her disappointment. She swallowed against the fullness in her throat. The intensity of Dex Madaris’s eyes stirred her insides. He had a way about him she was sure attracted numerous women. He was dangerous, not in the normal sense, but instead dangerous to one’s common sense.
She didn’t doubt for a minute he had the ability to make the most sensible woman throw all caution to the wind for an opportunity to get to know him intimately. Her cheeks heated from her candid thoughts. She twisted slightly in her chair.
“Is there something wrong, Caitlin?”
Her gaze flew to Dex’s face. She felt her body stir under his intense scrutiny. She suddenly realized she was dealing with a man with the ability to strip away any emotional barriers with one smoldering look.
“Caitlin?”
She inhaled deeply and forced herself to shake her head. “No, nothing’s wrong.”
Dex took another sip of his wine. “The pay is twelve dollars an hour and includes your room and board. Uncle Jake figures the project shouldn’t take any longer than four to six weeks. Are you absolutely sure you want the job?”
“Yes, I’m positive.”
“Then it’s yours.”
Joy swept through Caitlin. “Thank you.”
A widened smile touched Dex’s lips. “How soon can you begin—?”
“Caitlin?”
The soft, gentle voice brought Caitlin’s thoughts back to the present. She immediately recognized the person standing before her. “Reverend Timmons. I’m so glad you came…”
By the time Dex crawled into bed that night, he was bone tired. Before returning home from the restaurant, he’d stopped by his office, and he and his project foreman and good friend, Trevor Grant, had worked well past midnight going over an important job proposal.
The ringing of the telephone interrupted what he’d hoped to be the beginning of a good night’s sleep. Reaching over to the nightstand, he picked up the phone.
“Yeah?” When Dex didn’t get a response but heard the faint sound of breathing on the other end, he became annoyed. “Who the hell is this? State your business or hang up.”
“Dex?”
Dex frowned, trying to recognize the voice. “Who wants to know?”
There was a pause. “It’s Caitlin, Dex.”
The words were a hard blow to Dex’s firm stomach. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, finding himself drenched first with disbelief, then a surge of renewed anger. There was a tightness in his throat. “What do you want, Caitlin?” His words were clipped and devoid of any emotion except one. Bitterness.
“I’m calling for my dad. He’s very ill and wants to see you. I don’t know why, but he’s asking for you. Please come, Dex.”
Dex’s jaw stiffened and his eyes hardened like ice. The urge to tell her father where he could go—in not so nice words—was on the tip of his tongue, but he hesitated. He wasn’t that heartless. Besides, Caitlin sounded scared and he heard the pain and anguish in her voice.
“What’s wrong with your old man this time, Caitlin? The last time I saw him he wasn’t doing so hot, either. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the news of our sudden marriage that sent him to the hospital with a heart attack. Have you decided to marry again and Daddy Dearest can’t handle it?”
“Dex, please. Don’t. My—my father is dying of cancer and wants to see you.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. However, he and I aren’t the best of friends. What’s this all about?”
“I don’t know. But he wants to see you. Please come see him. P-please.” Her tearful plea came through the phone lines.
A tightness squeezed Dex’s chest and instead of his anger intensifying, he found his heart losing some of its hardness with her plea. He loathed himself for allowing her to get next to him after all this time—after she had turned her back on him and his love. But something was happening to him he hadn’t counted on, something he didn’t understand. Even after four years of hurt, she could still arouse a degree of protectiveness in him.
A natural instinct to protect her from any type of pain kept his bitterness in check. Her words penetrated his mind. Her father was dying? Then he could just imagine the depth of her agony. He, of all people, knew just how much the old man meant to her. He hesitated briefly before answering. “Where is he?”
“Baptist Memorial Hospital, the eighth floor.”
Dex took a deep breath. “I’m on my way.”
After hanging up the phone he let his head fall back against the pillow. He stared at the ceiling. Could he handle seeing Caitlin again? He didn’t love her anymore, but the pain she’d caused him was like a wound that wouldn’t heal. Her decision to end their marriage before giving it a chance was an act he could never forgive her for.
His heart felt like it was ready to explode in his chest. In a short space of time she had become his life, his very reason for existing.
He should never have let it get to that point. After all, he had seen firsthand what falling head-over-heels in love with a woman could do. His best friend, Greg, had taken his own life over a woman while they were in college at Morehouse. Dex had vowed never to become a victim of love to that extreme. And he had kept his vow—until he had met Caitlin.
His mind reflected on their first meeting. He’d fallen in love with her the first time he’d seen her that day in the restaurant. Her beauty had nearly taken his breath away. She had eyes the color of dark coffee. Her face, burnished bronze in color, had sharp, high cheekbones, a perfectly shaped mouth and a flawlessly aligned nose. Silken strands of jet-black hair had fallen in soft curls around her shoulders. Each attribute had added radiance to her warm unblemished features.
The timing had been awful. He was to leave the country within three weeks. Besides, she was young—eleven years his junior. But those things hadn’t kept him from wanting her, from loving her.
In the beginning, for the first couple of days after she’d come to work at his uncle Jake’s ranch, he’d kept his distance. Then Clayton had arrived and had immediately set his sights on their uncle’s newest employee.
Convincing himself he was saving Caitlin from the clutches of his womanizing younger brother, Dex began pursuing her himself. It was only later that he’d discovered Clayton had somehow picked up on his intense but unacknowledged attraction for Caitlin, and had played devil’s advocate, propelling Dex into action. What followed had been a whirlwind romance between him and Caitlin.
After spending time with her, he had felt that although she was eleven years younger than him, she was a young woman who knew her mind. She had acted more mature than her twenty-one years. The more time he had spent with her, the more he became sure that he wanted her as the woman in his life—forever. He couldn’t handle the thought of going to Australia and leaving her behind. There were a number of good universities in Australia where she could obtain the additional education she wanted to pursue. When he had asked her to marry him, she had readily accepted.
Within
