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Her mother, who was lounging in the sitting room, looked up from her sketchbook. With a sigh, she placed the sketchbook onto the coffee table and removed her black-rimmed glasses. “Honey, I guess I should have told you the other day. I apologize.”

Samantha frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. “Tell me what?”

“
Vogue Italia
wasn’t exactly a for sure thing.”

“Excuse me?”

“You were a contender, but they decided to go with someone else. I’m sorry, honey. I tried.”

Disappointment flooded over her. She hadn’t realized how much she wanted the opportunity until now. But her disappointment in the
Vogue
shoot rivalled that in her mother. She was really hoping her mother had changed. That maybe she was putting her over everything else – but she wasn’t.

“How long have you known? And when were you planning on telling me?”

Her mother grimaced. “A few days, but I have something even more exciting lined up for you.”

Nothing could be more exciting than
Vogue Italia
. Nothing, but she decided to humour her mother. “What would that be?”

“You, my dear, are going to be the new face of Virginia Wilkes designs!” Virginia clapped her hands together and beamed up at her daughter. “See, even better.”

“I’ve been wanting to be the face of your line for years, Mother.”

“I know. And now you will be. Of course, it means you’ll have to stay in New York and not go back to Idaho.” Virginia shrugged, but a smile remained on her lips.

Samantha could feel tears springing up in her eyes and fought to force them back. Lies. Lies upon lies. It’s all she ever got from her mother. If it weren’t for the fact she wanted to go back to Idaho for good would her mother even consider her for the line?
She suspected she wouldn’t. If she’d wanted her as the face she would have done it long ago. It was simply a mo
ve to get what she wanted.

She took a deep breath in and slowly released it, trying to settle the upset within her. “Thank you for the opportunity, Mother.”

Virginia’s smile widened. “You’re welcome –”

“And thank you for making it so easy for me to reject. I’m going back to Idaho. Tonight.”

Virginia’s smile slowly faded as she stood. “So what? You’re going back to that farm?”

“Yes.”

“Do you really think he loves you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh don’t play dumb with me, Samantha. I’m not stupid, I know what’s going on. You spent a few months fucking my brother-in-law and all of a sudden you’re in love. Don’t be stupid.”

Anger boiled up within her and she clenched her hands into fists attempting to settle herself. “You don’t know a damned thing about it; you’ve been married five times, Mother, you’re hardly one for advice on love, I imagine you already have number six lined up.” She knew she was being vindictive, but it was too much. She was sick and tired of being used and lied to. She was done.

She could see the anger flaring in her mother’s dark eyes, eyes that were identical to her own. “I know if you leave here you’ll be leaving your modelling career for good. I’ll make sure of it.”

She shook her head in disgust. “You’d do that wouldn’t you?”

“You’re damned right. Turn your back now and you’ve turned it for good.”

“Goodbye, Mother.” Not waiting for a response, she turned and left the sitting room and rushed to her bedroom, making a detour and grabbing a few suitcases from her mother’s massive walk-in closet on the way.

Fuck the U-Haul, I’ll just take what I can get in the cases
. She let the tears flow as she packed the three large cases with the clothing and possessions she valued most. Perhaps sometime in the future she could make amends with her mother, but it wouldn’t be today and it wouldn’t be for a while.

Chapter 19

It had been over twenty-four hours in jail and Connor was so sick of hearing Mark’s voice; the man wouldn’t shut the fuck up, although his jabbering no longer had to do with his dispute with Connor, but now focused on the “assholes” who ran the station. Connor refused to comment, he knew they were just doing their job and accepted his punishment. However, if it was Mark’s goal to make their three days in jail as miserable for him then he was doing a fine job.

“Do you ever shut up!” Connor shouted to Mark, who was somewhere on the other side of the brick wall.

There was silence a moment; no doubt Mark was shocked to hear from him, being that it was the first time Connor had spoken to him since they got thrown in there.

“Well, it’s bullshit. We had a little fight. Who the fuck do they think they are throwing us in here?”

Connor dropped his head into his hands and groaned. “They’re doing their job.”

“Suck ass,” came the response.

You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.

“If you hadn’t been starting shit with me in the first place we wouldn’t be in here. Only one to blame is yourself.”

“I was just busting your chops.”

“Bullshit, asshole. You’ve been talking shit all over town ever since Samantha rejected you. You’re lucky I didn’t kill your sorry ass the night at the barn.”

“I was just messing around with her. You overreacted, brother.”

“Messing around?” His anger boiled as he stood and walked over to the front of his cell. “I don’t even want to think about what you planned on doing to her. You ripped her fucking shirt off of her.”

“I was drunk. She seemed like she wanted it.”

“That’s what rapists say, asshole! You’re lucky she wouldn’t see the sheriff and press charges, otherwise you’d be spending a hell of a lot more time in here than the weekend.” With each word his voice rose until he was shouting at the other man.

There was silence.

“That wasn’t the intention,” came the reply. “Maybe we should let bygones be bygones.” Whether he considered the possibility of Samantha pressing charges or not, Connor wasn’t sure, but the mention seemed to soften the other man’s hostility.

The last thing Connor wanted was to make any type of alliance with Mark, but the last thing he needed was a continued war with the other man, it would do nothing but hurt them both. He would have liked nothing more than to see Mark punished for what he attempted to do to Samantha, but it was ultimately her choice and her choice had been made.

~*~*~*~

Connor groaned and stretched on the hard cot that served as a bed in the cell. He’d just had an incredible dream of him and Samantha and although he couldn’t remember the details as he slowly woke, the stiffness straining against the restrictive denim o
f his jeans told him it had been hot.

“I leave you alone for a week and look at the trouble you get yourself into.”

Thinking he was hearing things, he slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the front of the cell to see Samantha grinning at him. Quickly he sat up on the cot and stood. “What are you doing here?”

“Boy, what a warm welcome.” Despite her words her smile widened and she rolled her eyes at him.

“No, that’s not what I meant.” He walked across the cell until he reached the front. “I mean, you’re back.”

“I said I’d be back.”

“So how was the shoot?”

She huffed. “About what I expected.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Mom just said that to make me go home. I doubt there ever was a possibility of my doing that shoot.”

He reached out between the bars and took her hands in his and gave them a little squeeze. “I’m really sorry, darlin’, I know how much that meant to you.”

She shrugged, giving him a rueful smile. “It is what it is. And it’s a good thing, I know without a doubt now where I belong.” She shrugged. “Not that I had any doubts before, but now…”

“I really missed you, Sam. You won’t believe how much –” Connor paused and listened. “Where’s Mark?” He couldn’t believe Mark’s mouth wasn’t flapping and the man snored like nothing he’d ever experienced before, two nights of listening to it nearly drove him insane.

“He and his brother were leaving when I was coming in.” She shrugged. “You two must have really had some bonding time, Mark actually apologized.”

Connor chuckled. “Yeah, we’re big-time BFFs now.”

“You planning on leaving today, Hudson, or you want me to keep you in here another day or two?” Connor looked past Samantha’s shoulder to see the sheriff strolling in. Grant nodded to Samantha, who had stepped back and away from the cell. “I know if I had a beautiful woman like that I’d be anxious to get home.”

“Oh I am.”

“Good.” Flipping through an assortment of keys on a key ring he’d produced from his pocket he found the correct one, inserted it into the lock and opened the door.

“Thanks man.” Connor stepped out of the cell and offered his hand to Grant, which Grant shook briefly.

“Listen, I overheard you two speaking about your girl the other day and I want you to know I’ve dealt with Mark.” He turned to Samantha. “You should have reported the incident.”

Sam’s face began to flush and she lowered her eyes to the floor. “I’m sorry.”

Grant placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “I respect your decision to not report it, but I want you to know if you change your mind… I did as much as I could to ensure nothing like that will happen again, but my hands are tied without a statement from you.”

“He didn’t really hurt me. I don’t want to cause trouble and just want to move on.”

“If you change your mind…” Giving Connor’s shoulder a pat, Grant exited the room.

Stepping up to her, Connor pulled her into his arms. Her body relaxed against him as she buried her face against the nook between his shoulder and neck. “I’m so happy to be back. I missed you so much.”

He kissed the top of her head as he raked his fingers through her satiny hair. “Me too, baby. I think it was one of the longest weeks of my damned life.”

The relief he felt was nothing like he’d ever felt before. She’d come back and was his. Regardless of the issues that arose when she went back to New York the bottom line was that in the end she came home to him.

~ Epilogue ~

~ One Month Later ~

“Isn’t it beautiful!” Samantha waved her trophy featuring a woman on a horse holding a lasso at Connor. “I can’t believe I won!”

“I can.” Connor grinned at her as he scanned the card key into the door of their suite. They went straight to the competition after they landed in Dallas so they hadn’t had a chance to see the room yet. “You were incredible, darlin’. All that practice really paid off, none of the other women had a chance against you.”

She pouted. “Too bad you didn’t get a trophy. We could have displayed them together.” Her smile returned. “His and her trophies.”

The door beeped and Connor pushed it open, ushering her in. Their luggage had been sent ahead and already was waiting for them just inside the room door. “I guess Jacob was right, I do suck compared to you.”

Spinning around to face him, she stretched up along his body and kissed him. “You taught me, so how about we share the trophy?”

Laughing, he closed the door with the heel of his boot, giving the brim of his Stetson a tap. “Mighty kind of ya Ma’am. But I’ll let you take full credit. You worked hard to win that.”

“You know this feels even better than seeing my picture in magazines or whatever.” She stepped out of his embrace and eyed the trophy again. “’Cause I really earned it, ya know?” she hugged it to her chest. “It feels good.”

“And you deserve it. I’m proud of you.”

She loved how easy things had become for them since she’d gotten home and she had her mother to thank for that. Her trip to New York made them both realize how much they needed and wanted each other if anything it made their relationship stronger. While things weren’t completely smoothed over with her mother they were speaking again. That was a start.

He nodded to the room behind her. “So what do you think?”

She spun around and walked into the room. “Oh my god! You didn’t tell me it was a suite!” She did a little skip as she rushed over to the king-sized bed. Champagne was chilling on ice on a small two-person table near the bed, next to a box of Swiss chocolates. “It’s beautiful.”

When her eyes landed on the two-person hot tub she squealed and raced over to it. “I love these!” She immediately turned on the water. “Get naked, we’re going to have celebration hot tub sex!”

His chuckling turned her attention back to him. “This isn’t a special occasion, why did you bother with all this?” Not that she minded.

He closed the distance between them in four powerful strides and pulled her into his arms. “But you’re mistaken, Princess, it is a special occasion.”

Her brow furrowed. Was it some sort of anniversary? She didn’t think so.

“There’s something important I need to tell you.”

She could have sworn her heart stopped for a brief moment. “What?” The question came out as barely more than a breathless gasp.

He cradled the side of her face in his hand, his grey eyes staring deep into her dark ones. “I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a month or so now, but there was never the right moment. I wanted it to be a special day for you and working the farm didn’t seem special enough.”

She laughed, slipping her hands up his broad chest to lace her fingers behind his neck. “What is it?” At that moment she knew. She’d known for a while; it was in his eyes each time he looked at her.

“I love you, Princess.”

Her smile was so wide her face actually hurt. His words flowed over her, making every part of her sing out in happiness. She attempted to speak, but nothing seemed to come out.

His expression took on one of amusement. “I think this is where you tell me you love me back and then we have a passionate moment before getting naked and making love in that hot tub over there.”

“I love you too. My God I love you so much!”

As soon as the words came out, his lips came crashing down onto hers and true to his word their clothing quickly became a pile at their feet. A couple of minutes later she found herself in the hot tub making love to her very hot and rugged cowboy, the one and only man in the world she could be tamed by.