Tricia sat on the chaise between Jeremy’s outstretched legs, staring up at the star-studded sky and struggling to bring her fragile emotions under control.
“Why is he doing this to me? To us?” There was a sob in her voice.
Lowering his head, Jeremy pressed his lips to her hair. “I don’t know, sweetheart.”
She glanced over her shoulder. Light from porch lamps threw long and short shadows over his face. “My grandfather is shutting me out because I refuse to bend to his will.”
Tricia had gone to the hospital to see Gus that afternoon, but he wouldn’t talk to her and ordered her out of his room after she told him that she had no intention of marrying Jeremy.
“Gus has always been a proud man.”
“My grandfather is living in the wrong century. Shotgun weddings are a thing of the past.”
Jeremy traced the outline of her ear with a forefinger. “You should try to see things his way, Tricia. He blames himself because we’re not together. I suppose forcing us to marry is his way of trying to right the wrongs.”
She shifted and stared directly at the man holding her to his heart. “You agree with him?”
He shook his head slowly. “No, Tricia, I don’t agree with him. But I do understand why he’d want you to marry me.”
She was caught off guard by the husky quality of his voice. Tricia stared at Jeremy as if he were a stranger. There was only the sound of their measured breathing, the incessant chirping of crickets and an occasional hoot of an owl.
“Why?” she asked once she’d recovered her voice.
“In your grandfather’s day, women needed men to protect them. To his way of thinking, as my wife you would be a Virginia Blackstone and under my and my family’s protection. I don’t have to tell you what that means.”
As soon as she had learned to read, Tricia became aware of the significance of the Blackstone name in the annals of horseracing. “You make it sound so simple. You get a wife, I get a husband, and my grandfather is absolved of his guilt.”
“It sounds simple because it is simple.”
She eased out of his loose embrace and stood up. “Nothing is ever that simple…and it…it’s just too late,” she said. “Listen Jeremy, I’ve had about as much as I can take for one day. I’m going to bed. Are you coming?”
He stared up at her. “I’m going to sit out here for a while.”
She nodded. “Good night.”
Tricia was awakened by the press of a hard body along the length of hers. “Jeremy.” His name was a whisper.
“Why are you sleeping down here?” Since Jeremy decided that Gus would convalesce under his roof, he and Tricia had begun sleeping together in the master bedroom. He hoped they would continue to share a bed until her grandfather was discharged from the hospital.
Tricia sat up on the daybed and combed her fingers through her short, curly hair. “I needed to be alone so I could think.”
Jeremy reached for her hand. “What is there to think about? You and I are going to be married.”
She went completely still, unable to believe what she’d just heard. “What?”
Jeremy gathered her to his chest and rested his chin on the top of her head. “We should’ve married fourteen years ago. We have lost so much.”
Tricia felt the slow, strong pumping of his heart against her cheek. “We can’t turn back the clock,” she argued softly.
He tightened his hold on her body. “Perhaps not, but we can move forward.”
He still loved her, had never stopped loving her. The realization had attacked him as he sat on the porch that evening mentally playing back his life like reversing a video. He vacillated between the emotions of self-pity because of his injury and gratitude because his life had been spared, but in his selfishness he had forgotten that he was a son, brother and an uncle. He had a family who loved him as much as he loved them.
And, he had been reunited with a woman he had loved for so long that he could not remember when he did not love her. She had married another man, yet she had not forgotten him. She loved him when he had done nothing to deserve her love. He had run away and deserted her when she needed him.
Anchoring a finger under her chin, he raised her face. The soft glow from the lamp on a side table highlighted a pair of large dark eyes filled with confusion and uncertainty.
“Marry me, Tricia.”
She blinked once. “Is this what you want to do?”
Jeremy nodded. “Yes. It is something we should’ve done fourteen years ago.”
Leaning forward, she rested her forehead against his shoulder and inhaled the lingering scent of his cologne. Jeremy had asked her to marry him, yet there was no mention of the word love in his proposal.
She closed her eyes and prayed silently, prayed she would make the right decision. “What is there about me that makes men propose marriage when I’m most vulnerable?”
Jeremy felt her uneasiness. What Tricia did not know was he also was vulnerable, vulnerable to her rejection, vulnerable to the emotional pain only she could inflict.
“Let me take care of you, baby. I promise to protect you from all that is seen and unseen, while providing you with financial security. Gus is the only family you have, but when you marry me, Sheldon will become your father, Ryan your brother, Kelly your sister and Vivienne and Sean your nephew and niece.”
Tricia did not want to think of the time when she would lose her last surviving relative. “Can we do this, Jeremy?”
“Yes, we can.”
Easing back, she stared up at him. The tenderness shimmering in his smoky-gray gaze took her breath away. A sensual smile softened her mouth. “Okay, Jeremy. Let’s do it.”
Jeremy angled his head and brushed his mouth over her parted lips. “Thank you, baby, for giving us a second chance. Let’s go upstairs. I have to give you something.”
Tricia sat on the bed in the master bedroom, holding her breath as Jeremy slipped a ring with a flawless, square-cut emerald set in a band of pavé diamonds on her finger.
“My father gave this ring to my mother as a gift after Blackstone Farms’s first Kentucky Derby winner. Boo-Yaw wasn’t favored to come in among the three favored, but he fooled everyone when he won by a nose.” Boo-Yaw went on to win many more races for Blackstone Farms, and after he no longer raced competitively, he went on to sire several more champions.
Jeremy had given Tricia a small box filled with priceless heirloom pieces that had once belonged to his mother and grandmother. There was an estate diamond ring that would have made a perfect engagement ring, but she had decided on the emerald because it was her birthstone.
Jeremy kissed her cheek. “It’s a perfect fit.”
She extended her hand. “It’s beautiful.”
He nuzzled her ear. “Not as beautiful as you are.”
Not only did she feel beautiful, but she also felt complete for the first time in many, many years. She and Jeremy had so much to make up for. Once he had proposed marriage she thought about what she would have to give up and the answer was: not much. She owned property she could sell and now had a profession she could make the most of at Blackstone Farms Day School. She planned to apply for the position of school nurse. She did not have a boyfriend, lover or close girlfriends in Baltimore, and that meant her departure would be accomplished without a lot of fanfare.
Glancing up, she met Jeremy’s tender gaze. “We’re going to have to select a wedding date.”
He rapped his knuckles on the cast. “I’d like to wait until this is off. Repeating my wedding vows leaning on a pair of crutches doesn’t quite cut it.”
“Then we’ll wait,” Tricia said softly.
Jeremy lay on his back, his gaze fusing with hers. “How about the Labor Day weekend?”
She gave him a sensual smile. “That will give me enough time to plan something that won’t be too elaborate.”
“We can marry here on the farm, especially since that’s a holiday when everyone gets together.” His gaze softened. “There are so many things I want to do with you, but I can’t right now.”
She crawled over his body, laughing softly. “I promise not to take advantage of you.”
He curved his arms around her waist; her breasts spilled over the lacy bodice of her nightgown. “I won’t say a word if you decide to use or abuse me as long as it feels good,” he said teasingly. A swollen silence ensued before Jeremy said, “I’ve decided to leave the DEA.”
Raising her head, Tricia stared down at him. “Are you certain that is what you want to do?”
Jeremy nodded. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. I know if I stay in I’d probably be assigned to a desk position, and that would turn me into a certifiable basket case. My first session with the psychiatrist was a complete disaster. He wanted me to talk about what happened to me and the other members of my team before we were rescued and I refused.”
“What are you going to do?”
A slow smile spread over his face. “Are you concerned that I won’t be able to support you?”
Tricia felt her face burn in embarrassment. “Of course not. It’s…” His fingers stopped her protest.
“I’m going to assume the responsibility of running the farm,” he said in a quiet tone. “Pop has been talking about retiring, and Ryan has been on my case for years about taking my rightful place at Blackstone Farms.” His expression softened. “If I hadn’t broken my ankle none of this would’ve become a reality. I would not have come back to stay more than two or three days, and I probably would not have reconnected with you.”
Tricia lay motionless and registered the steady pumping of her fiancé’s heart under her breasts. His heartbeat was strong while her grandfather’s was weak. “Hold me, Jeremy.”
“I am,” he said against her ear. Tightening his hold on her body, Jeremy knew this coming together was not about sex. It was about easing Tricia’s apprehension about her grandfather’s and their future. It was about offering his love and his protection. The fingertips of his right hand made tiny circles along her spine. “I’ll always be here for you, darling.”
She nodded and placed light kisses along the column of his strong neck, forehead, eyelids, nose, cheekbones, chin and mouth. She paused to remove his clothes, then her rapacious mouth charted a path from his throat to his belly and lower. And she broke her promise not to take advantage of Jeremy as she wrung a passion from him that left him gasping for his next labored breath.
Jeremy threw a muscled arm over his face and groaned in erotic pleasure that was akin to pain. “Please, please, please,” he whispered over and over until it became a litany.
Tricia ignored his pleas and loved him for all of the years they’d been apart, and when he finally released his boiling passion she could not disguise her body’s reaction as she moved up his chest and gloried in his hardness pulsing against her thighs.
They lay, their arms entwined and waited for the heat to fade. Tricia lay down beside Jeremy and within minutes she had fallen asleep. But sleep was not as kind to Jeremy, although he was filled with an amazing sense of completeness.
It would take time for him to believe that everything he had ever wanted for himself was about to be manifested: the girl he had spent years protecting, the young woman with whom he had fallen in love would become his wife in another month.
Tricia sat beside Jeremy on a glider on Sheldon’s porch, her right hand cradled in his larger left one. They had decided to inform Sheldon of their upcoming nuptials before going to the hospital to visit Gus.
Sheldon’s sharp gaze lingered on the emerald and diamond ring on her left hand. A wry smile touched his mouth. “I know Julia would have been pleased to know you are wearing her ring. It was her favorite.”
Tricia stared at her outstretched fingers. “I’m honored to be able to wear it.”
Sheldon appeared lost in thought as he recalled the exact moment he had given Julia the ring. “When’s the big day?”
Tricia stared at Jeremy’s distinctive profile. “We’ve decided on the Labor Day weekend,” he said in a deep, quiet tone.
Sheldon smiled. “Excellent choice.” Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day were Blackstone Farms get-togethers.
“Let me know what you want to serve and I’ll have Cook put together a menu for you,” Sheldon continued.
Tricia nodded, smiling. “I’m going to ask Kelly to help me with the planning.”
Sheldon rose to his feet, leaned over and kissed Tricia’s cheek. “Congratulations and welcome to the family.”
“Thank you, Sheldon.”
He wagged a finger at her. “Now that you’re going to become my daughter, I want you to call me Pop.”
Her smile was dazzling. “Okay. Thank you, Pop.”
Reaching for his crutches, Jeremy pushed to his feet. “We’re going to see Gus and give him the good news.”
“Tell Gus I’ll see him later,” Sheldon said as he watched Tricia curve an arm around Jeremy’s waist as they left the porch and made their way to Tricia’s car.
A rare smile crinkled his eyes as he watched the young couple drive away. He wasn’t certain whether it was Gus’s manipulation or that Jeremy and Tricia had come to their senses and realized they belonged together, but he was ecstatic about their decision.
His smile widened. Jeremy and Tricia weren’t the only ones planning their future. At the end of the year he would officially retire from the day-to-day operation of Blackstone Farms and do a few things he’d put off doing for years.
Tricia found her grandfather in the solarium watching an all-news cable television station. He spied her and Jeremy as soon as they walked in the sun-filled room.
“Hi, Grandpa.”
Gus glared at Tricia and Jeremy. “You got something to tell me?”
Jeremy hobbled over to Gus and sat beside him. “I’ve plenty to tell you, Gus. Tricia and I plan to marry during the Labor Day weekend.” He ignored the older man’s gasp of surprise. “And I’d be honored if you would give me your granddaughter’s hand in marriage.”
Gus’s hand shook noticeably as he reached out and touched Jeremy’s broad one. “Nothing would make me happier.”
Tricia sat on her grandfather’s left and showed him the ring on her finger. Her eyes welled with tears when Gus covered her hand with his, gently squeezing her fingers. Resting her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes.
“Hurry up and get well, Grandpa.”
“I will, grandbaby girl. Nothing, and I do mean nothing will stop me from attending your wedding.”
Tricia and Jeremy sat with Gus until a technician came to take him back to his room for an EKG. They left the hospital, and instead of returning to the farm, Tricia headed toward Richmond. She needed to shop for a wedding dress.