front of her, the brothers let out a whoop of excitement and raced toward the stable in the distance. She leaned forward with a grimace and tightened her knees, but she couldn’t keep up the pace. After reining the mare back to a fast walk, she relaxed once more.
The mare repeatedly shook her head as they neared the paddock. Her ears twitched nervously.
Maya patted her on the neck. “Hey, pretty Penny, what’s the matter, girl? The bees are gone—”
She got no further when the horse gave a startled whinny, tossed her head and, without warning, took off at a dead run toward the stable. Maya grabbed the saddle horn and held on for dear life, fear rushing over her as she thought of falling.
The adrenaline boost gave her the strength to rise in the stirrups so that her weight shifted to her legs and her thighs acted as shock absorbers during the wild ride across the pasture. She pulled on the reins, but the mare raced on, heedless of the rider’s commands.
Ahead of her, she saw the boys dismount and stare at her in confusion. Then a man leaped on the horse Joe had been riding and raced toward her.
Maya saw the fence looming fifty yards in front of her and knew she would never make the jump. Neither would the mare with the extra weight of a rider and saddle on her back. “Whoa,” she called desperately and pulled on the reins to turn the frightened horse to the side.
Hearing hoofbeats coming up behind her, she glanced over her shoulder. The other rider was circling toward them. He closed in and raced alongside her.
“Kick free and come to me,” he yelled.
She slid her feet out of the stirrups and leaped into his arms just as he reached for her. He turned his mount and they ran alongside the fence. Penny fell in behind them and followed. Gradually he slowed his horse, then stopped.
In the stillness, there was only the sound of the two horses and the two humans, panting from the wild exertion of the run. His arms enclosed her in a blanket of safety.
It was like coming home.
“What the hell were you thinking, riding like that in your condition?” Drake Colton demanded, his golden-brown eyes flashing like molten rock in the afternoon sun, his gaze hot with fury.
So much for illusions. “I think my horse got a bee in her ear,” Maya said defensively, fighting a ridiculous urge to burst into tears now that the danger was over.
She was pressed to his chest in a vise grip. His heart pounded against hers, which was also beating hard with the aftermath of the fear when her horse bolted and with a new fear as his eyes raked down her figure.
She struggled to push away from his heat and his anger, the vibrant masculinity that called to something equally vibrant inside her. “I can walk,” she told him, forcing herself to ignore the unruly needs that clamored for attention inside her.
Memories of lying snug in his arms for hours and hours overcame common sense—the warmth of his embrace, the way his hands moved on her, his sudden smile. She closed her eyes and foolishly wished for things that were never going to happen. But a person could dream….
Drake returned to the stable. There, he let her gently slide to the ground, then dropped down beside her. “Here, boys, take care of the horses.”
Drake’s two youngest brothers, big-eyed with worry, took the reins, then stood there and looked from their older brother to their nanny as if afraid to leave them alone.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” Drake assured them in harsh tones, then added for her ears alone, “yet.”
“Ask River to check Penny’s ear. I think she was stung by one of the bees,” Maya called to the youngsters, ignoring the threat from the furious man beside her as the fears and dreams, the need to cry, faded into fatalistic calm.
She had thought this moment might come someday. But not so soon. She wasn’t ready, hadn’t prepared….
After the boys led the horses off to the stable, Drake turned back to Maya. It hurt to look at her, at the thick, dark splendor of her hair, the endless depths of her brown eyes and most of all, at the protruding mound of her tummy.
“Just how pregnant are you, anyway?” he demanded, which wasn’t at all what he’d planned to say to her upon his arrival at the ranch thirty minutes ago. At that time, he’d planned a calm, reasonable approach to their problems.
“What do you care?” she asked, so softly he almost didn’t hear. Then she walked away without a backward glance, leaving him standing in the dust, his heart pounding with emotions he couldn’t describe.
Maya stood under the shower and let the water flow over her from head to toes. She washed, rinsed and stepped out. From the hallway, she heard a knock on her door.
“Just a minute,” she called.
Fear coiled through her, not a pounding fear as earlier, but fear just the same. She wondered what ill fortune had brought Drake back to the ranch at this time.
Along with her bodily changes, her emotions had become all topsy-turvy during the past few months. That afternoon had been the worst. Yearning, joy, grief—she’d experienced all those and more during the minutes he’d held her close in that rock-solid embrace, their hearts beating as one.
As they had last summer.
But this wasn’t summer, she reminded herself. Summer and fall had come and gone with no word from him. Her confusion was to be expected; she’d thought she would also be gone before Drake came around again.
There’s no place in my life for a wife and family, his curt farewell note had stated.
Pain, as fresh, as unbelievable, as the morning she’d read those words, scorched through her, but there was no time for it now. She pulled on a terry-cloth robe and wrapped a towel around her hair. Her hands were trembling.
“Maya?”
Relief surged through her as she realized her mother was at the door. Inez Ramirez had been housekeeper at the Hacienda de Alegria ranch since before Maya was born. Maya’s father was the gardener and general groundskeeper.
“Come on in. The door’s open,” Maya invited.
Her mother looked her over when she entered. “Teddy said you nearly took a spill while you were riding.”
“Penny bolted. I think she got stung in the ear. But I’m fine. Drake rescued me.” She smiled to alleviate her mother’s worries.
“I heard. The boys said River found the stinger and removed it.” Inez closed the door and crossed the room to lay a hand on her daughter’s forehead. “You don’t feel dizzy or faint? No pain anywhere?”
“No, really, I’m quite all right.”
Her mother ignored her. “Maybe you should see the doctor. I can drive you to town.”
“That won’t be necessary. I go in for my monthly checkup Tuesday. That’s only two more days. I don’t want to bother the doctor on a Sunday.”
Inez sighed
