gasped in alarm and only relaxed a bit when she turned to see him. “Gray, what are you doing lurking around in the shadows of the hallway?” She pulled her arm from his grasp. “What do you want?”
He was momentarily speechless as he gazed at her in the semidarkness of the corridor. She’d changed for dinner from the sweatshirt and jeans into a blue dress cinched at her slender waist, fitted across the bodice and then flaring out in a short fall of silk to her knees, exposing her long, shapely legs.
She looked stunning and the fact that he noticed only raised the level of his anger. “I want to ask you if you have a death wish,” he replied, his words clipped, terse with his displeasure.
“What are you talking about?” She frowned.
“I thought we’d agreed that you would keep your pregnancy a secret for as long as possible.”
“I don’t recall agreeing to anything with you,” she replied. Her cheeks dusted with color. “Besides, I didn’t actually tell anyone. I just refused wine at dinner and asked for decaffeinated coffee afterward. Darla and Tawny noticed and made a big deal out of it and before I knew it everyone had guessed my secret.”
“I told you that this ‘secret’ puts you at a higher risk for something bad happening to you,” he replied.
Her frown deepened. “You’re making this into too big a deal.”
“Too big a deal?” he asked incredulously. “Have you forgotten that three months ago somebody tried to kidnap Cheyenne and in the process Faye Frick was killed? Have you forgotten that Jenny Burke was found dead in the kitchen pantry? Only a month ago another attempt was made to take Cheyenne?”
“Okay, stop!” Catherine placed her hands over her ears, not wanting to hear anything more. She knew awful things were happening all around her, but she didn’t want to hear them listed out loud. She didn’t even like to think about them. “I know what’s been going on,” she said as she lowered her hands to her sides.
“You don’t seem to be taking all of it seriously enough,” Gray retorted, some of his anger seeping out of him as concern took over. “You need to hire yourself a bodyguard or something.”
Catherine looked at him in disbelief. “This is my home, my family. I shouldn’t need a bodyguard here. Besides, Gabby doesn’t have a bodyguard.”
“True, but she’s living and sleeping with Trevor, the head of security.”
“What about Amanda? She comes and goes as she pleases.”
“And also has an ex-marine tough guy playing bodyguard to Cheyenne.” He leaned against the wall. “In fact, you’ve probably done him a favor by taking the target off Cheyenne and putting it right on your back. Maybe he’ll be able to sleep a little better at night now knowing there’s a new target to take the heat off him.”
“You’re just being hateful,” Catherine replied, her tone of voice slightly higher than usual.
“I’m being realistic,” he countered and pushed himself off the wall as she continued down the hallway. “If you were smart you’d marry that kid’s father and move him in here where he could keep an eye on you.”
“That’s never, ever going to happen.” She stopped walking and turned to face him once again. “I wasn’t sure I was in love with Dirk before he broke up with me and since then I’m positive that marrying him would have been the absolute worst mistake of my life.”
Her eyes flashed with the certainty, with the fury of her emotions and words. She looked absolutely magnificent. Gray was oddly pleased by those words, although they certainly didn’t help her situation at all.
“I don’t need him and I don’t need your help, Gray. I’ve done just fine without your advice, without your presence in my life for the past nine years. Since you’ve been back at the ranch for the past four years we’ve scarcely exchanged ten words with each other, so don’t go pretending that you care about my well-being now.”
She raised her enchanting delicate pointed chin. “I don’t need Dirk. I don’t need a bodyguard and I certainly don’t need you.”
She whirled around and stalked down the hallway as Gray gazed after her, wondering why in the hell after all these years he felt that an obstinate part of his heart was still invested in her.
Chapter 3
Dreams of Gray haunted her sleep, erotic, hot dreams of the time when they were teenagers and meeting secretly in the stables after dark. She’d loved him since she was fifteen and he’d been sixteen, but he’d refused to make love to her for two years, although there had been plenty of snuggling and making out and almost lovemaking in those two years.
When they’d finally allowed themselves the pleasure of going all the way, Gray had been tender and so sweet and after that first time they had shared a passion for each other that had been explosive, magic and insatiable.
There had also been a lot of planning in those teenage years. They’d talked about owning a little ranch not far from here, having a couple of kids to raise and a lifetime of love and happiness together.
Catherine awakened and in that brief limbo between dreams and complete consciousness, her heart was filled with love for Gray. The scent of him lingered in her brain, reminding her of how it had felt to be held in his arms, how his lips had plied hers with such fire. In her vision his whiskey-brown eyes gazed at her with such want, such need, it burned deep inside her soul.
Then full awake slammed into her and the fantasy shattered into a million pieces, leaving her heart aching and empty. She clutched her pillow to her chest and lingered for a few minutes, the dream still far too fresh in her head.
Oh, what fantasies they had spun so many years ago and then one morning she’d gotten up and discovered he was gone. She now released her hold on the pillow and got out of bed. And he’d remain gone from her heart, she told herself as she headed into the adjoining bathroom for her morning shower.
He had some nerve, anyway, acting like he was concerned about her, acting like he cared about her safety. After four years of pretending she didn’t even exist, he had no right to be concerned about her now.
She shoved all thoughts of Gray Stark from her head as she stepped beneath the water in the large glass enclosure. She had other things to think about...like the pregnancy test she’d taken that had given her a positive result.
She needed to see a doctor and get confirmation of the test. There were prenatal vitamins to take, instructions to listen to and things to learn. She wanted to do everything she could to ensure that she carried a healthy baby and once she or he was born she’d make sure she was the best mother she could be.
There was really no role model for her to follow. Her own mother had left Jethro and the three girls when they were young and she hadn’t been much of a mother before she’d deserted them. Catherine had never seen her mother again and had little interest in ever reconnecting with her.
Catherine didn’t really know what it was like to have a mother, but she certainly knew what it was like not to have one.
All the things she had longed for as a little girl, as an insecure teenager would be gifted to her own child. Her child would never spend
