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  “Whatever he wanted for you, I wanted it, too. I tried so hard to get you to really notice me, but nothing seemed to work. That afternoon I found you on the shore cleaning fish I thought, ‘He’s going to ask me to stay with him tonight.’

  “But you didn’t—” her voice caught “—I waited to hear the words. They never came.

  “Those three weeks before your surprise phone call were the blackest I had ever known. Then I heard your voice on the line asking me to dinner. It was as if sunshine filled my universe once more.

  “I remembered what my father had said. A man who planned on being president of the U.S. would be very careful when it came to choosing a wife. More than anything in the world, I wanted to be that woman.”

  Gabe’s sharp intake of breath resounded in the tower. “Let’s talk about that night. I asked you if it was true what my father said, that you hoped to be First Lady one day. Do you remember what you answered?”

  “Yes!” she cried.

  “I’d like to hear it again.”

  “I said, ‘Isn’t it every woman’s dream?’”

  His hands balled into fists. “This morning on the phone, my father admitted that you never told him any such thing. Stefanie—” His voice sounded as if it was coming from some underground cavern. “If you loved me as much as you say you did, and you knew he’d lied, why did you allow me to go on thinking something that wasn’t true?”

  She groaned. “Haven’t you listened to anything I’ve been telling you? It was because I thought it was the answer you wanted to hear!”

  “Lord.”

  “Don’t you see, darling? You never told me the whole idea of running for president was abhorrent to you. You never told anybody. Even my parents thought it was a foregone conclusion. Naturally I had no clue.

  “I loved you, Gabe. When you asked me that question, I thought you were leading up to a marriage proposal. At that point I would have said or done anything to be your wife. Anything!”

  An angry laugh of self-abnegation escaped her lips. “When you asked for no more lies, you got a lot more than you bargained for.” Her confession had probably revolted him.

  “I still haven’t heard everything.” His voice sounded strange. Thick.

  “Obviously you told the family the truth. I want the details. What did my father mean when he told me he knew you wouldn’t let him down?”

  She took a deep breath. “On the day you left, I asked our parents to meet me at the yacht club for dinner. They thought I was going to tell them we were having a baby.

  “When they heard the truth, both our fathers were furious, but for different reasons. Your dad was furious with me for not telling him about our bogus marriage sooner. He demanded to know where you’d gone.

  “I told him I didn’t have any idea, but that I was going to find out because I couldn’t live without you. As I was leaving the club, he ordered me to bring you home by the weekend. Little did he know I had absolutely no influence over you.

  “I guess when you phoned him, he thought I had met with some success. I’m pretty sure it shocked your father to find out my loyalty had always been to you.”

  “I’m sure it did,” Gabe murmured, but he didn’t sound quite as fierce as before. “For what it’s worth, he asked me to tell you he apologized for being so hard on you.”

  She averted her eyes. “I’m glad. I love your parents, Gabe. They’ve been wonderful to me. That’s why it didn’t seem fair to let them go on thinking one thing w-when we’d just divorced.”

  While she’d been talking, he’d put the mattresses on the floor side by side. “I have news for you, sweetheart. We’re still married.”

  Her eyes widened. “I don’t understand. I saw the document. I signed it!”

  “That was the contract. I tore it up.” He tossed some pillows on the mattresses with the blankets.

  “Our marriage is still binding. Therefore your legal name will continue to be Wainwright, and it’s going to stay that way for the duration.

  “Now—I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long day and night. Is there anything else you have to do before I turn off the lantern?”

  Shock made her slow on the uptake. The light went out, enclosing them in the intimacy of darkness. She could tell he was removing his boots.

  “I can hear your teeth chattering, Stefanie. Come to bed.”

  “That’s all right. You need sleep. I’m not tired yet. I’ll just get me some more bl—”

  But the rest of the word never came out because two strong hands grasped her shoulders.

  “Your clothes are still damp. You need to get out of them.” His hand went to the top button of her blouse.

  Tremor after tremor shook her body. “Gabe?”

  He kissed her lips quiet. “I gave you time to come clean about your lies. Now it’s my turn for confession. We’re going to need all night.

  “The truth is, I’ve been in love with you for so long, I can’t think straight anymore. Tonight I’m going to make you my true wife the way I ached to do months ago. Perhaps by morning you’ll begin to have some idea of what you mean to me.”

  He drew her down on the mattress. She moved into his arms with an eagerness that would cause her to blush later when she thought about it. Their mouths and bodies found each other and clung.

  Stefanie needed no proof that Gabe was starving for her. The freedom to love him at last transcended any dreams. She didn’t know love could be this powerful and all-encompassing.

  As he kissed her with a refined savagery that took her breath, she realized this was her husband worshipping her. Only now was she beginning to comprehend how glorious it was to be a woman.

  Sated from hours of lovemaking, they had just fallen asleep when noisy birdsong outside the tower caused Stefanie to stir. She opened her eyes. The sky had a lavender-blue cast. It was morning already!

  Gabe had promised they would talk, but once he’d started kissing her, coherent thought had ceased for either of them. Throughout the night he’d made her feel immortal. Now she was awake again, hungry for him and full of questions.

  She leaned over his magnificent body and started to kiss his mouth, making each foray a little longer and deeper until he was moving and breathing with her. Groaning his need, they repeated the timeless ritual that had united soul and body throughout the night.

  Much later she whispered against his neck, “Tell me something—”

  “That I love you?” he whispered into her silky hair. “That I think you’re the most adorable, kindhearted, sensitive, courageous, exciting woman a man was ever blessed to have for his wife?”

  “That’ll do for starters.” She crushed him to her.

  “I just want to know why you wanted to take me to a motel instead of your bedroom?”

  His hand caressed her hip. “There are other families living upstairs. I wanted to make love to my wife someplace private for our first time. Of course now that we have a perfect understanding between us, I know how your mind works. You thought I was propositioning you.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought.”

  His chuckle delighted her. “My love, I plan to proposition you endlessly from here on out and don’t expect another rejection like that again. I couldn’t take it,” he admitted on a note that revealed his vulnerability.

  “I love you too much for that, Gabe.” She covered his face in kisses. “When did you know you loved me?”

  His chest rose and fell deeply. “I’m not sure of the exact moment. The first time I saw you on the yacht, I thought you were the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.”

  She gasped. “I thought the same thing about you.”

  “Men aren’t beautiful.”

  “You are.”

  He crushed her in his arms.

  “That was over ten years ago.” She groaned. “I’ve loved you for so long.”

  Gabe’s thoughts flew back in time. He’d just turned twenty-six, a recent graduate of Harvard law school and already s
et up in a prestigious Newport law firm.

  “You were very young, darling, but I saw the promise of the woman in the girl. Years later at campaign headquarters, I caught sight of a pair of heavenly blue eyes and realized my prediction had come true. If anything you’d turned out to be even more breathtaking than I had first envisioned.”

  Stefanie burrowed into his neck. “I wish I’d known.”

  “You had charm, intelligence. Your charisma infected everyone, especially my father. I began watching you, the way you handled him. In many ways he’s a hard man, but you brought out a nicer side of him. At first I found myself curious, then envious, then jealous to the point of rage.”

  “Oh, Gabe—I’m so sorry.”

  He kissed her long and hard.

  “You have nothing to apologize for. I’d fallen in love with you, and was too blinded by my emotions to see that both of you were innocent. The question I asked you at dinner was most definitely a test. I wanted you to answer, ‘No. My only desire is to be your wife. Period.’

  “When I didn’t elicit the response I desired, I came up with that marriage of convenience. One way or the other, I was going to have you!”

  Her eyes glistened like blue gemstones. “I should have said the words that were in my heart. What a fool I was.”

  “No more than I. We’ve wasted far too much time. When I found you in the snow and discovered you were Teri Jones, I swear my heart leaped for joy.”

  She moaned in remembrance of that moment. “I must have been the last person to know it.”

  He cupped her face in his hands, trapping her gaze. “On the drive out to the ranch with Clay, I felt I was in mourning. Even if you’d followed through with the plans to travel, I don’t think I could have stayed away from you very long.

  “In my gut I knew that at some point I would have come for you. During our marriage you’d been a torment to me. You were in my blood, darling. If I couldn’t have you, I didn’t want anyone else.”

  Stefanie wrapped her arms around him. “I’m here to stay, Gabe. If you want to know the truth, I would have made a horrible First Lady. I hate the time politicians have to be away their loved ones.

  “Don’t get me wrong. I admire men like our fathers. Someone has to do the work and pay the price. But I’m so thankful it’s not you.”

  A smile broke out on his handsome face. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

  “As I told you before, I hope the first of our children, however many are sent to us, is born nine months from today. A child needs his father every day, not just once a month and sometimes on holidays.

  “The Wainwright children in this family are going to be around their father on a constant basis. You can’t ask for more happiness than that.”

  “I agree, as long as you’re their mother.”

  He slid a possessive hand across her stomach. “If that miracle has already happened, we need to build another cabin on the property to house this brood of ours.”

  “I’m way ahead of you. Let’s ask your brother Richard if he wants to buy the house in Newport. It was our first house together, and it was beautiful, but—”

  “But it was never our home.” He could read her mind.

  “No. As far as I’m concerned, this fire watchtower is home.”

  Gabe chewed on one delicate earlobe. “Our special place.”

  “Our children will love it.”

  “Their father already loves it. It was here every desire of his heart was fulfilled.”

  “Hey, pardner—” Her eyes twinkled wickedly. “You sound as if this roundup is all over. I have news for you, birthday boy. This is just the beginning. It’s time you got to work making the little woman happy all over again. You can’t be shirking your duties at this stage. No siree.”

  A burst of deep male laughter resounded well beyond the tower.

  The two stockmen searching for strays paused to listen.

  “That sounds like the boss.”

  “Yup.”

  “I never heard him laugh like that before.”

  “Nope.”

  “He sure sounds happy.”

  “Yup.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7813-8

  HUSBAND FOR A YEAR

  First North American Publication 2001.

  Copyright © 2001 by Rebecca Winters.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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