The Lady and the Robber Baron Read online

  She had waited so long for this change in him. At first, she couldn’t believe it had actually happened. But slowly, the warmth of his mouth on hers, his hands on her body, his heat and hardness inside her, dissolved all doubt. Her heart opened the way it had that first time he made love to her. Her bliss was almost too exquisite to bear.

  In spite of the strength of her arousal, tears of deep happiness streamed down her cheeks. Chane kissed them away while his strong hands stroked her and held her. She marveled that at last the miracle she’d been praying for had happened.

  Chane brought her to peak after blazing peak, and when it was over, they lay close together, listening to a mockingbird overhead, singing first like a thrush, then like a Rocky Mountain jay.

  Jennifer glanced over at Chane, and the sharpness of his profile reminded her of the many times he’d turned away from her. “It won’t work,” she whispered. “You’ll forget your promise. You’ll stop trusting me.”

  Chane rolled over and covered her body with his. He gazed intently into her eyes. “I promise you I’ve learned my lesson,” he whispered.

  “How do I know you really mean it?”

  “I had a talk with my father last night that curdled my fine Kincaid blood. I’ll never be able to reach that same level of blind intolerance again.”

  “What did you talk about?”

  “Women and life. That’s all I’m going to say, but I realized I didn’t know anything about either one before.”

  Jennifer laughed. She knew his parents well enough to realize that Elizabeth had somehow prevailed over her husband.

  Chane pulled her against his chest and buried his face in the Gillyflower fragrance of her hair. “I love you, Jennie. This has been the most miserable six months of my life. I thought I’d die a thousand times…”

  “You deserved to. If there was any justice at all…”

  Chane laughed. “You heartless little wench.” He pulled her on top of him and swatted her bottom. Out of sheer bullheadedness he had almost lost Jennie. Thanks to her determination to win him back, she’d given them a chance to forge a truer, deeper relationship than the one they’d lost.

  Chane kissed her forehead, her nose, and finally, her lips. Then he cupped her face in his hands, and stared deep into her violet eyes. “I love you, Jennie.” He breathed a deep sigh of contentment. “I’ve learned to have tremendous respect for you in these last few months. I married a girl, and I’ve watched you grow into a wonderful, awe-inspiring woman before my eyes. There were times I could have knelt at your feet.”

  “You should have,” she said, straining upward to kiss his bottom lip. Then, suddenly serious, she said, “I love you, too, Chantry Kincaid.”

  Chane kissed her, and she felt overwhelmed with love for him. He came into her again, and even though he’d made love to her only moments before, her body seemed to catch fire and burn with the love that had never stopped and never could.

  More from Joyce Brandon

  The Lady and the Lawman

  Life on the Western frontier in the 1880s is filled with risks and danger—a fact Angie Logan quickly relearns upon arriving back at her family's Arizona ranch, home from college back East. To help quell the riots against Chinese immigrants that have settled in Durango, Angie relies on her education and wits in appealing to the governor for assistance. The governor sends help in the form of Lance Kincaid, a charismatic gentleman who became a ranger to avenge the murder of the woman he loved. While working to resolve the current upheaval, Lance catches the trail of the murderer. Nothing will stop him from catching the killer and bringing him to justice, except perhaps Angie, the mysterious woman who looks eerily like his lost love.

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  After Eden

  Teresa Garcia-Lorca was raised as the favored daughter of “El Gato Negro,” the infamous Mexican revolutionary. She lived in sheltered bliss until the day the truth of her paternity comes out, and her former “father” becomes furious. Teresa and her mother are forced to flee for their lives to escape El Gato’s murderous rage. Her only hope lies in the home of her biological father, Bill Burkhart, but nothing could have prepared her for the treachery of gringo/white greed. Her new-found father’s bastard daughter, Judy Burkhart, has had everything—and every man—she’s ever wanted. Her indulgent world shatters when Judy learns she’s been disinherited in her father’s will. She and Teresa must learn to fight for all they have lost—and only one of them will end up with the man they both love.

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