How come she had to be so…fascinating?

Steven reluctantly admitted what he had refused to allow himself to think thus far. In another lifetime, he would have wanted to pursue her and take a good long taste of those lips. As it was…

He wanted her out of his life completely, to hell with those vulnerable blue eyes. He had thought Jackie was most likely a woman who wasn’t interested in children. But the way she’d looked when she’d said the word baby…

How could he have thought anything would be easy with a woman like that?

But what he wanted right now was to get himself out of this tangled mess. He needed to stop thinking about how she looked and start thinking about how to get her to sign away any rights she had to him and his child.

Their Little Cowgirl
Myrna Mackenzie

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my mother, a living example of what a strong heroine

should be. Thanks for always being there for me, Mom.

MYRNA MACKENZIE,

is the winner of the Holt Medallion honoring outstanding fiction, and was a finalist for numerous other awards, including the Orange Rose, the National Reader’s Choice, the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice and WisRWA’s Write Touch. She believes that humor, love and hope are three of the best medicines in the world and tries to make sure that her books reflect that belief. Born in a small town in southern Missouri, Myrna grew up in the Chicago area, married her high school sweetheart and has two teenage sons. Her hobbies include dreaming of warmer climes during the cold northern winters, pretending the dust in her house doesn’t exist, taking long walks and traveling. Readers can write to Myrna at P.O. Box 225, LaGrange, IL 60525, or they may visit her online at www.myrnamackenzie.com.

The Tale of The Ugly Duckling

When Mother Duck saw the sixth egg in her nest was oddly shaped, she knew one of her children would be different from the rest. Sure enough, that summer, when the ducklings hatched, one was bigger and uglier than the others.

After being kicked aside by his siblings, the ugly one ran away from the pond. But after not much time away, he missed the water and yearned for his true home. As autumn covered the countryside, he headed out into the wide world.

One day, on his journey back to the water, he heard the sound of great flapping wings. In the air, he saw a flock of birds flying high. They were as bright as snow and their long necks were stretched southward. He dreamed of going with them, though he knew he was no fit companion for such beautiful birds.

After a hard, cold winter and plenty of adventures the duckling again saw the flock of beautiful creatures. With his heart in his throat, he decided to follow them. He would risk rejection rather than pass up the chance to take flight with the heavenly beings.

To his surprise, they welcomed him! And when he looked for his dull, awkward reflection in the water, he saw a beautiful swan instead.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Prologue

Merry Montrose, known in another life as Princess Meredith Bessart of Silestia, put her hand on the small of her back and rubbed. She was the manager of La Torchére, an island resort in southwestern Florida, and in early May the island should have been paradise. Many people would have deemed themselves lucky to be here, and she knew that, but Merry just felt rather used up and slightly panicky. She frowned at her companion, Lissa Bessart Piers, the resort’s concierge.

“If you had to put a curse on me,” Merry told Lissa, “did you have to make me a crone? I think I’m starting to creak.”

Lissa smiled slightly. “As your godmother, I have a duty to make sure you either turn out to be a good princess for the people back in your homeland, or that you end up being no princess at all. There was a reason for the curse, as well you know, and there’s a way out, as you also know.”

Merry wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t even do that much. I don’t deserve to look and feel so old.”

Lissa didn’t react.

“All right, maybe I did insult Prince Alec a little.”

“He was your betrothed and you did more than insult him a little. And that wasn’t the only thing you did, either.”

Merry shrugged. “I suppose you mean that teensy little incident where I tried to break up my father’s engagement. It wasn’t that big a deal.”

“It was a very big deal. He’s a king.”

“She was older than my father.”

“She was his choice, and you not only tried to sabotage the engagement, you took it a step further when that didn’t work and did your best to interfere with the wedding itself. You were out of control. Those were hardly the acts of a princess.”

“I’m not sorry.”

“Even though you’re getting older and grayer every day?”

Merry touched her wrinkled face. “All right, I’m a little sorry, and this way out you’ve discussed, I’m—” She covered her face completely with her hands. “I’m just not sure I’m going to make the deadline. If I don’t…”

“You’ll always be a crone. Silestia and your ties to your family will be a thing of the past.”

“But there’s so little time left, and the task is so great. To get twenty-one couples to fall in love and marry, it’s almost impossible.”

“You only have five to go.”

“Yes, but less than a year to do it in.”

“You wasted a lot of time when I first put the curse on you. I gave you seven years, all the way to your thirtieth birthday, and the first couple of years you didn’t do a thing.”

“I know,” Merry admitted, surprising herself. “And once I began, it was so difficult. It took me four years and several mismatches to get things straight. I’ve been doing this long enough now to be realistic. One year is not enough time to ensure that five couples will meet, fall in love and marry. Could you—”

“What?” Lissa asked, her eyes kind, but her voice firm.

“Give me a little more time.”

Lissa shook her head sadly. “A princess wouldn’t ask for more time.”

“So, it’s hopeless.”

“If you just stand around talking, yes, it is.”

Merry let out a sigh. She looked down at herself, at her once beautiful body, now ravaged by age and riddled with aches that even the warm winds of this Florida island couldn’t take away. To be like this forever, to never go back to her lovely pampered life…

“All right, I’m working on it,” she said. “I just have to keep taking it a step at a time, a couple at a time. Let’s look at who’s due at the resort this week.” She sat down at her computer and called up the schedule of guests. A groan escaped her. Lissa looked over her shoulder.

“I see what you mean,” Lissa said. “There doesn’t appear to be anyone very promising in this batch. You might have to wait until next week.”

But by next week she would be that much closer to losing her youth and beauty and life of royalty forever.

“No, if there aren’t two people in this group who are likely to fall in love, well then, I’ll just have to choose two people who are unlikely to fall in love and work a little magic.”

“Your magic is limited, you know.”

“I know.” Of course, she knew. She had discovered that time and time again. But all she had was her subtle magic. And, oh yes, she did have one thing more.

“If they won’t fit, I’ll make them fit,” she said defiantly. “I may not have much, but I have determination.”

She ran her finger down the list. “There. Him. And her. She’s already here, which might make it easier for me to persuade her. And as it happens, the two of them already have a connection of sorts.”

Lissa crossed her arms. “It’s not a positive connection. They’re likely to be adversaries, not lovers.”

Merry crossed her arms in kind and glared at her godmother. “You set me a task. I’m tending to that task. You may want me to fail, but I don’t intend to do that if I can help it. Now, if you don’t mind, I have business to see to. If I’m going to attempt the nearly impossible, I have to rest up. There’s matchmaking to be done, whether the man and woman want to be matched or not.”

She took a deep breath and stalked off.

Behind her, Lissa smiled. “Oh, I don’t want you to fail, my dear. I very much hope you succeed, but, you’re right—this is a difficult task. And you’ve chosen to make it more difficult by trying to match two people who won’t appreciate your efforts. For the first time, even I am beginning to doubt that you might make it.” And she sighed and went back to work.

Chapter One

“Darn it!” Jacqueline Hammond said to the four walls that surrounded her. She was here in this lovely resort on this lush island to do business, but business wasn’t going well at all right now. And Parris, her half sister and business partner, was nowhere to be found.

“I’m not sure we’re going to make it,” she muttered out loud to herself. “And if we don’t make it, we’re going to lose the business before we’ve even gotten started. And then that man, our father, is going to win. He’s going to say that we can’t do anything right.” Which was exactly what he had been thinking ever since Jackie had been born.

And for today, that just might prove to be the truth. Nothing had gone right all morning.

“Well, at least not much more could go wrong,” Jackie reasoned out loud.

The telephone on the desk in the temporary office that the resort had provided rang loudly. Jackie groaned. She picked up the receiver.

“Hammond Events,” she said, amazed that her voice sounded cool and calm even though she was mentally preparing herself for more bad news.

“Jackie?” The now familiar voice of Merry Montrose, resort manager, flowed crisply through the lines.

“Yes, this is she.”

“I’m at the front desk with someone who wants to see you. A rather…interesting someone. I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be escorting him to your office.”

Ugh, not another celebrity coming to reclaim some family heirloom that yet another family member had tried to sneak into the auction Hammond Events was organizing. Didn’t people just donate things out of the goodness of their hearts anymore? Didn’t donated items stay donated anymore?

“All right, thank you, Ms. Montrose,” Jackie said, trying to keep the weariness and frustration from her voice. It was getting more and more difficult to smile the longer the preparations for the auction went on.

She looked around the room at the collection of items that were starting to stack up. Which precious item was this person going to want to take back? She was beginning to wonder how well any of the donors actually knew the woman who had commissioned Hammond Events to run the auction. Victoria Catherine Smith seemed to have money and the ability to preen with the best of them, but she didn’t appear to have any true friends, not when everyone was taking back their stuff. For a minute, Jackie regretted taking this project on, but then she remembered what was at stake—this business, the only thing that had ever been close to belonging to her, even if she had to share it with a half sister she didn’t know very well. If this auction failed, so would the business. There had been no question that they would take on Ms. Smith’s auction to raise money to build the Victoria Catherine Memorial Aquarium, slated to showcase some of the local marine life but mostly, Jackie guessed, to showcase Ms. Smith’s name to the wealthy who flocked to La Torchére.

The problems with the reluctant donors made it a difficult task, and no doubt it was going to get more difficult within the next few minutes when the unknown man finally made it to her office. She wondered if he was the owner of the Pollock hanging on the wall. She hoped not. It was one of the items most likely to draw crowds to the auction. She frowned at the painting.

“It doesn’t look that bad to me,” a male voice said.

Jackie whirled and found herself staring up into the face of a tall, dark-haired, broad-shouldered man. His face was tanned, his eyes nearly black and unreadable. And though he’d seemed to be making a joke, there was no trace of levity in his expression. Indeed, the way he was studying her made him look a bit like a hunter, and she felt more than a bit like his prey.

With great effort, she forced herself to smile and ignore that ridiculous thought.

“Is it yours?” she asked.

He blinked. No, it obviously wasn’t. “It’s hanging in your office,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but it’s an item for the auction I’m hosting and…well, never mind. How can I help you, Mr….”

“Rollins. Steven Rollins.”

His voice was deep, the words rolling off his tongue in a soft, sexy drawl. Jackie couldn’t help noticing that he seemed too big and masculine for the room. Even so, he looked very much in control, as if this was his office rather than hers.

The thought made her angry. She had been forced to share almost everything of importance all of her life.

Jackie frowned, then realized how silly she was being. This was business. She had to be nice. “How can I help you, Mr. Rollins? Are you here about the auction, or is there some other business you would like Hammond Events to handle?”

He stared directly at her—those dark, compelling eyes seeming to gaze into places no man had ever looked before. “I don’t want to buy anything from you, Ms. Hammond, and I certainly don’t want to sell you anything that belongs to me.”

He said this last part with just a bit too much emphasis.

Jackie blinked and took a deep breath for courage. “Perhaps you should just tell me what you do want, Mr. Rollins.”

“Perhaps I should, but I think you might want to be sitting down when I tell you what I want with you.” His voice dropped lower, and for a minute Jackie felt slightly disoriented. To her surprise, Steven Rollins walked behind her desk and pulled out her chair. He nodded to her and, like an obedient puppy, she slipped around behind the desk and sat. He still stood behind her.

She started to turn the chair, but he circled it and leaned against her desk beside her. A seemingly casual pose, but there was nothing casual about this man.

Jackie felt her breath catch. She had always been a quiet person, and until she had taken on this business with Parris she had considered herself a behind-the-scenes kind of woman. It had taken a lot of work and practice and effort to teach herself how to appear bold and outgoing when inside she was often shaking. It was quite a task to hide her nervousness and make people feel at ease, but she had learned to push past her anxieties and concentrate on the customer and the task. Now this man was making her forget all her hard-won lessons. More to the point, he was making her aware of herself as a woman, which was totally unacceptable.

“What do you want from me, Mr. Rollins?” she asked.

He stared into her eyes and then shook his head. “Ms. Hammond, I regret to tell you that we have a problem, a big one, and it doesn’t involve paintings or auctions, either. The fact is that it has just come to my attention that you are the mother of my baby,” he said. “We need to do something about that.”

Jackie’s eyes widened. Her breathing stopped. She slipped one hand over her throat.

“What?” she finally managed in a whisper.

He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I probably should have led up to that a bit more slowly, but…you donated eggs at one time?”

Her eyes widened. She gripped the arms of her chair as if squeezing something hard could turn back time. “Yes, once, but only to my cousin,” she said weakly. Her cousin, Trish, had given birth to a girl, and Jackie’s four-year-old niece, Chloe, was a sweetheart. And she was the only result of Jackie’s donation. “You’re not trying to tell me that you and Trish…I wouldn’t believe that, no matter how good looking you are. She’s madly in love with her husband.”

The man’s left brow had raised slightly when she told him he was good looking. “Never had the honor of meeting the lady,” was all he said. “And it was my late wife who gave birth to my little girl.”

Jackie felt suddenly sick. “I don’t understand.”

“That makes two of us, Ms. Hammond.”

“There must be some mistake.”

“There was. Apparently your donor eggs were implanted in my wife without your permission. I’m terribly sorry about that.”

A baby. There was another baby with her DNA, another child she would never get to hold as her own. Chloe had been one thing, she had been voluntary, but this…

Jackie pushed her chin up, her hair falling back as she gazed up at the man with the unreadable eyes. “Why should I believe you, Mr. Rollins?”

“Why should I lie to you?”

“I don’t know, but I…there might be a reason that hasn’t occurred to me yet.”

“I assure you that I’m telling the truth, even though I wish it weren’t so. I do, of course, have proof.”

He reached into the pocket of his navy sport coat, the movement making the muscles bunch beneath his white shirt.

Jackie blanched. How could she even notice such a thing at a moment like this? She turned her attention to the paper Steven Rollins was holding out.

“What is that?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

“It’s the paperwork showing which eggs were used to bring about my wife’s pregnancy. And this other paper matches those very eggs to you.”

Jackie’s hand shook as she took the crisp white pieces of paper. She read the words, which blurred before her eyes.

“How could this have happened?” she asked herself out loud.

“I’ve asked myself that, but there just aren’t any good answers.”

Biting her lip, Jackie nodded and dared to glance up into the dark eyes of the tall man beside her. He didn’t look happy.

“It’s very…very generous of you to come to me with this news. You didn’t have to. I would never have known.”

“Possibly.”

She could tell by his expression that he had considered not coming to her.

“Why did you come?”

“Believe me, my reasons for being here today are anything but altruistic, Ms. Hammond. Suzy isn’t a lost puppy that I was willing to return to the original owners if they showed up when I placed a sign in a store window. I would have liked nothing better than to leave you in the dark. But other people knew. At least a few at the hospital did. These kinds of things have a way of leaking out.”

“So here you are.”

“Yes.” The word seemed to have been forced out of him. He leveled a long, dark stare at her. She noticed that his jaw was hard and square, the skin taut over the bone. He had the look of a man’s man about him, the kind of man many women would have paid to have stare at them. But she wasn’t like most women, and being studied this closely by Steven Rollins made her breath kick up hard in her chest. Her heart was doing sprints. She wanted to squirm.

“What exactly do you want from me, Mr. Rollins?” She managed to keep her voice reasonably firm, even though she knew her knuckles were clenched on the chair so hard that they were undoubtedly white.

He pushed off the desk and rose to his feet, intimidatingly tall. “I want your name on a different piece of paper, Ms. Hammond, stating that you relinquish all rights to my daughter,” he said quietly, in a voice that brooked no arguments. “And I want your word that you will never try to see her or contact her. And you, in return, will have my word and my name on a legal document stating that I will never darken your door again. That’s why I’m here. That’s exactly what I want from you. Now, do we have a deal, ma’am?”

Jackie had never been a person who argued. She had spent her life being accommodating. She had spent her girlhood trying to please a man who could not be pleased and jumping to do his will in the rare moments when he even noticed her. She had never had anything or anyone who truly belonged to her in any real sense. So yes, she had donated her eggs to Trish and been happy to do so. Chloe was worth the hurt of knowing she could never call the little girl her own. But now here was this man, trying to stare her down, trying to force her yet again to give in and be good, to do the easy thing as she had always done.

Somewhere there was a child, a baby, who through accident had come from her body, Jackie thought. A child she would never even have the chance to see the way she saw Chloe.

She stared up at Steven Rollins.

“You think you have the right to do this.”

For a moment his eyelids flickered. Then it was as if his whole body turned to steel. “I know I have the right. Suzy is mine. You didn’t even know about her. I didn’t have to come here.”

Jackie studied the rigid line of his jaw. “But you would have had to live with the fear that someday I might find out.”

“Yes.” He bit the word off, and she understood that it was hard for him to admit as much to her. It was obvious that his child meant a great deal to him.

“How old?”

“What?” A muscle twitched in his jaw. He shook his head.

“How old is…is Suzy?”

He hesitated, as if even sharing that much was too much. “She’s one.”

“A baby. Still a baby.” With all the things that came with a baby—smiles and giggles and soft skin and a baby powder scent. Unconditional love and acceptance of those who cared for her. Sweetness. Innocence. A child who wouldn’t exist if not for those eggs she had donated. A part of herself. Jackie almost closed her eyes, the longing was so overwhelming.

“You’ll sign?” Steven Rollins’s strong voice broke into her thoughts and she looked at him. For a moment she thought she saw a flash of fear and pain in his eyes.

He had lived with his baby for a whole year. She was precious to him. She was, in fact, his and his alone. Suzy Rollins was out of reach for the woman who had unwittingly helped to give her life. Suzy would never know Jackie, and that was the way it had to be.

An unexpected pain sliced through Jackie. She knew she had to sign the papers. And she would.

“Have you come far? Where do you live?”

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with anything.”

“Please.” Her voice caught, and she hated that sign of weakness. She’d spent so much time learning to disguise her weaknesses.

But Steven Rollins seemed to soften at her tone. “I live on a ranch. Around Claxton.”

“Not that far.”

“No.”

A tiny hope filled Jackie’s soul. “I understand why you want me to sign, Mr. Rollins. I would do the same.” To have to share a loved one could be horrible and very difficult. “I don’t expect you to share your daughter with a stranger, especially one who didn’t even know of her existence before today.”

The man relaxed even more. A small smile turned his face heartbreakingly handsome, making Jackie’s breathing kick up a notch. No doubt he’d had a beautiful wife.

“Thank you, Ms. Hammond. You’ll sign then?” He held out his hand, a conciliatory gesture.

“Yes, but I have a condition.”

Immediately his hand stilled. He pulled back. “What kind of a condition?”

“I want to meet her.”

“What do you mean, you want to meet her?”

His tone was thunderous. Jackie should have been shaking in her shoes. Under other circumstances, she would have been, but for some reason she wasn’t as scared of Steven Rollins as she should have been. Maybe because he seemed to genuinely care for his daughter.

And the truth was that she wasn’t completely sure what she had meant by her words. She just knew that she did mean them. She had given up one child, and it had been much more difficult than she could ever have believed possible. Never once had she gotten to hold that baby as if it were her own. But fate and happenstance had combined to give her one more chance.

Jackie wanted that chance desperately.

“I meant what I said, Mr. Rollins. You just told me that your daughter was conceived from eggs that came from my body. There’s a part of me in her. That’s something I don’t take lightly. I’m not asking to be a lasting part of her life, you understand. I know there’s no possibility of that, but I…I just can’t sign a paper and never once have a glimpse of her. I want the chance to see her.”

“Impossible. You can’t do it.”

Oh, she had heard those words so many times in her life. And she had often believed them.

But this time a child was involved.

“I can do it, Mr. Rollins.”

He studied her carefully, slowly, maddeningly. Jackie almost held her breath as his gaze drifted over her, as if looking for flaws, missing nothing. She felt suddenly awkward and naked in her boxy gray suit. In that moment he was a man looking over a woman. And she was a woman reacting in the most physical way, her body and skin prickling with heightened awareness, Jackie was horrified to realize. No doubt the man was merely trying to intimidate her. And so, with great difficulty, she managed to sidestep her body’s reaction.

“We’ll see about your demands,” he finally said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Jackie was pretty sure that he was going to come back armed with plenty of legal advice. And he would look her over again.

The legal advice didn’t scare her…too much. The look—she didn’t want to think about that look—was too intimate.

“I’ll let you know my terms then,” she agreed. “I’ll have them in writing.”

He gave her a curt nod. She almost missed the look that lurked in the back of his eyes, but just before he turned, she saw it. Fear?

She held out her hand to his retreating back. She should just leave it alone.

“Mr. Rollins?”

He turned on one heel.

“I’m assuming it will take a certain amount of money to make you go away,” he told her with an unmistakable trace of derision.

Slowly she shook her head. “I’m not interested in money. And I don’t mean to be difficult, but I can’t just leave this alone. We’re talking about a child. A baby.”

“I know,” he said. His voice was tight, the emotion leashed, but not completely.

That got to her—the fact that he was trying to hide how badly he cared about his child, but couldn’t. The fact that he could affect her that way made him dangerous.

She wished she never had to see him again.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.

Chapter Two

“Damn woman,” Steven bit off the words as he pulled off his boots and dropped them on the opulent cream-colored carpeting of the room he had booked at La Torchére. What was her game? Why was she pushing this issue when she had only just discovered Suzy’s existence?

And how come she had to be so…so…

“Fascinating.” He reluctantly admitted what he had refused to allow himself to think thus far. Jacqueline Hammond was no beauty by a long shot. In truth, she was rather plain, but she had a pair of fine blue eyes and pretty pink lips that trembled ever so slightly at moments of high emotion. In another lifetime, had he been another man, he would have wanted to pursue her and take a good long taste of those lips. As it was…

“I want her out of my life completely. To hell with those vulnerable blue eyes.” He pounded out the words. He meant them, too. It was going to be hard raising Suzy alone, especially once she reached an age when she needed the kinds of things that a woman could best provide. But he was through with relationships and especially with marriage and dreams. Too many of his dreams had been wrenched away from him.

All he wanted right now was to get himself out of this tangled mess with Jacqueline Hammond and get back to his daughter and his ranch. Then everything would be fine.

He had thought this would be easy. He had assumed Jacqueline Hammond was most likely a woman who had once done a good deed but wasn’t interested in children herself.

But that look in her eyes when she’d said the word baby…

“Dammit all!” How could he have thought anything would be easy with a woman like that?

What he needed right now was to stop thinking about how she had looked and start thinking about how to get her to sign away any rights she had to him and his child.

He picked up the phone and began to dial.

The next morning, Jackie entered the forest-green, cream and golden oak lobby of La Torchére with both dread and anticipation. She had gone upstairs last night still reeling from the shock of the news that she had helped produce a child, and still shaking from her encounter with Steven Rollins. She had had few close relationships with men over the years, and had never had a good one. She no longer even wanted to try, so coming into close contact with a man who sent her senses spinning out of control and who, of all men, had reason to dislike her, was more than disconcerting.

She really didn’t want to see him again. But there was no way she was giving up this opportunity.

Jackie wondered what Steven Rollins would think of the simple plan she had formulated in the wee hours of the night as she lay tossing and turning.

Whatever he thought, it wouldn’t be something positive. Ducking into a deserted alcove, she pulled out a small mirror from her purse to make sure she looked composed. She did. Her dark hair was in place, her eyes gave nothing away.

A changeling child, her blond gorgeous mother had once called Jackie with disgust. Plain, nondescript, unnoticeable, her looks had simply emphasized how she had never fit in. But today she hoped that her unremarkable, restrained exterior would stand her in good stead. She needed to be firm, to appear unshakeable.

She would be, Jackie decided, and satisfied that she had managed to erase her emotions from her expression, she took a deep breath and headed for her office to wait for another disturbing encounter.

This time she would not let him get to her. She wouldn’t even think of him as a man, but only as the doorway to an opportunity to make a few memories with a sweet little child.

“Jackie.” Merry’s imperious voice stopped Jackie in her tracks. She turned and looked at the elegant but fading woman.

“Did you need me, Merry?”

“Not exactly, but you might need me if you’re looking for Mr. Rollins. I’ve set him and his papers up at a shaded table in view of the beach. I thought the atmosphere might make your business more pleasant.” The woman tried a smile, but it was clear that she wasn’t usually the cheerful type. That was okay. Merry had been more than accommodating to Hammond Events. Perhaps too accommodating, Jackie suddenly thought.

The last thing she wanted was to sit with Steven Rollins in a secluded, romantic setting. But she wanted to get this over with quickly, to get past it so she could see the baby she had helped bring into the world.

“Thank you, Merry.” She nodded.

Merry tilted her head. “I’ll lead you to him.”

There was nothing to do but follow and hope that she could retain her cool and calm.

But when Jackie came to the end of the path, she nearly balked when she realized that Merry had led her to one of the bowers at the edge of the beach. Surrounded by palm trees, exotic foliage and blossoms, the bower enclosed a small shelter complete with a linen-covered table for two and a convenient double hammock. The scent of flowers drifted in, setting the stage for those who were looking for romance. A waiter appeared with a golden tray of cold drinks in sparkling crystal.

Jackie blinked.

“A person can’t conduct business on a hot day without something to slake her thirst can she?” Merry mused as the waiter approached the table.

But Jackie had moved on to other thoughts. Steven Rollins had risen to his feet at their approach. He nodded to the waiter and to Merry, who withdrew. He was wearing an open-necked white shirt tucked into jeans that molded to his thighs. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing strong tanned arms.

“Ms. Hammond,” he said with a slight nod of his head as he held out his hand.

She hesitated, noting that his fingers were long and brown, his palm callused. He was a rancher, wasn’t he? And though he had every reason to hate her his manners would never show that.

Old fashioned, she thought, and then she resisted the urge to close her eyes as she slid her hand into his, feeling the warmth and strength of his grip for one short second before he released her.

“Mr. Rollins.” She sat, and he followed suit.

“I was wondering if you were going to actually go through with this,” he began.

“Hoping I wouldn’t, I think you mean,” she countered.

He shrugged and kept his direct gaze on her. “I’d like to keep this simple.”

A small bit of hope crept in. “Then we agree on something. I want to keep things as simple and easy as possible, too.”

“You said you wanted to meet my daughter. I won’t pretend to like that, but I’ve decided that I’ll agree to it. I suppose I can bring her here next week, arrange for a few hours together.”

His tone was uncompromising, though his voice wasn’t nearly as harsh as it had been yesterday.

She wondered what he would say to her suggestion. He wouldn’t like it. She knew that much, just as she knew that she might lose her courage if she didn’t just plunge in.

“I want two weeks,” she said, her voice breaking only slightly.

The long silence that followed was heavy, laced with unmistakable anger. Steven Rollins’s eyes were like dark smoldering flames.

“No. You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I don’t, generally. I—”

He held up one hand. “I’m not even going to discuss this. This is my daughter you’re talking about.”

“I know that.” And this time her voice wasn’t calm or cool or any of the things she wanted it to be. “I know that,” she said again, trying to bring the emotion down a notch. “And I understand what you’re thinking. You want me to sign away my right to Suzy forever and you want me to do it now. Well, I’m prepared to do that. I’ll sign this very minute. I’ll agree to disappear completely when we’re done, but first I want the right to spend just a short time with her. Two weeks is such a small amount of time, and it’s all I’m asking for. I have the right to ask, you know.”

“I could fight you in court.”

“You could, but someone would have to explain how those eggs ended up in the wrong place. That could take lots of time. This could drag out. You give me my two weeks, and I’m gone for good. It’s over, and you and Suzy can get on with your lives without me.”

He scrubbed one hand back through his dark hair. “Why are you doing this? You didn’t even know she existed before yesterday. She can’t mean anything to you.”

And she obviously meant everything to this man. Jackie knew that. She honored it, but…

She took a moment to gather her thoughts. She raised her chin, her hair falling back as she gazed way up into Steven’s eyes. “I’m doing this because I gave up a child once before. I freely donated the eggs that time, and there was no question of me ever having time alone with the baby when she was born. I didn’t think it would matter, but it did. Giving a child life, and her mother hope, has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life, but also one of the most painful. Chloe can never know about me, at least not until she’s much older. Her mother, Trish, and I are cousins, and it would only complicate things to tell her child that I’m her biological mother. I know that, and I accept it. I chose it, so I don’t have a problem with the situation.

“But this time is different. My eggs were used without my permission, and I’m incensed about that. Somewhere on your ranch is a little girl who started out as a part of me, however much you dislike that fact. This time I get the chance to do things differently. I get the chance to be a part, however small, of her life. And it can work because she’s young enough that she’ll never remember me. You’ll never remember much of me, but I’ll have something to hold in my heart forever. I’ll walk away, Mr. Rollins. You’ll have my word and my legal, unbreakable signature before witnesses as a guarantee. Just don’t ask me to sign Suzy away without ever having seen her. Don’t be that cruel. Would you simply walk away if someone had told you that she was out there and that you had fathered her?”

Steven opened his mouth to speak, but then he closed it again. “Is this how you get people to donate expensive artwork to your auctions, Ms. Hammond? By blackmailing them?”

Heat and anger rolled through Jackie, but she subdued them. The man was testing her, and she wouldn’t be tested. She’d jumped through hoops for her father, and later for Garret, a man who had claimed to love her for a time. She’d given up her own wishes too many times and all to no avail. “You came to me, not the other way around,” she reminded the man.

As the seconds ticked by they stared at each other, a silent standoff. Then he held out his hands, palms out.

“You’re a hard woman, Ms. Hammond.”

His comment caught Jackie off guard. She had been called many things in her lifetime—invisible, shy, maternal, sweet, a marshmallow, a leaf blowing in the wind, a pushover. But then she had never had anyone come to her with this kind of news before. And she had never faced the prospect of giving away her baby without ever having the chance to see her face even once. She rather liked being hard in this instance. This was a situation that called for hard and pushy, and for the first time in her life she was rising to the occasion.

“After we sign the papers, you’ll bring Suzy here?” she asked.

“No. Not here. You’ll come to my home, and that is something I’m not budging on, Ms. Hammond. I have a ranch, and I’m needed there. I can’t just run off for two weeks, and I won’t let Suzy go anywhere unless I’m there. My ranch or nothing.”

Jackie blanched inside, but she refused to allow herself to think. “All right, your ranch, but we go right away. I’m ready.”

Steven gave her a long, lingering once-over—from the tip of her shiny sedate hairstyle, past her pale cream dress, to the bottom of her sensible pumps. She almost thought he was going to smile. “You don’t look like you’re ready for a ranch,” he mused.

She wasn’t, not really. The thought of horses and cows and bulls and who knew what else scared her to death. “I’ll go wherever your child is,” she said firmly. “For two weeks I’ll be there and then I’ll return here where I belong. I’ll vanish like mist in the sunlight, and you won’t have to worry about me ever again.”

He gave her a short, slow nod. “I’ll hold you to that,” he said, “and if you ever try to break our bargain, I will come after you with every weapon I possess. Anyone who tries to steal my daughter had better run, and run fast.”

But Jackie was pretty sure that no one would ever be able to run fast enough if Steven Rollins wanted to catch them. She had a feeling that she had just bitten off a lot more than she could chew. Steven Rollins was more man than she had ever tackled.

The very thought of tackling or tangling with him was…

“Frightening,” she said out loud, later in her room. But in her mind, she heard another word.

Exhilarating.

She had never felt so alive as she had yesterday and today, arguing with this man who clearly wished she would disappear in a puff of blue smoke.

And she had just agreed to go live on a ranch with that same, too-handsome man who hated her. How on earth was she going to survive for the next fourteen days? She’d done all right here in this environment where she felt at home, but what weapons would she possess once she was out of her element and alone with him?

“What do you mean, you’re leaving me in charge?” Jackie’s sister, Parris, was clearly not happy about Jackie’s decision. “You can’t just pack up and go off to some ranch and leave me to do all the work.”

Jackie tactfully refrained from mentioning that Parris had done very little of the work regarding the company thus far. Not that that was surprising. Parris had never had to work for anything. When Jackie’s father had divorced her mother and remarried Parris’s mom, Jackie had worked extra hard to secure her father’s attention. But it never seemed to make a bit of difference. He didn’t want to be with Jackie. He had found another daughter, and his oldest child’s efforts didn’t matter all that much. And three years ago, when Jackie had imagined herself in love with Garret Brickwater, she had done her best to make the relationship work, but Garret had taken one look at Parris’s beauty and had no use for her older sister anymore.

That was just the way it was. Jackie had never fit with anyone. Even her own mother had resented her existence, claiming that having a baby had caused her to lose her figure and thus, her husband. Jackie had always been the outsider, the ugly duckling with no real place to call her own.

She certainly didn’t belong on a ranch with Steven Rollins, but she was going anyway. And the truth was that, if she and Parris were ever going to make a go of this company, Parris was going to have to take part in the operation.

“You’ll be just fine,” Jackie told her sister. “And I’ll only be a phone call away.”

“Jackie, you’re going to a ranch, for heaven’s sake, with cows and cow-related things and…and manure. It may only be a phone call away, but it’s also the edge of the world. And what if something comes up that’s too complicated to handle? What do I do if another someone wants to take back a donation?”

Jackie sighed. “Do your best to be gracious and charming, Parris. Remember that this business is all we have. It’s what we live on.”

“So why are you leaving? You’ve never even met that baby.”

She had explained the details to Parris already. “I want something this business can’t give me,” she told her sister.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know. I just know I have to do this. And anyway, I’ll only be gone two weeks. How wrong can things go in that time?”

She and Parris exchanged a look. Things were going wrong every day. The whole operation could collapse. She really wanted to bring Suzy here.

But somehow she knew that even a court wouldn’t insist that Steven rip his child from her home on a forced visit to an egg donor. She wasn’t even sure the courts would give her any rights. Obviously this was shaky ground all the way around, or he wouldn’t have let her have her way at all. Neither of them wanted to risk the legal system.

“I’ll check in all the time,” Jackie promised. “If someone is being especially difficult, I’ll call them or we’ll arrange a conference call or even a video connection. Somehow we’ll keep the business alive.”

“All right, if there’s no other way.”

There wasn’t. If there was any way she could avoid going to stay in Steven Rollins’s home—where he would be around every day watching her every move, making her remember how it had felt to have him touch her hand—she would have jumped at it. But there wasn’t.

Somehow she was just going to have to learn how to stay out of the man’s way. What she needed was a plan.

“Do you think this will work?” Merry asked Lissa.

“Do I think they’re attracted? Of course they are. He’s a very masculine man and she’s very sweet with lovely eyes. They’re attracted, but do I think they’ll fall in love?” Lissa frowned.

“You’re right. I’ve thoroughly checked into both of their pasts. Steven was forced to give up his dream of a football career and then his dream of a fulfilling marriage, so now he’s through with anything vaguely romantic. And he doesn’t want her, or any woman, on his ranch or near his child. As for Jackie, she doesn’t want to go near a man, and the ranch thing…”

Merry suddenly looked at her godmother with stricken eyes. “It’s not going to work, is it?”

“Well, they hardly seem suited,” Lissa began, “and they are moving off the resort, where you won’t have much control.”

“And already days have passed,” Merry said. “I’ve wasted time on them, but I don’t have any new prospects at the moment. That’s it. I’m just going to have to do my best to work a miracle long-distance.” She pulled a cell phone with a screen for color pictures from the pocket of her dress.

“What are you doing, Merry?”

“You know what I’m doing. I’m using what little useful magic I have to watch them.” She could use the phone to watch what happened on Steven’s ranch. “I’m not sure what I can do when I’ll be here and they’re on a ranch, but if I see a promising circumstance, then I’ll…”

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll do something. Anything.”

“Careful, Merry. You remember the first time you tried to force two people together who didn’t fit. Both of them vowed never to get involved with anyone again, and they haven’t to this day.”

“I know. That was a mistake. I’m not going to make any mistakes with Jackie and Steven—I hope.”

Chapter Three

The trip to Rollins Acres wasn’t very far, which was a good thing, Steven mused the next day after they had disembarked from the ferry to the mainland. Because if ever two people were less suited to spend time closed up in a truck together it was himself and Jacqueline Hammond. The mere fact that the woman had not balked at riding in a pickup truck was in itself amazing.

She clearly didn’t belong here. Dressed in a dove gray suit that hit just above a very pretty pair of knees, her dark hair pulled back in a low, sleek ponytail with a silver clip, she was the epitome of refinement and primness.

“You ever ride in a pickup truck before?” he caught himself asking, a trace of amusement lifting his lips.

She gave him a look that told him she didn’t like being laughed at. “Well, I usually only ride in golden pumpkins pulled by white horses,” she said, “but don’t worry. I can stifle my inner stuffiness long enough to withstand a ride in a pickup truck. And for the record, Mr. Rollins, I wouldn’t exactly call this a pickup truck in the conventional sense. You’ve got a DVD player, a GPS, more cup holders than one man could possibly use and leather seats. If this were a colder climate, I’ll bet you would have heaters in the seats, too.” She gave him a placid knowing smile.

He couldn’t keep from chuckling. “Touché, Ms. Hammond. I probably had that coming, but my point was…”

She sighed. “I know your point, Mr. Rollins. I don’t belong on a ranch. For the record, I did buy a pair of jeans, and I’ll eventually wear them. I just…it’s just…I’ll be meeting your daughter for the first time and I…”

Her voice trailed off, and suddenly he realized that she was nervous, genuinely nervous about meeting a baby. This self-assured woman who had dared to stand toe-to-toe with him—a six foot one male with a body grown hard from work—was nervous. She hadn’t given an inch, even when he had pushed her and even when it was obvious that he was making her uncomfortable. She’d stood her ground, but now she had dressed to impress a one-year-old child.

“Well, Suzy is pretty partial to gray,” he said, turning to give her a smile, hoping to lighten the mood, “but she’s going to be mighty disappointed that you’re not wearing pearls and white gloves.”

To his surprise, she shook her head and smiled back. Not just a weak, polite smile, either, but a brilliant one that made his breathing stop and sent heat sizzling through his body in a powerful flow. “I was thinking maybe the diamond tiara,” she quipped.

“Just the thing,” he agreed amiably, but inside him a storm was brewing. His sudden reaction to that smile had been a warning for him to stay away from this woman. He was through with anything involving emotional needs of a deep or serious nature. He had lost too much—his football career, nearly his marriage, and then, when he and Michelle had finally put things back together again and he had begun to hope for at least a partially happy ending, he’d lost his wife, too. So, other than an occasional visit to another town and a woman there who, like himself, wanted nothing more than a meaningless physical fling, he kept his distance from women. He hadn’t been tempted so far, and it wasn’t going to happen now, especially with a woman who could only mean trouble and regret.

“Here we are. This is my ranch, Ms. Hammond,” he said, turning in at a gate that declared them to now be on Rollins Acres. “This is where you’ll be spending the next two weeks. I think you can safely leave your tiara in the box.”

He glanced across and ended up gazing right into those beautiful blue eyes. “Maybe you’re right about the tiara,” she said softly. “But, do you think you could call me Jackie for the next two weeks? If we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other…”

“We won’t,” he said suddenly and then realized how harsh his voice had been. He had agreed to her terms. Being rude and abrupt would only make this time harder. “I only meant that you’ll probably be mostly interested in the house,” he explained. “Suzy spends most of her time there. I won’t be around that much except in the evenings, but yes, I see your point. I’m not all that used to being called Mr. Rollins, and Steven will be fine.”

He continued down the long road leading to the house and glanced to the side again. She looked incredulous.

“What?”

“You’d let me spend time alone with Suzy?” For some reason she seemed a bit indignant.

“That would be a bad thing?”

“She’s a baby. I’m a total stranger.”

He stopped the car. “You are an enigma, Ms.—Jackie. You force me to take you into my house for two weeks so you can be with my child, and now you’re getting huffy because you think I’m not taking enough care with her?”

“I am not huffy.” She had her arms crossed under her breasts. He took a long look at what he hadn’t noticed before beneath her loose clothing, then glanced up to see that she was blushing. She brought her arms up higher, covering herself. “I’m not huffy,” she repeated.

He couldn’t help grinning. “You most definitely are, and you’re also embarrassed. Relax, Jackie. I don’t assault my guests, and no, I don’t intend to leave you alone with my daughter. She has a nanny.”

“Oh.” The sound was hollow and small.

“Yes, oh. No offense, Jackie, but I don’t trust anyone I’ve just met with Suzy. The nanny, Ms. Lerner, had to give me five personal and five professional references and I had a detective check her out. I don’t take chances when it comes to my child.”

She nodded. “Did you do that with me? Hire a detective, I mean?”

He hadn’t, even though he’d had his attorney run a basic check on her background. She had come up completely clean—the eldest daughter of Jeffrey Hammond, a wealthy entrepreneur known for looking out only for himself and the bottom line. Her mother was dead, her only relative other than her mostly absent father was the half sister who was her business partner. No highs, no lows. But glancing at her profile, at the lush curves beneath that mannish suit, Steven wondered if he shouldn’t find out more. Surely she’d had a number of men fighting to be the one to bed that body. There could be plenty of skeletons he had missed.

“Is there something you’d like to tell me, Jackie?” he asked. “Some past sin you want to admit to, something that might make you unfit to spend time with my child?”

She gave him a long, assessing stare, then raised one delicate shoulder in a gesture of dismissal. “I once filched a box of Belgian chocolates from my mother’s dresser. So yes, I do have some terribly bad, incurable habits and a criminal history. If you don’t watch out, I might turn Suzy into a chocoholic like myself. I am a dangerous woman, Steven.”

She dared him to say differently. He couldn’t. That smile and those eyes, but most of all that hint of the vulnerable, made her very dangerous. She made a man want to kiss her, whether she tasted of stolen chocolates or just woman.

“Then I’ll keep my eye on you,” he told her. And he meant it, too. He couldn’t be careless with Suzy, even if he wanted to keep his distance from this woman.

He pulled the car up in front of the house, a wide two-story farmhouse with a porch that wrapped around three sides.

“What a pretty shade of pale blue,” she said, referring to the color of the clapboards. “Rather a feminine color, though. I wouldn’t have expected it of a man who drives a huge, black look-at-me-I’m-all-man truck.”

Steven chuckled. “The house color was my wife’s choice.”

Jackie’s eyes grew solemn. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You just asked about the paint. Asking questions is not what you need to be sorry about.” Okay, he couldn’t stop implying that she should have stayed back at the resort.

“I know, but…has it been long since you lost your wife?”

“She died the day Suzy was born, so now it’s just my daughter and me. That’s all it will ever be, too.” He knew the words sounded as though he was warning her away. But they were really meant for himself—a reminder that, while he might be bringing a desirable woman to his home, she was not there for his pleasure.

“I understand. I don’t have much interest in men, either.”

He raised one brow.

She blushed. “That is, I just don’t get along all that well with them, at least not in the long-term. I like answering only to myself, and I don’t intend for it to be any other way. I fit myself better than any man could ever fit me.”

Ah, so she had barriers, too. She hadn’t been involved with a man for awhile and she didn’t want one now or ever. That should have made him very happy.

Instead it just made him wonder exactly how long it had been since a man had kissed her until they were both breathless and mindless and aching and when it would happen again.

Jackie was a lot more worried about her reaction to Steven than her reaction to his truck. Trucks couldn’t make a woman feel all hot and bothered, at least not a woman like her. But every time Steven glanced her way, she was incredibly conscious of the fact that she was a woman—the kind of thing that pretty much never happened with her.

Not that any of that could be important now. In just a minute, she was going to meet the child who held a part of her. Someone who was at least a little bit like her.

She twisted her fingers together as Steven moved around the truck to help her down. Her hand felt cold in his warm one as he reached up and touched her.

“She’s just a baby,” he reminded her, and this time his eyes were even a little kind.

“I haven’t known any babies really. What if I don’t know what to do?”

“Babies have a way of making you forget to think. Just let it happen,” he suggested.

At that moment a squeal of tires and flying bits of gravel signaled a new arrival.

“Ben,” was all Steven said, but the man was already jumping from his truck, a look of consternation on his face.

“Come on, Steven,” the man said. “Sorry to jump you like this, but we have a little problem. Hoagie was messing around doing doughnuts in the field, showing off for the boys, and he’s gone and clipped the fence at the south pasture with his new SUV. Now we’ve got our randiest bulls mixing in with Mrs. Redfern’s cows, and you know how she gets about her dainty ladies. When I saw the dust from your tires, I left the boys working to deal with things and came here full tilt.”

Steven muttered something beneath his breath, a word Jackie was pretty certain he would never utter around his daughter. He looked at her and then at the house. And then back in the direction that Ben had come. She understood—he didn’t want to leave her here with his child while he tended to the emergency.

She probably should be angry, but after her lecture about leaving his child open to strangers, she could hardly be that.

“I’ll just wait in the truck,” she volunteered.

He didn’t stop to argue, just made sure she was in the seat before he shut the door, then hopped back in and raced across the field behind Ben.

“Thank you. I’m sorry.”

“Is there any danger?”

“Not really. Just the danger of my bulls taking advantage of Mrs. Redfern’s cows. Mrs. Redfern doesn’t approve of illicit mating of animals. She doesn’t have many cows, but the ones she has are considered pets and they’re all artificially inseminated. Not that she can stop nature, but…well, she has a point. My animals don’t have any business straying onto her land. It’s my concern if that happens. Not a neighborly way to be. If a man can’t control his own herd—or in this case, his own men—he doesn’t have any business being a rancher.”

“But you weren’t even here.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m in charge. I’m sure you feel that way about your business, too. Even though you’re gone, things have to run smoothly.”

For half a panicked second, Jackie worried about the fact that she had left Parris at the helm. She saw what Steven meant. But then he was pulling the truck to a sudden stop. There were horses tethered to another vehicle.

“I have to ride from here. Mrs. Redfern is a purist, so I can’t bring the vehicle onto her property unless we’re on the roads. Don’t get out of the truck,” Steven told Jackie.

Hot anger lurched through her. “I’m no danger to your ranch,” she told the man. “I don’t intend to sabotage you just because I don’t like you.”

He blinked at that. “I wasn’t worried about that. I just don’t want you getting hurt. Do you have any idea how much a full-grown bull or cow weighs?”

“A lot?”

He shook his head and smiled slightly. “Yes, a lot would be a good guess. And you’re a city girl. I don’t want you getting a broken foot, or worse. People might think I set you up to get rid of you.”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.