

“As I said before, I was little more than a child. You were my first case of puppy love.”

He flashed her a look that had Lorelei pressing her back against the seat. It was there again, that reckless danger she’d sensed in him earlier. “Don’t kid yourself, Lorelei. Neither one of us were children, and what we felt for one another was very real. You loved me with a woman’s heart and a woman’s body. And I loved you the same way.” He paused. His expression grew even more somber. “I still love you. I always have.”

Lorelei’s breath lodged in her throat. An invisible fist seemed to tighten around her heart and refused to let go. She felt herself weakening. “Jack—”

The blare of a horn from an oncoming car sounded. Jack swore and jerked his attention back to the road. He yanked on the wheel of the truck and brought it back into the proper lane.

Her heart still pounding, Lorelei crushed a handful of satin in her fist. She refused to let him do this to her, to make her feel anything for him again. He was a charmer, she reminded herself as Jack slowed the vehicle and began easing over onto the side of the road. Hadn’t she even told him once that if he’d lived in another lifetime, he’d have been a pirate? Only he’d have been a pirate who would have charmed the ships’ passengers out of their gold instead of stealing it from them.

She wasn’t the same naive girl who’d believed his lies of love ten years ago. She was older, smarter and she wouldn’t allow him to charm his way back into her life.

The tires crunched on the gravel as he brought the truck to a halt on the road’s shoulder. He turned to face her. “Lorelei, I want another chance.”

She heard the plea in his voice, saw it in his eyes. She closed her heart to both. She’d taken a chance by loving him once, and it had nearly destroyed her. She wouldn’t, couldn’t make that mistake again. “A chance to do what, Jack? To hurt me again?”

She caught his slight wince, but forced herself to remain strong. She’d vowed ten years ago not to leave herself open to that kind of pain ever again. She’d opted for safe. Allowing Jack Storm back into her life was anything but safe.

“A chance to prove to you that I’m the right man for you—not Herbert.”

“You’re wrong.”

“I don’t think so. And judging from that kiss we shared two weeks ago, I think you know it, too. Ten years may have passed, but nothing’s changed between us. All that fire, that passion we felt before...it’s still there between us. Only you’re too stubborn to admit it.”

Her heart picked up speed at the mention of the kiss, at the seductive warmth in his eyes. No, she would not subject herself to that craziness again. Forcing her voice to remain even, Lorelei said, “You’re the one who’s being stubborn, Jack. I told you, I’m in love with Herbert—not you.”

She saw fire flash in his blue eyes and before she could think of moving, he’d snapped the release on his seat belt and was reaching for her. “Jack, no.”

“Yes,” he said as he cupped her head with both hands and eased his fingers into the tumbled mass of curls. “I have to. I have to.”

And then he was lowering his head, covering her mouth with his. Slowly, oh so slowly, his lips brushed against hers. Teasing. Tempting. His tongue traced the seam of her mouth, and a shiver of longing shimmied through her. He repeated the movement, and Lorelei could feel her control slipping as her world started to tilt.

He lifted his head a moment, looked into her eyes. “Lorelei. My sweet, lovely Lorelei,” he whispered, “I love you.”

When his lips touched hers again, her eyes drifted closed. A mistake, she realized too late as the sensations grew more intense. His tongue caressed her mouth, over and over again. And when he sought entry once more, she opened to him like a flowers to sunshine.

Jack groaned. She felt a shudder race through him as she touched her tongue to his. And then he was crushing her to him and deepening the kiss.

The kiss went on forever as he continued to taste her, to worship her with his mouth and his tongue. His hands skimmed over her neck, her shoulders, the curve of her breasts. Lorelei gasped when he cupped the fullness in his palms and she strained against the confines of the seat-belt harness, wanting to be closer, wanting him to touch her, wanting to touch him.

Jack lifted his head and caught her face in his hands. “God, how I’ve missed you. When I think how close I came to losing you forever.” His voice trembled, and he pulled her to him.

Lorelei buried her face against his chest, breathing in the scent of mountain air, of sweat, of Jack. It felt so right being in his arms again, to feel the steady thudding of his heart beneath her palm.

“We were meant to be together, Lorelei. I’m sure of it. Fate caused that map to land in my hands so I would come here and find you again.”

Lorelei blinked, struggling to clear her kiss-drugged brain and make sense out of what he was saying. Map? “What map?”

“To the gold mine.”

“The gold mine?” she repeated.

“Yes. If I hadn’t won the map in that card game, I might never have come to Arizona. And by the time I got around to finding you again, it would have been too late. You would have already been married to Herbert.”

Lorelei stiffened. He was here because of a gold mine? Oh, dear God, what a fool she was. What had she been thinking to kiss him like that? To even listen to him. She could not do this to herself, she decided, and pulled free of his arms.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, lines of concern etching his face.

“I’m an idiot. That’s what’s wrong. For even listening to you. I must be out of my mind to even be here like this with you. I don’t know what I was thinking. Whatever there was between us...whatever we had is over. It’s in the past. We can’t go back, Jack. I don’t want to go back.” She didn’t want the mad whirlwind of emotions that went with loving Jack Storm. There were too many highs and lows, too much uncertainty. She swallowed and forced her voice to be firm as she said, “I’m not the same lovesick girl you once knew. That Lorelei Mason no longer exists. I have a new life—a life I’m happy with. And it doesn’t include you. ”

Anger. She saw it catch like blue flames in his eyes. A day’s growth of stubble darkened his chin. A muscle ticked furiously in his lean jaw as she watched him strap on his seat belt. “You’re wrong. The Lorelei Mason I knew and loved is still there inside you. You may have buried her, buried her really deep, but she’s still there. You wiped away any doubts that I might have had on that score just now when you kissed me back.” He wrapped his hands around the steering wheel and turned to look at her. Once again Lorelei was struck by the element of danger that seemed to be so much a part of him now. “We belong together, Lorelei, and I intend to prove it to you.”

“How?” Lorelei asked as he shifted the gears and pulled the Explorer back onto the road.

“By doing what I should have done ten years ago, what I would have done if we’d gotten married like we planned. I’m taking you with me.”

Lorelei’s pulse stuttered as she recalled the foolish plans they had made. She had been so in love with him, she’d become caught up in the tales of adventure he’d spun of the two of them traveling the world together and searching for lost treasures. It had been a fool’s dream, a girl’s dream that she’d buried when he’d broken her heart and left her standing at the altar.

But as the truck sped down the road, Lorelei noticed for the first time the changing landscape. The stretch of highway from the city of Mesa had given way to open desert and rocky, low hills. She’d known they’d been going east but only now did she realize where they were headed. Steep river canyons sprawled out before them, and the rugged face of the Superstition Mountains filled the horizon like a temple of some ancient god. “Jack, you can’t be serious.”

“Oh, but I am, sweetheart,” he said as he veered on the road toward the sign that read Apache Junction. “I once told you that beneath that prim and proper girl I fell in love with there was an adventuress waiting to be set free. She’s still there, buried a little deeper maybe, but she’s there. And I intend to find her again.”

“Jack, really—”

“I promised you once that if you married me, someday we’d strike it rich and I’d lay gold at your feet. I’m going to keep my promise, Lorelei.”

She recalled the crazy promise he’d made when he’d proposed to her. It had been the rash promise of a reckless adventurer who thought the world was his for the taking. “And just how do you plan to do that? Rob a bank?”

“I’ll do better than that. I’m going to find the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.”

“You’re crazy.”

“And you’re going to help me.”

“You really are out of your mind if that’s what you think.”

Obviously ignoring her, he continued, “And once we find that mine, my sweet siren, I’m going to hold you to your promise to marry me.”

“You’ve got to be joking.”

“I never joke when it comes to hunting treasure. You know that.” In fact, it was the one thing, maybe the only thing in his life, that he’d taken seriously. He had realized from the time he was ten and his father had taken him diving near the site of a sunken Spanish galleon, that searching for treasure was what he wanted to do with his life. Jack had known in his gut that there was treasure still hidden inside that old ship. But his father had shaken his head and motioned for him to follow him and the others back to the surface.

But he hadn’t listened to his father. He’d followed his gut instead and dove deeper into the stern of the ship. And he had been right. When his head broke the surface of the water, he’d held a fistful of gold doubloons in his bag. He could still remember the expression on his father’s face—a mixture of pride and concern.

“That’s a brave lad you’ve got there, Jamie.” The old salt named Murphy slapped his father on the back. “Puts the rest of us to shame.”

“Aye, don’t I know it. The boy has no fear. Worries me some that he might get the fever.”

Murphy laughed. “What do you expect? The boy’s got yer blood flowing in his veins, don’t he?”

“True. True. But I promised his mother that I’d see to it the boy would have more out of life than this. A man wants more than a life spent hunting for treasure for his only son.”

And his father had tried, Jack admitted. He’d forced him to go to school and even insisted he attend college. But when Jamie Storm had lost his life in a diving accident, Jack’s world had fallen apart. He’d dropped out of college, tried unsuccessfully to get on with some of the treasure-hunting outfits and somehow ended up in the navy. Six months after his stint was over, he’d still been floundering—until he’d met Lorelei. When he’d seen her on the beach that first time, there had been that same rush of excitement he’d experienced the day he’d discovered the gold doubloons. And just as his gut had told him there was treasure still buried in that sunken ship, his gut told him Lorelei herself was a treasure—a treasure meant for him.

Meeting her had been the turning point for him. He’d been alive again for the first time since his father’s death. His luck and life had changed after that. He’d gotten on with a treasure-hunting crew and made his first big find.

And lost Lorelei in the process. Nothing had been quite the same since. Until he’d won the treasure map and fate had brought her back into his life. Now that he’d found her again, he had no intention of letting her go. But first he had to convince her that it was with him that she belonged.

“Jack, are you listening to me?”

Jack dragged his thoughts back to the present at the angry note in Lorelei’s voice. “Sorry. What did you say?”

“I asked you why are you doing this? What could you possibly hope to prove by dragging me off to the mountains with you to search for some gold mine that probably doesn’t even exist?”

“Oh, it exists, all right. And I’ve got the map to her.”

“Then go find the blasted mine. You don’t need me.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I do need you.”

“You don’t even know me anymore.”

“I know enough. Enough to realize that you don’t belong buried away in some little desert town married to a banker.”

“Herbert and I happen to love each other.”

“Right. That’s why when he kissed you goodbye that day at the bookstore, the two of you generated about as much heat as a soggy newspaper and a wet match.”

Lorelei flushed. Her brown eyes sparked with temper. “We were in a public place.”

“It didn’t stop the sparks from flying between you and me. The air sizzled between us, just like it always does. Just like it did a few minutes ago.”

“There’s more to a relationship and a marriage than sex. Herbert and I respect one another. We share similar interests and goals,” she defended.

“Sounds more like a business agreement than a marriage if you ask me.”

“No one asked you,” she said with heat in her voice. “This conversation is ridiculous. This whole situation is ridiculous. It’s insane. You’re insane!”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe I am. But I know what I feel in my gut. I feel the same thing now that I felt when I saw you for the first time ten years ago, the same thing that I felt when I saw you standing in that bookstore two weeks ago.

“Which is what? Wait.” She held up her hand. “Let me guess. You feel it’s fate, right? That you and I belong together.”

“Yes.”

“That’s the same tired line you used on me when I met you on the beach for the first time. Well, it may have worked ten years ago on a naive eighteen-year-old girl, but it doesn’t hold water with a twenty-eight-year-old woman. I’m not buying it this time, Jack. And I’m not buying this crazy treasure-hunting scheme of yours, either.”

“Go ahead, make fun if you want to, but it doesn’t change anything. I know we are going to find the Lost Dutchman’s Mine. Just like I know in my gut that it’s not Herbert you should be marrying, but me.” He shifted the truck into third gear as they climbed deeper into the heart of the mountains. “And I promise you, by the time we leave these mountains, you’re going to know it, too.”

Turning the truck to the left, he followed the sign pointing to the Goldfield Ghost Town and silently prayed that he was right.

Lorelei sharpened her gaze as Jack turned off the main road and drove down the street of what appeared to be another Western town. “Oh, great,” she quipped, breaking the stony silence she’d adapted for the past twenty miles. “What is this place, another ghost town?” She’d been fascinated at the sight of the old Goldfield Ghost Town, which they had passed through earlier, but not for the life of her would she let Jack know it, nor would she ask him a single question about the odd little place.

“We’re in the town of Tortilla Flats. Population six. It used to be a road camp for work crews on the Salt River Project around the turn of the century. Now it’s more or less a watering hole and tourist stop for travelers along the Apache Trail.”

Lorelei stared at the strange collection of buildings that appeared to lean against one another for support. Although she’d lived in Arizona for the past four years, she had never visited a single one of these little towns. Yet Jack seemed to know all about them. Spotting a sign that boasted Jacob Waltz Enjoyed Tortilla Flat’s Home Cookin, she said, “Well, I guess that explains how you know so much about this place. Evidently you stumbled across it while searching for the Dutchman’s fictitious gold mine.”

“The gold mine exists, Lorelei. As far as that sign, I’m afraid it’s false advertising. This place didn’t even exist when old Jacob was searching the mountains for gold. As far as the food, it’s pretty good. The restaurant up ahead serves great burgers and chili.”

Just the mention of food, and Lorelei’s stomach grumbled. Suddenly she realized she hadn’t eaten a thing since the buttered toast with coffee she’d had before lunch that day. Given her wedding had been scheduled as a late-afternoon affair and it was already after six in the evening, it had been a good eight hours since she’d eaten.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starved. I thought we’d stop and get something to eat here.”

“I’d rather be eating the food I selected for my wedding reception.”

“Sorry, but that’s not an option.” Jack pulled the Explorer to a stop in front of an Old West saloon and turned to her. “This is probably going to be the last home-cooked meal either of us has for a while. I’d hate to see you refuse it just to spite me.”

“I have no intention of refusing it. The way I see it, I’m going to need all my strength if I’m going to find my way down this blasted mountain and back to Mesa.”

Slowly, lazily, Jack wrapped and unwrapped his powerful hands around the steering wheel. “You’re not going to have to find your way back to Mesa. I’m going to take you there myself—after we find the mine.”

When she started to object, Jack lifted his hand and touched her face, his voice dropping to a whisper as he said, “Don’t fight me on this, Lorelei.”

Lorelei turned away from him. She’d always been too susceptible to that combination of recklessness and tenderness in him.

Jack sighed and dropped his hand. “In addition to eating, I thought you might want to change into something a little more comfortable for traveling. The road’s going to get a lot bumpier about five miles past here.”

“That’s very considerate of you,” she said with mock sweetness. “But since I was expecting to be at my wedding reception now and not stuck up here in the mountains with you, I’m afraid I didn’t happen to bring along a change of clothes.”

“That’s okay. I had Desiree pack some things for you,” he said, chuckling at her sarcasm. “You’ll find jeans, shirts and hiking boots in the bag behind your seat.”

One more thing to take her sister to task for, Lorelei decided as Jack got out of the truck and came around to open the door for her. Lorelei glared at him as he helped her down from the truck’s high seat. The hem of her wedding gown and train spilled out of the vehicle behind her and onto the street, stirring up a small cloud of red-colored dust that promptly attached itself to the satin. Lorelei jerked the train of the gown up and draped it over one arm.

After retrieving the bag from behind her seat, Jack took her arm. He motioned to the restaurant. “You can change clothes while I order us something to eat.”

He acted as though it was the most natural thing in the world for the two of them to waltz into town with her dressed in a wedding gown and he in his jeans. Feeling conspicuous as glances were cast their way, Lorelei said, “I hate to point out the obvious, but don’t you think anyone’s going to notice the fact that I’m wearing a wedding dress?”

“I think it’d be hard for them not to notice. You make a beautiful bride.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, and fought the urge to stamp her foot.

“I know what you meant. But as I said, there’s only six people who actually live in this little town. The rest are just tourists or workers. I’ve gotten to be friends with the locals during the past couple of weeks—including the people who own the restaurant. And I doubt they’ll be surprised at all since they’re expecting us.”

“What do you mean they’re expecting us?”

Jack shrugged. “I mentioned that I was getting married soon and that my bride and I would be spending our honeymoon in the mountains. I told them we’d try to stop by on our way up the mountain.”

Lorelei stopped in the middle of street. “And they believed you?”

“Sure,” he said, flashing her a smile. “What’s not to believe?”

“Besides the foolish notion that I’d agree to spend my honeymoon in these mountains, there’s the absurd idea that I’d even consider marrying you.”

“I don’t see anything absurd about it. You did agree to marry me—”

“Ten years ago,” she reminded him.

“So we’ve had a long engagement. Lots of couples do.”

“We are not engaged,” she insisted.

“As far as I’m concerned, we are. You never officially broke the engagement. And I’ve still got the wedding bands we picked out.” Putting down the suitcase, he shoved his hand inside his pants pocket. He pulled out a jeweler’s pouch and emptied its contents into the palm of his other hand. Two thin, shiny gold bands winked at her.

Lorelei swallowed past the thickness in her throat as she remembered the two of them selecting the rings from a small jewelry store in Fort Lauderdale. “You kept them?”

“Of course.”

“But why?” she finally managed to ask.

“Because I never stopped loving you. It was always my plan to find you again someday, for the two of us get married. I just hadn’t expected it to take so long.” He dumped the rings back into their pouch and tucked the little bag into his pocket.

And there had been a time ten years ago when she had hoped he would find her, soothe away her hurt and make everything right again. But all that had changed after... after...

“Remember the honeymoon we’d planned?”

Lorelei pulled her thoughts away from those dreadful weeks right after he had failed to show up for their wedding. She squeezed her eyes shut a moment against the remembered pain, the fear.

“We were going to go diving off the coast near the site of that sunken ship, remember? It would have been your first treasure dive. I’ll never forget how excited you were....”

She had been excited—at the thought of being married to Jack, at the prospect of doing something so daring as diving for lost treasure. The idea had appealed to an adventurous streak in her that she hadn’t even known existed. But then, Jack himself had appealed to that same reckless streak. Looking at him now, his eyes glowing with excitement, she found it was easy to remember those dreams and plans. It was easy to remember how deeply she had loved him.

“Don’t you see? Trying to locate the Dutchman’s Mine will be the same thing. Only instead of searching in the ocean for treasure, we’ll be searching in the mountains.”

Lorelei felt herself tempted. It would be all too easy and terribly foolish to allow herself to be sucked into those fantasies again. “I’m not interested in searching for any gold mine.”

“But you will be,” he told her as he urged her toward the restaurant. “There’s more of the old Lorelei in you than you’d like to admit.”

Jerking her arm free, she marched into the restaurant in front of him. Lorelei blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darker interior. She scanned the Old Western-style restaurant with its wooden tables and ladder-back chairs. When she felt Jack come to stand beside her, she asked, “What’s to stop me from telling these people the truth? That you kidnapped me and brought me here against my will.”

“Go ahead. Just don’t expect anyone to believe you. I already told the owners that you were quite a joker. Besides, the wife of the man who runs the place thinks I’m quite a catch.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Jack,” the dark-haired woman behind the counter called out. “And this must be your lovely bride.”

“Hello, Isabel. You’re looking as gorgeous as ever, I see.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Sure you don’t want to ditch Alberto and run away with me?”

The woman flushed and gave Jack a smack. “Behave yourself, Bandito, and introduce me to your wife.”

“Isabel, this is Lorelei. Lorelei, Isabel.”

“She’s as beautiful as you said she was. Welcome to Tortilla Flats, Lorelei.” She gave Lorelei a welcoming hug and nearly squeezed the stuffing out of her before she released her. “You’ve landed yourself quite an hombre here. But I suspect you know that already.”

“I—”

“Order’s ready,” someone called out from the kitchen. “Jack, mi amigo.” A dark-eyed man with graying hair waved in greeting. “So you convinced her to come with you to our mountains after all.”

“Bueno, Alberto. Yes, I convinced her to come,” Jack returned.

“I will fix something special for you and your bride, then. Isabel, show Jack and his lady to a table and then come help Maria.”

Isabel muttered something in Spanish and rolled her eyes heavenward. “Jack, you and your Lorelei sit over there away from that racket. I will come back in a minute to take your orders. Right now I’d better help Maria before those little devils tear the place apart.”

Lorelei looked across the room to where a couple with five youngsters had their hands full trying to keep their troops seated. Her gaze shifted to the trays Isabel and another woman were carrying to the table. Lorelei’s mouth watered at the smell of burgers and bowls of steaming chili.

“The ladies’ room is down the hall, first door on your left,” Jack informed her. He held out the suitcase with her clothes. When Lorelei reached for it, he held on to it a moment longer. “Just in case you’re thinking of trying to find a back door to sneak out of, I’ll save you the trouble of looking. There isn’t one. And if you’re not back here in exactly fifteen minutes, I’ll come looking for you.”

Lorelei yanked the suitcase from him and flounced off down the narrow hallway. She paused a moment before the door marked Ladies and glanced back in the direction from which she’d come. Jack stood there watching her. With his feet spread apart, the light from the dining room casting shadows across his unsmiling face, he looked every inch the dangerous pirate she’d accused him of being. Tipping up her chin, Lorelei pushed open the door and stepped inside the bathroom.

The place was small but clean. Two stalls took up most of the space. A single basin with a small square mirror positioned above it filled one corner of the room. A coun-tertop no more than a dozen inches wide ran across the back wall. An oval-shaped mirror sat in a stand to one side. Centered four feet above the counter was a narrow window that she judged to be only a fraction wider than her hips. What I wouldn’t do to have Clea’s slim hips right now, Lorelei thought. If she ditched the wedding dress, she might just be able to make it. But she’d have to hurry.

Moving quickly, Lorelei hoisted the suitcase onto the countertop and pulled out a pair of jean shorts, T-shirt and the hiking boots. She frowned as she thought of Desiree packing her things without her even knowing it. She’d deal with her little sister once she got back to Mesa, Lorelei promised herself. Kicking off her ivory pumps, she reached for the hooks and detached the train at the back of her dress. Bundling up the length of satin, she stuffed it in the top of the suitcase, then went to work on the tiny satin-covered buttons that ran down the back of her dress.

Several minutes later her arms ached from stretching behind her, and she had succeeded in opening no more than a half dozen of the buttons. Frustrated, Lorelei strained against the fabric, trying to pop the buttons free. It was no use. The things didn’t budge, let alone break loose. Oh, God. What possessed me to buy a dress with so many stupid buttons?

Because you hadn’t planned on unbuttoning them yourself , Lorelei reminded herself. At least that’s what Desiree had said when she’d encouraged her to buy the dress. Yet for the life of her, she had to admit that she hadn’t experienced any great anticipation at having Herbert undo them for her, either.

Lorelei glanced at her watch. Twelve minutes. She’d been gone twelve minutes already, she realized. Jack would come looking for her any moment now, and she hadn’t even managed to change clothes yet, let alone escape through the window. Arching her shoulders, she strained to break the buttons free.

She heard a tap at the door. “Lorelei?”

“Go away,” she told Jack.

“What’s taking you so long?”

“Nothing. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

She took a deep breath and arched her back and shoulders again. Nothing. Zip. Nada. The dratted things were evidently sewn on with steel thread.

“Need some help?”

Lorelei jumped at the nearness of his voice. She glanced up in the mirror and saw Jack standing behind her, an odd expression on his face. “I can’t unbutton the stupid dress.”

“Want me to do it for you?” he asked, a smile sneaking across his mouth. “At the rate you’re going, you’ll be lucky to get changed before breakfast.”

Too irritated to speak, she whipped her hair around to fall across her shoulder and offered him her back.

The breath stilled in her chest as Jack moved closer and began to unfasten the buttons. One. Two. Three. Four. She could feel his fingers moving down her back, slipping the buttons free from the satin loops. His fingers brushed along her bare skin and sent sensation skipping down her spine. Lorelei closed her eyes and bit down on her bottom lip to keep silent.

“You always had the most beautiful skin. The color of cream.”

“I have freckles,” she somehow managed to reply.

“Only a few.” He slipped open another two buttons and skimmed the backs of his fingers against her bare flesh. “So soft. Like silk. Sometimes when I’d be out at sea, I’d lie awake nights and look up at the sky and remember how soft and beautiful your skin was.”

Lorelei caught the note of longing in his voice. Glancing up, she discovered him watching her in the mirror. The last of the buttons were freed, and her dress fell from her shoulders to her waist, leaving her breasts hidden only by the thin strapless bra.

Jack lifted his gaze to meet hers.

Her breath hitched. She couldn’t move as she watched desire flare in his eyes.

“Lorelei,” he whispered before lowering his mouth to her shoulder.

Lorelei gasped as first Jack’s lips and then his tongue touched her shoulder. The feeling was so erotic, yet so familiar. A surge of longing raced through her.

“Come on, Sarah, let Mommy wash your—” The door to the bathroom burst open, and the mother of the five children stood there staring at them. She started to back out of the room. “Oh, my. I’m so sorry. I thought this was the ladies’ room.”

“It is,” Jack said, spinning around to stand in front of Lorelei like a shield. “I was just helping my wife with her dress. We’ll be out of your way in a moment. I’ll wait for you at the table, sweetheart.”

Once he was gone, Lorelei avoided the other woman’s knowing eyes and scurried into one of the stalls to change. Dear God, what had she been thinking of? Lorelei asked herself as she stepped out of the gown and threw it across the bathroom door. She pulled off the silk nylons and tossed them over the gown. Hurrying, she shrugged into her shorts and pulled on the T-shirt. She had to get away, Lorelei told herself as she sat on the toilet seat and slipped on her socks and hiking boots. And she had to do it now.

Lorelei remained in the stall until she heard the woman and the little girl leave. When she was alone again, she pushed her suitcase aside and hopped up on top of the counter. Using the heel of her hand, she shoved against the worn window lock. Finally it opened. She pulled up once, twice, cursing when she broke a nail. Determined, she tried again and the window finally came free. The sky was already growing dark, and Lorelei could feel the slap of heat as she shoved the window up to the top.

A bead of perspiration trickled between her breasts. Her heart pumped furiously as she hurried to place first one leg and then the other through the window’s small opening. Taking another deep breath, she leapt to the ground, stumbled and landed on her bottom.

She’d made it. She was free, Lorelei thought as she scrambled to stand up.

“Going somewhere?” Jack asked as he stepped out of the shadows to stand in front of her.

Three

Lorelei swatted his hand away and pushed herself up to her feet. She glared at him while dusting off the seat of her jean shorts. “How did you know?”

“I saw the window, too. It wasn’t hard to figure out that you’d try to make a run for it.” He paused. “And since you don’t have any money or credit cards on you, just what were you planning to do? Walk down the mountain?”

“If I had to,” she said, her voice defiant. “I was hoping to hitch a ride.”

His amusement fizzled at her reply. Fury at her recklessness exploded inside him. Before he could stop himself, Jack grabbed her by the arms, wanting to shake her. “You little idiot. Don’t you know how dangerous that would have been? Do you have any idea what position you could have found yourself in? What if you’d gotten hurt or even gotten yourself lost trying to find your way down the mountain? And what’s to stop some crazy from offering you a ride and then doing God knows what to you?”

Just the thought of something happening to her made Jack ill. He pulled her stiff body into his arms. “I want you to promise me you won’t try something stupid like this again.”

At her silence, Jack set her at arm’s length. “I mean it, Lorelei. I want your promise that you won’t try to run away again.”

“I’m not promising you anything,” she told him. “Because the minute I get another chance, I’m going to take it and go back to Mesa.”

Disappointed in her response, Jack sighed as he stared into her eyes, caught that glint of steel beneath the warmth. Lord, but the woman was stubborn. Much more stubborn than she’d been ten years ago. But somehow he’d get through that stubborn streak of hers. Somehow he’d prove to her that the old Lorelei was still very much alive and that she belonged with him.

He simply had to, Jack told himself. Because without her, the life that stretched out before him seemed very empty. “Then I guess I’ll have to see that you don’t get another chance.” Putting an arm around her stiff shoulders, he led her around front to where he’d parked the Explorer.

“Where are we going?” she asked when he opened the door and motioned for her to get inside. “I thought we were going to eat dinner?”

“I assumed you weren’t hungry when you did your vanishing act back there. Or hadn’t you thought that far ahead?”

“I’m starving and you know it. I’m not going anywhere until I get something to eat.”

He almost laughed out loud at the petulant look on her face. He kissed her forehead instead and earned himself another scowl. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I intend to feed you. But you’ll have to wait about twenty minutes.”

“Why?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

“Because I don’t like driving on these roads at night, and we didn’t get nearly as far up in the mountains today as I’d planned. Too bad you didn’t decide on a morning wedding.”

“Believe me, if I had known about your plans, I would have scheduled a night wedding,” she replied sassily.

“I don’t doubt that for a minute. Now get in the truck, or I’ll put you in it myself. Come to think of it,” Jack said, dropping his voice as he rubbed his jaw and allowed his gaze to sweep over her, “maybe that’s not such a bad idea.”

Lorelei scrambled into her seat. “Where are we going?”

“Not far. We’ll be spending the night in a little cabin about ten miles from here. I’m hoping to make it there before full darkness sets in.”

“When did you rent a cabin?”

“I didn’t. It belongs to Isabel and Alberto. They use it as a little hideaway when they want to get away from the business and town. They’ve offered us the use of it for our wedding night.”

“This is not our wedding night. You and I are not married.”

“I’ll be happy to remedy that situation anytime you give me the word.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

Letting her rebuff bounce off of him, Jack reached for her seat belt. “Need some help buckling up?” He started to pull it across her breasts.

Lorelei snatched the strap from his hand and did the honors herself. “What about my suitcase? And my wedding gown? I left them in the bathroom.”

“I know.” Jack shut the truck’s door and went around to the other side. He climbed into the driver’s seat and strapped on his seat belt.

“That dress was very expensive and I want it.”

“What for?”

“Because I intend to use it again—when I get back to Mesa and marry Herbert.”

Gritting his teeth, Jack turned to her. “If you wear that dress again,” he began, calmly measuring his words despite the jealousy clawing at him, “it won’t be to marry Herbert.”

“Jack, I want my dress and suitcase.”

He started the engine. “They’re already in the truck I had Isabel and Alberto’s son store them in the back, along with our dinner.” He put the Explorer into reverse and sent the tires spinning up a cloud of dust.

For a moment she remained silent, seeming to mull over his comment. “What did you tell them? Isabel and Alberto, I mean. How did you explain my not coming back into the restaurant to eat dinner?”

“I already told you that they think you’re a bit of a jokester. As far as they’re concerned, your sneaking out the window was just another one of your pranks.” Jack slanted her a glance as he shifted the truck into gear. “Besides, I told them you weren’t interested in eating. You were much more anxious to get to the wedding night.”

Lorelei’s face turned a pretty shade of pink, just as he knew it would. “How could you?”

“Easy,” he said, smiling at her horrified expression. “After helping you out of that wedding dress, I just went with the way I was feeling. They seemed to understand.”

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