Teresa Hill - The Texan's Diamond Bride

He hoped she got that, because the static only got worse. He clicked off the phone and let it be.

He realized he hadn’t said anything about his pretty trespasser, but then, what was the point? Nobody there really needed to know, he reasoned.

It was his ranch, and he’d decide for himself what to do with her once they were out of here.

Travis sighed and looked out into the mess of the storm.

He intended to enjoy himself in what time they had here. They’d figure out the rest later.

She sat on the hearth and used the towel to dry her hair as best she could, then finger-combed it to get out the tangles and separate the strands in hopes it might dry faster.

The fire was soon roaring. With that and the light from the half-dozen candles that she found scattered around the room, she could finally see, after hours in the dark and the ghostly gloom. When she had a mug of hot coffee in her hand, her life was nearly complete.

Paige was so busy thinking about what was to come between them that it was only after he’d gone outside and then come back in that she remembered something she should have already discussed with him.

He really had her completely distracted, thinking only of how much she wanted to be curled up in that bed with him naked in his arms.

She looked up as he came back into the cabin, her thoughts warring between him and what she wanted from him, versus her own family and what she’d come here to do.

And she hated asking this of him, bringing this into it, but she had to. She looked up at him and said, “You didn’t tell anyone at the ranch what I was doing, did you?”

“No,” he said.

But he’d gone still by the doorway, staring at her.

When he stepped closer, into the fall of light from the roaring fire and the candles, she could finally really see him. Not like that glimpse she had through the binoculars when she’d quickly, guiltily looked away. No rain falling between them now, no fog, no storm and no darkness.

He was tall, his body lean and beautifully muscled, hair dark, eyes dark and unfathomable at the moment.

She felt a hint of uneasiness first, a sense that she was missing something, something important that was right in front of her.

“What is it?” she asked, thinking there was something familiar about him. “What’s wrong?”

He came close, taking a long strand of her hair in his hand and holding it out in front of the fire.

“It looked so much darker before. But in this light, it’s almost like gold,” he said. “A golden red.”

“Yes.” Again, she felt uneasy, and again, she wasn’t sure why.

Did he know who she was?

Was that why he was suddenly so wary? Maybe even angry?

Paige’s family was Texas’s version of royalty, wealthy and often in the spotlight. She and her sister had been in the society pages of the Dallas Morning News and all the bigger papers in the state since birth.

And the hair was often what gave her and her sister away.

Not many women had this combination of reddish-gold hair.

“We never got around to introducing ourselves last night, Red,” he said.

“No, we didn’t.” She hadn’t wanted to. Hadn’t wanted to lie to him and hadn’t wanted to tell him her name, just in case it meant something to him. And she’d been happy to think of him simply as her cowboy, a man she’d admired and met by chance. Nothing else. Finally, she found the courage to ask, “You know who I am?”

“Now that I see that hair clearly, oh, yeah,” he said. “I’m afraid I know.”

Well, if he’d lived on this ranch his whole life, she couldn’t be that surprised. The feud was the stuff of Texas legends. Any long-standing family war over good cattle land was enough to make a story last. Throw in priceless jewels and a high-stakes poker game and you got…a good old tall Texas tale.

“One of the twins is a jewelry designer. I’m guessing she wouldn’t hold up as well down in a mine. So you must be the scientist,” he concluded.

She nodded, really hoping he wouldn’t be too mad. “I’m Paige McCord.”

She held out her hand.

He didn’t.

“That’s great. Just great.” He swore, shook his head in disgust or maybe fury and finally said, “I’m Travis Foley.”

She laughed despite herself, and said, “No, you’re not!”

He nodded, looking like a man not in the mood to be patient with her while she worked this out in her own head.

“You…you were riding around like some ranch hand, checking the fences, checking the livestock. I saw you.”

“You were watching me?” he asked incredulously.

“Of course I was. Did you think I’d just show up one day and head down into the mine? With no idea of whether anyone ever came that way? Whether I’d get caught? I watched you for the last three days. Doing the work of a regular ranch hand.”

“I’m a rancher. It’s what I do. I work the land.” He looked furious.

“You’re supposed to be in Dallas at some big family meeting,” she remembered.

“I didn’t feel like going to Dallas for another family meeting,” he said bitingly. “And you? You’re spying on me? And my ranch?”

“It’s not your ranch,” she reminded him.

And, oh, wow.

That was clearly the wrong thing to say.

He looked like he might strangle her right there where she sat. He was breathing hard, towering over her, looking like he might grab her by her hair and throw her out right then and there.

But he didn’t.

He just glowered at her.

“No, it’s not my ranch. Believe me, your family would never let mine forget that. You probably wouldn’t understand this, but the thing is, a man works a piece of land every day, sweats over it, bleeds over it, takes care of it like it was his, he starts to get ideas he shouldn’t have—”

“That’s not what I meant,” she claimed. “I mean…I know you must…care about the place—”

“Care about it?” He laughed, still furious. “I care about what I have for dinner some nights, whether the Cowboys win a football game, whether it’s going to rain or be sunny. What I feel for this ranch is a helluva lot more than care.”

“Yes. Okay.” She got to her feet, tired of him towering over her, though in truth, he still did even when she was standing. “I’m sorry—”

“So for you to just waltz in here like your family owns the place, which I suppose you think you do, and head down into that mine, like you think you own that, too, to try to find that stupid diamond—”

“Yes. You’re right. I’m sorry—”

“To give me that I’m-just-a-grad-student routine? That it’s-the-chance-of-a-lifetime routine?” He took her chin in his hand, getting right up in her face and holding her there, glaring at her. “You lie really well, Red.”

She shoved him away hard, and then nearly tripped over the stone hearth of the fireplace as she backed away from him.

He swore, reached out to grab her to keep her from falling.

“You really didn’t know it was me?” he demanded, his grip on her nearly tight enough to hurt.

“No. Of course not. I told you. I thought you were just a ranch hand. I thought—”

“What?” he demanded.

“Nothing—” She was blushing, just thinking of what she thought. That he was a beautiful man. A beautiful, ordinary man. And of what she’d wanted from him, what she’d let him do.

Oh, Lord, what she’d let him do…

What she’d planned for them to do once they got here…

She swallowed hard, thinking for a moment of all she’d lost in this instant. Glad it hadn’t gone any further between them, and yet…

She couldn’t believe he was one of the Foleys.