Tarnished Angel (68 page)

    Ross kissed her again, long and lovingly. Drawing back at last, he looked down into her face. He saw the skepticism there, the doubt, and he gave a short laugh. "I want to hear your answer, Devina, and yet I'm shaking in my boots like a kid. I don't want it to be like the last time between us. I want you to come with me willingly. I want to know you want to be with me, even if you don't really love me yet."

    Devina's frown halted Ross's words, allowing her the opportunity to speak. "Ross, love, or the lack of it, isn't the problem. It's hate that stands between us. You're not thinking clearly. You've forgotten the hate you feel for my father. You've forgotten the revenge you swore to get and haven't yet satisfied.

    You've forgotten the last thing you said to me outside the cabin, before Sheriff Bond took you away. You said I was Dale… a true Dale. Can you ever forget that? Will you ever be able to forget that my father's blood flows in my veins, that no matter how far I run, he'll always be a part of me?" Tears springing to her eyes, Devina continued hoarsely, "Will I wake up one morning, Ross, and find that you hate me because, looking into my face, you're unable to forget my father?"

    Ross's arms were suddenly hard and tight around her, and Devina yielded to their strength, her arms moving around his neck to hold him close against her. "I do love you, Ross. I've known that for a long time. Charles is only a friend to me, a good friend. I knew that the first minute the 'Charles' at my party took me into his arms."

    Ross was drawing back, the tense planes of his face softening, but Devina shook her head. "No, Ross, our problems can't be solved so easily. I won't go with you unless you can tell me that the battle is over between you and my father. I don't ever want to see hate in your eyes for me. Not again. I couldn't take it, Ross."

    Ross's dark eyes looked directly into hers, and Devina felt the full impact of their intensity. His low whisper was filled with the heat of his emotions. "Devina, it came to me when I was riding off into the darkness tonight that freedom was suddenly flat and meaningless to me. All it meant was a succession of long, empty days when I'd still be a prisoner of my own hate, of my own thoughts. It also came to me that if that was so, I'd be granting Harvey Dale a greater victory than he had ever hoped to win. I'm not about to do that, Devina, and I'm not about to give up the only woman I've ever loved. He's not worth it, and he's not going to win."

    "I'd say that statement is a bit premature, Morrison."

    A low, slurred voice sounded at the entrance to the room as the door swung back on its hinges, slamming against the wall with a resounding clap. Light from the hallway streamed into the room, and Devina stared with disbelief at her father's bent frame outlined in the opening, at the gun held securely in his hand. She felt Ross's body stiffen, saw his face harden into that of the Ross of old. No, it couldn't end this way.

    "Get out of my daughter's bed, Morrison, and make it quick! Stand on your own two feet instead of hiding behind her. That is, if you're man enough to do it!"

   Ross slowly rose to his feet, and Devina stood up beside him, her eyes on her father's twisted, hate-filled face.

    "Father, please, put the gun down. Ross isn't"

    "You're right, Devina, Ross isn't going to take you away with him." Harvey darted his daughter an angry glance touched with incredulity. "I never thought I'd see the day I'd say my daughter is a fool, but you are a fool, Devina! Don't you see what he's trying to do? He's getting back at me through you! He doesn't love you! He hates you, just as he hates me! If you went with him now, he'd make your life a living hell, and my life would be hell, too, just knowing that you were suffering with him. That's his aim… that's what he wants! He doesn't want you!"

    "You're wrong, Dale. I don't want Devina because she's a Dale. I want her in spite of it."

    Harvey gave a short laugh. "Really? Well, you aren't going to get her at all. All you're going to get is"

    "No, Father!" Devina's eyes went to her father's hand, to the finger tightening on the trigger of the gun, and she jumped in front of Ross. "It's not going to be this way. You're not going to make me responsible for Ross's death!"

    Fury moved across the twisted lines of Harvey Dale's face. "Get away from him, Devina! Get away! You won't be responsible for Morrison's death. He's a convicted felon! He deserves to die. I'll only be helping the law, saving the territory the cost of confining him for the next twenty years."

    Devina shook her head. "No, Father, I will not."

    But Ross's hands circled her waist. Devina felt his fingers tighten a split second before he pushed her out of the way and lunged at her father.

    The two male bodies met with a sudden impact. A gunshot exploded in the veil of semidarkness!

    Frozen with fear, Devina remained motionless as her eyes slowly distinguished a sign of movement on the shadowed floor. A low gasp escaped her throat as a tall, erect figure drew itself to its feet, gun in hand.

    "Ross!"

    Darting a glance toward the shadowed floor, Devina heard her father's voice, low and venomous.

    "Go ahead, Morrison. Shoot! Show my daughter the kind of man you really are. Show her how sincere you were about forgetting your vow of revenge."

    Ross remained unmoving, the gun still in his hand, and Harvey went on in a lower tone, "Remember how I cheated your father, Morrison. Remember how he died all alone while you begged to be released from jail. Remember those three long years you spent in Yuma, dreaming of the day you'd hold a gun in your hand as you are now, pointing it at my head. Remember, Morrison, and pull that trigger. Pull it, damn you!"

    A tense, breathless silence followed Harvey's venomous tirade. Extending his hand toward Devina, Ross clasped her tight against him when she ran to his side. His low voice penetrated a stillness that, until now, had been broken only by the sound of Harvey's labored breathing.

    "No, Dale, you caused the death of one Morrison. I'm not going to let you cause the death of another. The war's over for me. I have the feeling it'll never be over for you, and I suppose I couldn't ask for a sweeter revenge."

    Turning, Ross looked down at Devina. "Are you coming with me?"

    Not bothering to respond, Devina snatched up her robe from the foot of her bed, then turned toward the broken, rasping shadow on the bedroom floor. "Good-bye, Father. Molly will take good care of you, if you let her."

    "I don't want Molly; I want you, Devina…"

    But Devina was no longer listening. Leaning full into Ross's guiding embrace, she ran down the staircase and out of the house at his side, then let him lift her astride his horse.

    Seated in front of Ross as he spurred his horse into the darkness, Devina felt a rush of night air against her face, felt Ross's strength at her back, and she knew that, whatever the future held, she was home at last in the arms of the man she loved.

Epilogue

    "Ross, no, don't!"

    But it was too late. Ross had already pinned her against the wall with the weight of his body and was running his mouth over the white column of her throat, brushing her lips with his, pulling her arms up around his neck, urging her cooperation as his kiss grew more intense. With a soft groan, he parted the barrier of her teeth, urged her closer still, curling one hand around the curve of her buttocks, fitting her tight against the rise of his passion.

    Losing herself in the heat of Ross's embrace, Devina felt his kiss deepen, searing her until it was she who clung, she who protested his sudden withdrawal from her.

    A low laugh sounded in Ross's throat as he lowered his head for another kiss, but this one was brief, glancing her lips.

    "That's all you get for now, Mrs. Morrison. I just want you to know what's waiting for you tonight after you send our guests home."

    Devina gave a low gasp. Lord, for a moment she had actually forgotten she had guests in the next room!

    Ross laughed again, tightening his embrace once more as he drew her to him, fitting her close against the hard length of his body to bury his face in her silky curls. His voice was suddenly intensely serious. "I love you, Devina. I don't know what I ever did to deserve you, but there's one thing I do know: I'm never going to let you go." Ross drew back unexpectedly, his dark    eyes touching her face. How she loved it when he looked at her that way, as if he never wanted to stop.

    Devina flushed, remembering that he had looked at her the same way last night as she lay naked in his arms. The heat of his gaze had touched her skin with the power of a physical caress. They had just made love, but he not been sated. Somehow the fire inside him had burned hotter than before. She did not fully understand his raging, insatiable desire for her. He had told her many times in the year of their marriage that she was all he ever wanted, all he ever needed, that she had given a true purpose to his life. He told her she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, the only woman he would ever love. But she didn't really believe that, not now.

    A small smile touched her lips. She had a competitor for Ross's love. Another woman… well, one day she'd be a woman, anyway. And that very vocal competitor was now sounding a lusty cry from her cradle in the next room. Devina turned toward the sound, only to have Ross stay her attempted flight.

    ''Just a few minutes more, Devina. It's been a long evening. I just wish you weren't so addicted to parties."

    "Ross, I'm not!" Indignant, Devina shook her head. "This is our first party, and you can't really call it a party with the few people you agreed to invite. But Melinda Lee does deserve some sort of a celebration for her christening, doesn't she?"

    "Just as long as this party doesn't end up with a lusting cowboy carrying you off to his isolated cabin where he'll keep you prisoner and make love to you until he can no longer stand."

    "Ross!"

    He lowered his head to whisper in her ear. "You do know that's the way I intend to spend our first anniversary in a few weeks."

    "That's impossible. The baby…"

    "Lai Hua will take care of her."

    "Jake will have your head. Lai
Hau
will deliver her own baby in a few months. She needs her rest."

    "Then Camille"

    "If you can talk Charles into letting her out of his sight." Devina shook her head. "I've never seen a man so obsessed with a woman."

    "You haven't?"

       Devina gave a short laugh. "Well, maybe it runs in the family."

    Carefully, Devina extricated herself from Ross's embrace, although she was as reluctant to leave those strong arms as those strong arms were to relinquish her. Damn, whose idea was this party anyway?

    Devina turned to lift the coffeepot from the stove, aware that her husband's dark eyes were following her every move. How had she ever felt fear at the touch of that gaze? Why had she not immediately recognized the love welling there, waiting to be coaxed to life?

    All that was in the past now. She only knew that she loved Ross Morrison, former convict, former wanted man, former escaped felon. And she was proud of Ross Morrison, officially pardoned for past crimes because of extenuating circumstances; Arizona rancher, father, responsible member of society,
husbandloving
husband.

    Devina lifted the coffee tray carefully. Taking his opportunity, Ross slid his arms around her narrow waist and tucked his head into the curve of her neck. Devina uttered a soft protest as he nibbled at the soft flesh there, unable to resist a smile as he finally released her, then followed her into the next room.

    "Well, at last…"

    "I was
beginnin
' to think you two had taken off."

    Devina flushed. "Ross, uh… Ross wanted to make certain the coffee was strong enough."

    "Yeah, sure. I can understand that." Jake turned to Lai Hua, who now held the cooing, fair-haired Melinda Lee in her arms. His expression was suspiciously sober. "Can't you understand that,
darlin
'?"

    A small smile turned up Lai Hua's lips. "Yes, I can, my husband."

    "Well, I was getting damned tired of waiting."

    At Charles's comment, all heads turned in his direction. He laughed suddenly, reaching out for Camille's hand. "After all, when a man has an important announcement of his own to make…" He turned to look at his brother's expectant expression. "Ross, you're going to be an uncle. Camille and I"

    Not waiting for his brother to finish his announcement, Ross took two long steps forward and reached down to draw Camille to her feet for a short, hard hug. "Camille, you've made a    human being out of this man. Now you're putting the finishing touches on the product."

    "Just as Devina did for you,
vraiment
?
"

    Ross's low laugh was echoed by the entire group. "True, Camille."

    At the sound of a carriage drawing up outside, Devina felt a tremor of apprehension move down her spine. Her smile vanished as she hurried to the window. Sensing rather than hearing Ross's step behind her, she paused, biting her lips as a stiff gray-haired figure stepped to the ground with obvious difficulty. She swallowed tightly as Harvey Dale turned to lift a gaily wrapped parcel off the seat of the carriage before walking laboriously toward the house.